Good morning! It's Friday, August 22, 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, Tesla's most expensive Cybertruck is getting a price hike, Audi is raising prices across the board thanks to tariffs, NHTSA is probing delays in Tesla Full Self-Driving involved crash reports and the 2026 Nissan Leaf is a hell of a lot more expensive in Canada.
We're ending the week with a bang, friends.
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1st Gear: Most Expensive Cybertruck Just Got Even More Expensive
Tesla has apparently decided its slow-selling Cybertruck isn't selling slowly enough, so it's raising the price of the top-end Cyberbeast model by $15,000. The move comes after a janky rollout and dozens of missed promises and goals. Now, the Cyberbeast starts at $117,235, including destination. It comes with a new "Luxe Package" that includes Supervised Full Self-Driving and free Supercharging, among a few other niceties that certainly aren't worth a combined $15,000.
Poorer Cybertruck owners can breathe a sigh of relief, though. The Cyberbeast is the only truck seeing a price increase right now. From Reuters:
The pricing of the model is well above CEO Elon Musk's 2019 pitch of a roughly $40,000 starting price. But when it was launched in late 2023, Tesla set the base model at $60,990, more than 50% higher than the earlier target.
Rival models such as Ford's F-150 Lightning and Chevrolet's Silverado EV generally offer lower entry prices on certain trims, fueling competition as Cybertruck prices climb.
Tesla has also been offering hefty discounts of around $10,000 on some Cybertruck units in inventory.
Musk previously said Tesla had the capacity to produce more than 125,000 Cybertrucks annually, with a potential to reach about 250,000 in 2025, while also warning of a difficult production ramp.
Even the most modest expectations grossly overestimated the demand for Cybertrucks. Tesla doesn't disclose exact delivery numbers for the vehicle, but a March recall brought to light just how many Cybertrucks were actually in owners' garages. It covered about 46,000 vehicles built between November of 2023 and February of 2025. That's a far cry from Musk's estimates. I'm sure making the truck even more expensive will help matters.
2nd Gear: Audi's Prices Are Going Up Across The Board
Audi is in a tough spot because of President Donald Trump's tariffs, and you're going to suffer because of it. It's one of the few companies that imports every vehicle it sells in the U.S., so for the 2026 model year, prices will be going up from $800 to $4,700, depending on model and trim. It's bad news for an automaker that is already dealing with a sales slump in the United States.
Except for the Q5, which is built in Mexico, all Audis are built in Europe. Vehicles from the EU are currently being hit with a 27.5% tariff, but it could soon but reduced to 15% as part of a trade pact with the U.S. From Automotive News:
The electric Q4 E-tron compact crossover will see the smallest price increase, $800 or 1.6 percent, to $51,895, while pricing will rise by $4,700, or 3.7 percent, to $131,295 for the low-volume S8 large sedan, Audi said Aug. 21.
The starting price on Audi's entry model, the A3 compact sedan, is rising $1,900, or 4.8 percent, to $41,395.
The Q7 large crossover now starts at $63,295, up $1,500, while the closely related Q8 crossover now starts at $76,895, up $1,200. All prices include shipping.
Lower-volume performance models received some of the highest increases. The starting prices of both the RS 6 Avant wagon and RS 7 sedan rose $4,100.
Audi did not release 2026 model-year pricing for the A5 compact sedan, A6 E-tron Sportback sedan, A6 midsize sedan, or Q5 and Q6 E-tron midsize crossovers.
To help cushion the blow, Audi is including its Signature Care scheduled maintenance program for all 2026 models. Buyers will also get one brake fluid service and some minor equipment enhancements.
While these additions will certainly help, the added prices are certainly going to be a tough pill to swallow for most buyers.
3rd Gear: Tesla Is Slow To Release ADAS Crash Data
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it is investigating Tesla's delays in submitting crash reports involving advanced driver-assistance systems or self-driving vehicles. The agency says it has identified numerous crash reports from Tesla that arrived several months or more after the incident took place. Believe it or not, safety regulators look down on that kind of thing. From Reuters:
The regulator requires that a report be submitted within one to five days of a company receiving notice of a crash. In April, the agency revised the requirements.
The safety agency said it was opening an audit query "to evaluate the cause of the potential delays in reporting, the scope of any such delays, and the mitigations that Tesla has developed to address them."
[...]
NHTSA said that "when the reports were submitted, Tesla submitted them in one of two ways. Many of the reports were submitted as part of a single batch, while others were submitted on a rolling basis."
In discussions with the company, Tesla "indicates that the timing of the reports was due to an issue with Tesla's data collection, which, according to Tesla, has now been fixed," the reegulator said.
NHTSA is also reviewing whether any reports of prior Autopilot or FSD incidents remained outstanding. It's also looking to see whether the reports that were submitted included all of the required and available data.
4th Gear: Canadians Will Pay More For The Prvilidge Of Owning A Nissan Leaf
It's tough being Canadian. Not only do they have to deal with the fact that they're saddled with the much-worse metric system, they've also got to deal with whatever bull we're throwing their way. Now, there's a new reason to feel bad for our neighbors up north: their Nissan Leaf is going to be more expensive than ours. In the U.S., the Leaf is slated to start at $29,990 (before destination), which is actually cheaper than it was 15 years ago, but the same cannot be said for Canada. Those poor suckers will be paying handsomely for the small electric crossover. From Automotive News:
[I]n Canada, the 2026 Leaf will cost significantly more than it did 15 years ago. It will start at C$44,998, which is C$6,600 more than the entry level Leaf cost in 2011 when it was priced at C$38,395. Neither price includes shipping.
[...]
"Vehicle pricing is determined by a number of factors, including vehicle specifications, market competitiveness, and more, hence why Canadian and U.S. pricing may not be exactly the same," Nissan Canada spokesman Didier Marsaud said in a statement to Automotive News Canada.
A look at the standard options reveals Canadians might be paying more because of their colder northern climate.
The following comes standard on the 2026 entry-level Leaf in Canada and are not available as options in the United States: Heated front seats; Heated mirrors; Heat pump; Battery heater; Integrated LED turn signals.
The Leaf isn't exactly expensive in Canada. It's still cheaper than stuff like the Chevy Equinox EV, Kia Niro and Hyundai Kona. Still, being Canadian is a brave choice millions of people make every day that I'm not sure I'd ever be able to do myself. Sure, we've got all of this awfulness happening around us all the time here in the U.S., but at least our milk is in jugs.
Reverse: The French Know How To Build A Car
The DS is one of my favorite cars of all time, and the fact it saved de Gaulle is sort of just a bonus to me. If you want to learn more about the incident, head over to History.com.
On The Radio: Paul Simon - Graceland
"Graceland" is today's vibe, and it isn't your place to question it. Just trust me, okay?
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