Cadillac Makes America Proud

If you have never watched a Le Mans 24-Hour race in your life, this might be the year to do it. With only three classes and rules designed to make it possible for a wide range of teams to win, it’s probably the best setup for a globally competitive race since the mid-1990s. Also, American teams or brands have a chance to win in every single class. Or lose in every single class. It’s competitive!

The world is a scary place if you pay attention at all. As an American and a person of faith, I see some things happening that I don’t love or necessarily even recognize being done in the name of both (this great episode of The Smoking Tire is a good primer on how I personally feel). At the same time, I refuse to give in to despair. To quote one former President: There’s nothing wrong with America that can’t be fixed by what’s right with America.

For today’s Morning Dump, I’m going to start with something that is right about America and also makes me proud. Cadillac’s hypercar is a loud, ferocious beast, and its performance on the 75th anniversary of the brand’s first Le Mans start during yesterday’s qualifying was nothing short of incredible. That’s a British team with an American car, whereas in LMGT3 it was a British car (Aston Martin) with an American team that took the pole. The world is better if we cooperate.

Speaking of, a group of states is working together to block President Trump’s attempt to kill California’s fuel economy standards, which is a form of cooperation. Both China and the United States are coming to some reasonable agreements that seem to help Tesla very much. Tesla needs that good news as it continues to fall in sales. You know who didn’t fall? Cadillac and Chevy.

Watch The 24 Hours of Le Mans This Weekend, Watch Hyperpole Right Now

I’m serious when I say, without knowing the outcome, you should watch the 24 Hours of Le Mans this weekend. It has all the ingredients to be one of the greatest races of all time, and you don’t have to pretend to be one of those people who watched it. You can watch it.

Right off the bat, take a few minutes to enjoy the video above (linked here) that shows qualifying for each class (called Hyperpole). Everyone expected Ferrari to grab one or maybe both of the first slots on the grid. The Ferrari Hypercar has won the last two Le Mans and has won every race in the European sports car championship so far this year, so it seemed likely.

Instead, it was Alex Lynn in the Cadillac Hertz Team Jota car that just edged out the #38 Cadillac driven by Earl Bamber. How important is the pole at a 24-hour race? Just look at Lynn fighting back tears and trying to pilot his machine with his eyes closed, and you’ll get some sense of what it means. I’ve been lucky enough to be in a garage when a team didn’t make it into the last qualifying session, and the feeling of defeat was palpable.

In AMGT3, it was the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 that took the top spot, and that’s pretty damn cool, too. There’s a huge international cast of drivers, teams, and cars. Hell, even Ford CEO Jim Farley was out racing Chris Harris on the track at the Mustang Challenge race:

I’ll let you guess who won between the two of them.

The vibes are good, my friends. The vibes are good. And even better, the rule set that finally allows American-style prototypes to compete against European-style ones are finally here, and the FIA this morning said “Screw it, let’s go to 2032” with this setup. That means that more manufacturers are likely to compete in prototype racing, with both Genesis and Lamborghini joining the field.

Good times.

California Sues To Stop The President From Killing 2035 EV Rules

Can the government just do whatever it wants? Ok, which government? The state or the federal? This question is always present in our chosen system, but it’s especially at issue now as California and the White House tangle over, well, everything.

Congress used something called the Congressional Review Act to kill the EPA Waiver granted to California by Biden under the Clean Air Act. What Congress didn’t do was change the Clean Air Act, and the State of California and other states that follow California’s guidance say that this isn’t how the law was intended. The Senate parliamentarian agreed, but Congress went ahead and did it anyway.

The idea that about 80% of new cars being sold would be required to be electric by 2035 (and the rest as plug-in hybrids) was always lofty and, perhaps, a bit unrealistic. It was a challenge to automakers to try to catch up with China on electrification, and it paired well with the many incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act. With the IRA possibly going away, does the mandate still work?

It’s unclear, but this is likely to cost Tesla its tax credits, as pointed out in this Reuters report:

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, representing General Motors , Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Stellantis and others, praised Trump’s signing, saying the EV rules were unachievable and made cars less affordable, limited consumer choice and reduced industry competition.

Alliance CEO John Bozzella said Trump “got behind this repeal before the EV mandates did real damage to the auto industry in America, stood up for customer choice and helped restore a degree of balance to U.S. emissions regulations.”

Experts and automakers say Trump’s repeal significantly reduces the value of Tesla’s EV emissions credits.

But Tesla is still getting what it wants in more important ways.

China, US DOT Clear Way For Tesla Autonomous Cars

You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes (and give a lot of money to politicians), you can get what you need. Tesla might lose its tax credits, but it’s getting both China and the United States to give it what it needs to build the kind of  “driverless” vehicles it believes it needs to justify its huge valuation.

First, in China, where the government is reportedly loosening its own data collection laws to make room for companies like Tesla:

Chinese authorities released draft guidelines on transmitting data from automobiles overseas, a move that could pave the way for the wider rollout of Tesla Inc.’s most advanced driver-assistance functions in the world’s largest car market.

The move on Friday marks the first time Beijing has clarified how data generated within China in areas from product development to deployment of driver-assistance systems can be queried, retrieved, downloaded and exported.

Data security has been a key concern for Beijing, and the lack of clear guidelines has previously been a barrier to the introduction of advanced autonomous driving features, including Tesla’s so-called Full Self-Driving functions. The US automaker has been seeking China’s approvals for its more sophisticated driver-assistance functions, with a small batch of trails among some of its customers earlier this year.

And just this morning, the Department of Transportation over here said that automakers can build up to 2,500 vehicles annually that don’t necessarily comply with all safety regulations (a similar exemption existed for smaller batches of cars, though this 2,500 vehicle one is new), so long as the vehicles are built with a “public interest” and are basically as safe as any other vehicle on the road (note that the 2,500-car exemption doesn’t have to be for AVs):

The current Part 555 process was designed for traditional vehicles. As currently applied, this process is not well suited for processing exemptions involving ADS-equipped vehicles in a timely manner or overseeing the unique complexities involving their operations. This has resulted in long processing times for applications for ADS-equipped vehicles. NHTSA must improve its Part 555 processing times substantially to keep pace with the rapid innovation of the ADS industry and to ensure that exemptions remain effective tools for nurturing groundbreaking safety technologies.

Very generally, I agree that it’s better to have a federal-level process for certifying ADAS/ADS systems to speed up innovation. At the same time, I don’t want to be a beta tester for vehicles that aren’t quite ready for primetime.

Did I ask NTHSA/DOT if it was in the “public interest” to have new versions of historic vehicles built under this law, so long as they have things like seatbelts and airbags? Yes, yes I did.

A 16% Drop In Tesla Registrations Led To The First Drop In Year-Over-Year EV Registrations In 14 Months

Context is important. There was a big leap in EV sales in the first few months of 2025 as potential EV buyers bought cars ahead of the potential repeal of the IRA tax credit. These sales were thus “pulled forward” from April. That’s one reason why sales dropped 6.6% year-over-year.

The other big reason? Tesla. Tesla is still the biggest EV brand in the United States, so its 16% drop in registrations from last April to this April is enough to swing the market, even as Chevrolet and Cadillac saw a 215% and 104% positive move, respectively. It’s not all Tesla, though, as pointed out in this Automotive News article:

The EV decline was not a surprise, said Tom Libby, an analyst at S&P Global Mobility. Growth in the segment has eased as consumers turn to increasingly available gasoline-electric hybrids that come without the charging hassles of full EVs.

“The increases in the prior months have been weak, so I think there is an ongoing trend of weakening in the EV market,” Libby said. “We’ll have to watch where it goes, but there’s a lot of influences working against EVs right now.”

Libby said that in addition to anxiety over charging and range, consumers are seeing media reports that government support for EVs is on the chopping block and automaker investments in the technology are slowing, undermining confidence in a product that doesn’t yet have significant organic demand. EVs are often popular at launch when the have strong promotions and fresh looks, then they fade out, he said.

I think there are two things to look for in terms of EV adoption in the coming months. How does Tesla do with a revised Model Y and refreshed X/S this summer? Can GM keep its momentum?

What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD

I’ve been listening to the Bandsplain episode on “The Jesus and Mary Chain” and it’s hilarious. The duo of Scottish brothers once tried to get a gig by putting up posters of themselves everywhere, but they hadn’t yet come up with a band name… so it was just photos of them all around Glasgow with a blank space where the band’s name was supposed to be. It didn’t work. This is a band I didn’t grow up listening to, other than one song on the Lost In Translation soundtrack, but I can enjoy now. In the spirit of cross-continental cooperation at Le Mans, the song “Sometimes, Always” includes both the Scottish brothers and America/Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval.

The Big Question

Who wins Le Mans in each class? My call is: Cadillac (Hypercar), AO Racing (LMP2), and Ford (LMGT3).

Top photo: FIA