Carvana’s Comeback Is One For The Ages As Value Surpasses Ford And GM – Jalopnik

Good morning! It’s Tuesday, December 9, 2025, and that is The Morning Shift, your each day roundup of the highest automotive headlines from all over the world, in a single place. This is the place you will discover crucial tales which are shaping the way in which Americans drive and get round.

In this morning’s version, Carvana’s miraculous comeback continues because it will get able to enter the S&P 500, Ford is partnering with Renault to construct small EVs in Europe, BMW is getting a brand new CEO for the primary time in seven years and Waymo recalled its self-driving automobiles after just a few too many shut calls with college busses.

Carvana’s comeback needs to be up there with Tom Brady’s efficiency in Super Bowl LI, the Chicago Cubs within the 2016 World Series and Tiger Woods profitable the Masters in 2019. Just three years in the past, the net used-vehicle retailer and its huge automobile merchandising machines was pretty much as good as useless. Now, it is on the point of make its debut on the S&P 500. Back in 2022, there have been fears that Carvana was going to default on its debt and probably enter chapter, however as new automobiles turned extra unaffordable to the typical American, they began flocking to the used automobile vendor. 

Since its inventory hit a document low in 2022, it has surged over 8,000% as the corporate touted tighter price controls, debt discount and a rebound in demand that introduced it into profitability. Now, Carvana’s market worth is about $97 billion — placing it forward of precise automakers like Ford at $52 billion and General Motors at $71 billion. It’s wild to see. From Reuters:

Carvana bought a document 155,941 retail models within the third quarter, whereas whole income surged 55% to $5.65 billion from a 12 months earlier, the corporate reported in October.

The firm might overtake larger rival CarMax in quarterly used-car gross sales volumes by the fourth quarter of 2026, an analyst mentioned in November.

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Carvana’s inventory trades at 57.4 instances ahead earnings, far above the single-digit multiples of its Detroit rivals.

“It’s a long-term ‘buy’ and I’d use any pullbacks to add for the long-term secular growth story and market share expansion,” mentioned Stephanie Link, chief funding strategist at Hightower Advisors.

I suppose it stays to be seen if this form of development is sustainable for Carvana. However, I type of doubt new automobiles are going to be getting cheaper anytime quickly, so I would not actually count on Carvana to lose out on a gradual circulate of consumers in search of cheaper alternate options. That being mentioned, your complete financial system might go stomach up tomorrow, after which it could be in a little bit of bother if no one may even afford used automobiles. Time will inform.

Ford could have killed the Fiesta, but it surely’s already getting again into the enterprise of creating small automobiles… form of. You see, the Blue Oval is partnering up with Renault to promote small electrical automobiles in Europe. It’s a deal that may “significantly” enhance the competitiveness for each firms in Europe, the pair mentioned in a press release.

The collaboration, which is crucially not a three way partnership, will contain the 2 firms creating two distinct Ford-branded EVs. (Read: put Ford badges on Renault merchandise) They’ve additionally signed a Letter of Intent for a European gentle industrial truck collaboration. It means they are going to “explore opportunities to jointly develop and manufacture” sure Ford and Renault gentle industrial automobiles, in accordance with Ford’s assertion. From the Detroit Free Press:

The two new EVs can be primarily based on the Ampere platform — that is Renault’s EV arm devoted to designing superior and reasonably priced EVs. For Ford, the partnership means leveraging Renault’s EV belongings and competitiveness. The automobiles can be made by Renault Group within the north of France utilizing Ampere’s ElectriCity’s “state-of-the-art” manufacturing experience.

For Renault, the 2 automobiles, that are anticipated to come back to market in early 2028, can be designed by Ford. The EVs will function “distinctive driving dynamics, authentic Ford-brand DNA and intuitive experiences” and mark step one in a brand new product offensive for Ford in Europe.

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[Ford CEO Jim] Farley added that the partnership is a vital step for Ford and helps “our strategy to build a highly efficient and fit-for-the future business in Europe. We will combine Renault Group’s industrial scale and EV assets with Ford’s iconic design and driving dynamics to create vehicles that are fun, capable and distinctly Ford in spirit.”

Ford and Renault leaders say that by becoming a member of forces in innovation, design, software program and repair supply, will assist them to deal with business challenges and higher serve retail and industrial clients.

This is way from the one partnership Ford has in Europe. One of them is Ford Otosan, a three way partnership with Koç Holding, a Turkish funding firm. It helps assist Ford’s industrial car enterprise in Europe. Additionally, in 2020, Ford and Volkswagen agreed to develop industrial and passenger automobiles for the worldwide market.

It’s not instantly clear how Ford these EVs will actually be. Sure, the automaker says they’re going to have distinct Ford driving dynamics, DNA and no matter, however they’re going to be utilizing all of Renault’s operating gear. In any case, I suppose extra selection isn’t a nasty factor. We shall see.

BMW has a brand new CEO: manufacturing head Milan Nedeljkovic, and he is set to take over for Oliver Zipse come May 2026. Nedeljkovic is described as a “company lifer” by Bloomberg, and he has labored to maneuver the German automaker by way of its electrification objectives. From Bloomberg:

Nedeljkovic, 56, will succeed Oliver Zipse, 61 when the CEO steps down in May, the corporate mentioned Tuesday. Nedeljkovic has overseen BMW’s manufacturing community by way of the shift to electrical fashions, together with as plant head for the i3 metropolis automobile that debuted in 2013, retooling factories to allow them to construct a number of drivetrains on the identical line.

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The appointment is a part of a broader altering of the guard throughout Europe’s auto business, with rivals akin to Stellantis, Renault, Volvo Car and Porsche all naming new CEOs in latest months. While some automaking friends swapped out their prime executives to deal with cratering gross sales and rightsize overly bold EV rollouts, BMW has defied critics and caught to a versatile strategy on making combustion-engine and battery automobiles.

Attractive fashions have additionally helped the automaker set up a lead over Mercedes-Benz Group AG in electric-vehicle gross sales and navigate slower than anticipated demand for battery automobiles. Even so, the corporate faces important headwinds, from eroding market share in China to the fallout from US President Donald Trump’s new tariffs, which threaten a manufacturing community constructed round minimal commerce friction.

The promotion of Nedeljkovic — who was born within the former Yugoslavia and has labored carefully with Zipse — alerts a easy and orderly succession at BMW. Central to his mandate, which is about to run by way of 2031, would be the rollout of the Neue Klasse suite of automobiles, BMW’s greatest funding in its historical past. Orders for the primary mannequin, the electrical iX3, have been exceeding expectations.

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Rising steadily by way of BMW’s manufacturing ranks, he took on roles in body-shop planning, press operations and later paint and meeting administration at key websites together with Oxford, Regensburg and Leipzig. His fame as a manufacturing specialist grew as he ran more and more advanced vegetation, culminating in his appointment as head of BMW’s flagship Munich manufacturing unit — the corporate’s historic dwelling — the place he oversaw one of many business’s most intricate mixed-drivetrain manufacturing operations.

Nedeljkovic actually has the engineering credentials. He studied mechanical engineering at Germany’s extremely touted RWTH Aachen in addition to MIT in Cambridge earlier than getting his doctorate in engineering at Munich’s Technical University. I’m going to hazard a guess that he is no dummy.

Once he takes over for Zipse subsequent 12 months, he is actually going to have his work minimize out for him. I can not consider many instances in automotive historical past the place there have been extra query marks about what clients need and what world governments need automakers to see.

Waymo is issuing a voluntary software program recall for its fleet of autonomous automobiles following a number of cases of its self-driving Jaguars passing parked college buses in Texas. Anyone with a rudimentary understanding of driver security is aware of that may be a huge no-no. For the time being, Waymo will proceed to function, and all automobiles which have acquired the software program replace can be monitored for extra updates as obligatory. 

District officers say there have been at the least 19 separate incidents of Waymos passing stopped college buses because the college 12 months started in August. Yikes. Luckily, no accidents have been reported. From ABC News:

“While we are incredibly proud of our strong safety record showing Waymo experiences twelve times fewer injury crashes involving pedestrians than human drivers, holding the highest safety standards means recognizing when our behavior should be better,” Waymo’s Chief Safety Officer Mauricio Peña mentioned in a press release.

“As a result, we have made the decision to file a voluntary software recall with NHTSA related to appropriately slowing and stopping in these scenarios,” Peña continued. “We will continue analyzing our vehicles’ performance and making necessary fixes as part of our commitment to continuous improvement.”

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The NHTSA mentioned in an Oct. 17 report that it was investigating “the performance of the Waymo ADS around stopped school buses, how the system is designed to comply with school bus traffic safety laws, and the system’s ability to follow those traffic safety laws.”

In a letter to Waymo dated Dec. 3, the NHTSA requested responses to quite a lot of questions concerning the college bus incidents by Jan. 20, 2026.

Last week, Vishay Nihalani, Waymo director of product administration advised ABC News’ Jaclyn Lee that the corporate had “analyzed the situation and implemented fixes so that such situations are much less likely to occur in the future.”

The resolution got here after among the robotaxis had been seen passing parked college buses. Some of them had been recorded by cameras mounted on the college buses from the Austin Independent School District. This, as you might have imagined, prompted an investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

History.com

You’ll at all times be the folks’s princess, Diana. I’ll by no means forgive that assclown Chunk for what he did… or what the Queen did for that matter. In any case, head over to History.com to study extra.

My vacation celebration continues with my favourite band, The 1975. Admittedly, “Wintering” is not essentially the most overtly Christmas-y tune, but it surely’s in regards to the vacation season and household, in order that’s sufficient for me.