Tesla breaks into Alva Top 10
Industrial relations in China was the major operational and reputational risk issue for automotive firms in June, according to the latest Alva Automotive In Sight Analysis. Toyota and Honda’s ongoing labour disputes dominated the automotive issues agenda with over 30% of all automotive coverage.
Safety remained an ongoing area of concern with GM’s recall of 1.5m vehicles due to fire risk taking over 15% of the automotive coverage, closely followed by Chrysler’s recalls over sticky brake and gas pedals as well as wiring problems (14%).
In a positive step for the alternative car industry, Tesla Motors broke into the Top 10 automotive organisations making the news in June, claiming 7th place ahead of Nissan, Mercedes-Benz and Opel with coverage over its IPO.
The financial crisis is still dominating the thoughts of all in the industry and the government support around the globe for greener cars is coming under pressure, and will continue to do so. The ongoing upward wages pressure in China will continue and safety recalls, although losing public impact, will remain major issues for manufacturers over the coming weeks and months.
“Safety and recalls remained a major focus for the industry, reflected in our analysis of the automotive issues agenda in July” said Alberto Lopez-Valenzuela, CEO of Alva. “But the series of workers’ strikes in China looks set to be the ongoing thorn in the Japanese manufacturers’ sides. Workers are looking to gain more bargaining power and better pay and, combined with increased raw material costs, this is bound to push up production costs and put pressure on margins for manufacturers.”
Looking forward, Alberto said that early trends predicted that confusion over the future of electric vehicle incentives in the UK would be a major talking point in July with foreign investment in the UK in doubt because of a lack of clarity on the Government’s subsidy position.
Each month, corporate reputation analysis company Alva reports on the biggest reputational risk issues in the Automotive industry using information collected from its daily Alva Automotive In Sight service.