It's a new day and the Trump tariffs are off again for cars ... maybe parts? while VW unveiled a concept of its new EUR 20,000 EV, the ID Every1

Despite efforts to kill the EV market in America, the EV is far from dead in the rest of the world.

Welcome to the first episode of Telemetry Transportation Daily for March 4, 2025. Today I discuss the tariffs imposed on Mexico and Canada by the Trump administration and the impact on the auto industry and the launch of Waymo robotaxis with Uber in Austin Texas.

Long seen as a solution for zero emissions transportation, hydrogen is struggling as 3 fuel cell trucking startups have gone bankrupt in the past 6 months.

https://www.autonews.com/technology/an-hydrogen-hopes-falter-0306/

LG Energy Solution has begun production of lithium iron phosphate cells at its newly expanded factory in Holland, MI, the first large scale production of this battery chemistry in North America

In the latest front in the US war on trade, China has imposed restrictions on exports of rare earth magnets that could cause automotive production to grind to a halt and at least cause significant price increases

Starting with the 2026 Cadillac Vistiq, GM is introducing new features to its Super Cruise hands-off driving assist that take advantage of Google Maps integration

Toyota is living up to its 1:6:90 rule by augmenting its expanding its battery electric vehicle lineup with standard hybrid or plug-in hybrid drivetrains on the new 2026 RAV4

The 3-row electric SUV segment is expanding with both mainstream and luxury options that offer great room and are outstanding to drive

Stellantis is in a struggle for its ongoing existence

After going through several years of software quality problems on its current generation of EVs, General Motors finally feels ready to take advantage of the software defined vehicle nature of its vehicles with new features coming to the 2026 Hummer EV and also to existing Hummers on the road

Toyota is bringing the CH-R back to North America in 2026 as a 338-hp all-wheel-drive EV

Like Ford a couple of weeks ago, General Motors has announced a breakthrough in developing lithium manganese rich cells for next generation electric vehicles that achieve cost similar to lithium iron phosphate batteries with nearly 30% more energy density. The cells will be launched in a production vehicle in 2028.

The new Mercedes-Benz CLA launching this year will offer the brand's first level 2++ system, dubbed Drive Assist Pro. It also features an 800V electrical architecture, but inexplicably, it will only support DC fast charging on 800V chargers, not on the more common 400V chargers like those used by Tesla

The financial impact of the Trump tariffs is starting to bite the bottom line for automakers and Ford is increasing prices.

As the automotive world has transitioned toward software defined vehicles, legacy automakers have had a hard time doing it successfully. GM has had a lot of issues including a multi-month stop-sale on the Chevrolet Blazer EV. With a new software testing lab at its Warren Michigan tech center, the automaker is hoping to improve the situation. Read more about it in this article https://www.theautopian.com/a-history-of-gm-software-and-how-a-new-quality-lab-aims-to-fix-the-companys-recent-problems/

Stellantis is bringing back the 5.7-liter Hemi V8 in the 2026 Ram 1500 just one year after going six cylinder only

It's Electric has launched it's first 3 commercial deployments of its curbside EV charging system in Boston, San Francisco and last in Detroit. By the end of 2025, it hopes to have 200 chargers operational.

Aurora Innovation has completed its safety case for its automated driving system and this week it launched commercial driverless trucking operations between Dallas and Houston with El Paso to be added later this year.

Like most other legacy automakers, Ford has struggled with adapting to a new way of designing and building modern software and electronics architectures. The automaker has now reportedly cancelled the next-generation electronics architecture it has been working on for several years.

Toyota and Waymo have announced a preliminary agreement to collaborated on automated vehicles which could see Waymo technology deployed on consumer vehicles from Toyota and Lexus in future years.

At ACT Expo 2025, Hyundai has unveiled its latest generation Xcient hydrogen fuel cell heavy duty truck and announced a partnership with automated driving system developer Plus.

Startup Slate has introduced a minimalist compact electric pickup truck that offers a 5-foot bed, 150 miles of range, 2 seats and not much else for $27,000. Whether Americans actually go for this is going to be a very interesting market research experiment. https://www.telemetryagency.com/post/slate-s-big-market-research-experiment

A new automated vehicle safety framework announced by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy does nothing to improve or ensure the safety of AVs, but should make life a little easier for Tesla and its hopes to deploy robotaxis

American economic policy that relies solely on the blunt hammer of tariffs on everything is doomed to fail and could well end up destroying whatever relevance the US auto industry still has

As VW Group works to recover from a 33% sales decline in China since its 2018 peak, it is launching 3 new concepts at this week's Shanghai Motor Show

Along with a fully redesigned Palisade 3-row SUV, Hyundai is launching a revamped next-generation hybrid powertrain

The auto industry needs to do more to reduce consumer confusion about advanced driver assistance systems which currently leads to a lack of trust

Even after surviving the 2009 bankruptcy, GM's oldest brand may finally be facing the axe if tariffs are maintained for any length of time. Buick sales are already way down in China and only one of its 4 models is produced in the US.

Following a recent fatal crash involving a Xiaomi SU7 being used in an automated mode, Chinese regulators are cracking down on the deployment of more advanced driving automation

After an underwhelming start to its EV deployment with the Solterra 2 years ago, Subaru has listened the complaints and brought a heavily re-engineered version to the New York Auto Show along with a second new EV called the Trailseeker

Hyundai Motor Group's three brands are still very much interested in auto shows and brought lots of new machines to the New York Auto Show

As the Trump instigated a trade war with the world, China is now fighting back by banning exports of rare earth permanent magnets and that will soon lead to all sorts of production disruptions if this conflict isn't resolved

Two new electric pickup trucks have popped up recently that should be coming to market in the next 2 years. The question is, will there still be a market for them?

Global Navigation Satellite Systems or GNSS are an extremely valuable tool in localization anywhere on the planet. Unfortunately a variety of factors can cause errors of up to 10 meters but Swift Navigation has developed a means of providing correction factors to enable 2 cm accuracy

CATL is reportedly in talks to acquire a controlling interest in Nio's battery swapping network in China. Nio's network of more than 3,000 swap stations has done more an 70 million swaps on the 675,000 Nio vehicles on the road

Automakers are already responding to the Trump tariffs by suspending many imports while they determine how to move forward. 

Telemetry has published its first ever market research report, a forecast of global light duty vehicle sales for the period 2025 to 2035 with breakouts by regions and powertrains along with base, conservative and aggressive scenarios.

The full report is available to purchase at https://www.telemetryagency.com/2025-light-duty-vehicle-report

AAA has released the 2025 edition of its EV consumer survey and the numbers don't look good for EV manufacturers

Tariffs on imported vehicles and other products coming into the US are on -- for now. While prices are expected to jump significantly if the tariffs stay in place for any length of time, for the moment at least 2 automakers are holding the line

It's the beginning of the quarter so we've got a first look at Q1 2025 sales including a significant collapse for Tesla, but most other electrified vehicles sales increased in the quarter.

For Honda to make its new 2026 Passport more off-road capable, it adopted some software-defined vehicle ideas with existing hardware

Caterpillar was one of the first companies to commercialize automated driving systems when it brought the technology to its massive mining trucks in 2013. Now Cat is replacing its old rotating lidars with new units from Luminar

Electric pickups never took off the way automakers hoped because they couldn't tow far enough and they were too expensive. Towing range is still a problem until we get EREVs, but at least brands like GMC are trying to bring the price down with new variants.

President Donald Trump has for the 3rd time announced tariffs on imported vehicles, this time on all vehicles from outside the US, not just Mexico and Canada

Aurora Innovation has nearly completed its safety case assessment and hopes to start driverless long-haul truck operations between Dallas and Houston Texas in April 2025.

Volkswagen Group will be the first automaker to adopt Mobileye's new Surround ADAS with Valeo handling system integration. The lower cost Surround ADAS provides enhanced capabilities like automatic emergency braking while also enabling hands-off, eyes-on highway drive assist.

REE Automotive has an MOU with an automated driving systems developer to utilize its software defined chassis technology for upcoming automated vehicles

Battery swapping isn't a new concept for EVs but now may be the time to revisit the concept beyond China where it has already gained a foothold with Nio.

https://www.catl.com/en/news/6381.html

The Trump administration and its congressional allies are trying very hard to kill EVs and more efficient vehicles and if they succeed it's going to cost Americans a lot more drive