Greetings from London!

Back in 2019, Elon Musk predicted Tesla would have “over a million” self-driving cars by 2020.

Five years late and around 999,990 cars short, Tesla launched over the weekend perhaps a dozen driverless cabs in Austin, Texas. The cars operate in a limited geography, with safety monitors in the front passenger seat and remote “teleoperators”.

Tesla shares jumped on the first tangible bit of good news for the company in months. As small as the Austin experiment is, some investors and analysts believe it could demonstrate what the EV maker can do with its technology and manufacturing scale.

But as other autonomous vehicle startups have discovered, getting autonomous-vehicle technology to prime time can be immensely difficult and vastly expensive.

Just a couple of months ago, Musk predicted there would be “millions of Teslas operating fully autonomously” by late next year. 

Yes, we have heard that one before. But now Musk has a chance to prove it.

Which brings us to today’s Auto File…

China's auto industry has inflated its new car sales numbers for years through a government-backed grey market that registers new cars straight off the production line and then ships them overseas as "zero-mileage" used vehicles.

As Reuters colleagues in China discovered, regional governments encouraged the export and sale of fake used cars, while local governments have embraced the practice to meet Beijing’s ambitious economic growth targets.

You can read all about it here.

This grey market has flourished because automakers face intense pressure from a long-running price war in China and need to make Beijing happy.

When a new car emerges from the assembly line, an exporter buys the car either directly from the automaker or a dealer, registers it with a Chinese licence plate, then immediately marks it as used for shipping abroad. Along the way, the automaker books the car as sold and logs the revenue.

Government support includes creating extra export licences, fast-tracking tax rebate claims, investing in export infrastructure, and funding networking events to encourage the practice, the government documents showed.

A consultant for the China Automobile Dealers Association said around 90% of the used passenger and commercial vehicles exported by the country last year are estimated to be "zero-mileage.”

Could Maserati be sold off? - REUTERS/Jeenah Moon

The future of the struggling Maserati brand was always going to be a big question for new Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa, who took over the reins at the world’s No. 4 automaker on Monday.

According to a report from Reuters colleague Giulio Piovaccari, Stellantis is considering a possible sale for the luxury unit, among other options, as the automaker seeks to overhaul its sprawling portfolio of 14 brands.

You can read more about it here.

Discussions over Maserati's future began before Filosa started his new job.

Stellantis hired consultant McKinsey early in April to advise it on the effects of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Maserati and Alfa Romeo. But a possible divestment of Maserati, its only luxury brand, is among the options McKinsey is exploring for Stellantis, sources told Reuters.

Filosa’s initial move as Stellantis’ boss on Monday was to leave the automaker’s top management virtually unchanged while also retaining his role as head of North American operations.

Investors were not amused and Stellantis shares fell more than 5%.

BYD takes aim at Europe's small car market -  REUTERS/Annegret Hilse.

With Chinese automakers expanding in Europe, Stellantis and Renault have been lobbying for a new, less-regulated category of small cars with fewer safety features, making them cheaper to build.

As Reuters colleague Gilles Guillaume reports, they want to revive a small car segment largely abandoned by Europe's automakers because such models were unprofitable, which they now blame on EU regulations.

You can read more about it here.

Facing pressure from the Chinese, the lobbying effort argues that it makes no sense to have the same regulations for small city cars as for big vehicles that operate on busy highways.

Safety experts like Euro NCAP say they will not change their crash test criteria if the EU agrees to slash regulations, while the Chinese are coming with cars that meet today’s rules.

 So if Stellantis and Renault get their way, the big question is whether consumers will accept locally-made small cars that have lower safety ratings than their Chinese rivals.

Nissan shareholders vented frustrations over the automaker's poor performance at its annual general meeting, with some demanding greater management accountability for the deepening crisis at Japan's third-largest car company.

The meeting was the first for new CEO Ivan Espinosa who replaced Makoto Uchida in April. Espinosa has laid out plans for big cuts, including closing seven plants and shedding a total of 20,000 jobs, or around 15% of Nissan's workforce.

One shareholder accused Nissan’s board of trying to "shift its responsibility to frontline workers" by cutting jobs while retaining their own positions. Another shareholder complained about Nissan’s decision to cut its dividend.

Despite their anger, shareholders voted down a number of proposals Nissan opposed, including an activist-shareholder proposal that would have forced the automaker to take action on listed subsidiary Nissan Shatai.

Leaders of the United Auto Workers’ union face allegations of an investment blunder that officials say cost the union about $80 million in potential gains from its financial portfolio.

China's Geely and parent Geely Holding will take a combined 26.4% stake in a joint venture controlled by French partner Renault as they seek to make and sell cars jointly in Brazil.

U.S. Senate Republicans cannot force the U.S. Postal Service to scrap