Good morning! It’s Tuesday, August 6, 2024, and that is The Morning Shift, your every day roundup of the highest automotive headlines from around the globe, in a single place. Listed below are the essential tales it is advisable know.
1st Gear: Lucid Will get One other Lifeline Regardless of Money Burn
Lucid simply reported a second-quarter web lack of $790 million despite the fact that it recorded a file variety of gross sales for its Air electrical sedan within the April-June interval. Someway, the loss was 3.4 % greater than it was throughout the identical quarter final yr. Second-quarter income was $201 million, which is a 33 % enchancment over the $151 million in the identical timeframe a yr earlier. Lucid says it ended the second quarter with money, money equivalents and investments of $4.3 billion.
Nonetheless, its greatest shareholder, Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund is sending the California-based automaker one other $1.5 billion to shore up its funds. From Automotive Information:
Ayar Third Funding, an affiliate of the Saudi fund, has agreed to purchase $750 million price of convertible most popular inventory and supply the same quantity as a credit score line, Lucid mentioned in a information launch.
“The extra $1.5 billion dedication by an affiliate of the PIF introduced at this time is predicted to supply ample liquidity into not less than the fourth quarter of 2025,” mentioned Gagan Dhingra, Lucid’s interim CFO.
The Newark, Calif., startup, which launched the Air in 2021, mentioned it delivered a file 2,394 vehicles within the quarter. However Lucid additionally boosted gross sales incentives to $16,537 per car, based on Motor Intelligence.
The massive sedan, Lucid’s lone mannequin, begins at $71,400 together with transport. Lucid mentioned it should start manufacturing of a three-row crossover, the Gravity, this yr. It has a beginning worth just below $80,000 earlier than transport.
Previous to the second-quarter earnings report, Lucid mentioned it might search extra funding for its future product plans. The automaker plans to launch automobiles beneath $50,000 on a midsize platform beginning in late 2026.
“It is a capital intensive enterprise and we do want to boost more cash,” Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson informed Bloomberg in mid-July. Rawlinson mentioned Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund remained a long-term companion as Lucid develops new electrical fashions.
Lucid’s major manufacturing facility is in Casa Grande, Arizona, but it surely has a small facility in Saudi Arabia that does last meeting on pre-assembled Airs shipped from the US.
Rawlinson has excessive hopes for the Gravity, saying it might attain a possible market six instances bigger than the Air due to People’ affinity for crossovers. Pre-production Gravities simply began rolling off Lucid’s manufacturing line in Arizona on July 31.
2nd Gear: Mercedes To Check L4 Self-Driving In Beijing
Mercedes-Benz says it has change into the primary worldwide automaker that’s allowed to take a look at superior autonomous driving in Beijing. It comes at a time when home and international automakers are racing to develop the expertise.
The newly granted approval permits Mercedes to start out trials of its Stage 4 self-driving programs on Beijing’s highways and concrete roads. Mainly, which means these vehicles can carry out all driving duties inside sure situations so long as human override remains to be an possibility. Among the maneuvers that’ll be examined embody parking, reversing and turning left in busy site visitors with out driver intervention. From Bloomberg:
With intense competitors in China’s auto market, producers are betting on autonomous driving to realize an edge over opponents and appeal to clients. Tesla Inc. is working to carry the superior driver-assistance expertise it calls Full Self-Driving to China, gaining permission to check in some areas of Shanghai. Basic Motors Co. obtained approval final yr to trial self-driving Cadillacs in Shanghai.
In the meantime, expertise firms reminiscent of Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo and Baidu Inc.’s Apollo Go are creating robotaxis as the way forward for mobility, testing driverless companies on the streets of cities together with San Francisco and Wuhan.
At present, Chinese language regulation permits superior driver-assistance programs at Stage 2 automation, which implies that a automobile can carry out steering, acceleration and lane modifications, however a human wants to watch the driving always and preserve their palms on the steering wheel.
Stage 4 autonomy will not be going to be a simple one to crack, however I really feel like if any automaker’s engineers might do it, it’s Mercedes.
third Gear: Kenya’s Mobius Shutters Operations
Mobius, a Kenyan automaker that aimed to make low-priced and rugged SUVs for Africa’s roads, has determined to drag the plug on operations on account of monetary points. From Reuters:
Mobius, based by a London-born investor who skilled the continent’s bumpy roads whereas working for a forestry firm in Kenya, discovered tax hikes within the East African nation meant its enterprise mannequin was not sustainable, the supply at one of many firm’s shareholders informed Reuters.
“The enterprise couldn’t maintain itself. There have been some challenges,” mentioned the supply, asking to not be named.
The homeowners thought-about shifting manufacturing to a distinct nation, however that possibility was rejected as a result of logistical challenges of shifting the prevailing meeting line from Nairobi, the shareholder added.
Mobius initially produced a boxy, no-frills SUV designed for the modest budgets of African customers, going for 1.3 million Kenyan shillings, equal to about $13,000 on the time and roughly half the worth of an imported second-hand SUV.
It later launched up to date editions with additional options.
Mobius, whose traders embody Britain’s Playfair Capital, was a part of a push by traders and governments on the continent to create jobs by launching home-grown car producers. They included Uganda’s Kiira Motors, Ghana’s Kantanka and Nigeria-based Innoson Motors.
Sadly for Mobius, on the identical time, a lot bigger automakers like Toyota and Volkswagen boosted their investments in markets like Kenya and Rwanda to faucet into their rising economies and rising shopper demand.
To make issues much more tough for the corporate, all new vehicles have confronted some actually stiff competitors from used vehicles which might be imported from overseas.
On August 15, collectors will vote on the voluntary liquidation.
4th Gear: Nissan Presents Buyout To Some Staff
Nissan is reducing its U.S. salaried workforce via a voluntary severance program as the Japanese automaker offers with a slide within the U.S. market. It can provide buyout packages to white-collar Nissan and Infiniti staff who’re not less than 52 years previous in sure non-manufacturing enterprise models and to these 55 and older within the manufacturing group. Hourly manufacturing employees gained’t be impacted. From Automotive Information:
Within the U.S., Nissan employs about 21,000 individuals, together with about 9,000 hourly employees at three Southeast factories.
Spokesperson Kyle Bazemore declined to say what number of salaried jobs Nissan intends to chop or what number of staff the corporate expects to take the severance package deal. He mentioned a “small share” of the salaried workforce is eligible.
Nissan seeks to “optimize enterprise operations and stay aggressive for the long run,” Bazemore mentioned. “We proceed to evolve to fulfill the wants of the worldwide automotive trade.”
The automaker supplied related buyouts within the U.S. in 2019 and 2020 alongside manufacturing facility layoffs. It reduce worker journey budgets by half in late 2019 and put the U.S. group on two days of unpaid furlough in January 2020. Bazemore mentioned Nissan doesn’t plan layoffs or different expense discount measures.
Nissan, like a few of its friends, is tapping the brakes on spending as new-vehicle demand cools and market competitors heats up.
Nissan’s U.S.-based enterprise has fallen within the post-pandemic period. Its market share dropped 5.8 % final yr from 7.9 % in 2019. Working revenue has additionally dropped 99 % to $6.9 million within the three months ending on June 30. Moreover, web earnings fell 73 % to $199 million, and worldwide gross sales just about stalled at 787,000 automobiles within the second quarter.
