An electric vehicle plant is a factory where cars that use batteries and electricity are made. It’s different from regular car factories because it focuses on electric power.
Regulatory changes are new rules from governments that can make cars more or less popular. A market shift means people start buying different kinds of cars.
GM is a big car company that makes many different kinds of vehicles, from trucks to electric cars.
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Welcome to Daily Drive for Thursday, October 30th, 2025.
I'm Kellen Walker in Las Vegas.
Today on the show, tariffs and chip concerns hit the bottom lines of three global automakers.
VW workers in Chattanooga vote to authorize a strike as talks drag on.
And new data suggests vehicles from Canada and Mexico have mostly foreign content.
Plus, our own Lindsey Van Hulley explains GM's decision to lay off more than 3,000 workers
as it rethinks its EV production plans.
GM has talked about, you know, it might be into next year before
the market really gets a sense of what that natural demand looks like.
Let's run through all the news you need to know to keep up in the auto industry.
Three of the world's biggest automakers are feeling the strain from tariffs
and tightening chip supplies.
Nissan now expects a global operating loss of $1.8 billion for the fiscal year
as it braces for the fallout from the Nexperia semiconductor shortage.
However, Nissan did post a surprise quarterly profit and says operations remain stable for now.
Germany's Volkswagen Group reported a global third-quarter loss of $1.5 billion and warned
that its full-year outlook depends on securing enough chips to keep production running.
And Stellantis posted a global 13% jump in quarterly revenue,
its first increase in nearly two years.
But it's monitoring Nexperia-related risk and could face costs tied to cancelled projects.
All three automakers say global supply chain disruptions and shifting trade
policies continue to pressure the industry heading into the year's final months.
Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga have voted to authorize a strike
as contract talks with the UAW continue.
The union says a supermajority of the plant's 3,200 hourly workers
backed the measure, giving it power to call a walkout if negotiations stall.
VW says it already offered its last, best and final proposal,
while the union insists key issues such as pay and job security remain unsolved.
The plant builds the Atlas, Atlas Cross Sport and ID.4 crossovers.
And a new analysis suggests automakers aren't getting the full tariff break on
vehicles shipped to the U.S. from Canada and Mexico.
Data from the U.S. International Trade Commission shows imported passenger cars
were hit with a 19% tariff in July, signaling a high level of non-U.S. content despite USMCA
trade rules. Analysts say inconsistent record-keeping may be to blame as automakers
struggle to verify where key components come from.
Under USMCA, vehicles must include at least 75% North American content and meet strict
wage and material sourcing requirements to qualify for tariff relief.
And those are today's headlines.
You can find more details on all those stories at autonews.com.
Joining me now to talk more about that story about vehicles coming from Canada and Mexico
and their foreign-made parts is Molly Boygon, who is covering the issue for us at Automotive
News. She's also one of the hosts of the Automotive News Shift podcast.
Molly, welcome back to Daily Drive.
Thanks for having me, Kel.
So Molly, what does this story tell us about how well automakers are actually complying
with USMCA?
The story uses data from the U.S. International Trade Commission, analyzed by T.D. Cowan,
that takes all of the auto imports over the last few months and analyzed how much duties
were paid on all of those imports.
And what T.D. Cowan found is that in July, automakers were paying 19% tariffs on automotive
imports from Canada and Mexico.
Vehicles that are compliant with the US-Mexico-Canada agreement are supposed to only be
tariffed that 25% Section 232 tariff amount on the non-U.S. value of the vehicle.
So that means that if importers are paying a tariff that is approaching 20%, which is
approaching 25%, that means that there's actually not that much U.S. content in those vehicles.
So it also raises a lot of questions.
It could be that a lot of the vehicles being imported are not at all compliant with the
USMCA, which means that they're paying the full 25% tariff on the entire value of the
vehicle.
It could mean that importers are having trouble documenting the level of U.S. content in the
vehicle, or it could be some combination of those things.
So it does suggest that for whatever reason, importers are reporting a low amount of U.S.
content in the vehicles being imported from Mexico and Canada.
Interesting.
Now, could these tariff and content issues signal changes ahead for how North American
automakers build and source vehicles, especially when USMCA gets revisited next year?
The analyst that I spoke to said that the importers acknowledged the intense tariff
impacts of paying 25% on the transaction of the vehicle.
That's no joke.
It's a lot of money.
So since the government has released its guidance for how to track U.S. content, importers have
been taking a closer look at their supply chains and trying to source parts from the
U.S.
So I think that the data is from July, which is the latest month available because of the
government shutdown.
I'll be watching this to see if, as the months go on, automakers get a better handle on A,
how to source parts from the U.S., and B, how to adequately report and account for the
U.S. content to ultimately lower the tariff impacts for vehicles coming from Canada and
Mexico.
Good stuff.
Molly Boygon, thank you so much for joining me.
Thanks for having me.
Coming up, GM's EV pullback is affecting thousands of jobs.
Our own Lindsay Van Hulley joins the show next to talk about it on Daily Drive.
Automotive News Shift podcast brings you the latest on automotive technology,
trends and transformation.
I'm Hannah Lutz.
And I'm Molly Boygon.
We're the new co-hosts of Shift.
And we're excited to bring you new conversations with experts and industry insiders like this
one with Larry Dominique, president of LD Management Consulting.
I do believe the legacy OEMs are falling into a trap.
They've got to find a way to, in some ways, build a new airplane while they're still in
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Welcome back to Daily Drive.
I'm Kellan Walker.
General Motors is slashing production at its electric vehicle plant in Detroit.
It's a move that affects more than 3,000 jobs there and at two joint venture battery plants.
And it's all in response to a slowdown in EV demand.
Lindsey VanHulley covers GM for us at Automotive News.
Our own Jake Nears spoke with her from her home office near Lansing, Michigan.
Lindsey VanHulley, welcome back to Daily Drive.
Hi, Jake.
Happy to be here.
So listeners heard on Wednesday's show sort of the basics of this announcement,
but let's refresh everybody's memory.
What did GM tell us today that we maybe didn't already know based on
their EV pullback that was announced not too long ago, but was already kind of out there?
They were going to basically be idling production at an EV plant in Detroit
that builds electric versions of the Silverado and Sierra pickups,
electric version of the Cadillac Escalade and the GMC Hummer EV.
That's going down to a single shift in the new year.
And they're also going to idle production
at some joint venture battery plants in Ohio and Tennessee as well.
So it'll be about indefinite layoffs for roughly 1,200 workers
at the Factory Zero plant in Detroit that builds the EVs.
There will also be indefinite layoffs for about 550
employees at the Altium Cells joint venture battery plant in Ohio
and roughly 1,500 temporary layoffs at the Altium Cells plants in Ohio and in Tennessee
while battery production is down for about half of next year.
GM said that those plants will be idled from January until mid-2026.
So all told, as we put in our headline item yesterday, this is about 3,300 jobs.
I mean, this is a pretty widespread effect here from this decision.
Yeah, the impacts obviously will affect all of those positions, some temporary,
some indefinite based on when those plants resume, going to single shifts.
There's going to be some who will come back in a shorter term,
others whose layoffs will be more indefinite.
So what do you think we should take away from this?
What does it tell us about GM's status right now when it comes to EVs?
I mean, they were so full bore ahead, it seemed like, for years.
And as many automakers have done this year with the new EV policies,
with the end of the federal tax credit, GM has pulled back quite a bit.
What does this illustrate about their overall
thinking about EVs and their production and where the company is headed?
Yeah, GM, when you listen to executives, CEO Mary Barra continues to call EVs
the company's North Star, still working on, even amid anticipated slowdown in demand,
still working on battery chemistries, still working on new vehicles.
They're preparing to launch the Chevy Bolt still later this year.
And so that's still ongoing.
I think what's happening now is sort of a reflection of just how the market has shifted
between regulatory changes, the loss of the tax credit.
Really, the belief is that EV demand was pulled forward really in the weeks and months
before the tax credit ended, and it's going to fall starting now in the fourth quarter.
And GM has talked about it might be into next year before the market really gets a sense of
what that natural demand looks like.
And so what they've told us recently, actually, they took a charge against earnings in the third
quarter and have said that more are expected in the fourth quarter as they sort of reassess
what their manufacturing footprint looks like.
If demand for EVs is dropping, they've said they're not going to overbuild.
They're going to build to the demand that's there.
And so if sales drop, if adoption drops, they're going to adjust production to that demand.
And so that's where we've seen some of the production pullbacks.
There have been some some idling of some things, as we've seen from the news this week,
trying to match as best they can production to demand.
And so we've seen it, I think, at least initially with some of the EV plants.
But if some of those EVs aren't being built, if not as many are being built, then you can
sort of see the trickle down effects to not as many batteries are needed if those EV plants
are idled.
And so I think that's where some of the news about the Altium sales plants are coming from.
So it's something that GM has said that they want to keep that manufacturing output really
aligned with where consumers are.
And they've been public about, we're going to reassess what that capacity looks like
and how much we need going forward.
And so I think the news this week is in line with that.
Of course, Factory Zero, GM has really touted that facility as being a sort of a factory
of the future in many ways.
When it reopened after being closed for quite a long time a few years ago, it was a really
big deal here in Detroit and Hamtramck.
I'm curious, when it comes to GM and its relationship with Factory Zero, and especially in light
of this announcement, are there concerns about the future of that plant?
Or is this basically just a normal kind of shift of production, kind of aligning with
demand?
Or are there bigger questions about its future?
Well, when they were talking about re-evaluating what their footprint looks like, they said
these moves don't affect the retail portfolio that we still have.
The vehicles, the EVs that are on the market are going to continue to be on the market.
In a statement, they said they're committed to their US manufacturing footprint.
They were talking about how staying flexible will be more resilient during the time of
change.
And so I think at least what they're saying is that the vehicles they're building are
still going to be on sale.
They're still committed to manufacturing in the US, especially now, I think, with the
imposition of tariffs and what that's going to mean for kind of their global footprint.
I think one of the things you've heard from GM recently, just this idea of flexibility.
They have plants.
There's an assembly plant in Tennessee that's an example where they build both EVs and internal
combustion engine vehicles.
And that's going to be a part of their strategy going forward for a while, that as the runway
for ICE vehicles is longer, they can build them for longer.
And if they can build them alongside an EV, those plants have flexibility to be able to
kind of ramp up and down based on where demand goes.
And so I think that's one of the things that I've been hearing from GM more recently is
this need for flexibility in where things are built and also in just even in some cases,
how many are built.
You know, that idea that being able to stay flexible leads to resiliency, you know, kind
of in their statement.
I think that's sort of where they're leaning right now.
Anything else our audience should keep in mind as we're thinking about this story?
Anything else that you want to add?
I mean, I would just say, I think, you know, GM's not alone in this.
You know, all of the automakers in the US are navigating what this looks like.
The pull ahead of sales, you know, led to some pretty big numbers into September.
And so everyone's going to be having to, you know, look at what happens with demand.
Where do they put vehicles?
You know, how many do they build?
What product lines do they come forward with?
All of these sorts of big questions about where does EV production, what do EV portfolios
look like are still, I think, to be more to be determined, really, as we begin to see
what demand looks like without the credit and kind of where it ultimately settles out.
Lindsey Vanholly covers GM for us at Automotive News.
Lindsey, thanks so much for jumping in today.
Appreciate it.
Thanks, Jake.
That's Daily Drive for today.
I'm Kellan Walker.
Thanks to Automotive News journalist Molly Boygon, Hans Grimel, and Jack Walsworth for
their reporting for today's podcast.
You can get the latest news on trade and tariffs, automaker earnings,
and everything happening in the auto industry at autonews.com.
Come back tomorrow for a conversation with Jessica Gonzalez of Informed IQ
about a new type of digital fraud dealerships and lenders need to know about.
It's always whack-a-mole out here.
Fraudsters get more sophisticated, but hopefully we're also getting sophisticated.
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 dailydriveatautonews.com or leave us a voicemail at 313-444-2774.
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About this episode
Tariffs and semiconductor shortages are significantly impacting the earnings of major automakers, with Nissan projecting a $1.8 billion loss and Volkswagen reporting a $1.5 billion loss. Meanwhile, GM's decision to lay off over 3,300 workers reflects a strategic pullback in EV production amid declining demand. The episode also discusses the implications of recent labor actions at VW's Chattanooga plant and the complexities surrounding USMCA compliance, revealing that many vehicles imported from Canada and Mexico are facing higher tariffs due to insufficient U.S. content.
