Good morning! It’s August 4, 2023, and that is The Morning Shift, your every day roundup of the highest automotive headlines from around the globe, in a single place.

1st Gear: The UAW

The UAW represents round 146,000 employees on the Huge Three, and their contracts with GM, Ford, and Stellantis all expire on September 14, or somewhat over a month from now. The UAW’s president, Shawn Fain, has been making a variety of noise about this for months now, hopefully as a result of he believes that that’s the easiest way to get a superb deal for his members. There was even a painfully midwestern kerfuffle over a handshake.

Nonetheless, that is par for the course, actually, and none of it means a lot till the eleventh hour of negotiations, when the rubber hits the street and final, finest, and ultimate gives are submitted after which strikes occur or they don’t.

Anyway, final night time, a number of information organizations reported that the UAW has unveiled some specifics of its calls for. The highest line quantity is that they need a 40 p.c rise in pay over the lifetime of a four-year deal. The UAW additionally desires a four-day work week, as a substitute of 5.

In the event you suppose 40 p.c over 4 years is quite a bit, contemplate how a lot UAW employees are paid, in line with The Wall Avenue Journal:

At the moment, unionized manufacturing unit employees on the Detroit automotive firms begin at about $18 an hour. The highest wage, achieved over a interval of years, is about $32 an hour.

The 40% pay hike could be a basic enhance over the lifetime of the subsequent four-year contract. It will be damaged up right into a 20% enhance upon the contract’s ratification, and 4 further 5% wage will increase given every year, in line with an individual accustomed to the matter.

A UAW spokesperson mentioned that in the course of the present contract, the typical CEO wage on the Detroit automotive firms has elevated 40%. “We consider UAW members deserve the identical if no more.”

Through Automotive Information, GM already sounds mad:

GM, in an announcement Thursday, indicated it didn’t like what the union was proposing.

“The breadth and scope of the Presidential Calls for, at face worth, would threaten our capacity to do what’s proper for the long-term advantage of the staff,” the corporate mentioned. “A good settlement rewards our workers and likewise allows GM to take care of our momentum now and into the longer term.”

Fain on Thursday additionally advised Automotive Information the union would search “a 32-hour workweek with 40 hours’ price of pay,” elaborating on feedback he made earlier within the week.

He mentioned the truncated workweek might spur the Detroit 3 to rent extra union employees.

“I believe it would create extra jobs, extra alternatives for individuals to get their share within the economic system,” he mentioned.

Finally, this gained’t come right down to what management on the Huge Three or the UAW need however what the UAW’s membership desires, and what they’re prepared to do to get it, together with stroll off the job. You’ll be able to anticipate extra bluster within the meantime, although.

2nd Gear: BMW

Right here’s a photograph of a BMW idea, the i Imaginative and prescient Dee, launched in January:

The automotive appears to be like… good? However it’s only a idea, certainly nothing like this is able to ever attain manufacturing. And but in September, BMW will come out with one thing else on this vein, the Imaginative and prescient Neue Klasse, one other idea that can in all probability additionally look future-y as properly, besides BMW is now saying that the Imaginative and prescient Neue Klasse can be fairly near manufacturing. Or no less than the manufacturing model of that automotive is shut.

From Automotive Information:

The manufacturing model can be on roads quickly, [BMW CEO Oliver Zipse] added throughout an earnings name on Thursday.

Zipse described the Neue Klasse battery-electric platform as a “megaproject” inside BMW. “It’s about nothing lower than the way forward for the BMW model, the BMW Group and our portfolio,” he mentioned.

Zipse didn’t give additional particulars on which mannequin the idea will preview. The idea can be revealed on Sept. 2 forward of the IAA Mobility present in Munich that begins Sept. 4.

The automotive would be the third Imaginative and prescient idea BMW is creating to spotlight its future applied sciences. It follows the sustainability-focused i Imaginative and prescient Round proven on the 2021 Munich present and the digital-focused i Imaginative and prescient Dee proven on the CES in Las Vegas in January.

It’s straightforward to make an idea, and tougher to make a manufacturing automotive, and even tougher to make manufacturing automobiles at scale, although BMW has been constructing and constructing right here. This can be much more thrilling when BMW proclaims that the cool new automotive it’s constructing is for each market besides America.

third Gear: Lucid

Lucid goes to report its earnings on Monday for the second quarter of 2023, and they’re more likely to be fairly dangerous, as a result of Lucid has been on Battle Avenue for months now in combatting a mix of falling demand for its Air and hassle assembly present demand for the Air. It appears to be like like a downward spiral from the skin, however from the within, Lucid nonetheless thinks it has an ace up its sleeve.

From Automotive Information:

CEO Peter Rawlinson mentioned in mid-June that the automaker is in a novel monetary place due to persevering with help by its majority shareholder, the Public Funding Fund of Saudi Arabia.

“A key differentiator for us as a enterprise is that we have now this sturdy strategic partnership and alignment with the Public Funding Fund of Saudi Arabia,” Rawlinson mentioned throughout a reside occasion with The Wall Avenue Journal. He referenced a latest $3 billion inventory providing that was largely bought by the Saudi fund.

[…]

One query submitted by traders for consideration on Monday’s earnings name asks whether or not supply numbers will enhance within the third quarter. One other asks when Lucid will begin constructing its second mannequin, the Gravity crossover, which is scheduled for 2024.

Lucid executives have been additionally requested to touch upon collaborations with different EV makers.

Even when Lucid has a bit extra runway due to the Public Funding Fund of Saudi Arabia, the elemental numbers — 1,404 automobiles delivered within the second quarter this 12 months — are troubling. Maybe worse, Lucid doesn’t appear to have a lot *buzz* round it, regardless of having an honest product. Few individuals are getting Lucids, and few individuals are speaking about them, too.

4th Gear: Fisker

Fisker mentioned Friday that it solely thinks it would make as much as 23,000 automobiles this 12 months, down considerably from the 36,000 automobiles it beforehand mentioned it would make in 2023, most of which it’s blaming on provide chain points.

Reuters stories that there could even be some mild on the finish of this tunnel, nonetheless:

The California-based firm mentioned it misplaced $87.9 million in the course of the second quarter, barely lower than the $88.6 million it misplaced throughout the identical quarter final 12 months.

Fisker, nonetheless, recorded its first quarterly income from gross sales — $825,000 — because the EV maker kicked off deliveries in Europe and the U.S.

Fisker made 1,022 models of its Ocean compact crossovers within the second quarter — lacking its goal of 1,400 to 1,700 models on account of a scarcity of elements.

Analysts anticipate the corporate to report an working revenue within the fourth quarter of the 12 months, in line with Refinitiv.

Fisker had really beforehand mentioned it would make as much as 42,400 automobiles in 2023, so, directionally, this isn’t nice, however everybody begins someplace.

fifth Gear: Nikola

Nikola, the troubled EV truck startup, reported Friday that it misplaced much less cash within the second quarter than it did in the identical time interval final 12 months, however nonetheless many thousands and thousands. Maybe extra importantly for traders, Nikola additionally disclosed that its CEO, a man named Michael Lohscheller, can be stepping down on the finish of August, to get replaced by a man named Stephen Girsky, who was on the board of an automaker referred to as Normal Motors.

Reuters says that shares in Nikola fell premarket, whereas apparently the startup’s founder, who was discovered responsible final 12 months of fraud, nonetheless has opinions on the corporate.

Nikola has been scuffling with dwindling money reserves because it burns via money to ramp up manufacturing of its vehicles.

Its traders on Thursday, nonetheless, permitted a proposal that enables the truckmaker to subject extra shares to boost funds.

“The corporate doesn’t want new shares, they want new management,” founder, Trevor Milton, mentioned in a LinkedIn put up in June.

Milton stepped down as CEO of the corporate in 2020 after a brief vendor Hindenburg issued a scathing report that labeled Nikola a “fraud.”

I’m certain this may all finish properly.

Reverse: Talladega