Happy Thursday! It’s October 13, 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 Tesla’s desperate attempts to pay Elon Musk more money, as well as Canada’s displeasure with Stellantis’ plans to move Jeep production to the States. We’ll also look at threats to General Motors’ and Stellantis’ federal funding, and yet another Ford recall.
1st Gear: Tesla is still trying to get Delaware to restore Elon Musk’s $56 billion pay package
Remember when Elon Musk got, and then lost, and then got, and then lost, a $56 billion pay package? Well, Tesla still wants to give it to him, and the company is pushing back against the Delaware court system that yanked the payment away. From Reuters:
Elon Musk’s $56 billion pay package from Tesla should have been restored by a vote of the company’s shareholders last year, a Tesla attorney argued to the Delaware Supreme Court on Wednesday.
One of the biggest corporate legal battles entered its final stage after a lower court judge rescinded the Tesla CEO’s record compensation in January 2024. The company is also appealing a ruling by the lower court that rejected as legally invalid a vote by shareholders to restore the pay package.
Companies always try to pay their workers as little as they can get away with — the difference between the value a worker adds to a company and their pay rate is called “profit” — but executives always seem to be the exception to the rule. The argument usually goes that these corporations need high executive pay to attract top talent, but that never seems to trickle down to a desire to attract top talent in any other roles. I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that the executives set the pay rates.
2nd Gear: Canada isn’t happy about Stellantis moving Jeep production to the U.S.
Stellantis manufactures plenty of its vehicles in Canada, but following President Trump’s tariffs the company has started looking at shifting that production towards the States. Canada is, predictably, unhappy about that proposed change. From Automotive News:
Canada threatened legal action against Stellantis after the carmaker announced it would shift Jeep Compass SUV manufacturing from Brampton, Ont. to Belvidere, Ill., following U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Industry Minister Melanie Joly would consider Stellantis in “default” in light of federal and provincial government support extended to the automaker, following an agreement to “maintain its full Canadian footprint, including Brampton,” she told Chief Executive Officer Antonio Filosa in a letter seen by Bloomberg, dated Oct. 15.
Joly called the plan to move Jeep manufacturing south of the border “unacceptable” and demanded Stellantis “quickly identify new mandates for Brampton that ensure the facility remains central to your manufacturing footprint, and that contracts with Canadian suppliers be honoured.”
It sounds like Stellantis agreed to keep up production in Canada for some specific duration in order to receive benefits from the Canadian government. Canada cares less about the Compass, and more about the factory’s continued operation. If it makes something else, that’s fine, but it has to make something.
3rd Gear: GM and Stellantis may lose Department of Energy funding
One of the Trump administration’s biggest priorities has been a wholesale purge of any progressive ideology from all levels of government. Climate-conscious programs have been branded as leftist, socialist swill, that the United States will not tolerate. The companies operating those programs may get funding yanked, including companies like GM and Stellantis. From Automotive News:
Significant auto industry initiatives were not mentioned Oct. 3 when the Department of Energy terminated funding awards for 233 projects it called part of “the Left’s climate agenda.”
Now the industry has its eyes on a mysterious list first published by the news outlet Semafor on Oct. 7 that includes five awards for General Motors, two for Stellantis, three for Bosch, four for Plug Power and others tied to battery manufacturing, electric vehicles and infrastructure.
The Semafor list hasn’t yet been confirmed, but Semafor’s reporting is traditionally pretty reliable. If GM and Stellantis start losing out on funding from the nation that wants them to do all their business here (to the point of sacrificing funding from other nations), the arithmetic may stop looking good.
4th Gear: It’s Ford recall time again
Ford’s recalling 59,006 cars, trucks, and SUVs today, for engine block heaters that could burn the car down. From Reuters:
Ford Motor is recalling 59,006 vehicles that are equipped with engine block heaters for fire risks, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Thursday.
The U.S. auto regulator said the engine block heater in certain vehicles may crack and develop a coolant leak, causing it to short-circuit.
The recall covers certain vehicles, including the Lincoln MKC, Explorer, Fusion, Bronco Sport, and Maverick vehicles, NHTSA added.
Everybody take a drink!
Reverse: I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.
On The Radio: Lady Pills – ‘Eat Them’
This track has been stuck in my head for days, and for good reason. It rocks, is the thing.
