Welcome to today's edition of the Daily 5.
You don't need to be a sophisticated Wall Street analyst to see General Motors has so far absorbed the UAW's massive pay increases negotiated in 2023.
A look at GM's third-quarter report and forecast shows solid profitability ahead — especially in North America. GM said today that North American pretax earnings rose 13 percent to $3.98 billion. Revenue climbed 14 percent to a quarterly record of $41.2 billion.
Notably, GM said it recorded $200 million in higher labor costs in the third quarter. But GM also said it spent $350 million less on its troubled Cruise self-driving technology unit.
UAW President Shawn Fain can look at all of this two ways. He could say "I told you so" and remind GM brass that his union didn't ask for too much. Or he could say "I should have asked for more." Either way, the UAW's historically aggressive stance on pay increases and other benefit hikes in 2023 seems to be paying off for GM's hourly workers. So far.
And don't forget the UAW's strike last year cost GM $1.1 billion.
There was also an interesting story out of Canada today reporting that GM is shutting down its vast cold-weather R&D operations some 500 miles north of Toronto where the average winter temperaturereaches -22 degrees.
"Through continuous improvement, our cold weather testing capability has dramatically improved and evolved and issues can now be root-caused at the supplier and development stages," GM Canada said in a statement to Automotive News Canada. "Therefore, testing on full vehicles on site has become redundant."
This underscores the growing movement toward artificial intelligence and virtual testing that is permeating R&D at GM and other automakers. Why test vehicles in cold weather when technology can do it for you?
Nissan Motor Co.'s U.S. troubles have been well documented in recent years, but today Urvaksh Karkaria tells us the brand's U.S. sales chief has a plan to boost market share.
"Our brand perception needs to be improved," Vinay Shahani told Automotive News on the sidelines of the launch of the redesigned Murano at Nissan Americas headquarters.
Meanwhile, Hyundai's latest U.S. recall covering 1,568 vehicles is barely newsworthy, except they are hydrogen-powered electric Nexo compact crossovers. These cutting-edge vehicles are at risk for a gas leak that could lead to a fire, according to the U.S. recall report.
Finally, our editorial on the use of artificial intelligence — amid Automotive News' two-week project analyzing its impact on the auto industry — has some strong advice for business owners on the limits of AI.
Tomorrow, we're going to take a look at used electric vehicles and how many of them are eligible for tax breaks.
That's it for now. Have a great rest of your day.
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— Philip Nussel, online editor
