GM Lost $1.1 Billion To Tariffs Last Quarter

Happy Tuesday! It’s July 22, 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 GM’s losses in the last fiscal quarter, as well as Stellantis’ plans for more losses ahead. Plus, Tesla wraps up its legal challenge for direct sales in Louisiana, and the absolute refusal of air taxis to die. 

General Motors is the sort of red-blooded, baseball and apple pie American corporation that the Trump administration’s tariffs are meant to protect. Naturally, those tariffs cost GM $1.1 billion in the last quarter alone, causing global revenues and incomes to drop. From Automotive News:

General Motors’ second-quarter net income slid 35 percent to $1.9 billion, with import tariffs costing the automaker $1.1 billion since President Donald Trump began imposing them in April.

GM said its global revenue declined 1.8 percent to $47.1 billion in the quarter ended June 30. Adjusted earnings before interest and taxes fell 32 percent to $3.04 billion.

North American pretax profit fell 46 percent to $2.4 billion on revenue of $39.5 billion in the region.

Are we tired of winning yet?

Just yesterday, we talked about Stellantis’ multi-billion-dollar tariff expenses from the first half of 2025. As it turns out, that’s only the start — the company expects even further losses due to tariff costs going forward. From Reuters:

Stellantis expects more impact from U.S. tariffs on vehicles and auto part imports in the second half of 2025, the company said on Monday as it reported a preliminary 2.3 billion euro ($2.7 billion) net loss for the first six months of the year.

The carmaker, which owns a sprawling portfolio of brands including Jeep, Ram, Peugeot and Fiat, said President Donald Trump’s tariffs had cost it 300 million euros so far as the company reduced vehicle shipments and cut some production to adjust manufacturing levels.

But Chief Financial Officer Doug Ostermann told analysts that the 300 million euro impact was not representative of what the group expects for the second half, as tariffs only came into effect part way through the first half.

“We’ll see significantly more in the second half unless things change … given the current outlook, I would expect to see that figure probably double in the second half or more,” he said, adding that Stellantis was seeing a total full-year impact of between 1 and 1.5 billion euros.

If there’s one thing businesses love, it’s staring down the barrel of “significantly more” costs that are as unpredictable as they are unavoidable. It’s good for markets, good for global trade, and good for an economy that’s hopping from tech bubble to tech bubble in hopes of forever dodging the fourth once-in-a-lifetime crash in my lifetime. 

Years ago, Tesla filed a major lawsuit in Louisiana alleging that car dealers’ lobbying against the company’s direct sales model made for an anticompetitive sales environment. Now, that lawsuit is settled, but it’s not immediately clear why — the case was dismissed with Tesla’s complaints regarded as moot, but we don’t yet know exactly what Tesla got out of the deal. From Reuters:

Tesla on Monday settled a lawsuit against Louisiana and various auto dealerships and trade groups, in which CEO Elon Musk’s electric car company challenged the state’s ban since 2017 on direct vehicle sales to consumers.

According to a dismissal motion filed in New Orleans federal court, Tesla’s claims have been “fully and finally resolved,” with state officials maintaining they were simply doing their jobs and did not violate criminal laws.

Tesla settled with the local dealer interest group, but so far neither side is saying what they got or gave in the agreement. I guess we’ll figure it out if Tesla stores start popping up around New Orleans. 

As a New York resident, I’m pretty accustomed to helicopters full of the impatient ultra-wealthy going down in various horrifying ways. This has engendered a healthy distrust of helicopter travel in me, but apparently not in the target market — companies looking to get into the “air taxi” game still see a business opportunity there. From Bloomberg:

Air taxi startup Joby Aviation Inc. expects to have five aircraft in one of the final phases of certification next year as it aims to start commercial flights in early 2026, according to its chief executive officer.

“Through the course of ’26, we are going to be bringing more aircraft and building out progressively,” Joby CEO JoeBen Bevirt said in an interview. He said that next year the company will likely have five aircraft undergoing the US Federal Aviation Administration’s Type Inspection Authorization testing, which is needed to start commercial service in the US.

…

Joby plans to start commercial passenger services in Dubai by early next year, after having previously targeted the end of this year. Last month, it announced the completion of piloted test flights in the United Arab Emirates city. Certification for flight operations by the FAA and regulators in other countries is still pending.

Joby’s aircraft are multi-rotor VTOL craft, which is a fancy way of saying they’re helicopters with slightly more redundancy if something breaks. You still won’t catch me in an aircraft that can’t glide to a landing. 

There’s no way the first auto race was some sort of organized situation. I’m willing to bet that the first race in fact came just seconds after the first time two automobiles were in the same place at the same time. 

I had no idea Zeds Dead was still around, but this track came up on KEXP the other day and it’s an absolute banger. The music video adds yet another layer, showing you where all the samples actually come from.