Good morning! It’s Tuesday, December 12, 2023, and that is The Morning Shift, your day by day roundup of the highest automotive headlines from all over the world, in a single place. Here are the essential tales you have to know.
1st Gear: Ford Slashes 2024 F-150 Lighting Production
Ford is chopping its 2024 manufacturing objectives for the F-150 Lightning electrical pickup truck in half due to slowing demand for battery-powered autos. It’s completely an ominous signal for the trade as an entire as demand for electrical autos simply isn’t the place most automakers thought it might be. From Bloomberg:
The automaker now intends to construct 1,600 of the vans per week in 2024 at its plant in Dearborn, Michigan, down from a earlier plan to fabricate 3,200 items of the mannequin weekly, an organization spokeswoman mentioned Monday. The automaker has been informing suppliers of the manufacturing cuts on a mannequin Chief Executive Officer Jim Farley as soon as mentioned was “a test for adoption for electric vehicles” in America.
The transfer comes as Ford scales again spending on electrical autos by $12 billion and downsized by almost half a battery manufacturing facility it’s constructing in Michigan. Farley has mentioned the strong EV demand the corporate anticipated hasn’t materialized as a result of potential consumers are balking at excessive costs and spotty charging infrastructure. The automaker is also decreasing manufacturing of its electrical Mustang Mach-E in Mexico and placed on maintain plans for a second battery manufacturing facility in Kentucky.
“We will continue to match production to customer demand,” Ford mentioned in an announcement.
Interestingly, the transfer comes simply as the Lightning had its greatest gross sales month ever. Ford moved 4,393 of the electrical vans in November. Still, gross sales of the Lightning dropped 46 p.c within the third quarter because the automaker shut its manufacturing facility down for enlargement and delayed truck supply for “quality checks.”
It’s a bizarre time proper now. Other than the Lightning, you’ve received the Rivian R1T, which is promoting pretty properly. However, GM has struggled to get its Ultium-based electrical vans off the bottom, and the Tesla Cybertruck is an costly triangle that solely 10 folks personal.
2nd Gear: The UAW Comes For VW, Honda and Hyundai
The United Auto Workers union mentioned it filed unfair labor observe costs towards Honda, Hyundai and Volkswagen. It cited aggressive anti-union campaigns on the three automakers that should cease staff from organizing at their amenities. From Reuters:
The union’s filings with the National Labor Relations Board and a video deal with Monday night by UAW President Shawn Fain are the newest steps by the union to attract consideration to its effort to prepare staff at Tesla and foreign-owned U.S. auto crops.
In his video deal with, Fain mentioned UAW faces challenges organizing at employers which have efficiently resisted the union for many years. The UAW desires to see assist from 70% of a plant’s workforce earlier than pushing for an organizing vote, Fain mentioned.
Fain mentioned he met final week with staff at Toyota Motor’s Georgetown, Ky meeting plant. The UAW president mentioned no single firm is the union’s first precedence. “They’re all the target,” he mentioned.
“We will use every tool in our tool box” to beat firm opposition to unionization efforts, Fain mentioned.
The UAW mentioned final month it was launching a first-of-its-kind push to publicly manage your complete nonunion auto sector within the U.S. after successful new report contracts with the Detroit Three automakers.
Last week, the union mentioned over 1,000 manufacturing facility staff at Volkswagen’s meeting plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee have signed union authorization playing cards. That represents over 30 p.c of staff a the manufacturing facility.
Since the UAW got here to a contract settlement with the Big Three automakers, it has filed costs over actions by Honda and Indiana, Hyundai in Alabama and Volkswagen in Tennessee.
A Honda employee mentioned administration illegally informed staff to take away union stickers from hats, the UAW mentioned. Hyundai illegally polled staff about their assist for the UAW and confiscated union supplies and barred their distribution in non-work areas, the union charged.
Honda mentioned in an announcement it “encourages our associates to engage and get information on this issue. We have not and would not interfere with our associates’ right to engage in activity supporting or opposing the UAW.”
Hyundai mentioned staff in Alabama “may choose to join a union or not as is their legal right, and this has been true since our plant opened in 2005… The union’s characterization of events in its press statement do not present an accurate picture.”
The UAW mentioned Volkswagen threatened and coerced staff “from exercising rights to engage in protected activity by prohibiting employees from discussing unionization during working time and restricting employees from distributing union materials.”
Volkswagen mentioned on Monday it “respects our workers’ right to determine who should represent their interests in the workplace… We take claims like this very seriously and will investigate accordingly.”
The Detroit-based UAW mentioned final month staff at 13 nonunion automakers had been asserting simultaneous campaigns throughout the nation to affix the union, together with at Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen, Honda, Hyundai, Rivian, Nissan, BMW and Mercedes-Benz.
It’ll be an especially uphill battle for the union, but when something is value preventing for, it’s staff’ rights. Solidarity, child.
third Gear: Lucid’s Chief Financial Officer Peaces Out
Lucid mentioned its chief monetary officer, Sherry House, is leaving the automaker on the finish of the yr to “pursue new opportunities.” Sounds like a tough breakup to me, however she isn’t shifting out of the condominium simply but. House will apparently be staying on in an advisory position on the struggling startup via the tip of the yr. From Automotive News:
The automaker mentioned it has named an interim CFO because it appears to be like for a everlasting alternative.
“Gagan Dhingra, Lucid’s current vice president of accounting and principal accounting officer, will additionally serve as interim chief financial officer and principal financial officer, effective immediately, while Lucid’s search for a replacement CFO is underway,” the corporate mentioned in its Monday assertion.
House, who was a outstanding speaker on the corporate’s quarterly earnings calls, is leaving because the California-based startup struggles with weak demand for its first automobile, the Lucid Air sedan, and earlier than it launches the Gravity crossover subsequent yr in hopes of boosting gross sales.
Last month, Lucid took a knife to its 2023 manufacturing estimates for the Air after reporting a $631 million internet loss within the third quarter and solely a modest gross sales improve over the yr earlier than.
Lucid estimated a full-year output at 8,000 to eight,500 autos, down from its earlier estimate of over 10,000. However, it solely delivered 4,267 Airs via September, and it constructed just a little over 6,000.
According to Experian new-vehicle registration knowledge for October, the Lucid Air had 461 new registrations for the month, down 26 p.c from final October, regardless of aggressive gross sales promotions.
“I am confident in Lucid’s future and grateful to have had the opportunity to contribute to its success,” House mentioned within the press launch. “There is so much exciting innovation happening at Lucid, and I look forward to watching the company continue to grow and achieve new milestones.”
[…]
Lucid grew to become a publicly traded firm in July 2021 and launched the Air on the finish of that yr at its new manufacturing facility in Arizona. The automaker is majority owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
“I want to thank Sherry for her contributions to the company during her tenure,” mentioned Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson. “She was a key member of our leadership team and a critical player during major corporate moments.”
Before beginning at Lucid in May of 2021, House labored for almost 4 years at Waymo. Her final job title on the firm was treasurer and head of investor relations.
House didn’t say the place she would go subsequent, nevertheless it most likely isn’t the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital.
4th Gear: Renault Selling Five Percent Of Nissan Stake
French automaker Renault is promoting a 5 p.c stake in Nissan again to the Japanese automaker. It’s a part of the primary stage of a deliberate discount in its holdings as the 2 automakers rebalance their alliance. From Reuters:
The transfer, which Renault mentioned will replicate a loss on its preliminary funding of as much as 1.5 billion euros ($1.62 billion), would be the first tranche of a sequence of share gross sales by Renault to scale back its Nissan stake to fifteen% from round 43%.
To accomplish that, it has positioned a 28.4% in a belief and is anticipated to promote down that holding regularly. Nissan, which has a proper of first provide on the shares, will purchase again the 5% stake.
Renault and Nissan finalised on the finish of July the phrases of a restructuring of their alliance after months of negotiations, aiming for a downsized, however extra pragmatic and agile partnership. Both firms intention to have cross-shareholdings of 15% as a part of the alliance settlement.
The sale of shares value an estimated 765 million euros will probably be carried out on Wednesday, Renault mentioned. The 1.5 billion euro capital loss will hit the agency’s internet consequence for the yr, however is not going to have an effect on its working revenue.
As of end-2022, Renault valued the 43.4% Nissan stake on its books at 17.5 billion euros, whereas Nissan as an entire has a present market worth of simply over 15 billion euros.
The sale of that sliver of Nissan is reportedly a part of a broader general technique at Renault that features the deliberate market itemizing of its electrical automobile division Ampere someday in 2024.
The Japanese automaker mentioned the acquisition value will quantity to an estimated 119.95 billion yen ($824.85 million). It added it might fund the transaction through the use of its internet money place.
My God, I have no idea how finance folks do that all day.
Reverse: Neat!
Neutral: BFFR Eric Adams
An condominium constructing partially collapsed within the Bronx, and our intrepid mayor determined to put on a hat along with his personal goddamn title on it through the press convention. The dude is so corny, it’s embarrassing.
On The Radio: TV Funhouse – “Christmastime For The Jews”
Source: jalopnik.com