Automotive News Daily Drive Dec 12, 2025

Dec. 12, 2025 | Ford, SK On end joint battery venture; doing mobile service right

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Company

SKOn

SKOn makes batteries for electric cars and used to work with Ford, but now they’re ending that partnership.

Company

Ford

Ford is a big car company that makes cars and trucks, and it owns the battery factories in Kentucky after ending its partnership with SKOn.

Part

lidar sensors

Lidar sensors use lasers to see the world around a car, helping it understand where other cars and obstacles are. This helps self‑driving systems stay safe.

Brand

Rivian

Rivian makes electric cars that are designed for off‑road adventures and everyday use. They’re a newer company compared to older automakers.

Term

autonomous driving features

Autonomous driving features let the car drive itself in certain situations, like keeping a safe distance from other cars or staying in its lane.

Concept

third generation autonomy computer

Rivian plans a new version of its self‑driving computer that will be faster and smarter, helping the cars drive more safely.

Term

5 billion pixels per second

The chip can look at a huge number of tiny parts of an image every second, which helps it understand the road quickly.

LIVE

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SKOn and Ford end their U.S. Battery Joy Venture, Mexico plans tariffs as high as 50% on Chinese cars, and Rivian develops an in-house AI chip. Plus, Bozart Ford remote services director Jeremy Stevens breaks down everything dealers need to know about starting mobile service.

The mobile service has brought that old-school service bag where the technician is interacting with the customer on a friendly side of it. It's been pretty cool to see that side of it.

Let's run through all the news you need to know to keep up in the auto industry.

South Korean battery maker SKOn is ending its joint venture with Ford. The breakup will split control of their U.S. battery factories.

Ford takes full ownership of plants in Kentucky. SKOn gets the Tennessee facility.

The move comes as slowing EV demand and the loss of federal subsidies force battery makers to pivot strategies.

SKOn is refocusing on energy storage systems for data centers and other facilities. The company posted an operating loss of nearly $85 million last quarter as EV battery shipment slowed.

Mexico is slapping sweeping tariffs on Asian imports, marking a sharp break from its decades-long free trade stance.

The new levees hit more than 1,400 products from countries without trade deals with Mexico with rates ranging from 5% to 50%.

Chinese cars face the steepest tariffs at 50%.

President Claudia Sheinbaum says the move protects local industry, especially automotive and textiles, but the timing is hard to ignore.

It aligns with U.S. pressure on Chinese transshipment and could ease President Trump's tariffs on Mexican steel and aluminum.

Beijing isn't happy, calling it protectionism, meanwhile Mexican manufacturers warn of rising costs and inflation ahead.

And Rivian has developed its own artificial intelligence computer chip and it says it will add lidar sensors to upcoming R2 SUV models.

The move comes as the electric vehicle maker looks to accelerate the rollout of autonomous driving features.

The company calls the new chip module the Rivian autonomy processor. It will power its upcoming third generation autonomy computer.

Rivian says the chip can process 5 billion pixels per second and will draw upon data gathered by a suite of vehicle sensors.

CEO R.J. Skaringe said at a recent event that the in-house chip quote enables a dramatic expansion of Rivian's autonomy capabilities.

You can hear part two of our exclusive interview with R.J. Skaringe on the SHIFT podcast that's available Sunday.

He and our own Laurence I live sat down before the new chip announcement, but they talk at length about Rivian self-driving ambitions.

And those are today's headlines. You can find more details on all of those stories at autonews.com.

Yesterday on the show, we talked about President Trump's decision to float an idea that would blow up USMCA and end decades of trilateral North American trade relations.

He says he's instead considering separate trade agreements with Mexico in Canada here to talk about the latest on the USMCA saga is our own John Irwin,

who covers the supply chain and international trade for us at automotive news. John, welcome back to daily drive.

Thanks for having me.

Alright, so as much as you can tell, what is the thinking behind this and what would it mean for the trade landscape in North America and beyond if we were to see USMCA essentially go away and then have these two different trade deals with both Canada and Mexico.

Yeah, it would represent a pretty stark change. And we've had trilateral agreement in place between the three countries since NAFTA went into effect in 1994.

The thinking from the Trump administration right now, and it's hard to say definitively. I mean, it could be a negotiating tactic.

Obviously, the USMCA is up for review in 2026. That process is really already underway and the president is sort of as we've seen with other negotiations this year related to tariffs.

I think it's safe to say that they like to be predictably unpredictable as I've seen a couple of political commentators mention that's their strategy and it's possible that this is, you know, this being floated as part of a negotiation.

But at the same time, it's a real possibility, something that they've been floating a little bit over the course of the past several months, but really over the past week or two, we've heard more comments from Trump as well as the US trade representative basically saying

that this is a real possibility. And I think one reason to think it might be real, at least something that could happen is because if you look back over the past year, Canada and Mexico, and how they've responded to, you know, the new tariffs that Trump has implemented, the relationship between the US and Mexico and the US and Canada have been, you know, quite different.

Mexico is sort of, you know, laid low a little bit basically. And, you know, with Canada, obviously, there's been some pretty high profile, you know, fights between, you know, the Trump administration and leaders in Canada, although Mark Karnie and Donald Trump.

Donald Trump, you know, they will say that they get along and they like each other, but obviously there have been some stops and starts when it comes to negotiations with Canada. So, from people I've talked to and trade experts, you know, that that's a sign that, you know, maybe they're serious about wanting to go in with two different deals because, you know, they've been talking with Canada and Mexico separately. Anyway,

as far as what that would mean for the auto industry, you know, experts, I've talked to and people representing automakers and suppliers, they basically say, you know, if those, that went away, that changes the entire equation, you have to go back and look at every single one of your plans, every single one of your investment plans. And basically, you have to reevaluate whatever the new rules are with the bilateral agreements, if it gets to that point, the entire equation changes, you might have to completely rethink where you're going to invest.

If you want to continue building X product here, if you need to move that, it would just kind of blow everything up and make you, you know, really have to rethink pretty much everything you're doing as far as your plans and where to build in North America. So it's all very complicated and, you know, it's something that we're going to hopefully get some clarity on in 2026, but yeah, there's a lot to keep an eye out for at the moment.

That being said, the reaction to this was swift and substantial automakers are pushing back hard on this idea, as you noted in your story, what are they saying?

Yeah, it was interesting last week automakers and suppliers were among those to speak at a hearing, a three day hearing that took place at the Office of the US Trade Representative basically seeking input from industries, including the auto industry about how the USMC is operating potential changes that stakeholders like to see, et cetera.

And the auto industry, one notable exception with the UAW, but automakers and suppliers certainly basically are presenting a pretty united front here that they need the USMCA to remain in place.

They're going to be changed, everyone recognizes, you know, if the USMC remains in place, they're probably going to be pretty significant changes to it, including probably higher content requirements, you know, you might see requirements to reduce the amount of content from China that's allowed in vehicles in order for vehicles to

be allowed to be traded back and forth without tariffs. But yeah, at the same time, you know, we're seeing those companies present in a pretty united front that we need this for the reasons I was talking about earlier, basically just be costly process to kind of go through and reassess, you know, your entire North American supply chain.

It's kind of important to note that automakers and suppliers see the US, Canada and Mexico from a production perspective, at least to sort of one block and that if we went back to, you know, viewing them as three separate regions that completely changes the equation.

So they're basically saying, you know, if we do that, we're going to be less competitive with China or with, you know, Asia, more broadly with Europe, North America would kind of be less competitive.

So I'd imagine that they'll continue to speak up about this moving forward. And it's important of the Trump administration has been pretty receptive in the past, so over the past years we've seen two feedback from automakers and suppliers, notably the exemptions for USMCA compliant products.

That basically stemmed from lobbying that the automakers and suppliers did back when auto tariffs and tariffs on Canada and Mexico were first put in place back in March and April.

And you've seen other examples of that as well. So we'll see if the Trump administration listens to automakers again or if they decide to go in a different direction, but the industry is hopeful that they have the White House's ear and they might be able to sway things a little bit.

And we'll see the review process is still underway by July of 26. That's when the three countries are supposed to put in writing whether they want to continue with the USMCA or whether they want to enter a period of annual reviews or accidents.

So we'll hopefully have an answer at some point in the next several months, but we'll see what happens.

Some to watch out for with your coverage, John going forward in 2026, John Erwin covers the supply chain and tariffs and trade and all the things related to this.

John, thanks so much for joining us on daily drive. Thanks so much.

Coming up, Jeremy Stevens of Bowsard Ford gives a breakdown of how his mobile service unit is leading to better results for his business and customers. That's next on daily drive.

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Welcome back to daily drive. I'm Jake Nier.

There's so many factors to think about when a dealership service department is considering starting a mobile service division.

Jeremy Stevens is remote services director at Bowsard Ford in Florida, which has more than 40 mobile service vans on the streets.

Stevens decided to start a 20 group focused on the business.

He spoke with automotive news senior retail editor Dan Shine about the most common questions he gets about starting mobile service.

Jeremy, appreciate you being with me for the fixed stops Friday edition of daily drive.

Oh, thank you for having me.

So we wrote a great article about you and this 20 group, kind of this 20 group that you have for mobile service.

You're down there at Bowsard Ford in St. Augustine, Florida.

As the story said, the stuff of legends, you know, 40 plus mobile service vans trucks covering the area out there.

And I've followed you on LinkedIn.

I see you LinkedIn posts and you're talking about mobile service all the time.

And as a result, people started reaching out to you with questions.

So you said, let me form this little 20 group, I guess you call it.

And we'll have kind of a more, you know, hyper focused, you know, discussions on those things.

Tell me what I guess when people reach out to you with questions about mobile service.

What are there one two main questions, the first questions they ask?

Yeah. And a lot of this more of a curiosity side of it.

And, you know, of course, you always get asked, is it profitable?

You know, there's so many.

And there and usually people are looking for that one magic answer that solves all of it.

And it's never just that one.

But there's a lot of repetitive questions.

And, you know, where do you find your technicians?

Is like the trust your technicians have run a customer?

Is this stuff like that?

So, so it's a lot of different questions.

But they're usually, it's not as complicated as what people think.

It's so much one of those things you kind of overthink.

It's not that complicated.

And whatever the question is for you, the answer is that you,

if you're a dealership service department, you need to, you need to seriously consider mobile service.

It's a different differentiator for dealership.

Exactly. And you can keep one van busy just doing recalls.

And plus you eliminate that customer going into your dealership and taking up a valuable bay

that you can be doing a bigger job and, you know, a job that pays more.

And what I find interesting and I think, you know, what is unique a little bit about the auto industry

and especially I think on the fix-up side of things is your willingness and,

you know, one of your colleagues there Ed Roberts is the willingness of you guys to kind of share

your experiences, your wisdom with others.

And it's, you know, we've written stories that on one of the news and we'll ask them,

you know, how are you doing this?

Well, how are you making such a profit?

And they say, well, you know, it's a secret recipe.

And I, you know, all I tell you is that it tastes good.

But like I'm not going to give you the recipe.

But you guys are very open about, we're here to help.

And we want to, you know, you know, convert more people to the mobile service side of things.

Why are you so open and willing to help others?

Well, it's just a, it's kind of a nature who we are.

And you know, what's cool about working at Buzzard is, you know, Ed feels that.

It's before I even worked here, you know, he was an open book and that's how I always been too.

And it's just, I don't want to see people struggle.

And I reckon it's an internal battle that it's like, you know, if I can help somebody,

then I want to help them.

And we've done a lot of things wrong by building this whole thing.

And, and I just hate seeing people struggle.

And it's like, hey, I can tell you what not to do.

You know, I've tried this and this.

And it backfired.

So don't do that.

And I can save you three months.

Well, it's a money, too.

Yeah.

What are the, let's say, if I'm considering this, what are maybe the first three things I need to be considered,

what I need to think about before I go out and buy a van and outfit it?

What are the things I need to, I need to be asking myself.

And that is a typical question that I get asked a lot.

And you need to have some vision.

What direction do you want to go in that Buzzard, you know, Ed mapped it out pretty clear

that we needed to relieve shop capacity because at the point I came here,

we were a couple of weeks behind in the shop.

So if you purchased a car from us, you know, fortunately, we said, you know,

it may take a couple of weeks to get it in there.

So that was my main push is to relieve shop capacity.

And we did it.

Now we can service cars the same day or the next day.

So we've eliminated that problem.

So now our focus now that we got that fixes on the fleet side.

A lot of dealerships they focus just solely on fleet on mobile service.

And that's perfectly fine.

And I have some dealerships that just solely just focus on retail.

So I think the biggest thing is, what do you want this to look like?

What do you want to chase? Do you want to chase fleet?

Or do you want to chase retail?

And it just depends on the direction of the dealership.

And once you know the direction, then you know, create a team around it.

Don't share responsibilities.

I would treat it like a standalone, just like people treat their quick lane

and their parts department kind of its own little business within a business.

And for, again, people who are looking at this, are they concerned about

the cost of it? Are they concerned about whether it's going to be profitable?

Are they concerned about, can I find enough technicians to put on these vans?

Or probably all three of those things are, what are the kinds of concerns

or the challenges or things that hold people back from really getting into this?

The profitability is the first hurdle, because they're looking at,

there's a lot of travel time.

So there is a lot of downtime, especially in Florida, because Florida takes forever

to get anywhere just because of traffic.

And some people don't have that obstacle, but we do.

So they're looking at it, they're looking at their unapplied time,

they're looking, they're looking at a lot of the stuff that makes sense.

But what dealerships are very good at is making things profitable.

And that's where you just got to be creative and think outside the box.

You cannot treat it just like your normal service department.

Your percentages are going to be all through, it's just totally different.

So you got to look at it from a totally different angle on that,

because it does operate similar to a quick lane.

It's a lot of dealership struggle with a quick lane trying to make it profitable,

because it's a high volume low gross mentality.

But then you forget about it's a great retention tool,

and it's a great CSI structure.

It has a lot of more perks on it than just a sole thing,

is it profitable or if it's not?

Tell me on why it's successful.

What are the benefits that you see at Bozard with your mobile service business?

So the thing that I see the most is the response from customers.

I've been a service manager in the world for a long time,

and it's a breath of fresh air to get a great email or feedback every single day.

We had an email that came in last night going straight to Lady Bozard

and talking about Patrick, my technician,

what a phenomenal job he did, and how he communicated with the customer.

And that spreads like wildfire.

We get in one neighborhood, and they see that van in there.

Next thing we know, we're servicing other makes and models.

And I'm 100% sure if they're looking to buy another vehicle,

they're not going to look anywhere else, but those are forward,

just because of that convenience.

And you told me that you have customers who will ask for a technician to come back.

We want Joe again, or Fred to come.

That's pretty unique as well.

It is. I was in the communication center,

and I was just sitting there talking to the director there,

and I was like, I started eavesdropping,

and it's like, yeah, I want Nathan to come back to my house.

And it's like, I don't care how long it is.

I want him, he's my guy.

And it's pretty cool. And what's also cool is when the technicians

at the end of the day, when they come back, they talk about these customers.

It's like, hey, you know, he was so great, he had a car collection.

He showed me all his cool cars.

And it's cool how the technicians are building these relationships with the customers.

And they're answering in questions, just like connectivity problems

or your Bluetooth and your phone.

Everybody has a question about their car,

and they've never been able to really get to somebody that can answer about anything about a car.

And if they can't, they can find the information too.

So the biggest takeaway is just the customer feedback.

And you're not draining, it's like, hey, a customer wants to speak to you online too.

And it's like, oh, my gosh.

And then it's just like mentally you're preparing.

And it's like, oh, well, thank you for, you know, that's pretty cool there.

And they just want to talk about your staff.

So the mobile service had brought that old school service back

where the technician is interacting with the customer on a friendly side of it.

So it's been pretty cool to see that side of it.

That's it. It's a great customer retention tool.

Well, I encourage everybody to go read the story on auto news.com

about Jeremy and the 20 group, the mobile service 20 group that he has.

And Jeremy, great talking with you.

Good to see you.

And hopefully see you in Vegas at NADA in a few months.

Sounds good. Thank you for having me.

Jeremy Stevens is remote services director at Bozard Ford in Florida.

He spoke with our own Dan Scheid.

That's daily drive for today.

I'm Jake Nier in for Helen Walker.

Thanks to our own John Irwin for his reporting for today's podcast.

You can get the latest news on service and parts, tariffs and trade,

and everything happening in the auto industry at auto news.com.

Come back over the weekend for our weekend drive edition of the show.

Our own Molly Boygon and Richard Truitt talk about the biggest news stories of the past week,

including the surprisingly not so awful EV registration results from October

after the end of federal tax credits in the US.

What we know about EV buyers is that those who really like EVs

are never going back to gasoline powered vehicles.

I don't think that EVs sales are going to totally crater.

We'd love to hear from you. Let us know what you think of the show

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