Which brings us to today's Auto File...

* Tesla continues Europe sales slump

* China summons industry over 'used' car sales

* Tariff crossfire hits Japan's autos suppliers

Tesla's Europe sales are still down, despite new Model Y

Any hopes that U.S. EV maker Tesla's revamped Model Y would

revive sales in Europe were dashed by April's sales data. For

the fourth straight month, the brand's sales fell - this time by

49%, halving its market share in April across the region to just

0.7% from 1.3% a year ago.

Analysts had speculated whether the steep drop in the U.S. EV

maker's sales was down to backlash against CEO Elon Musk's

political views, or simply due to its ageing lineup. But with

the Model Y out since March, Tesla's poor performance last month

indicates that the problem is not just politics: its new car

doesn't seem to be winning back Tesla fans either.

Meanwhile, EV demand in Europe for cars from other brands

continues to rise, with battery-electric vehicle sales up 27.8%

from the prior year. For the number crunchers keen to dive

deeper into the data, here's the full story by Jesus Calero. 

ESSENTIAL READING

* Europe's defence industry scrambles for workers

* India and Pakistan in drone arms race

* TSMC to open chip design centre in Germany

China's regulator summons automakers over 'used' car sales 

A method to inflate sales numbers in the Chinese auto market has

caught the eye of the country's commerce ministry: selling

registered cars with zero mileage in the second-hand market as

'used' cars. This means the same car could be marked more than

once as a sale, helping carmakers hit aggressive sales targets.

Industry bodies and automakers including BYD and Dongfeng Motor ( DNFGF )

are due to meet with government officials on Tuesday to discuss

the practice, sources told our correspondents in Shanghai. 

Last week, Wei Jianjun, chairman of Chinese carmaker Great Wall

Motor, told Chinese media outlet Sina Finance that at least

3,000-4,000 vendors on Chinese used car platforms were selling

registered cars which had never been driven as 'secondhand. '

Tariff crossfire hits Toyota ( TM ), Nissan ( NSANF ), Ford suppliers in Japan

For decades, Japan's auto supply network of thousands of small

manufacturers has pursued a production strategy of incremental

improvement and assembly-line efficiency, based on methods

developed by Toyota ( TM ), to make Japan into an industrial

juggernaut.

Trump's tariffs are so sweeping that they threaten to derail

this careful approach mastered over decades by Japan's auto

suppliers, some of whom were already making careful pivots into

other industries to protect themselves from the rise of EVs.

Our reporters Maki Shiraki and Daniel Leussink took a deep dive

into Kyowa Industrial, an auto component maker which started

developing neurosurgery instruments in 2016 when its owner

Hiroko Suzuki, 65, realised EVs would eventually hammer demand

for engine components. The firm began selling the instruments in

the U.S. last year. Now, it faces tariffs on both automobiles

and medical devices.

Japan's officials say the industry may need to use the

opportunity to work hard on its competitiveness in an EV age.

FAST LAPS

Volvo Cars will cut 3,000 mostly white-collar jobs, about 15% of

its office staff, as part of a restructuring announced last

month as it grapples with high costs, a slowdown in electric

vehicle demand and trade uncertainty. 

Tesla is set to begin a test of its long-promised robotaxi

service on schedule in Austin, Texas, by the end of June, Chief

Executive Elon Musk said, even as the company faces

safety questions from a U.S. regulator over how the cars will

perform in poor weather. 

China's BYD  announced over the weekend a fresh round of

subsidies and incentives for more than 20 models, reducing the

starting price of its cheapest model, the pure battery-powered

Seagull hatchback, to 55,800 yuan ($7,765), sending shares in

Chinese automakers tumbling on the realisation that the

years-long EV price war was only intensifying.

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(Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)