Automotive News Canada - October 2023 - 1

UNPRECEDENTED HEADWINDS FACE SINGLE-POINT DEALERSHIPS/P4
OCTOBER 2023 | VOL. 7, NO. 10 | AUTOMOTIVENEWS.CA FOR BREAKING NEWS AND DIGITAL EDITION
35
Given UAW demands, could Unifor have gotten more?
By DAVID KENNEDY
T ORONTO BUREAU CHIEF
BEST
DEALERSHIPS
TO WORK FOR
PAGES 15-46
THIRD-QUARTER SALES
Back to
selling
Lots are filling up, sales are rising,
and staff who became order takers
during the pandemic will have to
become sales staff once again
By GREG LAYSON
DIGITAL AND MOBILE EDITOR
AS THE CANADIAN AUTO INDUSTRY CONTINUES TO
recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and global shortage
of semiconductors, the " glory years " of
high margins and lineups for vehicles
might be in the rearview mirror.
Sam Fiorani, vice-president of global
vehicle forecasting at
U.S.-based AutoForecast
Solutions, said Canadian
inventory continues to
grow, and North American
vehicle production is nearing
a " record pace. "
SALES
ANALYSIS
Q3 STATS
P54
Third-quarter sales were up 22 per
cent to 351,162 vehicles among automakers
that reported as of press time (JLR,
Maserati, Mercedes-Benz and VW Group
brands will report later in the month),
according to the Automotive News
Research & Data Center in Detroit.
The total doesn't include Ford Canada,
which reports only annual figures.
But more vehicles on lots means
a return to normal business practices,
something dealers such as Michael
Wyant haven't dealt with for years.
Wyant:
Regarding the
" glory years, "
there were
high margins,
low interest
and low
advertising.
" That was
the business
in 2021 and
2022. "
SUPPLIED
PHOTO
SEE DOUBLE-DIGIT PAGE 53
PHOTO AND ILLUSTRATION: NORTHVOLT AB
THE COMPANY CONCESSIONS WERE
unprecedented in decades of auto bargaining,
and on the surface,
the contract deal
with Ford appeared to be
a once-in-a-generation win
NEWS
ANALYSIS
for Unifor. But with intense union drama
and lofty expectations after years of stagnant
wages, it was a deal that nearly
wasn't.
It might have been a
'whale of a deal,' but
for nearly half of Unifor
workers, it wasn't enough
Despite double-digit pay increases,
pension improvements and other significant
gains at the bargaining table, only a
slim majority of Unifor members at Ford
Motor Co. of Canada voted to ratify the
union's new collective agreement with
the automaker in late
September.
The 54-per-cent
membership approval
is a " pretty low
mandate " in traditional
collective bargaining,
said Brendan
Sweeney, managing
director of the Trillium
Network for Advanced
SEE UNIFOR PAGE 52
Sweeney:
Unifor
made
" material
progress "
on every
front.
FILE PHOTO
$7B for Quebec
By DAVID KENNEDY
T ORONTO BUREAU CHIEF
SWEDEN-BASED BATTERYcell
maker Northvolt AB has
committed $7 billion to build its
first North American manufacturing
site in Quebec.
Company CEO Peter Carlsson
joined Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau, Quebec Premier
François Legault and other top
government officials in confirming
the site just east of Montreal
as the location of the widely
rumoured vertically integrated
plant.
The site, which straddles
McMasterville and Saint-Basilele-Grand,
Que., won out over
stiff competition, Carlsson told
reporters.
" We were looking at almost
every state in [the] United
States, but we couldn't help
The province prevails in landing
Northvolt's new battery-cell plant
glancing at Quebec, " he said. " It was
like we found the grid; we found the
raw-materials supply; we found a really,
really attractive city in Montreal. "
Northvolt, which announced its
commitment Sept. 28, did not point
directly to what automakers the new
cell plant would supply. Northvolt has
booked $55 billion in global orders
from Audi, BMW, Porsche, Volvo and
truck maker Scania, Carlsson said.
" It's also those customers that we're
also bringing from Europe over here
SEE NORTHVOLT PAGE 52
Saint-Basile-le-Grand
McMasterville
Saint-Basile-le-Grand
McMasterville
20 KM
AUTOMOTIVE NEWS CANADA
AND GOOGLE MAPS
We were looking at almost
every state in [the] United
States, but we couldn't help
glancing at Quebec. It was like
we found the grid; we found
the raw-materials supply; we
found a really, really attractive
city in Montreal. "
Peter Carlsson
CEO, Northvolt AB
http://www.AUTOMOTIVENEWS.CA http://www.diskloz.ca
Automotive News Canada - October 2023

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