No One Wants To Buy Tesla Any More

Good morning! It’s Tuesday, May 6, 2025, and this is The Morning Shift, your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. This is where you’ll find the most important stories that are shaping the way Americans drive and get around.

In this morning’s edition, we’re looking at Tesla’s ever-plummeting sales, and Ford’s estimates for what tariffs will cost the company. We’ll also turn an eye towards Waymo’s plans to build cars, and Rivian’s attempts to bring suppliers to Illinois.

Much of the world is turning against Elon Musk, it seems, as the world’s richest man spirals ever further into conspiratorial thinking. This has had ill effects on his car business, which is now cratering in nearly every market. Most recently Germany and the UK put up numbers to show they’re following the trend. From Reuters:

Tesla’s new car sales in Britain and Germany plummeted to their lowest in over two years in April, falling 62% and 46% year-on-year respectively, even as demand for electric vehicles rose in both countries, national data showed on Tuesday.

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The brand’s sales in Germany dropped to 885 cars in April, a fourth month of declines this year amounting to a cumulative year-to-date drop of over 60%, data from road traffic agency KBA showed.

Britain had bucked the gloomy European trend for Tesla so far this year, but last month, 512 new cars were sold, down from 1,352 in April 2024, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

Tariffs are hitting most automakers pretty hard, but Ford is estimating some truly staggering numbers for the rest of the year. The company already estimates that it’s been hit for $200 million this year, and it expects that number to reach $1.5 billion through the end of 2025. From the Detroit Free Press:

Despite the automaker’s robust sales momentum last month as car buyers got ahead of anticipated price hikes from President Donald Trump’s autos tariffs, most of Ford’s results came in lower when compared with a year ago. Ford said tariffs impacted its adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) by $200 million in the quarter.

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Ford said that based on its expectations right now, tariffs will inflict a $1.5 billion hit to the automaker’s adjusted EBIT for full year 2025, but that estimate is “subject to ongoing tariff-related policy developments.” Beyond, that Ford CFO Sherry House told Wall Street analysts that Ford has already ordered some equipment that is coming from overseas that will be tariffed, therefore, “we do expect we’ll have capital expenditure impact as well” as the $1.5 billion impact.

Ford is ostensibly the kind of clean-cut, red-blooded all-American automaker that these tariffs are meant to protect. If the company is being hit this hard already, with more knocks to come, what happens to other carmakers? When is it no longer worth it to sell in the United States?

Waymo, the autonomous taxi company built out of Google, is now intent on becoming a carmaker. The company is building a factory in Arizona to churn out more Jaguar i-Pace and Zeekr RT vehicles, which it intends to use to keep mapping, testing, and moving people around. From Reuters:

Alphabet’s self-driving unit Waymo said on Monday that it plans to build Jaguar I-PACE and Zeekr vehicles with its autonomous technology at a new plant in Arizona as soon as this year, with Canadian auto parts supplier partner Magna International

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The company plans to build over 2,000 more fully autonomous Jaguar I-PACE vehicles through next year and integrate Waymo’s technology on new vehicle platforms, starting with Zeekr RT this year, the statement said.

Does this mean that, technically, Google will beat Apple to building a car? It’s a fascinating choice from either tech giant, but it’s also very funny to have rumors about an Apple Car for years only for Google to show up at the last second and start building Jaguars. 

Rivian makes some truly fantastic trucks, but the automaker is still working out the kinks on building them profitably. The company hopes to rectify that by bringing suppliers in to Normal, Illinois, where Rivian makes its cars, to streamline the supply chains. Evading tariffs certainly wouldn’t hurt either. From Automotive News:

The planned 1.2 million-square-foot supplier park would further strengthen the California-based automaker’s Illinois ties. A year ago, Rivian said it would create 500 jobs when it adds a new production line to manufacture the R2 small crossover, a project that originally was supposed to happen in Georgia.

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Rivian bought nearly 400 acres across from its plant three years ago. Construction on the supplier park is underway and expected to be finished next year. The company hopes to bring in suppliers that make parts for its vehicles, which also could help reduce manufacturing costs as Rivian works to get to profitability.

I’m rooting for Rivian to make it work, the company builds some of my favorite vehicles on the road today and I want more automakers to follow its approach. Rivian just needs to prove it’s profitable first. 

Auspicious, wouldn’t you say?

I’m slowly working my way through the entire 100 gecs discography to post here.