June 12, 2026 | The week’s top stories and Magna’s Swamy Kotagiri on investment, EVs, USMCA

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Hi everyone and welcome to the June 12th,

2026 episode of the Automotive News Canada podcast.

I'm your host, Craig Lason,

the digital and mobile editor at Automotive News Canada,

coming to you from just outside Windsor, Ontario,

the automotive capital of Canada.

Today on the show,

we hear from Magna International CEO, Swami Kodagiri.

He recently sat down with Curt Nagel

of our sibling publication, Crane's Business Detroit,

to talk about what's really driving hesitation

in capital investment right now,

what the supplier learned

from the electric vehicle volume shortfall,

how the company is navigating relationships

with Chinese automakers,

and how Magna is preparing for a renegotiated

USMCA.

But first,

a look at some of the top Canadian automotive stories

of the week.

China's biggest electric vehicle maker

is taking another step in Canada.

BYD is seeking to fill nine management positions

in Toronto.

Roles are in sales, marketing, operations,

and dealer network development.

The automaker is one of several Chinese brands

preparing to enter the Canadian market

after Ottawa replaced steep tariffs

with an import quota system.

Industry sources say BYD is unlikely to begin selling vehicles

in Canada before 2027.

It's working through certification

and dealer network planning.

Sticking with retail news,

China's arrival isn't the only shakeup

in Canada's auto retail landscape.

Ineos Automotive is tripling

its Canadian retail footprint.

It's expanding from just two dealerships

to six across the country by the fall.

The British automaker,

which sells the rugged Grenadier SUV

and the quartermaster pickup,

has opened new locations in Toronto and Montreal areas.

It plans to add Ottawa next.

Ineos says the larger network

should help double Canadian sales this year

as it builds awareness of the off-road-focused brand.

And finally, on the trade front,

US President Donald Trump says

he's not looking to renew

the US-Mexico-Canada agreement.

It comes up for review next month.

Speaking at the White House this week,

Trump repeated claims the US doesn't need

Canadian lumber, energy, or its cars.

But even if a new deal isn't reached

by the July 1st deadline,

trade would continue under existing USMCA rules.

The three countries would have to conduct

an annual review for up to 10 consecutive years.

Canadian officials continue pushing for an extension.

And that's a look at some of the top Canadian

automotive stories of the week.

You can find more on those and other stories

at our website, AutomotiveNews.ca.

Coming up, we hear from

Magna International CEO, Swami Kodagiri.

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Welcome back to the Automotive News Canada podcast.

I'm your host, Greg Lason.

We'll now hear a conversation between Kurt Nagle

of Crane's Business Detroit

and Magna International CEO, Swamy Kodagiri.

I'm here with Swamy Kodagiri,

CEO of Magna International.

Swamy, thanks for being here.

Good morning, Kurt.

Thanks for having me.

So sourcing rules, inflation, tariffs, incentives,

all of these various factors

that are complicating manufacturing footprint decisions.

If you had to point to one

that's the most challenging to account for,

what would you say?

Uncertainty.

That kind of encompasses everything.

Absolutely, right?

Because the reason why we are having this conversation

and you bring it up is the disruption

that each of this thing has created.

And the disruption is nothing that is lasting,

but it's having an impact on how you think about it today

and it causes hesitation in deploying capital.

So you take away uncertainty,

that means you solve the problems

and there is nothing bubbling.

So you talked a bit about making

the manufacturing process more efficient

and making the design process

such that you simplify products.

Would you say that's the focus of a supplier now

is not necessarily making the next cutting edge product

but making the cutting edge way to make the product?

Unfortunately, Kurt, this is not anything new, right?

Even when I was in school,

which is a long time ago,

we learned something called simultaneous engineering.

So when you design a product,

you should be aware of where it's gonna be made,

what equipment is gonna be used to make it

so that you can design for manufacturability, right?

And the engineering lingo,

that is learning the failure modes,

what can go wrong,

put the right controls in place and so on and so forth.

So this is really manufacturing and design working together.

It's always been there,

should be there for any good practice,

but it's become more relevant now

because of the rate at which the design of the car

and the use of the car

and the way the cars are manufactured

is all changing at the same time

because technology is changing,

consumer habits are changing,

there is propulsion systems are coming in

and so on and so forth.

So it's just become a little bit more relevant,

but I think it was always an important thing.

So let's talk about something

that from my perspective seems to have changed a little bit

and that's the relationship between supplier and automaker,

especially in light of the EV volumes

coming up short of expectations.

Could you talk a bit about how that now informs

your decision with customers

when you're quoting programs and such?

Yeah, I think look the EVs,

the example that you gave electrification

was just a reaction to the market signals,

whether it's consumer demand, policy,

whatever, or technology.

If you sit back and look at it,

we always need to have that conversation

which brings a little bit of pragmatism to the table.

So in other words,

if the OEM and the suppliers sit together as partners

and say, this is what we are trying to make,

this is what we're gonna invest together,

and here is the possible implications

if you don't hit the volumes, right?

So can we phase it in

or is the premium worth the market you're trying to capture?

So those are the discussions that we've had in the past,

but now we have data to show that,

hey, if we had taken this path,

we could have mitigated the impact, right?

Not locking in on one outcome

and over-indexing is the big lesson you learn

from this whole process, right?

I still believe electrification is a secular trend,

but it's just not moving at the trajectory

that everybody thought it would.

So unlike, I mean, automakers don't promise volumes.

I don't think that that's changed or maybe it has,

but what sort of, I guess, protections can you put in place

from a supplier perspective

that maybe in the past automakers wouldn't have agreed to?

Yeah, maybe not as much protections,

but call it a paint share

to bring a little bit more pragmatism into the thinking, right?

I've talked about in the last couple of years,

when inflation came in and EV surge was happening

and it withdrew or recalibrated itself,

we started talking about a few things.

One, the labor economics are gonna be reset

when the program is starting

versus when you want the job, right?

And the gap is two years sometimes.

You win the job two years after you launch it.

So that's one example.

The other one, we always have a viewpoint

on what we think the volume is gonna be, right?

Either based on historical data or just what we believe

and that's a mutual discussion to have.

In some cases, we have asked the OEM

to participate in the capital deployment,

not just the supplier putting in the capital.

So there have been some instances where we have had that.

The third one we call not volume protection, but banding.

There is a band of, we think we're gonna produce 100.

If it's 80, it's 120, we'll find a way to go along with it.

But if the change is higher than that,

then we'll have a discussion commercially, right?

So some of these things have helped,

constrained the problem a little bit better

and that's a lesson learned.

Gotta talk about China.

Obviously that's the, if not the focal point,

one of the central topics in supplier conversations

is growing your Chinese domestic business in China,

obviously, now in Europe and now Canada.

In what ways is magna sizing up the opportunity generally

and are you in talks with Chinese domestic OEs

trying to enter and grow in Canada?

So like I said, I think about five and a half billion dollars

of our total revenue is in China, coming from China.

And we have typically always focused on localizing production

where there is demand and meeting the policy requirements.

And 65% of that total China businesses with Chinese OEMs,

so we are in the Chinese ecosystem supplying them today

as supplier partners.

And if you go back 20 years when the Europeans

who we were producing for in Europe came to North America,

we came with them to start supplying

for their assembly plants in North America.

What we're gonna do with Chinese OEMs is no different, right?

There is nothing specific we're doing by country,

we are in 27 different countries.

So this is gonna be no different

other than how we worked with OEMs before.

So can you say if you're in talks with Chinese OEMs

trying to grow and establish themselves in Canada?

Not specific to Canada, but as I told you,

we have business in China with Chinese OEMs.

So we are part of their ecosystem

and we'll have discussions on many programs, right?

Not specific to a country.

And I gotta ask one more question on that

just because obviously it's a competitive issue

with your major customers here in Detroit.

How sensitive is that relationship that Magna's forging

with these new Chinese domestic entrants

and how do you balance that with your legacy business,

these competitive Detroit automakers?

Honestly, we work with all customers globally today, right?

And this is no different

because they are all mutual competitors to each other.

We have everything in place

and we highly respect the confidentiality

that comes along with producing parts.

We've been in business for almost 70 years now

and that's something we take very seriously.

So I don't think this is any different.

They know we've been working with different OEMs

all across the world, this is no different.

On the topic of automation, artificial intelligence and such,

is that more driven like in-house by the supplier

to try to be more competitive in bidding these products

or do you see feel pressure from automakers and customers

saying, hey Magna, you need to implement this piece

of automation or what have you?

No, I think it's most customers care for is quality

in time delivery and being competitive, right?

To me, a lot of these tools are enablers

of continuous improvement, improvement in productivity,

which ultimately results in being competitive

and therefore better for the consumers

in terms of affordability.

So it's more internally driven

to keep the advantage that we have

and get that little bit of edge.

On the topic of EVs again, Magna is no different

than other suppliers and some stranded capacity,

these big EV investments and now suppliers trying

to fill out these plants that are not producing parts

in the way that was previously predicted.

Can you tell me what the conversation is like

with General Motors or Ford where you've made

these big investments so you're not getting the payback

that you planned, how are you being made whole?

Yeah, I don't think anybody's being made whole.

Now you have to define what being made whole is, right?

So in some cases, it is redeployment

on different programs.

Sometimes it is the customers compensating

in terms of the capital that was put in place

for a specific program, but it's still

an opportunity lost, right?

You don't wanna be getting back your capital.

What you really want is the capital working together

revenue and therefore the profits,

but the market conditions changed, it was dynamic.

So it was a mutual way to find the best way

to solve the problem that we have at hand.

I would say that the discussions have been fair

given the difficult situation we were all in.

They're never easy, but it's not as simple

as here's my bill, they pay, it goes into

what other programs can we work on?

Where can I redeploy?

How should we look at this in the long term?

The combination of these things

is how we're addressing the problem.

And to drill down into that just a little bit,

so like the investments announced here in Michigan,

there was I think like half a billion dollars or so

and 2022 was announced for these EV programs.

Could you provide maybe just a high level

sort of status check on where these projects stand

and how you're using that capital in that capacity?

Yeah, you must be talking of the MAPS plant

and Sinclair Shores.

Again, all of these things have been in place.

Some of it was compensation by the OEMs

on capital that was put in place, but programs were canceled.

Some of it was reutilizing the equipment

for other programs.

Some of it is where the customers are coming in

to say here's other programs that we can put in place.

And they don't necessarily have to be EV.

And that's the advantage of MAPS, right?

80% of our business is agnostic to propulsion systems.

So it doesn't matter whether it's EV or hybrid or EV.

So there is a lot of conversations

with different customers.

We have seen programs already awarded

that are going to be launched there.

So it's a continuing process of reutilizing

the space and resources that were meant to be

for one specific program.

What are those programs that are being launched there?

Can't talk about it.

We can break news if you want.

I know.

But this is what I was talking about

respecting the confidentiality of the customers.

Understood, understood.

And tariffs, because we couldn't let you get away

without talking a little bit about the tariffs.

I've heard just generally that tariff refunds

either haven't hit yet or they're coming very, very slowly.

What is Magna's perspective on that?

We are in the process.

I think we've applied, gone through the normal process.

And you have to recognize that when we were going

through the last one and a half years,

we have got compensated for the tariff exposure

by the customers, right?

So when and if you get this tariff recovery,

it's a pass through to the customer.

So 80 cents to a dollar, we've been compensated.

So all of that goes back.

So there might be a little upside to the exposure

that we have taken in the last year.

I talked about 10 basis points for Magna,

roughly being the headwind of the impact last year.

Similar this year.

If these things come, it'll offset a small piece of that.

Have they come yet?

Do you know?

I don't know how far you are in the weeds of that,

but has the government actually issued the refund checks?

Honestly, I don't know the details of it, but it's in process.

And then just last question for you on the USMCA

and the trade negotiations and such.

Can Magna do anything or has it done anything proactively

in preparation for what may come of these negotiations?

Or is it really just a wait and see and figure out

where all the pieces fall?

As we went through the tariff discussions,

we've been working with customers to, first of all,

under the existing framework,

what can we do to make it USMCA compliant?

What alternatives do you have in the supply chain

to mitigate tariff exposure?

We've always talked about localizing production

to meet demand and policy requirements.

So we have the footprint.

It'll depend on how the OEMs are thinking

about their long-term strategy,

because we supply to the OEM assembly plants,

taking into account the logistics

and the size of the part, ease of transportation.

So we'll have to wait and see, right?

But do we have scenario planning?

Again, based on discussions with customers?

Of course, yes.

We can't be sitting and waiting.

So let's see what scenario works out.

I'd like to thank Swami for his time

and Kurt for conducting the interview.

If you'd like to be a guest on the show,

have a suggestion or simply want to comment,

email me at glasen at autonews.com.

And remember, you can listen to all our previous podcasts

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automotivenews.ca.

Just scroll to the podcast hub

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And don't forget, you can follow Automotive News Canada

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That does it for this episode

of the Automotive News Canada podcast.

We hope you'll join us next time.

So long, everybody.

June 12, 2026 | The week’s top stories and Magna’s Swamy Kotagiri on investment, EVs, USMCA

About this episode

BYD

import quota system

Ineos Automotive

Magna

stranded capacity

General Motors

Ford

redeployment on different programs

Brand BYD

Concept import quota system

Brand Ineos Automotive

Company Magna

Term stranded capacity

Company General Motors

Company Ford

Concept redeployment on different programs

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