Greetings from London!
On the autos beat, as for many of our fellow reporters here at Reuters, this summer shows no sign of being a slow period for news.
Though to be honest, I’d rather we had more traditional summer light-hearted news stories about skateboarding dogs, cheese-stealing cops, or escaped lions that turn out to be wild boars.
In the ongoing saga over provisional tariffs the European Commission imposed on Chinese-made electric vehicles earlier this month, EU member states had to register their stance in a non-binding vote by Monday night. Of the votes known so far, Italy and Spain voted for tariffs, while Sweden and Germany abstained – which qualifies as consent with the tariffs.
Without Germany, it is hard to see how tariff critics reach the qualified majority of 15 EU members representing 65% of the EU’s population needed to oppose them.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump came inches from assassination at the weekend. Just forty minutes after the first shots were fired, Elon Musk endorsed Trump’s bid for president.
Aside from the obvious questions that an endorsement from the owner of X, or Twitter as everyone else calls it, raises for the U.S. presidential election, this is a remarkable moment. Particularly as the world’s richest man and Trump were openly feuding exactly two years ago.
Not since the days of Henry Ford has the CEO of a U.S. automaker made his political opinions so publicly known.
Wading into America’s fraught political arena could bring fresh uncertainty and unwelcome attention for Tesla when Musk’s polarizing persona has already apparently been turning off would-be buyers.
Which brings us to today’s Auto File…
