Happy Monday! It’s April 15, 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: Tesla Is Cutting 10 Percent Of All Workers
Tesla is the most valuable automaker in the world 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 company’s leadership. No, Elon Musk isn’t going to stop boosting bigoted content on Twitter, but he will fire approximately 14,000 people. From Reuters:
Tesla will lay off more than 10% of its global workforce, an internal memo seen by Reuters on Monday shows, as it grapples with falling sales and an intensifying price 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 did not say how many jobs would 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 in 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 always wonder how “difficult” the decision 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 more than happy to offer them gas-burning vehicles instead. Kia, reading the room, will supplement its EV offerings with hybrids until buyers’ minds shift. From Automotive News:
Kia plans to ramp up its hybrid vehicle offerings amid softening and uncertain demand for electric vehicles so it can secure “maximum flexibility” in its lineup.
The South Korean automaker will build 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 feels like perhaps a bad sign for the state of the world. Remember snow? I remember snow. I’m not sure the Zoomers will, though.
3rd Gear: The UAW Is Coming For Volkswagen
American auto factories for American automakers are often unionized, but American workers for foreign makers aren’t always so lucky. The UAW, in its latest push, is looking 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 workers agree that the UAW can provide that better way. VW employees here are voting this week, and another vote at a Mercedes-Benz plant in Alabama is expected by early May.
The two sites will be a good measuring stick; the UAW has failed twice since 2014 to organize 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 likely to help the UAW’s case, as workers at Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz can look to the benefits provided by the union. Shawn Fain’s commitment to the cause, too, is likely an asset.
4th Gear: The NHTSA Is Looking Into Cadillac Lyriq Brake Assist Failures
The Cadillac Lyriq is starting to populate real-world streets — they’re getting more and more common to see out on the roads — but it seems there are a few 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 investigate claims related to loss of brake assist for 3,322 GM Cadillac Lyriq electric vehicles.
The NHTSA said it received reports of a hard brake pedal, followed by a “Brake System Failure” message at start up or while driving. The evaluation covers 2023 model year vehicles.
GM said the electronic brake control module has an internal spindle that can fracture during an anti-lock braking system (ABS) event, according to a NHTSA preliminary evaluation report.
GM has apparently prepared an update for the affected Lyriqs, which will warn drivers if that spindle actually does break, but that doesn’t quite solve the fact that the spindle can break in the first place. May be time for a 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 supposed to be over 70 here in New York today, so the riding conditions won’t get much better than this. Get out there!