Welcome to the Daily 5 report for Thursday, July 31.
It's amazing what kinds of political gymnastics we're seeing from global automakers and foreign governments in the wake of President Donald Trump's trade deals.
Today's game of tariff twister was brought to you by Hyundai Motor Group, which released an effusive statement praising the new U.S.-South Korea trade deal. Announced last night, the deal calls for 15 percent tariffs on Hyundai's exports to the U.S.
This tariff will cost the affiliated Hyundai and Kia brands another $5 billion this year alone, Bloomberg estimates. But that's no problem for Hyundai.
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"Today's trade agreement ... represents a historic achievement that strengthens our alliance and creates unprecedented opportunities for sustained prosperity," Hyundai Motor Group said in a statement. "For Hyundai Motor Group, this agreement validates our unwavering confidence in the U.S. market and our commitment to American manufacturing."
Translation: Hyundai is grateful it wasn't bludgeoned with the 25 percent U.S. tariff it originally faced — along with an additional $3 billion in levies.
Moreover, Hyundai can use this 15 percent tariff bite to justify to its stakeholders the $21 billion of investments it earmarked for the U.S. through 2028. The automaker expects its U.S. expansion will create some 100,000 direct and indirect jobs.
And that's where the Detroit 3 and others ought to be concerned.
Hyundai, Kia and the luxury Genesis brand — with their innovative and quality marques — pose a significant competitive threat in the U.S. market. Their combined U.S. sales rose 3.4 percent in 2024 to more than 1.7 million vehicles. For the first half of 2025, the three brands cranked up U.S. deliveries an additional 9.2 percent to 893,152 vehicles.
Trump's tariffs are designed to spur more auto manufacturing in the U.S. That's exactly what's on tap for Korea's Hyundai Motor Group.
In other news, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety released some telling statistics about road fatalities in the U.S. compared with Canada. In short, the loss of life on U.S. roads from 2011 through 2021 grew 33 percent while fatalities in Canada fell 18 percent over a comparable period. What gives? IIHS concludes that Canada does a far better job enforcing traffic laws than the U.S.
That's it for now. Have a great rest of your day. Click here if you'd like to read this in your browser.
— Philip Nussel, online editor
