AD #4165 – UAW To Hold VW Strike Authorization Vote; Ford’s Q3 Net Profit Soars 174%; U.S. Mines Enough Critical Minerals to End Imports

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FORD’S Q3 NET PROFIT SOARS 174%
Ford reported its Q3 numbers and the company posted some positive results. It sold 1.1 million vehicles, up 6% from the year before. Revenue topped $50 billion for the first time, up 9%. Its operating profit of $1.5 billion was up 77% over last year’s lackluster performance. And Ford put $2.4 billion on the bottom line, up 174% for the same reasons.

Ford Q3, 2025 Earnings
Sales	1.1 M	+6%
Revenue	$50.5 B	+9%
Operating Profit	$1.5 B	+77%
Net Profit	$2.4 B	+174%
Source: Ford

FORD AVOIDS $2.5 BILLION IN ZEV CREDIT PURCHASES
But the most interesting news about Ford came from its earnings call with Wall Street analysts. Here are some of the highlights.


• The chip shortage caused by China blocking exports of diodes and transistors made by Nexperia is threatening to shut down automotive production in Europe and the U.S. Ford CEO Jim Farley said he was in Washington DC this week and that it was top of mind with every official he met with in the government. He said a resolution could come just as they’re about to run out of chips, but they need a quick breakthrough to prevent production losses.
• With the Trump Administration getting rid of regulatory fines for missing zero emission vehicle mandates, Ford will see a big financial benefit. Prior to that change, Ford was going to have to buy $2.5 billion of ZEV credits this year, but now expects most of that to go away.
• Thanks to the Administration easing up on emission regulations Ford will no longer have to constrain production of vehicles like the Tremor and Raptor which are in high demand.
• Ford says it’s making big progress on improving its quality. It cut warranty costs by $450 million in the third quarter.
• Ford Pro, which sells commercial vehicles, is the most profitable unit in the company. It made almost $2 billion in EBIT, and close to 20% of that came from providing software services to fleets.

We’ll see how the market takes in all this news. When GM reported its numbers this week, the stock jumped 15%, adding $8 billion in market cap. Meanwhile, Ford stock was up 4% in pre-market trading.  

        

UAW TO HOLD VW STRIKE AUTHORIZATION VOTE
A year and a half ago, the hourly workers at Volkswagen’s U.S. assembly plant voted to join the UAW. Since then, management and labor keep rejecting the other’s proposals and counter-proposals, so that plant still doesn’t have a contract. But to put more pressure on VW, the UAW is going to hold a vote to authorize a strike. That doesn’t mean there will be a strike, it just gives the local union the authority to call one if it thinks it needs to. That plant makes the Atlas, Atlas Cross Sport and the ID4. And with tariffs adding a lot of cost to the other vehicles that VW imports to the U.S., it really doesn’t want to see that plant go on strike.

TAVARES SAYS MUSK COULD WALK AWAY FROM AUTO INDUSTRY
Carlos Tavares, the former CEO of Stellantis is back to making headlines. Earlier this week he said Stellantis would probably break up. Now he says that Elon Musk could walk away from the auto industry to concentrate on Space X, robots and AI. Tavares says Musk made a big mistake by not focusing enough on Tesla which let BYD surpass it in sales and efficiency. He even says he’s not sure that Tesla will even exist in 10 years. Obviously, that would be a massively shocking turn of events, but we got into the possibility of Elon Musk leaving Tesla on yesterday’s Autoline After Hours, so if you’d like to dive into the topic a little further, I’d recommend checking that show out. Just zip forward to about 26:30.

U.S. MINES ENOUGH CRITICAL MINERALS & RARE EARTHS TO END IMPORTS
There’s an intriguing new study that found the U.S. currently mines enough critical minerals and rare earths to end imports. The problem is those materials are just waste that miners discard. Mining companies only focus on their main product and everything else they dig up is crushed, washed and dumped as waste. A study by the Colorado School of Mines found that recovering even 1 percent of that waste could “substantially reduce” reliance on imports and if 90% could be recovered, the U.S. could end nearly all imports of the materials. For example, 1-year of mine waste contains enough lithium to power 10 million EVs and enough magnesium for 99 million EVs. The only issue is coming up with a new refining process to extract those materials, which could be costly. And incentives will likely be needed for mining companies to do the extra processing.

  

RIVIAN CUTS 600 JOBS
Rivian is cutting 600 jobs or 4.5% of its workforce, as part of a restructuring move. CEO RJ Scaringe said the company will move multiple functions into a single marketing organization and will streamline its service, delivery and sales teams, as it ramps up to launch its new R2 model next year. Scaringe says he will also serve as interim chief marketing officer, while it looks for a permanent person for the job. Rivian posted a net loss of nearly $1.7 billion in the first half of the year and it also lowered its full-year sales forecast by up to several thousand units.

RIVIAN PAYS $250 MILLION TO SETTLE IPO LAWSUIT
But that’s not all the trouble Rivian is facing. Yesterday, the automaker agreed to pay $250 million to settle a lawsuit over its initial public offering in 2021. Some shareholders filed a class action lawsuit against the company, alleging it defrauded investors because it didn’t disclose plans to increase prices of its vehicles until after its IPO. While Rivian agreed to pay the settlement, it denies all of the allegations and says the settlement is not “an admission of fault or wrongdoing.” Rivian says it made the settlement so it can focus on launching the R2 next year.

SUNWODA UNVEILS 1,000-KM SOLID-STATE BATTERY
There’s been several announcements recently of new solid-state batteries with impressive ranges and now Chinese battery maker Sunwoda, which is backed by Li-Auto, unveiled its next-gen solid-state battery which can provide more than 1,000 kilometers or 620 miles of range. The battery has an energy-density of more than 400 Wh/kg, compared to a typical lithium-ion battery which offers 250-350 Wh/kg. And it can handle more than 1,200 charging cycles in its lifetime. Sunwoda is planning to start pilot production by the end of the year and is aiming for high-volume production in 2027.

PORSCHE DETAILS CAYENNE ELECTRIC’S HIGH-VOLTAGE SYSTEM
Is Porsche going to be the first automaker to offer a wireless charging solution from the factory? It says from 2026 the new Cayenne Electric will be available with an 11-kW inductive charging system for the high-voltage battery, which includes a charging plate integrated under the vehicle and a charging plate on the ground. The vehicle detects when it’s parked over the ground plate and automatically lowers itself to start charging. I’m sure that will be convenient for many Porsche customers, but if they’re looking to juice up a little faster, the Cayenne Electric offers impressive charging performance when plugged in. It’s capable of taking up to 400 kW at a time, which can add more than 300 kilometers or about 185 miles of range in 10 minutes of charging. An 800-volt architecture and a predictive thermal management system are key enablers of that performance. Porsche links all of the circuits for the battery’s thermal system together, so it can adjust temperature in real-time, depending on what the vehicle is doing and what the demand on the system is. Along with massive, separate heating and cooling circuits on the top and bottom of the pack, it’s able to keep the battery at its optimal operating temperature. In fact, Porsche says it has about the same cooling capacity as 100 large household refrigerators. 

And that wraps up this week’s news. A shoutout to all our Patreon and YouTube members who support this show. And we invite everyone to join us right back here again on Monday.