Good morning! It’s August 3, 2023, and that is The Morning Shift, your day by day roundup of the highest automotive headlines from all over the world, in a single place.

1st Gear: BMW

BMW has rather a lot to fret about nowadays, in the event you imagine that Tesla is right here to remain, which they’re. BMW has to catch as much as them with EV gross sales, for one factor, like everybody else, however BMW additionally has to catch as much as EV makers in China like BYD, which is kicking ass. That each one implies that BMW has to shell out cash, and much more than they thought at first. It’s by no means an excellent factor when a multinational company says admits to doing one thing surprising, for the multinational company.

From Bloomberg:

The extent of purchaser curiosity in EVs means BMW is “investing greater than initially deliberate within the international ramp-up of e-mobility,” Chief Monetary Officer Walter Mertl mentioned Thursday, including that investments in batteries for the present and subsequent era of EVs are “huge.”

In the course of the second quarter, growth spending jumped by almost a fifth to €1.84 billion ($2 billion).

Battery-powered automobile gross sales made up about 13% of group deliveries throughout the first half led by demand for fashions just like the i4 sedan and iX3 SUV. Subsequent yr, the proportion of EV deliveries is ready to rise to no less than one-fifth, BMW mentioned.

[…]

Whereas demand for its luxurious vehicles stays sturdy, BMW warned Tuesday that elevated prices for components are lowering its money stream whereas additionally citing logistics points as a constraint. The corporate will incur greater prices from elevated inventories to make sure assembly buyer demand, Mertl mentioned Thursday in speech notes.

BMW is an efficient barometer for lots of issues, like when individuals say that small vehicles are lifeless and but the three Sequence nonetheless exists. BMW presently sells or quickly will promote 4 all-electric fashions within the US, the iX, i4, i5, and i7, and BMW has excessive hopes for the i5 specifically, the electrical 5 Sequence. So long as BMW is out right here making an attempt, we will all take some inspiration from that. Why purchase a dumb Tesla, in any case, when you can purchase a basic?

2nd Gear: Tesla

Reuters is taking a little bit of a victory lap right here, although they deserve it. The Canadian information service stories Thursday that Tesla is being sued by some house owners who’re mad about Tesla’s vary video games.

Three Tesla house owners in California on Wednesday sued the automaker in a proposed class motion that accuses the corporate of falsely promoting the estimated driving ranges of its electrical automobiles.

The lawsuit within the U.S. District Court docket for the Northern District of California cites a Reuters article printed final week which reported Tesla had created a “Diversion Staff” in Nevada to cancel as many range-related appointments as attainable after turning into inundated with proprietor complaints.

[…]

The directive to current the optimistic vary estimates got here from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, this individual mentioned. Reuters couldn’t decide whether or not Tesla nonetheless makes use of algorithms that enhance vary estimates.

Neither Tesla nor Musk responded to detailed questions from Reuters for final week’s article. They didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark in regards to the lawsuit on Wednesday.

The lawsuit alleges Tesla breached automobile warranties and engaged in fraud and unfair competitors.

“Put merely, Tesla has an obligation to ship a product that performs as marketed,” Adam A. Edwards, an lawyer at Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman, the agency representing Tesla house owners within the lawsuit, mentioned in a press release.

It’s laborious to say how this may go, however for an organization like Tesla that is all merely the price of doing enterprise. , transfer quick, break issues, get sued, battle it out to a stalemate, rinse, repeat.

third Gear: GM’s Cruise

GM’s Cruise, which aspires to say sooner or later that GM is Cruise’s, has reached union agreements with janitors and electrical staff in Northern California, in what Cruise is asking, “the driverless automobile trade’s first labor union agreements.”

From Reuters:

The corporate is partnering with two native San Francisco union chapters that characterize electrical staff and janitors, the Worldwide Brotherhood of Electrical Staff Native 6 and Service Workers Worldwide Union Native 87. Reuters couldn’t definitively decide if these are the driverless automobile trade’s first union agreements.

The settlement will make use of “dozens” of staff who will assemble and employees Cruise’s car-charging services, the corporate mentioned.

“Cruise is creating new job alternatives for our members and offering precious on-site expertise for our apprentices,” mentioned John Doherty, IBEW Native 6’s enterprise supervisor.

Reuters goes on to supply some dialogue about how unions are involved that driverless vehicles are taking individuals’s jobs, however that that is presumably good as a result of it reveals that Cruise is keen to play ball or one thing with unions, which makes me suppose that is all only a advertising and marketing lay-up for Cruise. Positive, give “dozens” of staff their remedy little union jobs, why not.

4th Gear: Cybertruck

Within the absence of a lot actual details about the Tesla Cybertruck, Automotive Information has gone into detective mode on its dimensions. They conclude that it is going to be shorter than an F-150 however have a barely longer mattress. Tesla has additionally says that it is going to be roomy, which I assume will come from its width.

Anyway, I discovered this fascinating:

“That is the primary truck — that we’re conscious of — that may have 4 doorways, over a six-foot mattress and match right into a 20-foot storage,” [Tesla CEO Elon Musk] mentioned. “So it’s form of biggish on the surface, but it surely’s even greater on the within.”

A normal two-car storage dimension is 20-feet deep, in response to J.D. Energy, whereas one-car garages are usually shorter, and sizes can fluctuate considerably.

Tesla mentioned in its earnings report that the Cybertruck is lower than 19 toes lengthy.

“Each technologically and architecturally, this automobile will break quite a lot of boundaries — very a lot according to how we take into consideration automobile engineering and manufacturing,” the report mentioned.

[…]

The Lightning is nineteen.4 toes lengthy with a 5.6-foot mattress, in response to Ford’s web site. Ford’s combustion pickups are available all kinds of sizes and mattress lengths.

The 2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV, in its work-truck model, is nineteen.4 toes lengthy with a 5-foot-11 inch mattress. Just like the Cybertruck and the Rivian R1T, the Silverado was additionally designed from the ground-up as an electrical automobile. The R1T is smaller at 18 toes lengthy with a 4.5-foot mattress.

If you happen to suppose that automakers, even Tesla, don’t sweat over particulars like size and mattress dimension and don’t always evaluate themselves to the competitors, then bear in mind that they very a lot do, there are entire groups, presumably even entire divisions, at Ford and GM and Ram sweating over these very questions as we communicate.

It’s fascinating to me, additionally, that Elon provides a shit about whether or not the Cybertruck matches right into a storage, as many individuals with garages — particularly in California, which would be the main marketplace for Cybertruck — merely don’t use them for automobile storage, as a result of individuals dwell in outdated homes with garages made for a time when vehicles, on the whole, had been extra rationally sized.

This learn, at any charge, feels proper:

[Sandy Munro, founder and CEO of Munro & Associates] additionally prompt that the Cybertruck, F-150 Lightning and Rivian R1T are completely different sufficient from each other to enchantment to completely different consumers. The Lightning is extra of a piece truck, the Rivian is for critical off-roading and the Cybertruck is finest for tenting and lighter out of doors actions, he mentioned.

I don’t suppose Sandy Munro means “finest for tenting and lighter out of doors actions” to be an insult however however: haha.

fifth Gear: Aurora Innovation

Aurora Innovation has been round for a good bit now, a self-driving truck startup that’s nonetheless making an attempt to begin up. Automotive Information mentioned Thursday that it has $853 million extra to assist begin up. Then again, it didn’t have any income final quarter.

The corporate added $853 million to its coffers in July, executives mentioned Wednesday throughout a second-quarter earnings name. That’s $33 million greater than they introduced two weeks in the past.

The rise arises from underwriters exercising an choice to buy extra shares inside 30 days of the preliminary providing, Aurora CEO Chris Urmson mentioned.

With the capital infusion, Aurora expects to have $1.6 billion to hold the corporate by means of its deliberate industrial launch on the finish of 2024 and into the second half of 2025, he mentioned.

In its report, the corporate mentioned it narrowed its internet loss for the second quarter to $218 million in contrast with a lack of $1.1 billion in the identical quarter final yr. It didn’t report income for the quarter vs. $21 million final yr.

Good luck, Aurora Innovation.

Reverse: Fog