Good Morning! Welcome to The Morning Shift, your roundup of the auto news you crave, all in one place at 9:00 AM every weekday morning. Here are the important stories you need to know.
1st Gear: NHTSA Isn’t Done
Ever since GM’s egregious recall for ignition switches that would turn off in millions of cars, NHTSA has required monthly meetings and disclosures to be sure that there is communication between the agency and the company to prevent another ridiculous recall.
The thought was that GM might be near the end of needing this oversight. But NHTSA has now said that they have no decision yet on continuing the oversight. GM had to pay $35 million for the delayed recall of 2.6 million cars that have now been shown to cause at least 97 deaths.
The agreement that was made with NHTSA was for one year, but at NHTSA’s discretion the meetings and oversight can be extended for another two years. While GM has worked with NHTSA and done everything they asked, the decision is yet to come down from on high if they’ll be able to end the monthly meetings sooner than later.
2nd Gear: You Might Be Able To Buy Toyota’s Hydrogen Car
Well, you will be able to, but you have to go to a very specific place. Actually, you have to live in California and you’ll only be able to get it at one of eight dealerships.
Yes. Eight. In the entire state. They’ll sell a ton!
The process will work by a customer requesting a Mirai online and then finalizing the deal with the dealership of their choice. Of the eight.
3rd Gear: UAW Fighting Sexual Harrassment Suspension
Yesterday we heard that Ford had suspended a number of employees at it’s Chicago plant for alleged sexual harassment. Among them was the union plant’s chairman, and now the UAW is fighting his suspension.
The employee who was suspended, Coby Millender, served his suspension and returned to the job in April. The UAW has filed a grievance challenging his suspension.
This Chicago plant isn’t a stranger to allegations of sexual misconduct, with previous years seeing Ford pay out millions to people found to be victims.
4th Gear: Tesla Beat
As you probably saw, Tesla earnings came out last night, and the company beat expectations. Now, they lost $45 million, but that was $5 million better than the same quarter a year ago.
That’s a win.
Things do seem strong though, with great demand for the Model S and the upcoming Model X is apparently a dream to drive. We’ll have a while to find out for ourselves.
5th Gear: Wait. Tesla’s Battery Doesn’t Work?
Here’s a great one from Bloomberg. Tesla’s new home battery doesn’t integrate well with solar power. Like from Musk’s other company, Solar City. It’s a great report, so check it out there.
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Should the feds leave GM alone?
Contact the author at travis@jalopnik.com.