Gm And Hyundai Team Up, But Not For Evs

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Happy Thursday! It's August 7, 2025, and this is The Morning Shift — your regular roundup of nan apical automotive headlines from astir nan world, successful 1 place. This is wherever you'll find nan astir important stories that are shaping nan measurement Americans thrust and get around.

In this morning's edition, we're looking astatine nan caller collaboration betwixt General Motors and Hyundai, arsenic good arsenic really Trump's tariffs will deed national car workers successful nan pocketbook later this year. We'll besides look astatine Subaru's reconsidered EV plans, and Toyota's caller tariff-defying factory.

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It's a weird clip to beryllium trading cars correct now. You've sewage waste and acquisition wars to woody with, an ever-shifting regulatory environment, and a bunch of Chinese automakers arsenic title who are conscionable excessively damn bully astatine their jobs. What's an American aliases South Korean carmaker to do? Well, apparently, squad up pinch nan other. From Reuters:

General Motors and Hyundai Motor connected Wednesday outlined plans to create 5 vehicles together arsenic they activity to little costs amid increasing title from nimble Chinese rivals, though immoderate analysts questioned whether nan scheme would work.

Four of nan vehicles — a compact SUV/car/pickup, and a mid-size pickup — are targeted for motorboat successful Central and South America successful 2028 and support some soul combustion and hybrid powertrains.

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"The business itself is simply a win-win strategy, since GM tin study nan hybrid exertion from Hyundai while Hyundai tin usage nan narration pinch GM arsenic leverage for waste and acquisition negotiations pinch nan United States," said Teddi Kim, caput of car investigation patient Mirae-Mobility Research & Services.

The cars of this business aren't intended for our market, but Hyundai wants to usage this to look bully to nan Trump administration. Maybe that's portion of why this caller business will look disconnected against Chinese EVs pinch old-fashioned ICE and hybrid vehicles, to appease a ruler who thoroughly loathes electrification. Or, possibly some companies are conscionable prioritizing quarterly income numbers complete nan satellite lasting different quarter. 

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The United Auto Workers person a fascinating statement clause: Bonuses tied to institution performance. Unfortunately for nan UAW, those bonuses whitethorn plummet this twelvemonth arsenic automakers return nan deed from Trump's waste and acquisition war. From Automotive News:

Import tariffs costing nan Detroit 3 billions of dollars arsenic good arsenic different rising expenses are threatening to shrink profit-sharing checks for their mill workers to nan lowest mean successful much than a decade.

Hourly UAW members astatine Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Stellantis person nan bonuses based connected their employer's prior-year financial performance.

The payouts person reached grounds levels precocious — topping $10,000 astatine each 3 automakers past twelvemonth — but are connected gait to driblet astatine slightest $3,000 to $5,000 based connected nan companies' first-half results and their latest guidance for nan remainder of 2025.

Workers astatine Stellantis, which mislaid astir $2.7 cardinal from January done June, are successful threat of getting thing for nan first clip since 2010.

This shape of profit sharing, wherever nan workers who really support nan institution moving get a trim of nan profits that nan suit-and-tie bigwigs would different nab for themselves, is simply a bully measurement to punctual nan folks upstairs who's really important to nan Big Three. An quiet suit is easy replaced, nan personification bolting seats into your F-150 is crucial. Have you considered unionizing your workplace?

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Subaru's large connected nan outdoors, moreso than immoderate different car brand. The institution wants you to get retired there, to hike and motorcycle and ain a dog, but it seems to beryllium turning a caller leafage astir really keeping nan situation itself successful bully style — wherever nan institution erstwhile promised to electrify each conveyance successful its lineup, it's now stepping backmost that promise. From Automotive News:

Import-reliant Subaru dodged astir $1 cardinal successful imaginable tariffs acknowledgment to nan dial down of U.S. duties, but nan Japanese carmaker is still bracing for profits to autumn by half this year.

Amid nan weakening earnings, CEO Atsushi Osaki besides said nan institution was re-examining nan timing and allocation of its ¥1.5 trillion ($10.4 billion) finance successful electrification.

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Subaru Corp. has antecedently said it wants to electrify each its vehicles — pinch either modular aliases plug-in hybrid setups aliases afloat battery-electric systems — successful nan first half of nan 2030s.

Now it says it expects to execute a 50 percent all-electric lineup sometime aft 2030.

This is erstwhile again an illustration of nan classical issue: ICE vehicles are much profitable successful nan short term, EVs support a habitable satellite astir longer. Every clip a institution picks 1 of these complete nan other, you tin conscionable return it arsenic shorthand for nan things that institution cares about. Subaru's 2 and a half EVs, each rebadged Toyotas, are apparently conscionable excessively overmuch excessively fast. 

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Trump's tariffs person rattled astir each automaker that does business successful nan U.S., but there's 1 that seems unfazed: Toyota. The institution is putting its rate towards spinning up different factory, but not wherever you'd expect — it's adding accumulation capacity successful Japan, which will mean a further tariff deed for bringing cars to the States. From Automotive News:

Toyota said it will build a caller assembly works successful Japan moreover arsenic it braces for a ¥1.4 trillion ($9.68 billion) tariff measure for importing vehicles to nan U.S. this year.

The caller plant, announced Aug. 7, comes arsenic nan world's largest automaker predicts that, contempt nan added costs of tariffs, its full-year operating profit will diminution by only a third.

Even pinch nan other load of import duties, Toyota still expects to reap a respectable 6.6 percent profit separator and book yearly operating profit of much than $22 billion.

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"Since we spot a very unstable world business environment, Toyota's mother state is Japan, and immoderate happens, we person to make judge that we are capable to proceed our business, proceed our employment and create group and our operations," Hiroyuki Ueda, main serviceman of outer and nationalist affairs, said of nan plans while announcing nan latest financial results.

It's very easy to publication this arsenic Hiroyuki Ueda reasoning nan tariffs elemental won't last, but it's besides a bully reminder that nan United States is not nan halfway of nan universe. Other things are happening, we are not nan extremity each beryllium each of everything. I ask again: How agelong until we commencement to spot overseas automakers propulsion retired of nan States entirely?

I wasn't there, did Vietnam spell well? 

I fully forgot they were making a caller 'Tron' movie. As overmuch arsenic I emotion Daft Punk's score/soundtrack for 'Legacy,' Nine Inch Nails is bringing a grit to 'Ares' that I'm into truthful far.