The Dodge Ram is a large pickup truck made for tasks like carrying cargo and towing. People talk about it a lot because it’s a major option in the truck market. If you’re shopping for a truck, it’s one of the models you’ll likely see mentioned in sales and competition news.
Stalantis is the big car company that owns multiple brands. In this segment, they’re talking about Ram and Jeep competing inside that same corporate group.
A “tariff era” means a time when governments are charging extra taxes on imported goods. The episode says those taxes are changing where cars get built and how much market share different countries take.
Mike Stanton leads NADA (the dealer association). In this segment, he explains why he thinks the current car-dealer franchise system will keep working, especially because of state laws.
Carvana is a company that sells used cars, often through an online buying process. The episode brings it up in the context of whether traditional dealer franchises will still dominate.
The franchise system is the traditional way car brands sell cars through local authorized dealers. Stanton says laws in each state and how buyers behave will keep that system working.
Factory rationalization means a company changes its factories to be more efficient—like consolidating production or cutting capacity. The episode says Volkswagen is doing this as part of its turnaround.
Operating margin is a way to measure how profitable a company is from its main business. The episode compares Volkswagen’s planned profit level in the future to what it expects right now.
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Welcome to Daily Drive. For Thursday, June 18th, 2026, I'm Kellan Walker in Las Vegas.
Today on the show, Ram is gunning to dethrone Jeep Estalantis' top North American brand.
Volkswagen's CEO faces a shareholder revolt over his turnaround plan, and Canada is taking
the hardest hit in the tariff era. And it may not be over yet. Plus, NADA president and
CEO Mike Stanton talks Chinese brands, Carvana, and why he believes the franchise system will
prevail no matter what. We're going to continue to do what we do to strengthen the franchise system
via the state franchise laws and the different challenges there. But we also know we'll just
win in the marketplace. Let's run through all the news you need to know to keep up the auto industry.
Ram is gunning to become Stalantis' top North American brand, surpassing Jeep by the end of the decade.
Stalantis projects Ram will hit 825,000 sales by 2030, representing 60% growth, while Jeep
plateaus at 740,000. To get there, the company plans to more than double Ram's lineup, adding
compact and mid-sized pickups, a full-size SUV and a small van. Tim Koniscus, who heads
Stalantis' American brands, told investors trucks represent 16% of industry sales, but
nearly 40% of profits, and Ram intends to capture more of that.
Volkswagen group CEO Oliver Bloom faced a shareholder revolt at the company's annual
challenge, his three-year turnaround plan, saying investors aren't buying it. Bloom says VW has
nearly finished the first phase of restructuring, targeting cost cuts and factory rationalization,
but acknowledged the old model no longer works. US tariffs are costing the company around 5
billion euros a year, and while VW targets operating margins of 8-10% by 2030, it's only
expecting 4-5.5% this year. And Canada is emerging as the biggest loser in the tariff era,
and the outlook could get worse before it gets better. According to the Center for Automotive
Research Chief Economist Tyler Harp, Canadian vehicle production fell 15% year-over-year
through April, while US output rose more than 1%. Harp says US-built vehicles gained nearly
6 percentage points of market share after tariffs kicked in, with Canada accounting for 45% of the
losses among trading partners. Canadian-built vehicles now face effective tariff rates of
12-13%, roughly on par with imports from Japan and South Korea. And those are today's headlines,
you can find more details on all those stories at AutoNews.com. This week, the Center for Automotive
Research held its annual management briefing seminars in Ypsilanti, Michigan. CAR-MBS is one
of the biggest events of the year for industry executives and insiders trying to hash out the
policy, politics, and trends affecting the global auto industry. Automotive News Assistant
Managing Editor Hannah Lutz was there. We'll hear her interview with NADA CEO Mike Stanton
on the sidelines of the event in a minute. But first, she and our own Jake Nier talk about
the biggest trends at this year's MBS. Hannah Lutz, great to have you back on Daily Drive.
Hi Jake, thanks for having me. So you were just at MBS this week in Ypsilanti. What were some of
the big themes driving the conversations there? Yeah, so most of our listeners are probably
familiar with CAR-MBS, the Center for Automotive Research. It's kind of like a legacy auto industry
event that used to be, it was in Traverse City in northern Michigan for many years and this year
was in Ypsilanti, which is close to their office in Ann Arbor. And there are so many big topics
in the industry right now and so many forces that could really reshape how the industry functions.
There's competition from China, the renegotiation of the United States, Mexico, Canada Agreement,
which formally starts July 1st. And then powertrain shifts. There's just a lot really
at stake and that makes for a lot of interesting discussion at these types of events.
NADA CEO Mike Stanton spoke on stage. We're also about to hear your interview with him
on the sidelines of the event. And he had some really interesting things to say about the
durability of the franchise model, whether it's Chinese brands eventually entering the US market
or direct sales models like Scout. What's his argument? So we all know that NADA and dealers
do not like direct sales. That is very clear. They've said that over and over again.
And basically, he re-emphasized that and really in a strong way, he said that the
franchise system he believes will prevail no matter what. So even if Chinese brands are
eventually sold in the United States, he says it would be through dealerships. The franchise system
will hold up in that way and it'll be through dealerships. He showed a lot of skepticism,
as usual, of direct sales, especially towards Scout because as he said, every vehicle sale
in service and repair order is unique. It's not something you can buy on Amazon. So really drilling
into that point on direct sales being a bad thing for the customer. He also had some really interesting
thoughts about Carvana as well, which it seems like maybe there's a little softening there.
Yeah. So it was good timing because our colleague Melissa Burden was actually with
Carvana during the same week at one of their stores and she wrote about really how digital the
company is in this cube that they use in a playground. So you can see more of that at
autonews.com is a really cool story. So he acknowledged that customer service is key
and that dealerships need to make themselves the place where customers want to buy cars.
So he really put it on dealers. You need to be able to compete with places like Carvana
that have a different experience than the traditional dealership experience.
But he wasn't making Carvana the enemy at all. He actually told us that Carvana is
now a member of NADA because of the franchise dealerships it owns now. He called Carvana part
of the family, which I thought was an interesting turn of phrase and such a shift from years ago
when Carvana was seen as a major threat to franchise dealers. And at that time too, Carvana
was criticizing the traditional way of selling cars. So it's a real reversal from what we've
seen in the past. And he said that Carvana getting into franchise dealerships is a compliment to
auto retailers and something that dealers can learn from. He wants dealers to embrace that
competition and learn from Carvana to make the sales process more transparent and more digital.
He talked about that on stage and then we got a bit deeper into it on the sidelines.
Fascinating stuff. And as you mentioned, we'll hear more of that from your interview with Mike
Stanton of NADA in just a minute here. Hannah Lutz, assistant managing editor at Automotive
News and co-host of the Shift podcast. Thanks so much for joining us. Thank you.
Coming up, NADA CEO Mike Stanton on Chinese brands, the franchise system and why Carvana is now,
in his words, part of the family. That's next on Daily Drive.
Navigation can go beyond just marks on the road. And this week on Shift,
we're looking at the future of automotive navigation with AI.
Tom Tom, Senior Vice President of Product Engineering,
Manuela LaCarno Agai talks about developing a map with real-time information at the lane level.
It's not just knowing the traffic on the road, but you know the traffic per lane, for example.
Or if you know there is a hazard on the road, you know which lane the hazard is.
LaCarno Agai also explains how AI can lead to better interactions with voice for navigation,
how Tom Tom is building trust with AI, and how automakers are reacting to the new technology.
Join us for Shift, available this Sunday wherever you get your podcasts.
Welcome back to Daily Drive. I'm Kellen Walker. NADA President Mike Stanton spoke with our own
Hannah Lutz on the sidelines of the Center for Automotive Research's Management Briefing Seminars
in Ypsilanti, Michigan this week. They covered the future of the franchise system
from whether Chinese brands would sell through dealerships if they eventually entered the U.S.
market to NADA's skepticism of direct sales models like Scout to Stanton's surprisingly warm take
on Carvana's push into franchised retail. Stanton also weighed in on the FTC's ongoing
advertising crackdown and what dealers across the country are telling him about it.
Mike, you were talking about really the dealer point of view on China's not entry into the U.S.,
but possible entry. What that would mean for them, for their business, and for the auto industry?
What is dealer's point of view? Do they see China as a threat? Do they see opportunity there?
So I can speak for NADA from a policy perspective. The NADA board, the whole
organization sees the Chinese definitely as a threat because it's their subsidies
from the government. So we've always been for a level playing field for fair competition
and that would not be the case if the Chinese came to the market under the current situation.
So we've supported the administration's policies and we'll continue to do so.
What I think is unique about that is that you've got that support coming from retailers
who want to sell what the customer wants, but this is us taking a step back, getting educated
and taking a longer term view in terms of our responsibilities to the industry and our country.
So I remember, I don't have all the details in front of you, but some of the public dealership
groups trying to learn about the Chinese brands by doing business in other countries with them.
How is NADA not taking that same approach, but really trying to get in there with the Chinese
brands to learn more for that possible day? So we've been to China a couple of times.
So we've experienced the market firsthand and then we have relationships throughout the globe
with other trade associations. So we've tapped those relationships to talk to them about how
things are going in the market and we've also visited. Gosh, we've been Italy, Mexico, Brazil,
Hungary, Australia. We've been all over the globe talking to dealers about their experience with
the brands. And you mentioned on stage that you think the franchise system will hold up
kind of no matter what. Can you talk more about that with the future?
Well, we're winning in the marketplace. 96.2% of vehicles sold were through franchise dealers
last year up from 95% the year before. And we're going to continue to do what we do to strengthen
the franchise system via the state franchise laws and the different challenges there.
So we will continue to do that, but we also know we'll just win in the marketplace.
So you mentioned that we've been covering what's been going on with the FTC and trying to really
dig into those details. But you were saying that the FTC can actually help dealers in that
mission to sort of win the marketplace or keep the marketplace with the franchise system.
How would that happen through the FTC? Are you talking about the rules that have been
in the news lately? Yeah, so our role has been primarily to educate the FTC. Listen,
make sure that we understand exactly what it is that they're looking for. Explain to them
that the dealers are 100% in charge of their advertising. You know, you've got third party
listings and you've got the manufacturers. And so our role has been to advocate for the dealer,
but also to educate the FTC on how the business works and then talk with the manufacturers,
talk with the third parties, and we're getting traction across the board. And as I was telling
Francis, right, that what I hear as I go market by market, the dealers have kind of gone into
a stage of acceptance that this is the new way of doing business, but they're frustrated with
what I'll refer to now as the outliers, the bad apples that continue to do things the old way.
And when that happens, it really disrupts the market. So if you've got to think about it,
if you had a bad actor or a cheater, as I meant, what did I say before? If nobody minds standing
in line until somebody butts. And if somebody's going to be out of line, then that kind of
it can become a competitive situation. So we've got good traction on it and we just keep chipping
away. I'll ask you one more question before we let you go related to Carvana. Actually,
one of our colleagues is with Carvana at the dealership today. So how do you see Carvana
in this space as they maybe get more dealerships or just stick with the one they had? And do you
see more of the non-franchise automotive companies doing something similar?
So I don't know on the other companies. I just don't have a pulse on that yet. I mean, the one
thing, the NADA certainly doesn't want to be involved in telling a dealer not to sell to
Carvana. We would never do that. I mean, that's not our role. That would probably be illegal. So
we wouldn't do that. I think Ernie had invited me to be maybe he's doing an event in Dallas.
So I'm just getting to know him and we want to talk to the manufacturers about this. As long
to me, as long as they're doing everything in compliance with a law, we'll figure out a way
to work with them. As I mentioned, they're members of NADA now, part of the family.
That's Daily Drive for today. I'm Kellan Walker. Thanks to Automotive News journalist
Vince Bond Jr. for his reporting for today's podcast. We also have reporting from William
Boston of our sibling publication, Automotive News Europe and Greg Lason of our sibling
publication, Automotive News Canada. You can get the latest news on Ram's product push,
the VW shareholder meeting, the tariff impact on Canada and everything happening in the
auto industry at AutoNews.com. Come back tomorrow for a conversation with Brooke Conkel and Chris
Capruso of Troutman Pepper Lock about the FTC's letters to dealers and its crackdown on advertising
practices. I think it was a legitimate surprise to a lot of people that this current iteration of
the FTC is really viewing sort of the total price disclosure in the same way as the prior
administration did. We'd love to hear from you. Let us know what you think of the show and the
topics we covered 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, leave a review and subscribe
so you never miss an episode.
About this episode
Ram is aiming to overtake Jeep in North America, while tariff pressure is reshaping automaker expectations—Volkswagen citing margin hits from US tariffs. NADA CEO Mike Stanton argues the franchise model will endure, pointing to franchise dealers’ outsized share of sales and the role of state franchise laws. He also reframes Carvana as “part of the family,” saying it’s now a NADA member and that dealers should learn from its more transparent, digital sales approach. China and FTC advertising enforcement remain key pressures.
