Glad Monday! It is July 28, 2025, and that is The Morning Shift, your every day roundup of the highest automotive headlines from all over the world, in a single place. That is the place you will discover an important tales which are shaping the best way People drive and get round.
On this morning’s version, we’re wanting on the U.S.’s shiny new commerce take care of the EU, in addition to how our tariffs have pushed poverty amongst now-former Canadian auto employees. We’ll additionally take a look at Audi’s response to the tariffs, and Tesla’s new take care of Samsung.
1st Gear: The brand new EU-U.S. commerce deal caps automobile tariffs at 15%
The USA has been antagonizing its buying and selling companions below the Trump administration, demanding that our allies pay fealty within the type of tariffs on commerce. This is not how tariffs really work — American importers pay the tax, no new cash enters the nation’s economic system from different nations — however issues work otherwise within the actuality imagined by our President, so we’re type of caught with this. Our buying and selling companions have needed to basically watch the social media platform that Trump himself owns to see how a lot further their items will price on any given day, however now the European Union can relaxation simple understanding it has a set, secure take care of us. Type of. From Reuters:
The USA and the European Union agreed on a framework commerce deal, which leaders on either side of the Atlantic stated would finish months of uncertainty for industries and customers.
Listed below are the primary components of the deal that may enter into pressure on August 1 by an government order by President Donald Trump, in accordance with EU officers:
* BASELINE TARIFF RATE: Virtually all EU items getting into the U.S. shall be topic to a 15% baseline tariff. The 15% tariff is just not added to any current charges
* CARS: Automobiles and automobile elements shall be topic to the 15% tariff, in comparison with the 27.5% they face now.
Your subsequent European automobile will seemingly price not less than 15% extra, thanks to those tariffs. Even should you purchase a Volkswagen in-built america, that manufacturing facility continues to be paying 15% further for elements — except the elements are additionally made right here, through which case somebody’s paying an additional 50% for European metal and aluminum. The one option to dodge tariffs is to do every thing right here, from mining by to a remaining product, which can itself add prices as a result of mining firms within the States cannot use Dickensian orphans as labor. Effectively, not but anyway. Florida’s engaged on it. Regardless, your subsequent automobile will price you extra, and there are loads extra elements of the EU commerce deal which are pending investigation from america. That is high-quality.
2nd Gear: American auto tariffs have created Canadian bread strains
A serious tenet of the Trump administration’s method to overseas coverage is bringing manufacturing jobs again to america. That is the type of concept that sounds actually good till you concentrate on it, and notice that People do not really need to work in manufacturing (and that our whole international economic system is constructed on staggering ranges of employee exploitation you can’t actually legally pull off right here). However these jobs that Trump desires to carry again have to come back from someplace, and a few have come from the auto manufacturing facilities of Canada — areas that are actually seeing unemployment, poverty, and literal bread strains. From Bloomberg:
An hour from Toronto, downtown Oshawa appears to exude the vibe of a nice small city. However indicators of financial stress are multiplying within the place that when original itself as Canada’s motor metropolis.
Traces type early outdoors the meals financial institution on Simcoe Road the place prospects load strollers with pasta and baggage of bread. Homeless encampments dot the river path. Inside native meals joints like Ciao Amici, a lunch cease serving Italian specialties, conversations drift towards layoffs. On that entrance, there’s rather a lot to speak about.
Unemployment has surged in Oshawa and now tops 9%, one of many highest charges of any Canadian metropolis. In Could, shortly after US President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on vehicles, Basic Motors Co. stated it deliberate to scale back output on the solely Canadian meeting plant it owns that builds pickup vans. The transfer impacts some 700 jobs on the manufacturing facility. Many extra folks will really feel the ripple results.
It is a issue that firms aren’t prone to contemplate a lot when shifting manufacturing round, past altering labor prices and the opportunity of union actions over manufacturing facility closures, however one thing that the nations negotiating commerce offers ought to be mindful. The decrease they’ll get U.S. tariffs, the extra items maintain flowing from their shores, and the extra of their very own manufacturing employees keep employed.
third Gear: Audi cuts earnings estimates on U.S. tariffs
Many European automakers have a good degree of U.S. manufacturing — BMW builds in South Carolina, Mercedes-Benz in Alabama — however Audi is not one in every of them. Not one of the firm’s automobiles are constructed within the States, that means each one shall be topic to those new tariffs. That is not improbable for yearlong earnings estimates, and Audi is now adjusting its numbers to point out how badly the corporate shall be affected. From Reuters:
Audi stated it’s nonetheless assessing the implications of the commerce deal reached between america and the European Union on Sunday.
The settlement set a 15% baseline U.S. tariff on imports from the EU, together with automobiles, which had beforehand confronted customs duties of 27.5%.
“Ought to the 15% tariff keep in place long-term, it might nonetheless put Audi at a aggressive drawback, as a result of its key friends have a extra pronounced U.S. manufacturing footprint,” stated Fabio Hoelscher, an analyst from Warburg Analysis.
This places Volkswagen Auto Group in an attention-grabbing place, as a result of the VW model does even have a producing presence within the States. Somebody again in Germany is probably going operating the numbers proper now, weighing anticipated gross sales numbers in opposition to prices and earnings to see whether or not it is smart to allocate a little bit of Chattanooga’s VW manufacturing capability in the direction of its Audi or Porsche platform-mates. I don’t envy the particular person doing that math.
4th Gear: Tesla to get new chips from Samsung
Tesla is shifting its enterprise from the flailing automaking wing into extra diversified income streams like unhealthy diners, however the firm does nonetheless make automobiles — automobiles that want chips. These chips will now come from Samsung’s Texas plant, the place Tesla CEO Elon Musk has promised to personally stroll the manufacturing strains to “speed up the tempo of progress.” No matter which means. From Automotive Information:
Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk stated the U.S. automaker had signed a $16.5 billion deal to supply chips from Samsung Electronics, a transfer anticipated to bolster the South Korean tech large’s loss-making contract manufacturing enterprise.
Samsung’s shares jumped as a lot as 6.8 % to their highest since September final yr after information of the deal. Tesla shares had been up 1.6 % in U.S. premarket buying and selling.
Musk stated Samsung’s new chip manufacturing facility in Taylor, Texas, will make Tesla’s next-generation AI6 chip, probably re-energizing the challenge that has confronted lengthy delays amid Samsung’s difficulties in retaining and attracting main purchasers.
“Samsung agreed to permit Tesla to help in maximizing manufacturing effectivity. It is a vital level, as I’ll stroll the road personally to speed up the tempo of progress. And the fab is conveniently situated not removed from my home,” Musk stated in a publish on X on Monday.
Having your boss actually stand over your shoulder and watch you’re employed is all the time good to your productiveness, proper? You all the time work sooner below that sort of micromanagement. Have enjoyable with that, Samsung employees.
Reverse: After which that argument was settled without end
That is proper of us, all folks born in or naturalized to the U.S. are residents. Finished, settled, subsequent query.
On The Radio: Artwork Blakey & The Jazz Messengers – ‘Stretching’
This one is actually on the radio, as KEXP DJ Eva Walker is on a jazz kick this morning and blessing my ears with some extraordinarily good brass and piano. You all deserve to listen to this too.
