Tesla loses even more ground in China – Jalopnik

Happy Monday! It’s November 10, 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 Tesla’s sales figures in China, as well as the end of the short-lived Nexperia chip shortage. We’ll also look at Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe’s new pay package and the latest major departure from Tesla.

Tesla sales in China fell to 26,006 vehicles in October, the lowest in three years, as the US electric vehicle maker struggles with tepid demand in the hyper-competitive market.

Sales fell 35.8% from a year earlier, down from September’s figure of 71,525 as Tesla began deliveries of the Model YL, a longer-wheelbase, six-seat version of its best-selling Model Y SUV that has until now only been available in China.

Those big Tesla problems — the aging lineup, the CEO whose politics are alienating the core EV audience — shouldn’t be difficult for such a large company with such a staggering market cap to solve. Unfortunately for Tesla, starting Elon would also reduce its market cap to something actually befitting a niche automaker with declining sales. Not a great position if you’re on the board.

China has granted exemptions from export controls on Nexperia chips for civilian applications, the Commerce Department said on Nov. 9, in a move that will help ease supply shortages for automakers and auto suppliers.

The announcement is the strongest signal yet from Beijing that it will ease pressure on the global auto industry caused by export restrictions imposed after the Dutch government took control of Nexperia, a major manufacturer of basic chips used in automotive electrical systems.

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China’s Ministry of Commerce did not specify what it considers civilian use, but the announcement follows statements from German and Japanese companies saying deliveries of Nexperia’s Chinese-made chips have resumed.

Honda has already cut its 2025 profit estimates based on this chip shortage, and other companies’ production has been affected. Hopefully everything will be back to normal soon.

Rivian, the maker of electric pickups and SUVs, said Friday it is giving its CEO a pay plan worth as much as $4.6 billion over the next decade, a deal similar to Tesla’s record package for CEO Elon Musk and tied to new profit targets and lower stock price milestones than a previous deal.

The move by Rivian’s board shows that Musk’s Tesla plan could become a model for companies looking to grow quickly. Rivian’s compensation package for CEO RJ Scaringe could be one of the richest in history, depending on which performance targets are met.

Rivian said the plan will retain its founder and keep him focused on growth and profitability as the automaker, known for its R1S SUVs and R1T pickups, prepares to launch its smaller, more affordable R2 SUV next year that will compete with Tesla’s best-selling Model Y crossover.

The Rivian plan replaces a plan that the board said was unlikely to be achieved, with the new plan having lower targets in terms of stock growth.

I’m a fan of Rivian and I want the company to survive and continue producing cars well into the future. However, I wonder whether it can afford such compensation agreements.

The head of Tesla Inc.’s Cybertruck program. is leaving the company, adding to a string of high-level departures this year as the electric vehicle maker struggles with uneven sales.

Siddhant Awasthi, who oversaw the development and staging of the divisive pickup, is leaving Tesla after three years in that role, he said in a post on LinkedIn.

“This decision was not an easy one, especially with so much exciting growth ahead,” Awasthi wrote. He has not indicated what he will do next.

His decision follows a series of exits by top executives at Tesla, which has suffered tepid consumer demand and the loss of key U.S. incentives as it pursues new business lines around robotaxis and humanoid robots. David Lau, Tesla’s vice president of software engineering, left for OpenAI this year after nearly 13 years.

Awasthi had been at Tesla for almost a decade, starting in 2017, which is a long time for anyone to stay at any company. Yet he is not the only executive at the company to have left recently, as underlying auto sales have become increasingly less healthy. This is what we in the industry call a ‘bad sign’.

Fifty years of Edmund Fitzgerald.