Happy Monday! It’s April 15, 2024, and that is The Morning Shift, your each day roundup of the highest automotive headlines from world wide, in a single place. Here are the necessary stories you could know.
1st Gear: Tesla Is Cutting 10 Percent Of All Workers
Tesla is the most respected automaker on this planet by market cap, but its actual sales don’t really back up that valuation. In fact, those sales have been falling, which appears to have had some effect on the corporate’s leadership. No, Elon Musk isn’t going to stop boosting bigoted content on Twitter, but he’ll fire roughly 14,000 people. From Reuters:
Tesla will lay off greater than 10% of its global workforce, an internal memo seen by Reuters on Monday shows, because it grapples with falling sales and an intensifying price cutting war for electric vehicles.
The world’s largest automaker by market value had 140,473 employees globally as of December 2023, its latest annual report shows. The memo didn’t say what number of jobs could be affected.
…
“As we prepare the company for our next phase of growth, it is extremely important to look at every aspect of the company for cost reductions and increasing productivity,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said within the memo.
“As part of this effort, we have done a thorough review of the organization and made the difficult decision to reduce our headcount by more than 10% globally,” it said.
Whenever a CEO posts a memo like this, I all the time wonder how “difficult” the choice really was. Did they lose sleep? Did they agonize over every individual name to let go? Somehow I doubt it.
2nd Gear: Kia Wants More Hybrids
Car buyers are still not entirely sold on electrification, and automakers are greater than glad to supply them gas-burning vehicles as an alternative. Kia, reading the room, will complement its EV offerings with hybrids until buyers’ minds shift. From Automotive News:
Kia plans to ramp up its hybrid vehicle offerings amid softening and unsure demand for electric vehicles so it may possibly secure “maximum flexibility” in its lineup.
The South Korean automaker will construct its portfolio of gasoline-electric hybrid offerings to nine models in 2028, from six in 2024, and add hybrid options on most of its major nameplates.
Kia CEO Ho Sung Song outlined the strategy at this month’s CEO Investor Day presentation.
“While the long-term EV demand for 2030 is expected to remain unchanged, the pace of demand growth may prove uneven in the near term,” Kia said in a news release on April 5 after the annual business strategy update in Seoul, South Korea.
The whole “individual buyers rejecting EVs, and automakers supplementing with more gas-burning cars” thing seems like perhaps a foul sign for the state of the world. Remember snow? I remember snow. I’m unsure the Zoomers will, though.
third Gear: The UAW Is Coming For Volkswagen
American auto factories for American automakers are sometimes unionized, but American staff for foreign makers aren’t all the time so lucky. The UAW, in its latest push, is trying to change that. From Automotive News:
“Conditions are as favorable as they’ve been in my lifetime,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in an interview. “It’s a culmination of a lot of things, but I do think the times we’re in right now, obviously workers are looking for a better way.”
Upcoming elections will show whether staff agree that the UAW can provide that higher way. VW employees listed below are voting this week, and one other vote at a Mercedes-Benz plant in Alabama is anticipated by early May.
The two sites shall be a superb measuring stick; the UAW has failed twice since 2014 to arrange VW’s Chattanooga workforce, and multiple attempts to unionize the Mercedes-Benz site outside Tuscaloosa, Ala., haven’t even led to a vote.
The big contracts won by the Big Three are prone to help the UAW’s case, as staff at Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz can look to the advantages provided by the union. Shawn Fain’s commitment to the cause, too, is probably going an asset.
4th Gear: The NHTSA Is Looking Into Cadillac Lyriq Brake Assist Failures
The Cadillac Lyriq is beginning to populate real-world streets — they’re getting increasingly common to see out on the roads — however it seems there are a couple of kinks to work out. Kinks like “engaging ABS can physically damage the vehicle.” Y’know, normal stuff. From Reuters:
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on Monday it has opened a preliminary evaluation to research claims related to lack of brake assist for 3,322 GM Cadillac Lyriq electric vehicles.
The NHTSA said it received reports of a tough brake pedal, followed by a “Brake System Failure” message at initiate or while driving. The evaluation covers 2023 model 12 months vehicles.
GM said the electronic brake control module has an internal spindle that may fracture during an anti-lock braking system (ABS) event, in response to a NHTSA preliminary evaluation report.
GM has apparently prepared an update for the affected Lyriqs, which can warn drivers if that spindle actually does break, but that doesn’t quite solve the undeniable fact that the spindle can break in the primary place. May be time for a brand new, strengthened part.
Reverse: Big Boat Crashes, Fancy Necklace Lost
Neutral: It’s So Nice Out
Have you pulled your motorcycle out of the garage yet? Well, what’re you waiting for! It’s purported to be over 70 here in New York today, so the riding conditions won’t get a lot better than this. Get on the market!
On The Radio: Porter Robinson — “Cheerleader”
Credit : jalopnik.com
