Trump's CAFE Changes Will Cost Drivers

Happy Monday! It's December 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 how lowered emissions regulations could cost car buyers money, as well as the wild sums the Tesla board has raked in. We'll also look at how EV growth is slowing, and an NHTSA investigation into a Jeep recall.

Trump is rolling back CAFE regulations, under the reasoning that including less emissions equipment on cars will make them cheaper. Unfortunately for that line of thought, it turns out the changes would cost drivers more in gas than it would save them in new-car pricing. From Automotive News: 

The Trump administration pitched its changes to the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards as a vehicle affordability play, but the fine print shows that NHTSA expects consumers to pay more for fuel, an expense that will top the predicted savings on transaction price.

The Trump administration assumes that relaxed mpg regulations will allow automakers to spend less on components that improve fuel economy and pass an average $925 in purchase savings to buyers. Officials from Ford, General Motors, Stellantis and the National Automobile Dealers Association joined President Donald Trump in the Oval Office to cheer the predicted savings for consumers.

But if the proposal becomes official, companies will ditch fuel-saving technologies and consumers will pay at least $187 more over the lifetime of the vehicle, even with the expected price savings upfront, according to an appendix to NHTSA's proposal.

The net cost of passenger car and light truck ownership will increase by between $187 and $506 over the vehicle lifetime, driven by a total increase in fuel costs of $1,112 to $1,431 for the 2031 model year, NHTSA said.

Of course, this isn't really about saving drivers money. It's about enriching fossil fuel donors, who will absolutely love this change. Best of luck to the rest of us as we choke on smog and drown in rising oceans. 

Tesla's CEO is the richest man in the world, but he's not the only one making bank off the company's entirely unjustified stock price. Tesla's board are also making out like bandits, raking in a collective $3 billion. From Reuters: 

Tesla's board of directors has earned more than $3 billion through stock awards that far exceeded the value of those given to peers at the biggest U.S. technology firms at the time they were paid, according to an analysis performed for Reuters by compensation and governance specialist Equilar.

The analysis found CEO Elon Musk's brother Kimbal has earned nearly $1 billion since 2004, based on the appreciated value of stock options held or liquidated. Director Ira Ehrenpreis has collected $869 million since 2007. Board chair Robyn Denholm has made $650 million since 2014.

Directors reaped such windfalls even though they haven't awarded themselves new stock grants since 2020. The board agreed to suspend director compensation starting in 2021 to settle, opens new tab a shareholder lawsuit alleging excessive board-member pay. Between 2018 and 2020, however, the average Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab director received a total of about $12 million in cash-and-stock compensation. That was about eight times as much as the average director at Alphabet, the next highest-paid among the "Magnificent Seven" companies over the same period.

Tesla's board compensation is outsized, but much of that cash is likely just due to the absolutely skyrocketing share price — a share price that remains entirely untethered from the company's underlying financial condition, as more and more consumers reject its cars and its CEO. That's fine, though, because people will spend literally infinite money on robots, right? 

EV sales in Europe are still rising, but growth in China and the U.S. has tapered off — two markets major enough to stem global EV adoption. Despite Europe's best efforts,  EV growth is slowing, and it's our and China's fault. From Reuters:

Global EV sales grew in November at the slowest rate since February 2024 as China plateaued, while the end of an EV tax credit scheme in the United States set North America on track for its first year of decline since 2019, data showed.

In Europe, registrations of electric vehicles, including battery-electric and plug-in hybrids, maintained strong growth thanks to national incentive programs and are up by a third so far this year compared with the same period of 2024, consultancy Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (BMI) said on Friday.

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North American registrations fell by 42% to just over 100,000 cars sold, following a similar drop in October at the end of U.S. tax credits, and are down 1% so far this year.

EV growth in China is tapering off, but at a much higher EV market share than we have here. Electric vehicles made up the majority of new car sales in the nation just a few months ago, while over here we're still fighting for crumbs. 

Jeep recalled two model years of the Grand Cherokee recently for issues with the rear coil springs, but a new investigation from NHTSA shows that the fix may be just as bad as the issue it was meant to solve. The agency is now investigating Jeep, to determine whether the solution actually solved anything. From Reuters:

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Monday opened a probe into the recall of 331,401 Jeep vehicles due to improperly installed rear coil springs.

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The U.S. auto safety regulator said the recall in June 2023 covered certain 2022–2023 Grand Cherokee models built by Stellantis' Fiat Chrysler Automobiles U.S. subsidiary.

As a remedy, dealers inspected the affected vehicles and repaired the rear coil assemblies when needed, at no cost to owners.

However, following completion of the remedy, NHTSA received 20 consumer complaints involving detached springs.

Not a great look, Jeep, to have your fix investigated as badly as the original problem. Still better than Ford this year, though. 

Oh, you thought I was going to go with the normal version of "Birth of Serpents"? C'mon now.