Jan. 22, 2026 | GM moves Buick out of China; Karma's product reinvention

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Welcome to Daily Drive. For Thursday, January 22nd, 2026, I'm Kellan Walker in Las Vegas.

Today on the show, GM is moving Buick crossover production out of China and into Kansas.

Cash buyers are costing dealers big money in the FNI office and Scott Painter is back at Truecar

and taking it private. Plus, karma automotive president Marcus McCammon

discusses the company's complete product reinvention ending its 11-year-old name plate

and launching a new lineup of ultra luxury models. Higher performance, quicker new technology,

new interior, whole carbon body, everything about it has moved up two levels from where the brand

has been in the past. Let's run through all the news you need to know to keep up in the auto industry.

GM is shifting production of its Buick compact crossover out of China and into the U.S.

The automaker announced the successor to the Envision will be built at its Fairfax assembly

plant in Kansas starting in 2028. That moves production of the top-selling vehicle imported

to the U.S. from China to American soil, where it will be built alongside the Chevrolet Equinox

on a shared platform. It's a strategic pivot amid tariff pressures. The Envision has faced

higher duties under Trump administration trade policy with sales dropping 11% last year to just

under 42,000 units. The decision adds to GM's $5.5 billion in recent U.S. manufacturing investments,

reinforcing its domestic footprint as trade tensions reshape sourcing strategies.

Cash buyers are costing dealers serious money in the FNI office.

19% of new vehicle sales in the third quarter were cash deals, up from pre-pandemic levels.

That's even as vehicles got pricier and interest rates dropped. It's a problem for dealers,

since the average cash deal generates just $461 in FNI gross profit, compared to nearly $2,000

on financed sales. But there's opportunity. 21% of cash buyers still purchased service contracts.

Dealers like Holman are offering 0% payment plans specifically for FNI products, helping convert

some of that lost revenue. As one executive put it, it's about value selling, not cost.

And Scott Painter is back at Truecar, the company he founded in 2005. And this time,

he's taking it private. Painter led an investment group, including AutoNation and Zurich,

North America, that closed a $227 million deal on Wednesday to buy the struggling

vehicle listings platform. His mission? Make Truecar profitable for the first time ever.

Painter left in 2015 after dealers fled over pricing concerns. The company has never turned

a profit despite years of restructuring and platform overhauls. Now, he's focused on building

partnerships with Truecar's 11,500 dealerships nationwide. And those are today's headlines.

You can find more details on all those stories at AutoNews.com. Suppliers signaled more confidence

about their company's performance at the end of a Tremultuous 2025. But they remain more pessimistic

about the future of the auto industry overall than their automaker and dealer peers. That's

according to the latest automotive news auto industry confidence index. Joining me now to

talk more about it is our own John Irwin. John, welcome back to Daily Drive. Thanks for having

me back. So John, why are suppliers more confident than last year? And what are the big lingering

concerns? Yeah, we saw a little bit of improvement in how suppliers are thinking about their own

businesses at least. We look at the previous survey that we did in the third quarter of last year.

About 47% of suppliers said that they were feeling, you know, optimistic to some degree

about their own, the performances of their own business. But that jumped all the way up to 60%

just a few months later. And I think a lot of that is driven, there are a few factors at play,

but a lot of it is driven just by, I think a lot of companies demonstrated a decent amount of

resilience. I mean, you think back to like the middle of last year, just given all the

uncertainties surrounding, you know, tariff policy, where things might end up on electrification,

what companies plans will be there, what government policy will be, there was just a lot of unknowns

and there still are a ton of unknowns, a lot of uncertainty moving forward. But there's,

I think at least a little bit more confidence in where things might end up for a lot of companies

where they're seeing, okay, we have an idea at least of, you know, where automakers are thinking,

you know, their electrification plans are going to look like the next few years,

I'm going to be pulling back, maybe that's good for our business if we're, you know, more in the

ice space or what have you. And also the production has sort of held up, I think, to a larger degree

than some people in the supply base were expecting, which is obviously good for, you know, suppliers,

you know, the more vehicles that are built, the more parts that they need to make. And I think

that's held up to a degree. At the same time, though, there's certainly, you know, some concerns

that are lingering for the auto industry and for the supply base in particular. We surveyed for

the first time for this most recent survey, suppliers and asking them about financial distress

in the supply chain. Pretty significant majority of suppliers say that that's a concern for them.

They're worried about, you know, smaller companies in their supply chains,

are they going to be able to hold up? They might have to do if, you know, let's say a

small company, they go bankrupt or they run into some sort of issue in production or, you know,

things that relate to tariffs, you know, how are those going to impact those smaller companies?

That's a pretty significant concern. It's something that I know suppliers and automakers

as well are keeping a close eye on moving forward. But yeah, a little bit of improvement

overall in terms of how suppliers are at least doing their own businesses, that's for sure.

Well, you write that a lot of the negativity about the future is about the overall health

of the industry rather than expectations for how their companies would perform individually.

Can you explain that? Yeah, it's interesting, you know, the majority of suppliers are feeling

good about their own businesses, but at the same time, significant majority of them are

more pessimistic about when we ask about the state of the auto industry than their automaker and

dealer peers. And I think a lot of that, again, is just, I think driven by long term uncertainty

and concern, I guess related in large part to, I think trade is a big part of it. You know,

we have this year, there's still a lot of uncertainty just about where, for instance,

the USMCA might end up, you know, we're looking at, you know, negotiations this year, there's a

review slated for July, but you know, we've seen Trump sort of float the idea of exiting the USMCA,

there might be significant changes to it. Obviously, long term, you know, that's something

that suppliers in North America at least are really, you know, they need to know what the

rules for trade are going to be moving forward when they think about where they want to invest in

that sort of thing. That's the case for automakers as well, but I think for suppliers, it's a

particularly acute issue. And, you know, a lot of them are also, you know, just thinking a little

bit about the strain in the tier two, tier three level, there are a lot of smaller companies that,

you know, we just might not hear of, you know, a lot of tier one suppliers might be feeling

pretty good about their own businesses, but, you know, if that some small company, you know,

deep in the supply chain that makes one little component that's crucial for, you know, the entire

supply chain, if they run into an issue, you know, we've seen that with semiconductors recently where,

you know, if there's this one company that makes one part and we're so tied up with that,

you know, there might be issues down the line. And I think those concerns are still

very much lingering, especially just given a lot of the long term uncertainty of surrounding

tariffs and trade and that sort of thing, what the ripple effects of that might be

throughout the supply chain. So, yeah, I think companies are, you know, feeling good about

maybe some of the resilience that they're, you know, they're showing individually, but they're

concerned maybe just more broadly about the industry where things are at and where they

might move in the future. And, you know, things will continue to evolve, you know, as hopefully

they'll get more certainty on trade policy no matter what's going to happen one way or another

in the coming months. And that might inform how they view the state of the industry moving forward

once we get that. But in the meantime, it's just a lot of treading water, I think. And that's,

for a lot of companies, they'd rather be moving forward rather than just kind of

sitting and waiting around. John, always thorough. Thank you so much for joining me.

Thanks so much. You can read all of our results from our latest automotive news auto industry

confidence index at autonews.com or in the pages of this week's print edition of automotive news.

Coming up, we'll hear from Marcus McCammon, president of Karma Automotive. That's next on Daily Drive.

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Mark McCammon. Welcome to Daily Drive. Thank you. Appreciate you having me on.

First of all, tell us a little bit about your experience here at CES and what are some of the

through lines you're hearing and what is Karma hoping to get out of this show?

Absolutely. CES is something I've been a part of probably since 2014. It's interesting to come

and see how it's changing. I think for us as Karma, it's interesting to see how the world is

converging on what role software and AI are going to play in everything. For us, this is a

trend that we've seen coming for a long time. We see that even in the ultra-luxury segment,

we think that there's a role for how AI plays into the lifestyle and experience of the vehicle

and the brand that we really need to lean into. For us, what we're doing is working on expanding

and establishing partners. We're looking for who's pushing the envelope next. Frankly,

the biggest thing is we think we're looking for the models that enable collaboration for the future

because that's the path to success. Give me your perspective. I'm really fascinated

where you sit here and what CES must be like. It's so important for the ultra-luxury segment

to be cutting edge, to be offering the latest and the greatest. That's got to be a really big

job. Just looking around this hall, how many companies are saying that that's exactly what

they're offering? How do you navigate that? Yeah, it's daunting. For us, the relationship

with the customer has to be bespoke. We have to think about how do we use the technologies

and the products that are here as a platform that we can build unique experiences on top of.

I think that this is part and parcel to the way that software and tech are going to play into

automotive into the future. It won't be that you build a single one-version vertical solution and

it fits everyone. You have to create a baseline from which the consumer can find the experiences

that matter to them, and then you can deliver it to them in a quality, packaged, and repeatable way.

So does that mean building a base of partners that is extremely wide, that you have a lot

of different places to go to? Because if one person wants one solution and another person

wants a different solution, it changes which partner you're going to tap for that.

Yeah, I think it's about building an ecosystem of the right core. I hate when people use the

analogy of the cars of the future being like cell phones on wheels and springs.

We hear that a lot. I know, but the reality of the cell phone is that inside of an Apple operating

system or an Android operating system, there is an opportunity for all manner of services to come

to you as a customer, and you can cater those services to the way that you want to live. So

we're turning the car into a cell phone, but if you think of that process that there's an ecosystem

of services and there has to be some uniform platform underneath them that allows me to tap

into them at your request, that's the way that we look at the market. And there are some suppliers,

some tier ones, and tech companies who have a similar thought process.

So we're sitting here January, early January. What does 2026 look like for Karma? It sounds

like you have some big plans for new products. Very big. Yeah. So 2025, we closed out with the

last of our Revero product line. So the Revero is the nameplate that we launched the company on

in 11 years ago. Okay. So now Revero has seen its last production build. And now everything for us

is focused on the entire new product portfolio that we've been debuting. So the GSR will launch

in the middle of this year, and it will replace Revero as our Grand Coupe, higher performance,

quicker, new technology, new interior, whole carbon body, everything about it has moved up

to levels from where the brand has been in the past. And then after that,

then we start moving into our GTs, our GT coupes. So the Amaris will be the first one,

the first two door that you've ever seen coming from Karma. And that's due,

the first one to roll off by the end of 2026. That's big plans out. I'm curious what the

space for ultra luxury is like in 2026 right now. I mean, what are the, what are some of the

advantage, maybe the advantages in this segment and what are some of the challenges, especially

as you're rolling out these products and trying to get attention, trying to, you know, build a

customer base. Yeah. So I think the, the advantages, let's start off with the ultra luxury space in

the US for one is frankly, the largest and the most profitable across the entire segment globally.

So we usually account for about 30 to 33% of sales for all the manufacturers in this segment.

So it's the right place. The other thing is the amount of people in that buying space has,

is increasing at, depending on who's doing the analysis between 7%, 15% Kager year on year.

So we're seeing more wealthy people who are buying into these car experiences. The other thing is

that the notion of customization and bespoke vehicles is also rising. So, so that, I mean,

we see that from every one of the conventional manufacturers, whether it's premium brands

or ultra luxury brands. So we see that that is really playing to our, to our strengths.

And then there's also a strong motivation to buy American. Okay. And it's not just here in the US,

but it's globally. So the fact that we design engineer and manufacture the cars here,

they're rare. They're intended to be rare. I think we're fitting. Now, the thing that's unique is

everyone always sees Carmen, they think we're an electric vehicle company. We're not. So all of our

vehicles are hybridized. But frankly, so is most of the other super sport cars that are in the

marketplace. We just tend to put the electric drive as a primary mover, as opposed to the secondary

mover. That's exactly what I wanted to get into next. I've been thinking a lot about the range

extender model recently. I'm an EV driver myself. I love EVs. And honestly, I'm one of those people

that likes the environmental benefit of an EV. But I'm also sort of at odds with other people,

like minded people about range extenders, because we hear time and time again, that one of the things

that is a barrier to EV adoption is that people just haven't experienced it. They kind of like

think about it. They think green first, and then they say like, no, I have a, you know, I live

somewhere where there's no chargers. There's no, you know, the infrastructure is just not there.

And honestly, I just don't have the interest with range extenders to me. It's like, wow,

you could get a lot of people that otherwise would sort of poo poo the idea of an electric vehicle

into an electric drivetrain. And they could see all the benefits. Talk about that strategy from

your perspective and sort of maybe a broader look at what that could mean for the market.

Yeah, I think when I think about range extenders, I usually think about through a cultural lens,

right? So the the issue that many people have faced when we talked about electrification

is you gave them a notion that there had to be some kind of compromise, right? So the electric,

oh yes, it's it's torquey and it's fast and it's quiet. But the quiet you took away my my exhaust

note and I bought a Mustang because I like the way it sounded great. I don't have to ever go to

go to a gas pump. But now I have to think more more judiciously about when I'm going to travel

long distances. I mean, there's some, you know, like loose, the other manufacturers lose it and

they have different solutions to it. But you gave the person an opportunity to put a barrier up.

When we think about range extenders and the way that we execute them, we think about freedom.

Okay, so what I say is, you know, I was at an event here in Vegas and and I was with a bunch of

engineers, cartooners, kind of old gear heads, right? And when I said that we had electric

drive, I got booze. I said, but hold on, we are all they actually booed you actually boo. Okay.

And I said, but look, look, I'm a gearhead. I helped start the SRT group. I ran Celine for a

period of time. So I've been around high performance vehicles my whole my whole career.

And I love them. Okay. And when you're making a race car, you're trying to make something more

efficient period. So an electric drive motor is efficient. So let's use the efficiency. And

but if I can tell you that I don't have to make you think twice about where you go,

because you still have a gasoline engine. So now I take the notion of a barrier away. Okay. And then

if you get to choose when you use one or the other, then what I gave you was freedom. And if you

find that you as you experience our cars and our range extenders, that you love the EV experience

better, then guess what? I created a convert. If you don't, then that's fine. You you still have

the ability to drive as fast as any Aston, but you're going to have five, 10 times the fuel

economy, right? And less greenhouse gas emissions than any of the other cars in this in the segment.

I mean, it's a win-win. Yeah, absolutely. Before we wrap up, anything else that you want to add?

Yeah, I mean, I guess the biggest thing for us as we go into 2026 is for people to understand

how karma thinks about value, right? For us, we see that our vehicles, you asked me about the

benefits of being at that, the loftier place in the market. The other thing that it allows me

to do is to lean into technology without having to compromise the benefits of it because I'm

worried about the price point. And what that does is allows me an opportunity to be a contributor

to the broader conversation. So, you know, I used to run automotive systems at Wind River. I ran

Ricardo's automotive business for a while. And what what I see is the future, the next five to

10 years for the industry is going to continue to be transformative. I want karma to be a

participant in that transformation, even as we are helping people to reengage with their passion

and love for true driving. So that's what we're all about. And I maybe this is a loaded question,

but do you see that there's more room or less room for emerging companies right now? Oh,

that's a very loaded question. Well, well, I think I think the answer is yes, right? So and not to

be elusive, right? Yeah, but I think that there's more room because everyone that's changing the

narrative is is an emerging company, right? The emerging companies are challenging the way that

the that the established companies think about what they do in at every level of the company.

And then when you go globally, it's even more so now. And but the less is because the the the

companies that are here and are established are more vigorous and more focused on what their

long term long term survival looks like. So if I'm coming into this as an emerging company,

and my agenda is only one for myself and for my company, then there's high probability that you

fail. But if you're in it to be a part of the society and the change that's going to happen

across the industry and help delete to the growth of future, then I think that there's a lot of

opportunity. Marcus Buchanan, CEO of Karma Automotive. Thank you so much for joining us here at CES.

Thanks for having me. And I really appreciate it. Have a great rest of the show. You too.

That's Daily Drive for today. I'm Kellan Walker. Thanks to automotive news journalist Lindsey

Van Hully, John Hutter, Mark Homer, and John Irwin for their reporting for today's podcast.

You can get the latest news on the ultra luxury segment, GM's manufacturing strategy,

and everything happening in the auto industry auto news.com. Come back tomorrow for more on

how all cash deals are hurting dealers F and I bottom lines. 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 daily

drive at auto news.com or leave us a voicemail at 313-444-2774. And if you enjoy the podcast,

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Jan. 22, 2026 | GM moves Buick out of China; Karma's product reinvention

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ultra luxury models

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hybridized

range extender

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