The States Building The Most EVs Are Also The Worst To Buy EVs In

Good morning! It’s Friday, July 7, 2023 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.

The Rimac Nevera Is the World’s Fastest Electric Car

1st Gear: Buy What You Build

States like Tennessee and Georgia that have quickly become American hubs for electric vehicle development just so happen to also be the states that offer the fewest incentives to consumers looking to purchase EVs. Besides the cruel irony of workers not being supported to afford the products they build, federal goals for electrification simply won’t be met if wide swaths of the country are neglected. Automotive News unpacked the problem in a story Friday, citing a report from The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy:

Georgia is one of the top recipients, attracting $22 billion in EV-related investments from Hyundai Motor Co., Rivian, SK On and LG Energy Solution during the term of the Biden administration, according to White House data. The $5.5 billion Hyundai investment in EV and battery factories near Savannah will employ about 8,000 workers. But the state ranked second-to-last on a list of 32 states and the District of Columbia in the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy’s State Transportation Electrification Scorecard, which evaluated state agencies’ progress in implementing policies to scale deployment of EVs and build charging infrastructure. Eighteen states didn’t have enough policies to be officially ranked. […]

Other states that have received high-profile battery and EV manufacturing investments, such as South Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee, lack policies to encourage EV adoption. Ford and SK On say they are spending $11.4 billion at two sites for EV and battery production. One project would create to 6,000 jobs in Stanton, Tenn., and another would generate 5,000 positions in Glendale, Ky.

Tennessee ranked No. 23, earning 27 out of 100 points. Tennessee has received $13 billion in EV investments from General Motors, Ford and others, according to the White House.

Tennessee is pretty ahead of the curve when it comes to vehicle-to-grid technology, for example, and has provided loads of money to battery manufacturers seeking to headquarter their operations. Still, The Volunteer State landed pretty far down the order in terms of incentives for EV buyers. As did South Carolina and Kentucky:

South Carolina, which has received $10 billion in EV investment from Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and others, and Kentucky, which has received $10 billion in EV investments from Ford, SK On and AESC, fell below the level required to be included in the ranking. South Carolina earned 14 of the 100 points available. Kentucky earned 5.5. California, at the top of the list, earned 88.

On the opposite end of the list, the report deemed California (surprise), New York, and Colorado as the top three states in terms of instituting policies to scale up EV use and build out charging infrastructure.

2nd Gear: JLR Up

Jaguar Land Rover’s fortunes have improved greatly over the past several quarters. The end of 2022 brought the company back in the black, and now that the second quarter of 2023 has wrapped up, the house of British luxury is seeing wholesale volumes up 30 percent relative to the year-earlier period. Courtesy Reuters:

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) posted a 30% rise in wholesale volumes for the first quarter on Friday, as chip and other supply constraints eased, and forecast free cash flow of over 400 million pounds (about $510 million). […]

Its retail sales grew 29% in the quarter. Retail volumes rose 40% in China, JLR’s biggest market, and 42% in North America, but were flat in Europe.

The car maker said there was strong demand for its Range Rover, Range Rover Sport and Defender models, with their retail sales rising 199%, 42% and 90% respectively.

That’s big growth in North America, no doubt influenced by the success of the Land Rover brand of brands, particularly Defender. I still don’t understand what JLR is actually doing with all the names, but at least it seems like nobody else does, either.

3rd Gear: Porsche North America’s CEO Steps Down

Kjell Gruner, who hadn’t been at the post particularly long, is stepping down from heading Porsche’s North American operations effective immediately. What’s more, it seems to have come as a shock to those in the company. From Auto News, once again:

The former Porsche AG chief marketing officer and global vice president of marketing took over the top job less than three years ago.

“The news came out of left field,” said a source who requested not to be identified.

Porsche Cars North America COO Joe Lawrence and CFO Thierry Kartochian will lead the U.S. business in the interim.

In a statement, Porsche noted Gruner was leaving the company “at his own request.”

Gruner joined Porsche in 1999 from Boston Consulting Group. In 2004, he left Porsche for Daimler, where he rose to director of strategy for Mercedes-Benz Cars before returning to Porsche in 2010.

Porsche has gone from strength to strength in recent months — Gruner said so himself to Yahoo Finance back in February — so from the outside looking in it would seem the chief exec wasn’t pushed out. Unless he was.

4th Gear: Parts Shortage Hits Fisker

The reborn EV maker suffered in Q2 thanks to difficulties securing components from suppliers, Reuters relayed Friday:

Fisker missed its production target for the second quarter due to shortage of components, the electric vehicle startup disclosed on Friday, sending its shares down 2% in premarket trading.

The California-based company produced 1,022 units of its Ocean SUV in the quarter ended June, lower than 1,400-1,700 vehicles it had projected.

“A few suppliers had challenges ramping to the targeted 2Q levels, as they did not receive components from sub-suppliers in a timely manner,” Fisker said in an exchange filing, adding that it expected to produce over 1,400 vehicles in early July.

Fisker, which will report its second-quarter earnings on August 4, produced 55 vehicles in the March quarter. It began deliveries in the United States last month.

The fact Fisker is in a position to make even 1,000 cars at all is frankly commendable, after everything the company has been through and how long the Ocean took to get here. Then again, such hurdles are easier to overcome when you pay Magna Steyr to do the heavy lifting.

Reverse: Hoover Dam

On this day in 1930 — 93 years ago — construction of the Hoover Dam started.

Neutral: Supercars Of Legend

Credit: mdvhimself via YouTube

I honestly couldn’t think of what to put here this morning, so here, have this compilation of all the showcase videos from Need For Speed II. It’s probably the only place you’ll ever see the Lamborghini Cala concept hoofin’ it on public roads. The video quality hasn’t aged great but the music is perfect as ever.