Relax, Poors: Ferrari Says It Won't Force You Into A Luce For Access To More Exclusive Models

Good morning! It's Monday, June 22, 2026, and this is The Morning Shift, your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. This is where you'll find the most important stories that are shaping the way Americans drive and get around.

In this morning's edition, Ferrari claims it won't force buyers to get a controversial Luce to gain access to limited edition models, Porsche is looking for ways to cut more costs, the United Auto Workers union just voted to diversify from its Israeli bonds and Toyota spins up RAV4 production in the U.S. to try to keep up with demand.

Ferrari has had a long history of forcing its clients into its less desirable offerings if they want access to the good stuff like limited-run hypercars, but that won't be the case with the incredibly divisive Luce EV, according to Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer Enrico Galliera.

In a product presentation, Galliera cited a report by Bloomberg that buying the $640,000 Luce could become a requirement for access to more exclusive models in the same way buyers had to shell out for Californias they didn't really want to get access to the LaFerrari. He said applying that sort of pressure would be a "huge mistake" for Ferrari. From Reuters:

"We'd run the risk of creating negative ambassadors who would speak poorly of ​the Luce and, after a few months, resell it," Galliera was quoted ⁠as saying by a company spokesman.

"This would destroy its residual market value, which is ​precisely what the luxury electric vehicle sector is suffering from today".

Ferrari traditionally runs an allocation ​system – especially when it comes to qualifying for purchases of its limited-edition models – which favours established clients, namely multiple owners, as well as those who participate in factory events and retain cars for long ​periods.

Galliera said Ferrari always told its dealers and customers that Luce had to be ​sold only to those "truly motivated to buy it".

"Our message to the network was: make sure that anyone ‌who ⁠asks for this car truly wants it, and isn't buying it to please Ferrari because they're somehow looking for other types of benefits," he said.

Most of Ferrari's customers normally own more than one Ferrari. In 2025, the company sold around 84% of its new ​cars to current Ferrari ​drivers and approximately ⁠56% to buyers who owned more than one Ferrari.

Following the Luce's reveal in May, Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna said the Italian automaker was getting "strong interest" in the car from both new and existing customers. However, it has been rather quiet since then when it comes to updates on the Luce's orders, saying it would only provide precise figures at the end of July. That's when it's set to release its second quarter results, and I'm sure that haters and supporters alike will be waiting with bated breath.

Things are a bit dodgy for Porsche right now, and it's looking for ways to cut even more costs as a result. It comes as the automaker prepares for a period of reduced vehicle production. Porsche expects to reach an agreement with representatives for its factory workers on the cuts by its factory's summer break in July, according to CEO Michael Leiters. From Bloomberg:

The cuts will also affect the company's output. Porsche is planning to produce fewer than the roughly 280,000 vehicles it sold last year, Leiters said in the interview.

"Porsche must be able to make money even with fewer cars," he said, adding that the automaker wants to deepen collaboration with sister brand Audi to achieve that.

Leiters, who took over as CEO in January, said he wants to continue offering the entry-level 718 series to win over new customers. Production of the most recent 718 generation, the gasoline Boxster and Cayman models, ended last year.

Once the major profit generator for parent VW, Porsche has been hit hard by shifting car markets. Last year's deliveries fell the most since 2009, with the manufacturer forced to cut guidance four times.

The German automaker started discussions on more savings last year, thanks to issued to faced, partly due to steep U.S. tariffs, mounting competition in Europe and a hole in China it cannot seem to dig itself out of. Any new measures planned by Leiters would come on top of a previous plan to eliminate about 3,900 jobs by 2029.

United Auto Workers union members voted to remove hundreds of thousands of dollars in investments from Israeli bonds over the country's war with Iran at the union's 39th Constitutional Convention in Detroit. The measure was passed by a raised-hand vote of the thousand-ish delegates.

It's the UAW's latest action against Israel following criticism in December of 2023 over the country's actions in the Middle East. It even signed onto a petition advocating for a ceasefire following October 7, and at the tail end of the year, it formed a group to study the union's financial connections to Israel. From the Detroit Free Press:

"From opposing fascism in WWII to mobilizing against apartheid South Africa and the CONTRA war, the UAW has consistently stood for justice across the globe," Region 9A Director Brandon Mancilla said in a news release in 2023. "That is why I am proud that the UAW International is today officially calling for a ceasefire in Israel and Palestine."

The union has often taken public stances on cultural and political issues. According to a 2024 interview with Mancilla, the union divested from South African companies and affiliated markets in 1978 when that nation was under a system of apartheid, or racial segregation.

In the same interview, Mancilla said the union held between $400,000 to $700,000 in Israeli bonds and securities, adding that "the exact number fluctuates based on market conditions." It is unclear how much the union's investments in Israeli bonds and securities are worth today.

There's no word on exactly how many delegates voted to pass the resolution (given the fact that it was a simple hand-raise situation) or how much money was divested, but UAW officials did confirm that the measure passed to Freep.

I know that you personally don't want a 2026 Toyota RAV4, but everybody else in America does, and that's why the automaker just started production of the incredibly popular compact crossover at its plant in Georgetown, Kentucky. It's expected to churn out 40,000 vehicles this year, adding to already maxed-out pipelines from Canada and Japan, and it still might not be enough to help U.S. dealers build up inventory. From Automotive News:

On June 16, the nation's 1,237 Toyota dealers collectively had 967 unsold RAV4 hybrids and 719 RAV4 plug-in hybrids.

[...]

"It's so hot, we're counting inventory in hours' supply right now, not days," said Damon Rose, vice president of sales for the Toyota division of Toyota Motor North America. "Our turn rate was 97.6 percent last month — that means 97.6 percent of RAV4s available for sale in May were sold. I never thought I'd live long enough to hear about a statistic like that, but it just speaks to the demand we're seeing for [our] bestselling vehicle in the United States."

Toyota warned dealers late last year that supplies of its top-selling RAV4 were going to be slim in the first half of 2026 as the Japanese automaker changed over factories in Japan and Canada to build the redesigned, hybrid-only model. Production began in December at the company's Takaoka Plant in Japan and launched a month later in Cambridge, Ontario, but the first 2026 models didn't reach U.S. consumers until February, Rose said.

The automaker delayed the start of 2026 model production to try and build up sufficient inventories of 2025 models to carry dealers through, but "probably by the middle of February we were darn near out of them," Rose said. On June 16, Toyota's internal inventory trackers still showed 16 unsold 2025 Toyota RAV4s in U.S. dealer inventories, but those were probably being used by dealers, he said.

U.S. deliveries of the RAV4 through May were as rough as predicted: down 40 percent to 121,605. Included in that number are 10,221 sales of the RAV4 plug-in hybrid. With the 2026 model, Toyota expanded the RAV4 plug-in hybrid nationwide after it no longer had to meet state requirements for zero-emission vehicles. Sales of the PHEV version are still off 4.7 percent, however.

To make up for some of the constraints, Toyota told dealers to lean on some alternatives to the RAV4, like the BZ EV crossover, Crown Signia, 4Runner, Corolla Cross and even the Tacoma. I suppose those can all sort of do what the RAV4 does, but none are perfect fits. Still, that strategy seems to have worked, because whole RAV4 deliveries fell 26% in May (thanks to production constraints) from the same time a year ago, each of those other nameplates was up between 0.6% and a whopping 114%.

Imagine where Toyota's sales will be once RAV4 production reaches its full potential. It might just take over the world.

History.com

I know it doesn't seem believable, but I've actually never watched any of the "Fast and Furious" movies. I think I saw part of "Tokyo Drift" when I was a kid, and I've seen the "more than you can afford, pal" scene a billion times, but that's it. It's a massive cultural blind spot for me, and one day I'll get around to rectifying it, but today's not that day. In the meantime, won't you join me in learning more about the movie's 2001 release on

History.com

?

Well, the good news is that gas prices are now well under $4.00 per gallon, but the bad news is that might not last too much longer, as no one seems to know definitively if the Straight of Hormuz is actually open or not. Still, that hasn't stopped WTI Crude Oil futures and Brent Crude prices from continuing their downward tumbles. Both were sitting at $74 and $77, respectively, at the time of publication.

Here's where national average prices stand right now, according to AAA:

AAA

All of this shakes out to the average price of a gallon of regular gas dropping another cent overnight, to $3.93, according to AAA. We're now down 63 cents from the 2026 record that was set back on May 21, when gas hit $4.56 per gallon.

I was watching "One Battle After Another" on a plane over the weekend, and I forgot what a good needle drop "Mo Bamba" was in that movie. PTA really did his homework on the type of music they'd be playing at a high school dance. Plus, the song brought me right back to Penn State football games (iykyk).