Automotive News Daily Drive Feb 21, 2026

Feb. 21, 2026 | Weekend Drive: Will auto companies get tariff refunds after SCOTUS ruling?

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Car

Chrysler Pacifica

The Chrysler Pacifica is a family minivan that has a lot of space and features to make driving with kids easier. It's designed to be comfortable and safe for families.

Car

Toyota RAV4

The Toyota RAV4 is a small SUV that is known for being reliable and good on gas. It's a great option for people who need a versatile vehicle for different activities.

Term

tariffs

Tariffs are extra fees that countries charge on products coming from other countries. This can make things like cars more expensive for buyers.

Term

model year changeover

The model year changeover is when car companies start selling new versions of their cars for the next year. This is when they might change how the cars look or what features they have.

Brand

Kia

Kia is another car company from South Korea that makes a range of vehicles. They are known for their stylish designs and good value for the price.

Brand

Hyundai

Hyundai is a car company from South Korea that makes many types of vehicles, including sedans and SUVs. They are known for being budget-friendly and offering good warranties.

Brand

General Motors

General Motors is a big car company in the United States that makes many different kinds of cars and trucks. They own brands like Chevrolet and Cadillac.

Term

sticker prices

Sticker prices are the prices shown on new cars that tell you how much the car costs. It's the price the manufacturer suggests the dealer should sell it for.

Term

Transaction prices are the real prices that people pay when they buy a car, not just the price that the manufacturer suggests. These prices can change based on sales, deals, or how much people are willing to negotiate.

Term

destination fees

Destination fees are extra charges that car companies add to the price of a car to pay for shipping it to the dealership. These fees can sometimes be quite high and have been going up lately.

Term

UAW

The UAW stands for United Auto Workers, which is a group that represents people who work in car factories and helps them with their rights and working conditions.

Brand

Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company is a well-known car manufacturer in the United States, famous for making cars like the Ford Mustang and trucks like the Ford F-150.

Term

dark factory

A dark factory is a factory that uses robots to do all the work without any people inside. This helps make things faster and cheaper to produce.

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Welcome to this weekend drive edition of Daily Drive

for the third week in February, 2026.

I'm Kellan Walker in Las Vegas.

We're breaking down some of the biggest stories

in the auto industry from the past week.

Looking forward to what's in store in the days ahead.

Joining me today are Larry Veliquette,

who covers Toyota, Mazda and Subaru for us

at Automotive News.

Larry Legend, thanks for joining us.

Thank you, Kell.

Great to be here.

And Greg Lason, digital and mobile editor

of our sibling publication, Automotive News Canada

and host of the Automotive News Canada podcast.

Greg, it's great to have you back.

Good to be back.

All right guys, so let's start with the big news

from this week, the US Supreme Court struck down

many of President Trump's tariffs,

ruling they were issued illegally

under a 1977 emergency powers law.

Larry, this is a six to three decision

that affects reciprocal tariffs

and duties on Canadian, Mexican and Chinese goods.

But tariffs on vehicles, auto parts, steel, aluminum

and copper remain in place.

Walk us through what just happened here.

So, Kell, what happened is that these US Supreme Court

ruled six to three to say that Donald Trump

did not have the ability to enact these emergency tariffs

under what's known as the IEPA, IEPA tariffs.

Notably, this was the same ruling

that the Supreme Court upheld a ruling

mentioned six months or that was made six months ago

that these tariffs were illegal.

And a majority of the Supreme Court said yes.

But in that ruling, when six months ago,

they stayed the decision pending this outcome.

So the tariffs have continued to be collected

during the last six months.

And now what's happened here,

and this is extremely complicated,

but let's just stick with the auto industry part, right?

Because it's gonna be a mess, no matter what.

Because we're talking about now the government

has to refund this money

because it was collected unconstitutionally.

Right now, the estimate of what's been collected

under this emergency powers law is about $133 billion,

including at least $8.6 billion

that was collected in the auto industry.

And that will have to be refunded at some point.

We think the decision didn't actually deal with it

with how to refund it.

It simply said that these were illegal.

So right now, we are hours when we're recording this,

we're hours into this decision.

It's gonna take some time for everybody to digest this.

Already though, we are seeing some reactions

from the federal government,

the Trump administration saying

that they'll just redo these tariffs under different laws.

What is notable though is that most for the auto industry,

most of the ruling, most of the tariffs

paid by the auto industry

are what are called section 232 tariffs.

Those tariffs remain in place.

So the tariffs that are driving up prices

in dealerships across the country

and really creating havoc with our trading partners,

those are unaffected by this ruling.

Now, Greg, from a Canadian perspective,

what does this ruling mean?

The court didn't say whether refunds are owed

or how they be distributed.

What are you hearing?

I mean, more than anything for Canadians as a whole

and even in the auto industry,

this is more of a moral victory.

It feels good because Donald Trump has been ruled against

and remember, as Larry said,

most of what this ruling covers

are tariffs and duties outside of the auto industry.

But what it does is it gives a little bit of hope

to the industry and to Canadians

that the 232 tariffs might be next.

Although if you listen to all the experts,

Donald Trump has a little more leeway

and a little more authority over those 232 tariffs.

And so those will probably remain in place.

And so just as the prices remain high in the United States,

they're gonna remain high over here.

Some of the tariffs that have been collected

under the IWEPA, maybe there's a refund coming,

but as Larry said, we're still a few hours into this.

We don't really know who's getting back what

or if they even have to be reimbursed at this point.

But in the immediate term, there's a lot of positivity.

There are a lot of people applauding the decision

and right down from government officials,

those in opposition, some in the auto industry.

But basically everyone's saying, okay, now do 232.

Are those going away or are they staying?

Chances are they're going to stay

because they are a matter of national security

according to the president.

And according to American laws,

the president has the ability to institute those tariffs

if they are deemed to address a national security issue.

So in Donald Trump's mind, aluminum, steel, auto, auto parts,

those all represent a national security threat

to the United States.

Now I would say this, I would agree with that.

If in fact we were sending over Chinese electric vehicles,

perhaps there is a national security issue there

in terms of technology, but just from building vehicles

in Canada and even in Mexico under the USMCA,

a lot of people in Canada within the industry

just don't see a national defense

or a national security issue with anything that's built

under the guys and under the rules of origin of the USMCA.

Can I just clarify something that Greg just said?

He prefaced that last sentence with among Canadians

and it should also include among Canadians

and many, many Americans.

They don't see a national threat

in driving a Chrysler Pacifica or a Toyota RAV4.

That does not constitute a national threat

to many, many Americans.

So I just want to point to that out

that there are many of us who are on the same side

on this issue.

And Larry, as you mentioned, the auto industry paid

about 8.6 billion through October 2025

in duties now deemed unconstitutional.

How do you expect suppliers and automakers to respond?

Do you see them filing a lawsuit to get their money back?

Well, presumably they shouldn't have to, right?

I mean, for every dollar that gets sent

into the federal government, there's a receipt.

Into the treasury.

And even though you're talking about separate fiscal years,

either side of October 1st,

there is a record of what every company paid in duties.

So presumably you just reverse those,

just like a tax return, you just reverse those transactions

for the duties that are deemed unconstitutional.

Now, will the federal government do that?

Probably not, they'll make it very complex.

But right now they don't really know.

Nobody knows at this point what'll happen,

but I will say this, if I'm a supplier

or if I'm an automaker who did pay a couple hundred

million dollars in duties that are now unconstitutional,

damn right, I want my money back, right?

I have more use for that money than the US government does.

I wanna make sure that I get that back.

So I think every company is gonna be very eager

to watch for a way, watch what the way is

that they're gonna get their money back.

But really, they shouldn't have to file lawsuits.

They shouldn't have to do anything other than say

to the Department of Treasury or the Department of Commerce,

hey, we sent you this money, you weren't able

to take it legally, send it back.

Before this week's Supreme Court ruling,

tariffs were already hitting dealer lots hard.

Larry, walk us through this new data from Catalyst IQ

that says automakers used model year changeovers

to quietly raise prices about $1,200 more aggressively

than last year.

Yeah, so Catalyst IQ is the successor company

to Cloud Theory and Cloud Theory has been tracking

average marketed price for us since these tariffs

came online back in April.

So we've had a little box in our website every day

that shows what the average marketed price is for that day.

And if you notice, if you watch that,

you noticed it didn't move very much.

And a lot of that was because even as the tariffs kicked in,

automakers were adjusting the mix.

And so just this broad average wasn't really showing

what's happening.

We also thought that what we were told by automakers

is that a lot of them didn't wanna get up in the face,

get it up in the grill of the Trump administration

by raising prices, even though they were paying these bills,

notably Toyota paid $10 billion this year in tariffs.

They didn't wanna get up there and get in front

and say, we have to raise prices because of these tariffs.

So what they did, we believed was what we were told

they were gonna do was bake them into the model

year changeover.

So what we did is we went to Catalyst IQ

who every night scrapes information off of every dealer

website in the United States by VIN.

And we said, take a look at that data

and tell us how prices have changed on vehicles

that were not built in the US.

And they can do that by VIN, right?

The first number of the VIN indicates what country,

first number of letter indicates what country

the vehicle was assembled in.

So they went back, they did the analysis.

And what they found is that the vehicles

from four nations had significant increases.

The biggest one was our friends north of the border, Canada.

Their prices, the prices of Canadian assembled vehicles

sold in the United States went up almost 10%

just since last October.

So what that tells you is that automakers

were baking that into the changeovers, right?

The same happened though not quite as extreme

with vehicles from Japan, with vehicles from Germany

and with vehicles from Mexico.

US-made vehicles went up slightly, right?

Less than 100 bucks.

And what's really interesting is that vehicles assembled

in South Korea actually went down.

Now-

How does that work?

Yeah, exactly, right?

How does that work?

Well, I tell you how it works.

If you're an automaker and you have prices rising

all around you, what do you do?

If you keep your prices low or actually even lower them,

you are buying what's called buying share.

You're buying market share, right?

It's gonna cost you a little more,

but you've now answered the affordability challenge

for consumers, you've exposed them to your vehicles.

So this drop, which is laid out in our story,

this drop is simply a move by Hyundai Kia.

Just to mention, General Motors also was building

the tracks there, right?

This is a move generally by Hyundai Kia to buy share.

Now, Greg, we just heard the data from Larry,

and as he said, sticker prices have jumped nearly $4,000

for vehicles that have been assembled in Canada.

This has to be painful for Canadian built vehicles.

How are they reacting north of the border?

I mean, so far it's full steam ahead

for Toyota building the RAV4.

Part of the reason some of the prices in Canada went up

is because Toyota, for example,

went all hybrid on all its RAV4s,

a little more expensive,

but Toyota has made massive investments

in their factories up here,

and they're not turning their back on it.

Honda is full steam ahead where they're at now,

and they did move some production to the United States

to avoid some reciprocal tariffs and that sort of stuff.

So right now, early on,

it doesn't look like much is going to change,

but we're still waiting for Ford Oakville

to come back online.

I don't know what happens there with super-duty trucks

when they're starting to be produced.

We're waiting to see what fills Brampton Assembly

owned by Stellantis.

We don't know what's going to be in there right now.

The easy solution is don't build anything in Canada.

If you have an empty factory, just don't fill it.

You can save some money.

So in terms of sticker prices in Canada,

I can confirm too that transaction prices through 2025

were up about two, two and a half percent,

not as much as everyone thought,

but we do know that automakers

are spreading out the cost of tariffs across all vehicles.

JD Power always uses this example

where if one particular vehicle has a price increase

of $6,000, that vehicle doesn't go up $6,000.

10 vehicles go up $600.

So they're spreading it out a little bit.

So in terms of the consumer in Canada,

we haven't seen a lot yet.

In terms of production in Canada, it's full steam ahead

because as everyone knows,

this industry just doesn't turn on a dime.

They've invested in this now

and everyone's waiting to see what happens with

as we started the show, 232 tariffs and with the USMCA.

Once there's more clarity, this dust might settle

and we might see transaction prices

come back down to somewhere a little more normal, pre-tariff.

The other thing I can tell you is automakers up here

are also adding to their destination fees.

So the sticker prices still look reasonably affordable

on some vehicles, but when you look at the destination fees,

some of them have almost doubled in cost.

So the automakers are finding a way to make up

for that cost of the tariffs.

Perfect, all right.

Well, speaking of big news from this week,

Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga just ratified

their first UAW contract in a landslide vote.

Coming up, we'll talk about what that means

for the union's Southern organizing push.

That's next on Weekend Drive.

The auto industry is the most disrupted

on the planet right now.

On this week's episode of the automotive news shift podcast,

we hear from Dan Hirsch, global co-leader of automotive

and industrial practice at Alex Partners.

He breaks down the firm's 2026 disruption index

and explains why tariffs, geopolitical tensions

and the rise of the Chinese automakers

are leaving global executives struggling

to plan for the future.

Senior executives, they are either finding themselves

in a spot where they have to redefine themselves,

which could be very difficult when you're really

well-established or they're going to find themselves

in a very different role or in a very different company.

I'm Molly Boygon.

Join me on Shift, available this Sunday,

wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome back to Weekend Drive.

I'm Kellan Walker with Larry Bellacuette and Greg Lason.

So Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga

have ratified their first contract with the UAW,

and it wasn't even close.

Now, Larry, UAW President Sean Fain says

96% of workers approved the four-year pact.

That's a landslide.

What did workers get from the deal?

The terms of the deal, according to the UAW,

this is their first contract with VW.

The workers will get a 20% general wage increase

over five years.

They get improved healthcare with lower out-of-pocket costs,

a one-time $4,000 ratification bonus

and annual bonuses of $2,550 each year.

So you got about $14,000, $15,000 in bonuses

over five years, plus a 20% wage bonus.

That's, yeah, it's not bad money.

After taxes, though, let's be real.

I'm just kidding.

We're all paying them.

I know we're all paying them, right?

One reason why I say that is because tax time is like now.

Oh yeah, believe me.

And trust me, I'm paying more than you guys.

Oh, for sure.

Just so you know.

You're paying 2% more.

Don't kid yourself.

Then you get healthcare.

Well, this is a major victory for the union

in a decades-long push to organize

foreign-owned plants in the South.

Where does the UAW go from here?

And what's the next target?

So they have many targets that they identified early on,

whether they can get any of the rest of them to votes.

We haven't seen yet, right?

The next one, obviously, we think is gonna be Mercedes.

They're plants in the South.

We'll see, though.

This might be a one-and-done.

I'm gonna say first, this is a historic achievement, right?

Let's be clear.

They have not had success organizing transplant workers

since 1979, right?

It was before Mike Martinez was born, as we noted.

But it's a long way back.

I was still in middle school at that point.

So it's been a very, very long time since they had success.

And just winning an election was historic.

Actually getting a first contract is way more difficult.

And the fact that they did,

and that they got 96% approval on eradication,

is pretty stunning.

Now, will other workers in the South at Mercedes,

at, you know, perhaps BMW, Toyota's got a plant in Missouri

that they were targeting for a while, will they go to?

That's the open question.

What I will say is those companies are probably not going to,

they're gonna do everything they can to not be unionized,

but there's a secret.

And I say this as a former union negotiator, right?

If you don't want a union at your place of business,

act like you already have one, right?

If you're an employer, and if you don't want

your company unionized, act like it's already there.

Treat your employees like they're already unionized,

and you won't have a union.

That sounds like Toyota though, right?

Isn't Toyota kind of like that?

Well, I can speak for that up in Canada.

I have Toyota employees tell me all the time,

we don't need a union because they give us

what Unifor negotiates with the Detroit three.

So they have no reason to vote for a union

because Toyota turns around and gives them essentially

the pattern that the Detroit three get

when they bargain with Unifor.

Yeah, and they did the same,

the foreign transplant plants did the same thing

when the UAW got its contract here,

and what was that, 23, right?

Yes.

Yeah, they almost all immediately raised wages as a result.

Well, Greg, speaking of Canada,

I know Canadian workers have been watching this.

Does this have any implications north of the border?

Not directly.

I mean, Unifor's been trying hard to unionize Toyota,

Honda, others around the province

and the supply chain and supply check sector.

I don't foresee that happening ever at Honda and Toyota.

I always get positive reactions from them

in terms of their pay, their wages, their hours,

all of that stuff.

What I'm keeping my eye on is,

I mean, they did unionize Nextstar,

which was up until recently a joint venture

between LG Energy Solution and Stellantis.

So they unionized that shop, the Battery Plant Windsor.

I think the next target would be

Volkswagen's PowerCo Battery Plant in St. Thomas,

but I mean, shovels are barely in the ground there,

but that would be the next target for Unifor, I think,

in Canada.

Yeah, they're gonna need workers there

before they can form a union right there.

The world long ways off.

I mean, like I said, shovels barely in the ground there.

Let's get some bodies in the building first.

Or let's get a building first.

Yeah, or let's get an actual building first, right?

Can we get the foundation built first?

Now, shifting gears to something we've been hearing

a lot about, humanoid robots and manufacturing.

Now, Greg, you've been covering this story

as automakers like Hyundai and Mercedes

push toward full assembly automation

with humanoid robots.

Experts are warning about a fundamental economic paradox.

If robots eliminate manufacturing jobs,

who will have money to buy cars?

Walk us through what you found.

Yeah, I wrote a whole story on this

and it starts with a 70 year old story

that involves the UAW president, Walter Ruther

and a Ford Motor Company manager

who is allegedly Henry Ford II, having a conversation.

Where they say to each other,

hey, Walter, how are you gonna get those robots

to pay union dues?

And Ruther says, how are you gonna get them to buy cars?

So this has been going on for 70 years across automation.

And so when I wrote this story,

what we haven't been able to find

is a CFO or an accountant at an automaker

who's actually looked at this and said,

hey, we can't go full automation

because we'd have no one to buy our cars.

But what I have found is Unifor, for example,

wants to sit down and negotiate robotics

and humanoid robots as part of the collective agreement.

They want to make sure that they aren't taking jobs,

but that they're enhancing jobs,

that they're increasing efficiency and productivity,

and that any of those gains are shared with the union.

So it's really going to become a bargaining topic

when they sit around the table,

probably this Labor Day and beyond

when contract talks start,

because we're coming up on that.

The other thing is this,

the Canadian government is trying to lure Chinese automakers

to Ontario to build vehicles.

Well, the thing is China leads the world

in robot densification.

They have more doing human jobs

than any other country on the planet.

And so we just ran a story over on auto news

and we picked it up at Auto News Canada saying,

the first dark factory,

which means all production done by humanoid robots,

AI and other robotics in the plant,

could appear in 2030 and it will likely be Chinese.

So the question is,

are we pursuing as a Canadian government

a factory that's going to come here

and then just not employ anyone?

We don't know that yet.

But if you've seen the videos just this week

of robots doing Kung Fu in China,

it is a scary proposition

that these robots are going to end up in factories

and they will end up in a Hyundai factory in Georgia

as late as this year or early next year doing some jobs.

In fact, Toyota Canada, just this week announced

it will have six on a shop floor

assisting in building RAV4s.

So yeah, it is a very valid question.

What do you do when the robots arrive?

Who is left to buy the vehicles?

One labor prof at Brock University that I spoke to says,

maybe the government has to step in

and declare a robot tax.

So if you have X amount of robots,

you have to pay more taxes

in order to offset the fewer employees

that are needed on the factory floor.

It is a conundrum that is coming.

And I'm not so sure the union labor employees,

governments and automakers are all on the same page

when it comes to what happens

when we have humanoid robots building vehicles.

I will say Greg is absolutely right here.

This is a larger issue than just the automaker

and their labor relations.

This is a larger issue than just governments and automakers.

This is a societal issue.

It's even bigger than just countries, right?

You're talking about a global issue

that is going to impact humanity writ large.

Now, there are jobs where humanoid robots,

you can see where humanoid robots would be so helpful,

like home health aids, for example.

Fantastic use if you could program them

to have a humanoid robot to help somebody elderly

off the toilet or out of the tub

or to be there as long as they weren't,

you're gonna kill them

from all the science fiction we watch, right?

But if you had an assistant there that could help you,

fantastic use.

When we get into manufacturing,

let's look at what manufacturing jobs are.

These are low education jobs for the most part.

They are physically demanding jobs.

They are repetitive.

They lead to injuries.

They're frankly perfect for robotics,

but that's a problem.

You have vast numbers of citizens who are in those jobs,

right?

And as a society, and not just in my nation,

as a society mankind is gonna have to figure out

what to do with this.

I mean, you bring up a great point about assisting.

So when I first started at Automotive News Canada,

almost more than 10 years ago now,

we did a story on Ford's exoskeletons

that were being used to make it easier

for its employees to lift heavy items such as batteries.

And that was a real bonus.

And that would save the health of the employee

and money for the employer

because those employees weren't suffering injuries as often

as they were before wearing an exoskeleton to help.

That is a way that they help.

But we're talking about robots that can come in

and simply do the job in its entirety.

That is job loss.

That is not job assistance.

And that is a big, big issue for the unions

and for the automakers.

Do you guys think this is a little polarizing though?

Because I just feel like with the robotic technology,

we're still a little far off from having efficient robots.

I mean, just as simple as robots that I've seen,

like at CES of folding shirts,

it's like a human can fold this shirt

10 times faster than this robot, right?

So it's like, is it just a little polarizing?

Are we being a little too doom and gloom?

Because my thing is, is I think robots are great

for like the nasty jobs.

So for instance, I think they should put robots in mines.

No human wants to be in a copper mine, right?

Put the robots in the mines.

We wanna get all these, these battery plants online

and do all this stuff and centralize our supply chain

here in the United States.

Have the damn robots do that work.

I would say this, you know, based on,

and I did a lot of reading and research

over the last three weeks on this for that story,

I would say we don't really know how far off

mass production of robots are that have the ability

to do the jobs we're discussing.

I would also warn that everything I read said

some of the robots that are out there now

can watch you work and learn your movements

and learn your job.

So that is a possibility.

Now the final point I would make,

and I brought this up on an editorial call

at Automotive News this week is,

how are we going to power all of these things?

I've done the research.

These robots last about four hours on a charge.

So they're going to need replacement twice,

a shift essentially, and that's going to take

a lot of energy.

And we hear, at least in Canada,

one of the big complaints about EVs is,

the power grid's not ready.

So if the power grid isn't ready

to power electric vehicles for all,

how is the power grid going to be remotely close

to power an entire population of robots?

And oh, by the way, run AI,

run chat GPT in similar programs and cool them

and all of this stuff that goes into the energy needs.

And so while it's easy to play and say doom and gloom,

I also think we need to take a step back,

go how soon are these really going to arrive

and how are they really going to be powered

and how are they really going to be used?

I think these stories are great to drive interest

and readership and I think there are facts

that are immensely important in the things we do.

But long-term, no one's really been able to say,

how are they going to be powered?

When will they arrive en masse?

Yeah, you know what, Greg is absolutely right here.

And like I said, these are societal issues

that we have to deal with.

I just want to point out, we are all old enough

to remember four years ago when the thought of,

how are we going to power all these electric vehicles

when we don't have enough generation

or the grid is on, that debate raged.

Nobody's brought up that debate

as we're building data centers all over the place.

Yeah, it's the same electricity folks.

If we didn't have enough power to run EVs,

but we suddenly have enough power to run data centers

in every damn town in the Midwest, I don't get that.

Yeah, the final point I would make is this.

My wife works at a bank.

She works as a teller on the line serving people every day.

The ATM was invented what, 50 years ago

and they still have jobs and they were told

the ATM was going to put them out of business

before my wife was even born.

So, I mean, it takes a long time.

How long did it take us to go from essentially

the first Mac to a computer in our pockets, right?

And so, this is the pace at which technology moves.

It's going to, it's going to quicken, no question about it,

but when will it arrive?

We don't know.

Yeah, it's a great point, Greg,

because at the same time, I was at the grocery store yesterday

and the self-checkout lines were a lot longer

than the regular checkout lines,

but only two regular checkout lines were opened,

but everybody was in the self-checkout line,

but there's still a place for it.

I get what you're saying.

Well, I say this, it's similar in auto.

Why are the sales of trucks and SUVs up?

Because there are no sedans to buy, right?

So, if you want people to use the self-checkout,

you don't give them a human to check out with, right?

So, there are ways that companies can force you

into making a decision you may or may not want to make.

Absolutely right.

Let's leave it there, guys.

Greg, Larry, thank you so much for joining me.

So, Greg, who's going to win the men's gold medal game?

Oh boy, man.

You know, I got to say Canada

because I'm from Canada, but I am looking forward to it

as long as the United States is there.

That's what everyone wants, coast to coast to coast up here

and across North America.

Bring on the United States.

It has so much meaning.

I think it's going to be awesome,

and I can't wait to watch it, but who knows?

Who knows?

Me too.

More interest in that than the women's game, believe me.

But, you know, pride's a little hurt up here.

He took a little dent.

Yes, he did.

All right, that's all for this weekend's

Drive edition of Daily Drive.

I'm Kellan Walker.

Thanks to Automotive News executive producer Jake Neer

for his help on today's podcast.

You can get the latest news on the Supreme Court's

tariff ruling, VW's UAW contract, humanoid robots,

and everything happening in the auto industry

at AutoNews.com.

Come back on Monday for a conversation

with Dan Hirsch of Alex Partners

about a new study that says the automotive industry

is the most disruptive industry on the planet right now.

They're individual disruptors that

are kind of pushing these things, in many cases,

heads of state or administrations,

and not things that you can kind of plan for,

even with advanced statistical models

or artificial intelligence.

We'd love to hear from you.

Let us know what you think of the show

and the topics we cover today.

Send us an email at dailydrive at autonews.com

or leave us a voicemail at 313-444-2774.

And if you enjoy the podcast, remember to like,

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so you never miss an episode.

0:00

31:59

Feb. 21, 2026 | Weekend Drive: Will auto companies get tariff refunds after SCOTUS ruling?

Chrysler Pacifica

Toyota RAV4

tariffs

model year changeover

Kia

Hyundai

General Motors

sticker prices

transaction prices

destination fees

UAW

Ford Motor Company

dark factory

About this episode

Original notes