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The automotive industry is experiencing unprecedented disruption and uncertainty regarding regulations, electric vehicle adoption, software innovations and competition from China.
Many of the issues are coming to a head sooner rather than later, causing chaos for automakers and their plans for new vehicles, according to Bank of America.
The bank’s top auto analyst predicts investors will see billions of dollars in expected write-downs for EVs, a retrench to “core” businesses and a potential collapse and consolidation of the automotive industry in China.

A worker at Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant on April 30, 2025.
Michael Wayland | CNBC

DETROIT — The automotive industry is experiencing unprecedented disruption and uncertainty when it comes to regulations, electric vehicles, software innovations and competition from China.
Such disruptions have been years in the making, but many of the issues are coming to a head sooner rather than later, causing chaos for automakers and their plans for new vehicles.

“The unprecedented EV head-fake has wreaked havoc on product plans,” Top Bank of America Securities analyst John Murphy said in the firm’s annual “Car Wars” report. “The next four+ years will be the most uncertain and volatile time in product strategy ever.”
The proprietary “Car Wars” report predicts future products and plans over the next several years. The thesis of the report is that replacement rate (or the percentage of vehicles that are expected to be replaced by newer models) drives showroom age, which drives market share, which drives profits and stock prices.
Automakers above an industry average replacement rate of 16% over the next four years include Tesla (22.4%), Honda Motor (16.9%), Hyundai Motor/Kia (16.5%) and Ford Motor (16.1%), according to Car Wars. At the bottom end of the analysis are Nissan Motor (12.3%), Toyota Motor (13.7%) and traditional European automakers (15.2%). General Motors is at 15.7%, while Stellantis is at 15.4%.

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Aside from the replacement rates, Murphy on Wednesday made several predictions about the auto industry. Here are five investors should know about:

EV write-downs

Murphy expects the roughly $1.9 billion in expenses and write-downs Ford announced last year due to the termination of a planned all-electric three row SUV will be the first of many such losses for automakers regarding EVs.

“There’s a lot of tough decisions that are going to need to be made,” he said Wednesday during an Automotive Press Association event in suburban Detroit. “Based on the [‘Car Wars’] study, I think we’re going to see multibillion-dollar write-downs that are flooding the headlines for the next few years.”
Automakers rushed to spend billions of dollars in recent years for EVs in anticipation of a market that hasn’t developed as quickly as expected.

Return to core

Amid the EV uncertainty, many automakers have pivoted to “customer choice,” which means significant investments in other technologies such as hybrids and plug-in hybrid vehicles, as well as in traditional vehicles with internal combustion engines (ICE).
Due to that volatility and uncertainty, Murphy said automakers must lean heavily into their core products, including internal combustion engines, to generate capital.

2026 Toyota RAV4

“Really, everybody is leaning back into their into their core over the next four years in very uncertain times,” Murphy said, noting that cash “is going to be critically important” for automakers in the years ahead.
The title of this year’s “Car Wars” investor note underscores that change: “The ICE Age Cometh as EV Plans Freeze.”

China industry collapse

Industry uncertainty isn’t exclusive to the U.S. The Chinese auto industry — the world’s largest car sales market — is in the midst of a price war and stalling sales.
“What you’re seeing in China is a bit disturbing because there is a lack of demand; there’s extreme price cutting, and there’s a lot of export that’s rising, particularly over the last four or five years. Essentially net neutral to over 7 million units last year,” Murphy said.
The top BofA analyst described this as the Chinese market beginning to “implode on itself” due to the price war, which is expected to cause mass consolidation of China’s hundreds of automotive brands.
In China, the average car retail price has fallen by around 19% over the past two years to around 165,000 yuan ($22,900), according to a Nomura report this week, citing industry data from Autohome Research Institute.

Price cuts were far steeper for hybrid or range-extension vehicles, at 27% over the last two years, while battery-only cars saw prices slashed by 21%, the report said. It noted that traditional fuel-powered cars saw a below-average 18% price cut.
While very few exports come to the U.S., Murphy said it’s expected Chinese brands will eventually compete in the market. However, he cautioned it might be best to shield the U.S. market from Chinese brands in the near-term to avoid such issues domestically.
“I don’t think just from a technology or geopolitical perspective, that you really want to wall off the U.S. from China. It may be just simply that massive excess capacity you want to protect the U.S. market from until it works itself out and we see massive consolidation in the Chinese market,” he said, adding there’s good reason for massive tariffs on Chinese car imports.

Product shifts

“Car Wars” predicts there will be a shift in new vehicle introductions during the second half of this decade, as automakers refocus product lineups and slow replacement rates in the near term.
A major shift is in crossover vehicles — which have a combination of SUV and car characteristics — that have significantly grown in popularity in past decades.

Customers near a Ford Maverick pickup truck at a Ford dealership in Richmond, California, US, on Wednesday, April 16, 2025.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

BofA reports the crossover “surge is done.” For the first time nearly 20 years, Murphy said crossovers underrepresented versus the launch gains for the past 10 to 20 years.
“What’s wild this year is that we expect 159 models to be launched over the next four years. Last year was over 200; traditionally, it’s over 200,” Murphy said. “We have never seen this kind of change before.”
Part of the shift comes as the Detroit automakers — major producers of such vehicles — have focused on updating or redesigning their highly profitable full-size pickup trucks.
Japanese automakers have also had an uncharacteristically volatile product cadence, with a focus on cars, according to the report.

Auto growth area?

Investors have been skeptical of many auto stocks in recent years as expected growth areas have faltered.
But Murphy believes there’s still notable potential for automakers as well as their retailers in software — a focus area for companies as of late that also has not grown as much as initially expected.
“In the near term, it’s leveraging the connectivity, going after what we know is a very lucrative part of the value chain,” Murphy said. “They’ve been somewhat shut off from lack of attention to the consumer and a dealer body that needs to be reworked to some degree in a significant way, will create a real, real opportunity.”
The aftermarket industry and business at dealerships, including sales and service, represents $2.4 trillion in revenue, Murphy said. Of that $1.2 trillion captured by dealers, they generate about $53 billion in profits. He argues there’s another $1.2 trillion that’s escaping automakers, with $133 billion in profitability that could be gained through vehicle connectivity.
“It is vision critical that you get the dealers on board with this and drive this,” Murphy said regarding getting customers into dealerships instead of non-franchised repair shops. More

The Walt Disney Company said Thursday that its domestic theme parks generate $67 billion in combined annual economic impact.
Disney’s economic impact report arrives on the heels of its announcement of a new theme park development in Abu Dhabi and the opening of rival Universal’s Epic Universe in Florida.
The report by economists at Tourism Economics determined that Disney supports more than 400,000 jobs domestically.

A statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse stands in a garden in front of Cinderella’s Castle at the Magic Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World on April 3, 2025, in Orlando, Florida.
Gary Hershorn | Corbis News | Getty Images

For decades Disney’s domestic theme parks have been the growth engine for tourism, job creation and tax revenue in Southern California and Central Florida.
On Thursday, the company revealed its wider impact on the U.S. — reporting a national economic impact of $67 billion each year.

“Disney defines the themed entertainment business in America, and our presence is felt across the country,” said Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Experiences, in a release. “Our destinations create economies far beyond the gates of our parks, and when we invest in the groundbreaking experiences that only Disney can deliver, growth follows.”
The new report comes from economists at Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics company, which combined data collected about Disneyland’s impact in California and Walt Disney World Resort’s impact in Florida as well as additional nationwide spending spurred by the company.
Disney’s economic impact report arrives on the heels of its announcement of a new theme park development in Abu Dhabi and the opening of rival Universal’s Epic Universe in Florida. It also follows a recent bout of scrutiny over the company’s ticket prices, which some critics say have priced out potential parkgoers.
The company looked at direct economic impact, including onsite spending at Disney parks as well as spending locally on things like restaurants, hotels and transportation, as well as indirect impacts like goods and services that are purchased from local businesses to support the parks. The study also took into account what it called induced impacts, meaning largely what Disney’s employees spend their own paychecks on.
Tourism Economics determined that Walt Disney World Resort had a $40 billion economic impact across the state of Florida in fiscal year 2022, Disneyland Resort had a $16 billion impact on Southern California in fiscal year 2023, and combined the parks amount to a $10 billion annual economic impact on the rest of the country.

“With a nationwide impact of nearly $67 billion, Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World are key economic engines, not only in their respective regional economies, but also in the nationwide economy,” said Michael Mariano, head of economic development with Tourism Economics and Oxford Economics.
The report also determined that Disney supports more than 400,000 jobs domestically, noting that 1 out of every 20 jobs in Orange County, California, and 1 out of every 8 jobs in Central Florida can be attributed to the company.
“One way I often think about these studies is that we’re trying to measure what would be lost in the absence of these attractions and the numerous activities associated with the attractions,” Mariano said.”So one way of looking at these results is what we would lose if we didn’t have Disneyland Resort within the Southern California region and Walt Disney World Resort within the state of Florida?”
Disney has more expansion plans, with $30 billion in domestic capital expenditures expected through 2033.
This includes the largest-ever expansion of the Magic Kingdom, including a revamped section of Frontierland and new land themed around Disney’s villains. A new tropical Americas land is coming to Animal Kingdom, featuring attractions based on “Encanto” and the Indiana Jones franchise. And Hollywood Studios is getting a “Monsters Inc.” land.
Over in California, Avengers Campus at California Adventure is set to double in size and attractions based on “Coco” and “Avatar” are planned for Disneyland.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. More

Brown-Forman reported fiscal fourth quarter earnings that missed Wall Street estimates across the board.
Net sales for Brown-Forman’s whiskey products — Jack Daniel’s and Woodford Reserve — were flat for fiscal year 2025, while the company’s tequila and ready-to-drink portfolios declined 14% and 6%, respectively.
“We anticipate the operating environment for fiscal 2026 will be challenging, with low visibility due to macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility,” the company said.

Bottles of the American whiskey Jack Daniel’s are offered for sale in a liquor store on November 27, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois.
Scott Olson | Getty Images

Shares of Jack Daniel’s-maker Brown-Forman plunged more than 18% on Thursday after the company reported quarterly earnings that came in below analyst estimates, weighed down by the impact of tariffs and weak discretionary spending on alcohol.
“While our results did not meet our long-term growth aspirations, we made important progress in an exceptionally challenging macroeconomic environment,” CEO Lawson Whiting said in the company’s earnings release.

Here’s how the company performed for its fiscal fourth quarter of 2025, compared with Wall Street expectations, according to LSEG:

Earnings per share: 31 cents vs. 34 cents estimated
Revenue: $894 million vs. $967.4 million estimated

For the fiscal fourth quarter, Brown-Forman reported sales of $894 million, down 7% from the same quarter a year prior. Net income of $146 million, or 31 cents per share, was down 45% from $266 million, or 56 cents per share, a year earlier.
While net sales for Brown-Forman’s whiskey products — Jack Daniel’s and Woodford Reserve — were flat for fiscal year 2025 compared with the prior year, the company’s tequila and ready-to-drink portfolios declined 14% and 6%, respectively.
For fiscal year 2026, the company expects declines in the single-digit range in both organic net sales and organic operating income.
“We anticipate the operating environment for fiscal 2026 will be challenging, with low visibility due to macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility as we face headwinds from consumer uncertainty, the potential impact from currently unknown tariffs, and lower non-branded sales of used barrels,” the company said.

While Brown-Forman says it’s unable to measure potential tariff impact, analysts at Bernstein estimate that a 50% tariff on U.S. whiskey sold in the EU would result in a 10% hit to Brown-Forman’s earnings before interest and taxes, or EBIT.
Bernstein also noted that in a recessionary environment, distillers typically underperform brewers, which makes Brown-Forman more vulnerable than beverage peers like Constellation Brands, Molson Coors and Anheuser-Busch.
In recent months, Canadian liquor stores began removing Jack Daniel’s products and other U.S. products in response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs. In March, Brown-Forman’s Whiting called the removals “worse than a tariff.”
And the Trump administration this week also doubled the tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to 50%, impacting Brown-Forman’s and the broader sector’s canned ready-to-drink products. More

Eighty-one percent of younger people who are set to inherit large wealth from their families plan to replace their parents’ wealth management firms, according to a new survey from Capgemini.
Millennials and Gen Zers said they were unimpressed with poor digital offerings or a lack of services and products from those firms.
That means the managers that can best attract, retain and cater to the next generation of wealth will be best positioned for the future.

Wide shot of friends and family enjoying dinner and sunset during destination wedding reception at luxury villa in Morocco
Thomas Barwick | Digitalvision | Getty Images

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
The $100 trillion wealth transfer from older to younger generations is set to reshape the wealth management industry, as younger investors plan to move their money to new advisors, according to a new report.

A new survey from Capgemini shows that 81% of “next generation millionaires,” or those set to inherit large wealth from their families, plan to replace their parents’ wealth management firms. Most cited poor digital offerings or a lack of services and products.
“We were staggered when our research came back with that number,” said Kartik Ramakrishnan, CEO of financial services at Capgemini. “What that generation looks for is different from what that previous generations have looked for.”
Understanding the next generation of inheritors will become increasingly critical to wealth managers as a historic transfer of wealth gets underway. According to Cerulli Associates, more than $100 trillion is expected to flow from baby boomers and older generations to heirs and spouses. A majority of the transfers (over $60 trillion) will come from millionaires and billionaires, representing the top 2% of households by wealth. And most of the flows will be in the U.S.

The firms that can best attract, retain and cater to the future of wealth will be best positioned for the future. More than two-thirds of wealth-management executives surveyed by Capgemini said they were focused on engaging the next generations.
Yet the gap remains wide. A majority (58%) of executives surveyed admitted it was “challenging” to build relationships with the next gen. Beyond age differences, the new breed of inherited wealth (those born between 1965 and 2012) are dramatically different from boomers when it comes to investing, priorities and lifestyles.

Here are five of the top priorities of the next generation and how wealth managers can best adapt:

1. Embrace risk

Young investors traditionally take more risk, given their timelines and age. Yet even adjusted for age, millennials and Gen Zers like to live further out on the risk curve, with meme stocks, stock options, cryptocurrencies and other more speculative asset classes.
While the chief goal for wealthy boomers is wealth preservation, the next gen seeks aggressive growth, according to the Capgemini survey. The flood of online investing videos and explainers have also given younger investors more confidence taking risk.
“It’s a combination of both age, risk propensity and awareness,” Ramakrishnan said. “It’s the ability to find out more, to learn more, to get better knowledge of how they could invest.”

2. All about the products

While older investors lean toward stocks and bonds, younger investors want more crypto, private equity and overseas investments. Fully 88% of investors say the next gen has more interest in private equity than baby boomers.
Capgemini said younger investors believe strong returns can no longer be driven by just stocks and bonds, and that private equity and other alternatives can provide better long-term growth. Private equity is also becoming more widely available through lower minimums and third-party asset managers.
While young investors want more crypto, two-thirds of wealth managers surveyed by Capgemini say they don’t have investment options for emerging asset classes, including crypto.
Young investors are also more likely to venture overseas with their portfolios. A majority of millennials and Gen Zers say they want “enhanced offshore investments,” according to the survey. Of particular interest are the new wealth hubs around the world, including Singapore, the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
The next generations “are more global,” Ramakrishnan said. “They have traveled more. They understand global dynamics. That enables them to be interested and get some of the returns that they’re seeing in in these in these markets.”

3. Live the digital life

Young investors are digital natives, yet wealth management firms have been slow to adapt — still leaning on in-person meetings or phone calls for many client interactions. While 78% of baby boomers prefer face-to-face meetings over video calls, millennials want mobile apps that allow them to access and trade their portfolios.
“This is not a ‘let’s sit down with you once a year and walk you through how your portfolio is doing,’ or once a quarter and walking through your portfolio is doing,” Ramakrishnan said. “This is an active engagement channel and with consumable nuggets of information that they should get.”
Two-thirds of millennials say they expect advanced digital offerings from their wealth managers. Nearly half complain of a lack of services available on their preferred digital channels.
Aside from useful content in short “nuggets,” next generation investors want real-time access to all their financial information in one place, according to the report. They also want “intuitive tools for decision making and secure transaction capabilities,” according to Capgemini.

4. Educate don’t denigrate

More than two-thirds of baby boomers want the next generation of inheritors to receive financial education to manage their inheritances responsibly. Yet many of the education programs from wealth management firms aren’t proving effective. Some say the programs are too dry, or talk down to younger investors, or feel outdated.
“It’s not just putting out these huge reports that talk about the impact of interest rates and what is happening with the market,” Ramakrishnan said. “That’s hard for people to consume. It’s got to be something that’s simplified, that that people can pick up and something that’s actionable.”
Josh Brown, the CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, which has built a large following among GenZers with its podcasts, blogs and social media, said young clients want more authentic, personal communications.
“”The new generation grew up following people, not companies,” Brown said. “The winners in today’s world are the firms that marry personalities and people the audience cares about with great products and services. We figured out years ago that it’s make someone into a fan first and those fans become your potential clients.” 

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5. Managing a lifestyle

Along with tailored investment strategies, young investors are looking for a broader range of services related to their wealth. Estate and tax planning are key, along with philanthropy advice, according to Capgemini. They also want a growing list of concierge services, from luxury travel and bespoke experiences, to advice and insights into luxury purchases, including fashion, beauty, jewelry, wine and spirits.
Despite their youth, next generations are also looking for quality advice on medical care and wellness, along with education advisory (i.e., admissions). Goldman Sachs, for instance, partners with a London-based concierge to offer medical concierge support, in-home consultations with doctors and education advisory.
Cybersecurity advice is also a fast-growing service for wealth management firms.
“It’s that ability to get something that may be exclusive, that they may not be able to get otherwise,” Ramakrishnan said. “The next generations are more experience-driven than product-driven. So it’s not about just buying luxury goods; it’s luxury experiences, tailored experiences. Those are the kinds of partnerships that the wealth management firms can provide that will make and increase loyalty among that customer.” More

NBA team sponsorships were up 8% year-over-year to $1.62 billion this season, according to third-party data firm SponsorUnited.
The rise of jersey patch partnerships contributed to the uptick, and 450 brands entered into sponsorships with the league for the first time.
Growth in sponsorships comes on the heels of the NBA’s landmark $77 billion media rights deal, which begins next season.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander #2 and Jalen Williams #8 of the Oklahoma City Thunder react on the bench against the Minnesota Timberwolves during the fourth quarter in Game Five of the Western Conference Finals of the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Paycom Center on May 28, 2025 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Matthew Stockman | Getty Images

NBA teams notched $1.62 billion in sponsorship revenue this season — an increase of 8% since last year, and 91% from $850 million five years ago, according to third-party data firm SponsorUnited.
While the volume of deals was up just 2.5% since last year, the partnerships got bigger and more strategic, per the NBA Marketing Partnerships 2024-2025 report from SponsorUnited, which tracks global sports and entertainment sponsorships.

That haul is still shy, however, of the NFL, which had nearly $2.5 billion in team sponsorship revenue, a 6% increase from the prior season, according to SponsorUnited.
A key part of the NBA’s revenue rise is the proliferation of sponsor patches on team jerseys, said Bob Lynch, founder and CEO of the data firm.
The number of jersey patch deals — commonplace in international soccer and increasingly popular in the NBA since their introduction in 2017 — more than doubled year-over-year last season. There were six first-time NBA jersey partners, contributing more than $80 million in new spending this year, according to the report. The deals typically run three years on average, Lynch said.
“It was sort of this mad dash to bring in these deals, which generate a lot of buzz and a lot of revenue,” said Lynch. “These partnerships can be a quarter of a billion dollars of incremental revenue that was generated just from 11 deals that were sold. So it just shows the continued viability and interest in the NBA just on these jersey patches alone.”
The 2024 opening of the Los Angeles Clippers’ Intuit Dome has also helped to drive up overall sponsorship revenue.

“Anytime these leagues have a big stadium that opens or an expansion team, it just adds so much revenue to the league,” said Lynch.
“Between jersey patches and the Clippers’ stadium, it was like the equivalent of bringing in three new teams to the league that generated revenue,” he said.
There were 450 brands that entered NBA sponsorships for the first time this season. The most growth came from brands in the construction, alcohol and technology sectors, according to SponsorUnited.
Rakuten and JPMorgan Chase rank as the top-spending brands in the league, according to the report. Chase is the arena sponsor for the Golden State Warriors, while Rakuten has a patch on the team’s jersey.
The sponsorship increase comes on the heels of the league’s $77 billion media rights deal, in which games will be offered across Disney’s platforms like ESPN, Comcast’s NBC broadcast and Peacock, and Amazon’s Prime Video beginning next season. The latest media rights deal shows a heavy emphasis on streaming and a broader expansion on broadcast TV.

Star power

Andre Iguodala, #9; Stephen Curry, #30; and Klay Thompson, #11, of the Golden State Warriors high-five one another during the game against the Boston Celtics at the Oakland Arena in Oakland, California, on March 8, 2017.
Noah Graham | National Basketball Association | Getty Images

Individual star players have beckoned some of the biggest endorsement deals, which didn’t contribute to the team sponsorship total, but often serves as a gateway for brands to eventually strike deals with teams, said Lynch.
“What we’re seeing is that players are almost becoming teams themselves in the number of sponsorship deals they have,” said Lynch.
Initially, star players and their massive social media followings were considered a threat to overall league and team sponsorship revenue. Instead, they’ve provided a boost, said Lynch.
“It’s created a larger ecosystem for brands to enter into the NBA space, sort of dip their toe in the water,” he said.
Athletes often ink endorsement deals that can last just a few months, as opposed to team sponsorships that are longer-term. The exception is generational players, like Steph Curry and LeBron James, who have the leverage for long-term deals.
This season the Philadelphia 76ers’ Jared McCain inked 30 endorsement deals, the most by a player in a single season in NBA history, according to SponsorUnited.
Other top NBA athletes who led in endorsement deals include three New York Knicks players — Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart and Jalen Brunson — who powered the team to the Eastern Conference Finals this season.
Golden State Warriors’ Curry was also among the top-endorsed NBA players. Curry saw his business career trajectory change when he inked a deal with Under Armour in 2013, which was worth about $4 million per year, CNBC recently reported. In 2023 Curry extended the deal and received 8.8 million Under Armour shares, valued at $75 million at the time.
As a whole, the Warriors ranked alongside the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys and MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers as part of a handful of U.S. teams with the most lucrative sponsorships businesses. More

At first glance Bicester Village looks like any other in the Cotswolds, the bucolic corner of England it is located near. It is filled with low-rise buildings with gabled roofs, cobbled streets, wooden benches and greenery. It is, in fact, a shopping centre where designer brands, from Armani to Zegna, sell their wares at discounts of 30% or more. Announcements on the train from London come in Mandarin, as well as English, testament to its status as one of Britain’s most popular tourist destinations. More

The shed, a glittering cultural centre in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards where Ralph Fiennes and Sir Kenneth Branagh have graced the stage, hosted an unlikely gathering of utility and technology bosses on May 29th. They were there not for Shakespeare, but for something as dramatic in its own way. The event celebrated Mercury, a new effort led by the Electric Power Research Institute (epri), an industry body, to create interoperability standards for “micropower” devices inspired by the Bluetooth technology that revolutionised consumer electronics. It will allow such things as electric-vehicle (ev) chargers, heat pumps, solar panels, smart thermostats and residential batteries to communicate seamlessly with electricity grids. More

“Ja, ja, ja, now we’re gonna spit on our hands, we will increase the gross national product!” is the refrain from Geier Sturzflug’s biggest hit. The band’s “Gross National Product” topped Germany’s pop charts in 1983, when the country’s work ethic was still ferocious: “when grandpa gets on his bike on Sunday/and sneaks into the factory/then grandma worries he’ll collapse/because grandpa is working an extra shift again today.” More