Michigan

Rick Haglund at michiganadvance.com writes…

Despite predictions that the strike would upend the surging sales momentum of Detroit automakers, buyers largely shrugged it off. The Detroit Three collectively reported their best sales year since 2019, the year before the COVID pandemic drove auto sales into the ditch. (Stellantis reported a slight sales drop for the year).

This year also will mark Michigan finally recovering from job losses incurred during in 2020 when the state lost 1.2 million jobs during the first two months of the COVID outbreak. Michigan was hit earlier and harder than most states by the pandemic.

There also are fears that if electric-vehicle-denouncing Republicans take control of Congress and the White House next year, they’ll kill the federal government’s support for the electric vehicle transition by Detroit automakers.

Plus, there’s growing alarm that low-cost Chinese electric vehicles could enter the U.S. market from factories Chinese companies are planning in Mexico.