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Runtime: 9:54
0:00 U.S. Considers Annual EV Fee
0:58 U.S. House Targets California’s ZEV Truck Mandate
1:50 EU Sales Droop in Q1
2:38 Mercedes’ Q1 Profit Drops 43%
3:00 Volvo’s Profit Plunges 73%
3:30 Stellantis Posts Lower Sales & Revenue
4:09 GM Expects $4-5 Billion Tariff Hit
4:54 Ford Scraps In-House Central Compute Platform
5:59 Tesla Denies Looking for New CEO
7:05 Tesla Building Public Chargers for Semis
7:37 Isuzu to Launch BEV Pickup
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U.S. HOUSE CONSIDERS ANNUAL EV FEE
It’s probably going to get more expensive to own an EV in the U.S. Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives advanced a bill to place an annual fee on electric vehicles to help fund road repairs. The bill would place a $250 annual fee on EVs and a $100 fee on hybrids. According to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the highway trust fund faces a $142 billion shortfall over five years. Road repairs are funded through taxes on gas and diesel, which EV drivers don’t pay. However, the EV advocacy group The Electrification Coalition, says the $250 yearly fee on EVs is unfair because the average gas-powered vehicle only pays about $88 a year in federal fuel taxes.
U.S. HOUSE TARGETS CALIFORNIA’S ZEV TRUCK MANDATE
And House Republicans are also ramping up efforts to revoke California’s ability to set its own vehicle emission standards. Yesterday, they voted to rescind California’s mandate for zero-emission heavy-duty trucks by 2045 and also repealed a separate EPA waiver that restricted NOx emissions from big trucks and engines. And today, House Republicans will vote to repeal an EPA waiver that allows California to ban sales of new gas-powered vehicles in 2035. Republicans are trying to revoke the waivers using the Congressional Review Act or CRA. However, it’s unclear if they have the authority to do so after the Government Accountability Office ruled in March that the House can’t revoke the waivers with the CRA, which requires a majority vote in the Senate.
EU SALES DROOP IN Q1
The European auto industry continued to limp along in the first quarter. And the situation will likely get worse as Trump’s tariffs hurt car exports to the United States. The ACEA, the group that represents automakers in the EU, says Q1 sales fell 1.9%. Even so, there were some bright spots. Sales of EVs were up 23.9% with nearly 413,000 BEVs sold, even though Tesla was down 36%. Hybrids were up nearly 21% to 964,000 units. And PHEVs were up a little over 1%. But gasoline cars fell over 20% and diesel cars were down 27%, which dragged down the whole market.
MERCEDES’ Q1 PROFIT DROPS 43%
With the European market so weak it is not a surprise to see that Mercedes, Stellantis and Volvo all reported lower sales and earnings. Mercedes saw its sales of cars and vans fall 4%, while revenue fell 7%, its EBIT plummeted 41%, and its net profits were even worse with a 43% drop.
VOLVO’S PROFIT PLUNGES 73%
Volvo posted some miserable numbers too. It sold 172,200 cars, down 6%. Revenue dropped 11.7% to only $3.4 billion. Its EBIT plummeted 72% and profits fell 73% to very low levels. And these numbers help explain why Volvo dumped its CEO Jim Rowan, and brought Hakan Samuelson back out of retirement to run the company again.
STELLANTIS POSTS LOWER SALES, REVENUE
Stellantis posted its Q1 numbers but for some odd reason, it does not publish its operating or net profits, just its sales and revenue. That must be a real frustration for investors because it really doesn’t give them a clear idea of what’s happening at the company. Stella sold 1.2 million vehicles in the first three months of the year, down 9%. And its revenue fell 14% to €35.8 billion. We can only imagine the bottom line looks terrible but we probably won’t know how bad until it reports its first half results.
GM SEES $4-5 BILLION TARIFF HIT
One quick tariff update here. General Motors says those tariffs will shave anywhere from $4 billion to $5 billion off its bottom line this year. And once we get guidance from all the automakers, suppliers and retailers, the cost of the tariffs is going to be a staggering number.
FORD SCRAPS IN-HOUSE CENTRAL COMPUTE PLATFORM
Ford has scrapped an in-house development program that aimed to create an all-new electronic architecture. It was supposed to be a fully networked zonal architecture for both electric and ICE vehicles that had more OTA capabilities and services for customers. It was also meant to cut costs, improve quality and generate more revenue for the automaker. But Reuters reports that the program has run into delays and was part of the reason Ford lost $4.7 billion on software and EVs in 2023 and $5 billion last year. All automakers have seemed to struggle in some way developing centralized zonal architectures, but it’s been especially hard for legacy automakers like Ford that can have 150 modules from dozens of suppliers that all need to talk to and work smoothly with one another. So, Ford says it will absorb what it learned from the program into its current software system and will rely on its skunkworks program to develop the new electronic architecture.
TESLA DENIES LOOKING FOR NEW CEO
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, some members of Tesla’s board reached out to executive search firms about a month ago to find a possible replacement for Elon Musk. It says they were concerned about the CEO’s focus on his role in the Trump Administration and its possible relation to the company’s falling sales and stock price at the time. Tesla’s X page has since posted a response from Chairperson Robyn Denholm that the report is false and the board is confident in Musk’s ability. And Elon called it a “deliberately false article.” But the Journal says the board spoke to its CEO about spending more time at the company and one analyst from Wedbush Securities even called it “a very tense situation” and a “warning shot” from the board. However, they’d be surprised if the board was still searching for a replacement after Elon announced in Tesla’s latest earnings call that he’d cut his time at the White House significantly. And that Musk is likely to stay on as CEO for at least the next five years.
TESLA’S CHARGING NETWORK FOR SEMIS
And in other Tesla news, the company also plans to roll out its own network of public chargers for its semi truck. At a presentation during the Advanced Clean Transportation Expo the Senior Manager of Tesla’s Semi program said that it’s aiming to deploy 46 public Megawatt chargers, mainly in California and Texas, by early 2027. The Semi has been designed to have up to roughly 500 miles of range and the manager also claims that test trucks have already driven nearly 8 million miles.
ISUZU TO LAUNCH BEV PICKUP
Isuzu is jumping into the EV truck segment with an electric version of its D-Max mid-size pickup. The truck features a nearly 67-kWh battery pack and two electric motors that combine for 188-horsepower and 240-lb-ft of torque. That pack provides a range of 163 miles or 263 kilometers based on the WLTP cycle. And it makes enough power to move from 0-100 km/h in 10.1 seconds. Pricing hasn’t been announced but it’s expected to cost more than the diesel-powered D-Max which starts at $41,600 or €36,500. While the D-Max EV will be built in Thailand it will first launch in left-hand-drive European countries in the third quarter and right-hand versions for the UK launch early in 2026. The pickup will also be sold in Australia.
AAH TODAY
And don’t forget to tune into Autoline After Hours today. We’ve got Chad Durkee from the supplier FORVIA coming on the show. It just showed off a bunch of cool new tech at the Shanghai auto show and no doubt we’ll get into the impact of tariffs on suppliers. Industry expert Lindsay Brooke will also be on the show. So, join the fun with John and Gary this afternoon at 3PM EST.
But that’s a wrap for me and I hope to see you later today.
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I’ve noticed that often when reporting on EU EV sales you play video from what looks like Freiburg Germany, an area I’ve been to a few times and will be there this fall. Cool area with a huge flying buttress church thingy. A place to check out in your spare time.
A flat fee is not an accurate indication of the tax an EV should pay. It should be like the gas tax, a tax on energy. THey can add the tax to all public superchargers and all home level 2 and ab ove chargers, who are almost exclusively used to power EVs. This should account of the vast majority of EV charging.
“Stellaaaa!” posted lower sales and income, but did not post its profits. THis is because they were humongous, up 215% from a year ago. ANd if you believe this, send me your bid for the Brooklyn Bridge.
So now the Republicans want to put a punitive tax on EVs and hybrids. I say punitive, because even the $100 for hybrids is almost 50% more than the federal gas tax for a non-hybrid Accord driven 12K miles a year. The $250 for an EV would be more than most pickup truck drivers would pay in federal gas tax.
As Reg says, it should be based on energy used. Using miles driven would be much better than the flat rate. Tax based on miles driven and efficiency of the vehicle would also be relatively “fair.”
With Charger and Challenger gone, and Ram and Jeep sales way down, no wonder Stella is hurting. It’s not likely to get better any time soon, and the tariffs will make it worse. Pacifica and the new Charger are from Canada. Ram HD and Promaster are from Mexico.
I bought a Toyota Hybrid and drive only about 9,000-10,000 miles a year and you want a tax to fix the roads what have you been doing with all the gas tax I was paying while driving a Chevy pick up with a V8?
They’re just floating that trial balloon to see how much screaming shows up when they suggest a tax to offset the revenue from gasoline. Of course it’s not fair but this lets them act magnanimous when they pull back the charge a bit. If they want to discourage EV sales, this is an excellent way to do it. For a family like ours that drives a minimal amount, something like 10k or less per year, the fee is outrageous. Build a surcharge into public charging stations and call it a day.
Today’s AAH was the most disappointing ever. The headline indicated a discussion of who might leave the US market because of tariffs, but there was nothing about that at all. They talked about how seats are made and other not particularly interesting things, at least to me. I’m hoping it’s better next week, or I’ll cancel my paid subscription.
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I tuned in AAH last night briefly and left, then tried once more just a few mins ago and I was bored to tears. the guests and esp John were rambling on and on and never (in the few mins I gave them) addressed the topic.
It would be interesting to understand the math behind the road use fee calculation. I wonder if it takes into account more than just the end user costs. There are additional lost tax revenue in terms of creating/transporting the fuel to the stations that they may be accounting for. But I have not seen the breakdown.