Good morning! It’s Wednesday, July 17, 2024, and this is The Morning Shift, your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. Here are the important stories you need to know.
1st Gear: Cybertruck Is Outselling Ford’s Best Effort
It might be slashing owners’ limbs, bricking in water and failing at basic truck tasks, but that isn’t stopping the Cybertruck’s meteoric rise. After being named the best-selling vehicle over $100,000 just last week, the electric behemoth has now been crowned best selling electric truck in America.
Tesla’s new flagship electric truck, which finally began hitting the highway at the end of 2023, sold more units than Ford’s F-150 last month, making it America’s best-selling electric truck, reports Automotive News:
The Cybertruck, starting at just over $100,000 with shipping, had 3,907 registrations in May, S&P Global Mobility said. The pickup launched Nov. 30 with the current limited-run Foundation Series versions.
“It’s surprising because the Cybertruck is such a unique, one-of-a-kind, unusual vehicle, really as far out of the mainstream as you can get,” said Tom Libby, associate director of industry analysis at S&P Global Mobility. “On the other hand, it doesn’t surprise me because Elon Musk thrives on doing things like this.”
Ford’s electric pickup, which launched in the spring of 2022, had 2,353 registrations in May, S&P Global Mobility said. The Rivian R1T pickup, which launched in late 2021, was in third place, with 1,237 registrations, the data showed.
Those statistics are all calculated based on new car registrations here in the U.S. as Tesla doesn’t disclose separate sales for America versus the rest of the world. Confusingly, the automaker also doesn’t separate sales out for its lineup, which now includes the Tesla Model S, Model X, Model Y, Model 3 and Cybertruck.
According to its latest filing, which covers the three-month period to the end of June 2024, Tesla sold 422,405 Model 3 and Y electric cars around the world. Its “other models” accounted for 21,551 deliveries over the period.
2nd Gear: GM Bosses Backtrack On Million EV Goal
One company that’s unlikely to challenge Tesla’s reign at the top of the EV sales tree anytime soon is General Motors, which has seen enthusiasm for electric cars wane in recent months. After announcing plans to invest in new hybrid powertrains, the automaker has gone on to push back new electric models, and now its big boss is backtracking on the company’s goal to produce a million EVs.
GM had targeted producing a million EVs by the end of 2025, but as production forecasts change and sales grow at a slower rate than expected, company boss Mary Barra has refused to reaffirm her commitment to the target, reports Bloomberg:
Barra told CNBC at an event Monday that GM won’t have production capacity in place to build one million EVs at the end of next year, which was the previous target. The CEO said customer demand will dictate how fast the company can get to the one million mark for annual sales of EVs, and that currently it’s seeing a slowdown in deliveries of them.
Those comments echoed remarks Barra made in December when she said that meeting a target for an all-electric fleet by 2035 will depend on consumer acceptance.
Slowing growth could be painful for GM, which just recently overcame EV battery production problems and has already delayed the opening of an electric pickup truck plant in suburban Detroit. The carmaker is in the process of ramping up production of its electric Chevrolet Blazer mid-sized SUV and smaller Equinox model, which the company hopes will boost sales.
Even if the lofty target were still in place, GM would be falling behind its goal. Sales for the last quarter were pretty flat compared with the same period a year ago and it’s for this reason that Barra believes the company will fall short.
While the automaker is still working to have production capacity for a million EVs, the market isn’t there yet for GM to reach that goal. In fact, Barra told CNBC that GM won’t reach a million EV sales just yet “because the market’s not developing.”
3rd Gear: Remaining Fisker Ocean Stock Sold Off
Another automaker that’s struggling to sell electric cars these days is Fisker, which filed for bankruptcy last month and is in the process of wrapping things up. Now, it sounds as if a fire sale of its remaining stock of electric Ocean SUVs has been approved by U.S. judges.
According to a report from Autoevolution, Fisker has been granted approval to sell its remaining stock of more than 3,000 Ocean SUVs at a fraction of their initial retail price. The stock of Oceans will be snapped up American Lease, which makes its money leasing cars to Uber drivers in New York:
The Delaware court cleared the transaction between Fisker and American Lease. The latter is one of New York City’s largest auto rental companies and gets to buy all the remaining Oceans, which should be around 3,300 EVs. It paid approximately $14,000 per vehicle. But that’s not all it has gotten for spending over $40 million.
Around 1,000 units can still be found in some dealer lots. Middlemen tried to help Fisker and hoped to make a profit, but the now-bankrupt company ruined their plans when it announced that it would offer remaining employees the chance to buy a fully loaded Ocean for just $20,000 – over three times less than what early supporters paid for the limited-edition One.
American Lease assured owners via a post on Reddit that it would help them with access to parts and technical and mechanical support, even though its business model isn’t about dealing with retail customers. Still, American Lease is confident that it will be able to deal with the NHTSA recalls and ship the promised over-the-air software updates.
The sale marks a massive discount on the remaining stock of Oceans, which sold for north of $60,000 when they first launched in the U.S. For anyone that did buy an Ocean and is wondering what the future holds, the deal with American Lease does give the company full access to Fisker’s software, which means it should be able to offer support to owners in the future.
The leasing company also took to Reddit to announce that it intends to offer support to existing Ocean owners going forward. In a post on the platform, American Lease said it plans to create a “universally beneficial pipeline of parts as well as technical and mechanical support,” for anyone currently in possession of a Fisker EV.
4th Gear: Elon Musk To Move SpaceX Out Of California
If there’s one thing Elon Musk loves more than Donald Trump’s election campaign right now, it’s the state of Texas. After opening a massive Tesla factory in the state in 2022, Musk has since pledged to move the automaker’s state of registration into Texas after a Delaware court struck down his enormous pay package. Now, Musk is looking to move all his other businesses to Texas as well.
Musk took to Twitter X this week to announce his plans to relocate SpaceX and X to the state of Texas, reports Reuters. The announcement came after the state of California tabled a law that “forbids school districts from requiring teachers to notify parents when a child changes gender identity or sexual orientation,” Reuters explains:
“Because of this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies,” Musk, who has a transgender daughter, said in explaining the decision on X – formerly Twitter – which he bought in 2022.
The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla in recent years has become outspoken on politics and often criticizes the Biden administration and Democrats’ positions on issues including transgender rights and immigration.
Musk said SpaceX’s main office would move to an existing facility in Boca Chica, Texas, while X would move to Austin. But the extent to which jobs or facilities in California will transfer to Texas was unclear.
Currently, SpaceX has its main office in Los Angeles, while it launches its rockets from a dedicated base in Texas. X, on the other hand, has its head office in San Francisco where it’s part of the silicon valley bubble.