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Chinese automaker BYD sold more electric vehicles in Europe than Tesla for the first time, according to a report by JATO Dynamics, as an aging model lineup and CEO Elon Musk’s politics hurt demand for the U.S. EV maker’s cars. BYD, which also makes plug-in hybrid vehicles, registered 7,231 battery-powered electric vehicles (BEV) in Europe in April, while Tesla registered 7,165 units, the market research firm said. “This is a watershed moment for Europe’s car market, particularly when you consider that Tesla has led the European BEV market for years, while BYD only officially began operations beyond Norway and the Netherlands in late 2022,” JATO Dynamics’ global analyst Felipe Munoz said. Demand for electric vehicles in Europe remains steady. BEV registrations surged 28% in April from last year, largely driven by Chinese car brands. Despite the EU’s imposition of tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, registrations of such cars increased 59% in the month from a year earlier, while carmakers from Europe, Japan, South Korea and the United States recorded 26% growth. WEAK TESLA DEMAND The company reported its first drop in annual deliveries last year, and analysts expect another fall this year after a 13% decline in the first quarter. Musk said earlier this week that Tesla had already turned around sales, and demand was strong in regions apart from Europe. His political views have triggered waves of protests against Tesla in the U.S. and Europe, leading to a slump in sales. Additionally, production halts to retool factories to make the redesigned Model Y crossover globally caused a drop in manufacturing and sales in the first quarter. Analysts have also attributed lower sales to customers waiting for less-expensive versions of the new Model Y, Tesla’s best-selling vehicle, to become more widely available. Akash Sriram in Bengaluru, Reuters
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E-Commerce
Twelve states on Wednesday urged a federal court to strike down President Donald Trump’s sweeping taxes on imports, saying he had exceeded his authority, left U.S. trade policy dependent on his whims and unleashed economic chaos.They are challenging tariffs that Trump imposed last month on most of the countries in the world in an effort to reverse America’s massive and longstanding trade deficits. They are also targeting levies the president had earlier plastered on imports from Canada, China and Mexico to combat the illegal flow of immigrants and the synthetic opioids across the U.S. border.A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York on Wednesday heard arguments in the states’ case. Last week, the trade court held a hearing in a similar challenge to Trump’s tariffs brought by five small businesses.The court specifically deals with civil lawsuits involving international trade. Its decisions can be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington and ultimately to the Supreme Court, where the legal challenges to Trump’ tariffs are widely expected to end up.At least seven lawsuits are challenging the levies, the centerpiece of Trump’s trade policy.Declaring that the United States’ trade deficits add up to a national emergency, Trump invoked the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEPPA) and rolled out 10% tariffs on many countries on April 2“Liberation Day,” he called it. He imposed stiffer “reciprocal” tariffs of up to 50% on countries that sell more goods to the United States than the U.S. sells them. (Trump later suspended those higher tariffs for 90 days.)The states argue that the emergency economic powers act does not authorize the use of tariffs. Even if it did, they say, the trade deficit does not meet the law’s requirement that an emergency be triggered only by an “unusual and extraordinary threat.” The U.S. has run a trade deficit with the rest of the world for 49 consecutive years. “This is not an unusual problem,” Brian Marshall, an Oregon state attorney, told the judges Wednesday.The Trump administration argues that courts approved President Richard Nixon’s emergency use of tariffs in a 1971 economic crisis. The Nixon administration successfully cited its authority under the 1917 Trading With Enemy Act, which preceded and supplied some of the language used in IEPPA.Brett Shumate, the assistant U.S. attorney general representing the administration, argued Wednesday that only Congress, and not the courts, can determine the “political” question of whether the president’s rationale for declaring an emergency complies with the law. That argument led Judge Jane Restani to ask if courts were helpless to block the president’s emergency declarations no matter how “crazy” they were.Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs shook global financial markets and led many economists to downgrade the outlook for U.S. economic growth. So far, though, the tariffs appear to have had little impact on the world’s largest economy.The 12 states pursuing the case are Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Vermont. Paul Wiseman, AP Economics Writer
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E-Commerce
MNTN Inc, the advertising technology company that counts Hollywood actor Ryan Reynolds as its chief creative officer, is expected to make its market debut on Thursday, in a closely watched initial public offering (IPO) that will test investor appetite for the rapidly growing segment of ad-supported streaming television. The Austin-based company priced shares at $16 on Wednesday, the higher end of its expected range, in an offering led by Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and Evercore ISI. The stock will list on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the “MNTN” ticker symbol. Based on its IPO share price, MNTNit’s pronounced Mountainhas an approximate valuation of $1.2 billion. Advertising finds a way The listing comes as streaming platforms are seeing strong growth in their ad-supported tiers, despite the friction that has caused with viewers who now often have to pay a premium to weed ads out. Netflix, the streaming leader and a longtime advertising holdout, recently said its ad-supported tier has 94 million active users and boasts more younger viewers than any traditional TV network. Amazon, meanwhile, announced a suite of new features for advertisers earlier this month at its Prime Video Upfront presentation. According to market research firm Antenna, 46% of streaming subscriptions are now for ad-supported tiers on services that offer them, representing growth of almost 33%. During that same period, subscriptions on ad-free tiers declined 0.1%. MNTN sees a big opportunity here, pinning its hopes on a “self-serve” platform it calls Performance TV, or PTV, which offers ad targeting and measurement capabilities to small- and medium-size businesses. In filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), MNTN says it had more than 2,225 PTV customers in 2024, compared to only 142 in 2019. PTV drove $205.3 million in revenue last year, the company says, an increase of 35.5% from the year before. The relationship between consumers and content was completely transformed with the introduction of streaming television, CEO Mark Douglas said in the companys prospectus. Cable guides and DVRs are almost hard to remember how. However, the relationship between TV advertisers and the streaming networks has remained largely unchanged. We launched MNTN Performance TV to bridge that gap, bringing small and medium-sized businesses into the streaming TV ecosystem at scale. MNTN reported total revenue of $225.6 million last year, with a net loss of $32.9 million, narrowed from a net loss of $53.3 million in 2023. Stock listings heat up again after tariff-related caution Some companies had reportedly postponed their IPO plans this year in the wake of uncertainty over tariffs and President Trump’s erratic trade policies, but that hesitation may be easing, according to PitchBook, citing a high-profile listing earlier this month from digital broker eToro. Hinge Health, a digital health startup, is also expected to make its market debut on Thursday. Meanwhile, Klarna, Discord, Chime, and others are all said to be planning IPOs this year.
Category:
E-Commerce
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