Happy Tuesday! It’s July 8, 2025, and this is The Morning Shift — your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, 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’re looking at the current state of Trump’s import tariffs, as well as Toyota’s best hope to combat the taxes. We’ll also look at what’s going on with all of GM’s Cruise cars, and how Mercedes-Benz is doing.
1st Gear: Trump’s tariffs won’t hit until August, but countries still want a deal under the wire
United States President Donald Trump has begun posting his letters to world leaders (complete with typos) regarding tariffs on Truth Social, the Twitter clone that he owns. You’re not losing it, that’s just how the world works now. In those letters, Trump has pushed for deals to exempt countries from the U.S.’s proposed tariffs, but they’ve also enforced a new deadline: August 1, pushed back from July 9. Even with the extra time, though, nations and blocs are scrambling to put deals together. From Automotive News:
The European Union is seeking to conclude a preliminary trade deal with the U.S. this week that would allow it to lock in a 10 percent tariff rate beyond President Donald Trump’s new August deadline for an agreement.
The EU still aims to reach a trade deal by July 9 after Trump shifted his tariff deadline to Aug. 1, said a spokesperson for the European Commission, which handles EU trade matters.
Universal tariffs that were due to begin on July 9 will be delayed until at least the beginning of August, the U.S. said on July 7. For the EU, tariffs on nearly all its exports to the U.S. will jump to 50 percent after the August deadline if it does not strike a deal beforehand.
If you want to buy… anything, really, it’s probably best to get that purchase in before August. It’s likely only going downhill from here.
2nd Gear: Toyota hopes a a flexible Kentucky plant will help combat tariffs
Toyota’s built cars in Georgetown, Kentucky since 1988, but the company has worked to modernize its production lines from the Reaganomics under which they were built. Specifically, the Georgetown plant now features a flexible production line that Toyota claims can built anything on the TNGA-K platform — flexibility that can help Toyota dodge Trump’s tariffs on full vehicles, if not on parts. From Automotive News:
The Japanese automaker will have the ability — or more accurately, the flexibility — to make almost any vehicle it needs, when it wants and all on the same line.
A nearly $1.8 billion, decade-long project internally known as “K-flex” and initially undertaken as an innovative experiment in what could be done, is transforming the original part of the Georgetown plant, known as Line 1, into perhaps the most flexible auto assembly line in the world.
How flexible? With the right logistics support, Line 1 will be able to build almost any Toyota vehicle designed on its TNGA-K global platform — the top-selling Camry and RAV4, whether hybrid, combustion or plug-in hybrid; larger crossovers including the Highlander and even the Sienna minivan, as well as skateboard-based EVs in that size range.
Of course, the big problem with U.S. manufacturing is that it still uses parts from abroad, or built with steel from abroad. If Toyota wants to fully dodge those taxes, it’ll have to start running mining operations here in the States.
3rd Gear: GM is using old Cruise cars to test new Super Cruise tech
General Motors’ whole Cruise plan never really worked out, but Super Cruise has been doing great. So it’s only natural that GM would pivot, now using its ex-Cruise cars as testbeds for new semi-autonomous tech to grace consumer vehicles. From the Detroit Free Press:
The Detroit automaker confirmed with the Free Press that it would accelerate development of GM’s hands-free, eyes-off advanced driver assist system by “testing a limited number of Cruise Bolt vehicles on select highways in Michigan, Texas, and the San Francisco Bay Area,” according to a statement.
GM began testing in Michigan and Texas in February and in San Francisco in mid-April, the company said July 7. The cars operate with safety drivers, which are trained personnel who can take over control of the vehicle if needed.
GM claims that the tech on the ex-Cruise cars outstrips the capabilities of consumer Super Cruise, but that’s likely temporary — whatever the General is working on with these testbeds will likely end up in some future Escalade.
4th Gear: Mercedes loses sales to U.S. tariffs
The worst of Trump’s tariffs may be delayed, but automakers aren’t entirely free of their effects. Take Mercedes, for example, which lost 9% of its sales last quarter — and a full 12% of its U.S. sales. From the Wall Street Journal:
Mercedes-Benz car and van sales fell 9% to 547,100 vehicles in the second quarter as the effect of President Trump’s auto tariffs began to bite.
Trump imposed a 25% duty on imported cars and parts entering the U.S. in early April and Mercedes said it carefully calibrated deliveries to dealerships as part of its efforts to navigate the new global tariff policies, which affected sales in the U.S. and China in particular.
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The luxury German auto maker said overall car sales fell 9% on year, as sales in the U.S. fell 12% to 74,600 vehicles, while in its biggest single market of China, sales slumped 19% to 140,400 cars.
Expect these numbers to drop further after that August date, unless the deadline is pushed back again. Which is entirely possible. This is more or less an entirely unpredictable situation, which business owners tend to love and thrive in.
Reverse: Stop the wobbly
Joe Hill’s solidarity was too tough, his singing too different, his solidarity too bad, and they did in fact kill him.
On The Radio: Hunx and His Punx – Alone In Hollywood On Acid
I swear I’ve been hearing this track since my college radio days, but apparently it’s a 2025 single? Wild.
