The Pulse: Trade Wars Unleashed, Tesla Tumbles, Disruptions

Tesla sales have plummeted to their lowest level in three years amid backlash against Elon Musk's controversial role in Trump's administration. The electric car maker delivered 337,000 vehicles in Q1 2025, a 13% drop year-over-year, while protests and boycotts spread globally as investors like Ross Gerber call the Tesla brand "broken and may not be fixable."

• Tesla shares have lost over 25% of their value since the start of 2025
• Musk's position heading Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) limited to 130 days by law
• UK ministers concerned about foreign products being dumped in Britain to avoid Trump's tariffs
• British car industry faces significant threat with 25% US tariffs putting 25,000 jobs at risk
• Chinese carmaker BYD establishing stronger presence in UK market
• Trump administration pressuring UK to reduce digital services tax affecting tech giants
• Reciprocal tariffs creating worldwide economic disruption with varying rates (UK at 10%, EU at 20%)
• Northern Ireland faces unique challenges due to its position between UK and EU frameworks
•  What the markets think of Trump's tariffs as $6 trillion is wiped off stock market values and what the Fed Reserve Chair says about them

Don't forget to subscribe to Chain Reaction and you'll be first to know when a new episode is out with a mail shot right to your inbox. If you're following the trade wars and their impact on global supply chains, check out all our recent episodes on the Chain Reaction website.

You can follow Chain Reaction on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook

Chapters

• 0:02 Episode Introduction
• 0:24 Tesla's Sales Crisis
• 1:43 UK Concerns About US Tariffs
• 5:54 Trump's Trade Wars Begin
• 9:34 Digital Tax and Agricultural Issues
• 10:07 The verdict on tariffs so far
• 12:43 Episode Closing and Subscription Info

Transcript

Tony Hines: 0:02

Hello, tony Hines. Here you're listening to the Chain Reaction Podcast. All about supply chain advantage. Great to be here. Thanks for dropping by. Great episode coming your way in just a few moments. Stick around, stay tuned, stay informed.

Tony Hines: 0:21

Chain Reaction Now. What's going on at Tesla? Let's take a look and see. Tesla sales have fallen off a cliff edge. They're at the lowest level in three years, and this is all after a backlash against Elon Musk and his role in government. The electric car maker delivered almost 337,000 electric vehicles in the first three months of 2025 and that's a 13% drop to this time a year ago. Tesla shares have tumbled in early trading on Wednesday after the release of these low sales numbers.

Tony Hines: 0:58

Of course, there's increased competition from China and BYD in particular, but what many are saying is that it's because of his role in the Trump administration and it's had a really disturbing effect, and customers don't like it, and neither do the employees in Tesla, because they think that Musk is not paying enough attention to his business. The firm itself has blamed the sales drop on the transition to a new version of its most popular car, but many are pointing the finger at the CEO. Investor Ross Gerber of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management wrote on X that the brand is broken and may not be fixable. He was once a big supporter of Elon Musk, but he's been quite critical lately and he wants him to be removed by the board. To try and improve the situation at Tesla, there have been many protests, boycotts around the world prompted by his outspoken and controversial political involvement. You might know he's been heading up the President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE. Remember, it's not really a department, it's DOGE. It's just something that Trump socially constructed. It's an initiative to cut federal spending and slash the government workforce.

Tony Hines: 2:23

It was reported this week that Musk will be stepping down from that role in the coming weeks, and when that was announced, tesla's share price actually turned positive. So the markets like the fact that he's getting out of this political role. He's regarded as a special government employee in the White House, but he can only serve 130 days in the administration this year by law, and that would mean he'd have to leave sometime around the end of May. He's the world's richest man, of course, and he contributed more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help Trump get elected in November. In recent weeks he's put a lot of money into Wisconsin millions to try and get the Wisconsin Supreme Court supporting the Republican Attorney General, brad Skimmel, but he was defeated on Tuesday, so that didn't work.

Tony Hines: 3:18

The backlash against Musk himself what many are referring to as the Tesla takededown protests at tesla dealerships across the us and europe have been quite disruptive and some of them have been quite violent. Tesla vehicles have been vandalized and trump said his administration would charge people who deface teslas with domestic terrorism. But many are concerned about musk's lack of stewardship in his own business. Tesla shares have lost more than a quarter of their value since the start of this year. Now it's been reported this week that ministers in the United Kingdom are thinking about introducing quotas on foreign imports to avoid the UK market being flooded with goods bound for the United States before the introduction of President Trump's tariffs. The Department for Business and Trade is holding regular talks with business sectors because it's concerned that some products might find their way into the UK market, being dumped here because they're trying to avoid the taxes imposed by Trump's administration.

Tony Hines: 4:35

Britain's car industry is likely to suffer as a result of the tariffs and the trade wars that break out, and they've already signalled that tariffs on cars coming into the United States are going to be fixed at 25%. Byd, the Chinese carmaker, is already establishing itself in the UK market. It has TV adverts and promotions in newspapers advertising its cars, and it's likely to make quite a dent in the market in the next year or so. The UK automobile industry supports about 800,000 jobs, but 25,000 of those jobs are at risk with Trump's tariffs. Britain exports about 6.4 billion worth of cars to the United States every year, and it's a critical market for high end producers such as Bentley, rolls-royce, jaguar, land Rover and, of course, the Mini, which is also now owned by BMW't it. So maybe jobs under threat, factories under threat and, of course, other brands dumping their vehicles in the UK. All down to Trump and his trade wars.

Tony Hines: 5:54

The US administration has made it crystal clear that they want the United Kingdom to reduce the digital services tax, and that's applied to Elon Musk, mark Zuckerberg and, of course, jeff Bezos. So that's Amazon for Bezos, musk's tech companies, x and his other tech companies, and, of course, zuckerberg with Facebook and Meta. The UK government, of course, don't really want to scrap this tax, because they think it's necessary to keep a check on these big tech companies. There's another stumbling block, of course, with farmers, because, while the US want to export various products to the UK, britain's regulations and agricultural policies prevent many of the American offer from coming into the UK and we've all heard about things like chlorinated chicken and those sorts of things and they don't want cheap food products entering the UK when British farms are under pressure also. So where's this one going to go? Well, that remains to be seen, but what is clear and crystal clear is that there are concerns that the president's administration is going to push that through as part of a negotiation strategy to lower some tariffs. There'd be furious protests, I think, in the UK if that happened, so perhaps they'll be more cautious about that one.

Tony Hines: 7:29

But you can see how all these negotiations are breaking down and the trade wars are having an influence on UK policy, and we're just a relatively small company in the world, but this is happening with Trump's policies right throughout the world. So the trade wars have started In earnest. They were launched in the White House on the 2nd of April and now we can expect the backlash. These reciprocal tariffs on countries and trading blocks all over the world will have a devastating impact on economies, businesses and consumers. Will have a devastating impact on economies, businesses and consumers, and prices will rise. Costs of manufacturing and costs for business will also rise, because these are taxes. We need to make that very clear. No-transcript have quite a backlash from various economies around the globe. The British economy so far is in the lowest category, at 10%, while the EU is in the 20% category, and that was said to be a small reward for Britain's independence leaving the European Union. Well, it's small beer.

Tony Hines: 8:49

I think there could be a problem in the UK with Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland. Secretary Hilary Benn warned there is an issue. He told MPs that the impact of tariffs from the United States would be felt equally across the UK, but because Northern Ireland sits and straddles both the EU and Britain it's part of the United Kingdom it could incur additional costs. Remember, the EU's got 20% tariffs and the UK 10%. On many goods. China is likely to push to replace US markets for its merchandise. The value of Chinese exports to the United States in 2023 was equivalent to US$436 billion, that's about £337 billion. It's likely that Chinese companies will increase sales in Britain and Europe, but they'll also push for more sales to countries in Southeast Asia too, and we've already discussed the prospect of BYD cars making a more penetrative approach in the UK market.

Tony Hines: 10:14

Well, don't forget to subscribe to Chain Reaction and you'll be first to know when a new episode is out. You'll get a mail shot right to your inbox and you can listen and keep up to date. And the other thing is, if you're following the trade wars and what's happening in the United States and how that's impacting world trade and supply chains around the globe, then you'll want to listen to all the episodes which deal with those issues, and you'll find them all here on the Chain Reaction website. So drop by, take a look and make sure you haven't missed any episodes. We've had quite a few episodes in the past month, all taking a different aspect of the development of what's happening with Trump's tariffs. Well, that's it for this week. I hope you've enjoyed the episode and I'll see you again in the Chain Reaction Podcast next time. In the meantime, take care, I'm Tony Hines. I'm signing off. Bye for now. You've been listening to the chain reaction podcast, written, presented and produced by tony hines.