EV registrations fall In April for first time in 14 months

Tesla Slides 16% in US New U.S.

New U.S. electric vehicle registrations fell in April for the first time in 14 months as consumers remained cool to the technology despite automaker promotions and the continued availability of the $7,500 federal tax credit, according to S&P Global Mobility. The 4.4 percent decline in April EV registrations, compared with the same month last year, was the first year-over-year drop since February 2024, S&P Global Mobility said. April’s 97,833 EV registrations represented a 6.6 percent share of the light-vehicle market, a significant slide from the 7.4 percent share EVs had a year earlier. The data does not include gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles.

Source: Automotive News

Ford Motor Co. continues to struggle to obtain rare earth magnet supplies that are essential to car production and have already forced a temporary shutdown of one of its factories. The supply of the critical components has been trickling out of China, which has instituted a new approval process for exports of rare earths that continues to slow supply lines, Ford Chief Executive Officer Jim Farley said. “It’s day to day,” Farley said in an interview Friday with Bloomberg TV. “We have had to shut down factories. It’s hand-to-mouth right now.” Ford idled its Explorer sport utility vehicle factory in Chicago for a week last month due to a shortage of rare earth materials. Farley said he is pleased with the progress he read about from trade talks between the United States and China recently, but he has yet to see an improvement in the flow of magnets.

Source: The Detroit News

Even after lawmakers and President Donald Trump canceled California’s strictest-in-the-nation automotive emissions standards, Stellantis NV remains on the hook for electric vehicle sales requirements that will be difficult to meet. That’s because the transatlantic automaker signed a settlement agreement in 2024 promising to comply with future Golden State policies, regardless of any “judicial or federal action” preventing its latest rules from taking effect. The deal, inked under embattled former CEO Carlos Tavares, was made in exchange for California forgiving past regulatory compliance shortfalls, and helped avoid potentially lengthy litigation between the two sides. But now the company behind the Jeep, Dodge and Ram brands — long known for their brawny, gas-guzzling offerings — will need to hit aggressive state milestones requiring more than half of new vehicles sold by model year 2028 to be electric.

Source: The Detroit News

The automaker cites a market slowdown as it cuts its planned investment, but a couple of futuristic EVs are still in the works.

With one EV on the market at the moment and one in the recent past, Honda hasn't exactly rushed into the age of electrification. The automaker revealed this week that it will "realign" its electrification strategy in response to what it described as a market slowdown, and now no longer expects EVs to account for 30% of its sales by the year 2030, hinting at a lower proportion of sales."In light of this outlook, Honda is reassessing its EV strategy and roadmap, including plans for the EV product lineup and the timing of relevant investments including one to build a comprehensive EV value chain in Canada," the automaker noted. As a result, Honda plans to reduce its EV-related investment from $69 billion to $48 billion, while placing a heavier focus on hybrid models, which it collectively calls HEVs.

Honda indicated that a mostly new generation of hybrids would be launched starting in 2027, intended to serve as a bridge to the EV era. In the US market, this initiative will see a new hybrid system for large vehicles slated to appear in the second half of the decade.
In all, the automaker plans to introduce 13 new HEV models over the course of four years, starting in 2027. "Uncertainty in the business environment is increasing, due particularly to the slowdown in the expansion of EV the market due to several factors, including changes in environmental regulations, which had been the premise for the widespread adoption of EVs, as well as changes in trade policies of various countries," the automaker said this week in its business strategy update.

However, Honda's planned 0 Series EVs are still on track for a 2026 launch, so the marque isn't completely shunning new EV debuts in favor of hybrids. Given the current rates of EV adoption in a number of key markets for Honda, the new EV share estimate will allow for quite a bit of variation by country. Like other Japanese automakers, Honda's offerings in China are heavily skewed toward electric models at the moment, and aren't likely to make it to North America anytime soon.

Source: Autoweek

Dealers are bracing for a collision when Trump Admin. tariffs take full effect this summer and pre-tariff inventory is completely gone, says Charlie Chesbrough, senior economist for Cox Automotive. “We’re kind of waiting on pins and needles to see what it’s going to mean for all of us,” he says during a recent webinar hosted by the American International Automobile Dealers Assn. Chesbrough illustrates the situation with an image of the RMS Titanic, labeled “New Vehicle Sales” bearing down on an iceberg labeled “Summer 2025.” “It may end up being a big iceberg,” Chesbrough says. “All us analysts who are following the industry are just waiting to see how does the economy, and how do vehicle buyers, react over the next couple months, because things are going to start to change out there.”

Source: WardsAuto

Though it remains on track to begin producing lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) batteries in 2026, the Ford BlueOval Battery Park Michigan plant has faced its fair share of controversy, not only from the surrounding community, but also, due to the fact that it will license technology from China-based CATL to do so. However, Ford is also facing another big issue at the moment – efforts by lawmakers to end the federal EV tax credit, which Executive Chairman Bill Ford recently admitted might spell the end of that effort altogether. At the same time, a familiar threat has emerged in the form of one of Ford’s chief rivals as well.

That threat is General Motors, according to Crain’s Detroit Business, which reports that the cross-town rival of Ford is behind lobbying efforts aimed at placing tougher rules on “foreign entities of concern,” as well as targeting licensing agreements such as the one The Blue Oval has in place with CATL. “We do know that others in our industry are trying to submarine it to hurt us,” Bill Ford said. “That’s just sour grapes, frankly. To GM, it’s nothing personal; just a bid to shore up its own business strategies.”

Bill Ford stopped short of naming GM as the driving force behind these efforts, but a source within the latter stated that the lobbying is aimed at “ensuring a level playing field” in the industry. Additionally, GM declined to comment on its specific lobbying efforts. “GM has been investing in a resilient critical minerals and battery supply chain to support American innovation, manufacturing and economic security,” GM spokeswoman Liz Winter said in an email to Crain’s.
Interestingly, GM previously explored a very similar deal with CATL, which would have enabled it to use the Chinese company’s battery technology in a plant that was slated to be built in Illinois, but those efforts were scrapped in 2023 following political backlash against Ford BlueOval Battery Park Michigan – a matter that GM also opted not to comment on for this report.

Source: Ford Authority

Higher prices – and better build quality – have consumers keeping their vehicles longer and longer, and that has inspired Stellantis’ Ram brand to launch an industry-first 10-year/100,000-mile (162,000-km) powertrain warranty in the U.S. Owners are keeping their vehicles on average for 12.6 years, and 85% are financing them for seven years or more, Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis notes here at a backgrounder on the brand’s latest product and marketing initiatives.

Source: WardsAuto