Good morning! It’s Monday, January 20, 2025, 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: U.S. Commission Sues GM And Stellantis
The auto industry is facing a battle to keep various diversity and inclusivity initiatives alive right now as right-wing voices push for their retraction. As if to show just how important such measures are to safeguard workers, two automotive giants have now been sued by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over allegations of discrimination and harassment.
General Motors and the United Auto Workers union have been accused of age discrimination, while Stellantis is alleged to have subjected female employees to sexual harassment, reports the Detroit Free Press. In both instances, the allegations stem back several years:
GM and the UAW were accused of having since October 2019 maintained a sickness-and-accident benefits policy under their collective bargaining agreement that reduces payouts to older employees who receive Social Security benefits.
The EEOC said the policy, covering at least 50 GM facilities nationwide, discriminates against employees ages 66 and older, violating the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act.
Stellantis’ FCA US unit, meanwhile, was accused of having since December 2020 tolerated pervasive sexual harassment of female employees at a Detroit assembly plant, and routinely ignored their complaints about male supervisors and co-workers, some of whom were placed in leadership roles.
The EEOC said the alleged harassment included inappropriate touching and sexually charged comments, and together with FCA’s failure to discipline male harassers created a hostile work environment that violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The lawsuit against GM and the UAW aims to recoup benefits that workers ages 66 and older have missed out on in recent years. The case against Stellantis is seeking compensation and damages that would be paid to female employees at its Detroit plant.
Both cases were filed on Friday in the waning light of the Biden administration. As convicted felon Donald Trump will take over leading the country today, it’s not yet known how the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will pursue action or how its “priorities will change” once Trump takes office, the Free Press added.
Discrimination in the workplace has been a hot topic in recent weeks as several right-wing campaigners have called for an end to DEI initiatives that they argue are discrimination with another name. Such campaigns led to the scrapping of DEI schemes at companies like Ford and Harley-Davidson.
2nd Gear: Canoo Cannot Continue
After electric vehicle startups like Lordstown Motors and Nikola fell by the wayside, there was simmering hope that the remaining automakers may be able to battle through and survive. That wasn’t the case for Cannoo, and I’m sad to report that the cutesy EV maker has now filed for bankruptcy and ceased all operations.
Canoo filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Delaware and announced that it is ceasing operations “immediately,” reports the Verge. The company admitted that it currently owes more than $164 million to its creditors and that its assets are worth just $126 million:
Now, the U.S. will appoint “a Bankruptcy Trustee to oversee the liquidation of the Company’s assets and the distribution of proceeds to creditors,” Canoo writes. The company says it chose to file after failing to get support from either the US Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office or foreign investors.
Canoo had signaled its dire situation last month when it idled its Oklahoma operations and put its employees on a “mandatory unpaid break.” Before that, it had lost a steady stream of executives, including all of its founders.
“We are truly disappointed that things turned out as they did,” Canoo chairman and CEO Tony Aquila said in the announcement before thanking various government and business entities Canoo has dealt with. Those dealings have included producing shuttles for NASA’s Artemis crew and an agreement to build 4,500 electric delivery vans for Walmart.
The writing has been on the wall for Canoo for several years now and the company’s boss was even forced to claim that reports of its death were “greatly exaggerated.” That proved to be an exaggeration of its own, and last year the automaker imposed mandatory unpaid leave on its workers in a last-ditch attempt to save money.
I’m pretty sad to see Canoo fold, as its van and pickup concepts were incredibly cute. Now, questions remain about what this means for the new astronaut transporter that Canoo promised NASA and the adorable mail van that was testing in the UK.
3rd Gear: 870,000 GM Trucks Probed Over Engine Failures
While Canoo is dealing with its complete failure, General Motors has failures of its own to worry about: its engines. That’s because the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has launched a probe into engines that the automaker fitted to more than 870,000 vehicles.
The NHTSA launched a preliminary probe into 877,710 GM SUVs and trucks after receiving reports of engine failure in some models, reports CNN. The probe impacts V8-powered trucks and SUVs that were manufactured between 2019 and 2024:
According to the auto safety regulator, complainants reported a bearing failure that might result in either engine seizure or breaching of the engine block by the connecting rod.
Failure or malfunction of the engine could result in loss of motive power of the vehicle, leading to an increased risk of a crash. The NHTSA report, however, said no crashes or fires had been reported.
The auto safety regulator received 39 complaints and a number of early warning reporting field reports from vehicle owners, who also said there was no detectability prior to engine failures.
The recall impacts certain models equipped with the L87 V8 engine, the NHTSA explained. Models covered by the investigation include the 2019-2024 model year Chevrolet Silverado, GMC Sierra, Chevrolet Tahoe, Chevrolet Suburban, GMC Yukon and Cadillac Escalade.
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, the 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: Automakers Try To Block Automatic Braking Rules
Now that president Joe Biden is about to leave office, he’s going to have to sit back and watch while the Trump administration works to undo everything he’s worked for. It’s not just the “Home Alone 2” actor that is fighting Biden’s work, as a group of automakers is also hoping to block a landmark rule brought in under the outgoing administration.
A group representing major automakers has filed a lawsuit to block a rule requiring nearly all new cars and trucks to have advanced automatic emergency braking systems by 2029, reports Automotive News. The automakers claim that it would be impossible to meet such a rule with the technology available to them:
The alliance said the requirement that cars and trucks must be able to stop and avoid striking vehicles in front of them at up to 62 miles per hour (100 kph) is unrealistic, and it unsuccessfully asked NHTSA last year to reconsider the rule.
The new safety rule is one of the most far-reaching U.S. auto-safety regulations in recent years. NHTSA said in April the rule will save at least 360 lives annually and prevent at least 24,000 injuries as traffic deaths spiked after the pandemic.
Alliance CEO John Bozzella called the decision “wrong on the merits. Wrong on the science. Really a disastrous decision.”
The group will now be hoping that it can bring the Trump administration on side to try and quash the ban.
Despite the backlash against the rule, 20 automakers have been voluntarily making automatic braking systems standard on their cars since 2016. By late 2023, the 20 automakers said they had fitted the systems to “at least 95% of vehicles” sold in the U.S., adds Automotive News.