Good morning! It’s Tuesday, April 1, 2025, and this is The Morning Shift: Your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, all 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, we’ll check in with Donald Trump’s latest plan to make the world a whole lot worse, and see which U.S. automakers are pushing for softer tariffs on car imports. Plus, find out where Tesla’s sales are flagging and see which automaker is first to admit that prices will rise thanks to Trump’s tariffs.
1st Gear: Emission rules make it ‘impossible’ to build cars
President Donald Trump says a lot of questionable stuff, like that time he suggested injecting bleach to treat Covid or that you need ID to buy breakfast cereal. Now, he’s outdone even himself by claiming that the emissions from your car’s tailpipe don’t actually impact the environment.
Trump is endeavoring to backtrack on emission rules brought in under his predecessor, Joe Biden, reports Bloomberg. As such, he’s looking to go back to “2020 standards” for tailpipe emissions that are permitted in the U.S., and the reason for this is because tailpipe emissions don’t actually impact the environment, according to the current President:
“We’re going to go back, probably, to a 2020 standard,” Trump told reporters as he signed an unrelated executive order in the Oval Office. Existing pollution curbs, all over the world, don’t “mean a damn bit of difference for the environment” but “make it impossible for people to build cars,” he added.
The backtrack would mean that emissions of 204 grams per mile for cars and 284 grams per mile for light trucks would be permitted. Under Biden, the limit was cut to 170 grams of CO2 per mile for model year 2027, falling to 85 grams per mile in 2032.
Despite what Trump assumes, tailpipe emissions from cars and trucks do mean “a bit of difference for the environment.” In fact, cars and trucks account for more than 25 percent of America’s CO2 emissions every year, and those emissions have been scientifically linked to temperature increases around the world. Temperature rises that have subsequently been tied to more extreme weather, difficulty growing certain crops, and changing ecosystems.
2nd Gear: U.S. automakers are rushing for tariff exemption
Before the world dries to a crisp and blows away in a strong breeze, there’s the small problem of everything getting more expensive to overcome first. Trump’s 25% tariff on foreign cars and components comes into force on April 2, 2025, and automakers across the U.S. are scrambling to lessen their impact and even plead for exemptions.
As it stands, the tariffs will apply to any foreign car sold in America, and components used to assemble cars in the U.S. will also be taxed. U.S. Automotive giants like Ford and GM are now making last-ditch attempts to win favor with Trump and bring about a tempering in the tariffs, reports Bloomberg:
Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Chrysler parent Stellantis NV are lobbying the administration to exclude certain low-cost car components from the planned tariffs, according to people familiar with the matter. Executives have met with the White House, the Commerce Department and the office of the US Trade Representative to discuss the exclusion, said the people, who asked not to be identified revealing internal discussions.
Very few cars sold in America are made entirely in the U.S., with many relying on parts manufactured overseas to cut production costs and keep prices low. It’s for this reason that experts have warned that the impending tariffs could spell the death of the cheap car in America and raise prices across the board.
This is a prospect that Trump doesn’t seem phased by, as despite rumors last week that he threatened automakers against hiking prices, he kicked off this week saying that he didn’t really care if prices rose.
3rd Gear: Hyundai is the first to admit tariffs will raise prices
Until now, the price rises have just been a rumor, but Hyundai is warning its dealers that price rises are on the cards as the 25% tariffs will hit its cars and the components it uses to build them at its U.S. plants, reports Automotive News.
The Korean automaker alerted dealers across the U.S. of possible price hikes coming over the next few months, the site reports. The warning came as Hyundai said it was evaluating its pricing strategy ahead of the tariffs coming into force on April 2, as Automotive News explains:
Randy Parker, CEO of Hyundai and Genesis Motor North America, told dealers in a note that “current vehicle pricing is not guaranteed and may be subject to change for units wholesaled after April 2.”
Experts are warning that price hikes are almost inevitable once the tariffs come into force. The new import fees could add up to $3,000 to the cost of a U.S.-made vehicles, due to the tariffs on components imported into the U.S., and up to $6,000 to vehicles made in Canada or Mexico.
The price hikes will be particularly tough given the eye-watering cost of many new cars in America. The average cost of a new car in the U.S. is edging ever closer to $50,000 right now, and the additional taxes will no doubt finally tip the figure over the line.
4th Gear: Tesla sales in France, Sweden hit four-year-low
American EV maker Tesla doesn’t need tariffs to tank its sales, it turns out. The automaker became a target of anti-Elon Musk sentiment around the world after the Tesla boss took a new role in government and quickly set about slashing overseas aid, support for veterans, and firing staff left, right and center.
The switch to politics hasn’t worked well for Musk and his companies, and now Tesla sales in France and Sweden have reportedly fallen to a four-year low, reports Reuters. EV shoppers around the world have been turning their backs on Tesla, and that’s hit sales in states like California and countries such as the U.K. Plummeting sales ave now been reported in France and Sweden, with deliveries down for the third consecutive month:
Tesla registered in March 3,157 car sales in France, 911 in Sweden and 2,211 in Norway, dropping respectively 36.83%, 63.9% and 1% from last year, official data showed. In Denmark, registrations totalled 593, down 65.6%, and they fell by 61% to 1,536 in the Netherlands.
It’s not just monthly sales that are down across Europe, with quarterly deliveries for Tesla also down 41.1% and 55.3% in France and Sweden respectively. Sales were also halved in the Netherlands and Denmark in the first three months of 2025.
The dramatic drop in deliveries for Tesla led Quentin Willson, founder of British EV campaign group FairCharge, to tell Reuters that “never has a car brand suffered such a global fall from grace.”
On the radio: Oh Wonder – ‘Midnight Moon’
Rerecords are so hot right now, with anyone and everyone releasing new versions of classic albums, re-recording their entire back catalogue, or putting a new twist on old songs. I’m quite enjoying the current musical trend, especially when artists change up a song they’ve been playing live for years.
Oh Wonder is a British duo that’s currently re-working its first album to mark ten years since its release, and today it unveiled its latest re-record. The new version is all acoustic loveliness, so I thought you might enjoy it on a sunny Tuesday morning.
