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
I don’t know much about corporate stuff, but I do know there are zillions of corporations whose “headquarters” are in places like Delaware or the Cayman Islands for… reasons, but they don’t actually do business in those places.
So what would have stopped Mercedes from slapping an “HQ” sign on the Atlanta offices, filing some paperwork, taking advantage of the sweet deals, and continuing to do business as they always have?
Cos you are not going to get any sweet deals out of the fat, stupid gangster squatting in the White House. All he knows how to do is cause turmoil so his pals ( and him on the down low) can make money shorting stocks, which he thinks is the height of financial genius.
They probably already have similar deals with the German government or the local state there. Also to be recognized as the head office you probably need a quorum of the board to be based there and post dieselgate I suspect there is not an appetite for German motoring execs to be based in the US.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles used to do something like that – incorporated in the Netherlands, but most of their global “headquarters” staff were based in London, but with most operational stuff in Auburn Hills and Turin
Well if FCA did it, I’d probably go in the opposite direction.
What a nice return on that GM stock
Favourite HQ: Edison Motors in the BC coastal mountains. Even building little cabins for the employees to live in.
I can only imagine that Mercedes Benz is painting an overly polite version of the ‘request’ – which, based on how other conversations have gone, was most probably presented as a direct threat.
If we’re counting HQs for companies which no longer exist, the one for Longaberger Baskets was just tremendous.
Favorite iconic HQ building? The Chrysler building has to be one of them, no??
That was never Chrysler’s headquarters, Walter Chrysler built it as a real estate investment separate from his car company. Chrysler Corp did have space on the ground floor for a showroom, but they didn’t have any corporate offices there
I actually knew this and I had completely forgotten it over the years. d’oh! I’ll mirror what a few others have said and say the Woolworth building then 🙂
While not a headquarters, GM did used to have about 1100 employees in New York at the General Motors Building (later known as the General Motors Building at Trump International Plaza), including some senior executives who didn’t want to be in Detroit. Its a reasonably attractive marble tower, but I don’t know that its better than the Savoy-Plaza Hotel that was there before
HQs are lame, proving grounds are where it’s at!
My own. Right here at my house!
I mean, the HQ I’m most familiar with is Caterpillar’s big block of tan, the former world HQ in Peoria. It’s still an important office property, even though the HQ skittered off to Aurora.
State Farm’s HQ building is a big, dark-colored block of a thing that does perfectly encapsulate the feeling the Insurance Industry gives you: they’re not your friend. Points for honesty.
However, Sears Tower (whachu talkin about, “Willis?”) Is probably the one landmark that has actually left an impression on me. And it was the HQ of the Amazon of the 20th Century. And the tallest in the world before Asia started going crazy with buildings and money. It’s arguably the landmark that signifies you’re anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour from downtown. Maybe more, it’s been a couple years since I was up there.
I did some stints in a Chinese build yard where we were building a chemical plant in modules. In addition to its own port and huge equipment, the management were onsite holed in a large office building that looked yanked from a nondescript office park. It had a canteen with homemade noodles and dumplings. It was a beautiful repudiation of the current practice of housing the C-Suite in a different zip code.
Economist C. Northcote Parkinson postulates that companies and organizations only do good work when operating out of unsuitable, temporary digs. Having an actual tailored headquarters equals rigor mortis setting in. I am sure there are exceptions, but there is truth in it.
Sears Tower in Chicago. 30 Rockefeller Plaza is pretty spiffy, too.
I don’t know if I have an absolute favorite, because there’s so much beautiful commercial architecture out there, but the Woolworth Building would be up there on the list. One of the most gorgeous skyscrapers of all time, inside and in. Corporate headquarters of the F.W. Woolworth Company, and its successor, Venator Group, from 1913-2000
Transamerica pyramid in SF. It’s just so unsual.
The former US headquarters of Birkenstock, right off Highway 101 in Novato, CA (Marin County) is an incredible mid-century building that’s getting very appropriately repurposed into a museum exploring the design legacy of Ray and Charles Eames.
Speaking of Marin County, the Marin County Civic Center is distinctive as a large Frank Lloyd Wright project. It’s not a “company HQ” but it is a headquarters so maybe it qualifies.
Speaking of Wright, though, the Johnson Wax complex is a corporate headquarters and is also spectacular
Snarkily wondering: Was lutnick trying to maintain supply of a brand he likes while his government is actively working to piss off all of the EU?
I know it won’t happen, but it would be hilarious if the end result of tariffs leads to the EU automakers stopping exports of vehicles to the us, and focus on markets that aren’t actively hostile.
The isolation you speak of is happening right now. Our former allies and trading partners no longer trust us and want to associate with us.
The Germans, moving their headquarters to (borrowed online moniker) the People’s Christofascist Republic of Pickup Truckistan? Yeah, not going to happen.
The execs are like, ‘You want me to move where? Yemen or Somalia are looking better’.
I miss the old Dayton’s/Target Corporate HQ (Downtown Minneapolis). It was a grand old building with many floors of escalators. They had a Department store on the lower floors and an show space on the top floor for holiday and other shows like the holiday animatronics show.
Went there every year as a kid before Holidazzle. Great answer.
I loved that place.
It’s been well over 50 years since was last there.
Is the building still standing?
I think it is now a business center.
OH YEAH the Dayton’s display ruled. I distinctly remember when they did the Nutcracker, so cool.
And I think they used the building in the opening of the Mary Tyler Moore show too.
To be fair, Stephan Miller had a bedroom poster of a stunning open top Mercedes. Truly a childhood dream car for many in this administration.
Took me a second . . .
I did, ummm, “Not See” that one coming. (nor did I see that my original comment would require approval)
Oh, right. I thought it was a VW.
so we all pitching in for Chuckwalla?
Maybe a new membership tier that pays for part ownership (and free usage)?
(It would clearly be the “5 point harness” level.)
If there’s ever a higher tier than RCL it needs to be called Whale Penis.
It’s too bad that ACEA lumps mild and full hybrids together. It would be interesting if the hybrid category has a lot of high voltage vehicles, or if it is dominated by 48V barely hybrids that I’d argue are more similar to conventional engines than a full hybrid.
That shot of Matt in the jester costume must be incorporated into more topshots, IMHO.
It should be the only photo of him used. It’s awesome
It’s the perfect header for “Tales from the Slack.”
I don’t recall my total number of laps, either, but they were all on 8 December 2012 in a 1959 Humber Super Snipe:
https://live.staticflickr.com/5474/9992977564_a05866fe69_c.jpg
I would have driven again the next day but I broke my wrist that evening by tripping over a safety cone while walking through the unlit paddock so I came away with mixed feelings about the facility.
Said Humber also rolled over there too, didn’t it?
Yes. Fortunately Alan had a spare Super Snipe, as one does, and so he was able to salvage some of the parts from this first one.
I’ve been to Chuckwalla several times and I really enjoy it as a race track, but man it’s way out in BFE. Despite that, the one time the 24 Hours of Lemons had a race there, the track officials shut down the punk rock concert that a team had in the evening after the race. Who was that bothering, the lizards?
I’m concerned that the land may get bought up for solar farms instead.
GM up 69.69%? That sounds like a made-up Tesla stat.
Nice, nice!
I hear if you buy 420 shares at a time, you get extra dividends.
S3XY!
That’s also the combination on my luggage, probably need to change that
Yes, move it to Tuscaloosa so I can go work there 🙂
Right now, almost all the jobs are production engineers, plant managers, and thousands of line assemblers. Not a lot of the middleman jobs where I’d fit (logistics, planning, etc).
Sena-coach Tuberville already sort of strongarmed Fannie Mae’s SF office into moving to Birmingham, and that’s a career much more in my wheelhouse — but I probably won’t consider it because of the politics behind it that I strongly disagree with (and Tuberville, who was football coach during my time at that school, is one of the people in Washington I trust least of all…)
Oh, and Space Force, as well. I’m happy for the job creation and all that, but I still almost completely disagree with the political pressure behind these choices.
There are a surprising number of auto assembly plants in Alabama. Mercedes, Honda, Hyundai/Kia, Toyota/Mazda, as well as those nearby in Georgia and Tennessee. I get to work with a number of component suppliers on process heating equipment, so in some small way I’m involved in their pre-production efforts.
These are great jobs and most of the people I’ve worked with are pretty happy there.
And Senator Tatertown (aka Florida Man) needs to pack up and go away…
Yep, I’ve been in the middle of it for 30 years, moved here right when the Mercedes negotiations were happening in the mid-90s and it’s been a juggernaut ever since — bookended by Mercedes in West AL and BMW in upstate SC, both 1990s efforts.
Pretty wild, it’s hard to go through more than 3 cities or towns without seeing some kind of small supplier for Hyundai, Mazda/Toyota, Mercedes, Kiundai, and on and on (plus VW in Chattanooga, Koreans expanding into SE GA, and tons in between). Now NC is getting in on more of the action, too.
The whole I-20/I-85 corridors are thick with plants now. None of it has the cachet or history of Detroit, and never will, but it’s still fascinating to watch.
This seems needlessly pedantic. If other prototypes and creations were floating around in the decades before Benz created his car, they were certainly not direct ancestors of current cars like his was.
Ohhhh boy, this is a Jason Torchinsky theory that is way more than just prototypes. He’s been working on this story for years, and one day we’ll have it nailed down.
I’d make the old joke about GTA 6 coming out first. But now it looks like the game will get published this year, and Torch’s story… well you know. Matt, you know. 😛
Mercedes-Benz’ claim is centered on their definition of a car requiring an internal combustion engine, ignoring that there were already external combustion (steam) cars in series production beforehand and that steam and ICE coexisted in the marketplace until the 1920s, so steam cars were still very much considered cars. Their definition is also undercut somewhat by the fact that they themselves are now building electric cars, so, apparently the internal combustion requirement that they previously claimed was an essential part of the definition of a car isnt so essential when Mercedes themselves chooses not to build them. Because I assume they consider their electric cars to still be cars