California’s Emissions Standards Are A Thing Of The Past

Happy Friday! It’s March 23, 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, the Senate revokes California’s right to set its own emissions standards, and Chinese cars are enrapturing European buyers. Plus, American automakers want their own tariff deals, and used car prices keep going up. 

Ever since the 1960s, California has been able to set its own emissions standards that are more stringent than the rest of the country. It started as an effort to combat LA’s smog, implemented by then-governor Ronald Reagan, but now the program is being challenged by the U.S. Senate. In a move described by experts as blatanty illegal, the Senate has stripped California of the right to regulate its own emissions. From NPR:

The Senate has overruled the guidance of the parliamentarian, a nonpartisan staffer who interprets the Senate’s rules, and voted 51 to 44 to overturn a waiver allowing California to set its own air pollution standards for cars that are stricter than national regulations. The Senate has only overruled its parliamentarian a handful of times in the 90-year history of the role.

…

Congress is using a law called the Congressional Review Act, or CRA, as a mechanism to revoke the federal waivers that allowed California to set these rules. The House previously approved three resolutions to revoke the waivers.

But there are significant questions about whether this use of the CRA is legal; the Government Accountability Office and the Senate parliamentarian, who serve as referees within the federal government, both determined that it is not.

California’s smog regulations saved lives and made the car-dependent city habitable, but our society is now run by emissions-loving accelerationists who want the ice caps to melt into trade routes they can tax and by god they’re not going to let some ’60s communist like (checks notes) Ronald Reagan stop them. 

China is building good cars for good prices, and the world is taking notice. Despite tariffs on Chinese cars from European regulators, European buyers are still grabbing up all the Cherys, BYDs, and MGs they can get their hands on — nearly 80 percent more of them last month than the month before. From Automotive News:

Sales of Chinese brands in Europe continued to grow at a torrid pace in April, up by 79 percent to more than 50,000.

In a total market that was flat with 1,085,000 sales, Chinese automakers’ share grew to 4.6 percent from 2.6 percent in the same period in 2024, preliminary figures from market researcher Dataforce show.

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Despite stronger growth rates from its rivals, MG remained comfortably the top Chinese brand in Europe in April, as well as for the first four months, with sales of 99,627, ahead of BYD at 41,409 and Chery at 21,571.

Someday we’ll all be driving MGs, and a Chinese-built electric remake of the MGB will be the only car that exists. That would rock, actually. I want to live in that future. Cash For Clunkers II: It’s All MGBs This Time, Baby. 

The Trump trade war rages on, and now it’s come to the home front. American automakers are looking at the treatment other nations are getting, namely the UK, and realizing that it’s actually a better deal than Ford, GM, or Stellantis have gotten. Needless to say, they’re not thrilled. From Automotive News:

The Trump administration’s latest concession on automotive tariffs — giving preferential treatment to the United Kingdom — has created a divide in the global auto industry.

U.K. auto executives praised the move, but their American counterparts have expressed dismay. That’s because vehicles imported from the U.K. will be subject to a lower tariff rate than vehicles from Canada and Mexico, whose auto sectors are highly integrated with the U.S.

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The discrepancy drew the ire of the American Automotive Policy Council, the trade group representing the Detroit 3. The group issued a scathing statement after the U.K. deal was announced, saying preferential treatment for the U.K. relative to Canada and Mexico would hurt U.S. companies and workers.

“We are disappointed that the administration prioritized the UK ahead of our North American partners,” Matt Blunt, president of the council, said in the statement. “We hope this preferential access for UK vehicles over North American ones does not set a precedent for future negotiations with Asian and European competitors.

If American automakers want to dodge tariffs, there’s a simple solution: Onshore 100% of their entire supply chains, from mining raw materials out to sending finished cars to dealers. It’s one supply chain, Michael, how long could it take to onshore? Six months?

New cars are getting ever less affordable, but there’s good news: Used cars are also getting ever less affordable. Oh, sorry, that’s not good news for you, that’s good news for your local dealer. For you, the news is all bad. From the Detroit Free Press:

According to a new report from auto industry experts, used cars are more expensive than they’ve been in years.

A May 22 report from Edmunds indicated that in the first quarter of 2025, the average transaction price for used cars 3 years old or less jumped above $30,000 for the first time since 2023. The price of lightly used vehicles closed in on the average sales price of brand-new cars, making it just $17,000 less expensive to buy used, rather than new. That is the narrowest difference between new and used car prices since 2022, Edmunds reported.

The report also indicates that the average age of vehicles traded in has grown from 7.3 years old to 7.6 years old in the span of a year.

New cars are too expensive, lightly-used cars are too expensive, and trade-ins are getting older. This is a recipe for a sustainable automotive market, for sure. 

Go get yourself a library card this weekend. It’ll help your local library’s numbers when it comes time for funding, and they could almost certainly use the help. 

I’ve been listening to a lot of KEXP Sessions recently, and they’re almost always bangers. I just love radio so much.