Happy Monday! It's October 6, 2025, 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, we're looking at Tesla's latest sales flop, as well as Stellantis' big new investment in the United States. We'll also look at Chinese autonomous car developers' goals in Europe, and Aston Martin's rough year.
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Tesla's had a rough go in Germany recently, due in large part to CEO Elon Musk's love of the nation's far-right political party AfD. Most Germans aren't fans, and they carry that preference into their dealings with Tesla — or lack thereof. It's hurt the company's numbers before, and it seems things are continuing to trend downward. From Reuters:
Tesla's sales volume in Germany fell by 9.4% in September, the German road traffic agency KBA said on Monday, although overall sales of battery
electric vehicles rose by 31.9% year on year.
Registrations of new Tesla cars had risen in parts of Europe in September, lifted by its updated Model Y. But the U.S. electric vehicle maker continues to face pressure from growing competition, political backlash against CEO Elon Musk and an ageing lineup.
...
The number of Teslas sold in the January-September period dropped 50.3% to 14,845 units compared with the same period last year.
50% is what we in the industry would call a massive drop. Possibly even a spiral.
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Stellantis is big on making its auto lineup great again, and now the company is poised to invest 11 figures in its American business in order to continue doing so. The automaker has already promised $5 billion in American investment, and now the rumor mill says another $5 billion is on its way. From Automotive News:
Chrysler parent Stellantis is planning to invest about $10 billion in the U.S. as the troubled maker of Jeep SUVs and Ram trucks refocuses on the market that's pivotal to its profits, people familiar with the situation told Bloomberg.
The carmaker may announce in the coming weeks about $5 billion in fresh money on top of a similar amount earmarked earlier in the year, said the people, who declined to be identified discussing information that's not public. The investments over several years could be funneled into plants — including reopenings, hiring and new models — in states such as Illinois and Michigan, the people said.
Stellantis is focused on reclaiming the past success of the Jeep brand and is considering fresh investments into Dodge, which could result in a new Dodge V-8 muscle car, and possibly even the Chrysler brand in the long term, some of the people said. Talks are ongoing, no final decision has been made and the amount and targeted projects could still change, the people said.
"Refocus[ing] on the market that's pivotal to [Stellantis'] profits" makes sense in a vacuum, but doing so flies in the face of global automotive and regulatory trends. It's a bold move, Cotton.
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The United States isn't big on Chinese tech, particularly when it competes with the automotive market that our President loves so much. So, rather than grace our shores with their autonomous tech, Chinese automakers are simply going across the pond to Europe. From Reuters:
Blocked from the U.S. market, Chinese self-driving technology firms are accelerating their push into Europe, setting up headquarters, striking data deals, and road-testing – prompting alarm from local rivals over competition concerns.
In China, the world's largest car market, more than half of cars sold – including many entry-level models – now offer autonomous driving technology, sometimes as standard.
Beijing is pushing its companies to dominate autonomous-vehicle development globally while crafting national regulations to provide a clear roadmap at home.
That expansion is already underway. Reuters spoke to a dozen company executives who described how Chinese firms are using Europe as a
beachhead for global expansion, mirroring the push with electric vehicles.
"We're focusing on Europe for our global future," said Dong Li, chief technology officer of QCraft, which announced plans for a new German headquarters at last month's Munich auto show, citing a more open environment than in the United States.
Are autonomous vehicles the solution to our needs? No, not really. Is this yet another sign of the United States falling behind the world, entering the Chinese-led American Century of Humiliation? Yes. Yes it is.
Aston Martin
Aston Martin isn't a huge automaker in terms of scale, but it makes enough money to keep the lights on. At least, it tries to — this year's been a bit of a rough go. From Automotive News:
Aston Martin cut its outlook for the second time this year, a fresh blow for the British automaker as tariffs and faltering demand extend years of turnaround stumbles.
The latest warning underscores how the automaker continues to battle execution struggles, volatile markets and strained finances despite repeated rescue efforts.
After already tempering its outlook in July on U.S. tariffs, Aston Martin said it now expects sales to fall by a mid- to high-single-digit percentage this year, weighed down by weakness in North America and Asia.
Total third-quarter deliveries dropped 13 percent to 1,641 vehicles, according to a company statement on Oct. 6.
Aston is pivoting away from volume and towards more coach builds for the ultra wealthy — likely a smart move in a world where they're increasingly the only people with any discretionary spending budget — but it means that those delivery numbers may start failing to tell the whole story soon. That is, if they haven't already.
My school was Bosnia & Herzegovina in Model UN once. We did not do much.
New HEALTH baby, let's go!
