Good morning! It’s Thursday, April 10, 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 taking a look at the current state of import tariffs and their effects on Big Three autoworkers. We’ll also look at the death of one of the American market’s prettiest sedans, and how Volkswagen’s dealing with the current regulatory environment.
1st Gear: Auto tariffs exempt from yesterday’s pause
The past few months of the second Trump administration have been a sort of will-they-won’t-they situation with ruinous import tariffs. We got tariffs on Canada and Mexico, then we didn’t, then China, then Canada and Mexico again, then we got them everywhere, and now they’re on pause again — except for cars, where they’re sticking around. Your Switch 2 may make it over here at MSRP, but it sure doesn’t seem like your Civic Type R will. Automotive News has the latest:
Trump is pausing reciprocal tariffs on most countries other than China for 90 days, instead implementing a base tariff rate of 10 percent on most goods. The pause does not extend to the 25 percent auto tariffs Trump put into place on April 3 or to other sectoral tariffs such as steel and aluminum.
General tariffs on non-China countries are on hold, but cars will still be taxed at the border. Of course, with taxes on steel, aluminum, and car parts, it may not actually be much cheaper to build cars here anyway — prices may simply rise across the board. At least American auto workers will see the benefits of job security and some extra cash, though, right?
2nd Gear: Big Three autoworkers will feel the financial hit
Oh. Welp. Ignore that last sentence, then. It turns out that the remaining tariffs are still enough to substantially hurt the American auto industry, and union auto workers will feel the hit — possibly for years. From the Detroit Free Press:
Given that, several auto analysts agreed that a decline is likely unavoidable in annual profit-sharing checks to UAW-represented workers and bonuses that salaried people earn. As Dan Ives, a managing director at Wedbush Securities told the Free Press, the payouts could be, “dramatically lower to nothing,” as a result of the hit tariffs are expected to deliver to the automakers’ profits over the next year or two.
Surely those auto workers will understand that the bonuses they’re losing are simply a side effect of America taking its medicine, refocusing its economy inward to secure the existence of our people and a future for our children. Just a little temporary decline to get things working right, for someone’s very particularly-worded definition of “right.”
3rd Gear: Dead, due to trade war: Volvo S90
The Volvo S90 is one of the prettier cars on the American market today, which of course means it has to die. Nothing good can stick around for long, and the S90 is simply too good for this world, too pure. It’s also built in China, which is of course evil, and we can’t be having that on our shores. From Automotive News:
A person familiar with Volvo’s plans said the company is expected to cancel U.S. orders of the S90 next year. Volvo sold 1,364 of the S90 here in 2024.
…
“It’s a low-volume car for the U.S.,” said the person, who asked not to be identified because the decision is not yet public. “Rather than deal with [the tariffs], they are just going to cut it out.”
The S60 died last year, meaning Volvo will no longer have a single sedan in its stable.
4th Gear: American and European regulations are hitting Volkswagen’s bottom line
Volkswagen’s first-quarter earnings plunged 40% this year, a shift categorized by industry insiders as “yikes.” Much of the blame goes toward new European regulations, aimed at cleaning up the auto sector by pushing low-emission vehicles, which Volkswagen may not be in compliance with — meaning the company has set aside funds to pay fines down the line. Some of that drop, though, is due to our own home-grown tariffs. From Reuters:
Volkswagen’s first-quarter earnings fell far short of market expectations, plunging about 40%, as Europe’s biggest carmaker factored in costs for penalties of missing EU carbon emissions targets and for cars affected by U.S. tariffs.
Regulations that incentivize low-emissions vehicles are generally good, since they force automakers to prioritize the continuance of our habitable biosphere over quarterly profits — which is exactly why those corporations hate them. European automakers are actively lobbying against the law that Volkswagen put aside so much money for, so it may all go up in smoke soon anyway. Then, we all will.
Reverse: In the arms of an angel
There’s a very fast little dog playing fetch outside my window right now, and I’d much rather watch that than any ASPCA ad. But, the SPCA helps dogs like that, so I’m glad they’re around.
On The Radio: HEALTH — ‘DEMIGODS’
Do you listen to HEALTH? You should. I don’t know what your music taste is, I’m sure HEALTH probably isn’t it, but you should listen anyway. Expand your horizons a little.
