I’m driving a Hyundai Tucson Hybrid this week, and it’s amazing how many I’ve noticed on the roads. They’re everywhere! The automaker has been clever and thoughtful in how it has tried to balance electrification and hybrids, imports and local production, politics and preference. This doesn’t mean there aren’t risks, but Hyundai has done better than almost everyone else at managing them.
The Morning Dump today is all about calculated risks. Hyundai has made a long-term bet on North America, which it doubled down on with President Trump yesterday. Where is President Trump’s friend Elon Musk focusing his priorities? Probably China, especially as Europe is looking more and more difficult for Tesla. Is this just noise?
Bollinger’s namesake, Robert Bollinger, is suing his former company and alleging that the EV truckmaker is essentially bankrupt. A little closer to Autopian HQ, the City of Los Angeles isn’t bankrupt yet, but budget cuts and shifting priorities have led to a drop in parking ticket revenue, which has caused the budget to get even harder to balance.
The world is complicated!
The Hyundai Plan Is In Full Effect
Yesterday, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chairman Euisun Chung met with President Trump and other Republican leaders at the White House to announce $21 billion in investments in the United States. This was a concrete win for President Trump, who, in addition to thanking Hyundai, let worried investors know that his tariff plans are maybe not as bad as initially seemed.
It’s impossible, especially now, to divorce your perceptions of this event from your own political views. If you’re a fan of the President, this is, as the President said, “a clear demonstration that tariffs very strongly work” and “at levels that have not been witnessed.” If you’re not a fan, you might see the President’s removal of tariffs on Hyundai as another sign that the President can be bribed or flattered to cave quickly on his own positions.
Neither of these views captures the much deeper point, which is that the politics of all of this is bent towards Hyundai and not the other way around. Let’s talk about what’s actually happening first. Hyundai is committing to spending as much as $21 billion in the United States in the coming years, a lot of which will be for a steel mill in Louisiana, as reported by Nikkei Asia:
“A key part of this commitment is our $6 billion investment to strengthen the U.S. supply chain from steel and parts to automobiles,” Chung said.
“We are especially excited about Hyundai Steel’s multi-billion investment in a new facility in Louisiana, which will create 1,300 American jobs and serve as the foundation for a more self-reliant and secure automotive supply chain in the U.S.”
[…]
Chung said that the automaker is opening a new $8 billion auto plant in Savannah, Georgia, which the company says will create more than 8,500 jobs and push Hyundai’s annual U.S. output to over one million units.
Chung also announced that the motor group will purchase $3 billion worth of U.S. liquified natural gas “to support America’s energy industry and enhance our energy security.”
That’s a lot of money. Did all of this happen because of tariffs? It’s difficult to know for sure, but localization was certainly in the works, and it makes a lot of sense for Hyundai, strategically, to announce this now so it can avoid tariffs on imported cars, which would undoubtedly impact the automaker. If we go back to Hyundai Steel’s Q2 2024 report, from before it was clear who would be the next President, we see this:
It’s the realization that Hyundai, as it expands in the United States, probably needs more control over its own supplies. In this specific instance, it’s talking about a steel services center (SSC) that turns the processed metal into automotive-grade steel for use in EV production. You can see on that map where most of Hyundai and Kia’s manufacturing base is. Just geographically, Louisiana looks like an ideal place to put local steel production. If anything, this is actually a better reflection of President Trump’s first-term steel tariffs, which made onshoring production here more attractive.
As for production increases here, Hyundai Motor’s 2023 annual investor report makes that also an obvious outcome.
What’s Hyundai been building in Georgia? Electric SUVs. Viewed one way, both a Harris or Trump Administration would have made the company do this. With President Trump, he’s using the stick of tariff threats. With a Harris or 2nd Biden Administration, it was the carrot of the Inflation Reduction Act, which incentivized local production. While other automakers, like Stellantis, have become flat-footed trying to adjust their American-ness, Hyundai has long recognized that it needs the United States market and hasn’t ignored it.
This brings up an interesting question: Hyundai relies on the lease loophole to allow it to pass on the $7,500 tax credit to consumers. Will President kill the tax credit, as he’s promised? Will that hurt Hyundai? Maybe, but Hyundai also has an answer for that, as explained by CEO Jose Muñoz previously:
“Hyundai did not build our [U.S.] investment plan based on incentives; the plan was even made before in Trump’s [first] term,” said José Muñoz, current global chief operating officer at the world’s third-largest automaker, during an interview with the Korean press at the LA Auto Show in California on Nov. 21.
“If the Inflation Reduction Act [IRA] goes out, it goes out for everybody, and we can even do better [if it does],” Muñoz added. “At the moment, the IRA is for some competitors but not for Hyundai, but we’ve been growing.”
“Competitors like Tesla step by step are losing market share and we continue to increase our share.”
If you build your business on the expectation of a specific political outcome, you might be right, or you might be terribly wrong. If you build your business on basic business fundamentals, rather than being forced to bend towards a political will, you can make it bend towards you, as Hyundai has done here.
Is Tesla Really Failing?
Tesla’s stock rallied yesterday as investors saw promise in the automaker’s potential rollout of FSD in China soon, though the stock opened down today. What’s going on? I do feel a worried that I’m getting sucked into the swing of the company’s share price as an indicator of reality and not what it really is, which is just a bunch of investors trying to interpret the news.
Is the news good or bad? The best sales results data on the planet comes from Europe and, for a second month in a row, it looks super bad for Tesla. According to the industry group ACEA, Tesla’s sales in the EU dropped 47.1% year-over-year in February. That’s almost half, or more than 10,000 vehicles. The only brand that did worse over that same period was Jaguar, and Jaguar is basically not making cars for a while.
It’s possible that this is just a slowdown due to the factory switching over to new Model Y production. Or maybe Europeans are sending CEO Elon Musk their own awkward salute. The overall car market in February wasn’t great in Europe… except for EVs. Year-over-year electric car sales grew by 23.7%, meaning that Tesla’s market share is eroding (falling from 2.1% to just 1.1% in the EU).
What about China? Tesla can afford setbacks in Europe if it makes up the difference in China. Here, a more complicated picture emerges:
$TSLA ????????
BREAKING: Tesla China insured units<Mar 2025>
3-9 : 13,800
10-16 : 15,300
17-23 : 17,400Reversed last year’s figures based on my data! pic.twitter.com/qcKHHcIgbA
— Tsla Chan (@Tslachan) March 25, 2025
As you can see, secondhand insurance data shows that YTD the company is possibly up by a small percentage. I also love this chart because you can delineate clearly where the quarters end as sales curiously drop by huge amounts around the 14th week. As with Europe, there’s possibly some production turnover here that’s slowing down Tesla.
Being flat, or a little up, isn’t a great sign in China, where the competition is doing great. If Tesla is increasing its sales at the price of margins, but remaining flat while its competitors grow and make more money, then it’s not in a good position. To some degree, that appears to be happening, as this CNN analysis notes:
There are three letters keeping Tesla bulls up at night: BYD.
That’s the carmaker eating everyone’s lunch in China, the world’s biggest auto market, and rapidly gaining market share around the globe (except in the United States, of course, because of longstanding trade restrictions on Chinese imports).
On Monday, BYD reported $107 billion in revenue for 2024 — crossing the $100 billion level for the first time and besting Tesla’s annual revenue by about $10 billion. That milestone came a week after BYD unveiled a charging system that it says will give its latest EV model 250 miles of range after plugging in for just five minutes.
I can’t wait to see Tesla’s Q1 sales numbers in a couple of weeks.
Bollinger Founder Reportedly Thinks Bollinger Is Broke
Mercedes drove the Bollinger B4 Class 4 commercial truck in 2023 and found that electrification made for a great work truck. Almost a year later, Bollinger started producing consumer vehicles, which is a big step for a new company. So everything’s gravy? Not quite.
The founder and former CEO of the Class 4 truck maker, Robert Bollinger — who left in June — filed a $10 million suit against Bollinger Motors on March 21 and is seeking to have a receiver appointed to manage and possibly wind down the business by liquidating assets until he is paid in full.
The dispute centers around a $10 million loan Bollinger made to his old company in October. The terms of the loan call for periodic interest-only payments of $125,000, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in the Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
It’s possible Bollinger is just playing hardball, though it’s never a good sign when the guy whose name is on the trucks is suing the company that makes them.
Los Angeles Has A Parking Ticket Problem
A bad way to save money is to just stop paying your bills. Don’t pay for your mortgage, your car note, your gas, your water, or anything bill you get. For a short period of time, maybe even up to a couple of months, you’ll increase your liquidity by a bunch. For a much longer period of time you’ll probably harm your credit, lose your electricity, and maybe even your house.
The City of Los Angeles is seeing a major decrease in its parking ticket revenue, which the city needs to pay its bills. What’s going on here? From the local news pub Crosstown, we get a little insight into the possible cause of Los Angeles losing $65 million in expected parking enforcement revenue. For years, the City has looked to cut enforcement costs and increase the amount of work parking enforcement officers have to do, causing revenue to drop:
Staffing isn’t the only issue. In 2020, with many parking restrictions temporarily lifted, officers shifted from writing tickets to focusing more on other responsibilities that didn’t generate revenue, including supporting COVID-19 testing and vaccination sites.
Officers manage traffic flows at large events and support police and fire department investigations. Currently, many officers also assist the Inside Safe program, Mayor Karen Bass’ initiative to address the city’s homelessness crisis. These responsibilities now collectively make up half their workload, Sweeney said, leaving them less time to issue tickets.
Last February, Bass directed the city to engage in “prioritized critical hiring,” a cost-cutting measure that severely limited the addition of new staff. Sweeney said the directive will make it more difficult to hire new traffic officers.
Tackling homelessness is one of the hardest issues facing any jurisdiction (though other large cities have shown it’s not an impossible problem), and it’s one that usually falls on law enforcement. Shifting the burden to parking enforcement doesn’t seem to be solving the issue, nor does cutting ticket writers.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
The musical theme of this week is Laura Nyro, the great American composer and songwriter. Yesterday we heard, maybe, her most famous cover. Today it’s Elton John doing his best Laura Nyro impression with the excellent “Burn Down The Mission” from the BBC In Concert series. The piano break two minutes in is just pure Nyro, as Elton John himself has admitted.
The Big Question
Is anyone doing it better than Hyundai right now? Toyota?
Top photo: Hyundai Motor Group
Actually people can say what they want. Are they short selling Tesla, or buying it cheap? I can attest that one of those is a great idea not sure which. But enough of idiots saying one way or the other unless they buy/sell
“Tesla’s stock rallied yesterday as investors saw promise in the automaker’s potential rollout of FSD in China soon, though the stock opened down today. What’s going on?”
I believe what is going on is called a ‘dead cat bounce’..
There are people in the market who think the stock is ‘cheap’ now because it was so much higher before. They are under the mistaken believe that it’s guaranteed to hit those highs again.
These are people who buy based on emotion, not facts.
And the fact is, the only way you or I could justify such a high valuation in the past was with the justification that Tesla was a high-growth stock that was technologically ahead of everyone.
I would still say Tesla is ahead of everyone or almost everyone.
However, that is greatly negated by the fact that Tesla is being hit by a growing public backlash.
I’ve seen companies get sunk by political backlashes.
When I saw Musk was gonna stay on at Tesla AND do the politics thing, I sold my TSLA shares because I knew the company would get hit with a backlash sooner or later.
And boy are they ever.
Plus it’s impossible to do both politics and run Tesla… and do both well.
Word has it that Musk is now doing ‘seagull-style’ management… in that he occasionally flies in, makes lots of noise, shits everywhere and then flies out.
Essentially Musk has gone from being the best CEO in automotive to the Worst.
His association with the company has become a serious liability.
And as a result, Tesla is not a growth stock anymore.
And with the huge drop in sales, I would not be surprised if they start losing money this year.
And once that happens, I expect there to be some serious drama between Musk, the board and the biggest shareholders.
And I’m saying this in the context of having been a Tesla/Musk fan for a very long time up until recent events… along with having 25+ years investing in stocks.
I would argue they’re no longer ahead of the most important competitor, which is China. Hyundai/Kia are damn close as well.
The way the Tesla dream is structured, I’m not sure they can hold value while being 2nd place, let alone 3rd.
And that’s completely independent of whatever ‘ol Musky is up to.
Perhaps L.A. should look into the scalable fine model where the fees go up as a function of a person’s wealth. I mean if we’re already working on the principle of “punishable by fine” = “legal for a price” might as well take this extension of the logic.
I think Hyundai and Toyota are neck and neck. Hyundai has to overcome its quality and service chain issues to hope to pull ahead. The vehicles are a win imo, but I’d not buy one.
Hyundai is IMO executing like the large well managed conglomerate that they are in terms of integration and markets in spite of my above comment.
Don’t care about tesla, they can race Stellantis and Nissan to the bankruptcy court AFAIC.
I suspect many jurisdictions are in the same financial state post Covid. They need to suck it up make a plan and execute like adults rather that whining.
More Nyro please
I don’t trust a Kia/Hyundai ICE platform as far as I can throw it. But man are they ever good at EVs. Their growing pains have been pretty minor in that department.
“I don’t trust a Kia/Hyundai ICE platform as far as I can throw it.”
And since we know you’re actually the Incredible Hulk in real life, it means you can throw an ICE Kia/Hyundai pretty far!!!
Their sales and service are well below average. I set foot in precisely one store years ago. Horrific experience. Everyone I’ve talked to relates the same or worse experience.
Better than Hyundai? I would say Toyota and Mazda. Maybe this will catch a lot of flack but we just bought a 3 row suv and were really underwhelmed by their offerings.
EVERY magazine review LOVES the Telluride and Pallisade, we left our test drives asking why? They are loaded with whizbang gadgets that seemed to have little use besides wowing someone on the first drive. We thought the fit/finish and overall quality of the vehicles were very lacking for the price. And the dealership experience for both was very poor. Our opinion was that the Mazda CX-90, new Traverse, and new Acadia all felt much higher quality at equal prices. The traverse and Acadia were actually cheaper when equally equipped.
We ended up buying a CX-90 which honestly feels like completely different level of vehicle for the same price as a Pallisade.
Thank you again Matt for yet another excellent and informative and entertaining Morning Dump. 🙂
It was a protracted dump though. I normally expect os post breakfast tray her than pre lunch. ????
At my age, I’m pleased by any successful dump. 😉
These grand domestic investment “commitments” should be written on toilet paper, so that they can at least be useful for something after the press conference is over.
Hyundai was so desperate to produce a huge number they not only included their Georgia plant already under construction and the Louisiana steel plant already planned, they also pulled forward like a decade worth of the energy being used to run the plant haha.
My favorite of this current round of grand announcements is Apple’s. $500B!! The press lapped that number right up, but if you read the fine print (still up on their website) it’s actually a single 250k sq ft server factory in Houston, a “manufacturing academy” in Detroit, and an “expansion” of an “advanced manufacturing fund” that “has helped build local businesses, train workers, and create a wide range of innovative manufacturing processes and materials for Apple products.” So much word salad and such a big round number. Magnificent!
The parade of bullshit PR during the Biden years was just as awesome. But my favorite from both Trump’s and Biden’s years is of course the $10B Foxconn “commitment” in Wisconsin from 2017. Trump took all the credit for forcing Foxconn to commit to building the “8th wonder of the world,” then Foxconn and Apple just continued to build all their crap in China as they always have, and Foxconn basically built an outhouse in Wisconsin and hired some locals to staff it, then declared victory.
Now that the baseline number for the current round of ego-massaging PR has been set by Hyundai, we should expect a whole parade of auto CEOs doing grand announcements from the oval office over the coming weeks. I guarantee Mary Barra’s staff are working furiously on their own press release, with the only requirement being that the top line number needs to be bigger than Hyundai’s.
Collective ring around the collar.
REAL business men methodically plan years in advance for any major capital investment.”Playing the game”? YOU DON”T HAVE THE CARDS!
Never more disgusted at what has become of the White House than that moment. Volodymyr Zelensky (never raised His voice) went from stand up to stand up guy for his country when needed, saying ” I don’t need a ride, I need ammo” when we offered to evacuate him as Putins forces started invading. Nothing but respect for the man. Ironic that the twice impeached felon used a gambling metaphor when He managed casinos into bankruptcy 4 times. This left him with no reputable means of finance, and Paul Manafort secretly worked for a Russian billionaire with a plan to “greatly benefit the Putin Government,” The Associated Press https://apnews.com/article/122ae0b5848345faa88108a03de40c5a
It is only with facts(he is a corrupt traitor) that any of his moves to severely weaken US influence globally, firing anyone that could hold him accountable, and trusting Putin over CIA Intel, makes any sense.
Unsurprisingly, I couldn’t possibly agree with you more Hoonicus.
Saw this of Zelensky on Youtube the other day and I don’t mind saying that it brought tears to my eyes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBofHkLqXZE …talk about being a gentleMAN!
Tumbleweed Connection is my favorite Elton John album. Any of the live stuff from this era with the trio is fantastic too, mostly because it leaves more space for the late, great Dee Murray on bass.
Until Hyundai gets their goddamn QC and dealerships under control I don’t think they’re winning anything. As someone who owns a Hyundai and whose wife owns a Honda there just isn’t a competition as far as build quality and longevity are concerned. Hyundai/Kia products look interesting, they’re priced super competitively, they’re loaded with cool features, etc….but when it comes to the fine details they’ll always be a day late and a dollar short until they change their culture and decide to do something about it.
Their negative reputation is well deserved, and the market agrees because they have some of the worst depreciation this side of luxury products. You pay less for the Hyundai up front, but I assure you it evens out sooner rather than later. Ask my how I know…I’m personally not buying another Hyundai product and in my experience most owners share my sentiment.
I’d also like to see them step up when longer term, very serious issues arise.
See: Kia Boyz stealing cars due to cost cutting on immobilizers.
See: engine fires on vehicles within the 10 year powertrain warranty not getting the attention they deserve.
Their responsiveness (or lack thereof) is not making me think I’ll consider them for anything they offer. I might consider a lease of one of their EVs, but as you mentioned, I’m not dealing with their dealers.
I had a sales manager at one of their dealerships berate me when I told him I was only interested in an Elantra N at MSRP. Like…absolutely verbally accost me. He kept yelling as I walked out too. And that guy wasn’t just a run of the mill salesman…he was one of the goddamn MANAGERS!
I usually just sit and wait while my car is getting serviced because by the time I get home I’ll usually have to turn around anyway, and buddy some of the horrors I’ve witnessed doing so are wild. I watched a customer just straight up scream at a service advisor for 10 minutes straight, walk out, then come back at continue screaming at them. Another time a couple was legitimately sitting there and making out on and off in front of a literal family lol.
Another time a woman in biker gear (basically she looked like she just got off a Sons Of Anarchy set) came in, a service advisor told her she’d have to wait, and she stood there and loudly and ominously said “you know how I can get” in a threatening way, and everyone in the room started rushing to try to help her. I can’t even begin to fathom what sort of interactions led to…whatever the fuck I saw.
Hyundai dealerships are the fucking Wild West. You’d probably be able to put together a more civilized crowd by picking out 10 randos from your local titty bar.
When my Santa Cruz had 7500 miles on it the dealer offered to change my cabin air filter for $300! When my jaw dropped the advisor told me the service included disinfecting the vents. Not only was it too soon but there’s not a can of Lysol in the world worth $300. When I told them I could take care of it myself they warned me to use an OEM filter or I would void my warranty. I like their cars but the service departments are nuts. Oh, I no longer own a Hyundai.
I have a buddy, worked with him a few years ago so not sure if he still has it but I digress he drove a mid to late 2010’s Hyundai sedan of some sort (sonata?) and his taillight was always constantly burning out. He would replace the light and I swear a month or two later the thing would be burnt out. I just always found it a bit odd that they were burning out so quickly in a new vehicle. This made me start noticing on the road Kia and Hyundai’s of similar vintage always seemed to have burnt out taillights.
Our next car purchase will be a hybrid or EV but I’m not comfortable getting either of those from Hyundai… yet. Will probably be a Toyota or Mazda, maybe a Ford?
As I still DIY car repairs I’m a bit scared of the complexity of a hybrid but willing to learn. An EV should theoretically be much easier. Seldom brake jobs and maybe a coolant flush?
Just my opinion, but after avoiding the fiasco that many HyunKia owners have faced by trading in my ‘17 Tucson 1.6T at a loss I will keep my (3) Japanese-made Mitsubishi vehicles regardless of what ass-kissing the Koreans do for America.
Now don’t get me wrong, we voted Trump and approve of how things are going so far BUT I will never place a dime of my own money down ever again for a Korean automobile. Hyundai and Kia have gone out of their way to screw/hinder/shit on etc their customers with their inability to make engines that can not burn quarts of oil and/or launch their internal organs in 60k miles or less.
Glad we got rid of our junk before it junked us. If you own a Palisade, Sorento, Tucson, Sonata, Telluride and yours is still driving…. Better check your oil weekly and perform ALL of your service at the selling dealer because regardless of what the “law” says H/K will go OUT OF THEIR WAY TO SHAFT YOU, and if they use a driveshaft to do so, it’ll be coated in engine oil that blew threw the exhaust pipe out their rear end.
YMMV.
Since nobody else has mentioned it, I’ll just add this: look how young Elton is! So much hair. And the floppy Godspell boy in that video is a damn sight removed from the sparkly diva he grew into! Plus mad props for (all) the vocals; few bands these days would hang it out there au naturel and those harmonies were very tight. Finally that band works great as a trio, I feel like trying to squeeze in a guitar always felt redundant to the piano (although I’m admittedly only passingly familiar with the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album).
Anyway interesting choice, thanks for sharing.
Who’s doing better? I just bought a Hyundai if that’s any clue to what I think.
Unfortunately, not the hundreds of thousands of past owners whose Hyundai and Kia products have screwed then from 2011+.
Hyundai did a lot of shooting themselves in the foot in the 2010s, and as far as I’m concerned, they have a big hole to dig themselves out of. It’ll be a long time before I buy another Hyundai after what I went through in 18 months of Hyundai ownership. I considered a Toyota to replace it, but Toyota (and/or their dealers) have tremendous arrogance right now.
I bought a Mazda.
I am pushing my dad to either a Mazda 3 or a maverick hybrid currently. I just bought a used 23 Miata back in January from a Toyota dealer and I can concur with their arrogance and my god the prices which people are still paying. I am also a Toyota owner but at this point I don’t see what I will replace my FJ with in the future.
I like my Maverick hybrid, but it’s got that famous Ford quality. I think we’re up to about 8 recalls now.
Yeah that has been my concern with them so many damn recalls.
To be fair, most of the recalls were early on. They seem to have slowed down a bit (but not stopped).
No recalls on my ’24 so far.
That’s great! I received a notice yesterday that they finally have a fix for the last one outstanding on my ’22.
Ironically, my Mazda dealership experience (an impressive mix of arrogance and incompetence) helped push me toward a new Kia.
Amusingly I have the exact oppostie experience- Kia dealership experience was horrible with over 5k in BS add-ons I didn’t ask for (it was like having Jerry Lundegaard trying to convince me I needed True Coat) drove us to Mazda and my wife ended up with a Mazda3. No regrets, it’s a great car.
My Mazda dealership pushed me to GM, which was unexpected.
We were on our 3rd new hyundai starting with an accent then upgrading to a elantra and finaly a sonata limited. the sonata would not keep oil inside the engine. We were done and will be done for a while yet. They burned us and we were loyal customers.
Yes, we went straight to Mitsubishi because of years of past good luck with them after our Tucson started to show its true colors at 40k miles… the oil burning issue. 1.6T 1 qt at 1000 miles… as the writing on the wall. Mazda was our 2nd but equally quality choice.
As mentioned, the time scales involved will exceed this potus term. Building a steel plant in Louisiana sounds like the best place for toxic waste. Besides they are almost out of swamp logs and gators, so they need work.
On the music side, great choice. The first album I ever bought was Elton John “Tumbleweed Connection” which is so good it’s also my first CD.
Is anyone doing it better than Hyundai right now? Toyota?
I feel like the only person qualified to answer this question is Mrs. Hyundai.
Absolutely not. The Louisiana governor even stated they’d been working for over a year to make themselves attractive to Hyundai. Politics aside, you can’t plan a massive industrial site in 3 months. Hyundai has been laying the groundwork on this for a long time and is capitalizing on the positive exposure by presenting it now, something that many large companies do with new administrations to endear themselves to the new leadership.
Maybe they shifted certain parts of it, or decided to expand investments because of tariffs, but either way, they’re building off work that was already in progress before Trump’s election.
To be clear, this happens with every administration, regardless of party.
Hyundai is doing good, but I feel like Toyota still doing better, mainly as Toyota has the Taco and it’s platform for real truck/suvs. Wondering if that’s something Hyundai will look to move into as they invest in the US.
I don’t know if Hyundai/Kia necessarily need (or want) to play in the BOF truck/SUV segment. While it might be a lucrative nut to crack it’s also a very tough one.
I would love to see a Hyundai/Kia “4Runner”. Now is actually a great time to get into that market, as the Toyota just released the new 4Runner to a cold reception from Toyota enthusiasts.
Well, I guess they’re just getting their toes into that market with the Kia Tasman sold elsewhere, but only time will tell whether something on that platform could ever be intended for the US market
I don’t think that’s a product line Hyundai wants or needs. It’s a popular niche, but it’s one that’s hard to break through existing brand loyalty, and requires a lot of unique engineering that isn’t transferrable to their main product focus – cars with an electric motor somewhere, whether in PHEV or full EV form.
It’s a weird company in that it’s not risk averse – they definitely let their designers go hot wild – but they are pretty cautious when entering a new market.
Funny you should mention that, as there was news the other day that GM might supply Hyundai with pickups, in exchange for the electric vans they were already in talks to supply GM with. And Hyundai would even be interested in the full-sizers if GM would allow it (not so far). Before that I would have said the same as you and others that it doesn’t seem like something Hyundai wants to chase right now.
I’m wondering if it’s just the Colorado’s, like GM used to do with Isuzu back in the day. If so that’s not much of a deal, of course the Electric van market isn’t terribly huge either so that could be it.
It would be nice to know what the “thought process” is behind his tariff talk. Maybe if I join Signal I’ll get added to a group chat?
You may not even have to join Signal, there is a chance we will see them commenting here pretty soon.
What a bunch or maroons! Professional level maroons. Maroons at the absolute peak of their existence.
Remember the GIF of the monkey that sticks his finger in his butt, smells it, then falls off backwards from the branch?? That is a metaphor for this administration.
https://giphy.com/gifs/afvpets-afv-kLLvH1EOtCwQ8
Tesla stock is and has been a meme stock. It is also worth noting the opinions of shareholders are almost certainly not that of the general population or perspective customers. Anyone who has Tesla stock has quite literally bought into what Musk has been saying, and that is all they are buying into, the underlying value of the company certainly doesn’t justify its price.
That used to be true, but TSLA is owned by large funds and institutions now too.
Tim Walz cheering the stock’s decline while the Minnesota Govt Employee’s Pension Fund owned shares was a bit embarrassing.
I have now lived long enough to see Tesla critics not only equal Tesla stans in ridiculousness, but even to far exceed them in pure lunacy.
I don’t know what they hope to get out of all this domestic terrorism, or if they have even thought to answer the question for themselves, but whatever it is, they are not going to get it.
The word “terrorism” has completely lost any and all meaning when we’re willing to extend it to someone keying a Cybertruck.
Wait until the penalty for flipping off a Tesla becomes amputation of your middle fingers.
What if you own a Tesla? Not allowed to be mad at it? It’s my car, I can flip it off all I want.
You need to fill out a DOGE form and obtain a permit to flip off your own Tesla. You’re also only allowed to flip it off on 3 separate occasions, the reasons for which have to be submitted directly to DOGE. You’re also required to have a designated 19-year-old failson present to observe the flipping-off and he’s also required to call you a cuck the entire time.
THIS IS A FREE COUNTRY! I FLIP OFF MY TESLA IF I WANT!!!! /s
Shouty caps off. Hilarious response that’s unfortunately probably all too true.
What about setting a whole row of Cybertrucks on fire?
Well, at least they’re electric trucks, so those are environmentally friendly fires
Yeah… well…
KVUE, Austin, Texas: “Multiple agencies investigating after ‘incendiary’ devices found at Tesla dealership in Austin”
https://www.kvue.com/article/news/crime/austin-tesla-dealership-bomb-squad-incendiary-device/269-87f3aa76-eb19-4449-8886-7eccdd0f21ac
New York Post: “Doxing website that shows personal details of Tesla owners has Molotov cocktail as cursor: report”
https://nypost.com/2025/03/18/business/tesla-doxing-website-shows-owners-personal-details-has-molotov-cocktail-as-cursor/
KTLA: “Southern California woman accused of ‘Nazi’ support for owning Tesla”
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/southern-california-woman-accused-of-nazi-support-for-owning-tesla/
The Independent: “‘Students Against Nazi Extremism’ warn Tesla owners to sell their cars – or else”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/tesla-owners-bay-area-warned-sell-cars-b2697215.html
Sounds awfully terrorist-y to me.
Not to mention: beware the Streisand Effect. I predict this will draw the opposite reaction, as in, “You know what? Fuck you. Now I’m buying a Tesla just because I think you’re hilarious when you’re angry.”
People already do buy Teslas to piss off the libs. Every single action conservatives take is to piss off the libs. And I’m sorry, but none of the things you posted are terrorism – you’re allowing the president and his cronies to control the narrative on this.
Of course I don’t agree with messing with people’s property, but if you’re gonna label this stuff as an action on the exact same level as something like 9/11, then you’re a loon. None of these things are any worse than what happens after a major city’s team wins the Super Bowl. The only reason this is being labeled as anything is because it hurts Elon’s feelings that people don’t like him any more and he got his daddy to make it better.
I am really watching this one closely. I absolutely cannot see the valuation, but then I listen to all of the talking heads on the financial sites that actually control people’s portfolios and they are talking about new models coming out, FSD in China, etc….
I, on the other hand, am looking at plummeting sales in Europe and I fully expect a similar (lesser) decline in the US, as the brand has become toxic to its core market (college educated people). I see China as a wild card as they are likely shielded and/or ambivalent about Musk, but China is where all of the serious EV competition is. Overall, it strikes me as a bad marketing strategy. Either I will be proven clairvoyant or the financial professionals will prove that they their eye-watering commissions are worth the cost; I’m truly uncertain about how this will play out.
Because the dipshit changed them like 15 times after the countries he was targeting told him to fuck off.
Anyone bringing production to the US, whatever the reason, should be celebrated.
Kudos to Hyundai.
Step 1 of the “art of any deal” is:
“Do what I say or I will kill your family”
That’s only when dealing with terrorists.
“Did all of this happen because of tariffs? It’s difficult to know for sure…”
It’s not fucking difficult. A company does not that make that big of an investment after only a few months. Also, that Savannah plant started construction in January 2023.
100%
Correct. All of Hyundai’s plans may have been influenced by the first round (2017-2020) of tariffs (see: the steel plant in LA), but they aren’t making a multi-billion dollar plan in a couple months.
It’s a good thing to see higher level manufacturing investment in the US, but it wasn’t because of Trump’s current bullshit yo-yo like tariff ideas.
Just like Canada approving $2 billion in additional spending on border security back in December
Your stupid human politics in the US are making the lizard people’s job so much more difficult. Be more like China! That government works so much better for us. This Trump is to meglomanical to control or reprogram. He is screwing up our plans, big time.
Well, I guess that’s something to put in the plus column, right? Maybe?
Um, the last time you humans produced a guy like Trump, that guy started WWII. We tried to stop the war, but you humans are bound and determined to kill each other and poison your planet.
When he tries to run for a third term under the platform “Fewer Cats, More Warm Rocks” we’ll know you got him.
Um, we hate Trump. We wanted Bernie. Then we would have turned his shining socialism to stalinistic communism. But Facism is bad for everyone
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Oh please!! Everyone knows it The Grays that really have humanity’s best interests at heart!! The Lizard People, aka Reptilluans, only want our small mammals for consumption!
The grays just want genetic material. Thus the abductions. And humans are the food supply. Small animals are snaks
Talk to Russia. They’re doing an excellent job puppeteering him.
Ah Russia, our great failure. They were the perfect communists for our system. Now they are facists we can’t control
You can’t fool me, I watched the very informative documentary series “Inside Job”.