Tesla Loses Even Extra Floor In China

Pleased Monday! It is November 10, 2025, and that is The Morning Shift — your each day roundup of the highest automotive headlines from world wide, in a single place. That is the place you will discover crucial tales which can be shaping the best way People drive and get round.

On this morning’s version, we’re taking a look at Tesla’s gross sales figures in China, in addition to the top of the short-lived Nexperia chip scarcity. We’ll additionally have a look at Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe’s new pay bundle, and the newest big-name departure from Tesla.

China’s electrical automotive market is fairly cutthroat nowadays, and Tesla has been going through an uphill battle in opposition to its getting older automobiles and politically divisive CEO. This all got here collectively in October, when Tesla’s gross sales in China dropped to their lowest numbers in years. From Reuters:

Tesla’s gross sales in China dropped to 26,006 automobiles in October, their lowest in three years, because the U.S. electrical automobile maker struggles with tepid demand within the hyper-competitive market.

Gross sales fell 35.8% from a 12 months earlier, down from September’s determine of 71,525 when Tesla started deliveries of the Mannequin Y L, a longer-wheelbase and six-seat model of its best-selling Mannequin Y SUV till now solely out there in China.

These massive Tesla points — the getting older lineup, the CEO whose politics alienate the core viewers for electrical automobiles — should not be troublesome for such a large firm with such a staggering market cap to unravel. Sadly for Tesla, booting Elon would additionally tank that market cap again right down to one thing that really befits a distinct segment automaker with declining gross sales. Not an important place to be in, in the event you’re the board.

One other chip scarcity has held up auto manufacturing globally, forcing automakers to idle provide strains or scramble for substitutes, because of a dispute between the Netherlands and China. Now, as shortly because it began, plainly scarcity may very well be ending. China is permitting chips from Nexperia to circulation as soon as once more, and carmakers are grateful. From Automotive Information:

China has granted exemptions to export controls on Nexperia chips for civilian functions, the commerce ministry stated Nov. 9 in a transfer that may assist to alleviate provide shortages for carmakers and automotive suppliers.

The announcement is the strongest sign but from Beijing that it’s going to ease strain on the worldwide auto trade brought on by export curbs imposed after the Dutch authorities took management of Nexperia, a big producer of fundamental chips utilized in automotive electrical techniques.

…

China’s commerce ministry didn’t specify what it thought of to be civilian use, however the announcement follows statements from German and Japanese corporations saying that deliveries of Nexperia’s Chinese language-made chips had resumed.

Honda already minimize its 2025 revenue estimates based mostly on this chip scarcity, and different corporations have had their manufacturing impacted. Hopefully issues get again to regular quickly.

CEOs world wide appear to be studying from Elon Musk — or no less than his exorbitant pay packages tied to firm efficiency. Now Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe is getting in on the pattern, with a pay bundle that might pay out $4.6 billion. From Reuters:

Electrical pickup and SUV maker Rivian stated on Friday it was giving its CEO a pay plan value as a lot as $4.6 billion over the subsequent decade, a deal much like Tesla’s document bundle for CEO Elon Musk, and linked to new revenue targets and decrease share worth milestones than a earlier deal.

The transfer by the Rivian board reveals that the Tesla plan for Musk may change into a mannequin for corporations aiming to develop quick. Rivian’s pay bundle for its CEO RJ Scaringe may very well be one of many richest in historical past, relying on what efficiency targets are met.

Rivian stated the plan will retain its founder and hold him centered on progress and profitability because the automaker, recognized for its R1S SUVs and R1T pickups, gears as much as launch subsequent 12 months its smaller, extra inexpensive R2 SUV that may compete with Tesla’s best-selling Mannequin Y crossover.

The Rivian plan replaces one which the board stated was not more likely to be met, with the recent plan having decrease targets by way of share progress.

I am a fan of Rivian, and I need the corporate to stay round and hold producing vehicles effectively into the longer term. I marvel, although, if it may possibly afford compensation offers like this.

Tesla has been bleeding expertise just lately, and its newest loss is a giant one: The top of Cybertruck growth, Siddhant Awasthi. He additionally labored on the Mannequin 3 line, each earlier than and after the launch of the Cybertruck, however now he is gone to greener pastures. From Bloomberg:

Tesla Inc.’s head of the Cybertruck program is leaving the corporate, including to a collection of high-level departures this 12 months because the electric-vehicle maker struggles with uneven gross sales.

Siddhant Awasthi, who oversaw the event and ramp-up of the divisive pickup truck, is departing Tesla after three years in that position, he stated in a submit on LinkedIn.

“This determination wasn’t simple, particularly with a lot thrilling progress on the horizon,” Awasthi wrote. He did not specify what he’ll do subsequent.

His determination follows a string of government exits at Tesla, which has grappled with lukewarm client demand and the lack of key US incentives whereas pursuing new enterprise strains round robotaxis and humanoid robots. David Lau, Tesla’s vice chairman of software program engineering, this 12 months left for OpenAI after nearly 13 years.

Awasthi had been at Tesla for practically a decade, beginning in 2017, which is a very long time for anybody to remain at any firm. Nonetheless, he isn’t the one higher-up on the firm to depart just lately, because the underlying automotive gross sales have gotten much less and fewer sound. That is what we within the enterprise name a “unhealthy signal.”

Fifty years of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

I used to be speaking with my roommates about Flyleaf final evening, and so they’d by no means heard of the band. I figured everybody knew Flyleaf round 2010, however I suppose I used to be flawed. In the event you’re additionally not conversant in this somehow-Christian band, welcome to at this time’s fortunate 10,000.