Tesla is reportedly telling its suppliers to remove all China-made components from parts bound for its US-based factories, a significant acceleration of its effort to decouple its US supply chain from China.

The move, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, is a fresh example of the fallout from the deepening trade and geopolitical tensions between the US and China.

According to the report, Tesla decided earlier this year to stop using China-based suppliers for cars made in the US. While the company has already replaced some components, it’s now aiming to switch all remaining parts to non-Chinese sources within the next one to two years.

This strategy isn’t entirely new. We’ve been reporting on Tesla’s efforts to diversify its supply chain since the pandemic exposed the fragility of relying on a single region. The company has been actively encouraging its Chinese suppliers to set up shop elsewhere, particularly in Mexico, to support its North American production.

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However, this new push is reportedly more aggressive. The WSJ’s sources say the strategy accelerated significantly after President Trump imposed stiff new tariffs on Chinese imports, adding to the “uncertainty” that has made it difficult for Tesla to manage costs and formulate a coherent pricing strategy.

Recent disruptions, such as a spat between China and the Netherlands over automotive chips from Nexperia, have only heightened Tesla’s urgency to build a more stable, independent supply chain.

This move solidifies a strategy Tesla has been forced into: running two entirely separate supply chains.

Giga Shanghai, which produces cars for China, Europe, and most of Asia, relies heavily on a localized network of over 400 Chinese suppliers. This has been a massive success, cutting costs and enabling huge production scale.

But those cars and parts don’t go to the US. Tesla’s US factories in Fremont and Texas, which serve its biggest market, are now being firewalled from that Chinese supply base – resulting in a lack of synergy between its supply chain and its factories.

This is the latest example of the “decoupling” between the world’s two largest economies, forcing global companies to effectively pick a side for any given market.

Electrek’s Take

This will be incredibly difficult. China dominates the production of many auto parts, materials, and, most importantly, batteries. More specifically, lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) batteries.

Tesla was using these cheaper, Chinese-made LFP cells in its standard-range US-market vehicles until last year.

Tesla stopped this practice after the cells became ineligible for US EV tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and were also hit by tariffs, but LFP cells are still Tesla’s biggest import from China for its energy storage products.

This new report confirms Tesla is all-in on building a non-China alternative. As CFO Vaibhav Taneja said in April, the company is “securing additional supply chain from non-China-based suppliers,” though he admitted, “it will take time.”

Tesla is already working on its own LFP battery production in the US, with a facility in Nevada (reportedly for its energy-storage products first) expected to come online in 2026.

But it will be a relatively low-volume plant that will help, but it won’t satisfy Tesla’s whole demand for LFP cells.

Honda is eager to prove itself as a self-driving leader with the launch of the all-new, all-electric, ProZision zero-turn riding mower that can run under human control or computer guidance for quieter, cleaner commercial groundskeeping operations.

First seen as a concept back in 2023, the production version of Honda’s autonomous groundskeeping vision is powered by 5 48V electric brushless motors (3 deck motors spinning up Honda’s MicroCut twin blades under its 60″ mulching deck and 2 drive motors, one for each rear wheel), the new ProZision Autonomous ZTR mower is built for the rigors of commercial landscaping, with power to spare and 19.2 kWh of battery capacity to offer pristine cut quality across 15 acres – more than enough for a full day of work.

The Honda mower’s battery can be fully charged overnight (or, in approx. 6 hours) on a 240V “Level 2” connection, or in ~16 hours on a standard 110/120.

Those would be impressive stats on their own, but what sets this latest battery-powered lawnmower apart from its commercial competition is its easy, production-ready autonomy. Honda explains the ProZision programming process:

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1. Activate teaching mode for the ProZision Autonomous, using the Honda web application on a tablet or smartphone.
2. Mow the property exactly as you normally would. Using satellite tracking and Honda software, the ProZision Autonomous tracks the exact route used to cut the property.
3. When the route is completed, save it to the cloud.
4. Automatic route optimization recalculates for better turns and coverage, providing consistent and stable grass-cutting quality on the first pass.
5. Once you are ready to mow using autonomous functionality, put the ProZision Autonomous in Playback mode. It will replicate the prebuilt mowing route, within 3 centimeters accuracy of the programmed mowing pattern.

The autonomous Honda mower is set to hit dealers in early 2026, with first deliveries timed perfectly for spring. And that timing matters, because the current Trump Administration has spent the past year empowering one of the most notoriously racist and abusive Federal enforcement bureaucracies in modern history to treat immigrant labor (traditionally the largest demographic in the landscaping and groundskeeping spaces) like a threat to national security instead of the backbone of the US economy.

In that context, automation stops looking futuristic and starts looking like a basic necessity if these companies intend to keep operating with a fraction of last year’s labor force.

Mark Kohls, VP of Honda Powersports and Products and a seasoned, media-trained professional, has a more nuanced take. “Honda is unveiling the ProZision and ProZision Autonomous battery-powered ZTR lawn mowers as the industry navigates uncertainty in workforce stability, equipment investment returns, and operational cost controls—across short- and long-term horizons,” he said, in a statement. “Honda ProZision lawn mowers provide zero-emission options that complement gasoline-powered fleets to reduce operating costs and enhance sustainability in landscape maintenance.”

The lawns must be cut and rent is still due on the first, in other words.

Production of the new Honda ProZision ZTR autonomous electric lawn mowers will take place at the company’s manufacturing facility in Swepsonville, North Carolina, and use globally made parts.

Honda ProZision autonomous mower

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SOURCE | IMAGES: Honda.



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Billionaire investor Peter Thiel’s fund, Thiel Macro LLC, has significantly cut its position in Tesla (TSLA), according to a new Q3 2025 13F filing.

Thiel, who is close to Musk, is retreating from his Tesla investment at a time when the CEO told shareholders to “hold on” to their stocks and warned TSLA shorts.

The filing, which covers the period ending September 30, shows the fund sold 207,613 TSLA shares during the quarter.

This reduces its stake by over 76%, from 272,613 shares at the end of Q2 to just 65,000 shares remaining.

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Thiel famously co-founded PayPal with Elon Musk and is still close to Tesla’s CEO. They have both recently referenced having conversations, and they collaborated in their support of President Trump in last year’s US elections, as well as during the transition.

Interestingly, Thiel appears to be ignoring his friend’s advice in divesting from Tesla. As Tesla shareholders voted to give Musk the biggest CEO compensation package ever, Musk told them to “hold on to their stocks.”

Just this past weekend, Musk issued a specific warning to those betting against Tesla’s stock, and specifically Bill Gates, via a post on X (formerly Twitter), regarding Gates’ long-held short position against Tesla. Responding to news that the Gates Foundation was selling Microsoft stock, Musk posted:

“If Gates hasn’t fully closed out the crazy short position he has held against Tesla for ~8 years, he had better do so soon.”

The sale of Tesla stocks wasn’t the most significant move in Thiel’s latest filing.

The fund’s most significant move was exiting its entire stake in Nvidia (NVDA), selling over 537,000 shares, a position that had been its largest. Thiel Macro also completely sold off its holdings in Vistra Energy.

This appears to be a major consolidation and a pivot away from high-growth momentum stocks. In their place, the fund added new, more traditional “Big Tech” positions, namely in Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT).

The aggressive sales shrank the fund’s total reported US equity value from $212 million down to just $74.4 million.

Electrek’s Take

To be fair, Thiel’s overall rebalancing appears to stem more from broader market fear than from anything specific about Tesla.

However, it does highlight that Tesla’s volatile stock is risky amid a potential market pullback.

It currently trades at a 275 price-to-earnings ratio, which is expected to keep rising this quarter, even if the stock continues to drop from its recent high, as earnings are expected to decline further in Q4.

Now, this is not financial advice, but I think it’s worth noting that even though Tesla’s stock hasn’t been linked to its fundamentals in a while, its most significant stock price growth occurred during its period of earnings growth.

These days, it’s hard to imagine Tesla going back to earnings growth any time soon.