Author: staff@jalopnik.com (Matthew DeBord)
Stefano Guidi/Getty Images Was he or wasn’t he? Former Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares was abruptly un-CEO’d six months ago, an unsurprising turn of events for industry insiders but shocking when it comes to how disorganized the choice looked from the surface. Chairman John Elkann needed to take over, with no alternative candidate lined up, so while it looked like Tavares was fired, perhaps he just…quit? In his first interview for the reason that disputed termination, Tavares told Bloomberg he wasn’t fired and that he left Stellantis because he and Elkann agreed to disagree concerning the company’s strategic direction. More on…
Bill Pugliano/Getty Images The Trump administration’s shambolic tariff policy is imagined to send a transparent signal to domestic and foreign automakers alike: Make more vehicles in the nice old US of A! Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro has been beating this drum for months with wild-eyed conviction, as has Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, offering the inevitability of a U.S. auto manufacturing restoration as a type of fait accompli. We currently import about eight million vehicles a 12 months, making up half of the 16 million annual US sales marketplace for cars and light-weight trucks. Tariffs, broadly speaking, can even have…
