AD #4085 – GM Gains Most Market Share This Year; Japan Says It Can’t Accept U.S. Tariffs; U.S. Exports to China Plummet

This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.

AUTO ALLIANCE TESTIFIES AGAINST NHTSA
Automakers are heavily criticizing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or NHTSA and say the agency is stifling innovation and needs to modernize. The U.S. House of Representatives is holding a hearing today where the Alliance of Automotive Innovation, a lobbying group that represents most automakers in the U.S., will provide testimony that says NHTSA needs to reform and lists dozens of regulations that need to be repealed, revised or updated. The Alliance is upset that there is no federal framework for autonomous vehicle standards, despite years of dialogue. The group also wants NHTSA to rollback fuel economy targets starting in 2027, saying they aren’t aligned with consumer demand. But it’s not just automakers that are upset with the agency, so are safety advocates. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety will also testify in Congress today criticizing NHTSA for a lack of urgency and using flawed methodologies that underestimate safety benefits.

GM GAINS MOST MARKET SHARE THIS YEAR
The U.S. car market is no longer growing. It’s hit Peak Auto. In fact, thanks to the tariffs, new car sales are sure to be lower this year. And that makes the battle for market share more critical than ever. In a stagnant or falling market, the only way to grow your company is to get more market share. Cox Automotive published its market share forecast for the first half of the year, and the numbers are revealing. General Motors gained the most share so far this year, up 1.5 percentage points. It’s followed by Toyota and Ford which are up by less than half a point. The Hyundai Group was the second largest gainer, up .7 percentage points. Honda was up, too. So if they’re all up, who’s losing share? Stellantis leads the drop, down 1.3 points. Then comes Tesla, followed by Volkswagen. Mercedes, Nissan-Mitsubishi and Subaru also lost share. The rest of them stayed flat. Remember, in today’s market one point of share represents about 160,000 vehicles.

U.S. Automakers H1, 2025
	SHARE	CHANGE
General Motors	17.7%	1.5%
Toyota	15.3	0.4
Ford	13.7	0.5
Hyundai	11.0	0.7
Honda	9.1	0.4
Stellantis	7.3	-1.3
Nissan	6.5	-0.3
Subaru	4.0	-0.1
Volkswagen	3.5	-0.6
Tesla	3.2	-0.7
Mercedes	1.9	-0.4

CHINESE AUTOMAKERS FLOODING AFRICA
With overall sales of passenger vehicles not growing that much in the Chinese market and a pretty wicked EV price war, local automakers have turned to exports to boost sales and keep inventories in check. But some of the biggest countries in North America, South America and Europe have started to push back on the flood of Chinese imports, which has even oversaturated areas of those markets. That’s why Chinese automakers are now looking to places like Africa, which has high import fees, low incomes and a lack of a charging infrastructure. But it also has massive potential with a population of over a billion people. Reuters reports there are now 14 Chinese brands in South Africa, nearly half of which only launched within the last year and they’re already having an impact. NEV sales in the region more than doubled last year to just over 15,600 vehicles, which accounted for about 3% of the market. Some of the automakers believe they can spread that success to other parts of the continent. BYD plans to expand into East, West and South Africa.

GAC EXPANDING FAST
And Gasgoo reports that GAC just opened its first showroom in Northern Africa. Other popular regions for Chinese automakers are Thailand and Indonesia. And GAC also just announced that it’s not only bringing its AION brand to the Thai market, but will produce the models locally. On top of that GAC is building a new sales outlet and battery service center in Bangkok as well. It also revealed that its new factory in Indonesia officially has cars running down the line, which can use to serve the local market, but should be able to help GAC avoid extra fees on Chinese-built EVs as well.

FOXCONN & ELEKTROBIT PARTNER ON SDVs
Foxconn keeps moving closer to becoming a contract vehicle manufacturer. It announced a partnership with software supplier Elektrobit to develop a software defined vehicle platform. They call the platform EV.OS and it sounds like they will sell everything from the entire architecture down to certain components or systems. It’s unlikely this will be the platform that Foxconn supplies to Mitsubishi through its subsidiary Foxtron, since that model is supposed to hit Australia and New Zealand in the second half of next year. But it could in the future and Foxconn says it’s working to bring in other automakers as well.

FOXTRON TO SUPPLY MITSUBISHI WITH BUSES
But maybe Foxtron’s partnership with Mitsubishi won’t be for passenger cars at all. The Nikkei reports that it’s nearing a deal to provide Mitsubishi’s Truck and Bus division, Mitsubishi Fuso, with its Model T bus and Model U microbus. They’re also considering creating a new company to oversee the whole thing.

U.S. IMPORTS TO CHINA FALL
U.S. car imports to China significantly declined in May due to the trade war between the two countries. According to the China Automobile Dealers Association, 3,130 passenger vehicles were shipped to China from the U.S. last month, which is a 68% slump compared to last year. And through the first five months of the year, only about 18,800 cars were exported to China, down nearly 50%. While the trade war is the main factor for this year’s decline, Chinese consumers just aren’t as interested in American brands. Even last year, U.S. shipments to China declined for the third straight year in a row.

   

JAPAN SAYS IT CAN’T ACCEPT U.S. TARIFFS
And in related news, Japan says it can’t accept the U.S.’s 25% tariff on imported cars according to its chief trade negotiator. He says Japanese automakers have “made an enormous contribution to the U.S. economy” and that they build more vehicles in the U.S. than they export to the country. Japanese companies produce around 3.3 million vehicles a year in the U.S. compared to nearly 1.4 million vehicles they ship to the U.S. They have also invested $60 billion in the U.S. and created 2.3 million jobs. The U.S. and Japan have been negotiating a trade deal for months but they haven’t been able to reach a deal mainly because of the car tariffs. Japan is trying to protect its auto industry and says the U.S.’s 25% tariffs could send the country into a recession. But the Trump Administration wants to narrow the trade deficit with Japan. Last year, Japan’s trade surplus with the U.S. was nearly $60 billion and 82% of that gap was Japan’s surplus of cars and parts.

MERCEDES PUTS ACTIVE AERO ON WHEELS
Mercedes-AMG revealed a new high-performance concept that’s based on their all-new AMG.EA platform. Since the actual production car based on this platform isn’t scheduled to come out until sometime next year, we’ll provide a link if you’d like to learn all about where Mercedes-AMG are headed with their future EVs. But there are a few things we’d like to highlight, like its new drive unit with Axial Flux motors that are smaller, lighter and more powerful. The AMG GT XX concept features three of them, combining for roughly 1,350 horsepower. Or special paint in certain spots of the car that will glow when a current is applied to it. And even active aero elements in the wheels. Five blades around the wheels normally sit flush for the best aero possible, but if the system detects the brakes are getting hot, actuators push the blades out to provide extra cooling.

XC60 NOW BEST-SELLING VOLVO EVER
And in one last bit of automotive news, the Volvo XC60 is now the best-selling Volvo of all time. With over 2.7 million sold, it passed up the Volvo 240.

And that brings us to the end of today’s show. But don’t forget to check out Autoline After Hours later today. We’ve got none other than the Autoextremist Peter DeLorenzo coming back on the show, along with Greg Migliore from VerticalScope. We want to try and answer the question, will the car market collapse in the second half of the year? We’ll go live at 3PM EST today. Thanks for tuning in.