Tariffs... What Are Those? Robotaxis... What Are Those?

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Do You Work in PR?

I know people in PR like to know what I’m doing, what I’m working on, and appreciate regular updates. I’m going to try to do better at doing that. Because copying and pasting an email list results in a lot of spam messages – meaning y’all don’t see my updates – I’ve decided to make the list more interactive.

If you’d like to receive these updates, please sign up for this list:

You’ll be able to verify you’re on the list. You’ll be able to update your email address. You’ll be able to remove yourself from the list if your role changes or you no longer want the updates. Plus, they shouldn’t end up in spam folders.

Please also pass this along to other PR people who might be interested. Heck, you don’t even have to be in PR for these updates!

(Note: Some of you are already on the list. I imported my current PR mailing list into the system, so if it says you’re already signed up that’s why.)

In This Issue

• Do You Work in PR?

• Tavares Out

• Understanding Tariffs

• These ARE the Droids You Are Looking For

• More Goodies

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Tavares Out

Carlos Tavares, the head of Stellantis, announced he is retiring at the end of 2026. After everything is has been shaken up with the automaker, it seems like the last change is coming from the top.

Making money is hard, especially in North America. And if your Jeep and Ram brands can’t bring in the cash, you’re going to have a hard time.

Who is to blame for the woes? Was a stronger union contract cutting into any profitability? Should the company have moved more quickly into electrification? Did it “go woke?”

From a product standpoint, I’d say things are just a bit off. For example, the Fiat 500e is a great return product for the United States for fans of the brand. And since it’s Fiat in the U.S., it doesn’t need to sell a ton of cars to be successful. But the miss is the pricing, which is just too expensive for too little. Sure, you can argue you don’t need the range, but the thing is I can get more range for the same money (or even less). You have to really want the 500e, more than you’d want just a Fiat, for it to make any sense.

Jeep introduced a final edition of its 392 Wrangler, only to then announce the 392 Wrangler would continue for another year. Kuniskis, in my view, completely kneecapped the Dodge Charger Daytona rollout. Plus, vehicles like the Wagoneer S should be hitting the streets now with journalists having driven it, and I’m not sure if that’s even happened yet.

Stellantis has some great products, and they have some really excellent people working there. They need leadership that can get their crap together and get cars produced reasonably well and reasonably on time, or they’re going to be left behind.

Understanding Tariffs

Over the past week, I came across a TikTok where the host of this podcast didn’t understand how tariffs work. That person believed that the country exporting the goods pays the tariff, much like how presidential candidate Donald Trump describes the process. The financial expert who was the guest had to correct them because the thing is, that’s not how tariffs work.

When you return to the United States from abroad, a U.S. Customs Agent will ask you if you have anything to declare. If you have more than dirty clothes you took with you, you might be subject to paying a duty to enter the country. That duty is a tariff.

It’d be a bit silly if U.S. Customs, at that moment, called up Spain and demanded payment for you to enter the United States. Your honeymoon in Mallorca now cost the Spanish government money.

Of course that’s not how it works, nor do I think anyone expects it to work that way.

The same applies for goods being imported into the United States by businesses. If there is an import duty – or tariff – on the products coming in, the company importing it is to pay the tariff.

This exists to help discourage businesses from importing goods by making it more expensive to do so. If there is a domestically-available source of what the business is importing, it encourages businesses to go that route.

If there is no domestically-available alternative, or the domestically-available alternative is still more expensive than the import with the duty, the business will import with the duty. Since that duty is paid by that business, the cost needs to be absorbed somehow. Some of it can be made up in improved manufacturing efficiencies or streamlining production. Some of it can just be amortized out over the entire business. But in many cases, some of that cost is passed directly on to the consumer or the customer.

Tariffs can punish the country of the goods they are levied against because if the cost of their products becomes too expensive, they’ll lose that trade. But it’s not because they’re writing checks to the United States to pay for the cost of exporting those goods.

Does Donald Trump understand how tariffs work? Considering his proposed tariffs could possibly collapse the economy back to Great Depression levels, I’m not sure he does (or cares). But regardless, I hope that you understand tariffs better and use this knowledge when you’re talking about them in the future.

These ARE the Droids You Are Looking For

Ok, I lied. I’m going to talk about the “We, Robot” Tesla event from last Thursday. After a long overdue start, Elon Musk came out and introduced the Robotaxi we’ve all been waiting for, plus a Robovan, plus he announced wireless charging for the taxi, and he also said that “Unsupervised Full Self Driving” would be available next year.

By now if you cared, you would’ve read about the event. But I do want to share friend Roberto Baldwin’s first ride video in the CyberCab.

I miss the CRX too, Robbie.