Sept. 22, 2025 | Stellantis data breach; Larry Dominique talks China threats

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Welcome to Daily Drive for Monday, September 22nd, 2025. I'm Kellan Walker in Las Vegas.

Today on the show, Stellantis detects a cybersecurity breach.

Jeep cancels the Gladiator 4xE and Porsche tears up its future EV plans.

Plus, industry consultant and former FCA exec Larry Dominique talks about

automaker tech challenges and rising threats from China.

Do you believe the legacy OEMs are falling into a trap? They've got to find a way to,

in some ways, build a new airplane while they're still in flight.

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

Stellantis is the latest auto company to suffer a data breach. It says it detected

unauthorized access to a third-party service provider's platform that supports its North

American customer service operations. Stellantis says the incident exposed only basic contact

information and did not involve financial details or sensitive personal data.

Stellantis did not specify how many customers were affected.

Earlier this month, JLR said that its retail and production activities were severely disrupted

following a cybersecurity incident forcing its factories to stay shut until Wednesday of this

week. Meanwhile, Stellantis has canceled the Jeep Gladiator 4xE. That's as the automaker

reassesses its product plans. Stellantis told suppliers in a letter that the cancellation of

the plug-in hybrid Gladiator is effective immediately and that all related activities

and agreements will be concluded. The Gladiator 4xE would have been the third plug-in hybrid

in the Jeep lineup, joining the Wrangler and Grand Cherokee. And in a major pivot,

Porsche expects to launch a new crossover with combustion and plug-in hybrid powertrains

instead of making it fully electric as it first planned. Porsche attributed the decision to

market conditions. It did not specify when the new model will launch.

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

Joining me now to talk more about the decision to cancel the Jeep Gladiator 4xE is Vince

Bond Jr., who covers Stellantis for us at Automotive News. Vince, welcome back to Daily Drive.

Thank you.

So Vince, this model was expected this year. What are the likely factors that led to Stellantis

getting rid of it? Well, the main one that Stellantis told suppliers in a recent letter

from last week is that they don't see the demand for this type of pickup right now.

And I thought that was actually surprising because if you look back at the Jeep Wrangler

4xE and the Cherokee 4xE, those have been really popular models in the lineup.

Even if they don't give you a ton of EV range, they are really good on the off-road courses.

They have the extra torque from that powertrain. But Stellantis made that decision. They're

going to reinvest that money. And so we're going to see some more options when it comes to factory

features, customization, and other powertrain options that they have planned in the near future.

And so apparently that money from the 4xE could go to those plans.

Interesting. And this is the latest in a series of product changes since Antonio

Filosa became CEO of Stellantis this year. Remind us what other products have been canceled or

adjusted. Yeah, there's been just a huge, you know, recalibration of their plans really in the last,

you know, nine months since Carl Savarez left just a full reassessment of their strategy.

So we mentioned today that Gladiator 4xE is out. And then earlier this year, I mean,

we had tariffs. And so that halted production for the Dodge Charger Daytona RT trim. And so

that won't be around for 2026. We won't see the Dodge Hornet. You know, that shift from Italy.

So we won't see that because of tariffs this year. And then also the Ram Full Electric Ram 1500.

That is no longer in the cards. And so they've really gone through the whole lineup and they're

still making make changes as we speak. Wow, a lot of changes going on in the industry right now.

Vince, thank you so much for joining me. Yeah, no problem. Coming up, consultant and former PSA

executive Larry Dominique talks about mounting challenges for US automakers as Chinese brands

reach new technology milestones. That's next on Daily Drive.

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journey today. Welcome back to Daily Drive. I'm Kellen Walker. Automakers can't count on Chinese

vehicles being excluded from the US market forever. That's a warning from Larry Dominique,

who worked as an executive for PSA North America and Stellantis, and is now president of LD

Management Consulting. He spoke with Automotive News tech and innovation senior editor Jerry

Hirsch on the latest episode of Shift, a podcast about mobility. Here's a piece of their conversation.

One of the things that people are really talking about now is China and what effect

it's going to have on the Western auto industry. How do you see this playing out?

First of all, thanks, Jerry, for having me here. It's a pleasure to be here at Automotive News.

The Chinese influence to the legacy OEMs, the way I refer to them as legacy OEMs,

I think is going to be profound. These companies are all multinational companies,

but the markets are very, very diverse. Asia Pacific is quite different than Europe and

regulatory environment. US has got a little bit of a protectionism going on right now,

and there is going to be a big impact on how the legacy OEMs respond to this kind of onslaught,

to this new technology, faster manufacturing, software developed vehicles. I think it's going

to be a profound impact to the industry. Do the Chinese have a qualitative edge at this point

over the Western automakers? I think what I'm seeing from

everything we know, the speed at which they're integrating and developing their vehicles,

I think of it as a software iteration process more than a true hardware development.

We're used to 48-month development cycles. They're talking about 18 months. They're talking

about 12 months for iterative development. They're doing a wonderful job of integrating

technology, user technology, cell phone technology into the automobiles,

connectivity to everything going on around them, internet of things.

The legacy OEMs have done that very piecemeal. We spend years developing HMI systems and then

they're static for five years. It has to be iterative. Tesla's probably the main US manufacturer

has been doing some of that, but certainly we lag. One of the things that's been a real big

issue in the US auto market now is price. The average transaction prices are mid-40,000.

At the Automotive News Congress, we heard that average payments are $700 plus on a new car,

which is just huge. Then we talk here that people don't want EVs. They're really

to hybrids and maybe some to plug-in hybrids. If there was a Chinese or anybody's EV in the market

that had 250 miles of range and cost $30,000, you could transact that. Do you think consumers

would gravitate to that? Yeah. I've actually read several surveys in the last couple of months

about consumer sentiment related to Chinese automobiles. I've seen as high as 30 to 40%

of Americans would consider a Chinese automotive product if the affordability was right. You

exactly nailed it on the head. It's about affordability. $700 transaction prices for people

making $80,000 a year is a tough sell. We've become a market of almost high-end sales only.

We've migrated from a segment point of view into SUVs and large pickup trucks. What we really need

to do is find that affordability factor again, which we seem to have lost since COVID.

Federal policy pretty much blocks Chinese from entering the US market now with huge tariffs

and other hurdles. Do you see a scenario where some of these cars can start to come to market?

I believe the protectionist elements are short-term or short-to-mid-term. You and I both live in

California. I already see Chinese vehicles coming across the border from Mexico and driving around

the Southern California, so consumers are already seeing them. They're going to learn more about them.

I don't think it's something that legacy OEMs should fall back on, because if they allow that to

happen and don't push for innovation and push for technology, when those gates do open,

they're going to have that much more of a gap in order to catch up on.

Where do you see the pain points are for the legacy OEMs going forward, both with production

and also with technology? On the production side, I include the development in R&D in that

aspect as well, Jerry, when I think about it. OEMs have a limited amount of CapEx and R&D they

can spend. That's just the reality. This is a high capital intensive industry. You need to keep

priming that pump. You need to keep sales and revenue going. You need to keep that wholesale

going to fund your future development. What I don't see today, and I think this is the biggest

risk to the legacy OEMs, is we're not seeing them have enough bandwidth in that kind of behavior

in order to invest and innovate in these new technologies and this rapidly increasing software

defined vehicles, if you want to refer to it that way. I do believe the legacy OEMs are falling

into a trap. They've got to find a way to, in some ways, build a new airplane while they're still

in flight. So far, that's been a big challenge for most of them. Do you think they're going to

survive or do you think some of them are going to fail? It's a great question and it's something

I think about a lot. I think there's tremendous amount of stress in the system. I think if it

doesn't change, if something doesn't break that log jam, there's risk that we could see more

consolidations. We could see potentially some long-term OEMs we've known go away.

It's a competitive market. If you just go, what happens in Europe and the UK in the last year

UK is now 10% Chinese market share. Continental Europe is 5% Chinese manufacturers.

Where did the market share come from? Somebody had to have lost that market share.

The legacy OEMs are under more stress from a production efficiency, production capacity,

engineering work. There needs to be some sort of paradigm shift, I think, in the legacy OEMs

to really shake the tree and make a decision to move in a highly technological and innovative

path. Larry, when you and I started talking about the auto industry, oh, seven, 15 years ago,

we saw Pontiac disappear and then we saw Hummer disappear and we saw Saturn disappear

and we saw Saab disappear. What brands that American consumers know now do you think are

in danger that could be consolidated over the next three to five years?

It's a tough question, Jerry, because we could see how the OEMs react to this and that could very

rapidly change the landscape that you're referring to. When I started this industry 40 years ago,

I worked at General Motors and we had 40-something percent market share, GMs at 16, 17% market share

today. You see a much more competitive market. The other thing that's a challenge to legacy OEMs

puts risk to exactly what you just said is the fact that the model count in the United States

continues to go up. If there's new electrification and new technologies, OEMs are not deleting vehicles

or just adding more vehicles. Our sales per model continues to drop in this country,

which means everything is becoming less efficient. Your manufacturing is becoming less

efficient, your marketing is becoming less efficient. OEMs are going to have to react to that.

Obviously, there are some of the low volume brands that are certainly going to be at more risk than

the high volume brands. I think those brands or OEMs that focus on limited volume segments

are going to be at more risk. You've got to play in the core segments. You've got to play in C and D

and E and F in this country if you're going to be successful. But if you're multinational,

if you're in Europe, you need to play in A, you need to play in B. If you're in South America,

you need to play in A and B. They're going to have to come up with a multinational strategy

to really be successful long term. I've been looking at some Tesla sales numbers over the

past few months and where once this company had 80, 90% market share in EVs, now it looks like

it's dipping in the US below 40 and the fall in Europe, I think, is steeper. What's behind that

and where do you think Tesla, which has been this innovator and disruptor in the auto industry,

where do you think it's headed? It's another good question. Tesla was a front runner in

the EV world and not just the EV world, but the integration of technology world. This kind of

internet of things is melting of technology for consumers. I think the legacy OEMs know how to

make great cars. What you've seen is over the last few years, some of these first generation EVs or

second generation EVs in some cases from the legacy makers coming on board. They do have brand

loyalty. They do have brand cachet that goes with that. I think that's benefited them in gaining

market share. I think last month GM was like 11% of EV sales in the US. You're certainly seeing some

of the OEMs capture share in that marketplace. Now there's a little bit of a pullback on that,

I believe, because of the protectionists or the tariff issues that have allowed them to take

a sigh of relief and not push the EV so rapidly. Tesla's going to have to continue to innovate.

I don't believe Cybertruck was it. Cybertruck was, I think, was a big mistake on their part,

but refining the Model Y, refining the Model 3, and getting those vehicles in the price

points that they need them to be, continue to improve the quality, because when they first came

out, I criticized the chassis dynamic performance. I criticized some of their steering, but I didn't

criticize their technology. They had all that. Learning that and catching up on that, I think,

was good. They've been an innovator in manufacturing, good casting, and some other things that other

OEMs are now saying, wow, what a great idea. Let's go do it. I do believe they've led

that. Their market cap is so high, they're not an acquisition target by anybody. If anything,

all the other OEMs could be an acquisition target for them, from a market cap point of view.

I do believe Tesla will be around for a long time, but I think they're going to reach some sort of

plateau in market share, probably much lower than it is today. LD Management Consulting President

Larry Dominique spoke with our own Jerry Hirsch on SHIFT, a podcast about mobility.

You can hear their full conversation on SHIFT wherever you get your podcast.

That's Daily Drive for today. I'm Kellan Walker. Thanks to automotive news executive producer

Jake Neer, as well as our own Vince Bond Jr. and Jack Wallsworth for their reporting for today's

podcast. You can get the latest news on Chinese competition, cybersecurity, and everything

happening in the auto industry at AutoNews.com. Come back tomorrow for a conversation with former

congressman Mike Rogers, who is running for Michigan's open U.S. Senate seat in 2026.

I mean, China is moving out smartly. They're trying to capture world market and they're doing it,

you know, with American consumer money. And so realigning that I think has been really,

really important for Michigan working families and getting these jobs back.

We'd love to hear from you. Let us know what you think of the show and the topics we cover today.

Send us an email at dailydriveatautonews.com or leave us a voicemail at 313-444-2774.

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Sept. 22, 2025 | Stellantis data breach; Larry Dominique talks China threats

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