Good morning! It’s Friday, December 6, 2024, and that is The Morning Shift, your day by day roundup of the highest automotive headlines from world wide, in a single place. Listed below are the necessary tales it is advisable know.
1st Gear: Musk Dropped $250 Million To Elect Trump, Different Republicans
How a lot would you be keen to pay to elect the president you need? Nicely, if you happen to’re Tesla CEO Elon Musk, that quantity is 1 / 4 of a billion {dollars}, based on filings posted December 5. That’s proper. Musk spent all of that cash within the closing few months of the election cycle to assist win Donald Trump a second presidency, and it labored.
Certain, that’s only a minuscule fraction of Musk’s $344 billion web value, nevertheless it’s nonetheless a nutty amount of cash for one man to spend on an election. He did it by sending the cash to allied teams, and due to his good deeds for Trump, he will get to be part of and form the President-elect’s administration. We reside in an oligarchical hell, people. From the New York Occasions:
One among Mr. Musk’s most brazen strikes — which emerged solely on Thursday — was spending $20 million to prop up an excellent PAC that was named after Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the late liberal Supreme Courtroom justice, however that sought to assist Mr. Trump by softening his anti-abortion positions.
Mr. Musk put the lion’s share of the cash he donated towards his important tremendous PAC, America PAC, reducing three checks for $25 million every within the closing weeks of the race, based on the brand new filings with the Federal Election Fee. Mr. Musk additionally spent $40.5 million on legally controversial checks to voters in swing states who signed a petition in assist of the Structure.
Over the course of the race, he gave America PAC a staggering $239 million in each money and in-kind contributions.
America PAC performed what it described as an expansive ground-game effort on Mr. Trump’s behalf. Mr. Musk got here to see defeating President Biden as a significant crucial and swung arduous towards Mr. Trump after the assassination try in opposition to him in July. He turned so invested within the effort that he campaigned incessantly for the Republican nominee in Pennsylvania, extensively seen as a very powerful battleground state.
Mr. Musk additionally donated $4 million to America PAC on Nov. 12, per week after Election Day. He has vowed to maintain his tremendous PAC lively by focusing on progressive prosecutors and supporting Mr. Trump’s agenda.
[…]
Mr. Musk’s whole spending on the election shouldn’t be but recognized — and will by no means be. He minimize different political checks to conservative down-ballot teams this cycle, together with $12 million to 2 teams making an attempt to elect Republican senators, the Senate Management Fund and the Sentinel Motion Fund. Mr. Musk, who initially wished to maintain his assist for Mr. Trump quiet, might have additionally funded dark-money entities that may by no means disclose his involvement or donations.
The strangest a part of all of this cash might be Musk’s funding of the RGB PAC.
On Thursday, Mr. Musk was revealed because the hidden funding supply behind RBG PAC, a Republican group that labored to elect Mr. Trump however was named after a liberal jurist who despised him.
A belief belonging to Mr. Musk was the only funder of RBG PAC, which had not but disclosed its donors earlier than a submitting late Thursday. Throughout the election, the group had run advertisements arguing that Mr. Trump’s place on abortion was not dissimilar from that of Justice Ginsburg, a feminist icon. “Nice Minds Suppose Alike,” learn the textual content on the tremendous PAC’s web site, that includes twin giant images of Mr. Trump and Justice Ginsburg, who died in 2020.
Her household bitterly opposed the advertisements. Ms. Ginsburg’s granddaughter, Clara Spera, mentioned in a press release in October that the household condemned using her grandmother’s identify and that doing so to “assist Donald Trump’s re-election marketing campaign, and particularly to counsel that she would approve of his place on abortion, is nothing wanting appalling.”
The trouble by RBG PAC was meant to reassure feminine voters who had been cautious of Mr. Trump due to his opposition to abortion rights. He has boasted of being happy with appointing the conservative justices, together with Justice Ginsburg’s successor, who helped overturn Roe v. Wade.
When the group started working advertisements, there have been hints of Mr. Musk’s involvement. The group’s chief, Could Mailman, at occasions defended Mr. Musk on tv.
Because the election, Musk has been tied on the hip with Trump, even having Thanksgiving dinner with him as a substitute of his myriad of youngsters and household members. Regardless of this, it doesn’t actually appear to be Trump or people inside his orbit, notably like having him round. They simply know he’s a small, insecure man who will gladly open his checkbook to finance their endeavors or submit a tweet to drum up assist.
Unhappy!
2nd Gear: VW Employees Put together To Stroll Out Monday
German Volkswagen employees at vegetation throughout the nation are getting ready for a second spherical of walkouts on December 9 as administration and labor leaders maintain a fourth highway of talks over the best way to minimize prices.
These walkouts are referred to as “warning strikes” they usually’re apparently designed to stress executives throughout deadlocked negotiations. The final time VW employees walked out, it was for simply two hours. Now, they’ll be off the job for 4 hours at 9 of Volkswagen’s German vegetation. From Bloomberg:
VW is pushing for unprecedented manufacturing facility closures, 1000’s of layoffs and 10% wage cuts at its flagship marque, which is scuffling with poor demand in Europe and waning relevance in China, the world’s largest auto market. The corporate is making an attempt to scale back bills in Germany, the place labor and vitality prices are among the many highest on the continent and its factories are being underutilized.
“It’s bordering on mockery when [Chief Executive Officer] Oliver Blume stands in entrance of the workforce and needs them a Merry Christmas,” lead negotiator for Germany’s IG Metall union Thorsten Gröger mentioned. “VW board members need nothing greater than to place termination letters underneath their Christmas bushes.”
With the stakes of the talks rising, the pinnacle of Germany’s IG Metall union Christiane Benner will be a part of VW works council chief Daniela Cavallo and Gröger in talking at a rally accompanying the walkouts in Wolfsburg.
Let’s hope the union and Volkswagen executives can come to an settlement quickly, or issues might shortly begin getting very ugly for the Wolfsburg-based automaker.
third Gear: Tesla Will get Aggressive With Lease Offers
Tesla’s U.S. progress has stalled, and that makes a number of sense. It has dominated the EV marketplace for a greater a part of a decade at this level, however as an increasing number of robust competitors hits the market, it’s solely logical that Tesla’s piece of the pie would get smaller. Nonetheless, shedding any floor isn’t adequate for the Austin, Texas-based automaker, so to assist enhance progress it’s getting aggressive on leasing. From Automotive Information:
“Tesla’s lease penetration has gone approach up,” mentioned Tom Libby, a senior analyst at S&P International Mobility. “They’re getting an increasing number of aggressive as a result of they should — and since they’ve the monetary assets to take action.”
Leasing is a underutilized possibility Tesla can use after slashing costs over the past two years and providing sponsored financing, together with the present supply of 0.9 p.c for 60 months on the Mannequin Y crossover, based on Tesla’s web site. The automaker can be providing three months of free charging and a free trial of its Full Self-Driving software program.
“Tesla had a monopoly on the EV market within the U.S., however they don’t anymore and as time goes by they’re adjusting to {the marketplace},” Libby mentioned. “They don’t have any selection in the event that they need to keep gross sales momentum.”
Tesla’s leasing push comes after CEO Elon Musk mentioned in October that the automaker would beat final yr’s 1.8 million international deliveries. By way of the primary three quarters this yr, international gross sales fell 2.3 p.c, Tesla mentioned. Within the U.S., registration knowledge confirmed Tesla down 7.3 p.c in the identical interval.
Leasing is a well-liked possibility for battery-electric autos as a result of there aren’t any restrictions on the federal tax credit score for leased autos. In distinction, EVs bought by shoppers should be made in North America, and meet battery-sourcing necessities and value caps to qualify. Patrons additionally should meet revenue limits.
There’s, in fact, one minor challenge: there’s no approach of figuring out whether or not the tax break will probably be there as soon as Trump takes workplace in January 2025. If I had been a betting man, I’d put some huge cash on his administration killing these incentives.
Regardless, Tesla has struggled with leasing. Some automakers have lease charges for his or her EVs as excessive as 90 p.c. That’s vastly totally different from the place Tesla is at:
In January 2023, Tesla’s U.S. lease penetration was 8 p.c however rose to twenty p.c in December final yr, the information confirmed. This yr, Tesla’s highest lease penetration was in April at 31 p.c earlier than falling to 22 p.c in July and 15 p.c in September, the latest month out there, S&P International Mobility mentioned.
Tesla has taken actions in current months to spice up its leasing program. In November, Tesla introduced it was permitting lease buyouts for the primary time on its quantity Mannequin 3 and Mannequin Y autos. In on-line boards, Tesla followers have pushed for lease buyouts since opponents supply them and a few consumers desire the choice.
Earlier than Tesla’s announcement, Mannequin 3 and Mannequin Y consumers needed to return their autos to Tesla on the finish of the lease. Tesla resold some lease returns as licensed pre-owned autos with a guaranty.
[…]
Tesla beforehand provided lease buyouts on its pricier Mannequin S sedan and Mannequin X crossover, however ended the apply in 2022. The automaker now presents lease buyouts on all of its autos, together with the Cybertruck pickup, Tesla mentioned on its web site. Leasing on the Cybertruck started in November at $999 per thirty days.
We’ll see how this all goes, however I don’t actually suppose it will repair Tesla’s progress challenge. It’s arduous to take care of the dominance you had if you had been the one man on the town when higher, extra compelling, guys begin displaying up.
4th Gear: Ford’s Posts File EV Gross sales In November
Ford simply had its finest November for U.S. gross sales since earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic, hitting a 14 p.c year-over-year improve. If that wasn’t adequate information, November additionally represented an all-time month-to-month gross sales document for electrical autos. From the Detroit Information:
The Dearborn automaker offered 166,373 autos final month. That included 10,821 all-electric autos, representing 6.5% of gross sales that had been up 21% from final yr. Ford is working its “Energy Promise” marketing campaign, which is providing to cowl the price of an ordinary set up of a Stage 2 house charger with every EV buy or lease or an extra money incentive. President-elect Donald Trump’s victory additionally could also be prompting some EV proprietor wannabes to get one now, because the as much as $7,500 tax credit score for plug-in autos could possibly be eradicated underneath the brand new administration.
The all-electric Mustang Mach-E SUV posted its finest ever month-to-month gross sales, up 38%. The E-Transit business van was up 358%. However the F-150 Lightning truck noticed gross sales fall 17%.
Including in hybrids and plug-in hybrids, Ford’s electrified autos had been 14% of U.S. gross sales and up 40% from final November. Inner combustion engine autos rose 13%.
Truck and van gross sales had been up 23%. F-Sequence pickups had their finest November since earlier than COVID, growing gross sales by 27% from a yr in the past. The hybrid model was up 52%.
The midsize Ranger was up by greater than 23 occasions the quantity offered a yr in the past after its plant had been affected by the United Auto Employees’ 41-day strike. The corporate offered 36% extra Maverick hybrids than final November, although general Maverick was down 34% year-over-year.
Transit business vans had been up 52% for a November gross sales document.
SUV gross sales rose 8%. The Explorer, boosted by a refreshed mannequin for 2025, was up 14%. Bronco, additionally hit considerably by final yr’s UAW work stoppage, was up 255%, whereas its smaller Bronco Sport sibling fell 3.5%. Expedition elevated 19%, and Escape fell 10%.
Mustang coupe gross sales had been down 45%.
Even Lincoln had an excellent month. Gross sales of the luxurious automaker’s SUVs had been up 49 p.c. The lately redesigned Nautilus noticed its finest month in 17 years, growing 103 p.c. Hybrids really accounted for 49 p.c of these gross sales, too. That’s a slightly spectacular quantity. Moreover, Aviator gross sales had been up 86 p.c, Navigator gross sales had been up 11 p.c and even the Corsair noticed a 4.2 p.c gross sales bump. Issues are going nicely for the Blue Oval proper now.
Boosted client sentiment and improved market circumstances supported elevated gross sales year-over-year throughout the business final month, based on Cox Automotive Inc. Common new-vehicle rates of interest decreased to 9.12%, and incentives are representing an elevated proportion of common car transaction costs, rising to 7.7% in October.
Good for Ford, man. In a yr marred by extra recollects and large losses in its EV unit, not less than it appears to be ending off robust.
