Tesla Sells Off-Lease Cars That Were Supposed To Be Robotaxis

Good morning! It's Thursday, May 15, 2025, and this is The Morning Shift, your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. This is where you'll find the most important stories that are shaping the way Americans drive and get around.

In this morning's edition, we're looking at another crappy scheme by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and how much tariffs are going to cost Japanese automakers. We're also talking about Ram's heavily delayed electric pickup truck getting delayed even further and a recall affecting over a quarter-million large Ford SUVs. 

This week is almost over, folks. You can hold on a little while longer.

From 2019 to the end of 2024, Tesla had a very strange policy in place saying that customers who leased their vehicles weren't allowed to buy them at the end. They had to return the cars to Tesla. CEO Elon Musk said the purpose of this was to use the previously leased vehicles as part of Tesla's "robotaxi" network. That obviously didn't happen.

As it turned out, Tesla instead flipped the used Model 3s that it forced lessees to return. It makes sense from a business perspective. I mean, Tesla has yet to get around to building a feasible robotaxi despite Musk's best efforts (read: lies). The Austin, Texas-based automaker wasn't just going to sit on a cache of vehicles that were quickly losing money. That's why it decided to break its promise and sell the cars for far more money than lease-end buyers would have paid. 

It started as a program that only impacted the Model 3, but it quickly grew to every model the company made until the program was canceled a few months back.

If you're thinking that's a really scummy thing to do, you'd be right, but it does seem to be legal and helped keep the lie about robotaxis alive and well. From Reuters:

The practice was an easy way to "jack up the price" of the used vehicles, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified.

[...]

[T]he tactic appears to have been legal. Still, the practice denied lessees the industry-standard option of buying their vehicles and misled them for years about why.

It also perpetuated the myth among investors that Tesla was near fully autonomous driving technology. That belief has helped buoy Tesla stock, whose value has far outpaced current earnings and made it the world's most valuable automaker.

Since 2019, Tesla has leased over 314,000 vehicles worldwide — accounting for 4.4% of all deliveries. That is a lot of Model 3s and customers being taken advantage of for the cardinal sin of trusting Elon Musk.

Here's what Tesla would do to the cars it took back on leases to jack up prices for the next buyer:

In making upgrades to its off-lease vehicles, the people familiar with Tesla's retail operations told Reuters, the company often added "Full Self-Driving" software, which it has sold separately for up to $15,000 and now sells for $8,000. It also added "acceleration boost," an update that can make the car speed up faster, which it sells separately for $2,000.

This move has obviously left a bad taste in some customers' mouths. 

At the start and end of his three-year Model Y lease, Joe Mendenhall told Reuters, Tesla staff said they needed the car back for the robotaxi fleet. But last year he learned Tesla sold the car once he returned it.

"Lies about not being able to buy out my lease," the Indianapolis marketing entrepreneur wrote on X. "The car gets sold at auction, not turned into a robotaxi like I was told. Slow clap @elonmusk."

Will this latest revolution have any bearing on what happens to Musk and Tesla in the future? Probably not, but it's at least in keeping with Musk's villain arc.

Japan's largest automakers look like they're primed to take a massive $19 billion hit on tariffs thanks to President Donald Trump. The country's top brands — Toyota, Honda and Nissan — all warned of weaker finances this year or withheld releasing guidance altogether while they figure out what the hell is going on.

It's expected that the fallout from Trump's actions will stick around for years — long after he's (theoretically) out of office. It has caused automakers around the globe to rethink their North American investments and production strategies. From Bloomberg: 

Toyota Motor Corp., the world's biggest carmaker, is likely to be the worst hit. It said last week it expects a ¥180 billion ($1.2 billion) impact to operating income in April and May alone. The figure could be as much as $10.7 billion for the whole fiscal year, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. Pelham Smithers analyst Julie Boote forecasts between $5.4 billion and $6.8 billion.

Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. both estimate a $3 billion impact. Subaru Corp., which imports roughly half of the cars it sells in the US, also skipped annual guidance as it predicted a $2.5 billion dent. Mazda Motor Corp. forwent a full-year outlook.

[...]

The US is the biggest market for Japan's top carmakers, which utilize factories in Mexico or Canada to build vehicles that are then sent across the border. But Trump's import tariffs now make that an expensive, if not unviable, practice and left companies struggling with the costly dilemma of how to overhaul their supply chains to escape the duties.

Japanese automakers have their fingers crossed that they can reach some sort of trade agreement that'll offer a reprieve. Talks with the Trump administration are set to pick up later this month.

Honda said this week it was postponing a plan by two years that would spend $11 billion to build out its EV supply chain in Canada — including a factory that can build up to 240,000 EVs per year. It has already shifted production of the Civic Hybrid from Japan to the U.S. In 2024, about 40% of the vehicles it sold in the U.S. were imported.

At the same time, Subaru says it's reviewing all of its investments — including its EV developments. Nissan has also halted U.S. orders for its crossovers built in Mexico, and Mazda has stopped exports to Canada of a vehicle that is produced at a factory in Alabama.

It's a goddamn mess out there, folks.  

The electric Ram pickup truck will be here one day, but that day isn't anytime soon. Stellantis has further pushed the launch date of the already delayed battery-electric Ram because of "changing market dynamics."

Now, production of the all-electric Ram 1500 — which was first unveiled all the way back in 2023 — has been delayed until the summer of 2027 as a 2028 model-year vehicle, according to a memo to suppliers reviewed by Crain's Detroit Business. Initially, the truck was meant to be launched in 2024 before an initial push to 2026. From Automotive News:

Additionally, the automaker pushed out production of the extended-range hybrid Ramcharger, set to launch this year, to the first quarter of next year due to "extending the quality validation period."

[...]

"Stellantis continues to reassess its product strategy in North America to align it with our competitive advantage with the Range Extended Ram and in light of slowing consumer demand for half-ton BEV pickups," spokeswoman Jodi Tinson said in an email. "Our plan ensures we are offering customers a range of trucks with flexible powertrain options that best meet their needs."

Stellantis has shuffled the launch of the Ramcharger ahead of the electric Ram because of weak demand, the outlet reports. The company says a Ramcharger delay will "support a successful launch and the highest build quality for segment exclusive REEV technology."

Every automaker's EV plans have been left in disarray by the Trump administration, so it's not surprising that Stellantis is kicking its EV truck down the road while everyone figures out what the hell the automotive industry is going to look like in a few years.

Ford is recalling 2020-2024 273,789 Expeditions and Lincoln Navigators in the U.S. because of a brake issue that can lead to a crash, according to a report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. From the Detroit Free Press:

Brake fluid in the affected vehicles may leak due to the front brake lines coming in contact with the engine air cleaner outlet pipe and being damaged, according to the regulator.

Dealers are expected to inspect and replace the front brake line and the air cleaner outlet pipe, if necessary, free of charge. Owners will receive notification letters by May 26, NHTSA said.

All in all, the recall covers 223,315 Expeditions and 50,474 Navigators, and Ford expects that just 1% of those vehicles actually have the defect, the Associated Press reports. Luckily, Ford isn't aware of any accidents or injuries related to the recall, but it has gotten 45 warranty reports of front brake line leaks so far.

Man, Akon was on such a heater in the late 2000s. His entire Konvicted album is a total masterpiece with his like "Smack That" and "I Wanna Love You." Of course, if you ask me, "Don't Matter" stands above all the rest. It certainly doesn't hurt that the music video stars an sick-looking vintage Ford Bronco.