Happy Tuesday! It’s February 11, 2025, and this is The Morning Shift, your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. Here are the important stories you need to know.
1st Gear: China Imposes Tariffs On U.S.-Built Cars In Latest Trade War Salvo
President Donald Trump is big on tariffs, a tax paid by importers — not exporters — to bring goods into the country. Trump has threatened tariffs against many of the United States’ trading partners, and now those partners are baring their teeth with tariffs of their own. China is the most recent nation to retaliate, levying tariffs on American-built cars. From Bloomberg:
China’s 10% additional tariff on vehicles with larger engines imported from the US took effect Monday as the two countries failed to reach a deal over the Trump administration’s blanket levy on Chinese goods.
The extra tariff went into effect on Monday against goods including vehicles with engines larger than 2.5 liters, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, bringing the total impost to 25%.
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In a bid to appeal to wealthy Chinese buyers, GM launched a premium import service called Durant Guild in 2022 offering vehicles such as the GMC Yukon and Chevrolet Tahoe sport utility vehicles. Both are powered by engines that are 3 liters or more.
However, as with the tariffs Trump threatened to impose on Canada and Mexico before delaying them after talks with the countries’ leaders, the situation could be fluid. Trump has said he will soon hold a call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also urged dialog and consultation to ward off a full-scale trade war.
Trump has also signed off on steel and aluminum tariffs regardless of country of origin, meaning cars will get more expensive to make and more expensive to sell without a dime of extra profit for the automakers. Surely the automakers will love this.
2nd Gear: Tesla’s Texas Robotaxi Launch Leaves It Open To Litigation
Tesla is launching its robotaxi service in Texas, because the state’s laws forbid any kind of pesky regulation on multi-thousand-pound bits of machinery that could start autonomously mowing down pedestrians. This same laissez-faire approach to regulation may come back to bite Tesla, though: There’s nothing to stop those mowed-down pedestrians from suing. From Reuters:
Elon Musk told investors in late January that Tesla would roll out “autonomous ride-hailing for money” by June in Austin, Texas — a state where the company faces almost no regulation, raising questions about how much safety and legal risk Tesla is willing to take on as it deploys unproven driverless technology on public streets.
Tesla has long blamed its customers for accidents involving the driver-assistance systems it calls Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD), noting that it warns Tesla owners to stay ready to take over driving. Now Musk is vowing to deploy truly driverless taxis, a move legal experts say would place crash liability squarely on Tesla.
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Nothing in Texas law would stop Tesla from launching a robotaxi service. The state takes a hands-off regulatory approach that aligns with Musk’s increasingly anti-government political stances as an advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump.
State law allows autonomous-vehicle companies free access to public streets provided they are registered and insured, like any human-driven car, and equipped with technology to record data about any potential crashes. No state agency issues permits for or oversees driverless-taxi services — and state law forbids cities and counties from enacting their own driverless-vehicle regulations.
Launching an autonomous taxi is a Rubicon-crossing moment for Tesla. Without a human in the driver’s seat to blame, all of “Full Self-Driving’s” faults could well turn into collisions — collisions that’ll cost Tesla real money. Unless, of course, the company’s CEO owns the government and simply refuses to let anything bad happen to him or his allies. Remember: With enough money, you can fully insulate yourself from any ill effects, no matter how many people your decisions kill.
3rd Gear: A Post-Tavares Stellantis Looks A Lot Less Electric
Electric vehicles are a half-measure towards preventing the kind of global climate catastrophe that we’re already seeing. Automakers like Stellantis, unfortunately, make slightly less money off of electric cars. So, of course, they’re simply pivoting away from building anything new. From Automotive News:
Stellantis has redrawn the product road maps for several of its seven brands in North America.
Chrysler and Alfa Romeo have abandoned their plans to go all-electric later in the decade, Ram has pushed back the arrival of its first fully electric pickup to 2026, and Dodge is keeping the 6.2-liter supercharged Hemi Hellcat engine roaring for another year in the Durango.
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Alfa Romeo has given up on its zero-emission ambitions by 2027 in favor of a multi-energy strategy.
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Chrysler had been working toward a fully battery-powered lineup by 2028. It has now pivoted from that goal, a move that [North American head of Chrysler and Alfa Romeo Christine] Feuell said had been debated for a while.
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And it turns out that the storied Hemi Hellcat isn’t quite done. [Dodge] announced in December that the Durango Hellcat will return for the 2025 model year. The SUV debuted in the 2021 model year and was planned to be a limited one-year run, but the brand has continued to bring it back.
In the parlance of our times: Chat, is this good? I may just be some yokel with a degree in business, but it seems to me that eschewing long-term sales in favor of extra profits for this fiscal quarter wouldn’t be a move that works out for you in the end. I’ve been wrong before, but it’s rare.
4th Gear: Toyota Recalls 106,000 Tacomas For Brake Hoses That Could Leak
The Toyota Tacoma is a good truck, but it’s not without its faults. Faults like brake hoses that could leak and cost you fluid pressure when you try to stop. Faults that launch recalls of 106,061 vehicles. Those kinds of faults. From Reuters:
The recall affects certain 2024-2025 Tacoma four-wheel drive vehicles.
The clearance between the rear brake hose and wheel may allow mud and dirt to build up, which can damage the brake hose and lead to a brake fluid leak, the U.S. auto safety regulator said.
If you own a recent Tacoma, run your VIN by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to see if you’re safe. If not, go get your car fixed. Brakes are — and people don’t always know this — an important safety feature.