Jan. 7, 2026 | CES interview: SDVerse CEO Prashant Gulati; Nissan sales chief resigns

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Welcome to Daily Drive for Wednesday, January 7th, 2026.

I'm Kellan Walker in Las Vegas.

Today on the show, Nissan's leadership revolving door keeps spinning as its US sales chief resigns after just four months.

Shoppers are warming up to AI in the car buying process, and Volvo brings back Thomas Ingenlath as chief design officer to harmonize screens and physical controls.

Plus, SDverse CEO Prashant Gulati talks about speeding up software-defined vehicle development and whether the industry can keep pace with China.

Time is money. It's not just on the demand side. It's on the development side also.

There is literally no reason for you to spend six years when you can do the same thing faster.

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

Nissan's US leadership revolving door just keeps spinning.

Michael Souter has resigned after just four months as US sales boss, citing personal reasons.

He's being replaced by Tiago Castro, a 23-year Nissan veteran who has been leading Infinity Americas since April.

Castro brings US retail experience dealers say they've been craving.

He ran Nissan's high-volume Midwest region for three years.

That matters as the company grapples with flat sales, multi-billion-dollar losses, and dealer trust at rock bottom.

Castro becomes Nissan's fourth US sales chief in two years as the automaker tries pulling itself out of its worst financial crisis in decades.

We'll talk more about this story in a minute with our own Irvash Kakaria.

Shoppers are warming up to artificial intelligence in the car buying process.

A car guru's study surveyed more than 3,000 recent buyers and found 80% are open to using AI when shopping for a vehicle.

A quarter are already doing it, the most popular uses, comparing vehicles and finding specific listings.

Customers are also interested in AI help for summarizing reviews and exploring financial options.

The least popular application is scheduling dealership appointments.

At just 23%, the shift signals growing consumer comfort with AI tools reshaping how people research and purchase cars.

And Volvo is bringing back Thomas Ingenlath as chief design officer starting February 1st.

Ingenlath designed the XC60 Volvo's all-time bestseller

and previously led the company's design team before becoming Polestar's first CEO.

Ingenlath tells our colleagues at Automotive News Europe that his top priority is creating better harmony between digital screens and physical controls.

We haven't really got a good harmony between what we have in screens, what we have with controls.

I think there's still a big, big task ahead of making the car feel good and really joyful.

He'll also join CEO Hogan Samuelsson's executive management team.

The two have a long working relationship with Samuelsson calling Ingenlath a trusted advisor who gives him tips on what to do or not to do.

And those are today's headlines. You can find more details on all those stories at AutoNews.com.

Nissan's U.S. sales leadership turmoil continues.

Our own Ervash Kakaria covers Nissan for Automotive News and broke the story about Michael Souter's resignation.

Ervash, welcome to Daily Drive.

Thanks and happy new year.

Same to you.

So, Ervash, walk us through what happened here.

Michael Souter was only in this role for four months.

What do we know about his resignation?

Yeah, so it was pretty sudden from what I understand.

Michael handed in his resignation, I believe, shortly before the holidays to North America or America's chairman, Christian Monier.

It's a pretty tough job.

It's pretty grueling and Mike had returned from kind of semi-retirement.

He was off on sabbatical leave for a while and he kind of came in to do this job when the last head of sales, Vinay Shahani, left.

From what I understand, I guess it was a bit challenging and I guess Mike realized that he wanted to go back into retirement.

So he handed in his resignation.

But yeah, from a company standpoint, the turmoil is not good.

For the dealers, it's not good.

For the company itself, it's not good because every time you have a new person in that key role, the strategy changes or at least it gets tweaked.

So there's less consistency.

Now Tiago Castro is stepping in.

What does he bring to the table and what are dealers saying about this appointment?

Yeah, so Tiago is a known entity to the dealers.

He's been a Nissan Motor Company veteran since I think for about 23 years, 24 years.

I think it was his, it's been his only job.

Nissan has been his only company.

And so, you know, he's very familiar with the dealers.

He ran the Nissan Midwest region, which is one of their high volume,

most competitive markets.

And then most recently he was promoted to be Infinity Americas, essentially CEO or the head of Infinity Americas.

And he's been in that role since I believe April of last year.

So he definitely has retail experience.

He also has a lot of international experience.

He's Brazilian and he had spent several years with Nissan in Brazil running different operations.

So he brings sort of an international perspective, but he also brings a deep retail perspective to the job.

So the dealers, at least the dealers are kind of, I mean, if there's a consolation prize and all this chaos,

it's that they're getting a known entity and not someone they've never dealt with or who hasn't dealt with them.

And Irvash, finally, how does this leadership change connect to the news you broke earlier this week?

That Nissan overhauled its dealer compensation plan.

Dealers complained the old structure decimated their profits with unrealistic sales targets.

Right. And I mean, I think this is all related to Mike's exit in some way or the other because, you know,

they launched this new program hoping to get more dealers engaged and involved with selling new car sales.

Because Nissan's biggest problem is that it's not increasing sales, which is then affecting the dealers bottom lines.

In 2025, you know, Nissan, essentially the whole company, so including Infinity, Nissan Motor Company,

their sales grew only 0.2%. So essentially nothing.

And so they launched this new dealer program last summer where they basically said,

okay, dealers will pay you all your margin for selling new cars.

But that turned into a problem because the dealers said that the objectives were too high.

They were not able to hit that number. And if they tried to hit those volume numbers,

they were losing money on every car that they sold and too much money.

So finally, in January, like essentially, you know, starting today, I believe,

I think it's Jan 5th or Jan 6th, they've launched a new program where they've reduced the number of bonus tiers.

Essentially, what they've done is they've lowered the objectives.

They've lowered the volume targets that dealers must hit to earn a payout.

So they're hoping that this will help the network basically feel like they should participate in basically selling new vehicles.

Perfect. Irvash, thank you so much for joining me.

Thank you. Have a good year.

You can read Irvash Kakaria's reporting on Nissan at AutoNews.com.

Coming up next, S-Diverse CEO Prashant Gulati talks about accelerating software-defined vehicle development timelines

and whether American consumers are ready to adopt features at the same pace as Chinese buyers.

That's next on Daily Drive.

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Welcome back to Daily Drive.

I'm Kellan Walker.

S-Diverse is the automotive industry's first marketplace for software

started by General Motors, Magna, Wipro, and other partners.

Prashat Gulati is the company's CEO.

He spoke with Automotive News, tech and innovation reporter Mali Boygon here at CES about why speed matters,

how the industry is responding to competition from China,

and whether American consumers are ready for rapid feature rollouts.

Here's that conversation.

Prashat Gulati, thanks so much for joining us at CES 2026.

It's my pleasure.

Thank you, Mali, for having me.

So for those who are not familiar with S-Diverse,

will you just give us kind of like a top line summary of what you do?

Yeah, so S-Diverse is the automotive industry's first marketplace for software.

This was started by General Motors, Magna, Wipro, along with quite a few other launch partners,

NXP, Valeo, Echimando, etc.

What we do is when OEMs like we've got GM and Stellantis as an example,

as buyers come in also,

when they're looking to buy software that matches their technology stack,

they come use our platform to find that software.

So we cut down 8-week, 12-week RFQ cycle to 10 minutes, if you will, right?

So very focused on efficiency, moving things fast,

and you know, we take a very fragmented supply chain

and convert to a very, you know, digital structured process for OEMs.

When we spoke at last year's CES, you had said S-DVs were still awaiting their chat GPT moment.

Where do you think we are in the S-DV transition at this CES?

So I think as we've all seen over the year, one, there's been a lot of focus on agent-TKI,

not just in mobility, but in general.

I think a lot of models have matured, a lot of thinking around how agents can work across industries and products has changed.

So I'm quite excited to see how agent-TKI is sort of playing a role.

But I think even more than that, physical AI, which is robots and you know, more autonomy within vehicles,

that has come a long way.

I would say 2025 was the year autonomy actually proved itself to some extent, right?

Before that it was a cute experiment in some places,

but now you see more and more cities getting rolled out by more and more companies.

So I think, you know, I haven't walked around a whole lot,

but 2025, like I said, was a great year from an autonomy point of view, physical intelligence point of view.

But obviously there's a lot of work to be done to get public trust and focus on safety, reliability, you know, so on and so forth.

So 26 is going to be exciting, very, very short about that.

So you were talking earlier about how S-DVIRS is attempting to speed up the amount of time

that it takes automakers to develop the S-DV, find the right software.

A lot of the stuff that I've been seeing at the show has been focused on those development timelines.

Why is it important for the industry right now to focus on accelerating development timelines?

So, you know, obviously many reasons time equals money, right?

Every day of delay.

I think there's a PWC research that shows just within the U.S.

because of software delays, it costs the industry about $50 billion, and this is a PWC estimate just based on software delays.

So time literally is money.

Every day you don't roll out.

I mean, if you think about it, there's like 100 million cars sold every year.

You translate that to number of vehicles sold every day.

If you miss production by a day, that is, you know, equivalent of millions of dollars lost.

So, you know, I think it translates to it doesn't have to be like that.

Software doesn't have to suck so bad, right, so to speak, right?

So, you know, I think there are ways and what we do, one of the ways I think about what we do at S-DVIRS as an example is,

you know, there are technology innovations and then there are process innovations.

So we are very focused on process, so to speak, right?

So technology is evolving.

A lot of people have done digital cockpits and AI and autonomy and so on and so forth, right?

But you can create the best product in the world, but if the person who is actually going to be in charge of deploying that software

does not know you created this cool thing, how are they going to know?

So if you think about Tic Apple iPhone, right?

Their distribution strategy was partnered with AT&T and so on and so forth.

So that's how we think of our work, right?

Process innovation.

So we help companies find software faster so you don't have to develop everything by yourself.

There isn't enough time, time, talent, capital in the world to do everything by yourself, right?

A lot of companies, as you've reported in the last year, are figuring this out the hard way.

And you know, we're helping, we're helping, like, we are buying the industry for the industry,

you know, initiative that is trying to address that problem.

So you articulated clearly, you know, time and money savings and if you never get your product to the consumer,

does it really exist sort of a tree falling in the forest metaphor?

I wonder, though, how much of the industry push to increase development timelines is also driven by competition from China?

A hundred percent, right?

Sorry, please go ahead.

This is a very topic I'm very excited about, so I jumped in.

I didn't mean to go inside, so please go ahead.

So, you know, a hundred percent, like as you've seen in, you know,

over the last many years, development timelines for newcomers, especially out of China.

So, you know, what would typically take, let's say, a Western automaker three years or more,

three to five years, six years sometimes to launch the companies in China are doing it in half the time, right?

And what that does is newer products, more refreshed products, faster release cycles.

And so that's kind of waking up, you know, the industry a whole lot.

You've seen exports come out of China at a rapid clip, you know,

you've seen what it has done to sales in Europe, right?

You know, it's waking up a lot of people, right?

But the other thing is, you know, software by itself is, this could be arguable,

but in my view is a commodity.

What that means is you spend a lot of time and money developing a new feature

and somebody else is going to copy it in three months and launch, right?

So, the three years that you spend developing it is, you know,

it was, you could have had better use of that capital, you know, from that point of view.

So, that's why speed is important, right?

Is that's what customers want, that's what competition in China,

they're not waiting for our six-year cycles, if you will.

So, I mean, without doubt, in fact, if anything,

so if you, one of the contrasts, because we talked to a lot of OEMs

and especially supply chain and teams at OEMs,

there used to be this push over the last, you know, 100 years, if you will,

to save every cent out of every part, right?

That thinking is changing, right?

So, cost is, of course, important, but velocity is more important

than, you know, getting the perfect price out.

So, I also wonder if, as the industry is looking toward China

and looking to compete with China, which I think is wise,

if there's a little bit of a sort of projection of the expectations

of the Chinese consumer onto the American consumer.

In other words, is the American consumer primed to absorb

and utilize features at the rate of a Chinese consumer?

Obviously, a huge generalization, but in general, I think that

I have to wonder if, you know, a rush to develop these features

and speed up development timelines will actually be met with demand.

It's a great point, right?

And like you said, this is a generalization slash,

I'll give you my point of view, right?

And of course, only time will tell.

I think the answer is no, and I'll quote that with an example.

Take WeChat in China, right?

It is a super app, so people do everything through WeChat, right?

Right from text call, pay bills, you know, so on and so forth.

A lot of companies across the world outside China

have tried to develop super apps.

Not one company has been successful.

Why? Because of user resistance, because of, you know,

people just live a certain different way.

You know, there's a lot of consumer behavior

that is very common in China, like the karaoke's

and, you know, customizing and, you know, color,

like you change the skin color of the car and so on

and so forth or make it Hello Kitty and whatnot.

I don't think outside of a niche that adoption is here.

Similarly, you know, China has a large,

like a significant percentage of electric cars

and hybrids now.

We've seen electrics have not exactly, unfortunately,

worked out so well in the U.S.

So different markets, different consumer behavior.

So you're absolutely very right to call this out

that speed is important, but, you know,

are people ready for it?

And, you know, maybe yes, maybe not.

But I do think that, you know,

improving speed on vehicle development,

it doesn't, there's two minutes, like we said,

like time is money.

It's not just on the demand side.

It's on the development side also.

There is literally no reason for you to spend six years

when you can do the same thing faster, right?

So by through better processes and technology.

So it can be, things can be efficient

and that can translate into savings for the consumer.

And I don't think consumers are going to say no

to saving in their pockets, right?

So, yeah, that's a good point.

And then also in terms of the acceleration

of development cycles,

I spot an interesting tension between the expectation

that automakers will be able to release new generations

of vehicles faster and the sort of central SDV offering,

which is that new capabilities and functionality

will be delivered to the vehicle over the air,

which to me I would expect would extend

to the vehicle life cycle.

So how are you thinking about those two things

and the vehicle ownership cycle with SDVs

and with accelerated development timelines?

So, you know, again, great point, great hypothesis

if you will, right?

See, right now if you think about it,

like the average ownership,

average vehicle ownership is about 11 years in the U.S.,

right? I don't know if extending that is,

you know, I don't know if people want

to keep their cars for 15 years.

That said, I do think that, you know,

the fact that your vehicle can become better over time,

right? So you're through software,

software defined vehicles,

which means your suspension will is only

going to get better over time

or your braking gets better over time

when you get infotainment.

It is constrained by hardware, right?

You're not going to put,

so companies will keep some headroom

but they're not going to sell a vehicle today

that is ready for 2035, so to speak, right?

So I think SDVs have tremendous amount of potential,

right? For cost savings, for new feature rollouts,

et cetera, software to develop software,

rollout software is much cheaper than to do hardware,

right? So I think it's going to happen.

It is going to extend the vehicle lifecycle.

People will be able to personalize their vehicles more.

We'll see more features as an example.

If you have the compute capacity

and somebody wants to launch the driver monitoring system

or something else, right?

So there'll be room for improvements

and people are going to want to keep their vehicles longer

because it doesn't feel old so much anymore.

So, yeah, I think SDVs will like help the consumer

with, you know, these new features

and extend the lifecycle.

There's an argument to be made

and that's going to be a design choice

that I think this is something

maybe we were starting to talk about is, you know,

what if the compute capacity, as an example,

the compute that you put in your car

does not accommodate new features you want to launch, right?

And so that is going to, it's poor design choice

but, you know, companies might be forced to do it

because of cost balance, if you will, and whatnot.

Anyway, so nobody's doing it

so we'll see what time will tell

but, you know, SDVs in general

can improve residual values

which can introduce new business models

like a lot of companies have tried subscription models.

Not one company has been successful

but if your residual gets better right through software

you can test out this new business model.

Secondly, today your car is in its best shape and form

when it rolls out of the plant

but if it gets better, you know,

you can make more money on your second sale

and the third sale.

Today an OEM does not make any money

on the second used car sale.

So a lot of that will change.

I think we are quite far out in seeing any of that mature

but, I mean, the promise and the possibility

is definitely there.

When you talk about the hardware limitations

for software defined vehicles, my mind goes

and even if it's 10, 20 years down the future

to modularity

because you have these, you know, as you said

actually frequently evolving components, processors,

even a cellular chip that in theory

if the vehicle architecture was set up the right way

could just be swapped out.

Do you see the industry taking that seriously

because I sort of doubt it just on the,

based on the sheer difficulty that they've had so far

already working with a consolidated flexible architecture.

See that is stated intention of a lot of companies, right?

It does take a lot of work because, you know,

there are processes, workflows, organizations,

you know, that don't function like that.

But the industry is moving.

There are quite a few companies

that are doing distinctive work.

We are very much promoting more standards,

more modularity, right?

So software can be decoupled from hardware.

Most OEMs are demanding that now.

Open source enables that also to some extent, right?

And now with AI, like all the work,

great work that has gone into AI in the last year or so

or more actually, I think that's going to help

even more open source and do things better, faster.

Hopefully things get modular.

That said, software, I don't think automotive software

will ever come to a point where it'll be more plug

and play, right?

Or download, like you will,

I don't see any point in time in the near future

where you'll have an app store for mobility

where you can just download software

and it'll start working in your car.

You know, because reliability, safety, traceability,

all of these things are very important

when it comes to cars, right?

Roshan Gulati, CEO of SDverse.

Thanks so much for joining me.

Thank you very much, Molly.

Thank you for having me.

That's Daily Drive for today.

I'm Kellen Walker.

Thanks to Automotive News executive producer,

Jake Nier, as well as our own,

Ervash Kakaria and Molly Boygan

for their reporting for today's podcast.

You can get the latest news on software

to find vehicles, AI in car shopping

and everything happening in the auto industry

at AutoNews.com.

Come back tomorrow for a conversation

with former Waymo CEO, John Krajcik

who says robo taxis won't replace cars

but their tech will make driving safer.

I think people are finding increasingly

they don't need two cars in the garage

or if they have three cars

they don't need three anymore

they can get by with two.

Two, they can just get by with one.

We'd love to hear from you.

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Jan. 7, 2026 | CES interview: SDVerse CEO Prashant Gulati; Nissan sales chief resigns

About this episode

Volvo XC60

Nissan Motor Company

Infiniti

dealer compensation plan

sales targets

new car sales

dealer program

volume targets

General Motors

Stellantis

software defined vehicles

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