Executive Committee Meeting 10-15-24

President's Report

Page 84 of 95

MOTOR CITY

America) and GM, despite the injection of a $17.4 billion federal rescue plan, declared bankruptcy.

purchase through complementary measures. Each manufacturer has its own model, but Tesla is far and away the leader on the market with more than 1.8 million vehicles sold worldwide in 2023; it is the country’s number one brand for electric cars, followed by Ford and General Motors. Detroit is party to this new trend. In the lee of Michigan Central, the legendary railroad station redeveloped by Ford, in one of those historical twists of fate, testing is today underway on 14 th St (a 400 meter stretch between Dalzelle St and Marantette St) for the country’s first wireless EV-charging public highway. This innovative technology uses inductive copper charging coils embedded in the asphalt, allowing vehicles equipped with receivers to charge their batteries while driving, idling, or parking on the roadway. So you can still count on Motor City for the cars of the future and the future of the car! T Henry Ford, Faster, Faster, Faster p. 73, Ford Piquette Avenue Plant, p. 52, The Henry Ford, p. 70.

The New New Deal Thanks to restructuring and

A. Stiop/Alamy/hemis.fr

reorganization, the crisis ending, and all manner of adaptations, the Big Three made it through, and their headquarters are still in Detroit or its suburbs. Their factories have often been relocated to states where the labor code is more “flexible” and countries where labor is cheaper. In 2022, Japanese manufacturer Toyota topped worldwide sales, followed by German Volkswagen and Korean Hyundai-Kia, while General Motors came in fifth, and Ford sixth. U.S. makes continue to hold their own nationally , with General Motors in top spot, followed by Toyota in second place, and Ford in third, its Ford F Series pickup retaining its title as the best-selling vehicle in North America. Since the beginning of the 2010s, hybrid and electric vehicles have also come to the fore, and the federal government has encouraged their

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1972 Ford Torino at the Woodward Dream Cruise in Detroit.

to make the move, a situation that exacerbated the racial divide and reduced the number of taxpayers in the city. And the city coffers suffered for it. In a nation of big cars and abundant gas, the oil crisis in the 1970s ushered consumers toward more fuel-efficient models from Japanese manufacturers. U.S. carmakers, until then more interested in how their vehicles looked over their technical performance, struggled to compete with the Land of the Rising Sun. Federal rescue plans, record losses, and strikes ensued. The U.S. auto industry experienced hard times, culminating in the 2008 financial crisis. The following year, Chrysler (now Stellantis North

the U.S. market. After battling hard against employer militias, the powerful United Auto Workers union, founded in 1935 , negotiated working conditions, wages, and employee pensions. The opening of the Ford Rouge plant in Dearborn in the late 1920s created more than 90,000 jobs in the region. A revolution in automotive production, the assembly line prompted manufacturers to quit their factories in the city, often located in the Milwaukee Junction district, which were unsuitable because the buildings were multistory, prompting a veritable exodus to suburban areas . White workers generally followed suit, whereas few Black workers managed