Ford Faces Yet Another Massive Safety Probe As Feds Investigate 1.3 Million Faulty F-150s

Good morning! It's Monday, March 24, 2025, and this is The Morning Shift, your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. This is where you'll find the most important stories that are shaping the way Americans drive and get around.

In this morning's edition, we're diving into the latest safety issue to hit more than a million Ford trucks, and we'll check in on Elon Musk's pep talk at Tesla. We'll also find out about the struggles facing Chinese automaker Nio, and see how Canada is fighting back against one American automaker.

Ford was having a pretty good run of it after going almost three weeks without issuing a recall hitting an enormous number of its vehicles. That run of quiet news came crashing down when federal investigators announced a probe into nearly 1.3 million Ford F-150 trucks over gear shift issues.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will investigate more than 1.2 million Ford trucks over reports of "an unexpected gear downshift" that, in some instances, locks the rear wheels of certain trucks. NHTSA received 138 customer complaints about the issue, as Reuters explains:

Complainants alleged an unexpected transmission downshift to a lower gear while traveling at highway speeds without any prior warning or driver input, followed by the vehicle rapidly decelerating. Some complaints added the vehicle's rear wheels would lock temporarily, seize or skid during the downshift, leading to loss of control. This could lead to an increased risk of crash and injury, NHTSA said. The report, however, said no crashes or fires had been reported.

In total, the probe will impact 1,270,970 Ford F-150 pickup trucks across the 2015 to 2017 model years, the NHTSA explained in a release. The probe is the first stage in the NHTSA's recall process and could lead to Ford being forced to roll out a fix for the problem.

Should that happen and a full recall be called on impacted Ford trucks, it would be the 16th recall to hit the 2017 Ford F-150 truck, following issues with the vehicle's brakes, seatbelts, engine components and even its doors.

Ford's quality control issues pale when compared with the problems hitting Tesla right now. In the last week alone, the American automaker was forced to recall every Cybertruck sold, faced a mass exodus among owners and is repeatedly being targeted by people fed up with company boss Elon Musk's meddling in government.

In an attempt to quell concerns at the automaker, Musk made a rare departure from the White House to check in on his day job and spoke with Tesla employees across the U.S. Some were calmed by Musk's pep talk last week, but others said it felt "cynical" and almost like a "publicity stunt," reports Business Insider:

The California worker compared the event, which kicked off around 10 p.m. ET, to a "publicity stunt" due to its timing and the short notice for employees. (Several workers said they were notified of the all-hands less than an hour before it was scheduled to start.) Another worker, based in Nevada, said they felt the event was all about "appeasing shareholders" and tuned out less than halfway through.

In the meeting, Musk told staff to hold onto their shares, despite the company's value cratering, and updated workers on the progress of its humanoid robot and autonomous taxi. The billionaire also admitted to being "stretched pretty thin" thanks to his new role ruining the government, but didn't offer much else in the way of explanation for how he's managing his time between the six companies he works at and the government department that Donald Trump put him in charge of.

Because of this lack of focus on Tesla, Musk is now facing calls from some investors to step down. An early backer of the electric vehicle maker said that "it's time for somebody to run Tesla," we reported last week, before adding that the "business has been neglected for too long."

During Tesla's stumbles, the automaker is often compared to Chinese automakers like BYD, which is witnessing meteoric growth around the world as its EVs become some of the world's best-selling. Just because one Chinese automaker is flying high, that doesn't mean they all are, however.

Chinese automaker Nio is one such brand that's not having such good fortunes, reported Automotive News. The brand saw sales slow and is now considering severe cost-cutting measures to remain competitive.

In the three months to the end of March 2024, Nio expects to sell about 43,000 cars, which is 12,000 units below expectations and down on the previous quarter. Revenue is also projected to drop to 12.9 billion yuan ($1.8 billion), compared with the 17.8 billion yuan that was projected. In response, Nio is following the lead of automakers like VW with some pretty serious cost-cutting, as Automotive News reports:

The company has implemented a series of cost-cutting measures since last year, including unifying hardware and using self-developed chips, executives said March 31. Nio also aims to increase its gross margin with new product launches this year, with a plan to deliver nine new or revamped models, Chief Executive Officer William Li said. However, the company is still expanding its battery-swap network, and losses in that area are not expected to narrow, Qu said.

Nio has been selling cars for more than a decade now, but is yet to turn a profit. The company is targeting profitability for this year, with CEO Li saying it will come in the fourth quarter of 2025 if the automaker can double annual sales to around 440,000 vehicles.

Thanks to Elon Musk's ties with the new administration leading the U.S. on its trade war against the rest of the world, Tesla became something of a target. Its dealers have been tagged with anti-musk slogans, its cars have been set alight and international governments have made steps to reduce support for sales of its cars.

After Canadian lawmakers cut support for anyone looking to install a Tesla charger at home, two more provinces have cut support for the American automaker, this time targeting its car sales. Nova Scotia and Manitoba have scrapped electrical-vehicle rebates for Tesla, reports Automotive News. The move means that anyone buying a Tesla car in the two provinces now won't be eligible to apply for rebates with as much as $3,000:

The vote came after Susan LeBlanc, an NDP member of the legislature, called for an amendment dropping the Elon Musk-led company's products from the subsidy program. LeBlanc told the legislature that the owner of Tesla has aligned himself with U.S. president Donald Trump in "waging economic war on our country and this is a small way to take a stand against that."

Tesla isn't the only automaker getting cut from the rebates in Manitoba, Automotive News adds. The incentives also won't be offered to anyone buying Chinese electric vehicles, and isn't available on the purchase of any EV costing more than $70,000.

Happy Monday! How was your weekend? I had a pretty lush one, to be honest, and went to a fun concert of film music where Ian McKellen came on stage to introduce the music of Lord of the Rings. Oh my little nerd heart did sing!

I also finally got a proper cabinet to keep all my records in, and celebrated by listening to Haim. A lot of Haim. That's continued this morning, and I've been reminded just how great "Women In Music Pt III" is, so here's my favorite song from that album – enjoy!