What’s News in Earnings: How Automakers Overcame Tariffs and Supply-Chain Snafus

WSJ What’s News

The Wall Street Journal

News, Daily News

4 • 4K Ratings

🗓️ 6 November 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Bonus Episode for Nov. 6. Global automakers are navigating a new semiconductor crisis, billions of dollars in U.S. tariffs and a sputtering market for electric vehicles. Yet sales and profits have held up much better than many feared last spring, when President Trump started his trade war. WSJ automotive reporter Stephen Wilmot discusses results from Tesla, General Motors, Ford, Mercedes and others. WSJ automotive reporter Chris Otts hosts this special bonus episode of What's News in Earnings, where we dig into companies’ earnings reports and analyst calls to find out what’s going on under the hood of the American economy. Sign up for the WSJ's free Markets A.M. newsletter. Further Reading: Automaker Production Stoppages Begin Over Semiconductor Shortage The Rest of the World Is Following America’s Retreat on EVs The Auto Industry Is Panicking About Another Potential Chip Shortage GM Shares Surge 15% on Raised Guidance General Motors Lays Off More Than 3,300 Electric-Vehicle Workers in U.S. Plants GM Aims to Deliver Eyes-Off Autonomous Driving by 2028 Ford Profit More Than Doubles on Growth in Sales of Pickups, SUVs Tesla Profit Plunges as Musk Turns Focus to ‘Robot Army’ Porsche Skids to Loss on Bad EV Bet, Tariffs Mercedes-Benz Confirms Guidance After Tariffs, Chinese Weakness Weigh on Earnings Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:21.8	Learn more at dinotrace.com slash WSJ.
0:24.5	That's www. dynat-r-a-t-R-A-C-E dot com slash WSJ.
0:33.9	Hey, listeners, it's November 6th.
0:37.0	I'm Chris Ottz for the Wall Street Journal, and this is
0:40.3	what's news in earnings. Our look at some of the biggest themes standing out this earnings season.
0:46.6	Global automakers are steering through a barrage of obstacles. New supply chain crises are
0:52.5	resurrecting nightmares from the COVID pandemic.
0:55.8	Tariffs are zapping billions from their bottom lines, yet no one wants to raise the price of their cars.
1:04.1	Meanwhile, electrification is slowing.
1:06.8	The U.S. has all but done away with any support for EVs, and yet, through all these
1:12.4	storums, automakers are largely delivering solid results. I've been following U.S. car
1:18.7	company's earnings, and I'm joined by Stephen Wilmot, our European Autos Reporter in London.
1:30.3	Stephen, it's 2025, not 2021, but we're once again talking about a crisis involving chips and automotive production.
1:40.4	Pretty much every automaker is possibly affected by issues involving a Dutch Chinese company called Nexperia.
1:48.8	Yeah, that's right.
1:49.9	This Dutch semiconductor company, which was taken over by a Chinese company, found itself in a sticky situation with the Dutch government.
1:58.1	And then the Chinese government stopped shipping
	...

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