Tesla Keeps Tumbling Down, Tumbling Down, Tumbling Down

Happy Wednesday! It’s June 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, we’re looking at Tesla’s continued European troubles, as well as the Trump camp’s attempts to revoke federal cash for EVs. We’ll also look at how Mexico’s auto industry stands to keep its position in the face of tariffs, and at BYD slowing its roll. 

Tesla has a lineup of four largely ancient cars, and a CEO that’s very open about his fringe social and political beliefs. These are apparently not major sales boons, because it seems Tesla has peaked in Europe: the company’s sales fell in May for a fifth straight month. From Reuters:

Tesla’s new car sales in Europe fell 27.9% in May from a year earlier even as fully-electric vehicle sales in the region jumped 27.2%, with the U.S. EV maker’s revised Model Y yet to show signs of reviving the brand’s fortunes.

Overall car sales in Europe rose 1.9%, with the strongest growth coming from plug-in hybrids and cars powered by alternative fuels, data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) showed.

Tesla’s European sales have now fallen for five straight months as customers switch to cheaper Chinese EVs and, in some cases, protest against Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s politics.

Tesla’s European market share dropped to just 1.2% in May from 1.8% a year ago.

Dolor.

President Donald Trump doesn’t like EVs, and he doesn’t think anyone else should get to like them either. He’s doing just about everything he can to wipe electric cars from the face of the United States, up to and including rescinding funds that had already been promised to the states for EV infrastructure. Now, though, a judge has ruled that Trump can’t actually do that. From Reuters:

A U.S. judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from withholding funds awarded to 14 states including California, New York, Illinois and Washington for electric vehicle charger infrastructure.

U.S. District Judge Tana Lin in Seattle, Washington, ruled that the states were likely to succeed in a lawsuit alleging that the federal government was illegally withholding billions of dollars awarded to states for building EV charging stations.

…

“The administration cannot dismiss programs illegally, like the bipartisan Electric Vehicle Infrastructure formula program, just so that the President’s Big Oil friends can continue basking in record-breaking profits,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta.

Hey, what do you know! Someone in some degree of power cares about our planet being habitable beyond the lifetime of our octogenarian gerontocrats. Glad someone’s looking out. 

President Trump may not like EVs, but he really doesn’t like Mexico. He’d love to move all auto manufacturing from Mexico to the United States, but there’s a problem with that plan: It’s not easy for automakers, it’s not financially viable, and it’s not going to happen. From Automotive News:

Mexico’s rise as a crucial high-tech auto hub will likely continue despite U.S. tariffs making it more expensive to ship products north of the border, recent studies found.

The country’s access to skilled labor, proximity to the U.S. market and its relative policy and regulatory stability could enable Mexico to come out ahead despite the tariffs, according to modeling conducted by global consultancy Roland Berger. Many new-vehicle models will remain cheaper to produce in Mexico because of those factors, it said.

…

“The entire supply chain, from OEMs to suppliers, have built their manufacturing strategies around Mexico,” said Stephan Keese, a senior partner at Roland Berger.

Unfortunately for Trump, it’s often impossible to make global supply chains bend to the whim of a single government administration. Supply chains are massive, slow-changing things, while government leaders only last a few years. Eventually, business as usual returns. 

BYD eclipsed Tesla as the world’s largest EV maker, but it seems its growth is starting to slow. The company is dialing back production at some factories, and holding off on adding new production capacity. From Reuters:

Chinese electric vehicle champion BYD has slowed its production and expansion pace in recent months by reducing shifts at some factories in China and delaying plans to add new production lines, said two people with knowledge of the matter.

The decisions are a sign that BYD’s robust sales growth over the past couple of years that drove it to overtake Tesla as the world’s largest EV maker could slow, as it grapples with rising inventory even after offering deep price cuts in China’s cutthroat auto market.

BYD has cancelled night shifts and reduced output by at least a third of the capacity at some of its factories, said the sources who declined to be named because the matter is private.

EVs are the future, but they’re facing a rocky road to complete and total adoption. Changing laws, evolving battery tech, charging infrastructure debacles — it hasn’t been easy. Hopefully, soon, these things start to clear up. I like having breathable air. 

According to its creator, Gilbert Baker, the crowd immediately recognized the flag’s significance: “It completely astounded me that people just got it, in an instant like a bolt of lightning—that this was their flag,” he later said. “It belonged to all of us.”

New York City has a new Democratic nominee for mayor! Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist from Queens who campaigned on affordability — including transit measures like fast and free buses and additional bike lanes — absolutely trounced disgraced former governor Andrew Cuomo. Greatest city in the world, baby. Let’s go Mets. 

All of this mayoral campaigning keeps getting “concrete jungle where dreams are made of” stuck in my head, and I need to clear it out with a better NY song.