Happy Monday! It’s October 27, 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 how tariffs are showing up in automaker destination fees, as well as the looming threat of our latest chip shortage. Plus, Japanese automakers may begin importing cars from American factories, and Ferrari is doing some dumb crypto scheme.
1st Gear: Destination fees are climbing to cover import tariff costs
According to the Trump administration, cars should be built entirely in the United States — raw materials mined here, refined here, made into subcomponents and components and subassemblies and final assembly, all within the borders of the States. No automaker does this, which means every automaker pays an import tariff somewhere along the line. Those tariffs are now hitting customers, disguised within destination fees so as not to hit MSRP. From Automotive News:
Within the past year, Chevrolet, Ford and Ram have upped the destination charge on their flagship half-ton pickups from $1,995 to $2,595 today.
A decade ago, all three brands charged buyers less than half as much to ship those trucks from the factory to the dealership.
It’s not just big, heavy pickups seeing sizable increases lately.
Across the industry, destination charges — those inescapable, nonnegotiable fees lurking on every window sticker but conveniently omitted from most advertising — rose faster during the 2025 model year than any time in at least a decade, according to data from Edmunds.
More increases are reaching dealerships this fall as automakers roll out 2026 models and grapple with escalating costs, including U.S. tariffs that President Donald Trump began charging in April.
Hyundai raised its destination fee by $125 in June, to $1,600. Lincoln added $400 to the 2026 Nautilus imported from China, now at $1,995. The charge to deliver the 2026 Infiniti QX80 from Japan climbed $195 to $2,190.
“The percentage increase is going up, and the dollar amounts are even higher than the year before,” said Ivan Drury, Edmunds’ director of insights. “We’re really talking about far more noticeable figures.”
Destination fees are far outpacing even inflation, which would be the only other excuse automakers would have for charging so much. Hope you don’t need a new car any time soon, because these numbers aren’t likely to drop in the new future.
2nd Gear: U.S. plants are weeks away from running out of chips
That is, if you can even get your hands on a new car. New export controls from China have locked down chips from major supplier Nexperia, which is sending shockwaves through the automotive industry. Now, plants in the U.S. may be just a few weeks away from running out of chips entirely and being forced to idle factory lines. From Automotive News:
U.S. auto plants are two to four weeks away from “significant impacts” on vehicle production due to the conflict with China over chipmaker Nexperia, according to MEMA, the largest vehicle supplier association in the states.
Beijing this month blocked Nexperia, a key supplier of chips used by the automotive and consumer electronics industries, from exporting from its facilities in China. The move was in response to the Dutch government seizing control of the Chinese-owned chipmaker, and highlighted worsening trade relations between China and the West.
“A handful of these chips can literally stop production of a full assembly plant,” said Steve Horaney, a senior vice president at MEMA, the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association. “There are substitutes, but probably not for everybody.”
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The chips Nexperia supplies to the auto industry use older technology that powers more basic functions like turning on a windshield wiper or opening a window, Horaney said. They’re different from the newer, faster, more powerful wafers that handle sophisticated functions like assisted driving. Because they’re older tech, not as many companies make them, he said.
“There’s just not that much extra capacity sitting around,” he said. “You don’t swap a semiconductor chip out like you do a nut or a bolt in an assembly.”
Ford and GM have already admitted they could be hit by the shortage, and other automakers likely aren’t far behind. We love a trade war, don’t we folks? Are we tired of winning yet?
3rd Gear: Japanese automakers may start importing cars from the U.S. to appease Trump
Nissan builds plenty of vehicles in the United States, especially the well-selling Murano and Pathfinder. But those vehicles don’t quite sell well enough to max out the company’s production plants, so Nissan is considering a new tactic: Exporting some of the crossovers to Japan for sale there. It’s not the only Japanese company looking at similar moves. From Automotive News:
Nissan is weighing the feasibility of importing U.S.-built Murano and Pathfinder crossovers to Japan to help soak up unused capacity at its plants and stoke sales at home.
The move also comes as Japan’s government considers new ways to ease trade tensions with the U.S. ahead of a pivotal visit from President Donald Trump from Oct. 27.
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Toyota Motor Corp. has also publicly mulled the idea of importing some of its U.S.-built models to sell in Japan. The idea is backed by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
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Japanese brands are accustomed to importing back to Japan. Honda, Suzuki, Nissan and Mazda already rank among the top importers, though they usually ship from low-cost countries such as Thailand or India and not from North America.
You might wonder whether U.S. factories are equipped to manufacture right-hand-drive vehicles, which is a question I have as well. They could be retrofitted to manufacture both left- and right-hand-drive variants of these crossovers — other factories manage it — but that’s an investment that these Japanese automakers would need to see returns from.
4th Gear: Ferrari is making a crypto coin now, for some godforsaken reason
Ferrari is on a new batshit scheme, inventing a crypto token for its most loyal customers to use to bid on the company’s 499P endurance racer. Details on the plan are as yet opaque, but it sounds like the company wants its 100 top buyers to spend real-world money on this “Token Ferrari 499P,” which can then be used to bid on the racing car. If this sounds like loading up a Dave and Busters card, converting actual money into something that can only be used in one place, that’s because it’s in a similar vein — just with more environmental devastation from datacenters involved. From Reuters:
Ferrari is tapping into crypto markets and tech-rich youngsters with a planned new digital token that its wealthiest fans will be able to use in an auction for a Ferrari 499P, the endurance car that won three straight Le Mans titles.
The plan for now is limited in scope and is an effort by the Italian sports car maker to tap into a trend among luxury brands seeking access to the growing wealth of younger tech entrepreneurs, as AI and data centres drive investment and markets around the world.
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Ferrari is working with Italian fintech Conio to launch the ‘Token Ferrari 499P’ for members of its Hyperclub — which groups 100 of its most exclusive clients, with a passion for endurance races – to trade amongst themselves and bid on the racing model.
Reverse: Greatest city in da world, let’s go Mets, gotta love da Mets
On The Radio: Halsey – ‘Dog Years’
I really slept on “The Great Impersonator” for too long, Halsey’s evolved so much as a songwriter since “Room 93” and I’ve loved everything she’s put out the whole time. “The Great Impersonator” feels like her darkest album yet, and it’s kind of astounding that she thinks “Dog Years” is a sexy song.
