Latest news with #Stellantis
an hour ago
- Automotive
US automakers say Trump's 15% tariff deal with Japan puts them at a disadvantage
WASHINGTON -- U.S. automakers worry that President Donald Trump's agreement to tariff Japanese vehicles at 15% would put them at a competitive disadvantage, saying they will face steeper import taxes on steel, aluminum and parts than their competitors. 'We need to review all the details of the agreement, but this is a deal that will charge lower tariffs on Japanese autos with no U.S. content,' said Matt Blunt, president of the American Automotive Policy Council, which represents the Big 3 American automakers, General Motors, Ford and Jeep-maker Stellantis. Blunt said in an interview the U.S. companies and workers 'definitely are at a disadvantage' because they face a 50% tariff on steel and aluminum and a 25% tariff on parts and finished vehicles, with some exceptions for products covered under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement that went into effect in 2020. The domestic automaker reaction reveals the challenge of enforcing policies across the world economy, showing that for all of Trump's promises there can be genuine tradeoffs from policy choices that risk serious blowback in politically important states such as Michigan and Wisconsin, where automaking is both a source of income and of identity. The United Auto Workers said in a statement it was 'deeply angered' by the deal. 'A better deal would have held Japanese automakers to the same standards U.S. workers have fought for at GM, Ford, and Stellantis,' the UAW said. 'If this becomes the blueprint for trade with Europe or South Korea, it will be a major missed opportunity,' the union added. 'We need trade deals that raise standards — not reward the race to the bottom. This deal does the opposite.' Trump portrayed the trade framework as a major win after announcing it on Tuesday, saying it would add hundreds of thousands of jobs to the U.S. economy and open the Japanese economy in ways that could close a persistent trade imbalance. The agreement includes a 15% tariff that replaces the 25% import tax the Republican president had threatened to charge starting on Aug. 1. Japan would also put together $550 billion to invest in U.S. projects at the 'direction' of the president, the White House said. The framework with Japan will remove regulations that prevent American vehicles from being sold in that country, the White House has said, adding that it would be possible for vehicles built in Detroit to be shipped directly to Japan and ready to be sold. But Blunt said that foreign auto producers, including the U.S., Europe and South Korea, have just a 6% share in Japan, raising skepticism that simply having the open market that the Trump administration says will exist in that country will be sufficient. 'Tough nut to crack, and I'd be very surprised if we see any meaningful market penetration in Japan,' Blunt said. Asked at Wednesday's briefing about whether Trump's sectoral tariffs such as those on autos were now subject to possible change, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the issue had been going through the Commerce Department. The framework with Japan was also an indication that some nations simply saw it as preferential to have a set tariff rate rather than be whipsawed by Trump's changes on import taxes since April. But for the moment, both Japan and the United Kingdom with its quotas on auto exports might enjoy a competitive edge in the U.S. 'With this agreement in place it provides Japan with a near-term operating cost advantage compared to other foreign automakers, and even some domestic U.S. product that uses a high degree of both foreign production and parts content,' said Karl Brauer, executive analyst at iSeeCars. "It will be interesting to see if this is the first domino to fall in a series of foreign countries that decide long-term stability is more important that short term disputes over specific tariff rates.' Autos Drive America, an organization that represents major Japanese companies Toyota, Honda and Nissan and other international automakers, said in a statement that it is 'encouraged' by the announced trade framework and noted its members have exceeded domestic automaker production for the past two years. The statement urged "the Trump administration to swiftly reach similar agreements with other allies and partners, especially the European Union, South Korea, Canada and Mexico.' The Japanese framework could give automakers and other countries grounds for pushing for changes in the Trump administration's tariffs regime. The president has previously said that he values flexibility in negotiating import taxes. The USMCA is up for review next year. Ford, GM and Stellantis do 'have every right to be upset,' said Sam Fiorani, vice president at consultancy AutoForecast Solutions. But 'Honda, Toyota, and Nissan still import vehicles from Mexico and Canada, where the current levels of tariffs can be higher than those applied to Japanese imports. Most of the high-volume models from Japanese brands are already produced in North America.' Fiorani noted that among the few exceptions are the Toyota 4Runner, the Mazda CX-5 and the Subaru Forester, but most of the other imports fill niches that are too small to warrant production in the U.S. 'There will be negotiations between the U.S. and Canada and Mexico, and it will probably result in tariffs no higher than 15%,' Fiorani added, 'but nobody seems to be in a hurry to negotiate around the last Trump administration's free trade agreement.'
BBC News
2 hours ago
- Automotive
- BBC News
Citroen recall: Driver in 'despair' at being left unable to drive
A Citroen car owner has described the feeling of "despair" at being left unable to drive her car after a safety alert was issued in the parent company of Citroen issued a stop-drive action for 120,000 of its vehicles in the have said the time frame for the repair of vehicles issued with the action varied by retailer. Patricia Tate, from Drumahoe in County Londonderry, can't get a repair appointment until mid-October and said she was told by Citroen to drive her car 28 miles to the car dealer she bought it from. Patricia is in her seventies and uses her Citroen C3 to get to hospital appointments. She told BBC Radio Ulster's Nolan Show: "I'm in despair. What do I do?""I've got four months to wait for this airbag," she said. "It's a desperate situation for everybody here."When you phone Citroen it's a waste of time. They are telling me to drive 28 miles with no insurance. I'm not allowed to drive my car and they are telling me to drive it."She said she was told by Citroen she can claim back £21 a day for travel expenses once the car has been repaired."I can't afford to be out of pocket for that long." Patricia bought her car from dealers Halliday's of Principal of Halliday's, Lexy Halliday told the Nolan Show "there's no quick fix to this at the moment".He said there are 700 customers on their books that still need repairs. "We are trying to take them all in chronological order. It doesn't matter where you bought the car, we deal with every single Citroen whether we supplied it or not."He said that home repairs would be an option if they had airbags available."We need the airbags on site. I think we have 3 left. Our airbags are 2 weeks on back order now."He said that the manufacturer has given Halliday's a "few extra courtesy cars" but that "8 vehicles verses 700 customers" isn't going to cover everyone. In a statement Citroen said the company's focus is on "completing the replacement of airbags in affected vehicles as swiftly as possible". "Working hand in hand with our Citroën Retailer Network, we are working to maximise the number of vehicles we can repair every day." Kyle Gawley's daughter is a Queen's University student nurse and community care told the Nolan Show she hasn't been able to do any community care since June because she can't drive her car. "Her nursing placement is due to start in August which is at the Ulster Hospital and we live in North Belfast, she will now need to try and source public transport to attend."Kyle said he tried to rent a car for his daughter but because she is under 25 no rental companies would rent to her. She told BBC News NI the whole situation "made me feel stressed, frustrated and that I'd lost my independence"."As a student it is already a challenge trying to pay and maintain a car without being able to drive it to my place of work." Why has the recall been issued? The decision to issue a stop-drive notice follows a fatal incident in France, in which a 37-year-old mother driving a Citroen C3 was struck in the head by pieces of flying metal after a minor airbags use ammonium nitrate gas for instant inflation. But the gas can deteriorate in hot and humid conditions, leading to powerful explosions which throw shrapnel into the driver's airbag causing concern was made by Japanese manufacturer Takata, whose product was installed by many said: "Customers affected by this stop-drive action will receive additional notifications shortly."Customers can also check if their cars are concerned by this action using the VIN check tool on the Citroen website, contacting their local dealer or calling the customer care hotline." Affected models Vehicles included under the stop-drive order are:Second-generation Citroen C3, manufactured between 2009 and 2016Citroën DS 3 manufactured between 2009 and 2016DS Automobiles DS 3 manufactured between 2016 and 2019 Citizens Advice Citizens Advice said people should use the vehicle identification number (VIN) checker tool on the Citroen UK website to confirm if their car was said people can find their VIN on their car's MOT certificate or in their log book (V5C).Drivers can register it to enable the processing of a free repair."Driver safety is the priority. We advise all drivers to please act on this recall immediately," a spokesperson said.
Globe and Mail
5 hours ago
- Automotive
- Globe and Mail
Ontario students win EV battery competition. Will they be the ones to push EVs into the mainstream?
There's little doubt within the auto industry that electric vehicles are the future. Who will make them, however, remains an open question. Whether workers here in Canada get a meaningful slice of that action depends, at least in part, on whether they have the right skills and training. That's where hands-on competitions like the Battery Workforce Challenge can help. A team of students from Ontario's McMaster University and Mohawk College recently defeated rival teams from Canada and the United States to win the EV battery competition, which the students hope will position them well to create the EVs of the future. 'Students want to work on something that really matters. They see the EV industry as a way to make a real impact, not only in the battery technology, but also in more sustainable future,' said Romulo Vieira, project manager of the winning team and a Ph.D. candidate at McMaster working on artificial intelligence and batteries. 'I believe a lot of us in this field started by wanting to be part of the solution for climate change,' he said. 'Batteries are one of the core technologies making that shift [away from gas-powered vehicles] possible.' The team of students from McMaster and Mohawk won year two of the three-year Battery Workforce Challenge, which is managed by the Argonne National Laboratory, a federally funded U.S. research institution, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy and sponsored by Stellantis. The goal of the competition is to help train the next generation of engineers, programmers, builders, chemists and inventors who will create EVs of the future. During year two, each team of students had to design and build an EV battery module, including battery architecture and associated software. Teams were judged on their battery module design, project management, market development and communications skills. Vieira said the McMaster-Mohawk team didn't win based on a particular advantage in their battery technology but by excelling across all 55 different deliverables evaluated by the judges. Lamar Webb, a student in Mohawk's software development program, said his interest in joining the competition was sparked by the chance to tackle a big problem like climate change and get in on the ground floor of an emerging industry. 'Battery technology is in its infancy,' Webb said. 'Getting in now offers you the perfect opportunity to make a meaningful impact on a field that is going to have meaningful impacts on climate and the future of transportation.' For Stellantis, having a skilled workforce trained in the complex skills required for EV development is crucial, said Oliver Gross, a senior fellow of electrical energy technology at the auto company. He mentored, advised and judged teams in his role as a technical advisor for the competition. 'You have to get them the opportunity to be hands-on and see directly how what they learn in theory in class manifests itself practically,' Gross said. Broadly speaking, if Canada is to meet its climate targets, the students graduating now will be the generation of workers that solves the problems of fast charging, electrical infrastructure, battery energy density and brings down costs. 'We're going to see big improvements on a few fronts,' Vieira said. 'First, energy density will continue to improve, which means you can drive more without increasing the battery size ... Charging times are getting faster and thermal management is becoming more advanced, which will make EVs more reliable in extreme temperatures.' In short, he said, the future will bring smarter, safer and more sustainable electric vehicles. Having a skilled workforce that can meet the needs of the rapidly growing EV and battery industry is crucial if Canada is to gain a slice of the US$1.2-trillion that Reuters calculates car companies will invest in the sector through 2030. Between 2020 and 2024, federal and provincial governments have invested up to $52.5-billion in the EV supply chain, to help secure new battery manufacturing facilities and retool existing auto assembly plants for EV production. Ontario's growing EV industry presents 'a generational economic opportunity for the province and its workforce,' according to a 2024 study by Canada's independent non-profit Information and Communications Technology Council. However, a 2023 forecast by the Ontario Vehicle Innovation Network (OVIN) predicted the province won't have enough workers with the right skills to fill the growing demand for jobs related to EV manufacturing, engineering and digital technologies. 'What we really need are more programs that give students hands-on, industry-relevant experience, and that's where initiatives like the Battery Workforce Challenge make a huge difference,' Vieira said. 'We've seen first-hand how much students grow when they are part of real engineering projects, like meeting deadlines [and] solving problems that mirror what they will face in the industry.' All of Canada's efforts to become a leader in the EV sector are being undermined by U.S. tariffs and rollbacks of EV and environmental policy, which threatens to turn North America into a global backwater when it comes to EVs. The sudden instability in the market worries Vieira, who is hoping to find a job in the battery industry in Canada when he graduates so he can stay close to his family. At this point, he's wondering if maybe he'll have to go elsewhere.
CBC
6 hours ago
- Automotive
- CBC
As Detroit 3 automakers report tariff blows, experts say a trade deal is the only solution
The Detroit Three automakers are taking a big hit from the Trump administration's tariffs, and industry experts say only one thing can stop the bleeding for the North American auto industry — a trade deal with low tariff rates for the industry. General Motors, Ford and Stellantis have all reported tariff impacts in the billions on recent earnings calls. Ford said on Wednesday that it took an $800-million US (about $1.1 billion Cdn) hit for the second quarter as a result of tariffs. Ford CEO Jim Farley said the company is in daily contact with the White House, with an ultimate goal of reducing its tariff costs, especially on parts tariffs. "We see there's a lot of upside depending on how the negotiation goes with the administration," Farley said. This comes after General Motors said last week that tariffs cost the company $1.1 billion US (about $1.52 billion Cdn) in its second quarter. Chief financial officer Paul Jacobson said the tariff impact for the full year could reach $4 or $5 billion US, though GM is working to offset that with "manufacturing adjustments, targeted cost initiatives and consistent pricing." "Over time, we remain confident that our total tariff expense will come down as bilateral trade deals emerge and our sourcing and production adjustments are implemented," Jacobson said on the company's quarterly earnings call. On its own earnings call on Tuesday, Stellantis also said tariffs were having a major impact, and could add up to the tune of 1.5 billion euros (about $2.4 billion Cdn) this year. Since April, a 25 per cent tariff rate on all finished cars going into the U.S. has applied, regardless of what country they're made in. But under the Canada-United States-Mexico trade agreement (CUSMA), that rate only applies to the non-U.S. content of a car. So far, that cost hasn't made its way into car prices — GM said pricing "remains stable" for the second quarter, and added pricing assumptions for North America for the rest of the year are unchanged. Ford also said it expected net pricing to remain "flat." Industry analyst Sam Fiorani said it isn't entirely surprising that companies are choosing to eat the cost of tariffs thus far. "The car companies can't really push the tariffs through directly yet, because we're in this period of flux, we don't know what the end point will be," Fiorani said. Raising prices by 10 or 15 per cent for now and then lowering them if tariffs come back down isn't an option, he explained, because any customers who just bought the car when it was at the higher rate would be upset with the change. If they do raise any prices, that would have to be longer term. Autoworkers feeling the impact While folks buying cars have been spared the cost of tariffs for the time being, workers in the auto industry haven't been so lucky. Lana Payne, national president of Unifor, which represents some 40,000 autoparts and assembly workers in Canada, says tariffs have resulted in lost work and investment within Canada. In May, GM laid off 750 autoworkers at its Oshawa, Ont., plant when it cut a shift. Windsor's Stellantis assembly plant is also alternating between full production levels, a reduced schedule and full shutdowns throughout the summer. And Stellantis's Brampton, Ont., plant also paused retooling in recent months, with workers there recently telling media they were growing increasingly concerned about when work would resume. "The carnage is building up," Payne said. "Pretty much across the entire auto sector, there has been an impact of some kind or another, depending on the facility and the community." WATCH | Auto expert discusses Windsor Assembly Plant's future given Stellantis earnings: The Windsor Assembly Plant could be in trouble if tariffs don't disappear, as company posts losses: Auto expert 9 days ago The Windsor Assembly Plant could be in serious trouble if tariffs don't go away, a leading automotive expert says, as U.S. President Donald Trump renews threats of tariffs. It comes as the company says preliminary estimates show a nearly $4-billion loss in the first half of this year. The CBC's Katerina Georgieva reports. If tariffs on autos are here to stay, Payne says she expects more of these production cuts and pauses to pile up. That's why she says it's "crucial" that a trade deal between Canada and the U.S. sets tariffs on autos at zero — something she's been working to articulate to folks in government. "We've been very clear to the government what our red lines are," Payne said. "Even though we're facing a deadline right now of August 1st … we're much better off having no deal than a bad deal that will result in a continued bleed of investment and jobs out of this country." Only thing that will help is a trade deal While he doesn't have a prediction for Canada's trade deal, president and CEO of Global Automakers of Canada David Adams says he hopes the rate will be zero, at the very least for CUSMA-compliant cars and parts. "The reality is that any tariff is problematic," Adams said. "If you start doing the math … you're talking, you know, billions [of] dollars per year in terms of the extra cost associated with the tariff." At any rate higher than zero, he says automakers would slowly start to shift production to the U.S. Adams says it won't necessarily be easy to strike an agreement, and that Canada should be very careful about what it puts on the table, given the free trade deal between the U.S., Canada and Mexico is up for review in 2026. So far, goods that are subject to that deal have been sheltered from any tariffs, which has helped Canada weather the tariff storm. WATCH | Why the American auto industry needs the Canadian market: Why the American auto industry needs the Canadian market 28 days ago "We don't have a lot of cards to play, and we need to play the cards that we do have very carefully and strategically," Adams said. Given that the European Union and Japan recently reached deals with the U.S. that will allow those countries to sell products to Americans at a 15 per cent rate, Fiorani says he expects cars and parts not covered by CUSMA might face a similar rate. Fiorani said the deals with the EU and Japan are a sore spot for car companies and suppliers in North America, given that rates for cars coming from Europe or Japan are lower than the 25 per cent currently on cars from Canada. "These are companies that have built their business case on shipping parts across the border. And now they're competing with vehicles that are coming from either the EU, U.K. or Japan, with potentially a lower tariff than they're currently applying to Canadian parts and vehicles," Fiorani said. That said, Fiorani points out that the deals that U.S. President Donald Trump has struck so far are still "handshakes at best," as none of them have yet been signed on paper, which means that reality could still change. In the long term, Greig Mordue, an associate professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, says putting any kinds of tariffs on the auto sector would be a dismantling of the last 60 years of North America's joint auto industry. And while that won't happen overnight, Mordue says Canada will need to find ways to distance itself from the U.S. in the long run. He added that while the Detroit Three have been the focus of the auto sector in North America historically, they don't produce as many cars in Canada anymore. And of the 1.3 million cars made here in 2024, 533,000 were Toyotas and 420,550 were Honda models. Given that, and the global shift from gas-powered cars to electric vehicles, he says Canada should try to find partnerships abroad.
Wall Street Journal
8 hours ago
- Automotive
- Wall Street Journal
BMW Confirms Guidance on Sustained Demand
BMW BMW -1.95%decrease; red down pointing triangle backed its full-year guidance as it continues to see sustained demand for its cars, striking a more upbeat tone than many of its peers. In recent weeks European peers Mercedes-Benz, Volvo Car, Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche and Stellantis have all either lowered their expectations for the year amid mounting tariff costs and uncertainty, or scrapped guidance altogether.
