Bewildering Bag Of Bullshit

The Donald’s big, beautiful bill is now law. globalnews.ca

Let’s set aside the tax breaks for rich folks, the impacts on healthcare, and the whack of debt the bill is likely to slap on average Americans, just for a moment. bbc.com

For the auto industry, it’s not so much beautiful as it is a bewildering bag of bullshit.

The new legislation eliminates the $7,500 federal EV tax credit for new vehicles and the $4,000 credit for used ones, effective September 30, 2025. businessinsider.com

That alone would’ve shaken the EV market for both established and nascent OEMs.

However, in the same breath, it also includes a car loan interest deduction for US-assembled vehicles of up to $10,000 over a four-year period. cnbc.com

Sounds helpful, until you do the math.

The idea is that the loan interest deduction makes up for the lost EV credit, but it doesn’t. Analysts estimate that the deduction offsets just $20 per month in costs, while tariffs add $65 to $90 per month to the price of a typical car.

It saves most buyers about $400 a year, while The Donald’s tariffs jack up car prices by $2,500 to $10,000 per vehicle. marketwatch.com

Math is hard, but this math doesn’t math.

And those tariffs? They’ve been quietly inflating the cost of vehicles and parts for months. finance.yahoo.com

And the negative impacts don’t stop there.

“Of all the elements of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, perhaps none is as obviously self-defeating as getting rid of tax credits for clean energy. That decision will not simply set back the fight against climate change. Congressional Republicans could also be setting America up for the worst energy-affordability crisis since the 1970s. Unlike then, this time we’ll have imposed it on ourselves.” theatlantic.com

The bill strips tax incentives for wind, solar, and other renewable energy projects and imposes stringent requirements on developers to claim them.

The American Clean Power Association slammed the legislation as a “step backward for American energy policy” that will eliminate jobs and raise electricity bills. cnn.com

The bill also scraps penalties for missing federal fuel-efficiency targets.

That means there is less incentive for automakers to innovate or develop fuel-efficient designs, precisely when climate goals call for the opposite. ft.com

Automakers were already scrambling. Some are accelerating domestic assembly plans. Others are pausing investment or even shutting down cross-border production lines. Supply chains are stressed. Compliance reporting is more complex. And nobody’s quite sure how to price a vehicle anymore. nypost.com

The result is a sloppy cesspool of contradictions.

A bill intended to support American manufacturing ultimately harms American automakers.

A tax break that should benefit consumers is negated by tariffs.

A climate crisis that calls for more efficient cars and cheaper energy is met with rolled-back standards, fewer EV incentives, and higher energy prices.

The Big Beautiful Bill wasn’t designed to simplify.

It was designed to disrupt as it drives America’s future right off a fucking cliff.

Lynk & Co’s 10 EM-P four-wheel drive sedan made its official debut in China. It is expected to have a price tag of around $27,900 USD. carnewschina.com

In June, China's sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs, including EVs and PHEVs) totalled 1.071 million units, marking the second consecutive month above 1 million units. cnevpost.com

Polestar plans to manufacture its Polestar 7 SUV model at a Volvo factory in Slovakia, as it shifts some production from China to avoid tariffs. reuters.com

Pony AI plans to deploy multiple robotaxis for testing in Luxembourg. cnevpost.com

Xpeng G7 secures over 10,000 orders in the first 9 minutes of pre-order sales. cnevpost.com

Xiaomi to consider selling cars outside China starting in 2027. reuters.com

BYD is halting its Mexico factory plans due to concerns over US trade policy. businessinsider.com

Stellantis-backed Leapmotor sales reached an all-time high in June. carnewschina.com

Only 15 out of the 129+ brands that currently sell EVs and PHEVs in China will be financially viable by 2030, AlixPartners said on Thursday. This is five fewer brands than AlixPartners projected would survive last year. reuters.com, financialpost.com

Tesla opens its new Supercharger station in California featuring an impressive 11 MW solar array and ten Tesla Megapack batteries. The site operates entirely off the grid and includes 168 V4 supercharger stalls. thedriven.io

Tesla sales in the UK rose YoY in June amid a broader recovery in the EV market. reuters.com

Tesla delivered 384,122 vehicles in the second quarter of this year. That represents a 13.5% drop from the number of cars Tesla delivered in the second quarter of 2022, and it means Tesla runs a real chance of underperforming its total sales figure from 2024. techcrunch.com

Tesla has confirmed through its delivery report that Cybertruck sales have now dropped to ~5,000 units per quarter. electrek.co

Elon’s xAI obtained a permit to power its supercomputer facility in Memphis, Tennessee, using natural gas-burning turbines. cnbc.com

Elon confirms that xAI is buying an overseas power plant and shipping the entire facility to the US to power its new data center. tomshardware.com

After 13 years of deploying robots into warehouses, Amazon now has 1 million robots picking, packing, shipping and moving around all that crap you buy. This one-millionth robot was delivered to an Amazon facility in Japan. (Robots, big in Japan.) techcrunch.com

Luminous gets funding to bring LUMI solar construction robot to Australia. therobotreport.com

Galbot picks up $153M to commercialize its G1 semi-humanoid robot. therobotreport.com

Chinese robotics firm Robotera has unveiled a new humanoid service robot, model Q5, showcasing advanced dexterity, mobility, and interactive intelligence capabilities. interestingengineering.com

OPEC+ agrees to raise production by 548,000 barrels per day in August, accelerating output following Israeli and US attacks on Iran. reuters.com

A power outage in large parts of the Czech Republic, including Prague, trapped people in public transport and lifts and idled factories after a fallen high-voltage cable disrupted the country’s grid. reuters.com

Polish refiner Orlen stops buying Russian oil for its Czech refinery. reuters.com

Norway’s Marinvest Energy pitches LNG project in Quebec. theglobeandmail.com

The 2026 Porsche 911 is reviving the all-wheel-drive 4S trim for the Carrera coupe and cabriolet as well as the Targa models. caranddriver.com

The electric Hummer is almost outselling the F-150 Lightning. techcrunch.com

Ford CEO Jim Farley says China's EV progress is 'the most humbling thing' he's ever seen. businessinsider.com

Ford's hybrid sales are booming. The Ford Maverick and F-150 hybrids contributed to the automaker's record sales of electrified vehicles in the first half of 2025. insideevs.com

Newly appointed Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa made his first major leadership decision this week, promoting Tim Kuniskis to lead marketing and retail strategy in North America across all brands. Stellantis is also bringing back the Street and Racing Technology performance division. cnbc.com

Stellantis, the troubled owner of brands including Jeep, Chrysler, Peugeot, Alfa Romeo, and Maserati, has lost approximately 55% of its stock market value over the past year. However, with new leadership, some analysts believe the only way is up, despite some challenges that might require plant closures and the elimination of certain brands. forbes.com

The VW ID. Buzz is back on sale after the company paused deliveries to fix a pair of recalls. kbb.com

Mazda plans to sell 80,000 vehicles in Canada this year by introducing additional models from Japan and Mexico to offset bullshit tariffs. autonews.com

The Slate, a modifiable mini electric truck, is going to be more expensive when it goes on sale, thanks to The Donald’s “Big, beautiful bill,” which puts a bullet in the head of the US EV tax credits in September. theverge.com

Rivian has reached a milestone in its agreement with German automotive giant VW, which will bring $1 billion to the EV startup through a share sale. techcrunch.com

Lucid also reported it produced 3,863 vehicles in the second quarter, nearly 1,000 more than it made in the previous period. Lucid produced 2,212 vehicles in the first quarter and shipped an additional 600 vehicles to Saudi Arabia for final assembly. techcrunch.com

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney met with automotive executives to discuss how to help auto plants that have been choked by the Donald’s bullshit tariffs. financialpost.com

The Quebec government plans to broaden its definition of zero-emission vehicles to include hybrids. autonews.com

Check out my latest podcast episode on Spotify (or wherever else you might get your fucking podcasts)