Jan. 15, 2026 | Stellantis staying together; suppliers shift to U.S. production

Welcome to Daily Drive.

For Thursday, January 15, 2026, I'm Kellan Walker in Las Vegas.

Today on the show, Stellantis is staying together at least for now.

Honda bets on sales growth while the rest of the market shrinks.

And Tesla will end one-time FSD purchases subscriptions only.

Plus, KPMG's Lenny Laroka explains why suppliers are moving from wait-and-see mode on tariffs

to making real U.S. production decisions.

Tariffs aren't going to go away.

And so now you have people really taking a harder look at doing production in the U.S.

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

Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa says the automaker plans to stay together as one company following

its business review.

Speaking at the Detroit Auto Show, Filosa called the combination of global brands like Jeep

and regional nameplates like Fiat and Dodge, quote, a good combination.

The common signal Stellantis will maintain its structure from the 2021 Fiat Chrysler PSA merger

despite market share declines under former CEO Carlos Tavares.

Filosa's turnaround focuses on the U.S. market with $13 billion in investments over four

years.

That includes launching new Jeep models and bringing back popular engines like the Ram

Hemi V8.

Stellantis will detail its strategy at a capital markets day in the first half of this year.

Despite a shrinking new car market, Honda is betting on growth.

The automaker expects sales to climb 4% to about 1.5 million vehicles this year.

That would buck Cox Automotive's forecast of a 2.4% industry decline.

Honda's strategy?

Boost production of lower priced gas models to tackle affordability concerns while still

pushing hybrids and EVs.

There's a catch though.

Acura's RDX is being discontinued this spring with no replacement until 2028 due to supplier

issues.

An early inventory will be tight following those next period chip shortages.

Still, Honda sales chief Lance Wolfer says the company has a lot of upside sales potential

with the right product mix.

In Tesla is ditching the one-time purchase option for its full self-driving system.

After February 14, FSD will only be available as a monthly subscription.

CEO Elon Musk announced the change on X but didn't explain why.

Here's what we know.

Tesla currently offers FSD for $8,000 up front or $99 bucks a month.

The shift comes as Musk's compensation package depends partly on hitting 10 million active

FSD subscriptions.

Despite the name, FSD still requires driver supervision and doesn't make vehicles fully

autonomous.

Tesla hasn't disclosed current subscription numbers but Musk admitted last year he was

kind of glad not many people bought the package.

Joining me now to talk more about this is automotive news reporter Lawrence Isliff who

covers Tesla for us at Automotive News.

Lonnie, welcome back to Daily Drive.

It's great to be here.

Lonnie, the potential $1 trillion question, why is Tesla making this switch now?

Okay, so I'm going to have to give you a little bit of history but I'm going to be like really

quick.

So when the full self-driving package became popular, let's say five years ago, it was

$15,000 and Elon Musk promised that it would turn your Tesla into a robotaxi.

You could put that robotaxi on a ride hailing network that Tesla would run and your car

would go out and make money for you.

So you pay $15,000 up front but now you have an appreciating asset which he suggests it

could be worth $100,000.

So people are like, wow, that's like really cool.

And so not a lot of people paid $15,000 and over time it became $12,000 and then $8,000

but those people believed that they were kind of making an investment in their car.

And even though the FSD full self-driving package is tied to your vehicle, over the years Tesla

has opened up periods when you could transfer it to a new car in order to keep those people

buying cars and not just holding onto their cars forever.

And so that was like the promise and the dream.

Now he says, hey, guess what?

It's going to be a subscription service for anybody for, I think right now it's $99 a month.

So all those people who bought into that, who have that asset, what they think is an asset,

are probably going to lose it because I mean it's unlikely or maybe for a while but it's

unlikely going forward that they're going to allow people to continue to transfer a product

that no longer exists.

It will no longer exist on the website.

It will be a subscription service.

So those people are kind of bummed out.

The other thing about a subscription service is the price can change anytime and you have no

control over it, right?

And so it may be $99 a month now, but it may be $200 a month when it actually becomes a

Robotex because right now it's never become a Robotex.

And so those people also are kind of upset that I paid $15,000 for something and what has been

useful for assisted driving, it never really became a Robotex.

So I haven't really been able to use it as promised.

So those people are kind of pissed as you would imagine.

Oh, I would definitely feel some type of way.

Are you kidding me?

What does this move tell us about Tesla's broader autonomous vehicle strategy?

Okay, so Tesla is transitioning from making most of its money from selling cars.

It still makes 80% or more money from selling cars to becoming a robotics and AI company.

And so if you want to make money on robotics and AI, the subscription model is kind of the

way to create that recurring revenue.

You can affect that revenue stream.

It's not like cars anymore.

We've all seen in the tech world that there's subscriptions for Microsoft.

There's subscriptions for Adobe.

I think Apple just recently announced that they're going to have a subscription service.

So rather than buying a piece of software and owning it forever,

now it's going to be the subscription model.

And so when Elon Musk got his new pay package last year when it was approved by the board,

one of the elements of many elements he has to hit to get to a trillion dollars in stock options

is 10 million FST subscriptions.

So one way to get them is to force it into a subscription service.

So it's a shift in their entire business model.

You're not making a car where you buy an option, and then you get to keep it in the car forever,

and then it has some value where you resell it and then you do it again.

They want to turn it into a recurring source of revenue.

Interesting stuff.

Lawrence, I live.

Thank you so much for joining me.

Thank you.

You can read Lawrence Ilyps reporting on Tesla,

self-driving and more details on all those stories at AutoNews.com.

Coming up next, KPMG's Lenny LaRocca discusses why suppliers are finally making U.S. production

investments despite tariff uncertainty and why he says consolidation needs to happen

in the supply chain.

That's next on Daily Drive.

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Welcome back to Daily Drive, I'm Kellan Walker.

KPMG's Lenny LaRocca leads the firm's automotive practice in the U.S. and the Americas.

At CES last week, LaRocca discussed a major shift happening in the supply chain,

as companies move from wait-and-see mode on tariffs to finally making production decisions

in the United States.

He spoke with automotive news reporter John Irwin on the CES show floor.

Lenny LaRocca, welcome back to Daily Drive.

Great, thank you, happy to be here.

Yeah, thanks for being here.

Obviously CES first day after the show opened, it's always busy.

How's your day been?

And what were some key takeaways that you've gotten from the show so far?

Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely, it's been, it's busy.

There's a lot going on.

It's great to see so many different industries here in the West Hall for mobility.

I love seeing the construction, agriculture.

Obviously you've got mobility, OEMs, suppliers, kind of all in one place right now,

talking about all the cool technology that they're coming out with.

So it's a great buzz and always great to be here.

Yeah, it seems this year, artificial intelligence really seems to be

a big buzzword that's been the case for a while now,

but especially here at CES, this edition of it.

And maybe that's taking over a little bit for maybe electric vehicle hype from the past previous CES.

What do you make of that?

Are companies really going all in on AI right now?

And what's real and what's hype, I guess, in the industries?

We sort through all these announcements.

Yeah, it wasn't too long ago and EV was the big push.

So we were talking about electric vehicles and batteries and charging.

Even last year was still a big time charging and EVs was still a big topic.

And now you've really seen a shift to autonomous vehicle,

autonomous driving and AI as a big kind of focus area.

And when you really take a step back, there's a lot of hype,

but there's still a lot of I think work that people are doing to really figure out

how they use AI, what do they use AI for?

Clearly, autonomous driving, there's a very big use case for using AI,

but when you talk about the average automotive supplier,

like what are they really going to use AI for?

And so the key focus on the supply side or in general,

the key focus with AI is going to be around ROI.

What's the return on investment that you're making for that AI

and can you really see the investment pay off?

There are a couple announcements.

Bosch, for instance, partnering, sending an MOU with Microsoft on AI.

And I heard from some suppliers who were talking about

how they're going to be integrating AI into their manufacturing

and that sort of thing to help those processes become more efficient.

Will that sort of thing lead to the sort of ROI that we're talking about here?

Or what might we expect from that?

Yeah, I mean, there's using AI to make your product more innovative,

grow the top line, get more sales by utilizing AI in your product.

But there's also AI utilized in manufacturing and supply chain

and performance improvement.

And I think that the easier one for people to get their heads around

is how can I use AI to get my manufacturing more efficient,

where I can get more throughput, get better quality.

And those are the areas we're seeing use cases with the ROIs

that people are then implementing.

Obviously, CES this year is taking place after 2025 that had lots of ups and downs

for the industry, everything from tariffs and trade

and the industry kind of navigating those changes

through to companies dialing back a little bit on electrification.

A lot of changes, at the same time,

the industry kind of demonstrated a little bit of resilience

at the same time in the face of all of that.

But I guess looking at where the industry stands right now,

what might we expect in 2026?

Were there any lessons learned in 2025 that they can apply this year?

What are we looking at moving forward?

Well, the 2025 was definitely volatile, right?

A lot of ups and downs, a lot of volatility.

You had the tariffs, different tariffs coming in and out,

where that's going to land.

We thought it was going to have a much bigger impact to the OEMs and suppliers.

Like you said, they were more resilient getting through that,

getting through those tariffs changes,

getting through the reimbursement processes.

So that process just kind of chugged along.

And then you got hit more with the realization that EV volumes

were not going to be where EV volumes were expected.

And so you had that kind of different write-offs

and impairments taken for the EVs.

So the industry's definitely been resilient through the last year.

And so as we get into 2026, I think some of the lessons learned is one,

I think consolidation needs to happen.

There were some deals in auto last year,

but not as much as I think people were hoping.

There was just too much volatility to why those deals didn't happen.

So I think hopefully things will kind of calm down a little bit.

People get comfortable doing more deals.

Consolidation needs to happen for the supply chain, absolutely.

And they're going to see more joint ventures.

Like we talked about before,

where you see a lot of that here today, right?

A lot of the JVs, partnerships,

whether it's through technology or robotexies.

And so I think that's going to continue as we get into 2026.

Yeah, and I want to circle back on partnerships in a second,

but as relates to consolidation,

are there aspects of the supply chain,

types of companies or what have you that I guess are most right

for consolidation at the moment,

or is it kind of widespread?

I mean, what are we looking at this year, do you think?

Well, I think you're looking at, well, one,

there's a lot of distress in the auto supply chain, right?

So it's been resilient, but there's distress sitting out there in the system.

And so a lot of the deals that we saw in 2025 were more,

I would say, distress kind of in nature.

And a lot of those are cross-border with Europe.

So you have issues in Europe that's driving

need for consolidation plus activity here in the U.S. around producing here in the U.S.

So I think those types of deals are where you're going to start to see more of.

Yeah, and on partnerships, like you said,

there's all sorts of announcements of partnerships here just today at CES.

And we see companies touting new partnerships with tech companies

or with startups or what have you.

I've had a couple executives that suppliers, a couple major suppliers,

both say to me that this is something that their customers are basically expecting

at this point.

If you don't know how to do X, Y, and Z for us,

and you need to go reach out to someone, partner with them, let's do it.

Not just have to feel like you have to develop everything in-house.

I feel like for some suppliers, it maybe is a pretty big shift.

For others, maybe not as much.

And what can we expect from, I guess on the partnerships moving forward,

especially as it relates to tech and AI and that sort of thing.

Yeah, if you look back over time, JV's partnerships, complex JV structures

was something the auto industry didn't really do, if you go back 10 years.

And then over time, people got more comfortable, how do I do JV's?

Find partnerships where we can do win-win situations,

whether it's through technology or through supply chain.

And so those types of partnerships have become more norm.

So you have a significant number of partnerships,

JV's within the robotaxi space.

So you've got an OEM, you've got the software provider,

and then you've got the ride share.

So that's one area that you see a lot and you're going to continue to see more.

I think in the supply chain, like you said, getting more comfortable,

partnering, not feeling like you have to do it alone,

I think it's just better for the industry.

And because then you're not spending as much capital,

everybody's always trying to do their own thing, right?

Well, now it's like, okay, well, these guys do this really well,

I do that really well, we partner together, we solve the industry issues, right?

Yeah, and capital, as you mentioned, there's a lot of financial distress

in the supply chain right now, and capital can be hard to come by.

So a lot of times, it seems like some companies are in some ways

being pushed into this a little bit, just given their financial situations

and the speed with which a lot of these technologies are developing.

But yeah, it'll be interesting to see how that develops over the course of the year.

Another big topic for 2026.

And we have trade talks in the US, Canada and Mexico.

I guess what are you looking for as those talks play out?

Like what are industry players hoping for out of those talks?

I know there's been discussion that the US might pull out of the US MCA,

and automakers have been pretty vocally against that idea, but what might we look for?

Yeah, and of course, every executive we talk to here has asked us a very similar question.

I think that if you take a step back, tariffs aren't going to go away.

And so there will be tariffs, people have to deal with it.

It may get harder to deal with tariffs or trade between Mexico because of the

tariffs that Mexico is implementing.

And so now you have this people really taking a harder look at doing production in the US.

And so we're actually working with a number of companies helping them assess

doing those analysis. Is it better to just build here in the US and utilize automation?

Obviously, there's a big capital expense there, but over time, if the parity between Mexico and

US costs starts to come closer together, does it make more sense to do it in the US?

So I think what you're going to start to see is that more people looking at how they're bringing

production into the US, and it's really going to start in the supply chain because the supply

chain is a little easier, maybe not as expensive than building a brand new assembly plant.

And then you've already seen a little bit, but you'll probably see more where people can,

you don't have to do that alone either. So like if you wanted to step in and form some JV

around a certain process or a certain component, that then you keep you from having to invest all

that money, or maybe there's capacity out there that you can utilize. So I think you'll start

to see that in a different form. That's Daily Dry for today. I'm Kellen Walker. Thanks to Automotive

News executive producer Jake Neer, as well as Aaron Lawrence-Eilif and Irvash Kakaria for their

reporting for today's podcast. You can get the latest news on Stalantis' turnaround strategy,

Tesla's FSD shift, and everything happening in the auto industry at AutoNews.com.

Come back tomorrow for a conversation with Chris Press from Polly about how integrating

consumer auto insurance into the purchase or lease of a vehicle is gaining popularity at dealerships.

You have a lot of customers that are youthful drivers that don't have insurance or don't know

where to get insurance. And we're also seeing a lot of new to the U.S. buyers that have foreign

drivers license and other challenges that really need someone that has insurance experience to be

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

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Jan. 15, 2026 | Stellantis staying together; suppliers shift to U.S. production

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Jeep

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merger

Ram Hemi V8

Honda

hybrids and EVs

Acuras Rdx

full self-driving system

Tesla

FSD

full self-driving package

robotaxi

ride hailing network

subscription service

autonomous vehicle strategy

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