Good morning! It’s Thursday, March 27, 2025, and this is The Morning Shift: Your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, all 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 Trump’s new tariffs on all imported cars, hearing about incoming Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa’s ideas to woo Honda back, and turning an eye towards the continuing Tesla protests.
1st Gear: Trump Institutes New 25 Percent Tariff On Imported Cars
President Donald Trump loves tariffs, both as a method of waging trade wars and as a word that just has good mouthfeel. Trump has instituted, rescinded, and re-instituted a number of tariffs during the early days of his second term, but Wednesday he levied a new one: 25 percent on all imported cars. This includes vehicles from countries with which the U.S. already has standing trade agreements, like Canada, Mexico, and South Korea, which experts say likely violaties those agreements. Legal experts be damned, though, because the tariffs are coming on April 3rd. Reuters has some details:
Trump’s new tariffs are based on a 2019 national security investigation into auto imports conducted during his first presidential term under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Trump previously used this Cold War-era trade law to impose 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports in 2018.
The Commerce Department found that the growing market share of imported cars was negatively impacting U.S. national security by eroding the U.S. industrial base and the ability of domestic automakers to develop advanced technologies for military use.
The tariffs have upset seemingly everyone involved in the global automotive market in any country, even including Trump pal Elon Musk, but there’s a surprising voice of dissent: Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers, who’s fully on board with the tariffs. The UAW released a statement:
This afternoon, the Trump administration announced major tariffs on passenger cars and trucks entering the U.S. market, marking the beginning of the end of a thirty-plus year “free trade” disaster. This is a long-overdue shift away from a harmful economic framework that has devastated the working class and driven a race to the bottom across borders in the auto industry. It signals a return to policies that prioritize the workers who build this country—rather than the greed of ruthless corporations.
This is an unexpected move, to be sure. Fain traditionally has a good head on his shoulders, and it’s odd to see him aligning with protectionist policy. The UAW’s stance here makes sense in a vacuum, but omits the possibility of retaliation against U.S.-built vehicles — retaliation other nations have been all too happy to impose.
2nd Gear: New Nissan CEO found standing outside Honda’s office, boombox held high
Nissan’s new CEO is a product guy and a car guy, but it seems he’s trying to make a name as a deals guy as well. Ivan Espinosa, who takes over the top job on April 1, wants another automaker as a partner — quite possibly Honda, the company that Nissan backed out of negotiations with under outgoing CEO Makoto Uchida. Espinosa wants a partner to help dig Nissan out of its rut, and Honda appears high on the list. From Bloomberg:
The auto industry’s push into intelligent cars “is going to require a lot of work and a lot of investment that probably will need some partner,” Ivan Espinosa, who assumes his new role on April 1, said Wednesday. “I’m open to Honda or other partners, as long as these partners are helping us drive the vision of the business.”
A tie-up with a traditional automaker could offer “some synergy” in terms of size, powertrain technology and battery investment, Espinosa told reporters in Atsugi, near Nissan’s headquarters in Yokohama.
One has to wonder what those negotiations would look like, now that Uchida is just about out of the picture. Will Honda come back to the table with open arms, fully believing one man stood in the way of the deal last time, or will the parties resume negotiations from a much more tense position?
3rd Gear: Those Tesla Protests Aren’t Going Anywhere
Tesla stores have been beset by protesters in recent weeks, because apparently automaker CEOs can’t even discuss preserving a future for white children any more thanks to Woke. Many thought the Tesla protests would sputter and die in short order, chalking them up to a temper tantrum by electoral losers, but the protests don’t seem to be going anywhere. In fact, they seem to only be getting more support. From Automotive News:
The nationwide movement organized by Tesla Takedown wants to suppress sales just as Tesla struggles to meet first-quarter delivery goals. It is part of a global backlash against Musk’s support for right-wing parties in Europe and his role as a key adviser to President Donald Trump.
The protest effort against the once-beloved automaker in electric vehicle-friendly California is set to expand to more than 200 Tesla locations in the U.S., Canada, Europe, the U.K. and Australia on March 29 as part of a “global day of action” organized by Tesla Takedown on its website.
Tesla Takedown states its calls to action as selling Tesla cars, unloading Tesla stock, and joining the group outside Tesla stores on nearly every Saturday. This coming protest, though, promises to be the biggest one yet. Hopefully it comes and goes without anyone deciding to drive through the crowds.
4th Gear: Lucid pulls a Toyota, recalls 4,000 cars for floor mats
Remember when Toyota had that massive “unintended acceleration” recall that boiled down to floor mats? Well it seems Lucid is learning from the traditional automakers, because the company just recalled 4,294 cars for floor mats that can “interfere” with the gas pedal. Lucid’s all-weather floor mats in the Air can shift out of position and trap the gas pedal, according to Automotive News, and could set drivers up for a crash:
If the mats on the driver’s side of the vehicle move out of position, they could interfere with the accelerator, increasing the risk of a crash, the report said. The mats can shift because they are secured to the floor by nibs, rather than anchors.
The issue was noticed in August 2024 when a Lucid employee reported that the accelerator pedal had been momentarily stuck while driving.
The fix is a simple one: Take the all-weather mats out, and replace them with new mats that have more effective anchors. It really goes to show, though, that factory all-weather mats will always be worse than the kind you can get in the aftermarket. This would never happen to WeatherTech.
Reverse: The first March to ever be mad
Every March before this? Peaceful and serene. Humans didn’t develop the capacity for anger in March until 1939.
On The Radio: Porter Robinson – ‘KNOCK YOURSELF OUT XD’
Really, I should be linking this entire album, but I’ll get you started with the first track off Smile! 😀 and let you sort it out from there. I find myself coming back to this one more than Worlds, which is really saying something.
