Elon Musk claims that the up-to-date Tesla Model Y hides range behind a paywall

Go Back

Good morning! It’s Monday, May 6, 2024 and this is it Morning change, a daily roundup of the biggest automotive headlines from around the world in one place. Here are the significant stories you need to know.

1st gear: Musk: unlocking additional range will cost

Tesla CEO Elon Musk Posted on his social networking site X That Standard rear-wheel drive, Y model the car manufacturer currently offered offer much more range than the 260 miles they were sold with…if you’re willing to pay for it. Musk wrote that in the course of “regulatory approval” buyers could access another 40-60 miles of range (depending on the battery they have) for “$1,500 to $2,000.” WITH Edge: :

Tesla replaced the standard Model Y with a 320-mile-range version for $2,000 more. The car now starts at $44,990, or about $37,490 if you qualify for the $7,500 federal electric vehicle tax credit.

This isn’t the first time Tesla has programmatically blocked the range of its cars. In 2016, the company revealed that the 70 kWh battery in the Model S 70 it actually had 75 kWh capacity that customers could pay over $3,000 to access. It’s possible that the current Model S and X models, which weigh the same as their longer-range counterparts, also have software limitations.

Generally speaking, there is a trend in the automotive industry to control access to existing car features through pay-to-remove software locks. Polestar began selling a $1,200 over-the-air upgrade to boost the performance of the Polestar 2 in 2022. Mercedes-Benz charged the same amount, but every year, for power and torque improvements to the EQE and EQS. BMW once offered a paid CarPlay service with software locking, and later heated seats (later the company he abandoned this plan). And of course, Tesla has proven that it is willing to remotely disable paid features when one of its cars is resold.

It’s a CEO post, complete with a shitty meme.

I don’t know, man. I really don’t love it car manufacturers weaken their cars from the factory so you can pay them a little more money to get the features. I know that’s the way of the world, but damn. I do not like it.

Second run: Q1 Lucida looks terrible

Crystal clear struggles with constant anxiety cash burn problem and the fact that the electric vehicle market as a whole is calming down ahead of the first quarter earnings release. Californian manufacturer of electric vehicles is expected to update investors on its launch plans Gravity crossovera second line of vehicles to aid the startup develop.

Back in February Crystal clear recorded a fourth-quarter net loss of $654 million. This is not good. This is also very bad if you look at 2023 as a whole. Lucid informed a net loss of $2.8 billion, almost double the 2022 net loss of $1.3 billion. I know I do virtually unlimited money from Saudi Arabia, but damn. WITH Automotive news: :

In the first quarter, Lucid reported production of 1,728 Air aircraft and delivery from 1967. While sales represent a 40 percent augment over the first quarter of 2023, Lucid’s production remains within the forecast of 9,000 vehicles for calendar year 2024. Lucid also increased sales incentives in the first quarter through rebates, leasing agreements and special offers financing.

The company’s share price has fallen sharply this year as investors take note of the battery-electric vehicle cooling market and growing consumer interest in gas-electric hybrids.

[…]

Questions for investors’ consideration following Lucid’s first-quarter earnings release include when the electric vehicle maker might reach profitability and whether a mass-market vehicle is in the works. “Are there plans for an affordable electric vehicle from Lucid?” asks one question submitted this week. “If so, what is the action plan?”

Prices for the gigantic Air sedan start at $71,400 shipped, and Lucid said the three-row Gravity version will cost about $80,000 before shipping. The company says it is working on cheaper, luxury vehicles.

Some of the other questions asked during the earnings call cover everything from Lucid’s hybrid vehicle production to turning Gravitation to the pickup truck. Being in Lucid headquarters in Northern CaliforniaI don’t think any of these things happened.

3rd heat: Vice President Harris will announce $100 million for the transition to electric vehicles

Biden administration is giving away $100 million tiny and medium-sized suppliers and manufacturers of car parts modernize its facilities and train employees transition to electric vehicles. Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to announce it today in Detroit. WITH Detroit news: :

These funds are the latest in a string of recent investments and initiatives aimed at encouraging the switch to electric vehicles.

This transformation has become a key political issue in Michigan, the longtime heart of the U.S. auto industry and a key swing state in the 2024 presidential election. Knowing this, the Biden administration has recently issued several similar statements to Michigan and is, along with Harris, sending announcements to Michigan leading deputies.

Of the up-to-date funding, $50 million will go to the Department of Energy’s Motor Vehicle Conversion Grant Program to aid tiny and medium-sized suppliers transition from producing parts for internal combustion engine vehicles to producing parts for the electric vehicle supply chain.

The goal of the program, according to the White House, is to “keep good, well-paying and union jobs in the same communities where automakers and auto suppliers are transitioning to producing electric vehicles here in America.”

The Department of Energy’s Industrial Assessment Center Implementation Grant program will receive the remaining $50 million to aid auto suppliers “improve the energy and material efficiency, cybersecurity or productivity of their facilities or reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” the White House said.

This much of the change comes from Act on reducing inflation and Bipartisan infrastructure law.

Harris is also expected to announce up-to-date efforts by the Diminutive Business Administration to facilitate private investment in the electric vehicle supply chain and expand lines of credit available to tiny businesses through the SBA program.

“These actions build on the Biden-Harris Administration’s continued commitment to ensuring that the workers and businesses that built the auto industry remain pillars of our communities for generations to come,” the White House said.

The vice president will be joined by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Department of Energy Secretary and former Gov. Jennifer Granholm, acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su and Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Steven Horsford of Nevada.

Democratic United States Representative Shri Thanedar of Detroit and Michigan Governor Garlin Gilchrist II will also participate in the meeting.

Electric vehicles will play an significant role in the upcoming presidential elections. President Biden AND former President Trump expressed shockingly different opinions about what the transition to electric vehicles means for workers and the United States as a whole.

Lest we forget, electric vehicles are waking up.

4th gear: UAW ratifies Daimler truck labor agreement

United Auto Workers members voted to ratify the up-to-date employment contract with Daimler truck over the weekend. The up-to-date contract provides for a minimum 25 percent augment in overall pay over the course of the four-year contract. In the vote, as many as 94.5 percent of people supported the up-to-date contract covering over 7,300 hours of work. UAW employees after reaching a preliminary agreement in behind schedule April, which allowed a strike to be avoided at the last minute. WITH Reuters: :

The contract covers hourly workers at six plants in southern states where unionization is traditionally low, including four plants in North Carolina and parts warehouses in Georgia and Tennessee.

The deal with the German truck maker, which was spun off from current automaker Mercedes, comes about two weeks before a vote to join the UAW at Mercedes’ Alabama plant.

The deal also includes profit sharing and cost-of-living adjustments for workers at the maker of Freightliner and Western Star trucks and Thomasbuilt buses, as well as ending wage levels that paid bus builders less than those who made ponderous trucks.

UAW President Shawn Fain said the wage augment is in line with workers’ pay raises Detroit Three received during talks last autumn.

Fain said employees will receive an immediate raise of 10% and then 3% six and 12 months later.

Fain said the lowest-paid workers at Daimler’s Thomas Building bus division will receive raises of more than $8 an hour, and some skilled trades workers will receive more than $17 an hour.

This is just the latest in the UAW’s recent streak. First of all, this Last fall, it entered into agreements with the Huge Three car manufacturers. He then achieved a historic victory Volkswagen workers at an auto plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. On May 13 at workers at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, Alabama and the nearby Woodstock battery plant will vote on whether to join the union.