Good morning! It’s Friday, September 22, 2023, 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: Toyota Must Increase EV Output 2,400 Percent
Relatively speaking, Toyota has been pretty slow to the electric vehicle party. Sure it pioneered low-impact driving with the Prius and finally started shipping its first battery-powered model last year, but the bZ4X has hardly set the world alight. Now, the Japanese automaker is taking a look at its EV targets, which it claims will see it build more than 600,000 EVs by 2025.
According to a new report from Automotive News, Toyota hopes to hit 600,000 EV sales by 2025, 1.5 million EVs by 2026 and 3.5 million by the time 2030 rolls around. At this rate, the company would surpass Tesla’s EV sales in three years, and electric models would account for a third of its 9 million annual sales by the end of the decade. But so far, it’s flagging far behind. As Automotive News reports:
Toyota last year sold fewer than 25,000 EVs, including of its Lexus brand, worldwide. It sought to raise EV production to about 150,000 vehicles in 2023 and gradually increase it further to the 190,000-vehicle range next year.
So far, Toyota reports that in the first half of 2023, it sold 53,587 fully electric models, accounting for less than one percent of the 5.8 million cars the company sold in the first six months of the year.
Automotive News reports that the Japanese company will “step up” production of its battery-powered vehicles in the coming years. Toyota has also teased several EV concept cars that could make it to market in the coming years, including one that’s like a modern-day FJ Cruiser. Maybe if it starts building cars like this, onlookers will stop thinking Toyota isn’t really serious about electric cars.
2nd Gear: Big Three Enter Another Round Of Final Talks
We’ve reached the end of the first week of strike action from America’s United Auto Workers union, which walked off site at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis plants last Friday. Now, America’s big three are making yet another final attempt to reach a deal with the union.
According to a report from Forbes, parties from both sides of the bargaining table met yesterday to try and find some middle ground. It’s hoped that the talks could prevent an escalation of the industrial action, which union president Shawn Fain would happen if an agreement can’t be reached today. Forbes reports:
The late night negotiations took place ahead of the UAW’s Friday noon deadline for an expanded strike, Reuters reported.
An expanded strike will likely include plants that produce some of the automakers’ most popular models, including the Ford F-150, the Chevrolet Silverado and the Ram pickup trucks.
Leaked messages from union insiders might have thrown a spanner in the works this morning, though. According to Automotive News, UAW communications director Jonah Furman hopes that the ongoing strike action would “damage the companies’ reputations and keep them wounded for months.”
The automakers took these messages as a sign that the union wasn’t “bargaining in good faith,” adding that the UAW “intended to cause months-long disruption.”
3rd Gear: E-Fuels Must Be Carbon Neutral In Europe
In our switch to more sustainable transport, there are a few different sides fighting for supremacy. Battery power seems to be winning right now, but some companies think hydrogen will come into its own one day. Then there are firms like Porsche that are investigating sustainable e-fuels as a means of keeping gas-powered cars on the road for longer. But now, the European Union is looking into the use of e-fuels and how they will be used across the bloc.
According to a new report from Reuters, the European Union has demanded that “cars running on e-fuels must be 100% carbon neutral,” if they hope to still be offered for sale past the upcoming ban on gas-powered models. A draft document says that, from 2035, cars running on e-fuels must be net-zero polluters. Reuters reports:
The European Commission is developing a legal route for sales of new cars that only run on e-fuels to continue after 2035, after Germany demanded this exemption.
A draft EU legal proposal, seen by Reuters, showed Brussels plans to set strict conditions for e-fuel cars – requiring them to run on fully CO2 neutral fuels.
For e-fuels to be considered carbon-neutral, Reuters explains that they must be made in a way that utilizes captured atmospheric carbon, which will offset the CO2 released when the fuel is burned in a car engine.
4th Gear: U.S. Probes 240,000 Ford EcoSport Models
If 2022 was the year for Ford recalls, 2023 is proving to be the year the blue oval takes on probe after probe. After the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced it was launching an investigation into a Ford recall that affected more than 1.2 million Focus models, the agency is now looking into an issue that could affect more than 200,000 EcoSport models.
According to a report from Reuters, the NHTSA is probing an oil pump issue that could impact 240,000 EcoSport models built between 2018 and 2021. The probe was sparked after the agency received complaints alleging that the car’s oil pump may fail. Reuters reports:
The investigation was opened on September 20 by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Office of Defects Investigation, the NHTSA said.
It said it had received 95 complaints alleging that the oil pump may fail, resulting in a loss of motive power while the vehicle is in motion.
The EcoSport probe joins the NHTSA’s investigation into 1.2 million Focus models and a probe into the Explorer SUV, which affect more than 700,000 units.