Lexus Downsizes American Production Over Tariffs: Report

Happy Tuesday! It’s September 9, 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 Lexus’s tariff-influenced production plans for the U.S., as well as Germany’s stance on the future of the automobile. We’ll also look at the latest Ford recall, and the newest shakeup in Stellantis management. 

The whole point of President Trump’s trade war is onshoring — bringing manufacturing, an industry that’s long been shifting towards countries with lower labor costs, back to the States. It’s fitting that many automakers are responding by promising to make big, flashy investments in U.S. manufacturing, but Lexus is taking the opposite tactic: Bringing more production home to Japan, and ending production at one of its two factories in the United States. From Reuters:

Toyota Motor will consolidate production of its luxury Lexus brand cars in the United States into a single location from two in the face of high tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, the Nikkei reported on Tuesday.

The report said the move is aimed at strengthening U.S. production of petrol-electric hybrid vehicles while shifting some production of high-end Lexus cars to Japan.

The move will end production of the Lexus ES in the U.S., unless some amount of production is moved over to the Indiana plant that manufactures the TX. It’s likely that this is just making room for higher-volume Toyota units, rather than the Lexus, but it’s still not a great sign for the U.S. market. 

Automakers are all up in arms about future environmental regulations that could put hydrocarbon-powered cars out to pasture, all just to maintain some sort of “habitable planet.” It’s no surprise that the people who make money off ICE engines would be in favor of ICE engines, but someone a bit more shocking has come out against the health of the only planet we have to live on: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. From Bloomberg:

Chancellor Friedrich Merz called for more regulatory flexibility from the European Union, throwing his weight behind the German auto industry’s push to soften rules that would effectively ban combustion engine vehicles in 10 years.

The conservative leader stopped short of calling for the 2035 deadline for selling only emission-free vehicles to be delayed or scrapped — something that some members of his bloc have been agitating for. Instead, he reiterated his coalition government’s support for “technology openness,” a reference to the auto sector’s desire for hybrid and other vehicles to be exempted from the rules.

This whole idea of “technology openness” has been floating around a lot lately, under a few different names. It’s the same as Toyota’s “electrified diversified” or even, in some cases, “consumer choice.” We should have the ability to buy flour that’s largely sawdust, actually! We have to keep harmful things in the market, because what if someone wants those?

Take a drink! Ford’s recalling cars again, this time 1.5 million models that may have faulty rear-view cameras. What is happening over there? From Reuters:

Ford is recalling about 1.5 million vehicles in the United States due to a rear-view camera issue causing inverted, distorted, or blank image, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Tuesday.

The recall affects select vehicles from model years 2015 to 2019 of Lincoln MKC, Lincoln Navigator, Mustang, F-250, F-350, F-450, F-550, Expedition, Edge, Transit, Transit Connect, Econoline and Ranger, NHTSA said.

For those keeping count, that’s 110 recalls from Ford so far this calendar year. The next-most-recalled company is Stellantis, with 30. C’mon, Ford. 

Here it is folks, the big news you’ve been waiting for: Mike Koval, senior vice president and head of global sales for Jeep, left Stellantis. I know, I know, it’ll take you a minute to reel from the news. From Automotive News:

Stellantis veteran Mike Koval Jr., who once led Ram and Mopar North America, has left the company.

Koval, 46, was Jeep’s senior vice president and head of global sales operations at the time of his Sept. 5 departure.

“We thank him for his dedicated service and wish him continued success,” a spokesperson said.

Koval’s more interesting tenure than Jeep was his time at Ram, where he presided over the launch of the Ram 1500 REV EV. That has the chance to be a neat truck, if it ever comes out. 

All that cheating, only to be knocked down a peg by another New York team in the Super Bowl. 

Look, I know I just did “Golden Boy” as the On The Radio gear yesterday. In my defense, when I wrote that, the Mountain Goats hadn’t yet announced that we’d be getting a new single today. I regret to inform you that this one has Lin-Manuel Miranda on it.