President Trump Lowers Tariffs On European-Built Cars To 15%, But It’s Still Going To Cost You

Good morning! It’s Thursday, September 25, 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 U.S. officially cuts tariffs on vehicles made in Europe to 15%, Britain is considering propping up auto suppliers as Jaguar-Land Rover struggles to come back online, CarMax sees a big dip in second quarter income and Amazon’s Zoox wants regulatory approval to launch its driverless vehicles on an unsuspecting public.

The U.S. officially lowered auto import tariffs on vehicles made in the European Union to 15% — retroactive to August 1. That’s down from the 25% levy they previously faced on top of a prior 2.5% tax. The move cements the terms of a framework trade agreement the two sides struck nearly two months ago at this point. 

The order will help to ease some tensions between Washington and Brussels, as both sides work through ironing out the details of the trade deal they announced at one of Trump’s golf courses in Scotland. In any case, here’s a more detailed look at the agreement, from Bloomberg:

The changes laid out in the filing include a list of exemptions for sectors including aircraft, aircraft parts and generic pharmaceutical drugs plus ingredients, as well as “unavailable natural resources” such as cork and certain metals and ores, effective Sept. 1. Those goods will maintain lower so-called most favored nation, or MFN, rates.

Most of the new rates take effect for EU goods shipped starting Sept. 1, but the relief for automobiles and parts was contingent on the EU introducing legislation to lower tariffs on American industrial goods and some non-sensitive agricultural products.

The bloc followed through with that action on Aug. 28 and is currently in the process of implementing its concessions, paving the way for the Trump administration to backdate the new auto charge.

[…]

As part of the arrangements in the trade deal, the EU faces a 15% tariff ceiling on most of its exports. That rate doesn’t stack on top of any existing industry-specific tariffs, and the EU expects it to also cover any future sectoral levies that may be introduced on drugs and chips.

Not every detail has been ironed out just yet. The two sides haven’t made much progress on lowering tariffs for steel and aluminum, which are both facing 50% export duties.

Still, don’t expect this to be much of a relief on your wallet. We recently reported that — while automakers are eating tariff costs for now — they likely will not be doing so for very long. That 15% is going to start coming out of your end, buddy.

Britain’s government is apparently considering a light bailout of Jaguar-Land Rover’s suppliers following a cyberattack that has shut down production until at least October. The automaker’s three British factories produce about 1,000 vehicles per day, and with all of them shuttered, the company is losing about $68 million per week — all while many of its 33,000 staff members are told to stay home. 

Now, the government is looking at ways to keep companies further down the supply chain afloat as JLR gets its crap figured out. It’s not a good situation over in England, I’ll tell ya that much. From Reuters:

Schemes under consideration included the government buying component parts from the suppliers to enable them to survive until JLR resumes production, according to a BBC report.

Another option was providing government-backed loans to suppliers, the BBC said, although it added that the idea was not popular with suppliers.

[…]

The British parliament’s Business and Trade Select Committee will hear from companies in JLR’s supply chain on Thursday.

Tata Motors finance chief P B Balaji told the committee’s chair Liam Byrne in a letter dated on Tuesday that JLR was working with its supply partners to prioritise payments to “those with the greatest need,” adding that JLR intended to settle any outstanding payments “in the coming weeks”.

He said JLR was “fully empowered to take decisions that best reflect the interests of its business and commercial partners,” in the letter, which was published by the committee.

A few days ago, we reported that it was entirely possible that things would not be fully up and running at JLR until well after Christmas. I don’t have to tell you how catastrophic that would be for a company that was already struggling and its downstream suppliers.

Nobody has any money anymore, and used cars are getting very expensive. Perhaps that’s why CarMax reported fewer sales of used vehicles and lower revenue in its fiscal second quarter that ended on August 31. The company’s net income fell 28% to $95.4 million, while revenue fell 6% year-over-year to $6.6 billion. That’s apparently below analysts’ expectations. 

Overall, CarMax sold 199,728 retail vehicles in the quarter. That’s down 5.4% from the same time last year. It wholesaled a further 138,302 vehicles during the same period, down 2.2%. From Automotive News:

“While this was a challenging quarter, we remain confident in our long-term strategy and the strength of the earnings model that we have built,” CarMax CEO Bill Nash said in a statement.

The company aims to remove at least $150 million in selling, general and administrative expenses over the next 18 months, he said.

[…]

CarMax bought 293,000 vehicles from consumers and dealers in the quarter, down 2.4 percent year over year. Of that total, it bought 262,000 from consumers, down 2.7 percent, and 31,000 vehicles from dealers, up 0.2 percent.

On a per-vehicle basis, CarMax made $2,216 on every retail sale, down $53 from 2024. Margins were slimmer on wholesale vehicles: just $993, but they were up $18.

Amazon’s Zoox is looking for wider clearance from U.S. regulators to set its self-driving vehicles free on our roads. The company is reportedly requesting exemptions from U.S. vehicle safety standards for field vehicles that will be operated by an autonomous driving system without a human operator on board, according to a filing made by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. From Bloomberg:

The exemption Zoox is seeking would allow the company to operate as many as 2,500 self-driving cars on US roads. A previous approval only covered vehicles that were designed for research and demonstrations.

Zoox said it’s working closely with NHTSA through the agency’s new exemption process.

The request shows how self-driving vehicle developers are moving to capitalize on Trump administration moves to clear regulatory barriers that have historically posed hurdles for autonomous vehicles designed to be driven by a computer rather than a human being. Those rules have previously tripped up companies including Zoox, General Motors Co. and Tesla Inc. that have designed self-driving cars without foot pedals or steering wheels.

The Department of Transportation in August granted Zoox an exemption from federal vehicle safety standards for vehicles that were described in earlier regulatory filings as being “bi-directional, equipped with an automated driving system, and lacking traditional driving controls.”

The company’s latest request seeks exemptions from standards relating to features such as windshield wipers, defogging systems and occupant crash protection equipment.

Over the summer, Zoox opened a robotaxi production facility in California. The plan is for it to eventually build 10,000 of these vehicles per year at the plant.

History.com

Personally. I prefer the 15-speaker, 1,170-watt Burmester audio system that came in the Mercedes-AMG GT63S E-Performance I was just testing, but I’m sure this was good too.

I think we all need a little more Steely Dan in our lives. What better time to start than right now? Lock in, folks, we’re approaching the end of the week.