Tesla Loses To BYD In Europe

Good morning! It’s Thursday, March 22, 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, European buyers are picking BYD over Tesla, and the UAW says Stellantis’ proposed Detroit hub will cut jobs. Plus, Mercedes is moving jobs from Detroit to Atlanta, and Japanese automakers want a trade deal stat. 

Tesla has long been the best-seller in Europe, with the Model Y seemingly sitting as the default new car to purchase on the continent. Now, it’s losing that title, and BYD is all too eager to step in and outsell Tesla — even discounting the Chinese brand’s hybrids, its EVs alone outsold Tesla in Europe. From Reuters:

Chinese automaker BYD sold more electric vehicles in Europe than Tesla for the first time, according to a report by JATO Dynamics, as an aging model lineup and CEO Elon Musk’s politics hurt demand for the U.S. EV maker’s cars.

BYD, which also makes plug-in hybrid vehicles, registered 7,231 battery-powered electric vehicles (BEV) in Europe in April, while Tesla registered 7,165 units, the market research firm said.

“This is a watershed moment for Europe’s car market, particularly when you consider that Tesla has led the European BEV market for years, while BYD only officially began operations beyond Norway and the Netherlands in late 2022,” JATO Dynamics’ global analyst Felipe Munoz said.

Turns out, Europeans aren’t big on buying cheaply built, uncomfortable cars that haven’t been visually updated in years. Elon Musk’s personal toxic brand has also hurt his various companies across the board at home and abroad, with studies and sales numbers showing his extreme political antics are incredibly unpopular with the very people he needs to buy cars to keep his empire afloat.

Stellantis has big plans for a new parts distribution center outside Detroit, where the company will invest nearly $400 million in centralizing operations from its other locations. There’s just one problem: The United Auto Workers, who claim that the new, automated hub will cut hundreds of union jobs — putting Stellantis below the minimum numbers required by the union contract. From Automotive News:

Stellantis confirmed its intention to consolidate Mopar operations with a new $388 million “mega hub” 27 miles west of Detroit, but the UAW says the move would eliminate 210 jobs.

The company said in a news release on May 21 that the highly automated facility in Van Buren Township, Mich., will launch in 2027 and support 488 UAW-represented jobs, confirming a report this month by Automotive News affiliate Crain’s Detroit Business.

…

Kevin Gotinsky, the UAW’s Stellantis department director, said the company is below the Mopar employment levels obligated under the 2023 collective bargaining contract. The mega hub in Southeast Michigan would consolidate four locations employing 698 people.

“If these numbers remain unchanged, we will lose an additional 210 jobs,” Gotinsky told Crain’s Detroit. “So yes, we have major concerns at this time.”

It’s a reminder — if you’ve ever been left with too much work and too few people to do it — that unions can push back against understaffing.

Mercedes-Benz has a big new investment in Georgia. The company will have a flashy new R&D hub in or near Atlanta, which the company claims will staff about 500 people. The small print, though, is that these won’t really be new jobs — they’re just shifting from other parts of the country. From the Detroit Free Press:

Mercedes-Benz is moving some 500 corporate and technical jobs from various locations across the nation — including 400 from Michigan — to the Atlanta area over the next 18 months to establish the Georgia region as its North America headquarters.

The automaker, which is based in Stuttgart, Germany, made the announcement on May 22, adding that it will also make “a multimillion dollar” investment in a new state-of-the-art research and development hub in the Atlanta area.

As a result of these moves, Mercedes-Benz is shuttering its Financial Services headquarters in Farmington Hills. A corporate real estate team will find a new tenant for that building, Melinda Mernovage, a Mercedes-Benz Financial Services spokeswoman, told the Detroit Free Press.

In this era of trade wars waged by ego, watch for announcements like this. A company, taking an outsized hit from tariffs, announces a big new investment in the U.S. — that, secretly, isn’t actually employing many more Americans. It’s a smart, shrewd move from Mercedes.  

Countries are making trade deals with the U.S. that allow their products to skip the whole tariff rigamarole, and carmakers are grateful for the relief. One major automaking nation, though, doesn’t yet have a deal: Japan. Carmakers from the country aren’t exactly enthused about this, and they’re doing their best to push for a deal sooner rather than later. From Automotive News:

Japan’s automotive industry is banking on a diplomatic breakthrough to lift U.S. tariffs on imported vehicles and auto components from the home market and is petitioning the Tokyo government to consider emergency stimulus measures for the Japanese economy.

Following a U.S. deal with the U.K. and a temporary abatement with China, Japan’s auto industry lobby said it will continue to push the government in Tokyo for similar relief.

Japan is one of the biggest automaking countries, and Japanese vehicles are some of the most common in the States. It’s in their best interests to get a deal together, though it’s anyone’s guess as to what Japan will have to give up to make such a deal happen. 

This is why all the cool kids wear full-face helmets while mountain biking now.

Remember when Rage Against The Machine shut down the New York Stock Exchange? That was wild