Stellantis Gets A New CEO

Happy Tuesday! It’s May 28th 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 the new top dog at Stellantis, as well as Nissan’s need for an influx of new cash quick. Plus, GM is retooling a New York factory to build V8s, and unsold Cybertrucks are piling up so much that property owners are now getting in trouble for storing them.

Stellantis has found itself in an unenviable place, staring down the barrel of the future largely funded by a lineup of Ram and Jeep sales. This isn’t a great situation to be in, and the company’s absolute tangle of brands and shared parts isn’t helping. Now, the company is bringing in a new dad to try and set things right: Former Jeep CEO Antonio Filosa. From Automotive News:

Filosa, 51, from Naples, Italy, has been an executive at the company since Stellantis’ formation in 2021, when Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Peugeot maker PSA Group merged. Filosa’s ties to the company date back to 1999, when he began with Fiat. He later served as the CEO of the Jeep brand.

Recently, Filosa’s responsibilities at Stellantis have ramped up. He served as the chief operating officer of the Americas while also taking on the role of chief quality officer — a role he assumed in February 2025. Now he will lead the fourth-largest automaker in the world, overseeing Stellantis’ full lineup, which includes Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Citroën, Dodge, DS Automobiles, Fiat, Jeep, Maserati, Opel, Peugeot, Ram, Lancia and Vauxhall.

Filosa has his work cut out for him, from dealers’ lack of confidence in the brand to Jalopnik’s own Andy Kalmowitz distrusting an “eye-talian” running the Hemi company. 

Nissan has loans coming due, so the company is doing what so many Americans in the same situation to: Borrow from Peter to pay Paul. The automaker is looking to sell off its assets, including some of its Renault ownership, and borrow from the government of the United Kingdom to stay afloat. From Bloomberg:

Nissan Motor Co., facing a huge loan repayment wall next year, is seeking to raise more than ¥1 trillion ($7 billion) from debt and asset sales to keep operations on track, according to internal documents seen by Bloomberg News.

The struggling Japanese automaker plans to issue as much as ¥630 billion in convertible securities and bonds, including high-yielding US dollar and euro notes, the documents show. Nissan also plans to take out a £1 billion ($1.4 billion) syndicated loan, guaranteed by UK Export Finance. Nissan operates Britain’s largest automaking hub, in Sunderland.

In addition, Nissan is seeking to sell part of the 15% stake it owns in Renault SA and the equity interest it has in battery maker AESC Group Ltd., as well as plants in South Africa and Mexico. Sale-and-lease-back plans for its Yokohama headquarters, plus properties it owns in the US, are also on the cards.

Selling off your battery connections and taking loans to pay loans aren’t exactly very forward-looking moves, but it seems like they’re just what Nissan has to do in order to keep the lights on. If it gets the company to another fiscal quarter, it’s better than the alternative. 

Speaking of shortsighted moves, General Motors is spending $888 million to build “next generation” V8s just outside Buffalo, New York. This comes just after the company laid off workers at its EV plant in Michigan, which shows where the company’s priorities lie. From the Detroit Free Press:

General Motors is investing $888 million in its New York propulsion assembly plant to produce the next generation V-8 engine, the company said May 27. GM said it is the automaker’s largest ever investment in an engine plant and the latest adjustment to electric vehicle production.

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Retooling for the next generation engine, its sixth, will take two years, the company said, meaning the fifth generation engine will continue to be produced in New York until 2027. 

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The announcement is the latest production change GM has made, often citing “marketplace changes.” GM said April 23 that it planned to expand transmission production at its Toledo (Ohio) Propulsions Systems plant where it builds transmissions used in the Silverado and Sierra pickup trucks, while reducing electric drive unit production.

How many more climate change-fueled natural disasters will we have by the time those sixth-generation V8s start rolling off the line? Leaving our continued survival, the habitability of our planet, up to the whims of “marketplace changes” is a good way to ensure we all drown. Doing the right thing isn’t always profitable. 

Tesla’s sales are cratering, but the company has been slow to dial back production of deeply unpopular models like the Cybertruck, updated Model Y, or any other model the automaker builds. This means those cars have been piling up anywhere Tesla can store them, which now includes privately owned parking lots — lots that are now getting in trouble for storing so many eyesores. From Automotive News:

A shopping center with a shuttered Bed Bath & Beyond store is in violation of a Detroit suburb’s city code for storing dozens of Tesla Inc. vehicles on its surface parking lot.

In a statement, Charmaine Kettler-Schmult, director of planning and community development for Farmington Hills, Mich., said the landlord of the Hunter’s Square shopping center has “been notified that storage of vehicles is not a permitted use.”

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The Tesla inventory takes up several rows of the parking lot. As of May 25, most of the vehicles being stored were Cybertrucks, which have seen disappointing sales so far this year. In March, Ford’s electric F-150 Lightning topped the Cybertruck in U.S. registrations.

Tesla has already slowed production of the Cybertruck, but that may not be enough. It sure seems like no one wants such a dumb-looking, impractical vehicle. 

What’re they even dodging out in Los Angeles? Food trucks? 

Is the United States even trying on choreography? No one’s doing it like the kpop groups.