Tariffs on South Korean vehicles have increased to 25%, putting Hyundai and Kia at a disadvantage compared to Japanese automakers. GM reported a widened fourth-quarter loss but raised its 2026 guidance, citing strong pricing and disciplined inventory management. Anchor CEO Jose Flores emphasizes the critical role of data management in the software-defined vehicle era, arguing that poor data practices lead to profit loss and inefficiencies. The discussion highlights the importance of strategic partnerships and effective data utilization in the evolving automotive landscape.
Ancor CEO Jose Flores explains why data management is the overlooked key to the software-defined vehicle era and why companies are “bleeding profit, trust and time” by treating data as back-office compliance. President Donald Trump raises tariffs on South Korean vehicles to 25 percent, putting Hyundai and Kia at a disadvantage against Japanese rivals. Plus, General Motors widened its fourth-quarter loss to $3.3 billion after electric vehicle charges but raised 2026 guidance.
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"The move also affects GM, which imports the Chevy Trax and Buick crossovers from South Korea."
Buick crossovers are SUVs made by Buick, which are designed to be comfortable and stylish for families.
Buick crossovers refer to a range of SUV models produced by Buick, known for their comfort and upscale features, appealing to families and those seeking a more premium driving experience.
"Speaking of GM, the United States' largest automaker widened its fourth quarter net loss to $3.3 billion."
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GM, or General Motors, is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the United States, known for producing a wide range of vehicles including cars, trucks, and SUVs.
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EB production
"That's after taking more than $7 billion in charges, mostly tied to scaling back EB production."
EB production means making electric cars, which are becoming more popular as people look for eco-friendly options.
EB production refers to the manufacturing of electric vehicles, which is a focus for many automakers as they transition to more sustainable energy sources.
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Welcome to Daily Drive. For Tuesday, January 27th, 2026, I'm Kellan Walker in Las Vegas today on
the show. Trump raises tariffs on South Korean vehicles to 25%. GM widened its fourth quarter
loss but raised 2026 guidance. Ford and GM just cleared a major banking hurdle. Plus,
anchor CEO Jose Flores explains why automakers are bleeding profit by treating data as a back
office compliance thing. Let's run through all the news you need to know to keep up in the auto
industry. President Trump is raising tariffs on South Korean vehicles to 25%, up from 15%,
putting Hyundai and Kia at a disadvantage. Trump says South Korea's parliament has an
approved last summer's trade deal, so he's bumping duties on autos and other goods to the higher rate.
That gives Japanese automakers, who face just 15% tariffs, a new edge over their Korean rivals.
The move also affects GM, which imports the Chevy Trax and Buick crossovers from South Korea.
Seoul is now sending its trade and industry ministers to Washington to implement the deal.
South Korea's parliament says it'll take up the legislation next month. Speaking of GM,
the United States' largest automaker widened its fourth quarter net loss to $3.3 billion.
That's after taking more than $7 billion in charges, mostly tied to scaling back EB production.
But despite the red ink, GM raised its 2026 guidance. The automaker projects net income of
$10.3 to $11.7 billion and expects to cut EB losses by more than $1 billion this year. CEO
Mary Barra called 2025 exceptional amid shifting trade and tax policy. GM's also boosting its
dividend 20% and buying back $6 billion in shares. The company anticipates higher tariff cost in 2026
between $3 and $4 billion. We'll have more on this story in a minute with our own Lindsey Van
Hulley. And GM and Ford just cleared a major banking hurdle. After years of waiting, the FDIC
approved deposit insurance for their industrial banks. Ford Credit Bank and GM Financial Bank.
Why does this matter? The answer is lower funding costs. FDIC insured deposits are cheaper than what
captive finance companies typically pay to raise money. Ford plans to buy auto loans from dealerships
and finance EV infrastructure. GM will mostly buy loans from GM Financial. Both automakers have a
year to launch. They need to maintain hefty capital reserves and must keep their bank boards
independent. BMW and Toyota already operate industrial banks. Stellantis and Nissan have
applications pending. And those are today's headlines. Joining me now to discuss GM's
fourth quarter results is our own Lindsey Van Hulley, who covers General Motors for
Automotive News. Lindsey, welcome back to Daily Drive. Hi, Kel. Happy to be here.
So Lindsey, GM took over $7 billion in charges but raised its 2026 guidance.
Walk us through how GM can be optimistic about this year despite the massive write downs.
So the charges that they took in the fourth quarter are mostly related to scaling back
EV production. There were some charges related to ongoing restructuring in China.
Those really have an impact on net income. So in this case, that contributed to a net loss in
the fourth quarter of $3.3 billion. But when you look at their earnings from an adjusted basis,
before interest in taxes, that was actually up 13% to about $2.8 billion. And for the year,
when you look at that adjusted pre-tax earnings, it was actually near the high end of their
guidance for the year. And so they look at this really as underlying strength in
their core automotive business. Pricing is remaining strong. They've kept inventory
pretty disciplined as far as trying to match output to demand so that they don't have a lot of
inventory sitting there that then requires a lot of incentives to move. And they see more of the
same into 2026. They're forecasting a more profitable year. They have raised their guidance for
net income and for their adjusted EBIT in 2026. And that's even with tariff costs that continue
looking at ways that they can offset that. They're expecting to be able to improve their EV losses
by about $1 billion in 2026. And all of those factors together kind of look to that being a
stronger year going forward. And Lindsay, what can UAW workers expect when it comes to profit
sharing checks this year, given these results? Profit sharing is tied to North American earnings.
And so they're going to be about $10,500 or up to $10,500 this year. It's less than about $14,500
that they received last year. And it's a reflection of the fact that while they earned nearly $10.5
billion in North America for the year, it's less than last year. And tariffs obviously had an impact
there. And so it's still a pretty significant bonus check. It's just not going to be as much as last
year. Perfect. Lindsay, thank you so much for joining me. Thanks, Cal. You can read Lindsay van
Hulley's reporting on GM and all of today's top stories at AutoNews.com. Coming up next,
anchor CEO Jose Flores discusses why data management is a critical and overlooked factor
in the software-defined vehicle era. That's next on Daily Drive.
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Welcome back to Daily Drive. I'm Kellan Walker. As automakers race toward software-defined vehicles,
most focus on flashy sensors and autonomous technology. But anchor CEO Jose Flores says
they're missing the foundation, data management. Flores argues that without proper data collection
and traceability, companies are bleeding profit, trust, and time. Our own Jake Nier spoke with
Flores at CES about why he says data is king. Jose Flores, welcome back to Daily Drive. Excited
to be here. So the last time I talked to you, this was on Mackinac Island at the Mackinac
Policy Conference. At the time, I know anchor was really leaning into the EV battery passport
technology at the time. And a lot has changed then. So I'm really excited to hear what the road has
been like since then. So obviously with a lot of policy changes, back then you had a different
administration really pushing for a lot of requirements for sustainability. Europe was
doing a lot towards sustainability and tracking and things like that. Different kind of environment,
now to say the least. So talk about that part of the business and sort of what the situation is there.
Yeah, I think as you mentioned, a lot of things have changed since two years ago. When we launched
BATCOR two years ago, there was no regulations. We were following the EU battery regulations and
the CARB standards. I went three, four months ago to the battery conference in Detroit and I had a
panel interview and the great news is that now there's a battery regulation in the US. If you
ask me how does it compares or for the audience, how does it compares to the EU battery regulations,
I think we did it in a smarter way in the US. It's less, more simplistic, no calculations
needed. It's just building the foundation for the next step which is how do we get the compliance
on the battery traceability. So what's new with Anchor right now? What's been some of the things
you're working on right now? There has been a lot of great news at Anchor on our side. Last time we
spoke we were just automotive. Now we're a whole different group. We're not just one company, we're
a group that has different divisions. We have our automotive division which is the one that we
built our foundation on for more than 50 years and then we have our regulated industries division
which serves healthcare, retail, defense. The fun one which I call my baby is the innovation
solutions group which is the one that comes up to challenges and solutions that serve the
customers. Our latest product is TraceCorp. It's an asset tracking software that will let you track
the supply chain and components in real time through a smart connectivity label. So we took
our label which was our main product and data management to a whole new level now with AI and
chips and it will give you that visibility and auditing for all the warehouses and it's very
impressive. So I'm very excited to be here and see how can I partner with a lot of tier ones and
customers that will want this solution. So talk about what the goal is here at CES. We've had
conversations with analysts who have said you know in the past we've seen a lot of automakers
and tier ones here that are kind of selling what they're doing and now they're doing a lot more
shopping. So I assume that you're you're trying to take advantage of that. Yeah of course I mean
the CES in the last three years has changed and evolved a lot. For me last year it was mainly
automotive I was surprised to see a lot of EVs and startups. This year is a totally different 360
because yes you have the lighter suppliers and automotive and new EV startups and formal over
the world but also you have the AI side of the business and you have everyone that is trying
to build and contribute to the new mobility ecosystem. So for me coming here is okay I'm
looking for partners or how can I put my contribution to this mobility because at the end the way I
see a jake is yes CES tells you about the innovation, the vision, what's the goal. Everyone that is
here is trying to contribute towards that next mobility phase if you want to call it that way
but also all of this mobility you're seeing flying cars you're seeing parts you're seeing cars
recreational vehicles all of these platforms have something in common that I think nobody's
talking about and that's the data intelligence operations right how do you connect all these
components to the platform which is the vehicle right the vehicle is the platform that is going
to take you there but if you don't manage the data properly from mental and you don't have the
traceability the visibility companies will keep bleeding profit trust and time right nobody
nobody thinks about the data only the people that we are into the data field we don't like they
don't think about it but I think it's critically as an important and I know it as long as companies
don't stop seeing data as a back chore compliance thing I don't think they're going to be in the
competition field. That's really interesting to me one of the things that I've heard too is that
on the again on the automotive side for automakers or tier ones to do this correctly to to get into
the sdv era that sort of thing it's going to be really really and in eight s as well it's going
to be really important to choose your partners carefully you know that you could lose a lot of
money if you just try to you know hire everybody and get like everyone's solutions and then all
of a sudden you know it's it's kind of a mess and it's costly so what are you telling automakers
as well as to why you should be part of that team I always start with the line that I like is for me
data is king right you might have the fanciest lighter supplier that there is out there for
for your vehicle platform or or your vehicles but garbage in garbage out right what are you
doing with that data yes the lighter will do its job will tell you where things are but are you
making informed smart decisions are you harvesting the data and now with AI it's even easier because
the challenge previously with data was who manages and makes the decisions with the data like who
makes the analytics on the data you you needed data analytics persons to do that nowadays if you
have a strong AI software you can make those smart decisions with the data but the data needs to be
collected and managed from that point right so are you just using your components to a full
full point are you just using them as a informative type of goal that makes a lot of sense and it's
something that I think is is key across so many different sectors I got to ask you you know you
mentioned that that anchor is now a group within many different things you know any other you know
sides of any other businesses you're you're eyeing right now or anything you want to get into in the
future so we we are getting into healthcare as well it's the same data reigns all right so imagine
this you have a medical enclosure with medicines or components each component has has an RFID label
on it that will give you the data to make informed decisions like okay how many quantities do I have
when do they expire who's checking those items or medical medicines in and out of the cabinet
and it's just faster and everything flows because you're not going sending a human to check okay
do I have enough inventory in this medical cabinet do I need to order more when are they expiring no
right now with with the technology that we have if you leverage it properly you can make very fast
informed decisions so we are in the we're in the healthcare field now and right now we're also on
the supply chain filled with trace score which is what I said on the warehouse through smart
connectivity labels you can audit assets on real time in seconds you don't need to send someone to
do head counts or counts of how many material do you have with a click you can see like hey
you have 10 000 assets you're missing nine 10 of them are misplaced they're not in the on the rack
and shelf that it should be and by the way you have only two of this so you might order more
and when you're in production you know how important is for you not to have downtime downtime is
costing you a lot of money so when a line breaks you need to go and find that part and make sure
that you have that part and go and replace it right away so the amount of money that automakers
are losing trying to find in a 10 000 or 100 000 critical component cage departs it's very impressive
so we saw that business case we saw that for one of our partners and now it's one of our flagship
products so you're in you're in different sectors but you're really in the data efficiency business
is that fair yeah that's a very nice assumption data operations intelligence it's everything that it's
related to data that will give you the traceability to make the decisions i wanted to do a quick
follow-up on actually my first question there because i'm i realized i should have followed
up in the first place i'm curious what you think in terms of again when it comes to ev batteries
which is what we talked a lot about last time is it easier now is it harder now in that business
based on all the i mean we hear so much about the the pullback on evs and the you know and
that sort of thing how's that affecting you guys i think it has been affecting us also as a country
because as you saw the ev credits are being pulling back people are being more resilient
towards evs they're now now we're following the hybrids route and everything if you ask me jake
the need is out there we do need the ev batteries yes we have the tools that we need to do the digital
twin for the batteries and that will take the batteries decision to the next level because
you will be able to see on a digital twin what's the real life cycle of the battery how many cycles
left i i saw one supplier here that also does a battery management system like like like we do
and i think the need is there companies are struggling because we don't have the direction
jet off okay are we are are we following going all on board to the ev race or no two years ago
yeah we were as a country full ev race mindset now if you read about well you know the automakers
are pulling out of the ev race like they're they there's there's oems that have full platforms
that were very popular and now they're going a different direction so the need is out there
i don't think he's a surgeon as he was two years ago and and do you think that you're
feeling optimistic about the long-term future or are you a little less optimistic now i'm very
optimistic i do think that the ev platform it's something we need we don't need to rush into it
we need to go step by step same thing that we did with the regulations we decided to lower down
the regulations now we need to say like okay if we want to go on the ev race how long is it going
to take five years ten years okay what do we need do we have the infrastructure because i i always say
we don't even have the data and and and for the infrastructure to charge the vehicles and now we
did the ai on it like the power that we require to maintain ai plus the ev vehicles that's going to
be a very interesting question that if someone needs to address like how are we going to get all
this energy from it's not like we don't pull it out of the air you know anything else that you
want to say before we end up here no i think it has been an excited uh very exciting show i i like
to see the the goal ces is always the innovation the the show i i i always tell my friends and and
my uh my partners that for me ces is it shows you the chinese objects right but the real question is
out there like do you have the software and the tools that run at three in the morning on the
operations plan because that's the thing that is going to give you the real advantage not the
chinese vehicle but something that runs at three in the morning when no one is working that's how
you build the legacies osa flores ceo of anchor thank you so much for joining us today of course
jake thanks for having me that's daily drive for today i'm kevin walker thanks to automotive news
journalist lindsay van hulle ans grimo and john hudder for their reporting for today's podcast
you can get the latest news on tech and innovation tariffs and trade and everything
happening in the auto industry at auto news dot com 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 dot
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