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 here are the necessary tales you want to know.
1st Gear: Lucid Will get One other Lifeline Regardless of Money Burn
Lucid simply reported a second-quarter web lack of $790 million though it recorded a document variety of gross sales for its Air electrical sedan within the April-June interval. One way or the other, the loss was 3.4 % increased than it was throughout the identical quarter final 12 months. Second-quarter income was $201 million, which is a 33 % enchancment over the $151 million in the identical timeframe a 12 months earlier. Lucid says it ended the second quarter with money, money equivalents and investments of $4.3 billion.
Nonetheless, its largest 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 value of convertible most well-liked inventory and supply an identical quantity as a credit score line, Lucid stated in a information launch.
“The extra $1.5 billion dedication by an affiliate of the PIF introduced right this moment is anticipated to supply ample liquidity into at the least the fourth quarter of 2025,” stated Gagan Dhingra, Lucid’s interim CFO.
The Newark, Calif., startup, which launched the Air in 2021, stated it delivered a document 2,394 vehicles within the quarter. However Lucid additionally boosted gross sales incentives to $16,537 per car, in keeping with Motor Intelligence.
The massive sedan, Lucid’s lone mannequin, begins at $71,400 together with transport. Lucid stated it’s going to start manufacturing of a three-row crossover, the Gravity, this 12 months. It has a beginning value slightly below $80,000 earlier than transport.
Previous to the second-quarter earnings report, Lucid stated it could search further funding for its future product plans. The automaker plans to launch autos beneath $50,000 on a midsize platform beginning in late 2026.
“This can be a capital intensive enterprise and we do want to lift more cash,” Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson informed Bloomberg in mid-July. Rawlinson stated Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund remained a long-term associate as Lucid develops new electrical fashions.
Lucid’s major manufacturing facility is in Casa Grande, Arizona, however it has a small facility in Saudi Arabia that does closing meeting on pre-assembled Airs shipped from the US.
Rawlinson has excessive hopes for the Gravity, saying it might attain a possible market six occasions 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 develop 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 world automakers are racing to develop the expertise.
The newly granted approval permits Mercedes to start out trials of its Stage 4 self-driving methods on Beijing’s highways and concrete roads. Mainly, which means these vehicles can carry out all driving duties inside sure circumstances so long as human override remains to be an choice. Among the maneuvers that’ll be examined embrace parking, reversing and turning left in busy 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 entice prospects. 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. Common Motors Co. obtained approval final 12 months to trial self-driving Cadillacs in Shanghai.
In the meantime, expertise firms resembling Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo and Baidu Inc.’s Apollo Go are growing 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 methods at Stage 2 automation, which implies that a automotive can carry out steering, acceleration and lane adjustments, however a human wants to watch the driving always and preserve their arms on the steering wheel.
Stage 4 autonomy shouldn’t be going to be a straightforward 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 tug the plug on operations because 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,” stated the supply, asking to not be named.
The homeowners thought-about transferring manufacturing to a unique nation, however that choice was rejected because of the logistical challenges of transferring the present 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 value of an imported second-hand SUV.
It later launched up to date editions with additional options.
Mobius, whose traders embrace 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 client demand.
To make issues much more troublesome for the corporate, all new vehicles have confronted some actually stiff competitors from used vehicles which are imported from overseas.
On August 15, collectors will vote on the voluntary liquidation.
4th Gear: Nissan Provides Buyout To Some Staff
Nissan is chopping its U.S. salaried workforce by a voluntary severance program as the Japanese automaker offers with a slide within the U.S. market. It can supply buyout packages to white-collar Nissan and Infiniti staff who’re at the least 52 years outdated in sure non-manufacturing enterprise models and to these 55 and older within the manufacturing group. Hourly manufacturing employees received’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 bundle. He stated a “small proportion” of the salaried workforce is eligible.
Nissan seeks to “optimize enterprise operations and stay aggressive for the longer term,” Bazemore stated. “We proceed to evolve to fulfill the wants of the worldwide automotive trade.”
The automaker provided related buyouts within the U.S. in 2019 and 2020 alongside manufacturing facility layoffs. It lower worker journey budgets by half in late 2019 and put the U.S. group on two days of unpaid furlough in January 2020. Bazemore stated 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 12 months 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 revenue fell 73 % to $199 million, and worldwide gross sales just about stalled at 787,000 autos within the second quarter.
