Americans already losing jobs to tariffs – 900 laid off as Stellantis idles plants
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.
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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Hot on the heels of the Fiat 4×4 Grande Panda Manifesto comes another subcompact Stellantis compact with electric drive and off-road ambitions. Meet the Opel Frontera GRAVEL – which might be our best look yet at the next-generation electric Jeep Renegade coming in 2027.
Based on a lifted Frontera EV and riding on a set of bespoke, 7×16″ Borbet CWE wheels wrapped in aggressive AT tires, Opel says its all-electric Frontera GRAVEL’s emissions-free driving makes it ideally suited for “soft-roading” nature drives (their words, not mine), with a rugged, adventurous 4×4 appearance.
Those rugged, Jeep-like good looks are backed up enhanced by the usual overland accessories, including a front-mounted winch, side storage boxes at the rear, and a lattice-style roof rack. A slew of accessory lights mounted on the Thule Canyon XT carrier and hood, as well, for excellent nighttime visibility off-road and (presumably) retina-searing intensity on-road.
“The new Opel Frontera is already standout,” says Rebecca Reinermann, Vice President of Marketing for Stellantis’ Opel and Vauxhall brands. “It is rugged, practical, and perfect for families and everyday adventures. But with the Frontera GRAVEL show car, we’ve pushed the limits, imagining a tougher, more daring, trailblazing version. This concept is built to fire up our fanbase and test the demand for a bolder, more rugged Frontera in the future. It’s all about freedom, adventure, excitement and pushing boundaries.”
Like the recent Fiat concept mentioned at the top of this post, the production Frontera EV is based on Stellantis’ “Smart Car” BEV-native platform, and features a 113 hp electric motor and more than 300 km of WLTP range (about 185 miles) standard, with the “long range” version able of traveling up to 400 km (about 250 miles) between charges.
Either version comes with the “Pure Panel” digital cockpit featuring dual 10″ displays. For a few dollars quid more, the GS trim adds automatic climate control and Intelli-Seat front seats. And, if Mopar Insider has any idea what’s up, it might actually make for a decent little Jeep Renegade replacement (below).
Electric Jeep Renegade rendering
The Opel Frontera first came to our attention last October, when it became the first new EV from Stellantis to be offered with both ICE and battery power, for the same price – making EV price parity an objectively real thing.
Jeep parent company Stellantis has already confirmed that a new Jeep Renegade that’s priced below the upcoming Jeep Compass EV would be coming to the US as a 2027 model, and it’s expected to share its mechanicals with both the Frontera and Fiat’s recently teased Grande Panda Manifesto. If that does anything for you, let us know in the comments.
Opel Frontera GRAVEL gallery
SOURCES | IMAGES: Mopar Insider, Stellantis.
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Year after year, a seemingly endless raft of all-electric concept bikes wearing Honda badges have made their way across the motor show stage without ever making it onto the dealer showroom. But now, it’s here: this unmissable, cafe racer-inspired electric Honda motorcycle is the company’s first – and you can buy it!
We got our first look at this first-ever production electric motorcycle from Honda back in March, when leaked type-approval documents hinted at a 75 mph 125 cc-class motorcycle with cafe racer styling and a “WH8000D” designation first surfaced. It was clear, then, that Honda was seriously working on a for-real electric motorcycle – what wasn’t clear was when (or even if) it would ever see productions.
The wait is over
The new Honda E-VO is available in dual- or triple-battery versions that feature either 4.1 or 6.2 kWh of battery capacity. On the triple-pack version, riders can enjoy up to 170 km WMTC (about 105 miles) of riding. Recharging takes about 2.5 hours on a standard outlet or about 90 minutes on an L2 (like the Harley-Davidson backed Livewire or Vespa Elettrica electric bikes, DC fast charging is not available).
Both battery configurations drive a motor with a peak power of 15.3 kW, or about 20 hp. And, like all electric motors, all the torque is available at 0 rpm, giving the Honda E-VO in-town performance similar to much higher (than 125 cc) displacement bikes.
In addition to superior stop-and-go performance, the Honda E-VO offers riders a number of other innovative (for a motorcycle) features, including a 7-inch TFT instrument display paired with a second 7-inch TFT screen for navigation, music, tire pressure, and battery SOC information. The smaller battery pack version of the E-VO includes a front dash cam, while the larger model has both a front and rear dash cam as standard equipment.
The Honda E-VO is available in the black and off-white color schemes (shown). Prices start at 29,999 yuan, or about $4500 for the 4.1 kWh version, and 36,999 yuan (about $5100) for the 6.2 kWh triple-pack version.
Electrek’s Take
Yes, this is a Chinese-market bike built by Honda’s Chinese Wuyang venture. No, we probably won’t ever get something like this in the US, where a raucous, 113 hp 600 cc CBR600RR is somehow positioned as a “good starter bike” by cowards with 3″ wide chicken strips on their tires. That said, if the motorcycle industry as-a-whole wants to survive in North America, zippy, affordable, lightweight motorcycles are exactly what’s needed.
Here’s hoping we get something like this stateside rather sooner than later.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Wuyang Honda; via Ride Apart, the PACK.
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Westerners in-the-know look longingly at the affordable, value-packed electric cars rolling out of China – but what could you get if money was no object? If you were to spend 100,000 US American dollars on a Chinese EV, how good could these Chinese cars really get? Huawei’s 852 hp Maextro S800 is the answer.
Packing up to 852 hp and a cutting-edge technology stack developed by Huawei, Chinese luxury brand Maextro revealed its latest entry into the Mercedes-Maybach EQS and Rolls-Royce Spectre segment of ultra-luxe EVs, the S800, back in February. Now, it’s officially on sale, priced at 708,000 and 1,018,000 yuan (approx $97,500-140,000), and ready to make an entrance.
As I wrote at the car’s launch, the Maextro S800’s bespoke, purpose-built platform doesn’t share any parts with a lesser offering in the Huawei lineup in the same way a Mercedes or BMW or Volkswagen does with a Maybach, Rolls-Royce, or Bentley, respectively. And, while I admit that that may not mean much to you and me, I maintain that it might to the people shopping six- and seven-figure cars. And that might be especially true to people willing to shell out that kind of cash for a car in China’s generally lower-priced market.
That seems to be the kind of upmarket experience people of the People’s Republic want, if the S800’s two thousand initial orders (in just two days) are and indication. And, lucky for those buyers, the Maextro is set to deliver plenty in return.
The vibe is immaculate
Those well-heeled buyers will get a choice of EREV or “pure” battery electric powertrains good for between 480 and 852 all-electric horsepower. 32 ADAS sensors including both radar and lidar compliment a suite of cameras analyze the road ahead and feed data to Huawei’s ADS road perception system, which is constantly adjusting torque distribution, suspension compression and rebound, and front and rear steering to deliver a tech-driven chauffeur experience that Huawei insists is second to none.
Huawei says its robotic driver is pretty handy when the weather gets nasty, too, thanks to an advanced sensor array that helps to increase the detection distance in rain, fog, and dust by 60% compared to the benchmarked competition.
While the car is its passengers around, they’ll get to enjoy luxurious, reclining rear seats with next-level mood lighting handled by a fully independent rear passenger system that supports intelligent track lighting, gesture dimming, and a panoramic “starry sky” moonroof that includes meteor shower effects.
The Maextro S800 also offers intelligent privacy glass and a unique door-closing function are also controlled with advanced gesture controls, in case you needed reminding that China is living in the year 3000 while the US is being plunged headlong into the 1940s by a pack of pseudo-conservatives too old to realize their gold standard policies will do nothing but hurt a fiat economy that’s consistently proved out the basic hypotheses behind modern monetary theory over the last five or six decades – but that’s a lot for an EV blog.
Instead of that, let’s ooh and ahh over the Maextro S800’s ultra-luxe interior in the photo gallery, below, then keep the debate to the relative merits of one of these over, say, a Mercedes-Benz EQS in the comments.
Huawei Maextro S800 gallery
SOURCES | IMAGES: Huawei Central; CarNewsChina.
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