Welcome to a brand new week! It’s Monday, February 5, 2024, and that is The Morning Shift, your day by day roundup of the highest automotive headlines from around the globe, in a single place. Here are the vital tales you’ll want to know.
1st Gear: Ford Halts F-150 Production
It’s been a troublesome begin to the brand new yr for followers of the Ford F-150. After the Blue Oval introduced it was slashing manufacturing of the electrical Lightning variant, the Michigan automaker has now revealed that it halted manufacturing of the 2024 F-150 pickup for greater than 5 days in January.
According to a report from the Detroit Free Press, Ford stopped manufacturing of the 2024 truck between January 25 and January 31, 2024 at its Dearborn Truck Plant. Production of America’s best-selling truck was additionally stopped on the Kansas City Assembly Plant from January 25 till February 1. The Free Press experiences:
“Production has resumed after being paused temporarily because of a supplier parts concern,” [Ford spokeswoman Jessica Enoch] mentioned. “We are vigilant about ensuring that the vehicles our customers receive are built with the quality they expect and we are taking appropriate actions to deliver on that commitment.”
Enoch mentioned Lightning manufacturing was additionally stopped Jan. 25 by Jan. 31 as a result of ICE manufacturing was stopped at Dearborn Truck; the Dearborn Truck paint store providers each the inner combustion and electrical vehicles.
During the shutdown, United Auto Workers union staff working at each amenities have been laid off briefly. In Kansas, 4,500 staff have been affected whereas the determine in Dearborn was round 5,200. However, staff are actually again on website and common shifts have returned at each amenities.
The 2024 F-150 was first unveiled final yr and marks a mid-cycle refresh for the Ford truck. In the brand new fashions you’ll discover efficiency upgrades, new driver help tech and options that may even inform in case your truck is being stolen.
2nd Gear: Apple Takes Self-Driving Car Testing Seriously
It’s no secret that Apple is engaged on a automobile of its personal. The Californian tech large has had a 4–wheeled creation within the works for years and has been spied testing its autonomous driving tech out on the streets of California. Now, it seems that the iPhone maker has been ramping up its testing packages in latest months.
A new report from Wired regarded into the hours self-driving automobile firms spent testing their fashions final yr, and Apple has significantly stepped issues up in contrast with 12 months in the past. According to Wired, paperwork from the California DMV exhibits that Apple virtually quadrupled the variety of miles it lined on public roads in 2023 in contrast with 2022. The website experiences:
The knowledge covers December 2022 to November 2023. The majority of the testing miles have been within the second half of the reporting interval, with miles examined peaking in August at 83,900.
Apple’s testing totals are properly beneath these of extra superior autonomous automobile builders’, although the state’s reporting tips make them troublesome to match immediately. Waymo drove 3.7 million testing miles in California with a security driver behind the wheel and 1.2 million testing miles with nobody behind the wheel. The firm drove greater than 1.6 million extra miles with passengers within the automobile, in accordance with separate authorities paperwork.
In whole, Apple examined its tech on the street throughout 452,744 miles of Californian freeway in 2023.
According to Bloomberg, Apple’s car-shaped ambitions have considerably modified lately. When the undertaking began, the corporate reportedly hoped to create an electrical automobile that might drive itself wherever and in every single place. However, that modified final yr and now Apple is hoping to create “automated driving-assistance features more in line with those offered by automakers like Tesla, Ford, and Mercedes-Benz,” experiences Wired.
third Gear: Tesla Pays Up For Dumping Hazardous Chemicals
Last week, native authorities in California threatened authorized motion towards Tesla after they claimed it had been dumping hazardous chemical compounds in an unsafe method. Now, the electrical automobile maker has agreed to pay $1.5 million for mishandling hazardous chemical compounds comparable to paint, diesel and used batteries.
According to a report from Automotive News, the U.S.-based automaker has settled the lawsuit that was introduced by 25 native authorities from throughout California. The website explains:
The settlement was accredited by Judge Jayne Lee on Thursday in San Joaquin County state courtroom, simply two days after the counties sued claiming Tesla improperly labeled waste, like paint supplies, used batteries and diesel gasoline, at its amenities throughout the state, and despatched hazardous supplies to landfills that can’t settle for such supplies.
The firm, which didn’t admit wrongdoing within the settlement, agreed to pay a $1.3 million civil penalty and $200,000 to reimburse the counties for the prices of the investigation. It additionally agreed to take steps to correctly deal with waste and rent a third-party auditor to look at its waste practices over 5 years.
As properly as paying the high quality, which is value lower than a 5000th of Tesla’s 2023 income, the automaker has agreed to accurately display and quarantine any hazardous chemical compounds it disposes of.
Rather worryingly, this isn’t the primary time the supposedly eco-minded firm has been caught mishandling hazardous chemical compounds. In 2019, Tesla reached a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over alleged federal hazardous waste violations. As a results of that case, it pledged to correctly handle waste and paid a high quality of $31,000, experiences Automotive News.
4th Gear: Volvo Is Doing Just Fine
Fear swept the Jalopnik workplace final week when it emerged that Volvo was offloading its shares in Polestar as each companies have been struggling. Could all of it be going incorrect for the solely actual purveyor of station wagons? It seems no, and issues are going simply high quality for the creator of the V60. Phew.
According to gross sales figures shared by Reuters, Volvo shifted 10 p.c extra automobiles in January than it managed throughout the identical month in 2023. The increase was helped by a 40 p.c improve in gross sales of electrical fashions in Europe. Reuters experiences:
Volvo Cars, which is majority-owned by China’s Geely Holding (0175.HK), opens new tab, mentioned in a press release gross sales of absolutely electrical automobiles have been in all up 17%, to account for 17% of whole gross sales. In China and the United States, they have been down.
Reuters explains that Volvo’s gross sales in Europe have been up eight p.c, whereas within the US they remained “unchanged”. The largest winner around the globe got here in China, the place gross sales have been up 36 p.c. That’s in all probability due to the launch of Volvo’s rad electrical minivan, the EM90, however Volvo hasn’t mentioned.
Sales of Volvo’s Recharge fashions, which incorporates battery-powered and hybrid fashions, dropped three p.c in January. The firm’s newest gross sales figures impacted its share worth, with Volvo’s worth dipping one p.c in early commerce.
Reverse: Gone But Not Forgotten
On The Radio: Ray Charles – ‘Georgia On My Mind’
Source: jalopnik.com