China to ease looming chip shortage by opening exports to some companies – Jalopnik

Happy Monday! It’s November 3, 2025 and this is The Morning Shift: your daily digest of the most important car news from around the world, in one place. Here are the top stories shaping the way Americans drive and get around.

In this morning’s edition, we look at a break for companies affected by the new chip shortage, as well as the state of play at ZF. We’ll also look at Tesla’s continued downward spiral in Europe, and how the end of the US EV tax credit affected our Korean automakers.

China said it will allow eligible companies to exempt from the export ban on Nexperia’s semiconductor chips, a Commerce Ministry spokesperson said in a statement on November 1.

The statement was made after China’s export ban on Dutch semiconductor chip supplier Honda Motor Co. forced production to be suspended in North America and prompted other global automakers to warn of looming chip shortages.

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The ministry did not specify when the exceptions would be granted or take effect.

It sounds like the Trump administration wants to take credit here, following trade talks with China, but this announcement contains no details about which companies will be allowed to get chips from Nexperia – let alone how many chips, or when they will be made available. There are plenty of questions that still need to be answered.

German auto parts supplier ZF (ZFF.UL) plans to lay off workers at its Schweinfurt site due to a limited supply of semiconductors, a union representative said.

“The specific arrangements are currently being negotiated with the works council,” an IG Metall union representative told Reuters.

The company did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

A standoff over Dutch chipmaker Nexperia has raised concerns about possible production disruptions for carmakers, with the chips widely used by their suppliers such as ZF

The union probably won’t want any of its employees to be furloughed, especially with this new announcement that chips will soon be making their way back into businesses. We’ll have to see where the situation goes from here, but it could be on the way to a solution – as a later solution that companies and employees might want.

Tesla sales fell in October in a number of European countries including Spain, the Netherlands and Scandinavian markets, in the latest sign that the US electric vehicle maker’s struggle on the continent continues.

Tesla saw sales rise in some European markets in September after falling for most of this year due to increasing competition from newer EV models to its aging lineup.

The automaker’s new car registrations – a measure of sales – fell 89% in Sweden, 86% in Denmark, 50% in Norway and 48% in the Netherlands, local industry data showed. Sales in Spain fell 31% in October, while sales of fully electric and plug-in hybrid models rose 119% across the sector.

It seems bad, Elon! Good thing you gave up the affordable car to focus on the Cybertruck and the autonomous taxi. These are definitely better investments of time, money and effort.

U.S. sales fell at Hyundai and rose slightly at Kia in October, as demand for electric vehicles fell following the expiration of federal tax breaks.

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While hybrid deliveries rose 41 percent, sales of two of Hyundai’s core EVs – the Ioniq 5, down 63 percent, and the Ioniq 6, down 52 percent – ​​fell sharply. Kia’s best-selling EVs, the EV6 and EV9, saw even steeper declines last month.

“We saw strong demand for electric vehicles leading to the expiration of federal tax incentives, and while that shift temporarily disrupted the market, we are confident it will recover,” Randy Parker, CEO of Hyundai Motor North America, said in a statement. “Hyundai’s momentum remains strong and we are on track for record sales and total sales for the year.”

Hyundai needs to look confident here because that’s what investors want to hear, but the loss of the EV tax credit is a big blow to companies that produce EVs. It’s also a big blow to anyone who wants a breathable atmosphere to remain around a habitable planet, but I don’t think we’re doing anything about that.

I don’t want to think about last weekend’s World Series. I will die for my country, the East Coast.