McMurtry Automotive
In today's issue:
Tesla's Q2 delivery beat masks a split: Europe and China carried the load while the US went quiet
The U.S. officially won't renew USMCA, opening a new phase of bilateral uncertainty for every automaker with Mexican or Canadian production
The McMurtry Spéirling PURE is finally a thing you can buy: 1,000 hp, 1.55-second 0-60, $1.3 million
Q2 RECKONING
Tesla reported 480,126 deliveries for Q2 2026, up 25% year-over-year, per Teslarati, blowing past Wall Street's 406,000-unit consensus estimate by roughly 18%.
Of those, 467,762 were Model 3 and Model Y units, with just 12,364 Model S, X, and Cybertrucks combined, per Teslarati.
The growth was driven by Europe and China; U.S. figures were soft specifically because the federal EV tax credit expired, per the Financial Times and TechCrunch.
BYD, meanwhile, delivered 557,090 fully electric vehicles in Q2, per Electrek, meaning Tesla's headline beat still leaves it trailing BYD in pure BEV volume by roughly 77,000 units.
Tesla's numbers are unambiguously strong on paper, but the structure of the beat is a warning: the company needed European fuel-price anxiety and Chinese demand to offset a US market that shrank on credit expiry. The market didn't buy the beat either: TSLA shares were down as much as 6.6% in Thursday trading, the same day as the report, per CNBC. A second consecutive quarter of domestic softness would put pressure on margin assumptions heading into Q3 earnings.
Also worth knowing
The US Won't Renew USMCA. Bilateral Deals Are Next.: U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer announced the Trump administration will not renew USMCA as written; the pact stays in force until 2036 but separate bilateral deals with Canada and Mexico, each up to 10 years, will be negotiated, with U.S.-Mexico talks resuming the week of July 20, per CBT News and Carscoops. GM has flagged direct uncertainty around its Mexico production as a result. #analyst
Kia's Refreshed 2027 Niro Arrives This Summer: Without Its EV: The facelifted Niro drops the electric variant entirely for the U.S. market, leaving only the 139-hp hybrid, which now returns nearly 50 mpg, per Autoblog and Car and Driver. The cut is notable: Kia's own hybrid sales surged 187% in June, per CBT News, confirming demand, but the Niro EV's volume apparently wasn't enough to justify a refresh on its own. #market
Used Hybrids and EVs Are Up 11.9% Since January. Vans Are Not.: Overall used prices rose 1.3% in June, down from 3%-plus in May, per Carfax data reported by CBT News, but electrified segments have surged 11.9% since January on high gas prices. Used vans and minivans fell in several regions, including a $450 drop in the Plains. The divergence between electrified and ICE segments is the sharpest it has been since the 2022 gas-price spike. #market
Rivian Delivered 12,194 Vehicles in Q2 and Raised Its Full-Year Outlook: Rivian produced 12,613 and delivered 12,194 vehicles in Q2 2026, comfortably ahead of the 9,000-11,000-unit range analysts had predicted, and now expects to ship a few thousand more vehicles than its prior full-year guidance, per Electrek and TechCrunch. The raised outlook rests heavily on the R2 SUV launch; Automotive World noted the upgrade comes as Rivian simultaneously cuts customer-facing staff and delays its profit target. #analyst
A Ferrari Collector's Reply to the Luce Sales Pitch Email Was Extremely Quotable: Ferrari is hand-selecting buyers for its first EV, the Luce, by having consultants reach out to existing collectors. One collector leaked the pitch email and his reply, which Carscoops describes as "brutal." The story is a useful window into how Ferrari manages allocation politics when it has a product its traditional base doesn't want. #enthusiast
Reveals & culture
The McMurtry Spéirling PURE Is a $1.3 Million, 1,000-HP Fan Car You Can Actually Buy: The production Spéirling PURE generates 4,400 pounds of downforce via its signature fan system, hits 60 mph in 1.55 seconds, and starts at approximately $1.3 million before options, per Car and Driver, Motor1, and Autoblog. It is track-only, packs a 100-kWh battery producing nearly 1,000 hp, and InsideEVs puts the price closer to $1.4 million in some configurations. The car that broke Goodwood's hillclimb record is now a catalog item.
Quick links
BYD June Overseas Deliveries Hit a Record 174,900 Units: BYD's total passenger sales reached 397,300 units in June, up 5.4% month-on-month, with overseas volume jumping 95% year-over-year to a new monthly record, per chinaevhome.com; the company is now evaluating Spain and France for a second European factory, per chinaevhome.com.
BMW Completed Its $1.7 Billion South Carolina Bet, and the iX5 Is Built Here First: BMW finished expanding Plant Spartanburg and opened a new facility in Woodruff, S.C., with the electric iX5 confirmed as the first fully electric BMW assembled in the U.S., per Just Auto and BMWBLOG.
GM's Super Cruise Now Does Hands-Free Towing on 19 Models: GM expanded its Super Cruise hands-free trailering feature across 19 models, a capability neither Ford nor Tesla currently offers, per Autoblog, even as GM's overall Q2 sales fell 4.2% to 714,896 units, per GM News.
Tesla Pushed FSD v14 Lite to Hardware 3 Cars: But It Still Isn't Full Self-Driving: Tesla began rolling out FSD v14 Lite to HW3 vehicles, the first major update for that hardware since early 2025, adding better merges, parking, and pedestrian handling by distilling HW4 behavior onto a more limited chip, per Autoblog and CBT News.
Yesterday's picks
The $73,495 Corvette Stingray Is Now a Validated 200-MPH Car: GM's entry-level Corvette hit a validated 200 mph with no options required, resetting the performance-per-dollar floor for production cars.
New-Car Asking Prices Just Broke a Nearly Three-Year Record: Average new-vehicle asking prices hit $51,820, breaking a record standing since July 2023 even as official CPI stays flat.