Aug. 21, 2025 | Slate Auto’s Tisha Johnson; U.S., EU reach deal to cut tariffs

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To cut auto tariffs, Nissan plans a product blitz that would reincarnate the X-Terra, and

Tesla's three-row Model Y might not make it to the U.S. Plus, Slate Auto's head of design,

Tisha Johnson, joins the show to talk about the low-cost EV pickup that can be customized

and converted to an SUV.

Let's run through all the news you need to know to keep up in the auto industry.

The U.S. and European Union are opening the door to cut auto tariffs and put discounts

in place for steel and aluminum.

The new plan represents a step forward from a preliminary trade deal announced a month

ago.

It includes specific benchmarks for the EU to secure its promised sectoral tariff discounts

on cars, pharmaceuticals, and semiconductors, as well as new commitments for addressing

the bloc's digital services regulations.

A senior Trump administration official told reporters that discounted 15 percent tariffs

on European auto imports could be in place within weeks.

Nissan plans to deliver 20 new and updated models to the U.S. and Canada by spring 2027.

At its national dealer meeting Wednesday in Las Vegas, the Japanese automaker teased

all kinds of new sheet metal, including new generations of the Rogue crossover, Centra

sedan, and Infiniti Q50 sedan.

Nissan also disclosed plans for a pair of mid-size utility vehicles, including

a reincarnation of its XTERRA SUV coming in 2028.

And Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the company's new six-seat Model Y variant might never enter

production in the United States.

He says that's due to the rise of self-driving vehicles.

Tesla launched the Model Y L in China this week.

The company will build the three-row model at Tesla's Shanghai factory in its price

at around $47,000.

In a response to a post from a user on his social media site X, Musk wrote, quote,

This variant of the Model Y doesn't start production in the U.S. until the end of next year, might

not ever, given the advent of self-driving in America.

Musk did not elaborate on how the rise of autonomous driving would negate the need

for a six-seater vehicle.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

And those are today's headlines.

You can find more details on all those stories at AutoNews.com.

If you've been listening to the show the last couple days, you know that our own John

Irwin is a busy man covering trade policy and the supply chain for us at Automotive

News.

He's here now to talk more about this deal between the U.S. and the E.U.

John, welcome back yet again to Daily Drive.

Glad to be back.

So as I mentioned earlier in the show, the U.S. and the E.U. announced a trade agreement

last month.

So what's significant about this new development that we're talking about today?

Yeah, it basically lays out in more detail what the U.S. and the E.U. agreed to

a few weeks ago when they initially reached that preliminary agreement.

If you think back a few weeks, essentially the U.S. and the E.U. said, okay, we've

reached this framework of a deal.

Part of it includes lowering auto tariffs to 15%, which matches kind of the overall

tariff rate for most imports from the E.U.

But that hasn't actually happened since then.

Automakers have been sort of waiting on when that 15% tariff rate will go into

effect.

Today, they got at least an answer that we don't know an exact date yet, but

it should be coming soon, basically the U.S. saying that it will lower the 15%

auto tariff on E.U. vehicles and parts once the E.U. introduces legislation that

will lower or eliminate tariffs on U.S. industrial goods and make some progress

on market access for U.S. agricultural goods and that sort of thing.

One of the key things is that the U.S. is saying that they'll lower the 15%

tariff rate once the legislation is introduced.

It doesn't have to actually pass.

It doesn't have to be implemented, anything like that.

It just has to be introduced in Brussels.

And E.U. has signaled that that might happen pretty quickly.

They're hoping to introduce legislation maybe by the end of the month, in which case

the U.S. says that whatever month that legislation is introduced, they'll

retroactively lower the auto tariff rate 15% for that month.

So if that legislation is introduced before the end of the month, the

U.S. will lower the auto tariff rate retroactively to August 1st.

In addition to that, there are a couple other developments.

They're pretty vague at the moment, but you know, could signal

something down the line.

Steel and aluminum, the U.S. has said for a while that their 50%

steel and aluminum tariffs are pretty much set in stone.

But as part of this framework that they laid out today, the U.S.

is basically saying, you know, that they're open to discussing

the possibility of quotas, which is the first time that that's

come up in steel and aluminum talks.

It's notable just in the sense that it's the first time that the

Trump administration sort of budged a little bit on steel and aluminum.

Again, we'll see what happens.

It's not a commitment to actually implement quotas.

It's basically an agreement to look into it, but it's notable in

that sense at least.

And then the U.S. and you've also talked about the commitment to

again, look into the possibility of regulatory alignment.

That's something that automakers have been looking for for a long

time for years, and it's something that the U.S. and

EU are at least signaling here that they're going to look into.

And that could have wide ranging impacts.

But again, it's pretty vague at the moment.

It's just a couple of sentences in this three-and-a-half page

document.

There's a lot to be worked out.

But yeah, we got a lot more details today about what this

trade agreement might actually look like once it all comes

together.

Right.

So as you said, progress, and I think maybe when the

preliminary agreement came out without a whole lot of

details, there maybe were people out there with some

questions like, what direction does this go from here?

Will they make progress?

Will it go in maybe the other direction?

So I guess this does send a signal that they're going in

the right direction.

Is that a fair statement?

I think that's fair to say.

Yeah.

I guess there was a little bit of concern from automakers,

like, okay, when is this actually going to take effect?

And you know, this is a sign that, okay, the ball is

rolling a little bit here.

We'll see when a lot of this stuff takes effect, what

the details are.

There's still a lot of details to be sorted out, some of

which are going to take months or maybe even years.

But at least on the tariff front, it looks like

there's a little bit of a sign that this 15% tariff

rate is potentially coming in the next couple of weeks.

But we'll see.

And obviously we're going to be looking out for Japan

and South Korea too.

That's a similar rate that they agreed to, 15%.

That's, again, that 15% auto tariff rate hasn't

been implemented yet.

We'll see if the U.S. might use auto tariffs as, use

it as a similar way in their negotiations with

Japan and South Korea.

But that's still to be seen.

And what do you think this signals for all of those

other countries?

Obviously there's a lot of plates spinning here when

it comes to trade all over the world and how the

U.S. is going to handle these relationships going

forward.

Do you have a sense of sort of what this says to

other countries about what the U.S.

approach is here, how the Trump administration is

handling these?

I think if it wasn't clear before, I think it's

extra clear now that the Trump administration views

auto tariffs as one of its big bargaining chips.

You know, we've seen, again, this EU trade examples,

you know, a kind of prime example of that, where

they're kind of dangling this, okay, you want,

you know, 15% auto tariffs, but first we're going

to make sure that we get, you know, what we

want when it comes to industrial goods.

I would expect that maybe to be the case with

Japan and South Korea as well.

Again, it remains to be seen.

But I'd imagine auto tariffs, again, will be

front and center with Canada and Mexico, both

in the short term with, as they talk about,

you know, trade deals just in the short term,

but also with the USMCA negotiations looming.

I'd imagine auto tariffs will be front and

center, and I'd imagine the Trump administration

won't be afraid to, you know, use auto tariffs

as a bargaining chip just because it's front

of the front of mind for all these companies

because the auto sector is crucial to, you

know, the economies for a lot of these

countries that we're talking with right now.

So I think that's pretty clear at the

moment, but yeah, we'll have to see what the

details are once those come out with the other

negotiations.

All right, John, well, we'll try to give you the

day off tomorrow here, at least for daily

drives purposes, and so you can keep up on

everything going on in the world.

Thanks again, John, for joining us.

Thanks for having me.

Coming up, we'll hear from the head of design

for Slate, a Jeff Bezos-backed EV startup

that's getting a lot of buzz lately.

That's next on Daily Drive.

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in Detroit.

Welcome back to Daily Drive.

I'm Jake Neer.

Slate Auto has been growing quietly just

up the road from here in Detroit.

But now the EV startup is out of stealth

mode and officials are laying bold

plans to disrupt the market.

As part of that push, Slate showed off

its minimalistic electric pickup in

California last week as part of

Monterey Car Week.

Our own Lawrence Eilif spoke with

Slate head of design Tisha Johnson

at the event.

Here's a piece of their conversation.

So what's kind of the history from

your point?

What's your history?

Like when did you start and when did

you start deciding what it was

going to look like?

Okay, great, great question.

So I joined Slate in December of

2022 and there were about 15 or

16 people.

I was the first designer to join

and that has been an incredible

owner.

So the first things that we needed

to do was form a team of designers

who have different types of

capabilities and really start to

look at what the proportions of

the vehicle needed to be.

We had a very, very clear vision

before I jumped in regarding the

fact that this car was going to

be really so different because it

absolutely had to be both really,

really low cost and really,

really something people would want.

Something people would feel truly

proud of.

That's actually why I signed on as

a designer because so often one

or the other of those would get

left behind that here it was an

opportunity to bring something to

more people and something that they

would feel really proud of.

So we as a team began first to

look at what the proportions would

be and what we wanted to do was make

sure that it's signaled to people.

People understood that this is

absolutely a capable vehicle.

It's got plenty of utility and it

meets some of those really important

day-to-day uses such as easily

getting in and out of the car,

the vehicle easily loading things

into the back of the truck.

So we have a really nice low entry

on the truck itself and you can get

four by eight sheet back there,

some rock sheet or whatever you need

plywood and tons of capacity.

At the same time, the vehicle

architecture really speaks to people

on a level of true simplicity.

We wanted to make sure that it wasn't

really there was nothing really

frivolous here.

So that's where we started.

You know, we see so many EVs that are

you know, sculpted for aerodynamics

and sometimes those bring like some

really weird shapes.

You know, obviously the Mercedes EQS

wasn't very popular.

They're kind of saying, well,

it was very aerodynamic,

but we're not sure now.

Maybe we'll go back to a more classic

look and I don't know how you feel

about the Ionic 6.

I like it.

I think it's cool, but it's funky

and it's not selling great.

So that's a different story,

but you don't have to comment on those,

but like it doesn't look like a classic

EV aerodynamic bar of soap.

Well said and thank you.

I take that as a compliment.

My team, thanks you for those,

for those very kind words.

In fact, that was something else

that was quite intentional from the beginning.

We knew that this is a capable vehicle

that can convert from a truck into an SUV,

whatever people want all a cart

and our mission was to really deliver that

and something that would be much more timeless.

Something that could really

you could look at it and feel a sense of familiarity

and at the same time something

that is completely relevant right now today

and of course casting the stone into the future

something that would hold up.

So there we said,

all right, let's deliver on that.

The vehicle is first and foremost

something that is incredibly useful

something that we wanted people to love

and oh, it happens to be an EV.

Okay, so go ahead and tell me a little bit

about your background.

Oh, sure.

Thank you for asking.

So my background,

I've been in the auto industry since 1999

as a car designer.

I went to Art Center College of Design

and knew by the time I started

that when I graduated

I wanted to be really in the automotive industry

designing cars.

I have been designing cars

since at least the fifth grade

as our family story goes.

My parents remind me often

about the images that I was creating as a child

and it was all of the classic car design stuff.

So I might design one day on paper

a van from my dad who was a surfer

making sure that he could throw his surfboards in there

and have all of the utility.

I even had the classic call outs

that we do professionally

noting what some of the details are of the vehicle.

So I have had a passion around this

since I was a child

and there's nothing more satisfying than as an adult

to be able to do something that I've loved endlessly

for as long as I can remember.

But now of course there's real purpose driven work here.

I really have wanted to for such a long time

deliver a vehicle that people can afford

that they would really want to own.

And in fact my senior thesis at Art Center

was centered around that idea.

Now when you you know

when we think about this

that obviously there's a lot of nostalgia here.

I had a the Izuzu pickup right

which Chevy also sold as the the LU the LUV

and the Izuza version was the PUP.

Yeah, I had it too.

Oh, you did.

Great.

I loved my man.

That was such a good car.

Yeah.

And in fact, I think there's a certain kind of heartache

that that we have around this this void

this small pickup that just left the market

and we can see over time

that the people have been asking for it to come back.

It was literally my first new car

because it was cheap.

It was like what's the cheapest thing on the lot?

Yeah.

I think it was $7,500 that time.

Obviously that was a long time ago.

Okay.

So you want the nostalgia, but you know, I never understand

this because I'm not well versed in it.

But how do you get nostalgia and modernity together?

Is it like the basic shape is nostalgic

and the details are modern or it's not that simple?

That might be it.

That might be the you know, what it is

but what what we did was as a team

we backed up and we said we have to go after both.

We have to have something that is recognizable to people

as I said earlier something that is familiar

but we're a new car brand.

So what are we going to draw on?

It's not like we have you know some heritage to look back on

but we do know that trucks in the landscape across time

have certain attributes that people understand.

They recognize that they consider desirable

and they know this this means you know really capable truck

in our minds and so those are the proportional things

that we went after and at the same time in fact yes

we have certain details here very simple

but I think of them as just really good industrial design

and so I think that combination of functionality

of you know that is wrapped around a proportion

that you recognize that that might be why it's you know

why people are referring it to it in the way that you just did.

You know I was talking about this with somebody the other day

in the car industry in Detroit and they're like

you know what it occurred to me that the slight pickup

would be like a really good fleet vehicle.

I mean obviously you guys have talked about that

but his comment was you know I think it's primarily a fleet vehicle

but more than that it kind of led me to think

that this is kind of in a way every segment.

It's the pickup segment.

It's the crossover segment.

I guess if you lift it up enough it's the SUV segment

because we kind of distinguish between crossovers

and SUVs kind of soft rider versus more macho.

Traditionally they were body on frame we don't do that anymore

with electric cars really kind of sort of and then I mean those

are kind of all the basic shapes right.

So I mean obviously not a sports car you're not going

for that but we do have the fastback SUV.

When you were thinking about that you know how do I fit what

important I mean obviously it's important that you create

a nostalgic pickup and then it converts to a crossover.

What about what did you think about like a fleet vehicle

like how many things can we make this do.

Well you know we have a saying at Slate we built it you

make it that is absolutely what our DNA is.

So if if you can conceive of it and really good use for it

then we just want to make sure that you're able to get it

there and will help you along the way.

So therefore I always think of the truck as the basis.

It is the first part of a system might say it snaps

together you know like Legos or something but it is really

just the beginning of a system that you will be able to put

together in whatever combination gets you that use out of it

that you want.

And for some folks it's going to be much more of a statement

and for other people it's going to be much more of a

workhorse so you know we should satisfy that bandwidth

and so that's what we're going for.

Slate's head of design Tisha Johnson spoke with our own

Lawrence Eilif at Monterey Car Week in California.

You can hear more of their conversation on this week's

bonus episode of Daily Drive which will be available Sunday

morning.

That's Daily Drive for today.

I'm Jake Nier in for Kellan Walker.

Thanks to our own John Irwin and Irvach Karkaria for their

reporting for today's podcast.

We also had reporting from Curt Nagel of our sibling

publication Cranes Detroit Business.

You can get the latest news on EV startups, trade

negotiations and everything happening in the auto industry

at AutoNews.com.

Come back tomorrow for a conversation about how the

new budget bill could affect dealership F&I.

I think whether it's cafe, whether it's EV, manufacturers

and even retailers they need to be looking down the road

and saying with the next president will these be

reestablished or reinstituted.

We'd love to hear from you.

Let us know what you think of the show and the topics

we covered today.

Send us an email at DailyDrive at autonews.com or

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Nissan XTerra

Tesla Model Y

Nissan Rogue

Infiniti Q50

Slate Truck

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