Good morning! It’s Monday, April 8, 2024, and this is The Morning Shift, your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. Here are the important stories you need to know.
1st Gear: Pickup Was Only Sector With Sales Drop In Q1
If you had to guess which car category floundered at the start of 2024, which would you go for? Maybe electric vehicles with all the press about drivers switching to hybrid models instead? Wrong, it was the humble American pickup truck.
That’s right, sales of large pickups were down four percent between January and March 2024, reports Automotive News. The dip came as buyers moved to the light-vehicle market, which was up 5.6 percent during the same period. As Automotive News reports:
The Ram 1500 pickup fell 15 percent, and Ford Motor Co.’s F-Series line dropped 10 percent. General Motors’ light-duty full-size pickups declined 1.2 percent, though higher sales of heavy-duty models resulted in overall gains for both the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra.
GM and Nissan Motor Co. were the only automakers to sell more pickups than in the first quarter of 2023. Total pickup sales fell 6.4 percent, including a 31 percent plunge for midsize nameplates.
Analysts say payment-conscious consumers may be pulling back from discretionary purchases of big pickups as prices and interest rates climb, instead choosing smaller and less-costly vehicles— including the compact Ford Maverick pickup, which surged 82 percent. Sales of subcompact and compact crossovers rose roughly 25 percent.
When you look at the share of vehicle sales that large pickups occupy, the results are even more alarming. For the last eight years, large trucks accounted for more than 12 percent of new vehicle sales in the first quarter of the year, peaking in 2020 when they made up 15 percent of sales. In 2024, however, they accounted for just 2.4 percent of light-vehicle sales here in the U.S.
Is the pickup truck’s crown tarnishing? Or are the higher prices for some models and increasing interest rates really to blame for the stagnant sales?
2nd Gear: Stellantis Pocketed $26 Billion In 2023
Car companies are all out here shouting about how many cars they sold in 2023 and praising themselves for great growth last year, except Tesla. But while GM may celebrate single-digit sales growth, or Volvo can jump for joy at its record sales, nobody can make money quite like Stellantis.
The Jeep and Fiat owner finished 2023 with more than $26 billion in profit, according to Automotive News. This means that the automaker was making roughly $71 million every day last year. As Automotive News reports:
Stellantis topped all Europe-based automakers in 2023 with more than €24 billion in operating profit and €18 billion in net profit, but CEO Carlos Tavares has suggested that the group’s successful “value over volume” strategy cannot continue indefinitely.
The profit figures were both records for Stellantis, which was created in 2021 after the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group. Stellantis also had the highest operating profit in 2022, although BMW had a higher net profit.
The eye-watering figure means that Stellantis is currently the world’s most profitable automaker for 2023, despite facing strike action here in the U.S. through 2023 and threatening layoffs in Italy this year. However, its time at the top will depend on Toyota’s earnings, which are expected to be announced in the coming weeks and could top those of Stellantis.
Currently, Stellantis sits ahead of Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz for earnings in 2023, with the two companies pocketing $24.5bn and $21.3bn respectively. In the U.S., Ford sits just behind Stellantis with its $25.6bn profits for 2023, and General Motors made $19.1bn last year.
Stellantis posted a one percent drop in sales here in the U.S. in 2023, despite gains for its brands like Chrysler and Dodge over the course of the year. That dip wasn’t enough to hit the bonus paid to company boss Carlos Tavares, who pocketed $39.5m in 2023.
3rd Gear: Toyota Is Keeping An Eye On Daihatsu
While it might yet become the most profitable automaker in 2023, Toyota has bigger worries than its ranking on the world stage after it became embroiled in emission cheating scandals and safety dramas with its subsidiaries earlier this year. Now, the Japanese automaker has pledged to closely monitor Daihatsu after it was caught up in a scandal relating to safety certification for its cars.
Daihatsu, which manufactures some cars for Toyota as well as its own models, said it will “streamline” the way it reports to Toyota as it continues developing its own EVs and manufacturing models for the Japanese automaker, reports Reuters. According to the site:
Daihatsu will still be commissioned by Toyota to handle actual vehicle development, the company said in a statement, that redefined itself as a “mobility company centered on mini vehicles”.
The business structure changes include dissolving the Emerging-market Compact Car Company (ECC), which has served as a bridge between Toyota and Daihatsu until now.
Daihatsu will move its reporting line for development and certification to another Toyota segment that focuses on compact cars.
This all comes after Toyota bosses were forced to issue a rare public apology after being caught up in several scandals at the end of 2023 and beginning of 2024. According to Reuters, Toyota will now be responsible for resource management at Daihatsu as it looks to tighten its control over the company.
4th Gear: Cleveland Auto Plant Trials Four-Day Week
Do you ever wake up Monday morning wishing you could work a little less, or is that not the American way? I do, so here’s a dash of positive news about the plans for a four-day work week that are being trialed in various countries.
Here in the U.S., a four-day week trial has been taking place in Cleveland, including at an auto shop that builds RVs, reports the Guardian. At the shop, workers get Monday off and instead of taking a 20 percent hit in productivity as a result, the shop is actually “doing better than before.” As the Guardian reports:
“The upside was huge,” Advanced RV founder and owner, Mike Neundorfer, recalled recently.
“I thought that the probability that we’d be successful was less than 50% – but that the outcomes and implications for the people that work here were unbelievable.”
“In that first year we were probably at 96% efficiency that we had before,” he says. “We’ve gained another 4 or 5% since then.”
Advanced RV is one of countless companies around the world undertaking the trial into a four-day working week. Of those testing out the program, 46 percent reported an increase in productivity as a result of the move, reports the Guardian.
According to the non-profit 4 Day Week Global, the trial has so far created more than 2,431 years of free time for workers across more than 200 companies around the world.