Good morning! It’s August 4, 2023, and that is The Morning Shift, your each day roundup of the highest automotive headlines from world wide, in a single place.
1st Gear: The UAW
The UAW represents round 146,000 employees on the Big 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 a number of noise about this for months now, hopefully as a result of he believes that that’s the easiest way to get a very good deal for his members. There was even a painfully midwestern kerfuffle over a handshake.
Still, 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 closing gives are submitted after which strikes occur or they don’t.
Anyway, final evening, a number of information organizations reported that the UAW has unveiled some specifics of its calls for. The prime line quantity is that they need a 40 p.c rise in pay over the lifetime of a four-year deal. The UAW additionally needs a four-day work week, as an alternative of 5.
If you assume 40 p.c over 4 years is loads, contemplate how a lot UAW employees are paid, in keeping with The Wall Street Journal:
Currently, unionized manufacturing facility employees on the Detroit automotive firms begin at about $18 an hour. The prime wage, achieved over a interval of years, is about $32 an hour.
The 40% pay hike could be a normal enhance over the lifetime of the subsequent four-year contract. It could be damaged up right into a 20% enhance upon the contract’s ratification, and 4 extra 5% wage will increase given annually, in keeping with an individual aware of the matter.
A UAW spokesperson mentioned that in the course of the present contract, the typical CEO wage on the Detroit automotive firms has elevated 40%. “We believe UAW members deserve the same if not more.”
Via Automotive News, 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 Demands, at face value, would threaten our ability to do what’s right for the long-term benefit of the team,” the corporate mentioned. “A fair agreement rewards our employees and also enables GM to maintain our momentum now and into the future.”
Fain on Thursday additionally advised Automotive News the union would search “a 32-hour workweek with 40 hours’ worth of pay,” elaborating on feedback he made earlier within the week.
He mentioned the truncated workweek might spur the Detroit 3 to rent extra union employees.
“I think it will create more jobs, more opportunities for people to get their share in the economy,” he mentioned.
Ultimately, this received’t come right down to what management on the Big Three or the UAW need however what the UAW’s membership needs, and what they’re prepared to do to get it, together with stroll off the job. You can count on extra bluster within the meantime, although.
2nd Gear: BMW
Here’s a photograph of a BMW idea, the i Vision Dee, launched in January:
The automotive appears to be like… good? But it’s only a idea, absolutely nothing like this could ever attain manufacturing. And but in September, BMW will come out with one thing else on this vein, the Vision Neue Klasse, one other idea that may in all probability additionally look future-y as effectively, besides BMW is now saying that the Vision Neue Klasse will probably be fairly near manufacturing. Or a minimum of the manufacturing model of that automotive is shut.
From Automotive News:
The manufacturing model will probably 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 is about nothing less than the future of the BMW brand, the BMW Group and our portfolio,” he mentioned.
Zipse didn’t give additional particulars on which mannequin the idea will preview. The idea will probably be revealed on Sept. 2 forward of the IAA Mobility present in Munich that begins Sept. 4.
The automotive would be the third Vision idea BMW is creating to focus on its future applied sciences. It follows the sustainability-focused i Vision Circular proven on the 2021 Munich present and the digital-focused i Vision Dee proven on the CES in Las Vegas in January.
It’s straightforward to make an idea, and tougher to make a manufacturing automotive, and even tougher to make manufacturing automobiles at scale, although BMW has been constructing and constructing right here. This will probably be much more thrilling when BMW pronounces that the cool new automotive 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 prone to be fairly unhealthy, as a result of Lucid has been on Struggle Street for months now in combatting a mix of falling demand for its Air and hassle assembly current demand for the Air. It appears to be like like a downward spiral from the surface, however from the within, Lucid nonetheless thinks it has an ace up its sleeve.
From Automotive News:
CEO Peter Rawlinson mentioned in mid-June that the automaker is in a novel monetary place due to persevering with assist by its majority shareholder, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.
“A key differentiator for us as a business is that we have this strong strategic partnership and alignment with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia,” Rawlinson mentioned throughout a dwell occasion with The Wall Street Journal. He referenced a latest $3 billion inventory providing that was largely bought by the Saudi fund.
[…]
One query submitted by buyers for consideration on Monday’s earnings name asks whether or not supply numbers will enhance within the third quarter. Another asks when Lucid will begin constructing its second mannequin, the Gravity crossover, which is scheduled for 2024.
Lucid executives had been additionally requested to touch upon collaborations with different EV makers.
Even if Lucid has a bit extra runway due to the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, the elemental numbers — 1,404 automobiles delivered within the second quarter this 12 months — are troubling. Perhaps worse, Lucid doesn’t appear to have a lot *buzz* round it, regardless of having an honest 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 should make as much as 23,000 automobiles this 12 months, down considerably from the 36,000 automobiles it beforehand mentioned it would make in 2023, most of which it’s blaming on provide chain points.
Reuters studies that there could even be some gentle on the finish of this tunnel, nonetheless:
The California-based firm mentioned it misplaced $87.9 million in the course of 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 parts.
Analysts count on the corporate to document an working revenue within the fourth quarter of the 12 months, in keeping with Refinitiv.
Fisker had truly beforehand mentioned it would make as much as 42,400 automobiles 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 hundreds of thousands. Perhaps extra importantly for buyers, Nikola additionally disclosed that its CEO, a man named Michael Lohscheller, will probably be stepping down on the finish of August, to get replaced by a man named Stephen Girsky, who was on the board of an automaker known as General 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 fighting dwindling money reserves because it burns by money to ramp up manufacturing of its vehicles.
Its buyers on Thursday, nonetheless, authorized a proposal that permits the truckmaker to problem extra shares to boost funds.
“The company does not need new shares, they need new leadership,” founder, Trevor Milton, mentioned in a LinkedIn submit 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 it will 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 signifies that I in all probability by no means will.
Neutral: Happy Friday
I’ve bought enormous plans this weekend to repair the facet mirror on the Fit, the glass of which mysteriously went lacking a couple of weeks in the past. Really huge plans. Some would possibly say monumental.
Source: jalopnik.com