With no end in sight to one of the weirdest trade wars in history, we’re bound to see prior norms uprooted, old ties severed, and new alliances formed. Case in point: A new report claims that Honda might use batteries made by Toyota in North Carolina to limit the impact of proposed blanket tariffs.
At the same time, Chinese automaker BYD just unveiled an electric car that can charge about as quickly as it takes to fill up the tank of a gasoline-powered car, California’s electric vehicle HOV lane perk might be coming to an end, and Ford just facelifted a 34-year-old vehicle. Think buccal fat removal, but for a van. All this coming up on today’s edition of The Morning Dump.
Honda Might Use Toyota Batteries To Avoid Tariffs
By now, we’ve covered how potential tariffs can make entire vehicles more expensive along with little parts to make cars, but what about major powertrain components like hybrid batteries? Well, on-shoring might need to happen quickly, and Nikkei Asia reports that Honda will soon get American-made batteries from Toyota to put into its U.S.-market hybrid models like the Civic, Accord, and CR-V as a way of mitigating tariff risks. As the newspaper wrote, “Starting in fiscal 2025, Honda will take in batteries for approximately 400,000 vehicles, enough for all of the HVs it sells in the country.”
This tracks with Toyota’s timeline for its North Carolina battery plant, which is slated to open in April. The plant is expected to have 14 battery production lines for hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and battery electric models, so it makes sense for Honda to tap Toyota for any potential excess capacity.
It’s also worth noting that cars like the Civic, CR-V, and Accord aren’t just seriously popular, they also sit on the more affordable end of the new car spectrum, which means consumers would certainly feel any pass-through of tariffs into final retail prices. Even on models made Stateside, the effect of these proposed tariffs could be profound, as the Nikkei reports.
Honda estimates that 25% reciprocal tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods could cost the company around $4.7 billion annually. The company plans to shift some production from Canada and Mexico to the U.S. and restructure its supply chain to minimize the impact on its business.
Considering a prior Reuters report that Honda might keep Civic production in Indiana to avoid tariffs, it seems like the Japanese automaker is taking some heavy proactive measures to avoid the potential impact of a prolonged trade war. While we still have yet to see what effect this has on models made in Canada and Mexico, I wouldn’t be surprised if we learn soon enough.
BYD Might’ve Just Fixed Charging Times
Even in 2025, one of the worst parts of the electric vehicle experience is DC fast charging. It’s improved substantially from the early days of supplying just 50 kW, but even at up to 350 kW, it’s nowhere near as fast as filling up a combustion-powered car. After all, I just pumped half a tank into a Cayenne GTS in about four minutes, and that’s a reasonably large tank. Well, it seems that the nut of ultra-fast charging might’ve been cracked. Chinese automaker BYD just unveiled a platform that can charge at 1,000 kW, and it comes with a series of bold promises.
The new 1,000-volt, 1,000-amp Super e-Platform features a higher nominal voltage than anything we get in North America, batteries with a 10C rating, and a new electric drive unit that can crank out 777 horsepower all on its own. With the right charger, BYD claims models on this architecture like the “Han L” can add 249 miles of range in just five minutes of charging. On paper, that’s nearly ICE car fast, but there are a few catches.
Let’s start with that claim of adding 249 miles of range in five minutes. That’s likely on China’s economy testing cycle, so it wouldn’t directly translate to 249 miles of range as we know it under EPA test procedures. It’s also quite likely that due to differences in rolling resistance and drag, not all future models will add precisely 249 miles of range in five minutes. As ever, your mileage may vary.
However, the bigger catch is infrastructure. Even in China, Megawatt chargers aren’t exactly everywhere, and BYD doesn’t have a firm timeline on its rollout of 4,000 DC fast charging stations that can take full advantage of this new platform. It’s worth noting that many cases of range anxiety are really cases of infrastructure anxiety, and while the capability of charging at 1,000 kW is cool, spotty charger availability will put some limitations on the technology for now. However, it’s cool to think that in a decade, we could see 1,000 kW DC fast charging out there to add an LA to Vegas trip-worth of juice to a car in just a handful of minutes.
EV HOV Lane Access Is In Limbo
If you live in California, you’ve probably been tempted by the EV perk of single-occupant carpool lane access. I certainly can’t blame you, because those little stickers could be your ticket to get home sooner, which means less time in rush hour and more time to do the things you want to do in life. It’s a great little incentive, but it’s one that might be coming to an end. As Automotive News reports:
The federal statute says public authorities can allow use of carpool lanes by single-occupancy vehicles meeting certain conditions until Sept. 30. California legislators want to extend the window, but lawmakers in Washington, D.C., have yet to introduce a bill or otherwise move to authorize an extension.
On the one hand, I can understand sunsetting the incentive since zero emission vehicles made up 25.3 percent of all new cars sold in California last year, and a whopping 194,486 Clean Air Vehicle decals were issued. Once you hit that level of market penetration, there’s a good chance taking the HOV lane might not always be faster with so many vehicles eligible to access it. As California Air Resource Board air pollution specialist John Swanton told Automotive News:
“You’re going to reach some point where you’ve exhausted that excess capacity. We’re not at the point where, no matter what we do, it’s totally exhausted, but the challenge to our legislature is how to keep this a meaningful incentive.”
On the other, with many automakers readjusting their powertrain mixes and the federal government potentially cutting EV programs in the near future, is now the right time to end this program? Only time will tell, but for now, don’t count on an electric vehicle to get you through traffic faster beyond September. [Ed Note: My 2021 BMW i3 is eligible until September 30; is it worth trying to get those stickers for just 5 months of HOV access? -DT]
Not Dead Yet
I don’t know about you, but general news in these unprecedented times can be a bit exhausting, so here’s something that’s delightfully boring, The oldest current Ford just got a new grille.
Yes, the E-Series Cutaway van that debuted in 1992 has received the lightest of facelifts, with a subtle riff on Ford’s C-clamp grille that’s sure to go relatively unnoticed unless you really know what to look for. This is the E-Series’ first cosmetic update since 2008, and while it won’t move the needle spectacularly, the first time you see a 2026 E-Series Cutaway in the wild should be a mild delight.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
When it comes to post-hardcore bands, few have a repertoire quite as accomplished as that of Alexisonfire. From getting past the censors on “Open Mike” because nobody on the production team knew the words to “Pulmonary Archery” to one of the best House of Strombo performances ever, the St. Catharines, Ontario outfit has a catalog of banger after banger. In that discography, “Passing Out In America” is a weird one because it’s actually a Moneen cover. Are there technically better Alexisonfire songs out there? Absolutely, but for some reason I find myself drawn to this performance time and time again, perhaps due to its grand riffs and perhaps due to its lyrical poignancy. “I wanted to cry” indeed.
The Big Question
It’s been half a freaking decade since many of us were told to take two weeks off work and got some extra time to work on our project cars, so I want to know what you did with that unexpected free time. I ended up buying my 325i and helping a friend who used to live next door with a suspension rebuild on his Celica Supra, how about you?
Top graphic credit: Honda
I spent a lot of time on two lane country roads on my Triumph Bonneville Speedmaster. I was shocked by how many riders didn’t take advantage of the empty roads. What happened was terrible, but the riding was glorious.
Once again get a economics expert. Threatening tariffs all of a sudden foreign suppliers start manufacturing in the US instead of Canada and Mexico. Does anyone think production was in Canada and Mexico because they bought more cars? No! Now more money is spent producing cars in the US With union and non union American workers. Autopian is all for supporting Americans working for unions but also supports selling slave labor produces Chinese vehicles. Pick a plan and justify it. Do we support American Union workers or screw them and support slave labor manufacturers from China with no support from the manufacturer?
I WANT AUTOPIAN TO DECIDE OR PRESENT A REASONABLE ARGUMENT TO EXPLAIN MY MISTAKE
Didn’t get any time off when remote work started, but I saved at least 1.5hrs every day from not having to commute. Got in the best shape I’ve been in years during the lockdown, as I suddenly had more time every day to get exercise.
It sucks having to drive to work now.
Regarding the CA HOV lane, you can drive on it if you’re willing to pay. Surge pricing sucks, but see the above about 1.5hrs wasted commuting.
On the HOV lane usage, what’s to stop California from just not enforcing ev usage, considering that Trump told courts he’ll just ignore their orders?
I wonder how this will impact the soon to be released Honda Prelude.
I was given a formal looking piece of paper stating I was an essential worker (food delivery) and told to hand that to anyone in authority who questioned why I was not at my house. We started closing a little earlier, so my hours were cut, but we got a slight pay raise that effectively canceled that out. Of course, it didn’t make up for the late night tips I was missing.
I was an IO owned my own Mission delivery route. I was essential never stopped from delivering. Was actually treated as a human from the grocery store customers. After difficult relationship of not being able to get product was solved I was making good money. Now after I sold the business, physically disabled, the owner is getting screwed because grocery stores want to make back the money the they lost because Democrats shut down. Why shut down small business but allowed Walmart
Toyota selling batteries to Honda right when the new battery plant opens, means that Toyota will continue to be supply-constrained on batteries for their own hybrid vehicles — which means that they will still be able to gouge Toyota buyers horrendously in the future. Genius move!
i doubt that batteries are the “missing peice” to growth considering subaru and mazda are also buying batteries from Toyota. Toyota is supply constrained globally it’s not just a north America problem. they just can’t produce enough cars. Toyota is taking the sane approach and increasing it’s capacity slowly since they are still making tons of money anyway so why rush growth?
I would assume that Toyota genuinely wants to sell as many cars as people are willing to buy, so the fact that they are unable to do so implies that they are capacity-constrained in some way. The scuttlebutt has been that batteries have indeed been the limiting factor, but I do not personally know any insiders who can confirm that. It could be something else, like factory capacity.
How do you figure this? You don’t have production or sales demand. Just faking it
I did nothing unusual. Went to work at the office where no one else was (OK, maybe five other people on two floors). Didn’t purchase a car or fix up my currently old one.
My son purchased a used Olympic weight bar and bench and weights, so we worked out at home instead of going to the closed gym, often during work hours. Heck, I did that this morning.
LA to Vegas is, IMO, the standard distance minimum for electric cars. I probably wouldn’t buy one as my only car if it could not make it in all weathers — note that means 110 degrees as well as freezing temps at the top of the pass. Having fast-charging is required more for the middle of nowhere than in-city for most EV owners, since most EV owners will be charging cheaply at home than more expensively elsewhere. EV owners should be planning their longer trips at least a day in advance, topping off before leaving.
Oh, I’ve filled my car (over 10 gallons) in under two minutes from getting out of the car to getting back in. GO-GO-GO-GO-GO!!
I had started a new job with the promise to WAH soon, so I already had the equipment, permission, and experience WFH when covid hit. I was working at a 24/7 facility that was essential to state-wide water systems, so anyone not essential to be in the facility was told to WFH. The job was more or less on-demand, and I didn’t get much demand, so I had time to work on the ’67 squareback, work on the house, work a bit on the ’92 F350 longbed dually and camper that needed some sealing.
I tore down my ’67 VW squareback in prep for body work and paint. However I only got so far, then lifegotintheway and it is just sitting there. I did, however, use the stimulus $ to buy lots of parts for when it gets put back together.
I got recalled from Asia to the states that January because of fears of what was going on. Then when everyone was hiding out I was in a 3/4 ton pickup going to different facilities across the us. Traffic was great. We were doing like 17 hour trips in 13 hours.
I didn’t have much extra free time during Covid. My then employer tried to keep everyone who was full-time at 30+ hours a week and while business took a hit at first, things were mostly back to normal for us (in terms of sales, anyway) after a month.
My current employer had everyone work from home, which is the reason many departments still do mostly or entirely. My boss is firmly in the “everyone should always work from home” camp, but that is a losing battle with his boss, who will tell everyone they should be in the main office… from his home office.
“BYD just unveiled a platform that can charge at 1,000 kW, and it comes with a series of bold promises.”
Let’s talk about capacity charges. Commercial power users must pay a capacity charge based on the peak power draw during the billing cycle. High capacity chargers must maintain a very high utilization rate in order to delver electricity at a reasonable price. Maybe having one 1,000 kW charger as well as multiple 150 kW chargers could work reasonably well, but delivering 1,000 kW to a customer is going to result in higher costs per mile compared to gasoline.
BYD said that they will supplement the 1000kW charger stations with on-site battery energy storage systems (BESS), especially in areas where the grid is weak. Given that China has a fairly reliable charging network, they might have a different billing system catered to EV chargers. The addition of BESS sounds like it’s designed to avoid the issues you’re mentioning.
Adding on site batteries is probably necessary, but this is only mitigating the issue not avoiding it. Sizing the battery to the usage patterns of something that has not been built yet is easier said than done, and adding more batteries than are actually needed is also going to add cost.
Suppose you had a 1,000 kW charger in an isolated location along that highway that is not expected to see many customers per day. The grid connection is selected to be 200 kW, so the battery needs to be able to supply 800 kW.
What happens if no one shows up that day to charge? The battery can discharge much faster than the grid connection can handle, so the ability to sell electricity to the grid during the evening demand peak is limited. If BESS batteries do not get discharged everyday, the price per delivered kWh over the batteries’ lifetime goes up because batteries wear out just sitting there so the total lifetime discharge cycles goes down.
I believe BYD said that the BESS can output 1360kW peak, and the chargers can do 400km of range in 5 minutes, where the 2 associated vehicles have ranges of 600-700km (Han L sedan; 83kWh) and 560-670km (Tang L SUV; 100kWh). In their demo, charging falls off from 1MW to mid 800kW by 25% charge, and 600kW at 50%. So if we assume the BESS is 300kWh gross (kinda arbitrary), that would be an absolute max of 1.5 hours of 200kW evening discharge, though likely less.
An hour of evening discharge per day (keeps some charge in reserve) sounds reasonable to me (I’m absolutely not a grid engineer, though). Also, usage may increase in the future if/when EV trucking becomes a thing (BYD makes busses and trucks themselves, and the latter uses batteries in the low 100s kWh.) They will probably be able to learn the usage patterns in time for isolated area deployment, as normal chargers already exist in those areas to collect data from, and the network will be deployed in guaranteed high usage/population areas first.
Ended up in the best shape of my life.
Everything was closed, couldn’t visit family – didn’t want to risk getting them sick. Couldn’t gather with friends. What else could you do?
So, I grabbed my sneakers and started running. When gyms re-opened, started lifting. Most restaurants were takeout only, so what’s the point? Taught myself to cook. At that point, might as well start eating clean, right?
Yeah, the isolation was a little crippling, but I ended up in better shape than I was in high school.