Happy Friday! It’s November 21, 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 automaker execs’ social climbing, as well as Foxconn’s latest EV plans. We’ll also look at the New York aluminum plant that’s managed to catch fire again, and CATL’s plans for lithium mines in China.
1st Gear: Executives from Ford, GM, and Tesla join in Trump’s dinner with Mohammed bin Salman
Saudi Arabia has a laundry list of human rights violations to its name, so of course it’s a major friend to the United States. President Donald Trump invited crown prince Mohammed bin Salman over for dinner earlier this week, and he brought some other friends to fill out the table — representatives from Ford, Tesla, GM, and more. From the Detroit Free Press:
What started with a dinner at the White House ended with major deals related to the Middle East this week for U.S. automakers.
General Motors CEO Mary Barra, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Ford Motor Co.’s Executive Chair Bill Ford all attended President Donald Trump’s dinner at the White House earlier this week, according to the guest list obtained by the Detroit Free Press from the White House Press Office ― an event replete with executives from finance, technology, private equity and energy sectors.
The next day, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia signed an agreement through an exchange of letters ensuring Saudi Arabia recognizes U.S. federal motor vehicle safety standards as fully meeting its automotive safety requirements ― a move that the Detroit Three claim clears a hurdle to more U.S. auto sales in the Middle East.
And now, Stellantis is pursuing the possibility of making cars in Saudi Arabia.
Nvidia’s CEO was also in attendance, among others. Not in attendance? Jamal Khashoggi, the journalist killed by Saudi Arabian agents allegedly acting under direct orders of the royal family.
2nd Gear: Foxconn is going all-in on EVs
Automakers in the United States are doing their best to abandon EVs — an approach that’s led to the U.S. falling behind on what will certainly become the dominant automotive sector. But while we’re dodging, ducking, dipping, diving, and dodging the future, other nations aren’t quite so backwards. Take Foxconn, the battery maker out of Taiwan that’s mostly known for consumer electronics. The company’s made no secret about its interest in EVs, and now it’s putting its money where its mouth is. From Automotive News:
Foxconn is renowned as the giant contract manufacturer of everything from Apple iPhones and Dell computers to Hewlett-Packard printers and Sony PlayStations.
More recently, the Taiwanese company has morphed into an aspiring electric vehicle maker chasing deals with Nissan Motor Corp. while also positioning itself as a player in artificial intelligence data hubs.
And now, Foxconn is reinventing itself again as it expands into battery making. The new cells and packs it just started churning out will help power the company’s future cars and cloud servers.
Battery tech is arguably the big technology race of our era, with everyone trying to figure out how best to get more power density and faster charge rates into smaller and smaller cells. Whoever wins that, wins the future.
3rd Gear: Upstate NY aluminum plant that supplies Ford, Nissan, and Stellantis caught fire, again
Back in September, an aluminum plant in upstate New York caught fire. Yesterday, that same plant caught fire again. Terrible luck over at Novelis in Oswego, it seems. From Automotive News:
Firefighter put out a four-alarm blaze Nov. 20 at the same Novelis plant in upstate New York that burned in September, weeks before the supplier had said it expected full operations to resume.
A Novelis spokesperson said it was too soon to know whether the latest incident will delay repairs from the previous blaze, which Ford Motor Co. has estimated could cost the automaker as much as $2 billion.
In an update posted on its website, Novelis said the fire, which started around 8:45 a.m., had been put out, though firefighters were still monitoring the site. “Everyone working at the plant was safely evacuated and fortunately, there were no injuries,” Novelis said.
The Trump administration has placed heavy tariffs on steel and aluminum, economically incentivizing American companies to buy from U.S.-based factories like this Novelis plant. Unfortunately, that also means that a single fire like this can cripple an entire supply chain — rather than pivoting to other suppliers. automakers like Ford that rely on Novelis metal must now just wait for the factory to come back online.
4th Gear: CATL wants to rev up those lithium mines
Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd.s had an adventure with its Jianxiawo mine in recent months, as a back-and-forth with the government over mining permits has left the site in a state of limbo. Now, CATL is intent on reopening the mine to meet lithium demand — yet it still hasn’t secured all the necessary paperwork. From Bloomberg:
A key Chinese lithium mine run by Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. is preparing to reopen as soon as early next month.
The battery maker has formulated a preliminary plan to restart its Jianxiawo mine by early December, according to people familiar with the matter, who declined to be named as they aren’t authorized to speak publicly. The company has asked suppliers and partners to ready equipment, chemicals and workers, they said, as well as notifying the refiners that draw feedstock from the mine.
CATL’s preparations aren’t a guarantee that the mine will get regulatory approval. The people said the company’s schedule could be subject to change, and that they’re still awaiting sign-off from the authorities.
CATL’s mine closure wasn’t an issue before, when high supply and slowing EV demand sent lithium prices downward. Now though, as home energy storage continues to grow, CATL wants that supply back.
Reverse: I always get Oliver North and Oliver Stone mixed up
Has Oliver Stone ever made a movie about Oliver North?
On The Radio: Hannah Corneau – ‘No Good Deed’
Happy “Wicked: For Good” release day! I still prefer the stage version over the movie, and the movie of act one over act two, but now I can subject even more people to my favorite musical without paying Broadway ticket prices. In honor, my favorite track from the show.
