South Korea Says $350B Cash Pledge to U.S. Is Not Feasible
South Korea said Saturday it cannot provide $350 billion in cash to the United States under a trade pact aimed at lowering tariffs, calling the demand “objectively and realistically” unmanageable. National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac told Channel A News that Seoul’s position is not a negotiating tactic but reflects the limits of the country’s financial capacity, noting that the sum represents more than 80 percent of South Korea’s foreign reserves. The $350 billion investment pledge was agreed to in July as part of a broader trade deal that reduces U.S. tariffs on South Korean goods from 25 percent to 15 percent, reports CBT News. However, both sides remain divided over the structure of the contribution. South Korea is exploring alternatives, such as loans and a bilateral currency swap, to mitigate the economic impact, while U.S. officials, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, have reportedly pushed for cash contributions. President Donald Trump has described the payment as needing to be “up front.” Click here for the full story.
Tariffs Push Prices Up, Auto Sales Down in 2026
Cox Automotive expects U.S. auto sales to drop by low single-digit percentages in late 2025 and into 2026, mainly driven by price increases, driven in turn by new tariffs on auto imports and metals – an outcome Jonathan Smoke, chief economist for Cox Automotive, describes as “not so bad,” considering the circumstances. “Prices will rise, and volumes will decline,” Smoke says during a recent webinar during which Cox Automotive reviews auto sales in the third quarter, fine-tunes its sales forecast for full-year 2025 and hints about the U.S. auto sales forecast for 2026. Smoke also lists some reasons for business optimism going forward, including lower interest rates, lower taxes and less regulation. “Any of those alone would be considered stimulative” to the economy and auto sales, Smoke says. So far, dealers are expressing less worry about tariffs, reports WardsAuto. According to the Cox Automotive Dealer Sentiment Index for the third quarter, tariffs are now only No.9 on the list of Top 10 “factors holding back business,” selected by 20 percent of the respondents, down from 33 percent in the second quarter of 2025. Click here for the full story.
Volvo’s Most Popular Vehicle in America Will Soon Be Made Here, Too
Volvo Car’s only U.S. factory was supposed to bring 4,000 jobs to this area 30 miles northwest of Charleston. Today half that number run a single daily shift building expensive electric vehicles. That is about to change thanks, in part, to the Trump administration’s tariffs. Starting next year the Swedish automaker will crank up production of its most popular SUV in America—the XC60—at this $1.3 billion plant set among the swamps and evergreen trees of the South Carolina low country. For years that model has been shipped to the U.S. from Sweden, but the new 15 percent levy on foreign imports makes it worthwhile to move its manufacturing to the U.S., Chief Executive Håkan Samuelsson said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. Volvo’s XC60 SUV comes in two versions, a standard gasoline-electric hybrid and a more expensive plug-in hybrid. Combined, the two have notched more than 27,000 sales in the U.S. so far this year, a nearly 20 percent increase over 2024. The company is adding more hybrid models to the Ridgeville factory because American car buyers proved slow to give up their gas-powered vehicles. Click here for the full story.
To Find In-Demand Used Vehicles, Dealerships Turn to Their Service Drives
Late-model used vehicles, some of the most profitable for franchised dealerships, are harder to secure in 2025 as competition for a smaller amount of that inventory stays strong. In response, some dealerships turn to their service departments as a potential internal gold mine for those used vehicles.Running a successful equity mining operation requires thorough planning, including keeping communications open between sales and service departments to ensure technicians aren’t losing too many vehicle repair orders to new-vehicle sales, dealership managers told Automotive News. Dealers have been finding inventive ways to source preowned vehicles for several years. The pandemic and subsequent semiconductor shortage curtailed new-vehicle production, which resulted in fewer U.S. sales and, in particular, new leases. That, in turn, led recently to a shortage of off-lease vehicles returning to dealership lots as trade-ins. Used-vehicle managers scanned social media posts, contacted private-party sellers and bought vehicles off the street as competition for those in-demand 3- to 5-year-old vehicles pushed up acquisition costs, including at wholesale auctions. Some dealership managers said the service drive is one way to find inventory at their fingertips to supplement what they can’t find as frequently in other channels. Click here for the full story.
Trump Touts A Boom in US Auto Plant Construction, But Carmakers’ Actions Tell a Different Story
President Donald Trump frequently describes a booming U.S. auto industry, fueled by new factories from Canada, Mexico and Europe that he says will soon be producing American-made vehicles for global markets – from Tokyo to Paris. “We have so many car company factories under construction or being designed right now. And they’re coming from China. They’re coming from Mexico,” Trump said at a White House event earlier this month. A few days later, he lamented the loss of U.S. car production over the years, and proclaimed: “Car factories are coming back.” But there is little evidence of a construction binge of new U.S. car factories. Instead, auto companies are making tactical moves at existing plants as they adapt to the two pillars of Trump’s second-term business agenda: tariffs, and policies hostile toward electric vehicles, reports Reuters. To sidestep tariffs, some automakers are retooling existing, idle factory space in the U.S. to build vehicles that they have been importing, and which now face levies. For example, Nissan has said it plans to make more Rogue SUVs and other vehicles at its plants in Tennessee and Mississippi, while reducing imports from Japan. Click here for the full story.
CARFAX: EV and Hybrid Sales Surge as Federal Tax Credit Nears End
Car shoppers are racing to buy electric vehicles before time runs out. With the federal tax credit for new and used EVs and some plug-in hybrids set to expire at the end of September, CARFAX data shows EVs and hybrids are selling much faster than usual, even as their prices hold steady. Now, EVs and hybrids are selling about 30% faster than they were at the start of the summer, according to CARFAX data. Over the same period, overall vehicle sales have remained mostly steady, despite analysis showing that overall vehicle sales trends typically align with EV and hybrid sales. This gap marks a major shift in consumer buying behavior. “EV and hybrid sales are spiking, yet prices remain stable,” said Patrick Olsen, Editor-in-Chief at CARFAX. “For shoppers considering a purchase, experts say now is the time to act.” The Inflation Reduction Act included EV and some plug-in hybrid incentives with a $7,500 tax credit for new models and $4,000 for used ones. Earlier in the summer, Congress voted to make Sept. 30 the final day for eligible purchases to qualify. Data was analyzed from Carfax Car Listings and other sources that report to CARFAX. Click here for the full story.
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