Welcome in, today is Tuesday, July twenty-eighth, and we begin with Automotive News, and Volkswagen Group's chief executive pressing Brussels for faster tariffs on Chinese plug-in hybrids. Automotive News reports that Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume is demanding the European Union move quickly to impose higher tariffs on Chinese plug-in hybrid vehicles. Per that reporting, Chinese plug-in hybrids took twenty-eight percent of Europe's PHEV market in the first half and claimed the top three sales spots, with the BYD Seal displacing the VW Tiguan as the region's bestselling plug-in hybrid. That pushes Europe's trade fight well beyond battery-electric imports, into a category the existing duties do not touch. Industry reaction leans skeptical that duties address the underlying gap, with fixed-cost structure and software and battery execution speed raised more often than product quality; some in the trade read localized EU production and joint ventures as a likelier outcome than exclusion. Also today, Ford is recalling more than five hundred sixty-five thousand vehicles in the United States over an engine fire risk. According to a notice from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, reported by Just Auto, the action covers Bronco models from the twenty twenty-one through twenty twenty-six model years, built between the twenty-third of September, twenty twenty, and the twenty-eighth of June this year. A remedy spread across six model years reads through to warranty cost and to service capacity across the dealer network. Reaction splits on framing, with some owners treating the disclosure as safety monitoring working as intended and others placing it alongside recent actions on the same model. Separately, a marker on the direction of US industrial and emissions policy, delivered at a proving ground outside Detroit. Automotive News reports President Donald Trump defended his administration's tariffs, the end of electric vehicle incentives and the rollback of federal fuel economy standards during a visit to General Motors' Milford Proving Ground. The same reporting says he is the first sitting president to visit the site, that he pointed to recent automaker investment as evidence the tariffs are working, and that he criticized UAW chief Shawn Fain for declining to endorse him. Reaction in the sector leans skeptical of that framing, with a recurring thread tying the visit to reopened North American trade talks and to parity on how imports are treated. In the supply chain, CATL's profit rose forty-two percent. Automotive World reports the gain came from surging demand for energy storage systems while EV cell demand stagnated, and that CATL wants storage to stand as a pillar of its core battery business equal to electric vehicles. The mix shift lands downstream: cell allocation, pricing and capacity planning all sit inside the same plants automakers contract against, and a storage buyer bidding for that capacity changes the terms. Finance-side reaction leans toward watching margin rather than the headline profit line, and a contrarian thread from the raw-materials side questions whether upstream lithium supply could sustain growth of that order industry-wide. Also today, BMW begins battery output at Plant Woodruff in South Carolina in December, a central piece of its US electric vehicle plans. Automotive News reports the site will build the packs for the twenty twenty-seven iX5 electric midsize crossover, which runs BMW's sixth-generation eDrive technology. Automotive World frames the three-year build as a pace the rest of the industry will now be measured against. The practical read is localization, on tariff exposure and on domestic-content thresholds. Some in the trade see counter-cyclical positioning here, a bet that localized EV production pays off while rivals hesitate. Now, a few more headlines moving the trade today. Following our report on Volkswagen scrapping its revenue forecast, Audi has cut operating-margin guidance to as low as five percent and lowered revenue expectations, citing weak China demand and US tariffs, per Automotive News. China has resumed issuing robotaxi permits after a freeze in place since the twenty-ninth of April, with Momenta and Baidu among the first recipients, Automotive World reports. BMW, Ford, Nissan, Toyota and Bosch privately asked UK ministers in April to allow combustion cars after twenty thirty-five, the Guardian reports, citing documents obtained under freedom of information; the government says the ban is not up for negotiation. And finally, Just Auto reports the global vehicle market stalled in June, softening largely on China's continued decline, where higher fuel costs are adding to already challenging conditions.