Photo: Toyota
In today's issue:
Trump's 50% Canada tariff aims at Detroit's rival but lands on Toyota and Honda's plants
Lamborghini revives the Tricolore nameplate on a one-off Temerario, 15 years after the Gallardo last wore it
Hyundai ends its longest walkout in a decade with a 4.1% raise and an AI job-security clause
TARIFF MATH, WRONG TARGET
Trump said Aug. 24 that tariffs on Canadian cars, trucks, parts and steel will rise to 50% on Jan. 1, 2027, after weekend trade talks collapsed over medium- and heavy-duty truck relief, per Automotive News.
Toyota and Honda built 76.5% of Canada's vehicle output in 2025, each producing more there than Ford, GM and Stellantis combined, and most of it is exported south: roughly 861,000 Canadian-built vehicles were sold in the U.S. last year, per Motor Illustrated citing GlobalData and CNBC. A tariff on Canadian-built imports is a tariff on those cars crossing the border, so it mostly taxes Japanese-brand plants, not Detroit's.
Canada is preparing to match the levy "dollar for dollar," per Manufacturing Dive, and PM Mark Carney said U.S. demands look like an attempt to "destroy our major industries," per Transport Topics.
Auto executives are already questioning whether the rate takes effect at all, per Motor Illustrated, citing the same on-again pattern seen since spring.
GM signed a new Unifor deal covering 4,600 Canadian workers the same week the talks broke down, per CBT News, betting on continuity while both governments accuse each other of bad faith.
Markets priced in the exposure fast: Canadian parts makers Magna, Linamar and Martinrea closed Aug. 24 down 6.6%, 8.3% and 9.7% respectively, per Automotive News, even though USMCA-compliant parts have so far been exempt from duties.
The stated target of this fight is punishing Canada; the heaviest actual exposure, by volume, sits with Toyota and Honda's Ontario lines, though GM's own Chevy Silverado plant isn't spared either, and GM just locked in labor peace on the same soil. Whatever rate lands Jan. 1, the plants facing the most exposure aren't the ones the threat was aimed at.
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Also worth knowing
Hyundai Ends Its Longest Strike in a Decade: Hyundai's South Korean union struck a tentative deal after its first full walkout in ten years, landing a 4.1% base-pay raise and 500 new technical hires from 2027-28, plus an AI and robotics job-security clause, per Automotive News and CBT News. That clause is the payoff of the binding-consent demand over robot deployment strikers raised when the walkout began. #analyst
Porsche Pays Tata $1.46 Billion to Fix Its Own Software: Porsche sold its MHP consulting arm to Tata Consultancy Services for $373 million (€320 million), then signed a separate five-year, $1.46 billion AI partnership with TCS to speed software fixes and telematics, per CBT News. #analyst
Photo: Porsche
Waymo Picks Munich for Its First EU Robotaxi Run: Waymo is laying groundwork for fully autonomous ride-hailing in Munich, per its own pressroom announcement, while Financial Times frames it as Alphabet's bet timed to a German auto sector already under strain. Separately, Waymo put Zeekr-built Ojai vans into paid service in San Francisco, LA and Phoenix, per Electrive. #news
Photo: Waymo
The Cheapest Used Cars Are Vanishing Fastest: Used vehicles under $15,000 carried just 32.2 days of supply in July against a 46-day market average, per GoodCarBadCar, with that price band down 20% year over year to 16.4% of all used inventory versus 20.6% a year ago. New-vehicle ATP hit $49,855 in July, per Kelley Blue Book data cited by Autoblog, pushing buyers toward a shrinking cheap-used pool. #market
Reveals & culture
Lamborghini Revives the Tricolore Nameplate on the Temerario: A one-off Temerario dressed in Italy's green, white and red debuted at The Quail, marking the Tricolore name's return for the first time since the 2011 Gallardo LP 550-2, per Autoblog.
Suzuki's First Electric Kei Car Weighs Barely a Ton: The e Sky targets 193 miles of range from a 26-kWh LFP pack at 2,271 pounds, launching in Japan this autumn, per Motor1.
Photo: Lamborghini
Monterey Car Week Auctions Set a $762 Million Record: The five major auction houses moved a combined $762 million in cars this year, eclipsing the prior record of $471 million set in 2022 and up 76% from last year's $433 million, per Road & Track.
Recalls & legal action
GM's Brake Probe Grows From One Cadillac to 1.2 Million Vehicles: NHTSA escalated its eBoost brake investigation to a formal engineering analysis, EA26006 (the same probe we led with yesterday, now with NHTSA's full model list attached), covering 12 GM models from 2023-26 plus the Honda Prologue and Acura ZDX, after 745 complaints, 22 crashes and six injuries, per CBT News. NHTSA's estimate is 1.16 million vehicles (1,164,820, matching yesterday's count). → If you own one: Check your VIN against the NHTSA recall database and report any brake-assist loss immediately, since the shared parts mean a Honda or Acura badge doesn't mean you're clear.
Photo: Cadillac
Polestar Responds to the Dealer Lawsuit It's Facing: We reported the $25 million lawsuit New Jersey dealer Prestige Imports filed against Polestar on Aug. 13; Polestar has now told its own dealers, in an Aug. 18 letter, that the disparate treatment between it and corporate sibling Volvo (which received U.S. authorization) is "contrary to law," per Automotive News.
Quick links
VW's Own Workers Boo Their CEO: Oliver Blume was booed at Wolfsburg headquarters while pitching a restructuring plan that could cut 100,000 jobs, warning that four plants (Emden, Zwickau, Neckarsulm and Hanover) lack a future after 2030, though no closure decision has been made, per Automotive News. It comes a day after IG Metall chief Christiane Benner, who also sits on VW's supervisory board, called the profit targets fantasy.
Ram Auctions Two Street Trucks for Charity: The first production 2027 Ram 1500 Rumble Bee SRT, targeting over 900 hp after a Direct Connection upgrade, goes under the hammer paired with a custom 2005 Ram SRT-10, per Car and Driver.
Ford Hires an NHTSA Veteran After a Record Recall Year: The hire follows a stretch of heightened federal recall scrutiny at Ford, per Autoblog.
Mitsubishi's EV Comeback Is a Nissan Leaf in Disguise: The 2027 Eclipse Sportback is sourced through the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance and shares its underpinnings with the Leaf, per Automotive News.
Jeep Returns to China to Build EVs for Export: Stellantis will resume Jeep manufacturing in China through a Dongfeng joint venture, building two electrified Jeep models in Wuhan starting 2027 for global export, per Automotive News.
"I Hate Myself for Not Having Said That to Rob and Maz.": Our sister car-podcast platform Car Curious listened to 266 episodes across 175 podcasts this week and found Bloomberg's own car desk split over Singer's Louis Vuitton partnership: Hannah Elliott credits the collaboration with finally making Singer explicable to editors who "don't understand that a Singer is not a Porsche," while Matt Miller says the handbag-maker tie-up itself "doesn't make any sense at all," per Car Curious.
Worth a listen
One episode from Car Curious, picked out of everything the shows published in the last day.
How to Shop Smarter for Auto and Home Insurance (In Wheel Time Podcast): WalletHub's Chip Lupo breaks down how zip code, credit score and bundling decisions swing your premium, and why he recommends shopping at least three insurers before committing to one.
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