Happy Monday! It’s October 2, 2023, and that is The Morning Shift, your every day roundup of the highest automotive headlines from all over the world, in a single place. Here are the essential tales it is advisable to know.
1st Gear: Another Date Bites The Dust
How many promised supply dates have we had for the reason that Cybertruck was first unveiled by Tesla again in 2019? By my rely, the deliberate launch date of Q3 2023 was deadline quantity 5 and, guess what, it’s come and gone with no signal of the Cybertruck being any nearer to hitting the freeway.
According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Tesla boss Elon Musk had promised to carry a particular supply occasion for the all-electric pickup truck on the finish of the third quarter in 2023. The third quarter concluded with the tip of September and regardless of a number of take a look at automobiles being spied final month after crash testing, we’re no nearer to an precise supply of the angular monstrosities. As the WSJ studies:
Originally due out in 2021, the Cybertruck has undergone a number of delays, ratcheting up strain on Tesla to maintain its gross sales progress with an getting old lineup and as electric-vehicle demand is exhibiting indicators of weak point.
In April, on the corporate’s first-quarter earnings name, Musk stated a supply occasion for customers would probably be held within the third quarter to mark the beginning of gross sales.
Seemingly as quickly as he introduced the supply occasion was coming, Musk started making up excuses for why it’d truly be missed. According to the WSJ, this included citing the truck’s angular design, which Musk says is far more durable to fabricate, and the quantity of tech that have to be refined earlier than the truck can hit the highway.
Despite lacking his Q3 deadline, Musk now has one other date to goal for on Cybertruck deliveries: the tip of 2023. According to the WSJ, the tip of the yr is when Musk says his firm will start delivering vehicles to prospects. So, eyes on the freeway reader, let’s see if I’ve to put in writing one other certainly one of these posts on January 1.
2nd Gear: New Car Sales Are Up… For Now
As one other month attracts to an in depth, it’s time to look again on all the brand new automobiles that have been bought throughout America and, in accordance with Reuters, it’s fairly excellent news. The web site studies that the variety of automobiles bought throughout the U.S. was up within the third quarter of 2023 as provide of recent automobiles stabilized and demand remained excessive.
According to the location, General Motors took the gross sales crown in Q3, shifting 680,009 autos, whereas Toyota got here in second with 583,661 autos bought in the course of the three-month interval. However, Reuters warns that the nice instances is likely to be about to finish, as the fallout from the United Auto Workers (UAW) union strike might quickly take maintain. The web site explains:
“The production disruptions caused by the strike will have ramifications for potential sales levels moving through the fourth quarter,” S&P Global Mobility stated in a word.
The UAW union initially focused one meeting plant at every of the Detroit Three automakers that make a few of their most worthwhile fashions and later expanded the coordinated strike, citing an absence of progress in talks.
While Ford, GM, and Stellantis all labored to construct up their stock within the weeks main as much as the walkout, forecasters instructed Reuters that the economic precise might see output from the three firms drop by “over 4,000 units” per day. As the UAW elevated its walkout not too long ago, that determine is bound to be on the rise.
This implies that any dip in gross sales because of the walkouts may not hit till October or later within the yr. As such, we’ll need to regulate the This autumn outcomes on the finish of 2023 to see if the strike implies that GM loses its place because the U.S. automobile gross sales king.
third Gear: GM Has Had It With Union ‘Theatrics’
Speaking of strikes at GM, the American automaker has spoken out about the UAW’s walkout from its crops, calling for an finish to the “theatrics” of all of it and a return to the bargaining desk. The automaker’s outburst follows claims from the UAW that Stellantis and GM have been letting violence in the direction of hanging staff slide, main the union to additional develop its walkout on Friday.
However, the transfer to develop industrial motion at GM websites within the U.S. has angered boss Mary Barra, who has known as for the union to get again to the bargaining desk and kind this all out. According to the Detroit Free Press, Barra printed a press release on Friday that accused the union of getting “no real intent to get to an agreement.” The web site studies:
Barra stated that since negotiations began this summer season, GM has been obtainable 24/7 to cut price with the UAW and when the union “demanded a record contract,” GM delivered, providing a “historic contract with record wage increases, record job security and world-class healthcare.” She stated the provide rewards workers with out placing the corporate in danger.
But she stated the UAW’s plan has been “to drag their membership into a long, unnecessary strike to further their own personal and political agendas. Their leaked text messages from last week stated their plan to keep us ‘wounded for months’ and cause ‘recurring reputations damage and operational chaos.’ ”
In response to the assertion from Barra and General Motors, the UAW took to Twitter X to say that Barra “did not show up to bargaining this week.”
4th Gear: Ford Engine Probe Expands To 708,000 Cars
As nicely as assembly with union representatives to try to get a deal for its staff, Ford is assembly with security execs within the U.S. to research a “catastrophic engine failure” that’s hampering hundreds of its automobiles. A probe into failures in a few of its EcoBoost engines has now been expanded to cowl 708,000 Ford SUVs, in accordance with a brand new report from Reuters.
According to the outlet, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is “upgrading and expanding” its investigation into greater than 700,000 Ford SUVs which might be fitted with its 2.7-liter and three.0-liter EcoBoost engines. In the affected fashions, a defective valve might result in a catastrophic engine failure. Reuters studies:
The company says below regular driving situations autos with out warning might expertise a lack of energy attributable to catastrophic engine failure associated to a doubtlessly defective valve in 2.7 L and three.0 L EcoBoost engines.
The investigation into the defective Ford motors was first began in 2022 when the NHTSA opened a probe into 25,000 autos that have been vulnerable to engine failure. Now, the protection physique has upgraded its investigation to an “engineering analysis,” which is the ultimate step earlier than it might search to recall the affected fashions.
Reverse: Better Than Water?
On The Radio: High School Musical – “Stick to the Status Quo”
Source: jalopnik.com