Americans Rushed Out To Buy New Cars As Tariff Threat Loomed
Good morning! It's Wednesday, April 2, 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'll find out how the threat of impending auto tariffs impacted car sales last month, and see how General Motors is faring so far in 2025. Plus, find out which electric vehicle maker was involved in a deadly crash running self-driving tech, and see why Tesla is facing a lawsuit in New York.
Read more: Unsold Chinese EVs Are Piling Up At Ports
The threat of tariffs on foreign cars sold in America has loomed large since president Donald Trump took office back in January, and a 25% tax on imports will finally come into force this week. The additional fees on imports could kill off cheaper cars and raise prices across the board, and the fear of those price hikes could have attributed to growing sales over the past month.
Automakers across the board posted sales increases over the course of March, according to Automotive News. Sales for March were up by more than 10% for the month, with brands like Honda, Ford, and even Nissan all witnessing growth:
In a sign shoppers are actively tracking the impact of the tariffs, retail volume jumped 19 percent at Ford Motor Co., 15 percent at Hyundai and 25 percent at Kia, the companies reported April 1. At Honda Motor Co., which does little fleet business, March sales rose 13 percent on record light-truck deliveries of 108,466, with first-quarter volume up 5 percent.
Hyundai's North America CEO, Randy Parker, said the brand witnessed one of its strongest sales weekends in years after people "rushed" to "beat the tariffs" that could hit its models. Deliveries were also up at Toyota, VW, and Mazda, which reported its 11th straight month of increasing demand.
Volvo was basically the only major automaker not to post a sales boost last month, with the automaker's deliveries down by 8.2% as a result of lower demand for its electric models.
At American automaker General Motors, the boost in sales was seen across more than just a single month, as it reported that deliveries for the first quarter of 2025 were up 17%. The surge in deliveries for the three-month period reportedly came as the automaker witnessed strong demand for its pickup trucks and SUVs, reports CNBC News.
The sales boost means that GM is "significantly" outpacing the rest of the industry thanks to robust demand for GM's brands (those it hasn't killed off, anyway). The boost also beat forecasts for the period, with experts initially warning that sales could rise just 1% compared with the first quarter of 2024:
GM on Tuesday reported a 16.7% jump in new vehicle sales compared with the first quarter of 2024, led by incremental gains in sales of new all-electric vehicles such as the Cadillac Escalade IQ and Cadillac Optiq, as well as notable increases in entry-level crossovers and full-size SUVs.
As well as outpacing the wider industry, GM's positive quarter also gave it bragging rights over its rivals: Ford and Stellantis. In contrast to the GM's 16.7% sales boost, Ford deliveries were down 1.3% for the quarter, and Stellantis' struggles continued with a 12% drop in deliveries compared with Q1 of 2024.
An electric vehicle operating a kind of advanced driver assistance tech crashed in China killing three people. It was an EV that reportedly relied on cameras rather than tech like lidar to operate its driver assist tech, and -- despite the name and the camera-first focus -- it wasn't a Tesla.
In fact, the deadly crash involved a Xiaomi SU7 sedan, which reportedly drove into a concrete barrier at around 60mph, reports the New York Times. Three college students were killed in the crash with a guardrail, which occurred while the car was operating with Xiaomi's Navigate On Autopilot system, as the site explains:
Xiaomi said the driver had deployed the company's Navigate On Autopilot, an assisted-driving feature, while going around 70 m.p.h. on the expressway. The car was traveling at that speed when it reached a roadblock, because a portion of the road was under repair with traffic diverted into a different lane.
The collision raised questions about the safety of such systems in China, with local news in the county calling for greater education about what they can, and can't, do on the road. Tech like this "carry high safety risks," reports the South China Morning Post and there is a "lack [of] knowledge" about the capabilities of such systems and the way they work, the site added.
As well as dwindling demand, backlash from owners and protests against the brand across the U.S., Tesla is now on the precipice of a legal challenge in New York.
Tesla is reportedly facing a lawsuit in New York over the impact its falling share price is having on pension funds across the state, reports Bloomberg. The rapidly dwindling price of Tesla shares hit the city's $285 billion pension pot, which reportedly lost more than $300 million as a result, as Bloomberg reports:
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander is pushing for the city to file a shareholder lawsuit against Tesla Inc., alleging the automaker misstated how much CEO Elon Musk's work for the Trump administration has pulled him away from the company.
During a news conference this week, Lander said that Tesla doesn't "have a full time CEO paying attention to the company" and keeping shareholder interests in mind, added Bloomberg. As a result, the New York City comptroller is calling on the New York City Law Department to back a shareholder lawsuit against Tesla, which calls for a full-time CEO to take control of the automaker.
My aims for this year were to bake more, cycle more, and see more live music: basically more of my three favorite things. So this past weekend, I serviced my bike, made a banana bread out of some particularly mushy bananas that were lingering at the bottom of my fruit bowl, and headed to the Royal Albert hall to see a show. Talk about a good weekend!
It was a bit of a last minute decision to head to the show, but was definitely worth it as I got introduced to German drummer, musician, and filmmaker Daniel Brandt and his band for the first time, and it was awesome. The four-piece made a monumental sound that put me right in the mood for a good dance, so maybe "Lucid" can do the same for you on this quiet Wednesday morning?
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