Ford Throws In The Towel On EVs – Jalopnik

Happy Tuesday! It’s December 16, 2025, and that is The Morning Shift — your each day roundup of the highest automotive headlines from around the globe, in a single place. This is the place you will discover crucial tales which might be shaping the way in which Americans drive and get round.

In this morning’s version, we’re taking a look at Ford’s cowardice on EVs, in addition to Elon Musk’s record-breaking internet price. We’ll additionally have a look at how ever-climbing vacation spot charges are protecting automakers’ tariff prices, and Nissan’s plans to broaden Nismo. 

The future of personal autos is electrical. Either that, or all of us choke on smog and drown in rising oceans. Yet Ford, the best-selling pickup truck producer within the U.S., has apparently determined that it is tired of that future — it is killing off its F-150 Lightning and pivoting to ICE-powered autos. From Reuters:

Ford Motor stated on Monday it should take a $19.5 billion writedown and is killing a number of electric-vehicle fashions, in essentially the most dramatic instance but of the auto business’s retreat from battery-powered fashions in response to the Trump administration’s insurance policies and weakening EV demand.

The Dearborn, Michigan-based firm stated it should exchange the totally electrical F-150 Lightning with a brand new extended-range electrical mannequin that makes use of a gas-powered engine to recharge the battery. The firm can be scrapping a next-generation electrical truck, codenamed the T3, in addition to deliberate electrical industrial vans.

“When the market really changed over the last couple of months, that was really the impetus for us to make the call,” Ford CEO Jim Farley informed Reuters in an interview.

Ford stated it should pivot arduous into gasoline and hybrid fashions, and ultimately rent 1000’s of employees, although there will probably be some layoffs at a collectively owned Kentucky battery plant within the close to time period. The firm expects its international mixture of hybrids, extended-range EVs and pure EVs to succeed in 50% by 2030, from 17% right now.

Notice how Farley stated this modification occurred “over the last couple of months” relatively than as a part of some long-term technique? Everyone’s pivoting to the whims of the Trump administration proper now, as a result of following alongside is worthwhile and disobeying is treason. 

Elon Musk is just not solely the richest man alive proper now, however the richest particular person in historical past. His internet price simply crested $600 billion, better than the GDP of all however the 26 wealthiest nations on Earth — he locations beneath Israel however above Singapore. With SpaceX set to go public, he stands to leap up above the GDP of Sweden. From Reuters:

Elon Musk on Monday grew to become the primary particular person ever price $600 billion, Forbes stated, on the heels of studies that his SpaceX startup was more likely to go public at a valuation of $800 billion.

Musk, who was the primary to surpass $500 billion in internet price in October, owns an estimated 42% stake in SpaceX, which is making ready to go public subsequent yr, Reuters reported final week.

The SpaceX valuation would strengthen Musk’s wealth by $168 billion to an estimated $677 billion as of 12 p.m. ET on Monday, in accordance with Forbes.

Look, we will all agree that is batshit, proper? No one deserves this sort of wealth, particularly a person whose legacy is “electric cars that break” and “saying Herman Goring’s ideas using video game words.” 

Remember tariffs? They is probably not the highest of the TMS listing any extra, however they’re nonetheless right here. In truth, subsequent time you purchase a automobile, you will definitely pay them — you simply will not see it within the MSRP. Instead, you will pay that tax as a part of your vacation spot cost. From the Detroit Free Press: 

Automakers are tacking on worth hikes to new autos in a method that customers are more likely to not discover as a lot as they could if the businesses raised the precise producer’s steered retail worth, extra generally referred to as the sticker worth.

The carmakers are boosting a compulsory price listed on the window sticker: the vacation spot and supply cost.

The vacation spot and supply cost is a nonnegotiable price set by the automobile firm that’s usually not talked about in promoting. It covers the producer’s price to move the car from the manufacturing unit to the dealership, however make no mistake, even if you happen to drive to the manufacturing unit to get the automobile your self, you will nonetheless on the hook to pay that price.

Are we uninterested in successful but?

Nissan’s new CEO is a automobile man, and plainly amidst all his cost-cutting he desires to stay true to these roots. Nismo, Nissan’s efficiency wing, is poised to truly broaden amidst the corporate’s different cuts. From Automotive News:

Nissan Motor Co. plans to considerably develop its motorsport-inspired Nismo efficiency subbrand, aiming to double the worldwide lineup from 5 fashions to 10.

The Japanese automaker revealed the technique Dec. 15, with out offering specifics on the upcoming fashions or confirming what number of could be accessible within the U.S.

Nissan luxurious division Infiniti may obtain one of many new Nismos.

You’d assume Infiniti would need its personal efficiency branding, to maintain the posh model separated from the model that sells rebadged Mitsubishis, however I’m only a humble automotive journalist with a advertising diploma. What do I do know?

No matter how batshit Grimes is now, we should all the time keep in mind: “Art Angels” is a masterpiece.