Mercedes CEO Says White House Tried To Get Company To Move Headquarters To America

There are a lot of troubling actions coming out of the current White House, and it’s been hard for me to focus on anything else these last couple of weeks. That’s why I’m grateful to see that, amidst all the constitutionally questionable activities, this current administration still finds time to engage in the time-honored and largely bipartisan activity of making ridiculous asks of companies.

Yes, The Morning Dump will start with a little bit of politics, but it’s at least amusing politics. There is almost no universe in which a famously German company that claims (falsely) to have invented the car, moves its main campus to America. That didn’t stop one high-ranking government official from making the ask.

I think Mercedes is staying in Europe, and that’ll be a decent place to be if you’re planning to make a lot of electric cars, as EVs outsold pure-ICE vehicles for the first time ever in December. GM is still a long way from doing the same, but its stock price has bounced considerably in the last year.

And, as a break from all that, one of my favorite places in the universe is on sale. It’s a race track, of course.

‘The Roots Cannot–And Should Not–Be Pulled Out Of The Ground’

Mercedes-Benz has a large, modern U.S. headquarters in the far North Side of Atlanta. In a past life, I spent many hours filming cars in the searing hot plaza between the main office and the parking lot. I have watched many German execs sweat through their shirts. Can I imagine a world in which Mercedes moves the corporate campus to Atlanta? I cannot. Even funnier, the other major city associated with Mercedes in the United States is in Alabama.

If Daimler wanted to make former Alabama coach and current Mercedes dealer Nick Saban the CEO, maybe a Tuscaloosa campus would be nice. I am, in spite of my SEC biases, generally in favor of this. At least put him on the board. Saban is a winner, and Daimler could use more of those.

The Trump administration is not the first to try to bring back industrial jobs to the United States, and, in general, this isn’t a bad instinct. For reasons both practical and geopolitical, you need to be able to build things, and losing the memory of how to build things is bad.

At the same time, there are limits, but this White House seems intent on finding the edge by continually going over it. Mercedes CEO Ola Källenius told the German podcast The Pioneer about an apparently serious offer from the White House to Horace Greely it to America. I don’t speak German, so I’ll let Bloomberg do the translating:

Mercedes CEO Ola Källenius said US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick made the overture roughly a year ago, dangling tax relief and other incentives. Although Källenius declined, Mercedes later announced plans to shift production of a sport utility vehicle from Germany to its existing plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

“The star has been a global company for more than 100 years, but we are rooted in Swabia,” Källenius said, referring to Mercedes’ logo and the region home to its headquarters and several factories. “Those roots cannot — and should not — be pulled out of the ground.”

It’s possible to view this as a threat to the German government, maybe, but it doesn’t read like that to me. Källenius is pretty direct here about not doing it. President Trump has previously said that he doesn’t like seeing Mercedes cars around Trump Tower, so maybe this was all a gambit to placate him.

I’d rank the likelihood of this ever happening as somewhat lower than Mercedes shifting its HQ to Guangzhou.

EVs Outsell Non-Hybrid ICE Cars In EU For First Time Ever

Europe’s automobile association (ACEA) puts out a monthly sales report broken down by brand, country, and powertrain. This is an excellent data set, and I try to look at it every month. The December 2025 report is out, and there’s big news in this one.

For the first time ever, BEVs outsold ‘petrol’ cars in a month. It was close, as 217,898 EVs were moved, compared to 216,492 purely gas-powered cars. That represents a more than 50% year-over-year increase for BEVs and a 19% decrease for ICE cars. The real winner, though? Hybrids, while only up about 6%, represent the biggest chunk of the market with 324,799 sold.

In terms of brands, a strong performance by both VW and Skoda put VW on top, followed by Stellantis and Renault. Tesla continues to slide, dropping to near the bottom, behind SAIC, but ahead of BYD. That might change next year.

GM Stock Up Way More Than Tesla Stock In The Last Year

Well, I’m a dummy. I did a big piece yesterday about GM, and I should have saved it for today. Why? A year ago I asked everyone if, given $10,000, they’d invest in Tesla or GM. This was based on a prediction that GM’s EV sales would improve and Tesla’s wouldn’t in 2025, which is exactly what happened.

As of this morning, Tesla’s stock increased a modest 8.82% in the last 365 days. GM over that same period? Up 69.69%. Of course, the timing of this works to GM’s favor as it just announced more dividends and share buybacks yesterday, but the general trend is undeniable.

Congrats to those of you who guessed GM.

Chuckwalla Valley Raceway Is For Sale

I used to make a show called Proving Grounds that was almost entirely shot at Chuckwalla Valley Raceway in Desert Center, California. A fitting name because it is literally in the middle of a desert. This was a lesson learned the hard way a few times when we realized we needed something and the trip to Indio or Blythe was, at a minimum, a 95-minute round trip.

Our second season of the show was quickly renewed, and after melting cameras and hosts, we decided to move production earlier in the year when it’s a little cooler. We slept in the little cabins outside the track, which means that in one 12-month year, I spent a full month of it living out on the track with Zack, JF, Leh, Sam, Parker, and everyone else.

How many laps have I done there? I probably couldn’t even count them, although most of those were done in a Chrysler or Dodge minivan.

It’s for sale, reports The Drive:

As race tacks go, Chuckwalla is modern and well-maintained, but has only one track with no provisions for alternate configurations. There’s no dedicated kart track (just a skidpad with configurable barriers) and limited paddock and garage facilities. Even compared to Willow Springs, which was renowned for being somewhat dumpy before its recent purchase and renovation, Chuckwalla’s facilities are fairly limited. But it does have one thing many tracks don’t: its own paved runway.

As race tacks go, Chuckwalla is modern and well-maintained, but has only one track with no provisions for alternate configurations. There’s no dedicated kart track (just a skidpad with configurable barriers) and limited paddock and garage facilities. Even compared to Willow Springs, which was renowned for being somewhat dumpy before its recent purchase and renovation, Chuckwalla’s facilities are fairly limited. But it does have one thing many tracks don’t: its own paved runway.

I didn’t notice the runway when I was first out there, until one day a plane nearly landed on top of us while we were filming. That was a fun surprise! Having spent a good deal of time both at old Willow and Chuckwalla, I will say that, for the limited facilities, they were well taken care of and not dumpy.

Does someone have $28 million to loan me?

What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD

Kim Gordon, the great Kim Gordon, has a new song out! It’s called “NOT TODAY.”

The Big Question

What is your favorite company HQ? Could be any company.

Image Credit: Wiki Commons x 2