Good morning! It’s August 4, 2023, and that is The Morning Shift, your every day roundup of the highest automotive headlines from world wide, in a single place.
1st Gear: The UAW
The UAW represents round 146,000 staff on the Massive Three, and their contracts with GM, Ford, and Stellantis all expire on September 14, or a bit over a month from now. The UAW’s president, Shawn Fain, has been making numerous noise about this for months now, hopefully as a result of he believes that that’s the easiest way to get a great deal for his members. There was even a painfully midwestern kerfuffle over a handshake.
Nonetheless, that is par for the course, actually, and none of it means a lot till the eleventh hour of negotiations, when the rubber hits the highway and final, greatest, and last affords are submitted after which strikes occur or they don’t.
Anyway, final night time, a number of information organizations reported that the UAW has unveiled some specifics of its calls for. The highest line quantity is that they need a 40 % rise in pay over the lifetime of a four-year deal. The UAW additionally needs a four-day work week, as a substitute of 5.
In the event you suppose 40 % over 4 years is lots, take into account how a lot UAW staff are paid, in line with The Wall Avenue Journal:
At present, unionized manufacturing facility staff on the Detroit automobile firms begin at about $18 an hour. The highest wage, achieved over a interval of years, is about $32 an hour.
The 40% pay hike could be a normal improve over the lifetime of the following four-year contract. It could be damaged up right into a 20% improve upon the contract’s ratification, and 4 further 5% wage will increase given annually, in line with an individual aware of the matter.
A UAW spokesperson mentioned that throughout the present contract, the common CEO wage on the Detroit automobile firms has elevated 40%. “We consider UAW members deserve the identical if no more.”
Through Automotive Information, GM already sounds mad:
GM, in an announcement Thursday, indicated it didn’t like what the union was proposing.
“The breadth and scope of the Presidential Calls for, at face worth, would threaten our means to do what’s proper for the long-term advantage of the staff,” the corporate mentioned. “A good settlement rewards our workers and likewise permits GM to take care of our momentum now and into the long run.”
Fain on Thursday additionally advised Automotive Information the union would search “a 32-hour workweek with 40 hours’ price of pay,” elaborating on feedback he made earlier within the week.
He mentioned the truncated workweek may spur the Detroit 3 to rent extra union staff.
“I believe it would create extra jobs, extra alternatives for folks to get their share within the financial system,” he mentioned.
In the end, this received’t come all the way down to what management on the Massive Three or the UAW need however what the UAW’s membership needs, and what they’re keen to do to get it, together with stroll off the job. You’ll be able to count on extra bluster within the meantime, although.
2nd Gear: BMW
Right here’s a photograph of a BMW idea, the i Imaginative and prescient Dee, launched in January:
The automobile seems to be… good? However it’s only a idea, certainly nothing like this might ever attain manufacturing. And but in September, BMW will come out with one thing else on this vein, the Imaginative and prescient Neue Klasse, one other idea that can in all probability additionally look future-y as effectively, besides BMW is now saying that the Imaginative and prescient Neue Klasse can be fairly near manufacturing. Or at the least the manufacturing model of that automobile is shut.
From Automotive Information:
The manufacturing model can be on roads quickly, [BMW CEO Oliver Zipse] added throughout an earnings name on Thursday.
Zipse described the Neue Klasse battery-electric platform as a “megaproject” inside BMW. “It’s about nothing lower than the way forward for the BMW model, the BMW Group and our portfolio,” he mentioned.
Zipse didn’t give additional particulars on which mannequin the idea will preview. The idea can be revealed on Sept. 2 forward of the IAA Mobility present in Munich that begins Sept. 4.
The automobile would be the third Imaginative and prescient idea BMW is creating to spotlight its future applied sciences. It follows the sustainability-focused i Imaginative and prescient Round proven on the 2021 Munich present and the digital-focused i Imaginative and prescient Dee proven on the CES in Las Vegas in January.
It’s straightforward to make an idea, and more durable to make a manufacturing automobile, and even more durable to make manufacturing vehicles at scale, although BMW has been constructing and constructing right here. This can be much more thrilling when BMW proclaims that the cool new automobile it’s constructing is for each market besides America.
third Gear: Lucid
Lucid goes to report its earnings on Monday for the second quarter of 2023, and they’re more likely to be fairly unhealthy, as a result of Lucid has been on Battle Avenue for months now in combatting a mix of falling demand for its Air and bother assembly present demand for the Air. It seems to be like a downward spiral from the skin, however from the within, Lucid nonetheless thinks it has an ace up its sleeve.
From Automotive Information:
CEO Peter Rawlinson mentioned in mid-June that the automaker is in a novel monetary place due to persevering with help by its majority shareholder, the Public Funding Fund of Saudi Arabia.
“A key differentiator for us as a enterprise is that we’ve this robust strategic partnership and alignment with the Public Funding Fund of Saudi Arabia,” Rawlinson mentioned throughout a dwell occasion with The Wall Avenue Journal. He referenced a latest $3 billion inventory providing that was largely bought by the Saudi fund.
[…]
One query submitted by traders for consideration on Monday’s earnings name asks whether or not supply numbers will improve within the third quarter. One other asks when Lucid will begin constructing its second mannequin, the Gravity crossover, which is scheduled for 2024.
Lucid executives have been additionally requested to touch upon collaborations with different EV makers.
Even when Lucid has a bit extra runway due to the Public Funding Fund of Saudi Arabia, the elemental numbers — 1,404 vehicles delivered within the second quarter this 12 months — are troubling. Maybe worse, Lucid doesn’t appear to have a lot *buzz* round it, regardless of having a good product. Few persons are getting Lucids, and few persons are speaking about them, too.
4th Gear: Fisker
Fisker mentioned Friday that it solely thinks it would make as much as 23,000 vehicles this 12 months, down considerably from the 36,000 vehicles it beforehand mentioned it would make in 2023, most of which it’s blaming on provide chain points.
Reuters experiences that there could even be some mild on the finish of this tunnel, nonetheless:
The California-based firm mentioned it misplaced $87.9 million throughout the second quarter, barely lower than the $88.6 million it misplaced throughout the identical quarter final 12 months.
Fisker, nonetheless, recorded its first quarterly income from gross sales — $825,000 — because the EV maker kicked off deliveries in Europe and the U.S.
Fisker made 1,022 items of its Ocean compact crossovers within the second quarter — lacking its goal of 1,400 to 1,700 items because of a scarcity of elements.
Analysts count on the corporate to document an working revenue within the fourth quarter of the 12 months, in line with Refinitiv.
Fisker had truly beforehand mentioned it would make as much as 42,400 vehicles in 2023, so, directionally, this isn’t nice, however everybody begins someplace.
fifth Gear: Nikola
Nikola, the troubled EV truck startup, reported Friday that it misplaced much less cash within the second quarter than it did in the identical time interval final 12 months, however nonetheless many tens of millions. Maybe extra importantly for traders, Nikola additionally disclosed that its CEO, a man named Michael Lohscheller, can be stepping down on the finish of August, to get replaced by a man named Stephen Girsky, who was once on the board of an automaker referred to as Normal Motors.
Reuters says that shares in Nikola fell premarket, whereas apparently the startup’s founder, who was discovered responsible final 12 months of fraud, nonetheless has opinions on the corporate.
Nikola has been combating dwindling money reserves because it burns by money to ramp up manufacturing of its vans.
Its traders on Thursday, nonetheless, accredited a proposal that permits the truckmaker to concern extra shares to boost funds.
“The corporate doesn’t want new shares, they want new management,” founder, Trevor Milton, mentioned in a LinkedIn put up in June.
Milton stepped down as CEO of the corporate in 2020 after a brief vendor Hindenburg issued a scathing report that labeled Nikola a “fraud.”
I’m positive this can all finish effectively.
Reverse: Talladega
I’ve by no means seen this film, although that wasn’t an intentional selection. At this level, I’ve absorbed it sufficient by different implies that I in all probability by no means will.
Impartial: Glad Friday
I’ve obtained large plans this weekend to repair the facet mirror on the Match, the glass of which mysteriously went lacking just a few weeks in the past. Actually massive plans. Some may say huge.
