President Donald Trump has reached a new tariff agreement with key US trade partners, including the European Union, Japan, and South Korea, setting a unified reciprocal tariff rate of 15% that for the first time includes automobiles and auto parts. The policy, which took effect on August 7, 2025, could deliver a significant boost to foreign carmakers and suppliers operating in the US, but uncertainty lingers.
Mexico's successful bid to secure a 90-day extension on US import tariffs—maintaining a 25% levy—has temporarily eased market anxiety. Car part suppliers report a rush to replenish inventory, even as they begin implementing a "dual-base" strategy spanning North America and the Asia-Pacific to fortify their global supply chain resilience.
A dismal round of earnings from US electric vehicle manufacturers — led by Tesla and followed by startups Rivian and Lucid — is sending shockwaves through the global supply chain. For Taiwanese suppliers that had placed early bets on these companies, the prospect of ever recovering initial investments is growing increasingly remote.
The US lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery industry is transforming due to policy changes, such as vehicle and parts tariffs, proposed cuts to electric vehicle subsidies under the Inflation Reduction Act, and stricter regulations for Chinese-invested US battery plants. This has spurred the development of a domestic LFP supply chain, extending its applications beyond EVs to energy storage and data centers.
IC distribution giant WT Microelectronics' chairman Eric Cheng stated at the August 6, 2025, investor conference that strong AI demand will become the core growth driver for WT in the second half of 2025 and into 2026.
Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL), the world's largest EV battery manufacturer, confirmed it has halted output at its Jianxiawo lithium mine in Jiangxi after its mining permit expired on August 9, driving lithium carbonate futures and producer shares sharply higher.
As Western automakers wrestle with supply chain bottlenecks and regulatory shifts, China's electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers are rapidly carving out a dominant position on the global stage—powered by technology, pricing, and increasingly, strategy.
Asia Optical held an online investor conference on August 6, 2025, where chairman Yi-Jen Lai praised its second quarter performance. He shared that digital cameras and action cameras are showing promising growth. Due to its broad global deployment, Asia Optical is also confident in their response strategies to tariffs. However, it is paying special attention to the high 40% tariff rate in Myanmar.
After years of defense, Japanese electric vehicles are mounting a quiet yet striking comeback in China—a market now dominated almost entirely by domestic players.
Despite repeated clear statements from the Chinese central government urging automakers to stop vicious price-cutting, the market's price war has not eased. Instead, it has intensified.
Tesla is dismantling its in-house AI supercomputer project "Dojo" and shifting gears toward a new external chip strategy involving Samsung Electronics and Intel, signaling a major pivot in the automaker's AI infrastructure plans. Bloomberg reported that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has ordered the suspension of the Dojo program, with project lead Peter Bannon set to depart and roughly 20 team members already joining AI startup DensityAI. The remaining staff are being reassigned to Tesla's data center and compute infrastructure teams.
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