Happy Friday! It’s August 30, 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: Elon Musk’s ‘Master Plan’ For Climate Change Disappears From Tesla’s Website
Elon Musk loves a master plan, but it seems the first of all those plots has disappeared. A 2006 blog post laying out Tesla’s plans to shift the economy away from fossil fuels has ever so quietly disappeared, as noted by Forbes:
Elon Musk’s 18-year-old manifesto in which the tech entrepreneur laid out his vision for the electric car maker shortly after its first public event has vanished from the company’s blog page, along with all posts by Musk and Tesla executives before 2019.
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This month, Musk appeared to break with his earlier views on the risks of relying on carbon-spewing oil and gas, in his interview with climate-skeptic Donald Trump, who he’s endorsed for president.
“My views on climate change and oil gas … are pretty moderate,” Musk said during their discussion. “I don’t think we should vilify the oil and gas industry and the people that have worked very hard in those industries to provide the necessary energy to support the economy.”
It’s a far cry from his positions from Tesla’s early days: “The overarching purpose of Tesla Motors (and the reason I am funding the company) is to help expedite the move from a mine-and-burn hydrocarbon economy towards a solar electric economy, which I believe to be the primary, but not exclusive, sustainable solution,” Musk wrote in the 2006 blog. In it, he also promised that each successive Tesla model would be cheaper than one that preceded it, with a goal of making EVs widely affordable.
It’s tough to say whether Musk never cared about the climate, only using it as convenient posturing to earn some profit, or whether his views have just shifted so much in the years since he lost his damn mind because trans people exist. Coin flip, really.
2nd Gear: GM Has To Go To Court For Bad Transmissions
GM’s had some issues with transmissions recently, and owners have wanted to take the company to court in a class action lawsuit to get some recompense. The company argued against it, but the courts have decided: GM has to face the full class action. From Reuters:
General Motors was ordered by a federal appeals court to face a class action claiming it violated laws of 26 U.S. states by knowingly selling several hundred thousand cars, trucks and SUVs with faulty transmissions.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a lower court judge had discretion to let drivers sue in groups over Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC vehicles equipped with 8L45 or 8L90 eight-speed automatic transmissions, and sold in the 2015 through 2019 model years.
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The GM litigation covers about 800,000 vehicles, including 514,000 in the certified classes.
Vehicles include the Cadillac CTS, CT6 and Escalade; Chevrolet Camaro, Colorado, Corvette and Silverado; and GMC Canyon, Sierra and Yukon, among others.
Class actions can make it easier to actually get money out of a company that’s wronged you, but they also often just enrich the attorneys most of all. If your transmission was faulty, I hope it’s made up to you properly — not just $35 shares per person, while the rest goes to a lawyer
3rd Gear: Polestar Isn’t Looking So Hot
Polestar is in a bit of an interesting place. The company is meant to be an all-EV complement to Volvo, but Volvo itself is planning an all-EV lineup. Plus, EV sales are lagging while buyers wait for infrastructure to catch up — making it a very, very weird time to be Polestar. From Automotive News:
Polestar posted another heavy quarterly loss as the electric-vehicle maker struggles with intensifying competition, high costs and a demand slowdown.
The automaker reported a $242.3 million operating loss for the second quarter, although this was slightly narrower than the corresponding three-month period last year.
Revenue dropped 17 percent to $574.9 million due to “lower global volumes and higher discounts,” Polestar said Aug. 29.
The future for Polestar isn’t really clear, which is kind of a shame. The company clearly only has one hope left: Reintroduce Swedish Racing Green, and paint all its cars in that gorgeous blue.
4th Gear: GM’s Electric Van Side Gig Is Part Of Chevy Now
Remember when GM spun up a whole new company to make electric delivery vans for FedEx? Well, that whole new company is part of Chevy now, and those vans will be available from Chevy dealerships. From Automotive News:
General Motors’ electric commercial van brand, BrightDrop, will become part of Chevrolet as the automaker aims to capitalize on a larger dealership network and land new fleet customers.
The reorganization will make BrightDrop, which GM launched as a subsidiary in 2021, a nameplate within the company’s highest-volume brand. Its vehicles — the Zevo 400 and 600, which are numbered by their approximate cargo space — will be rebranded as the Chevrolet BrightDrop 400 and 600 starting with the 2025 model year, the automaker said Aug. 29. Both vehicles will continue to be built at GM’s CAMI assembly plant in Ingersoll, Ontario.
Now that these vans will be available through local dealerships, how long will it take for someone to VanLife one? I want to see a BrightDrop with a lift kid, mud tires, and bash bars, that will never ever leave Williamsburg.
