Sterling Heights Assembly plant, Michigan. Photo: FCA on Flickr
Stellantis has paused production at two assembly plants in Canada and Mexico in response to tariffs, leaving thousands of Americans and Canadians out of their jobs while the company figures out what to do next. The idled plants produce both the Dodge Charger Daytona EV and Jeep Wagoneer S EV, among other vehicles.
In the aftermath of yesterday’s Inflation Day announcements by Mr. Trump, the fallout has been swift – and perhaps swifter than expected.
To set the stage for this article: tariffs do not work. There are some potential benefits or situations that they can be used in, but when they are decided on haphazardly, not targeted towards any particular industry or country, not accompanied by onshoring incentives, and not done in concert with allies to produce a desired effect, they tend to just be bad for the country imposing them.
Instead, what they do – particularly when implemented in the idiotic way that these have been announced – is push ally countries away, encourage countries to find other global consumers for their exports, induce retaliation, and cause inflation for the country imposing them.
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That last inflation point is especially direct and easy to understand, so lets explain how it works.
Imagine that you are one of two companies making a product, which you can sell profitably for $11, but your overseas competitor can sell for $10. Then, your country adds a 50% tariff to your competitor in order to make your product more competitive. Now, your competitor sells their product for $15 – but you’re a business, and your interest is in making money, and you now know that nobody can compete with your $11 price… or $12, $13, or even $14 for that matter.
So you set your price to $14.50, still undercutting your competition, making yourself more profit, and causing 45% inflation for everyone who had previously bought your competitor’s $10 product.
In this way, tariffs are a direct shock to prices for consumers. And when those tariffs are broad across all industries, they mean that consumers will pay more for everything.
This is just an extremely simplified example of only one way in which tariffs negatively affect consumers in the country implementing them, but it is widely held by anyone who studies economics that tariffs are generally harmful.
It is possible for tariffs to reduce offshoring of jobs, or at least, those who believe in their use tend to consider this as their primary purpose. This is why labor unions generally support protectionist policy, as they generally consider that free trade agreements have resulted in offshoring of jobs from advanced economies, and therefore a lowering of overall global labor standards as companies flee countries with higher wage or labor standards.
But we’ve seen attempts at protectionist tariffs in the auto industry fail before when we tried to implement tariffs on Japanese steel and autos in the 1970s, and all it did was give 50 years of global export dominance to the Japanese (as I went over in this article, or you can read about in this union publication).
More proximately, the last round of tariffs implemented by the exact same person who has somehow been allowed to wander into the White House for a second time (despite there being a clear Constitutional remedy for this crisis) were shown to harm the US economy. Mr. Trump’s tariffs didn’t lead to an increase in American jobs in targeted industries, and retaliatory tariffs led to great harm for American industry, especially farmers, due to targeted retaliatory tariffs by China.
But now, not content to just harm the US economy and instead apparently wanting to destroy it wholesale, Mr. Trump’s new tariff announcement yesterday is much broader than his comparatively small-scale tariffs of yesteryear. The previous salvo just managed to shatter the US soybean industry, whereas this one stands to harm all US industries and consumers.
And today we’re already seeing the first effect: job losses in American manufacturing, the very sector that Mr. Trump’s lies claim he’s trying to save.
Stellantis announced today that it will idle some plants in Canada and Mexico, leading to job losses for Americans. It directly implicated the tariffs as its reason for these plant idlings.
Those job losses total 4,500 for our erstwhile Canadian allies, and 900 for workers in the US in associated plants. A Mexican plant will be idled, but due to the strength of the Mexican workers’ contract, Mexican auto workers will still report to work and be paid while the plant is idle.
The plants chosen for idling produce several vehicles, including the Dodge Charger Daytona EV and Jeep Wagoneer S EV, but also the Chrysler Pacifica and Jeep Compass. They are supported by US plants that provide parts for those vehicles.
US workers at stamping plants in Michigan and transmission and casting plants in Indiana will be the ones to lose their jobs during the pause.
Stellantis said that it is still figuring out what the long-term effects of the tariffs will be, but that these immediate actions are a direct response to the tariffs while they figure things out. It will continue to determine if further action is necessary.
An email sent by North American COO Antonio FIlosa said “We understand the current environment creates uncertainty. Be assured that we are very engaged with all of our key stakeholders, including top government leaders, unions, suppliers and dealers in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, as we work to manage and adapt to these changes.”
Uncertainty is something that all businesses, but especially the auto business, abhors. Automotive manufacturing is a complex process requiring coordination of suppliers across thousands of parts produced across many countries.
Cars are planned and produced on long timelines, with lead times of some ~7 years on average from concept to production. As a result, tariff policy that changes day by day can make it difficult for any complex manufacturing, especially automotive, to plan around.
In those situations, sometimes a manufacturer will just throw their hands up and say “we give up, we’ll find someone else to sell to instead.”
And it looks like today’s move by Stellantis is just the first company to do that. Expect more.
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A fully electric Isuzu pickup truck? That’s right. The D-MAX EV is Isuzu’s first electric pickup, and it will be rolling in the next few months. After kicking off mass production, Isuzu said the new EV pickup will “match the performance of existing diesel models,” boasting high towing capacity and payload.
Isuzu’s first electric pickup is launching in 2025
Isuzu announced on Tuesday that the D-MAX EV has officially entered mass production. The company has started building left-hand drive models, which will be shipped to Europe in the third quarter of 2025.
By the end of the year, production of right-hand drive models will begin for the UK, with sales expected to start in 2026.
The electric pickup is nearly identical to Isuzu’s popular gas-powered D-MAX, but swaps the diesel powertrain for a pair of electric motors. The D-MAX EV features new e-Axles, one on the front and the other at the rear, for a full-time 4WD system.
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The dual-motor powertrain enables it to match the performance of existing diesel models, with a combined 188 hp (140 kW) and a maximum torque of 240 lb-ft (325 Nm).
It can also tow over 7,700 lbs (3,500 kg) with a maximum payload of over 2,200 lbs (1,010 kg). That’s about the same as the D-MAX diesel, which has a 3,500 kg towing capacity and a payload capacity of up to 1,200 kg.
Powered by a 66.9 kWh battery, Isuzu’s first electric pickup boasts a driving range of up to 263 km (162 miles) on the WLTP. In the city, it can have a driving range of up to 224 miles (361 km).
Isuzu D-Max EV specs
Drive System
Full-time 4×4
Battery Type
Lithium-ion
Battery Capacity
66.9 kWh
Max Output
130 kW (174 hp)
Max Torque
325 Nm
Max Speed
Over 130 km/h (+80 mph)
Max Payload
1,000 kg (+2,200 lbs)
Max Towing Capacity
3.5t (+7,700 lbs)
Isuzu D-Max EV electric pickup specs
Built for on and off-road performance, the rugged electric pickup features over 8″ (210 mm) of ground clearance with a wading depth of nearly 24″ (600 mm).
Although prices have not been announced, the D-MAX EV is expected to start slightly higher than the diesel model, which has a base price of around € 36,500 ($41,600).
Isuzu’s popular D-MAX is sold in over 100 countries, including Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Central and South America. The electric version will arrive in Europe in the next few months, followed by the UK and other regions in 2026.
The electric D-MAX will compete with the Toyota Hilux, Ford Ranger, and other electric pickups, such as Geely’s Radar R6, BYD’s Shark, and Ford’s F-150 Lightning.
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For the first time in five years, a Tesla insider required to report Tesla stock transactions bought stocks rather than selling them.
But the transaction is so small that it makes the whole situation hilarious.
Insiders in public companies are top executives and board members who are required to report to the SEC any transaction related to the company’s stock.
For Tesla, it has become a running joke that insiders only sell, never buy the stock.
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This has been true without exception for years.
We don’t know as much about executives as Tesla has a very short top executive bench who are required to file transactions. However, when it comes to its board members, they have been selling at an impressive rate.
However, we now have confirmation that a Tesla board member is buying, rather than selling.
Joe Gebbia, the Airbnb co-founder who joined Tesla’s board in 2022, confirmed that he bought 4,000 shares in Tesla last week worth about $1 million:
Electrek’s Take
Gebbia is estimated to be worth over $7 billion. Therefore, his purchase of $1 million worth of Tesla stock would be equivalent to my buying a fractional share in Tesla.
Furthermore, the disclosure confirmed that despite being on the board for the last 3 years, Gebbia owned only 111 shares in Tesla before the transaction.
That’s quite the show of confidence in Tesla.
Thie whole situation with the board is disappointing. Tesla’s core business is melting. The company reported its worst quarter in years last week, and the stock surged 20%.
None of it makes any sense.
The board is sitting on its hands while the most powerful force accelerating the advent of electric transport is being destroyed in favor of nonsensical predictions about the potential of solving self-driving and humanoid robots.
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Venmo, long a centerpiece of PayPal‘s growth story but often criticized for its lack of monetization, is becoming a bigger contributor to the business.
PayPal said Tuesday in its first-quarter earnings release that revenue at Venmo increased 20% year-over-year in the first quarter, though the company didn’t provide a dollar figure. PayPal acquired Venmo in 2013 through the acquisition of parent company Braintree.
While it’s long been a popular consumer service for sending money to friends, Venmo’s ability to drive meaningful revenue has been a major question mark for investors, especially as competition from rivals like Zelle and Square Cash has intensified.
Venmo’s total payment volume rose 10% from a year earlier, but revenue grew twice as fast, reflecting the business opportunity. Venmo only gets revenue from specific products like Pay with Venmo at online checkout, Venmo debit cards, and instant transfers, but not from peer-to-peer payments.
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Ahead of the earnings report, Jefferies analysts noted that Venmo revenue growth appeared to be “accelerating sharply” and flagged its rising contribution to branded checkout as a key area to watch. Compass Point analysts similarly said that while competition from Zelle and Square Cash remains fierce, Venmo’s traction with debit cards and online checkout could “open up new monetization avenues” if adoption trends continue.
The company added nearly 2 million first-time PayPal and Venmo debit card users during the quarter, and total debit card payment volume across PayPal and Venmo climbed more than 60%. Meanwhile, Pay with Venmo transaction volume surged 50% year over year, and Venmo debit card monthly active users grew about 40%.
PayPal reported better-than-expected earnings for the quarter but missed on revenue. The company reaffirmed its full-year guidance, citing macroeconomic uncertainty.