Elon Musk Once Again Teases A Roadster That’ll Never Come, But It Doesn’t Matter Since Profits Are Up

Good morning! It’s Thursday, April 23, 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, Elon Musk is talking Roadster malarky again and touting a $25 billion bet on AI as Tesla beats Wall Street expectation, Jeep is skipping the 2026 model year for the Wagoneer S (but it’ll be back for 2027) and have don’t worry, GM executives are keeping their bonuses despite massive tariff expenses.

Tesla’s profits rose in the first quarter of 2026, thanks mostly to a strong rebound from car sales after a huge dip in 2025. It seems the average consumer has a memory about as long as a goldfish, and because of that, most of CEO Elon Musk’s transgressions over the past year-and-a-half have been all but forgiven forgotten. His alignment with far-right politicians around the world? What are you talking about? His constant attacks against our trans loved ones? Did that happen? His allowing Twitter to become a cesspool of hate and garbage? Irrelevant. All that matters is that the stock goes up, and the cars “can drive themselves.”

All that is to say, Tesla says it earned $477 million in the first quarter — up 17% from a year ago, and revenue rose to $22.39 billion. That was led by a 16% increase in automotive revenues. Still, profits and revenue are well below their peak as legacy automakers and Chinese companies gobble up market share. So, to juice the numbers a bit, Musk turned to his old friend: the second-generation Roadster. As I’m sure you remember, it was initially made available for reservation back in 2017. Oh, what a time that was. From Business Insider:

[T]he CEO said the company might unveil its next-generation Roadster “in a month or so.”

“It requires a lot of testing and validation before we can actually have a demo and not have something go wrong with the demo,” Musk said. “But I think it will be one of the most exciting product unveils ever.”

Musk said eventually the Roadster would be the only human-driven car in Tesla’s lineup, adding that while he doesn’t expect it to have a huge impact on the company’s revenue, “it is very cool.”

[…]

Musk said in October the car could be unveiled before the end of the year, only to say a month later that the demo day was tentatively planned for April 1, 2026. In mid-March, Musk said it would “probably” come in late April, only to delay it once again.

The Roadster wasn’t the only goofy thing Musk mentioned, of course. He reiterated that the company’s future lies less with cars and more with getting people to take a ride in Tesla’s self-driving taxis. The Associated Press reports that Tesla claims robotaxi miles doubled in the first quarter compared to the fourth quarter of last year, and they’re currently running in San Francisco and three Texas cities. We’re not so sure.

Musk being Musk and Tesla being Tesla, neither could just stick to cars. The CEO is asking his investors to take a leap of faith on his admittedly costly bets on self-driving tech and humanoid robots that have yet to generate any, you know, money. I don’t wanna get all capitalist on your asses, but generally, publicly traded companies need money to justify building things.

The “automaker” lifted its 2026 capital expenditure plan to more than $25 billion — nearly triple last year’s $8.53 billion, and a good chunk higher than the $20 billion it forecast earlier this year. It comes as Musk decides to spend big on artificial intelligence, robotaxis and robotics. It has some industry experts worried that Tesla is being pulled in too many directions at once.

Now, the company is expecting negative free cash flow for the rest of the year after getting that surprise $1.44 billion surplus in Q1. From Reuters:

“If you think that Elon Musk’s view that Optimus will be ultimately their most ​worthy, most value-creating platform, and you think you’re skeptical, then the capex doesn’t make ⁠sense, and it’s probably not a good investment,” said Seth Goldstein, a Morningstar analyst, on Tesla’s humanoid robot, ​a still-in-development system Musk has said could be mass-produced.

“But if you think that Elon Musk has proven himself that ​he can make seemingly impossible things a reality, then you’re willing to take the leap of faith here.”

[…]

Musk has argued Tesla is not alone, pointing to heavy spending across the technology sector.

Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon are all committing tens to hundreds of billions of dollars toward AI infrastructure. But these companies possess established cloud and software businesses generating significant and recurring cash flow.

Amazon is expected to post negative ​free cash flow in 2026, ​reflecting the scale of ⁠its investment cycle. Yet analysts say that differs from Tesla’s position, as Amazon’s spending is underpinned by high-margin businesses such as Amazon Web Services and advertising that have ​a track record of eventually translating investment into returns.

On the flip side of the coin, Tesla is betting on businesses still early in the development process. Hell, even he admits its robotaxi business won’t contribute any meaningful revenue before 2027. In Musk terms, that means 2090.

Skipping model years is so hot right now. Volkswagen did it with the ID Buzz. Now, Jeep is doing it with the slow-selling Wagoneer S. Don’t worry too much, though. The confusingly named electric crossover will be back for 2027, but there’s no clear answer as to when output in Toluca, Mexico, will resume. Adding another wrinkle to all of this is the fact that it gets hit with import tariffs. Ah, Stellatnis. From Automotive News:

The Stellantis brand said it’s “pacing production of the all‑electric Jeep Wagoneer S to support future improvements in battery performance, software and capability.”

[…]

The Wagoneer S, the brand’s first fully electric vehicle in North America, began shipping to dealers in January 2025 as a speedy 600-hp utility vehicle with a well-appointed interior.

“The Jeep brand will forgo a 2026 model‑year designation in North America as we prepare to debut the 2027 model year Jeep Wagoneer S, which will introduce full compatibility with the North American Charging Standard charging port to expand customer access to growing fast‑charging networks,” a Stellantis spokesperson said in a statement to Automotive News.

The 2025 model “remains available for purchase and lease at Jeep dealerships without interruption,” the spokesperson said.

January through September of last year, Jeep sold 10,426 Wagoneer S crossovers in the U.S. That’s not great, but not terrible. However, once the $7,500 federal EV tax credit was yanked, sales fell off a cliff. In the six months since then, just 613 Wagonner S EVs have found new homes, and sales fell to just 175 units in the first quarter as dealerships worked to sell down their remaining 2025 inventory.

See you next year, Wagoneer S.

Sure, General Motors was hit with $3 billion in tariffs from the Trump administration in 2025, but you can rest assured that CEO Mary Barra and other top executives at the company will not miss out on their multi-million dollar annual performance bonuses. It’s all because members of GM’s board of directors decided to exclude losses tied to tariffs when evaluating the company’s profitability as part of executive bonuses. How kind of them.

At the same time, profit sharing among employees went down this year. Unlike executive pay, hourly worker profit-sharing bonuses are given out based on a formula agreed upon with the United Auto Workers union. For every $1 billion GM makes in North America, its hourly workers get $1,000. Because GM made less money in 2025, profit-sharing payments went down from $14,500 to $10,500.

At least Barra gets to keep her money. From The Detroit News:

As a result, Barra and other leaders received bigger bonuses than they otherwise would have if they were held accountable for losses attributable to Trump’s import taxes. The board’s compensation committee, a panel of several directors responsible for executive pay, cited Barra’s leadership in reducing the hit from tariffs through onshoring efforts.

“We can’t change the policy,” GM spokesperson Jim Cain said, “but we can actively work to offset the impact.”

Barra received a roughly $5 million annual performance bonus and total compensation of close to $30 million in 2025. President Mark Reuss was awarded a $2 million bonus and total compensation of about $19 million. For 2024, Barra’s performance bonus was closer to $6.7 million, and Reuss’ was $2.7 million.

In a letter to shareholders, compensation committee Chairperson Devin N. Wenig said the panel at the start of 2025 pre-approved a range of possible adjustments to profit goals to account for uncertainty because of tariffs and other potential policy changes under Trump.

“Importantly, this approach established an outlook for the range of potential policy change impacts on the business (both positive and negative) and encouraged our leadership team to pursue active and deliberate actions to respond to these impacts where possible to serve the best interests of the Company and our shareholders,” Wenig said.

GM’s compensation committee has the ability to adjust performance goals tied to executive pay annually, and it has accounted for anomalies in the past.

History.com

Remember when Jalopnik was green for a little while? That was so weird, right? I feel like we should have talked more about how bizarre that was. In any case, you can blame our last owners, who are very much defunct at this point. With how poorly that was recieved, I cannot even imagine what it was like at Coca-Cola headquarters when they rolled out New Coke. It must have been a blood bath. If you want to learn more, head over to History.com.

Uh oh. I’ve got some concerning news, friends. We’ve got our first daily gas price increase since April 9 as Schrödinger’s Strait of Hormuz dancing between open and closed. Oil prices are also ticking up, with WTI Crude Oil futures hovering around $93 and Brent Crude cracking the $100 barrier once again.

All of this is to say that the average price of a gallon of gas increased by an entire cent overnight to $4.03, according to AAA. While we’re still down considerably from our April 9 peak of $4.17, any movement in the wrong direction should be looked at with a lot of concern.

Still, the average price of a gallon of gas is now up $1.05 — or about 30% —since the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran first broke out on February 28.

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

AAA

This morning, I was reminded how goddamn good the 2000 “Charlie’s Angels” reboot was, and it got me thinking about the iconic soundtrack — especially this song, which was actually made for the movie. I know I’m not alone in this, but this film was formative for me when I was growing up. I know you’ve probably gotta go to work right now, so you can’t watch the movie. But, you can listen to this song to hold you over until you get home tonight.

Good morning, angels.