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Runtime: 10:03
0:00 Car Buyers Rush to Showrooms Before Tariffs Hit
1:18 Mexican-Made Fords Sell Like Crazy
2:00 EU Falls Short of Needed EV Market Share
2:39 Chinese Push PHEVs in EU
3:24 Nissan Ariya Outsells Tesla Model Y in Colorado
4:22 Autoline Poll: What Do You Think of Slate?
4:59 Honda Dealers Target Afeela Direct Sales
6:05 Canada Parts Get Tariff Reprieve
7:15 Magna Revenue Down, Profits Up
8:00 Aurora Launches Driver-Free-Semi Business
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
CAR BUYERS RUSH TO SHOWROOMS BEFORE TARIFFS HIT
Not all automakers in the U.S. report sales on a monthly basis anymore. But for the ones who do, April was a rip-roaring month. Toyota was up 10%, Lexus up 23%. Honda was up 18% and Acura 33%. Ford was up 15%, and Lincoln up a whopping 40%. Subaru was only up 0.3%, but that’s 33 consecutive months of sales going up. No doubt if other automakers were reporting, they’d say customers were rushing into their showrooms, too. But we all know what’s going on here, right? Everybody knows that tariffs are going to raise prices and they’re in a mad scramble to buy a new car before that happens. This could probably go on for another month or so, but once dealers burn through the pre-tariff inventory that’s sitting on their lots, car sales are going to take a nosedive. You watch. Around July or so, this industry is going to be in a heap of hurt.
MEXICAN-MADE FORDS SELL LIKE CRAZY
Let’s bore into Ford’s sales numbers for a moment, especially for the vehicles it makes in Mexico. Sales of the Maverick pickup truck shot up 67%, and the Bronco Sport was up nearly 55%. But the Mach-E fell 40%. Clearly, people shopping for the Maverick and Bronco Sport were aware that they were about to get hit with 25% tariffs and ran out to get one before the price went up. But the Mach-E situation is kind of curious. Maybe it was just a bad month for EVs at Ford, because the F-150 electric Lightning, which is made in the U.S. was down 16%.
EU FALLS SHORT OF NEEDED EV MARKET SHARE
Now, over to Europe for a moment where, as we reported yesterday, automakers sold nearly 413,000 BEVs, which was up 23.9% from a year ago. Sounds really good, right? Well not really, because that only puts BEV market share in Europe at 15.2%. That’s lower than it used to be. And the ACEA, the group that represents carmakers in Europe, says that’s nowhere good enough. To meet its own CO2 targets, the EU needs BEVs to hit 22% market share.
CHINESE PUSH PHEVs IN EU
Meanwhile, Chinese automakers are putting their muscles behind selling more PHEVs in Europe because plug-in hybrids aren’t hit with extra tariffs like BEVs are. According to a data company called Rho Motion, BYD sold 3,269 plug-ins in March, which was up from nearly nothing in July 2024 when the tariffs were first introduced. BYD pays a 27% tariff on BEVs but only 10% on PHEVs. Also, Chery sold 757 PHEVs in March and while that’s a small number, it’s more than double the number of BEVs it sold.
NISSAN ARIYA OUTSELLS TESLA MODEL Y IN COLORADO
Here’s an interesting tidbit that was brought to our attention by our viewer Tim Jackson, who used to be the head of the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association. EV sales in Colorado and California continue to grow by double digits. They were up 20% in Colorado for the first quarter. And here’s the real kicker. That growth is coming from franchised dealers selling EVs. Tesla’s sales are down nearly 24% in Colorado, and the Model Y is now getting outsold by–are you ready for this?–the Nissan Ariya.
AUTOLINE POLL: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF SLATE?
We’ve got a new poll that we’re posting to get your insight and feedback. And it’s all about that little $27,000 electric pickup truck from Slate. What we want to know is what you think will happen with the company and the truck. Will it be a smash success? Will it be a one-hit wonder that goes belly up in a few years? Is it dead on arrival? Or what? Remember, this poll is only open to our Patreon and YouTube members, so if you haven’t signed up to be a member yet, this might be a good time to do so. And it only costs a few dollars a month. OK, back to the news.
HONDA DEALERS TARGET AFEELA DIRECT SALES
Over a decade ago, Tesla kicked off the move to direct sales in the U.S. and every EV startup that came after it has done the same thing. The idea actually appeals to legacy automakers too, and a couple of them, namely Volkswagen and Honda, want to use the direct sales model as they get ready to launch their own EV startups, Scout and Afeela. Well that has got their existing dealers hopping mad. Last month, the California New Car Dealers Association filed a lawsuit against the Volkswagen Group and Scout Motors, over Scout’s plans for direct sales. And now the dealers are going after Honda and Sony and their EV joint-venture. The dealers argue that Afeela is really part of Honda, and so by law, those cars have to be sold through dealers who sell Hondas. All this is going to end up in the courts, and who knows? It may even go all the way to the Supreme Court,
CANADA PARTS GET TARIFF REPRIEVE
Now we move to the Great White North where Canadian parts suppliers are sort of heaving a sigh of relief. That’s because the Trump Administration will not put 25% tariffs on Canadian parts and components that are USMCA compliant. Of course, the Administration really had to exempt them. Some components cross the border between the U.S. and Canada several times before ending up in a car. For example, a casting may be made in Canada, shipped to the U.S. for heat treating, then back to Canada for machining, then back to the U.S. for partial assembly, then back to Canada for final assembly, then back to the U.S. to be installed in a car. That stackup of tariffs each time it crossed the border would have made it prohibitively expensive. So those parts are exempt, or at least for now they are. But any vehicles made in Canada are still subject to the full 25% tariff, which is why General Motors just announced it’s shifting assembly of 50,000 full-size pickups from Canada to the U.S.
MAGNA REVENUE DOWN, PROFITS UP
The largest auto supplier in North America is Canadian-based Magna and its first quarter earnings are a good indicator of what’s happening in the supplier industry. Magna’s revenue dropped 10% to $10 billion because of lower auto production in the U.S. and EU. Yet, thanks to a relentless focus on cutting cost, its operating profit was up 6-fold and its net profit of $153 million was up 16x. We’re going to see a lot more of this with suppliers, that is to say, the top line stalling out or even falling, and all of that leading to a brutal focus on cutting cost.
AURORA LAUNCHES DRIVER-FREE-SEMI BUSINESS
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. 2025 could be the year of the autonomous vehicle.
Aurora Innovation just announced that it’s the first company in the U.S. to operate autonomous heavy-duty trucks on public roads, as a commercial business, not a demonstrator project. The self-driving startup says it began driverless deliveries between Dallas and Houston, Texas this week and the trucks have now driven 1,200 miles without a driver. Aurora plans to expand its service to El Paso, Texas and Phoenix, Arizona by the end of the year.
And that wraps up this week’s coverage of what’s going on in the global automotive industry. Thanks for your interest, thanks for your support, and remember, we’ll be back at it again on Monday.
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Sean, or anyone else who knows, are Pacificas still being built?
Slate will survive if Bezos orders 100,000 cargo van conversions from it, as he did from RIvian.
John, please remember that those who gaze at crystal balls eat broken glass. Good luck trying to predict what will happen with the tariffs.
So relax, go out and take a walk, enjoying the Spring. There in Michigan I think it falls on a Thursday.
PS re the Stupid Nissan Ariya, enjoy its short lived 15 minutes of fame. One or two months it will sell well, as a novelty, then COnsumer Reports will test it, then owners will bitch about it, and then it will be as dead as the Nissan Dead Leaf.
John, You forgot to mention that the tariff on USMCA compliant Canadian assembled cars means that the US will be violating the USMCA treaty that Trump himself approved. Just another reminder that there is no point in holding trade negotiations with the current US administration, since they don’t honour the treaties they sign anyway. Maybe if they honoured the existing treaties, people would be more willing to talk about new ones.
Slate is doing what so many followers here have been saying for years. Bring back a no frills little pickup with a reasonable price. Too bad it won’t be offered in a gas version. I’m unsure how well they do because it’s an EV but other manufacturers better take note. Had it been a hybrid this could have been the modern VW bug.
Speaking about predictions, who could have predicted that US markets would, instead of plummeting, with all the tariff fearmongering and related ‘predictions’, sharply rise in April?
And today they are up again, big time (2% up each of Dow, Nasdaq and S&P). I got curious and went to CNBC where I learned that they were up because economists screwed up their predictions again.
They expected 133,000 new jobs to be added in April, but the actual number was 177,000. A 2% rise means, on average, an over $100k gain for the day for my 401k plus my non-retirement investments.
Kit, Windsor restarted production on April 23. It was just a two-week shutdown, probably to adjust some things for the 2026 models and also to allow a little inventory reduction at the dealerships.
@Regulus “A 2% rise means, on average, an over $100k gain for the day for my 401k plus my non-retirement investments.” So that means your portfolio is (100/2)*$100,000 = $5,000,000. What has gone wrong with your money, Larry? A few years ago you still had $10 million. Have you made bad investments? Or have you spent $5 million on the repair of your old Mercedes diesels? Please let us know, because we all think you are the most interesting man in the world.
GM Vet, thanks for info on Windsor.
Regulus, the Ariya got a fairly good review by CR, and has better reliability survey results than Model Y or Ioniq 5. Looking over CR’s chart, the biggest weaknesses of the Nissan are low efficiency compared to the others, and low maximum charge rates, both level 2 and level 3. The Nissan is slower than the Tesla or Hyundai, but at 5.4 seconds 0-60, it is plenty quick, and quicker than anything I’ve had that wasn’t a Corvette or Porsche.
BTW, the major stock indices are all down from where they were when Trump took office.
Wim, bedankt voor je bezorgdheid. Maak je geen zorgen om mij, mijn vermogen, exclusief de huizen en ander onroerend goed, bedraagt momenteel meer dan 15 miljoen. Je observatie klopte. De uitleg is heel simpel. Ik heb een Fidelity-rekening waar mijn niet-retardant en een deel (minder dan 50%) van mijn 401k (pensioenfonds) op staan. Daar kun je elke avond heel makkelijk checken hoe het ervoor staat, het kost maar een paar seconden. Maar de rest van mijn 401k, die in CREF (College Ret Equity Fund) zit, wordt niet meegerekend. Dus als je CREF meerekent, en als de stijging van 2% aanhoudt tot sluiting van de markt, zou ik vandaag dichter bij de 200.000 moeten zitten.
PS: vraag je zus eens naar de kogelwerende Merc Diesels. De meest betrouwbare auto die ik ooit heb gehad. EN daar hoorde ook een zeer betrouwbare Honda Civic in Europa en een Honda Accord coupé in de VS bij.
Ik hoop dat ik je zorgen nu heb weggenomen. PS2: Als het doel van mijn leven was om rijk te worden, denk je dan echt dat ik… academicus zou worden? Zelfs in de VS?
Kit: How misleading can you be! Do you even believe what you write?
THe markets SKYROCKETED when Trump was ELECTED. You purposely chose instead of Nov 5, Jan 20? Laughable.
In additions, markets were overvalued in terms of price-earnings ration for a long time AND due for a ‘correction’. Those high values express investors confidence that Trump, unlike the green extremists that governed instead of senile, corrupt Joe Biden, will not ruin the economy and will not make life miserable for business, which is what REALLY “Made America Great”.
But again, be my guest. If you believe that markets will plummet from now on, you can make millions with little capital by SHORTING them (I never played in options myself, never needed to).
As for the Model Y, the best selling vehicle in the WORLD one or two years in a row, there is no comparison between it and any other BEV, especially th Junk Nissan makes. (I hope you don’t buy any Nissan stock now, you hear?)
Regulus just let me know in perfect Dutch that he is fine and financially sound and solid, so no need to worry.
Is it true that TESLA CyberTruck production has been halted?
I love that product. A truly out-of-the-box vehicle. I would never buy a truck myself but love the innovation and the looks.
I had expected it to sell very well because of it standing out. Where I live several drive around. Most of those wrapped in different colors. One is black and has had even his (Michigan) license plate wrapped in black as well.
Unfortunately, Stellantis Windsor Assembly is shutting down again for an unknown period. Not sure when the second shutdown starts.
Do you have a rambunctious 6 year old who will, 10 years from now, get a license and ask you to buy him a fast car? Hyundai may have the perfect one for him. The new Ionic 9 is a three row crossover hippopotamus which, in its base version (about 60k but it still gets the 7,500 discount-if your income is meager enough) has only 215 HP. I expect it to be as slow as molasses, guessing it must weigh close to 6,000 lbs, and thus it is the perfect car for your teen. (10 years from now you will be able to buy it for $5-10k too)
Regulus, yes, Trump took office January 20, and the markets are down from what they were then. I didn’t look up all of them again, but NASDAQ is down from where it was just after the election. It peaked December 17, before it was apparent how much damage the Trump regime would inflict.
The Model Y has two main virtues compared to the competition. It is more efficient, and it can be charged at higher rates than some, including the Ariya. On the other hand, the operator interface is generally awful. Also, CR found the Y to be noisier and ride worse than the Ioniq 5.
CR shows that Ioniq 9 will have 215 hp, 303 hp, and 422 hp versions available. Yep, it’s heavy, 6010 pounds. CR hasn’t tested the Ioniq 9 yet, but they got 5.3 seconds 0-60 with the similar, but 295 pound lighter Kia EV9. That’s probably the dual motor 379 hp version.
@Kit on Model Y. You mentioned the superior efficiency. I believe it is close to 5 miles per kWh. My wife’s Mach-E does, during gentle driving in teh suburbs (so with a lot of energy recovery) on a very good day with 70 F outside temperature, so no airco needed, 2.8-3 miles per kWh.
I have asked it before and somebody was kind enough to explain it at the time, but I forgot and still don’t get it: why is a TESLA so much more efficient? It is not 5-10% better, it is 50-60% better. Why?
Sorry for asking again.
Wim, there are 20 or so Cybertrucks sitting at the Tesla store near me. They are all basic SS. I’m surprised they haven’t wrapped one or two, which might help sell them, but they’d need to get a few thousand dollars more.
I cannot believe how accurate my guess was. I was afraid the Hippo Hyundai would be less than 6000 lbs, but it actually was 6010!!!! What was my prediction error? 0.1% of 6000 is 6 lbs. So less than 0.1%!!! Pretty good for an engineer. And yes, I already specified the base version, which has 215 HP and not one of the higher numbers.
Re BEV efficiencies, one of the worst should be that retro VW Van, which is almost twice the energy compared to the most efficient EV, per mile.
Wim, I’m getting the efficiency data from CR’s web site, which lets you compare cars side by side in a chart. They show the Y at 117 mpge, and the Mach-E at 99 mpge. For what it’s worth, Google’s AI show the Y as going 3.5-4.0 miles per kWh. Is suspect those mpge numbers should be relevant in showing the difference, meaning the Model Y is about 18% more efficient than the Mach-E.
I suspect the main reason the Y is more efficient is the motors. I doubt if there is much difference with inverter efficiency. Also, the Mach-E is almost 500 pounds heavier which would make some difference.
@EV efficiency with TESLA beating all others: yes, the 500 pounds of extra weight of the Mach-E compared to the Y must make a difference. The motors seem to me purchased components so would TESLA manage to buy much better motors? I had not expected that. Thanks, all.
The ID Buzz is 11 inches taller and 2-4 inches wider than Model Y or Mach-E, and weighs 6190 pounds, so I wouldn’t expect it to be too efficient. For the base RWD versions of these vehicles.
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=48444&id=48771&id=47822
Colorado is a unique state for EV sales. The top seller there varies a lot. Colorado has an additional tax payer funded EV credit that can be applied to the lease of a new EV. So dealers pair that with oem incentives and offer low mileage lease deals. At one point the fiat 500e was top dog because you could walk out with a low mileage lease for $0 per month. Fiat couldn’t build enough of them to keep up with demand. Prior to that the Nissan Leaf was top dog because you could walk out the door with a new leaf for $20 per month. Does that suddenly mean that the fiat 500 EV is going to be the next hot seller? No. What the Ariya story shows is that cheap cars sell faster than expensive cars.
I think Tesla makes their motors, as does Lucid which has very high efficiency, higher than a smaller and lighter Model 3. I don’t know if Hyundai makes motors, but they have some efficient EVs.
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=48765&id=48374&id=48364
Another potential factor in the efficiency differences between BEVs might be related to OEM strategies for preserving battery life.
Drew, I hadn’t thought of that, but it could be a factor.
Wim, je staat te popelen om de exacte resultaten van vandaag te weten, dus hier gaan we: mijn Fidelity-fondsen met en zonder pensioen zijn met $ 138.887,54 gestegen, en als ik al mijn andere investeringen, CREF-pensioen plus andere niet-pensioenfondsen, meereken, zou het makkelijk een dag van meer dan $ 250.000 moeten zijn. Opmerkelijk, in dit tijdperk van tarieven. Hoogachtend, Regulus, Ere-Vliegende Hollander – Dwalende Jood.
Merkur Driver, very interesting info re Colorado. when I listened to the show, I did not notice that the news John was so excited about was NOT that the Ariya outsold the Y USA-wide, as I assumed implicitly, but that he singled out one rather small state out of the 50 and made a whole big deal about it. Please tell us, John, how the Ariya did vs the Y NATION-WIDE.
Thanks again, Merkur, for the info. WHen a state has the… miserable Fiat 500 e as its top EV, any future stats from said state should be safely IGNORED, instead of being made a big fat hairy deal.
It sounds like different car companies have had promotions to go along with the Colorado incentives. If you can get a Fiat 500e or Leaf for free or almost free, why not? Even the Fiat would work for most people’s commutes. It sounds like Nissan recently had incentives with a car much more capable than the 500e.
Thanks, Merkur for the info.
@Wayne, that is sad about Windsor. They have been making Caravan, Voyager, Town & Country and Pacifica in Windsor since 1984 model year, and Donald Trump will probably kill it, and the Chrysler brand. They can’t compete, given the tariff.
Even $0 for a Fiat is a bad deal!
Fix
It
Again
Tony
I know that the US tariffs were to bring manufacturing back to the United States, yet I fear that there may be an unintended consequence, at least for the automotive industry. The OEMs built vehicles in other places to bring costs down arguing that to make the some product in the US was cost prohibitive. So, the thought was to put the tariffs in place them would bring production here! That still doesn’t make the vehicle any cheaper to build here. Or like with vehicles like GMs full-size trucks and SUVs, they can add production here and add employees. Again, that will add more cost and I wonder if the next contract talks may look to get the current employees to do more with the same head count?! Production of vehicles like the Mach-E and Pacifica may never come to the US and if they did they will be much more expensive then they currently are. So, at the end of the day, if the leave production where they are, cost will go up due to the tariffs, but if they do move production to the US, cost go up due to increased labor costs. Oh, and let us not forget the increased cost of local materials, because that too was a reason production was moved outside US boards. While most locally, I’m sure, would agree with locally made locally sourced, but might agree that this maybe to much change done much faster then many can financially keep up with!
Kit, most people are not billionaires (in case you were not aware) and cannot afford one car for their SHORT commutes (neither the 500 e nor the old Leaf can handle longer ones, who are so common with dual career couples here in MI who compromise and split the distance from work in their new home), another for long trips, a third for fun Sunday drives and so on, PER PERSON, resulting in the need for a 6+ car garage.
Whether you admit it or not, the late great Sergio Marchionne stunned us with his frankness, when even HE begged buyers NOT to buy the POS 500e, which, in addition to its utter incompetence, was losing him $15k per unit to make it, back in the day,which translates to over $22,000 in 2025 worthless dollars.
Not only I would never buy those laughable vehicles for me, ever, regardless if you can get them for $5k slightly used (it is still $5K down the drain), I cannot even think of any friend or colleague to whom I would recommend them, while I recommend Toyotas I would not buy for myself all the time to others who would be happy with them).
My point was that, for free, a 500e would work fine as a commuter car for a lot of people. It obviously would not be good for road trips, and would not be good, even for local driving, without home charging.
Speaking of non-electric Fiat 500s, a PhD engineer friend has a Fiat 500 convertible, and an ML350. I think the Mercedes is about the last year before they renamed them GLE. Anyway, she uses the Fiat for most short distance driving, when not needing the room of the larger vehicle. Some people just like small cars.
I wouldn’t buy a 500e, or any Fiat for that matter. They are already, or soon will be orphans (again) in the US market, and difficult to get serviced.
Kit,
I agree with you on the 500e. If it was free, I would lease it for the 2 year free period and use it for daily commutes only. Then give it back after the 2 years is up. It would cost extra for insurance but that would be offset with the savings on gasoline. I would still have my other vehicles for non-daily use. I wouldn’t enjoy the Fiat, but I don’t enjoy the daily commute in any car. I might as well not enjoy the daily commute in a free car.