Automotive News Daily Drive Oct 25, 2025

Oct. 25, 2025 | Weekend Drive: Multiple supply shortages rattle industry

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Company

Nissan

Nissan is a well-known car company from Japan that makes many types of vehicles, including electric cars.

Company

Ford

Ford is a famous American car company that makes many different vehicles, including trucks and sports cars.

Term

Super Cruise is a technology that lets cars drive themselves on some highways without the driver needing to hold the steering wheel. It uses cameras and sensors to help the car stay in its lane and adjust speed.

Car

Toyota Century

The Toyota Century is a very high-end car made by Toyota. It's special because it's made by hand and is often used by important people in Japan.

Term

bespoke vehicles

Bespoke vehicles are cars made just for you, based on your choices and preferences. They are not made in large numbers like regular cars, which makes them special and often very expensive.

Term

hand-built

Hand-built means that people, not machines, put the car together. This usually makes the car more special and of better quality because of the care taken during construction.

Term

Maybach

Maybach is a brand that makes very expensive and luxurious cars. They are known for their quality and comfort, and they often have special features that make them stand out.

Car

Chrysler motorcycle with V8 engine

Chrysler made a motorcycle that had a big car engine in it, which is not common because motorcycles usually have smaller engines. It was an interesting engineering experiment.

Term

V8 engine

A V8 engine is a powerful type of car engine that has eight cylinders. It's often found in big cars and trucks because it can produce a lot of power.

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Welcome to this weekend edition of Daily Drive

for the fourth week in October 2025.

I'm Kellan Walker in Las Vegas.

We're breaking down some of the biggest stories

in the auto industry from the past week

and looking forward to what's in store in the days ahead.

Joining me today, Larry Veloquette

covers Toyota and Subaru for us at Automotive News.

Larry Legend, welcome back to Weekend Drive.

Thank you, Kel.

I spent so many weekends with you,

I feel like you ought to have custody.

Ha!

Your wife would probably like that.

She probably would.

Yeah, she would.

Hannah Lutz is director of tech and innovation coverage

for us at Automotive News.

Welcome back, Hannah.

Hi, Kel.

Thanks for having me.

So the fallout from the Nexperia chip crisis

began to spread far and wide this week.

The Dutch chip maker is caught in the middle

of a geopolitical battle between China and the Netherlands.

Nexperia China has declared independence

from its Dutch parent company.

And now several automakers are bracing for disruptions.

Hannah, do you think we're seeing

the beginnings of a chip crisis on par with COVID times?

It's hard to say right now.

I certainly hope not, because that was a really

significant global crisis.

The level of impact on automakers is unclear so far.

We've heard from a handful that they're

monitoring, looking into it.

Some talk about the impact, but we

haven't seen any accounting for the level of disruption

that we saw during COVID times.

But this chip crisis could definitely

hurt the supply chain in the US and in Europe.

John Bozzella, who's CEO of the Alliance

for Automotive Innovation, said that if the shipments don't

resume quickly, it will disrupt auto production really

across the globe in many countries

and could affect other industries too.

It's also a good reminder of, I feel

like we're reminded of this every day at this point

with tariffs and other things, but how

fragile the supply chain is.

Chips have become such an important part of cars

and of other appliances.

And it shows further reliance on China too.

I think it's so crazy that this subsidiary in China

just kind of declared its independence, right?

How nuts is that?

And how worrying if you have operations in China right now,

if you're an OEM or a supplier, and you

have operations in China, and suddenly, OK, well,

they just decide to go off and declare their independence,

start this international incident.

It's kind of nuts.

Well, Nexperia isn't the only supply chain crisis

keeping automakers and suppliers up at night.

The recent Novellus aluminum plant fire

in Oswego, New York, caused Nissan

to temporarily shut down its largest US plant

in Smyrna, Tennessee this week for a couple of days.

And Ford says the disruptions will cost it up

to $2 billion this year.

Larry, the supply chain has had enough stress

as it is this year with tariffs.

What do these added emergencies mean

for automakers and suppliers that are already

struggling to keep up?

You know, a couple of years ago, the worst job at an automaker

was purchasing, right?

You didn't want to be the head of purchasing

at an automaker coming out of COVID.

You got a little break.

Now the worst job was maybe product planner, right,

for the last couple of years because you're

planning products, and then the entire landscape changes.

I think the production guys, I hope they caught up

on their sleep because it's their turn in the barrel again.

These disruptions, and they happen around the globe.

We don't know where it's going to hit.

We don't know when.

I don't know if you guys remember back in 2011,

remember there was a paint additive plant in Thailand

that went down in the flooding there.

And suddenly all these automakers figured out

this is the only supplier in the world

of these paint additives that give your paint

a metallic color.

And they all had to disrupt their supply of cars

because they didn't know that this was the only place

that supplied the industry.

I think you're seeing this again.

We went through it in COVID,

and a lot of the automakers took that opportunity

during COVID, after COVID.

Try and map out who their tier two, tier three,

tier four suppliers were.

But you can map it out all you want.

You have to have backups for your backups in this industry

because shutting down a plant or shutting down a line

because you ran out of parts is just not the way to operate.

They lose tremendous amounts of money

as the Ford earnings point out when they shut down.

That's their source of income is getting those vehicles

out the line and out the door.

That's when they get their income as an automaker.

So this is, it's crazy.

And it just shows you again,

how fragile the entire system that's been built up is

and how disruptive it can be in even one part of the globe

for something on the other side of the world.

Hannah, before we get your thoughts,

I had something that's jumped into my head real quick.

I'm sorry, I don't mean to interrupt you,

but Larry, when you say that the industry hasn't thought

of a backup of a backup, why hasn't it?

I mean, it seems like they need to, but why haven't,

but why hasn't the industry think?

I mean, we've been through COVID.

We saw what happened with COVID.

You know, we saw what happened with the crash in 08.

Like why hasn't the industry thought this far ahead yet?

Well, it's not that they haven't.

The problem is, is if you're a supplier, right?

You can't be an automaker's side chick, right?

You can't, you can't just wait in the wings for,

I don't know, I don't know how else to classify it.

You can't just wait in the wings for somebody to say,

hey, I, you know, I'm ready to date you now, right?

You have to have income and you have to have production

and keep your employees working.

And if you're just sitting on the sidelines

waiting to be, you know, a backup,

that's not gonna work from a financial standpoint.

So, you know, from that standpoint,

they would like to have all these backup agreements, right?

But there's just not extra capacity and, you know,

capitalism being what it is, sitting on the sideline,

you don't make money sitting on the sideline.

Yeah, I mean, you would just think though,

like you would have the foresight to think like,

let's think long game in case of,

in break glass in case of an emergency, right?

But yeah, it is what it is.

Okay, Hannah, go ahead.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you.

Well, it also shows how complex and deep

the supply chain is.

Like I remember in the early days

that we were talking about tariffs,

like around April or May,

one of the, a big supplier told us on background

that when they have to identify

like where every single tiny part in the car is from,

it's really difficult.

Like because of all the tiers of suppliers

and that made it really challenging for them

to know what their tariff costs would be.

So it's not, I don't think it's that anyone's like

being lazy or not thinking about the long game.

It's just a really difficult business

that evolves very quickly.

Good point.

Well, coming up,

we'll talk about General Motors announcement this week

and that it's betting on eyes off driving.

That's next on Weekend Drive.

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Welcome back to Weekend Drive.

I'm Kellan Walker with Larry Beliquette and Hannah Lutz.

So Hannah, you talked on the upcoming Shift podcast

with our own Lindsay Van Hulley

about GM's announcement this week

that it plans to offer eyes off driving

for some vehicles starting in 2028.

You've covered GM in the past

and you lead our tech and innovation team

at Automotive News.

Now, what are your initial thoughts on this?

So GM has been talking

about advanced vehicle technology for a long time

and has implemented it.

And a lot of talk about personalization

in vehicles for years.

I remember when I was covering the company a few years ago,

that was a big topic.

This eyes off driving seems like a significant step

towards that, that is more tangible

than some of the things that they've laid out previously.

And it's a big deal to be eyes off the road

because their current product, Super Cruise,

is very much eyes on and hands off.

And they've had to make that really clear

in their marketing.

It tracks your eyes to make sure

that you are watching the road and paying attention.

And if you're not, you get a warning signal

and you have to take control of the vehicle.

They had an ad, I think it was for the Sierra,

but it was like, we will rock you,

like the hand clap to show that you can do that

while you're driving,

but you still have to watch the road.

Not cheesy at all.

Not at all.

I thought it was clever.

This eyes off technology may be a sign

of a successful integration with Cruise,

which was the robo-taxi company

that was majority owned by GM.

And GM folded Cruise into the broader business last year.

So maybe they've been able to take some of that

more AV technology and bring it

into their driver assist products like Super Cruise.

So two things on this.

Number one, great advancement, right?

Okay, three things.

Number one, great advancement.

Number two, I hope when they start advertising this,

that they point it directly at Tesla drivers

and say, hey, we can do this, you cannot.

I was waiting for this.

Yeah, you should have been waiting for this,

Mr. Tesla owner.

And number three, but number three,

to me, the most important thing is,

and I didn't see it in Lindsay's story.

Maybe I missed it.

To me, when an automaker says,

you can do hands-off driving,

are they assuming, maybe Hannah, do you know this?

Are they assuming liability

for the operation of that vehicle?

From an insurance standpoint?

The liability topic is really touchy.

And I don't think, I think the driver is always liable.

We'd have to go and double check every automaker,

but you're, I mean, you are operating the vehicle,

you're in the driver's seat.

Except you're not.

Except you're not, yeah.

But you are, but you are, for Super Cruise,

I mean, you commit to paying attention.

Right, for Super Cruise, because you're eyes on.

Now you're eyes off, right?

You're saying, I can be eyes off.

I can be reading a book or checking my email

or doing the hundred other things that Tesla drivers do.

But the liability question to me is, you know, question one.

Who's gonna pay when something happens?

It's still not fully autonomous though.

So I think that makes the driver liable.

And it's for highways only.

If they get to a point where it's for all driving scenarios

and you don't have to say that you're ready

to take over when you need to,

then maybe the automaker would be liable.

But I think at this point, it's still the driver.

And they're gonna do this with a subscription, right?

Presumably?

I don't know if that was laid out,

but that's what Super Cruise is.

It's a subscription.

This is so interesting to me,

because if I'm paying extra money

for equipment that's already on my car, right?

In order for them to turn it on.

But they're not going to accept liability

when they're operating the, you know,

when the vehicle's essentially operating itself

and I'm paying extra for the vehicle to operate itself.

That to me is a disconnect

and it's gonna need to be worked out.

Hmm.

Yeah, a lot of big questions about that with insurance.

Yeah.

I have a question with the liability thing,

because you two would know this better than I would.

Wouldn't the driver be considered liable

if you're the one that decides like,

hey, I'm gonna flip the switch to go to Eyes Off

because you made the decision to do it.

So like you're liable

since you're the one operating the vehicle

and you're the one that switched it,

you know what I mean?

Switched it on or switched it off.

I feel like that would hold up in court, right?

Well, you never know.

You know, you don't know how,

you don't know what a jury's gonna say.

If you're, if you decided to turn it on

and then some amount of time goes by,

15, 20 minutes, you're, you know,

and this Eyes Off system,

which they're, you know, gonna advertise

and earn extra money from,

is saying, you know, I've got this.

I'm operating the vehicle.

You can turn your, take your eyes off the road,

read a book, do whatever you want.

What happens if, you know,

if something, if a semi or a deer or something runs out,

comes out in front of you

and you're, you know, the vehicle just,

through physics, is not in a position to stop?

Is it A, do like Tesla does

and just shut the system off

for half a second before the crash

and say, oh, we're, you know, we weren't in charge.

We weren't doing this.

This to me, this is the entire can of worms

on autonomous driving, right?

Who's in charge and who's financially responsible?

Good point.

I never thought about it that deep.

Sounds like a good shift episode.

So stay tuned and we'll get somebody to talk about it.

Larry, Larry, I take you as the guy

that when navigation in cars first came out,

you absolutely hated it.

No, I was okay with it.

Were you okay with it?

But I don't, you know, I still, let me put it this way.

I'm okay with it, but I don't,

I'm not the kind of person

that's going to follow it off a cliff.

Gotcha. Right?

Which I can't seem to get through my kids' heads, right?

Well, I won't bore you with a story,

but the number of times that my kids go on these

crazy detours because they're following their GPS,

and we go to a family, you know, a family place.

It's about four hours away, right?

And there's literally two turns that you have to do, right?

It's four hours of highway driving.

You have to turn twice.

Can they do that without their GPS?

No.

And I don't understand that.

Oh, man.

Well, you can hear more about this story,

including an interview with GM's Sterling Anderson

on an upcoming episode of the Automotive News Shift Podcast

that will be available Sunday morning,

wherever you get your podcast.

Now, before we sign off, Larry,

you'll be traveling to Tokyo next week

for the Japan Mobility Show.

What are you expecting to see at this year's show?

And what are you most interested in covering?

Well, what we're going to see is some new vehicles

from Lexus that are coming,

they're going to be coming to Lexus dealers,

which is one of the reasons that I'm going.

And they haven't said so yet.

The Toyota, I don't know if you,

are you familiar with the Toyota Century line?

I am.

So these are hand-built, for our audience that doesn't know,

these are hand-built vehicles

that if you've never watched one of these things,

go find, go on YouTube and look up,

look up the level of craftsmanship

that is put into these vehicles.

They are going to be, some of these are,

we believe are going to be coming to the US.

But these are bespoke vehicles.

They are hand-built.

They will be very expensive.

We're talking, I don't know, Maybach money.

Yeah, they're going to be outstanding.

There will be problem-free vehicles.

Let's put it that way.

This is going to be interesting

because there's going to be a coupe,

there's going to be an SUV,

and there's going to be a sedan.

They're expanding this Century line.

And there's also some crazy concept vehicles.

Japan Mobility Show is like the last vestige globally

of where automakers play with concept vehicles, right?

Which is what auto shows used to be about

because they were fun.

And not only did you see what was coming,

but you saw what was not, right?

These crazy things.

Remember when they put the V8 engine in the motorcycle

years ago, the Chrysler did that under,

I think that was Daimler Chrysler,

put it, they mounted it sideways,

mounted a V8, big block V8 engine in a motorcycle.

It was stupid looking and they were never going to build it,

but it was fun to look at.

So this is the last real vestige of this globally.

So I'm looking forward to that.

Well, we can't wait to hear about your travels

when you get back and all the cool stuff you're going to see.

So that's going to be awesome.

Larry, Hannah, thank you so much for joining me

on Weekend Drive.

Thank you.

Thanks so much.

That's all for this Weekend Drive edition of Daily Drive.

I'm Kellan Walker.

Thanks to Automotive News executive producer, Jake Neer,

for his help on today's podcast.

You can get the latest news on supply chain disruptions,

tech and innovation, and everything happening

in the auto industry at autonews.com.

Come back on Monday for an excerpt of our interview

with GM chief product officer, Sterling Anderson.

Trust really, really matters here.

If you want to play the long game in autonomy,

you roll out incrementally and slowly.

We'd love to hear from you.

Let us know what you think of the show

and the topics we covered today.

Send us an email at dailydriveatautonews.com

or leave us a voicemail at 313-444-2774.

If you enjoy the podcast, remember to like,

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Bye.

0:00

20:31

Oct. 25, 2025 | Weekend Drive: Multiple supply shortages rattle industry

Nissan

Ford

Super Cruise

Toyota Century

bespoke vehicles

hand-built

Maybach

Chrysler motorcycle with V8 engine

V8 engine

About this episode

Original notes