Aug. 29, 2025 | EU begins process to cut auto tariffs; F&I special coverage

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Welcome to Daily Drive for Friday, August 29, 2025.

I'm Kellan Walker in Las Vegas.

Today on the show, the EU begins the process to cut auto tariffs.

Atlanta Payne is re-elected president of Unifor and GM lays off hundreds of workers at its

Detroit EV plant.

Plus, our own John Hutter and Paige Hodder joined the show to talk about the new retail

finance and insurance special section in automotive news, including an effort by automakers

to form an industrial loan company to help lower interest rates for their customers.

The FDIC has been kind of picky about approving applications over the past couple years.

They've approved two in the past like five years.

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

The European Commission says it would remove tariffs on US industrial goods to cut US

duties on European cars.

The Commission made the proposal on Thursday.

It marks the EU's first step in enacting the framework agreement announced last month.

Under that framework, the EU would accept a broad 15% tariff to avoid a damaging trade

war.

Uniform members have re-elected Atlanta Payne as their national president.

The union said in a statement that she won the contest by a landslide at Unifor's

Constitutional Convention in Vancouver this week.

The union did not name the others in contention and didn't reveal how many delegates cast ballots

or the percentage of votes she received.

And General Motors is laying off about 360 employees at its electric vehicle plant

in Detroit.

That's according to a person familiar with the plan who spoke with us at Automotive

News.

The person says the layoffs will last for at least a month.

One of two daily shifts building the GMC Hummer EV and the Cadillac Escalade IQ at factory

zero will be idled from September 2 until October 6.

The person says the cutback does not affect production of the Chevrolet Silverado EV and

GMC Sierra EV full-size pickups also built at factory zero.

And those are today's headlines.

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

Now joining me to talk more about General Motors slowing production at factory zero in

Detroit is Lindsey Van Hully who covers GM for us at Automotive News.

Lindsey, welcome back to Daily Drive.

Hey, Cal.

Good to be here.

So Lindsey, what is GM saying about this decision?

They put out a statement yesterday that said the reductions in the shifts are temporary

adjustments to production to align to market dynamics.

You know, it's something that they noted in the statement that they'll do as

part of a process periodically as production and inventory are trying to balance and noted

that it is going to be temporary.

As you said, they'll be back in early October, October 6.

And so I think what that signals really is, they're really trying to make sure that

they're not overproducing those two models right now.

And what does this move say to you about demand for GM's EVs?

I think what they're being cognizant of, I think what this suggests is that they don't

need that full production right now, that reducing those two nameplates is just a way to kind

of keep inventory in line with where customer demand is.

They've sold through the first half of the year a few thousand of them, I think about

3,800 almost of the Escalade IQ, close to 8,000 of the Hummer EV through June.

And they're kind of big models.

You know, the Hummer EV is in pickup and SUV form.

The Escalade IQ is a full-size SUV, even bigger than the gasoline Escalade.

And so the Escalade IQ in particular is actually a new model.

And so we're beginning to see what sales are going to look like this year.

I think industry-wide EV demand has sort of slowed from what early expectations were.

GM's not unique to that at all.

And I think, like others, kind of looking at what inventory looks like,

what production looks like, and how they keep the two balanced.

So we'll be watching really in the third quarter what EV demand looks like

and whether it gets pulled forward some before the end of the federal tax

credit for purchases and leases of new EVs, which is set to go away at the end

of September and we'll get a sense of what that looks like heading into the end of the year.

But at least for right now, pulling back a shift for about a month on those two

nameplates I think is just an effort to really keep production in line

so that there's not too much supply and then having to discount and really try

to move those that way.

Perfect.

Lindsay, thank you so much for joining me.

Thanks, Kel.

Coming up, Automotive News has a special FNI section in our upcoming print edition.

Two reporters who contributed stories join us next to talk about some of the biggest

issues affecting lenders and dealers.

That's next on Daily Drive.

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Welcome back to Daily Drive.

I'm Kellyn Walker.

Some of the biggest issues affecting dealership finance and insurance offices are part of the

coverage of this week's Automotive News F&I special section.

Staff writers Paige Hodder and John Hutter spoke with Automotive News senior retail

editor Dan Shine about a few stories that are part of this week's section.

I'd like to welcome back John and Paige to the F&I Friday edition of Daily Drive.

Great to be here.

Thanks for having us.

We both did Yeoman's work on a F&I special section that will be in the September 1st Automotive

News Print issue, but also online right now on Automotives.com.

I want to talk about a couple of stories that you each wrote for that.

John, I'll start with you.

Did AN-100 anniversary story about wet signatures and how in this modern day of technology

that we're still requiring a lot of people to write in blood or in blue or black ink, another

signature to buy a car?

Tell us a little bit about why that still exists.

Yeah, it's funny because I mean, e-signatures have been legal since the year 2000 or earlier

potentially, but I mean there was the Federal E-Sign Act.

But what we're finding is you can't really do a car deal without a wet ink signature,

a wet signature.

And where the bottleneck, as far as I can tell anyway from my reporting, seems to be

with the state DMVs, departments of motor vehicles, they were just not willing to accept them.

Now, some of them, they might let you scan a form that somebody signed, but at the

end of the day, somebody still has to physically sign it, which means if you're like, for

example, I bought a truck earlier this year and it was from a dealer in another state.

And it was all, we handled everything electronically except they had to FedEx me documents

I think for the probably the Michigan State DMV.

So anyway, so that's where the issue's been.

It seems to be just some confusion on the DMV's part over what's NHTSA is requiring of them.

But it sounds like they're starting to clear that up.

So there is hope down the road.

I am shocked that DMVs are doing anything that's not efficient and quick.

Just one of these archaic rules that for some reason, I don't know.

It was funny even that the NHTSA had even told two state DMVs in like 2002 or something

like that, that it was fine.

We were talking to guys at Carvanna because, you know, they do a lot of digital retail

and, you know, they run into this issue.

And yeah, I guess the word just never got out, you know.

Paige, you wrote an interesting article about four automakers that are asking

the FDIC to allow them to charter an industrial loan company, aka a bank.

It sounds different.

What is an industrial loan company and who are these automakers?

So an industrial loan company is essentially a bank, except for it's

chartered by a business instead of a bank holding company.

So four automakers, Ford, GM, Nissan and Stalantis want to create these.

A couple already have them, but they want to use it in a similar way

that automakers use captives.

The main difference is an industrial loan company has federally insured

deposits, so you can raise funds for lower rates and then, you know,

offer them to your customers at lower rates than a captive whose, you know,

deposits or money is not insured federally.

So then, you know, there's different ways that they go about that.

So it's been kind of slow on the ILC front the past couple of years.

Not, you know, lots of industries have applications out to create one.

It's not an automotive specific thing, but the FDIC has been kind of

picky about approving applications over the past couple of years.

There's, they've approved two in the past, like five years.

So how do I get a job like that?

So, you know, there's a lot of question marks on whether these

applications will move forward.

GM actually withdrew its application last year because they've been

having some trouble and then reapplied later.

So it's not a guaranteed thing, but, you know, it's certainly a possibility

and it would change the game and how these automakers are able to

specifically offer funds to dealers for like commercial financing.

That's interesting.

Yeah, it's interesting that it's just kind of really no set procedure or

process and we'll let you know in the next 30 days or the next 30 months.

It's like the next 30 years you might hear something from them.

As far as I can tell, there's a lot of back and forth.

I mean, they'll offer you feedback on the application.

You know, sometimes they might say, we don't think this application is

going to get passed and then you can withdraw it, but it's a process

that can take years.

I mean, the applications can just be pending.

I'm sure there's stuff going on behind the scenes, but it's kind

of an opaque process and, you know, the requirements to get one approved

are not, you know, there's some, there's guidance, but it's not like,

I mean, it's pretty dense, complicated stuff.

And, you know, it also depends on what the FDIC is thinking at the time

and, you know, what they're wanting to approve and whatnot and that kind of stuff.

OK, John, you also wrote about the cars rule in California.

You know, there's obviously this big push by the FTC that have

a nationwide cars rule that I kind of got derailed by the Fifth

Circuit Court, but California is kind of Institute of their own.

Tell us a little bit about that and why this may be a little bit

different, more palatable to auto dealers.

Yeah, in California, it's, you know, it's the same acronym.

It's the Combating Auto Retail Scams, but it's the Act, you know, Cars Act,

instead of the Cars Rule.

And, you know, it's funny when I started reporting this, I figured

the, you know, the car dealers would be opposed to it.

But they said they've, the California New Car Dealers Association,

you know, as reported, they've had, you know, good success working

with the bill drafters to try to get the language into something

that they can live with, you know, at least they're not going to support it,

but they're going to shift from being opposed to neutral,

assuming like a few more technical things.

They've hammered out the important stuff they need done.

They just need a few technical adjustments.

But I think partly with this one, what is interesting is there's the

Cars Rule left at very the Fed, the FTC's version left, you know,

some things very vague.

And so it kind of, you could read it where it was imposing this really clunky

process on dealers.

And I mean, there's still going to be new requirements on dealers,

but it's very, it's kind of a one-off.

Like you only have to, you know, like it's instances where, you know,

you're having written communications with the customer, you disclose,

you have to disclose the, you know, the total price of the vehicle.

But it's just once and it's in a written thing.

It's not, they're not trying to make you keep records of all oral

conversations you've had.

So that's, that's different.

They've also, they've added this, this wasn't in the FTC's version,

but they've added a three-day return period that the California New

Car Dealers Association President Brian Moss thinks is probably going to

become a thing nationwide.

He thinks other states might follow the lead.

The way, and the way the dealers were able to make that one palatable was

there's a price limit on what vehicles, it has to be a used car.

Customers can return it within three days, but it's only for vehicles

like $50,000 and below.

So you can't just check out like a, you know, a Lamborghini or a Ferrari

and then, oh, I didn't like it.

I'm taking it back now.

There's a restocking fee.

There's, you know, a mileage limit and things like that.

So again, you know, I don't think they're crazy about the idea,

but they've at least got it to a format where it's, it's manageable

and it's not prone to abuse by consumers.

And finally, Paige, you want to talk a little bit about ID verification

story you wrote about that has kind of an airport kind of check-in aspect to it.

Yeah, I mean, so if you've been to an airport in the US at least recently,

you've probably experienced the face scan technology or seen it

where you walk up and you barely get a word out and then they're like,

go because they've already scanned your face and they know who you are.

So pretty soon, car buyers and dealerships will have

the opportunity to experience the same thing.

Gather technology, a, you know, ID verification vendor is partnering with Clear,

who does like back end ID verification to bring this face scan technology to dealerships.

So you've probably seen the Clear line at airports, but they also do other things.

It turns out they verify Uber driver identities

and also if you're verified on LinkedIn, you know, I'm verified on LinkedIn.

They power that kind of stuff.

They don't publish the number of people in the network,

but I've been assured that it's pretty easy to sign up if you're not in it, you know,

and because I am verified on LinkedIn, I'm already in the network.

So if I showed up at one of these dealerships, I would scan my face

and put in my phone number and it would know who I am.

It would know my name.

It would know my address.

It would have my driver's license number.

It would have my email.

It would, you know, anything that's already in the network.

Just to speed up that process.

It has and then it can send that to the, you know, the salesperson or whatever.

It integrates into the system so that they don't have to get you to fill out a million forms

and so that they, you know, can do some checks on this.

Like they can see the page has car insurance and XYZ so that we don't have to get that stuff

out of the way or so that it doesn't pop up early and just like really speed

the process of the moment that person sits down.

We could start talking about what kind of fun new car do you want to buy

instead of like, who are you and are you real and are you trying to steal my car?

All that fun stuff.

And, you know, so I wrote about that new collaboration as part of a story about

just generally some of the new technologies coming out to verify people's identities

in dealerships.

We all know that fraud is really on the rise and, you know, with AI and synthetic

identities, like it's becoming pretty technologically advanced.

And so, you know, lots of companies are creating new tools for dealers to

try and combat that in any way they can.

And this face scan is one of those new ways.

So we go from the old of wet signatures to the latest technology.

So we've got it all covered in the latest issue of Automotive News.

Thank you both for great work as usual and for joining me today.

Thanks for having us.

That's Daily Drive for today.

I'm Kellan Walker.

Thanks to Automotive News executive producer Jake Nier,

as well as our own Lindsey Van Hully for her reporting for today's podcast.

We also have reporting from Greg Lason of our sibling publication,

Automotive News Canada.

You can get the latest news on retail F&I, trade negotiations,

and everything happening in the auto industry at AutoNews.com.

Come back over the weekend for our weekend drive edition of the show.

Our own Molly Boygon and Michael Martinez talk about the week's biggest news stories

and some of the reporting they've done for Automotive News's Centennial,

celebrating 100 years of covering the industry.

It was honestly pretty wild to see how Automotive Daily News at the time covered the UAW.

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 Daily Drive at AutoNews.com

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Aug. 29, 2025 | EU begins process to cut auto tariffs; F&I special coverage

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