In today's issue:

Stellantis unveils a $70 billion plan with Jeep and Ram carrying the weight
Ram's 777-hp Rumble Bee is the fastest production truck ever built
Toyota's Tundra engine recall just crossed 250,000 vehicles and is still growing

TURNAROUND MATH

Stellantis Is Spending $70 Billion to Prove It Still Matters

CEO Antonio Filosa's five-year turnaround plan, unveiled at a May 21 investor day in Michigan, commits over $69 billion globally, with $25 billion earmarked specifically for North American brands and products, per The Drive and Automotive News.
Nine new North American vehicles priced under $40,000 will arrive by 2030, including two under $30,000, per Automotive News; globally, more than 60 new models and 50 refreshes are planned, with Jeep and Ram named as the primary growth engines.
The plan includes a compact Ram pickup, a platform partnership with Jaguar Land Rover for U.S.-market vehicles (non-binding MOU, per CarExpert and Just Auto), and continued Leapmotor and Dongfeng JV production in Europe.
Stellantis has lost roughly two-thirds of its market value over the past two years, per Automotive News, and the company's U.S. average transaction price now tops $50,000, per Automotive News, raising serious questions about whether nine sub-$40,000 vehicles can actually move the needle on volume.
Buyers who want an affordable Jeep or Ram today will wait until 2030 at the earliest; the plan is a product roadmap, not an inventory fix.

Stellantis spent two years cutting costs while sales collapsed; now it's spending $70 billion to rebuild what the cuts destroyed. The JLR partnership is the most structurally surprising piece, putting a Tata-owned British brand inside Stellantis's North American factories to dodge 25% auto tariffs. It's also the most fragile: a non-binding MOU between two automakers that haven't done business at this scale before can quietly evaporate.

Also worth knowing

Tesla FSD enters its second EU country: Lithuania's Transport Safety Administration approved FSD Supervised on May 19 by recognizing the Dutch RDW type approval already granted in the Netherlands, per Electrive and Electrek. Tesla had originally aimed for a single EU-wide approval; the country-by-country path it ended up on signals that Brussels-level clearance is harder than Musk projected. #news

Toyota Tundra engine recall crosses 250,000: Toyota's official pressroom confirmed a new recall of approximately 44,000 model-year 2024 Tundra non-hybrids on May 20, caused by machining debris left inside the engines; The Drive reports the total recall count now exceeds 250,000 vehicles across multiple campaigns for the same 3.4-liter twin-turbo V6. Hybrid variants of the Tundra have not been recalled. #news

GM quietly pauses its $3.5B Indiana battery plant: GM has stopped work on its $3.5 billion Indiana EV battery plant amid softening demand, per CBT News, a notable reversal for a facility that was central to the automaker's post-Ultium supply-chain narrative. The pause joins Subaru's EV factory repurposing from last week as a second major battery commitment stalling in the same month. #analyst

Global LV sales down 3.4% year-over-year in April: The global light vehicle selling rate reached 89 million units per year in April 2026, down from 92 million the same month a year earlier, a 3.4% year-over-year decline driven by a slowdown in China, per Just Auto. #market

What's new

2027 Ram 1500 Rumble Bee first look: Ram revealed three distinct street trucks on May 20: a base model with a 395-hp Hemi V8, a mid-tier 392 with 470 hp, and the SRT with a supercharged 6.2-liter Hellcat V8 rated at 777 hp, a 170-mph top speed, and a 0-60 time of 3.4 seconds, per Carscoops and The Drive. All three feature a chopped roofline and lowered stance. Ram had been planning to eliminate V8s from its half-ton lineup as recently as 2023.

Recalls & legal action

Hyundai Elantra Hybrid fire risk, 54,337 vehicles: Hyundai is recalling model-year 2024-2026 Elantra Hybrids because the high-voltage power control unit can overheat and catch fire, per Autoblog and Carscoops. Four incidents have been reported, including one confirmed fire, though no injuries have been filed. Hyundai estimates total engine failures and recalls across its lineup have cost the company more than $5 billion, per the Automotive News Daily Drive podcast.

Ford Bronco hardtop panels can separate at speed: A new NHTSA recall covers more than 16,000 model-year 2021-2022 Ford Broncos equipped with Molded-In-Color hardtop roof panels; the outer panels may detach while driving, per CarComplaints and Autoblog. A separate recall covers more than 200 model-year 2026 Ford Escape Hybrid and Lincoln Corsair Hybrid vehicles whose integrated park module may fail to engage, creating a rollaway risk, per CarComplaints.

Quick links

Stellantis-JLR MOU targets U.S. tariff exposure: JLR builds nearly all of its U.S.-market vehicles in the UK; a Stellantis factory partnership would let those models qualify for domestic production relief, per Automotive World and Just Auto. #analyst

IEA: global EV sales to hit 23 million in 2026: The IEA's Global EV Outlook projects 23 million electric car sales this year, nearly 30% of all new cars sold worldwide, following 20 million in 2025 (up 20% year over year), per Electrek. #market

Stellantis Is Spending $70 Billion to Prove It Still Matters

TURNAROUND MATH

Stellantis Is Spending $70 Billion to Prove It Still Matters

Also worth knowing

What's new

Recalls & legal action

Quick links

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