Tesla shares are down 40% from last year, wiping out $312 billion in market capitalization

Good morning! Today is Friday, April 19, 2024 and here it is 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.

First gear: Tesla’s stock is in free fall

It was truly a bleak year for Tesla stock price and market capitalization. So far, this stock is only down about 40%, which is a loss of $98.49 per share. Those numbers also represents more than $312 billion in market capitalization completely erased.

The The stock is at $148.90 And Tesla’s market capitalization is at $477.5 billion. That’s the lowest the stock price has been in just about 15 months, and now Deutsche Bank is ringing the following warning bells Automobile manufacturer headquartered in Austin, Texasincreasing focus on some kind of Robotaxi. The brokerage downgraded the stock to “Hold” and cut its price target from $189 to just $123. From Reuters:

The broker’s comments follow a Reuters report earlier this month that Tesla had decided to cancel its long-promised low-cost vehicle line that investors hoped would spur growth, while continuing developing Robotaxis on the same vehicle platform.

Tesla has been pushing for greater adoption of its complete advanced driver assistance software ahead of the launch of Robotaxi in August.

The brokerage said cracking the code on full driverless autonomy is a significant technological, regulatory and operational challenge.

“Delays in the Model 2 development effort create the risk of no new models in Tesla’s consumer product lineup in the near future, which would put pressure on Tesla,” said Deutsche Bank analyst Emmanuel Rosner. downward pressure on its quantity and price for many years to come.”

As profits were hit by price cuts to boost demand for its electric vehicles, Tesla earlier this week laid off more than 10% of its global workforce even as it continued to try to restore the deal. Huge salary agreement for Musk from 2018.

The company asked shareholders to reaffirm their approval of Musk’s $56 billion salary that was set for 2018, but was rejected by a Delaware judge in January.

I guess there is a glimmer of hope in all of this. Tesla is still the the world’s most valuable automaker by market capitalizationsurpass the likes of Toyota, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz and BYD. Generally the 16th most valuable company in the world, but I don’t expect that to be true anymore.

Please note that all these numbers are as of 9:50 a.m. EST.

Box 2: Nissan is not optimistic about this year

Nissan is cutting its full-year earnings outlook because of the slow pace business in China and overall sales were sluggish. From Automotive news:

Chief Executive Makoto Uchida, who recently unveiled a new mid-term plan focused on boosting profits, said falling volumes and “cost reductions” for suppliers had weakened the economic trajectory. Nissan business.

“Are we too optimistic?” Uchida said in a quick press conference to explain the Japanese automaker’s latest sales decline. “Yes, it is true that we did not achieve what we expected.”

In Nissan’s new three-year plan mid-term plancalled The Arc and launched late last month, product planners realized that some of the company’s sales targets were a little too rosy.

So that doesn’t just mean sales are down compared to previous expectations. It also makes sense Nissan will pay the suppliers for the build Their own business plans are based on forecasts of larger volumes. I suppose it’s an incredibly nice thing for Nissan to do, but damn, that would cost a pretty penny.

“We created a sales plan for each model and discovered some models had difficulty achieving expected sales,” Uchida said of the company’s profit warning.

“Suppliers made investments based on assumptions we made and the volume decline was our fault. So, to ease the burden on suppliers, we are making additional bookings.”

cut Uchida by Nissan expects global sales of 3.44 million vehicles in the fiscal year that ended March 31, down from the automaker’s previous target of 3.55 million vehicles.

The new target represents a moderate 4.1% increase over the 3.31 million vehicles Nissan sold in the previous fiscal year ending March 31, 2023.

The adjustment marks Nissan’s second sales decline of the fiscal year. Nissan previously expected worldwide sales to reach 3.7 million vehicles, before cutting it to 3.55 million.

Nissan also expects operating profit of $3.43 billion for the fiscal year. That sounds healthy but is actually down from the previous forecast of about $4.01 billion. However, it is still the same 40.5 percent jumped dramatically in the last fiscal year. Making shareholders happy is very difficult.

3rd gear: GM tests hydrogen to replace diesel engines

This year, General Motors is planning to its first offering medium truck provided by hydrogen fuel cell to a utility company in Georgia as part of a federally funded demonstration project. From Automotive news:

Southern Gas and Electric Company’s pilot vehicle will combine the body and frame of the 2024 Chevrolet Silverado 5500 medium-duty truck and GM’s Hydrotec fuel cell system. The truck will have a GM-estimated range of more than 300 miles and a gross vehicle weight of 19,500 pounds.

GM said the medium-duty truck will be capable of generating more than 300 kilowatts of electricity, which can be used as an external power source on job sites or for electric vehicles when traditional charging systems are not available.

“To put it into perspective, 300 kilowatts is enough energy to power 250 homes in the United States,” said Jacob Lozier, a GM program engineering manager working on the SuperTruck 3 program. SAE The World Congress is here on Wednesday. A freight truck will also be deployed later this year with an undisclosed corporate partner, he said.

The project lasts 5 years, funded through 65 million USD from the US Department of Energy SuperTruck 3 program, will deploy hydrogen technology in work vehicles and explore the creation of a microgrid that can support hydrogen fueling and storage. GM will partner with Southern Co. to deploy hydrogen trucks and with Southern Co. and Nel Hydrogen US on the microgrid project.

GM said it sees hydrogen fuel cells as a viable replacement for diesel engines, especially in heavy commercial vehicles that need to carry large payloads and refuel quickly. The company is cooperating with Automotive industry putting hydrogen fuel cells in vehicles like concrete mixers and roll-on trucks starting in 2026, as well as with a Japanese heavy equipment manufacturer Komatsu on a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle prototype. GM and Nel are also working promote industrial production of Nel’s proton exchange membrane electrolyzer, which uses water and electricity to produce hydrogen and oxygen.

This is not The General’s only hydrogen project. Back in January this year, it Cooperating with Honda to produce hydrogen fuel cells system at a joint venture plant near Detroit.

On the surface, hydrogen seems like a smart and good idea, but it’s possible these projects will ultimately succeed.

*Narrator: “They weren’t.”*

Gear 4: UAW sets election date for Alabama MB plants

Mercedes-Benz workers in Alabama will get to vote on whether they join the United Auto Workers union. Both automaker and the UAW is stipulated in an election agreement and it is now set to take place from May 13 to 17 at Mercedes-Benz plants in Vance and Woodstock, Alabama. Exciting times for organized labor, baby. From Detroit Free Press:

The agreement, which means there will be no pre-election hearing, allows all full-time and part-time regular production and maintenance employees at the two plants to vote. According to the email, it does not include all workers employed by contractors and/or temporary agencies, student workers, professional employees, security guards, managers and supervisors.

The vote comes after the vast majority of Mercedes-Benz employees at the plants filed a petition earlier this month with the District 10 Board of Directors office in Atlanta seeking to represent about 5,200 public employees. production staff.

The election will take place less than a month after the closely watched UAW election took place at Volkswagen in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Workers at VW on Thursday showed up for the second day of voting there. A union victory in that contest would mark the UAW’s largest organizing victory in decades, taking place in the U.S. South.

Previous campaigns have faced fierce opposition from politicians in the region, which was demonstrated again this week with a proclamation signed by the governors of Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi. , South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

The statement warned that auto companies may rethink their investments in those states if workers choose the UAW.

“We want to maintain good-paying jobs and continue to grow American auto manufacturing here. A successful unionization effort would halt this growth, to the detriment of American workers,” the statement said.

It’s not just for money reasons. Many workers also voiced their support UAW campaign because of safety concerns on the production line.

The UAW accused Mercedes-Benz of aggressive behavior anti-union campaignsomething the automaker has denied.

United forever, my dear.

On the contrary: USA BABY, WE ARE NUMBER ONE