Good morning! It’s Friday, October 25, 2024, and that is The Morning Shift, your every day roundup of the highest automotive headlines from world wide, in a single place. Listed below are the necessary tales you could know.
1st Gear: VW Doesn’t Know How To Save Itself But
The Volkswagen model wants a turnaround fairly rapidly, however to this point it hasn’t introduced any plan for the right way to make itself extra aggressive. That is in accordance with a employees handout from the top of the group’s work council in Germany. It additionally mentions that administration stays keyed in on labor prices. Not nice, VW. Not nice. From Reuters:
The feedback by Daniela Cavallo come as Europe’s prime carmaker and highly effective union battle over potential manufacturing facility closures and job cuts as a part of the group’s efforts to decrease prices, with the second spherical of negotiations scheduled for Oct. 30, the day Volkswagen will launch third-quarter outcomes.
“The Board of Administration has nonetheless not introduced a coherent total idea for the way it intends to strategically lead Volkswagen into the longer term with the suitable merchandise, processes and plans,” Cavallo mentioned within the handout seen by Reuters.
“As an alternative, it continues to focus solely on points comparable to labour and manufacturing facility prices.”
There are rising issues from Volkswagen employees over potential staffing cuts. The German automaker has declined to rule that out because it struggles to seek out methods to regulate its place in Europe following a drop in demand and a smaller market. Maybe it might construct higher, extra aggressive, automobiles, however what do I do know?
We ought to be studying extra concerning the state of affairs in just a few days. Staff are holding conferences at a number of VW factories in Germany — and the automaker’s Wolfsburg headquarters — on October 28. Employees will probably be knowledgeable concerning the present state of affairs at VW.
2nd Gear: Get Prepared For Price Chopping At Mercedes
Mercedes-Benz says it’s going to step up cost-cutting measures after earnings have been halved within the third quarter. Lukewarm demand and robust competitors from China have been the primary driving forces for this drop. Mercedes lower its full-year revenue margin goal twice throughout Q3. Not nice. It’s hoping a sweeping new mannequin rollout will assist gross sales in 2025.
The automaker’s automobile division’s adjusted return on gross sales fell to 4.7 p.c within the third quarter from 12.4 p.c final yr. It’s Mercedes’ worst profitability for the reason that pandemic, whereas earnings within the unit have been greater than halved. It’s truly worse than analysts anticipated. From Reuters:
“The Q3 outcomes don’t meet our ambitions,” CFO Harald Wilhelm mentioned in a press release, including that the group will step up price cuts.
Wilhelm declined to supply extra particulars about the fee cuts, however warned that “will probably be tighter and harder for positive”.
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In 2020, Mercedes launched a plan to scale back prices by 20% between 2019 and 2025, 15-16% of which was already achieved, in accordance with the finance chief.
The July-September earnings have been hit as Chinese language customers continued to chop again on luxurious items in a weakening financial system, which has specifically weighed on Mercedes’s profitable high-end S-Class mannequin gross sales within the nation.
Mannequin revamp prices added to the stress, particularly for brand new variations of the G-Class SUV, which can hit the market within the subsequent quarter, Mercedes added.
In 2024, the corporate sees automobile gross sales barely under the earlier yr, and fourth-quarter gross sales in step with the third quarter.
Nonetheless, Mercedes refuses to scale back costs and prefers to stay to its “worth over quantity” technique, together with in China.
Chinese language automakers are actually making each different automobile firm’s life hell, aren’t they? I get it. They make some actually nice automobiles over there.
I’m simply hoping this cost-cutting at MB doesn’t trickle down into the product in any tremendous noticeable manner. Mercedes is (or was) all about high quality, in any case.
third Gear: Stellantis Fires Again At Lawmakers
Stellantis isn’t caving to stress from lawmakers in Washington, D.C. simply but. The automaker simply reiterated that it hasn’t determined the place the next-generation Dodge Durango will probably be made. It additionally made clear it’s delaying — not canceling — its plans for the idled Belvidere Meeting Plant in Illinois.
In a press release, Stellantis mentioned its determination to delay the reopening of the plant “is in keeping with the present difficult automotive panorama and the plain language within the contract that the UAW agreed to.” The automaker mentioned this in response to letters signed by about 80 members of Congress expressing concern about what the automaker was doing relating to its contract commitments with the United Auto Staff union. Stellantis defended its determination, pointing blame for the delay on the present automobile market From the Detroit Free Press:
“Stellantis has repeatedly acknowledged that it has abided by and can proceed to abide by the 2023 collective bargaining settlement. It’s in everybody’s finest curiosity to have a wholesome, sustainable firm that may compete in a worldwide market,” in accordance with an organization assertion offered by spokeswoman Jodi Tinson. “There’s indeniable volatility available in the market associated to the transition to an electrified future, which the signers of those letters assist. Over the previous yr, quite a few corporations throughout the business have introduced funding and product delays in addition to outright product cancelations.”
On Wednesday, quite a few members of Michigan’s congressional delegation joined others from throughout the nation in calling on Stellantis to honor its commitments, stating that tax cash is getting used to assist the automaker. A few the signers, U.S. Reps. Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor, and Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, rallied with UAW employees and leaders, together with President Shawn Fain, at a union corridor in Trenton the identical day.
“Taxpayers are presently funding shopper incentives for a number of Stellantis automobiles, and Stellantisis slated to obtain $585 million underneath the Home Manufacturing Conversion Grant Program.
“Beneath this program, Stellantis is on monitor to pocket $335 million to reopen the Belvidere Meeting plant in Belvidere, Illinois,” in accordance with the letter from U.S. Home members to the Stellantis board of administrators. “As stewards of taxpayer funding, we’ve a duty to make sure these investments profit the general public curiosity. We hope it’s clear to you that the American folks won’t tolerate taxpayer subsidies for an organization that’s reducing manufacturing and slashing jobs — all of the whereas it will increase government compensation, dividends to shareholders and inventory buybacks.”
“In 2024 to this point, Stellantis has paid $5 billion in dividends to shareholders and bought $3.3 billion of its personal inventory. Within the first half of the yr, Stellantis was among the many most worthwhile automotive corporations on this planet, with a ten% international revenue margin. If Stellantis is performing so properly that Mr. Tavares can earn 518x greater than the common Stellantis employee, we’re inclined to imagine market circumstances are optimistic,” in accordance with the Home members’ letter.
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The Senate letter famous that “we’re deeply involved that Stellantis is just not protecting the guarantees it made to strengthen and broaden good-paying union jobs in America,” and pointed to the corporate’s acknowledged intent to shift extra manufacturing to lower-cost international locations.
Stellantis responded by saying, “the corporate stays dedicated to investing within the U.S. to create jobs and assist our communities as evidenced by the announcement final month to take a position greater than $400 million in three of our Michigan services.”
These commitments embrace the manufacturing of the Ram 1500 REV (an electrical pickup) at Stellantis’ Sterling Heights Meeting Plant. Some of us are involved that the corporate is planning to broaden its truck plant in Saltillo, Mexico.
4th Gear: Mazda Trims 2025 Outlook
Mazda is only a quarter away from a document gross sales yr in 2024, however the automaker isn’t anticipating its exponential progress to proceed in 2025 because it initially anticipated. Its North American CEO Tom Donnelly, mentioned there are “no scarcity of headwinds.” CEOs love speaking about headwinds, man. From Automotive Information:
“The as soon as in 100-year-plus transformation the business goes by way of — all of us are coping with that,” Donnelly mentioned, noting that he does anticipate sturdy business gross sales. “The core enterprise remains to be going to be strong.”
Whereas Mazda had estimated its gross sales would soar to 500,000 subsequent yr, Donnelly mentioned the model is extra more likely to finish north of 450,000, though it stays on an “upward trajectory.” Introduction of the CX-50 hybrid subsequent month in addition to a brand new model marketing campaign referred to as “Transfer and Be Moved” will probably be Mazda’s major progress drivers subsequent yr, he mentioned Oct. 23.
Mazda sees marginal progress within the U.S. EV market subsequent yr as adoption stays in flux, Donnelly mentioned. Mazda not has an EV in its lineup after it cancelled the low-volume, low-range MX-30 offered solely in California final yr. However he mentioned Mazda’s new hybrid compact crossover will probably be a boon as extra customers flock to the fuel-efficient expertise as a manner to economize and dabble in inexperienced.
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The launch of the CX-90 and CX-70 midsize crossovers — which each provide plug-in hybrid powertrains — in addition to a manufacturing improve of the CX-50 compact crossover on the Mazda-Toyota joint-venture manufacturing facility in Alabama helped spur gross sales. By the primary 9 months of the yr, CX-50 gross sales elevated 85 p.c to 58,515.
Mazda’s prioritization of constructing extra of what’s in demand — together with particular trims and powertrains — and placing these automobiles in markets with retail companions the place they’re turning quickest has additionally yielded outcomes, Donnelly mentioned. And Mazda continues to work carefully with its captive, Mazda Monetary Companies, to react rapidly to market suggestions on lease packages and APR incentives.
“We’re happy with the agility we’ve proven and the outcomes we’ve been capable of obtain,” he mentioned.
In 2024, Mazda expects to hit 400,000 gross sales within the U.S. It might be the best gross sales quantity for the automaker because it entered the U.S. market in 1970. In 2023, Mazda’s gross sales grew 23 p.c to 363,354 automobiles. The Japanese automaker is now near surpassing that determine… by way of September. Gross sales have elevated 15 p.c to 313,452 in contrast with final yr.
