Good morning! It’s Wednesday, November 20, 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: 19,000 People Killed On U.S. Roads In First Half Of 2024
America lives on the road. Cities are designed around cars and if you’ve not got a license you’ve not got a life. The country’s relationship with the road is a deadly one, though, and almost 19,000 people have died on America’s roads already this year. Now, lawmakers are pushing for change to try and cut the number of deaths on the country’s roads.
Lawmakers are calling on road safety bodies and automakers to work on new legislation that could cut road deaths after it was revealed that 18,720 people died in motor-vehicle traffic crashes during the first six months of 2024, reports Automotive News:
“Unlike most developed nations, U.S. roadways have grown more deadly over the last several decades,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said at a board meeting on its probe into a 2023 vehicle crash that killed six people. “By raw numbers, the U.S. has more motor-vehicle deaths than any other developed country. We also have the highest death rate.”
The January 2023 crash happened in Louisville, N.Y., between a bus transporting workers and a box truck. Homendy said there was insufficient federal oversight from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, adding, “FMCSA’s inadequate oversight played an outsized role.”
“We are in the midst of a growing public health crisis on our roads,” Homendy said.
U.S. traffic deaths jumped 10.5 percent in 2021 to 42,915, reports Reuters, making 2021 the most deadly year for America’s roads since 2005. While the number of deaths per year has been slowly dropping since then, fatalities on the road remain much higher than pre-pandemic levels.
Senators are now pushing for more to be done to safeguard drivers, passengers and pedestrians to significantly cut the number of deaths on American roads, adds Reuters. Senators Ed Markey, Richard Blumenthal, Dick Durbin, Jack Reed, Ron Wyden and others have written to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration demanding updates on its new safety regulations:
NHTSA this year finalized rules to require automatic emergency braking in cars and light trucks by 2029 and proposed new seatback safety standards to prevent rear passengers from being killed by collapsing front seats. It also proposed rules to address risks of pedestrians hit by vehicle hoods.
“Although this progress is encouraging, NHTSA has more work to do,” the senators wrote. “The agency must still finalize some of its proposed rules and has not yet issued rules for many provisions — rules that are already overdue or nearing their statutory deadline.”
NHTSA is required to propose new measures that would cut alcohol impaired driving and clamp down on distracted driving, as well as other measures that would encourage drivers to check the rear seats when they shut their car off to try and cut the number of children forgotten in cars.
Pedestrian safety laws have also been floated, but America’s obsession with gargantuan pickup trucks mean that steps to safeguard pedestrians and cyclists face a three ton hurdle that’s not going anywhere.
2nd Gear: Trump Is Coming For Biden’s Emission Rules
Convicted felon Donald Trump has quite the task on his hands when he takes office in the new year. While on the campaign trail, the president elect promised that a second term in office would bring with it sky-high tariffs on imports from Mexico, the end of an EV mandate that doesn’t actually exist and strict controls around explosive hydrogen-powered cars.
While working on all that, Trump also wants to scrap strict emission regulations brought in by the Biden administration, reports Bloomberg. Once he takes office on January 20, 2025, Trump and his team plan to slash fuel-efficiency requirements that were brought in by Joe Biden for new cars and light trucks sold across America:
Trump advisers plan to reexamine fuel economy requirements that were finalized in June, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. They’re also targeting related standards imposed by the US Environmental Protection Agency that limit tailpipe emissions of carbon dioxide and smog-forming compounds, they said.
The plan takes aim at a signature collection of President Joe Biden’s policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions and push the auto industry toward electrification. Although the policies don’t explicitly order electric vehicles, critics argue the rules are so strict that they act as a de facto requirement to sell EVs in large numbers, especially in later years.
Trump repeatedly vowed during his campaign to “obliterate” those Biden policies. Trump’s transition team didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Under the current regulations, the EPA sets yearly limits on pollutants released by cars and light trucks in order to encourage automakers to make their cars more efficient and require less fuel. As it stands now, the rules would require 2032 model year cars and trucks to release just half the CO2 emissions of 2027 model years.
All of this is very un-American, according to Trump, who has repeatedly threatened to cut support for electric vehicles and slash emission rules across America. The “Home Alone 2” actor is also, once again, threatening to pull America out of the Paris Climate Accords that Biden just got us back into after Trump last pulled out. What a great use of everyone’s time and effort that would be.
3rd Gear: GM Recalls 80,000 Cars With Transmission Issues
Another week, another massive recall that’s sweeping America’s cars. This time, it’s General Motors that’s issued a fix for its cars after almost 80,000 2022 and 2023 models were found to have transmission issues.
GM has announced a recall of 77,824 Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana vehicles across the 2022 and 2023 model years, reports the Detroit Free Press. The recall was called for after issues were found with the transmission that could cause the vehicle to move in an unintended direction:
General Motors will recall 77,824 vehicles as incorrect software in the transmission control module could cause the vehicle to move in an unintended direction, increasing the risk of a crash, the U.S. auto safety regulator said on Thursday.
The recall involves certain 2022-2023 Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana vehicles, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said.
Incorrect software in the transmission control module may result in reduced power, unintended deceleration, rear-wheel lockup, or cause the vehicle to move in an unintended direction, the regulator said.
To rectify the software issue, GM dealers will update the transmission control module software calibration, free of charge. Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed December 23, 2024.
If you are worried that your car might be affected by a recall, there are a few easy ways to check if it’s the case. First up, NHTSA has a super handy app that you can use to see if your vehicle is impacted by a recall, or you can head to the regulator’s website and plug your VIN into its recall search tool.
4th Gear: Volkswagen Spends More On Worker Wages
German automaker Volkswagen is in trouble. The company has threatened to shut factories in an effort to cut costs, is facing tough competition in the U.S. and Europe and has even been warned that it only has a handful of years in which to turn around its fortunes. Now, as the automaker prepares for talks with unions over its future, a report from Reuters has found that it’s spending way more money on its workers than other automakers.
The report uncovered data that showcased one of the biggest challenges VW faces compared to its rivals: the enormous share of revenue that is spent on labor. As Reuters reports:
Management will start the next round of negotiations with unions representing roughly 120,000 German workers on Thursday. Unions are demanding a 7% pay rise, while Volkswagen is threatening a 10% cut.
The proportion of revenue spent on labor at Volkswagen globally has fallen from 18.2% in 2020 to 15.4% in 2023 – but that ratio still exceeds BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Stellantis, which spent between 9.5% and 11% in 2023, according to the works council memo.
At VW AG, the German subsidiary that governs the six plants in question, the ratio was estimated at 15.8-17.5%. Volkswagen says it does not release separate figures for VW AG.
The high spend on labor at VW doesn’t mean that its employees are the best paid workers in the business. Instead, it relates to the higher amount of labor that it takes to build a VW car, as the automaker designs and assembles many components, and software, in-house.
It’s for this reason that VW is looking at ways to cut costs across its factories. In an attempt to move some of this development and cost out of VW’s hands, the automaker has signed deals with companies like Rivian to develop new software for future models.
