Good morning! It’s Wednesday, February 28, 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: Elon Swears Tesla Roadster Is Coming In 2025
Guys! Elon Musk says the incredibly delayed Tesla Roadster is coming next year, and it’s going to be some sort of collaboration between Tesla and SpaceX, whatever that means. On top of that, it’s apparently going to look much different than the Roadster concept we’ve been looking at since 2017, according to a post from the Tesla CEO on his social media platform, X. I guess we’ll see, but I wouldn’t hold my breath on this thing appearing anytime soon. From Business Insider:
“Tonight, we radically increased the design goals for the new Tesla Roadster,” Musk said. “There will never be another car like this, if you could even call it a car. You will love the new Roadster more than your house.”
In a later post, the billionaire also claimed the car could go from zero to 60mph in less than a second, adding: “And that is the least interesting part.”
Musk also responded to a query on X about whether the vehicle could “fly a little” with an “eye” emoji.
The second generation Roadster is meant to serve as a successor to Tesla’s first vehicle: the original Roadster. BI says that about 2,450 of those little Lotus-based EV sports cars were sold between 2008 and 2012.
Here’s some second-gen Roadster history, from Business Insider:
The revival was first announced six years ago, but its release date has already been pushed back several times from 2021-2023, with Musk partly attributing the delays to supply chain shortages.
He often misses some of his more optimistic deadlines. He once acknowleged that his expectations could be unrealistic during a 2018 Tesla shareholders meeting.
In 2021, Musk said the Roadster “should ship in 2023.” Now, the world’s richest person says Tesla the production design is complete and will be unveiled “end of year,” with the company “aiming to ship” the car in 2025.
“I think it has a shot at being the most mind-blowing product demo of all time,” Musk said in the Tuesday night post.
So, folks, I guess we’ll see if the new “mind-blowing” Roadster actually appears. Let’s just say, based on everything else we’ve seen from Musk and Tesla, I’ve got my doubts.
2nd Gear: Republican Senator Wants Higher Tariffs On Chinese EVs
Republican Senator and January 6 bozo Josh Hawley is introducing new legislation meant to hike tariffs on Chinese vehicle imports because of how really good Chinese EVs may impact the sales of U.S. automakers. From Reuters:
Hawley’s bill would raise the base tariff rate to 100% from 2.5 percent currently, which would mean a total tariff of 125% on all imported Chinese autos from 27.5% currently. It also seeks to apply the 100% tariff hike to vehicles assembled in Mexico by Chinese-based automakers.
Hawley said President Joe Biden should take steps to protect U.S. auto workers “from the existential threat posed by China.”
A bipartisan group of lawmakers in November urged U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to boost tariffs on Chinese vehicles, saying she should plan “to address the coming wave of (Chinese) vehicles that will be exported from our other trading partners, such as Mexico, as (Chinese) automakers look to strategically establish operations outside of (China).”
On Friday, a U.S. manufacturing advocacy group urged Biden to block low-cost Chinese autos and parts from Mexico.
“The introduction of cheap Chinese autos – which are so inexpensive because they are backed with the power and funding of the Chinese government – to the American market could end up being an extinction-level event for the U.S. auto sector,” the Alliance for American Manufacturing said in a report.
Current guy who isn’t President, Donald Trump, is seemingly in favor of hefty tariffs on Chinese vehicle imports. When he was the President, Trump hiked tariffs by 25 percent.
Listen, if I were an American automaker that was afraid of really good Chinese EVs coming, I would simply build better EVs, but I suppose I’m built different.
3rd Gear: The Aston Martin EV Isn’t Coming Soon
Oh, Aston Martin. One day the world will appreciate you the way you deserve, but until then you’ve got to keep dealing with bad news.
The British automaker is delaying the launch of its first electric vehicle because of a lack of customer demand. It’s now targeting 2026 for the official launch of its electric SUV, a year later than originally planned. It’s the latest automaker to kick EV plans down the road because of weakening demand for high-priced electric cars. From Reuters:
“The consumer demand (for BEVs), certainly at an Aston Martin price point, is not what we thought it was going to be two years ago,” Executive Chairman Lawrence Stroll told journalists.
Stroll said there was “much more driven demand” for plug-in hybrid vehicles, especially for a company like Aston Martin, as people “want some electrification … but (to) still have the sports car smell and feel and noise”.
Aston Martin’s first hybrid supercar, Valhalla, is on course to enter production this year.
So, while the EV thing might suck, there is a little bit of good news. Record transaction prices for its luxury and special edition models have helped shrink Aston’s annual losses.
The company’s annual pretax losses more than halved in 2023, coming in smaller than market expectations, after selling prices reached record levels as it delivered its Valkyrie models and other special edition cars.
[…]
Fictional secret agent James Bond’s car brand of choice, Aston Martin has had a tough time since its market debut in 2018.
However, top shareholder Stroll has been trying to bolster its cash and margins by rolling out next-generation sports cars – the latest of which was the new Vantage sports model unveiled this month.
The carmaker’s shares were down 2% at 1047 GMT as investors fretted about its cash flow and volumes.
Aston Martin had hoped to turn free cash flow positive in the fourth quarter, but was hit by the timing of deliveries of its DB12 and Valour models.
It now expects positive cash generation in the second half of this year.
[…]
Aston Martin reported an adjusted pretax loss of 171.8 million pounds ($217.4 million) for the year ended Dec. 31, compared with a 451 million pounds loss a year earlier.
Analysts, on average, expected a loss of 209 million pounds, according to a company-compiled consensus.
Please figure this shit out, Aston Martin. You’re so cool.
4th Gear: The Apple Car Isn’t Coming At All
The decade-long saga that was the Apple Car has officially come to a close. May I be the first person to say, RIP in peace Apple Car. We hardly knew you. From Bloomberg:
Apple made the disclosure internally Tuesday, surprising the nearly 2,000 employees working on the project, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the announcement wasn’t public. The decision was shared by Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams and Kevin Lynch, a vice president in charge of the effort, according to the people [with knowledge of the matter].
The two executives told staffers that the project will begin winding down and that many employees on the car team — known as the Special Projects Group, or SPG — will be shifted to the artificial intelligence division under executive John Giannandrea. Those employees will focus on generative AI projects, an increasingly key priority for the company.
The Apple car team also has several hundred hardware engineers and vehicle designers. It’s possible they will be able to apply for jobs on other Apple teams. There will be layoffs, but it’s unclear how many.
The move to kill the Apple Car actually came as a bit of a relief to investors. Apple shares have risen to about $183.
The decision to ultimately wind down the project is a bombshell for the company, ending a multibillion-dollar effort called Project Titan that would have vaulted Apple into a whole new industry. The tech giant started working on a car around 2014, setting its sights on a fully autonomous electric vehicle with a limousine-like interior and voice-guided navigation.
But the project struggled nearly from the start, with Apple changing the team’s leadership and strategy several times. Lynch and Williams took charge of the undertaking a few years ago — following the departure of Doug Field, now a senior executive at Ford Motor Co.
Apple was still years away from producing a car and contemplated many different designs. Beyond the look of the vehicle, cracking self-driving technology was a major challenge. Apple had road-tested its system since 2017 using a Lexus SUV exterior, putting dozens of vehicles on roads in the US. The company also tested more secretive components on a gigantic track in Phoenix that was once owned by Chrysler.
In the end, Apple was facing a cooling market for EVs. Sales growth lost steam in recent months after high prices and a lack of charging infrastructure discouraged mainstream buyers from shifting to all-electric vehicles. General Motors Co. and Ford are pivoting to producing more hybrid vehicles after confronting lackluster EV demand and manufacturing bottlenecks, and automakers across the industry are slashing battery-electric car prices, production targets and profit forecasts.
Goodnight, sweet prince. Your watch is now over.