Good morning! It is Tuesday, April 30, 2024, and this is The morning shift, your daily roundup of the biggest automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. Here are the important stories you need to know.
1st Gear: Complete Tesla Supercharger Crew Cut by Musk
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla fired two senior employees at the car manufacturer, and he apparently plans to lay off hundreds more employees. This all happens because He is reportedly frustrated by declining sales and the pace of job cuts to date. Remember that Tesla has laid off at least 10 percent of its entire workforce earlier this month.
Along with Rebecca Tinuccisenior director of Tesla’s Supercharger businessAnd Daniel HoHead of the new vehicle program, Musk is also quitting 500 employees working under Tinucci in the Supercharger group. Of course, this comes just as other automakers gain widespread access to Tesla’s Supercharger network. Out of Reuters:
“Hopefully these actions make it clear that we need to be absolutely tough on staffing levels and cost reductions,” Musk wrote in the email, the report said. “While some leaders are taking this seriously, most are not yet.”
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Ho joined Tesla in 2013 and was a program manager on the development of the Model S, 3 and Y before being given responsibility for all new vehicles, while Tinucci joined as a senior product manager in 2018, according to LinkedIn profiles.
Two other senior executives – Patel and battery development chief Drew Baglino – announced their resignations earlier this month, when Tesla also ordered the layoff of more than 10% of its workforce.
Tesla is in the middle of the argument Sales fell sharply and there was a fierce price war for electric vehicles. It led to the Austin, Texas-based automaker reports a quarterly sales decline for the first time since 2020.
Only time will tell how the layoff of a large portion of the workforce from one of Tesla’s other companies will end. If I had to hazard a guess, it wouldn’t be good.
2nd Gear: NHTSA turns its attention to Ford Blue Cruise
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Office of Defects Investigation announced on April 29 that a preliminary investigation had been opened Ford’s BlueCruise hands-free driving technology. Two incidents have been brought to the attention of US auto safety authorities Mustang Mach-E electric crossover that crashed into stationary vehicles. From that Detroit Free Press:
Both collisions occurred in “nighttime lighting conditions” and each resulted in at least one fatality, according to the NHTSA.
ODI’s initial investigation into the incidents confirmed that BlueCruise was involved in each of the vehicles immediately prior to the collision.
BlueCruise is only available on certain roads and uses a camera-based driver monitoring system to determine driver attentiveness.
The investigation will evaluate the system’s performance in the dynamic driving task and driver monitoring, NHTSA said.
BlueCruise was introduced in 2021 model year vehicles and is currently available in a range of Ford and Lincoln vehicles.
This is not the first time NHTSA Explore hands-free driving technology. Just last week, NHTSA initiated an investigation into whether Tesla recalled over 2 million vehicles in December After a series of crashes, it was enough to install new Autopilot updates.
The safety agency received reports of 20 accidents involving Teslas that had the new Autopilot software updates. Not good.
After this news I get all the vibes hands-free driving is that it just isn’t ready for prime time yet, and perhaps automakers should pause for a moment and think about whether this is the best use of their time.
3rd Gear: Volkswagen had a difficult first quarter
Volkswagen The group is sticking to its 2024 revenue targets despite reporting a 20 percent decline in operating profit in the first quarter lower sales and higher costs while it prepares new models. Out of Reuters:
“As expected, our first quarter results show a slow start to the year,” said CFO Arno Antlitz, adding that increasing orders in March would have a positive impact on second quarter results. “We expect additional impetus over the course of the year from the introduction of more than 30 new models across brands.”
In particular, the German automaker’s luxury brand Porsche reported a 14.8% decline in operating margin due to higher investments in model renewal and lower demand for premium cars in China. The company’s earnings were also hit by delivery delays at the luxury brand Audi.
Volkswagen said last week that it aims to keep its Chinese market share roughly stable through the end of the decade, relying on heavy investments to support sales despite a furious price war with local electric vehicle (EV) rivals.
The automaker said its backlog remained stable compared to the end of 2023 and that orders for all-electric vehicles more than doubled in the first quarter compared to the same period last year.
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VW’s vehicle sales fell 2% year over year, totaling 2.1 million units in the quarter.
Despite the decline Volkswagen said it continues to expect revenue to increase by up to 5 percent in 2024 and full-year operating profit margin to increase between 7 percent and 7.5 percent.
Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) amounted to $4.92 billion in the first three months of 2024.
4th Gear: Stellantis’ first quarter wasn’t much better
Stellar said its revenue fell 12 percent in the first quarter of 2024 due to lower volumes, a crappy product mix and exchange rate dynamics. Deliveries fell 10 percent to 1.335 million units in the first three months of the year. Out of Automotive News:
CFO Natalie Knight said on Tuesday that deliveries and sales were impacted by the transition to the group’s new product portfolio based on new platforms and that Stellantis had reduced inventory levels “to reflect our strong relative pricing ahead of the launch of our new or mid-cycle product launches.” to strengthen”. year in key regions.”
Key model transitions in Europe include new generations of the Peugeot 3008 and 5008 compact and mid-size SUVs, including EV versions of both, as well as the Citroen C3 and C3 Aircross small cars and SUVs, also with low-cost EV options.
Net sales in the January-March period were 41.7 billion euros ($44.6 billion), falling short of analyst expectations of 42.6 billion euros, according to a Reuters poll.
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In the broader Europe region, which includes Turkey and Eurasia, deliveries fell 6 percent to 615,000, while net sales fell 13 percent to 16.1 billion euros.
The lower volumes were mainly due to declines in sales of the Peugeot 3008 before the launch of the new model, the Opel Mokka small SUV and the Fiat 500, Stellantis said.
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Analysts at Jefferies said in a note that the below-consensus sales were mainly due to quarterly performance in Europe, where both volume, price and product mix were worse than expected. Net pricing capacity has been “more resilient” in other regions, they added.
Stellantis does not report full financial results for the first and third quarters in accordance with European regulations.
However, Stellantis believes that times will soon change. Knight said the automaker is confident in its plans bring 25 new models or revised vehicles onto the market in 2024including 18 electric vehicles, would help Stellantis “improve its growth and profitability for the remainder of 2024.”
She said “blockbuster” product launches like that Ram 1500 and Ram Rev Electric trucks will give the automaker momentum later this year.