Auto: "Plug-in, Pink Slip": EV Push bringing Job Cuts

-Axios

More and more automakers are reckoning with the twin forces of a soft global auto market and the need to position themselves for a more electrified future.

Driving the news: Audi said yesterday it's cutting 9,500 jobs by 2025 as it seeks to boost earnings and navigate the "transformation of the automotive industry towards electric mobility and digitalization."

• Yes, but: It's also adding 2,000 jobs focused on EVs and digital tech. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

The big picture: Audi is not navigating this bumpy transition alone. For instance...

• Daimler said this month that it's planning over $1 billion in job cuts over the next three years, citing the costs of moving the company toward a more climate-friendly product line and meeting EU emissions targets.
• As Axios' Joann Muller noted during GM's recent strike, that dispute was in part a sign of how automakers' traditional business models will have to change.

Speaking of EVs, here are a few other things on my screen...

Ford: "A battery-powered Lincoln SUV, due in mid-2022, will be the first Ford Motor Co vehicle built on a custom electrified chassis that resembles a skateboard, which was developed by Ford-backed startup Rivian," per Reuters.

• Why it matters: Their reporting is filling in the picture of what specifically will come from the collaboration between the two companies. Ford is investing $500 million in Rivian.

California: "Overall registrations for light duty vehicles (cars, pickup trucks and SUVs) dropped 5.1 percent in California through the first nine months of the year compared to the first three quarters of 2018," the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

• "But electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid sales increased to 7.9 percent in combined market share during that time frame."