🚙 Toyota’s robot math, Nissan’s hybrid launch, VW’s EV orders, a stalled China ban, rising loan rates, appraisal blind spots, and one very green Range Rover.
Trump and Xi Talked for Two Days. Automotive Trade Never Came Up.
China gave the US two giant pandas this week. What it didn't give, or even discuss on the record, was anything about automotive trade. If you're wondering whether the pandas come with any data-collection tech of their own, you're not the only one asking that question this week, just about the wrong animals.🚙
Akio Toyoda Wants the Industry to Row Together. He Knows Exactly What That Means.
Rowing is a sport now. It wasn't always. For centuries it was naval warfare's most literal test: a crew living or dying based on whether they could pull together, obey the same command, and endure exhaustion without breaking formation. When Akio Toyoda stood at his Automotive Hall of Fame induction and asked, "Wouldn't it be great if we could all just row together?" we don't think he was reaching for a nice metaphor. We think he knows exactly what that image used to mean.
Diesel Isn't Just a Trucker's Problem, It's a Grocery Store Problem Too
Diesel price issues never stay in the truck. It ends up on the grocery shelf, in the price of freight, in the cost of nearly everything that moves before it reaches a customer. If this "Iran situation" drags on long enough, do we end up with a farmer's market revival, more people buying local simply because local means fewer diesel miles between the field and the table?
🚗 OEMs Losing Ground and Rising Loan Rates Make it Hard to Win Back
🚙 Meanwhile, financing is getting more expensive too. Treasury yields hit 20-year highs this week, and auto loan rates follow them closely. A jump from 6.35% to 8.35% on a $43,000 loan adds roughly $41 a month and over $2,900 in total interest.
China Already Restricts What America Is Still Debating
Sens. Bernie Moreno and Elissa Slotkin's bill, with 51 co-sponsors split almost evenly across party lines, is the American attempt to catch up to a standard China set for itself years ago. As Bozzella put it, that kind of bipartisan agreement is rare enough on its own: "I can't think of a single other thing" that unifies Washington the way this has.
🚙 Sens. Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat, and Bernie Moreno, an Ohio Republican, are pushing for unanimous Senate approval this week of a bill that would permanently ban Chinese vehicle sales and manufacturing in the US. It already has 51 Senate co-sponsors and more than 100 in the House.
Toyota's Building a 620-Mile EV. We're Not Getting It. Again.
Does anybody else feel like the fattened calf every time some genuinely cool, genuinely affordable automotive tech shows up in every market except this one? Why is America always last to the party? Is it the music? Somebody explain it to me.
No Pressure, Mary: Barra Walks Into the Room That Could Define Her Legacy
Barra's seat at that table isn't symbolic. It's happening the same week Trump signaled he might let Chinese automakers manufacture on US soil, the exact outcome her own industry coalition just publicly asked him not to allow.
Dealers Have Always Been the "Real People" Review. China Is About to Test That.
Rumors that BYD CEO Wang Chuanfu could join Xi Jinping's Washington delegation set off alarms industry-wide. Sen. Elissa Slotkin didn't mince words: Chinese companies are "licking their chops" for US access. A coalition including NADA sent a letter urging the administration to "keep the door firmly shut."
🚗 VW's EV Orders Just Passed Gas Cars in Germany, and People Aren't Sure What to Make of It
🚙 VW still has real problems, 100,000 planned job cuts, a struggling China business. But its first-generation EVs struggled to sell. This generation is sold out. That's a fast turn, worth remembering next time a customer says they're "just not an EV person," at least not yet.
