Automotive News Canada - January 2022 - 10

10
01.22
OPINION
GM Canada just
rocked the industry
IT'S ENTIRELY POSSIBLE THAT THE
top automotive news story of 2022
has already happened: GM Canada
hired 1,200 people to reboot the
Oshawa Assembly Plant, and about
half were women.
GM Oshawa's
gender-diversity
victory unwinds
any notion that
women are not
attracted to
jobs in the auto
industry.
Gender parity in the auto industry
seemed impossible just one short
year ago when, in this very space, I
wrestled with distressing
survey
information that
indicated 64 per
cent of women
don't consider the
auto industry
because they
don't see other
women in the
auto industry.
That would
mean that any job
openings at a
male-dominated dealership or supplier
or factory would likely be filled
by another male.
I wrote: " Ergo, if it takes women
in the auto industry to attract women
to the auto industry, then how do
you bring women into an industry
with few women? "
Well, GM figured out the how:
Start with a blank slate.
The Page 1 story details GM's hiring
efforts directed at women and a
process that didn't require previous
experience. This is incredibly logical
in that if GM had favoured manufacturing
experience, it would have limited
the talent search to predominantly
male applicants. Instead, the
company created a skills-assessment
approach and invested in training.
" The learning curve is going to
look a little bit different when you
bring in less-experienced team members,
but we think in order to
achieve the diversity goal and create
this vision we had for what the workplace
culture would look like, that
that's a sacrifice we were more than
willing to make, " said Christopher
Thomson, human resources and
labour relations director for the
Oshawa plant.
Just as interesting is what enticed
women to apply in the first place. In
an interview with Toronto Bureau
Chief David Kennedy, Muriel
Matthews, 27, said she actually had
hoped to work at Oshawa Assembly
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
JEFF
MELNYCHUK
one day. It seemed a career change
was in the cards: Matthews worked
at a deli, and although she didn't say
it, the predominantly female service-industry
workforce has taken a
pounding during the pandemic. A
regular and reliable schedule and a
starting hourly rate of nearly $25
would be a refreshing change.
But likely as important was the
supportive climate at the plant. GM's
assessors were an even split of men
and women, according to Thomson,
and Matthews felt comfortable.
" She [the assessor] was fabulous,
and she just made me relaxed
right away, " Matthews said. " She's
like, 'You got this,' and she showed
me, and we did it and I felt so good
after. "
Silverado HD pickups began rolling
off the assembly line in early
November. Matthews leads a team
of six on the paint
line.
Matthews:
The new
face of GM
Oshawa.
PHOTO: GM
CANADA
There's still more
work to be done as
GM now needs to
maintain that culture
of gender diversity.
With an even
mix of women and
men, that might be
the easy part.
GM's success
doesn't mean the
gender-diversity battle
is over. Far from it. While a major
breakthrough, it doesn't change the
Deloitte data that 64 per cent of
women don't consider the auto
industry because they don't see
other women in the auto industry.
It's not like most businesses can
create a blank slate - they're not
going to fire everyone and refill the
positions in a 50:50 manner - but
there are many lessons here.
Perhaps first and foremost, the
Oshawa situation unwinds any notion
that women are not attracted to jobs
in the auto industry. - ANC
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The case for retail change
LESS IS MORE. THAT'S ONE OF THE KEY
lessons dealers and their automakers have learned
from Year Two of COVID-19.
" As retailers we don't have to pile up hundreds
and hundreds of vehicles in our yards and plants to
accommodate consumer needs, " Shahin Alizadeh,
CEO of Toronto-based Downtown
Auto Group, told Digital and
Mobile Editor Greg Layson in an
interview. " That was a bit of a silver
lining [for an industry] used to
having acres and acres of product
sitting around hoping we can turn
it over. "
Moving to an
agency model
will require
delicate
Inventory challenges have
plagued the industry, with microchip shortages and
broken supply chains leaving
dealership lots bereft of product
and customers on long wait lists
for their vehicles.
negotiations,
rewriting
franchise
agreements
and, above all,
industry
discipline.
Said Alizadeh: " I'm not satisfied
when we as a group have
hundreds of back orders at the
moment ... this tolerance for
[such] timelines is not going to
be long-lasting. "
Consumers, however, are
growing accustomed to waiting
for the vehicle of their choice,
while dealers and auto companies
are reaping benefits from the
shift away from overstocked lots,
such as lower floorplan costs and
reduced incentive spending. And
it could be paving the way toward a new way of
doing business.
The agency selling model, in which customers
buy vehicles directly from the automaker via the
dealer, is gaining momentum overseas. MercedesBenz,
for example, reached an agreement in
December with its European retailers to transition to
the agency model.
MACALUSO
MANAGING EDITOR
GRACE
Alizadeh says dealers must have greater control
of inventory levels, while executives such as Hyundai
CEO Don Romano say the current retail model isn't
sustainable.
" To me, it's a tsunami that's
building up out over the ocean, and
it's coming at us, and I don't think
we're paying enough attention to it, "
Romano said in a Page 4 story. " Our
dealer network is more important
than ever, but the need for that dealer
network to evolve - quickly -
before that tsunami hits the shore is vital to their
long-term success. "
Dealers and their brands on this continent can
look to direct-to-consumer selling models such as
those pioneered by Tesla, fledgling electric vehicle
startups and Hyundai's luxury
brand, Genesis.
Overhauling industrywide business
practices will likely face resistance,
especially from dealers who
view the agency selling model as
an existential threat. Automakers,
themselves, will have to resist the
temptation of saddling dealers
with product once the inventory
shortage ends.
Such change will require delicate
negotiations, rewriting franchise
agreements and, above all,
industry discipline.
Romano:
The dealer
network
needs to
evolve.
FILE PHOTO
It won't happen overnight, but Year Three of
COVID-19 could mark the beginning of the end
of the traditional way dealers interact with
consumers. - ANC
Arrow targets heart of the market
CONCEPT CARS DO NOT
typically come with price tags,
nor are they chained to current
materials, technologies or production
methods.
Yet Project Arrow, the
Automotive Parts Manufacturers'
Association's (APMA) electric
concept, has a target price. It is
also rooted not far from reality,
designed for average North
American consumers and built to
Canada Motor Vehicle Safety
Standards for the 2025 model
year.
The question
is: Will Project
Arrow be a
viable
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GRACE MACALUSO, MANAGING EDITOR, 226.787.0441, Grace.Macaluso@autonews.com
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CHRISSY TAYLOR, VICE-PRESIDENT EDITORIAL OPERATIONS, AUTOMOTIVE NEWS GROUP
production
vehicle?
APMA President Flavio Volpe
pitched the project to suppliers
initially as the " most expensive
business card
ever made. "
The question
is: Will just
one of these
calling cards
end up being
built? Or will it
be a figure
more in the
ballpark of
50,000 to 60,000 units a year?
" There have been more than
a few interested parties with an
automotive background who
have said to us, 'If you can get
this project to Point X, we'd be
very interested in taking it further,' "
Volpe said.
Point X, he added, is within
the association's strategic plan
anyway.
In December, Project Arrow
Chief Engineer Fraser Dunn said
a driveable prototype is on track
DAVID
KENNEDY
TORONTO
BUREAU
CHIEF
for late 2022. It is then slated
for a world tour through 2023
and 2024.
More than 400 Canadian
auto parts suppliers have registered
their interest to be a part
of the program, and the industry
association has begun going
through statements of work and
supplier agreements with several
dozen.
The four-seat vehicle aims at
the heart of the midlevel crossover
market, targeting a price
between $40,000 and $60,000.
The design team is using the
Volkswagen ID.4 and the Tesla
Model X and Model Y as peer
benchmarks. On the manufacturing
end, Dunn said the Arrow is
being pieced together to make a
production run of between
50,000 and 60,000 units per
year " credible. "
" We're not showing them
some carbon-fibre vehicle that
runs on unobtanium, " Volpe
said. " We're showing them a
vehicle whose parts and systems
could be part of your midlevel,
midvolume build. "
APMA President Flavio
Volpe says the Project
Arrow concept steers clear
of anything too lavish or
futuristic. ILLUSTRATION: APMA
By steering clear of anything
too lavish or futuristic, which
would make Project Arrow " useless
to all of us, " Volpe said the
vehicle will highlight what
Canadian firms are capable of -
and hopefully drum up new business
for APMA members.
Ostensibly, that has been the
end goal all along.
Yet the midmarket credentials
and not-too-futuristic building
blocks that make Project Arrow a
compelling showpiece for
Canadian talent are the same
features that would make the
vehicle viable for production.
Launching a Canadian automaker
was not the plan, Volpe
said, but the APMA has received
" a lot of capital interest " in taking
the program to the next
stage.
Volpe makes no promise that
Arrows will someday be rolling off
an assembly line, but he is not
writing it off either. Ultimately, he
hopes for one of two outcomes.
The first would see Project Arrow
pushed into production in its
entirety. The other would be a
new entrant using parts of the
design for a production vehicle
built in Canada. - ANC

Automotive News Canada - January 2022

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