Reverse import means sending cars made in one country back to the country where the car company is from or to another country. Nissan is doing this by sending US-made cars to Japan.
Left-hand drive means the steering wheel is on the left side of the car. In Japan, cars usually have the steering wheel on the right side, so this is different.
Trade tensions happen when countries disagree about buying and selling goods with each other. This can change the rules for selling cars between countries.
State incentives are money or help that a state government gives to companies to make jobs or build things there. If the company doesn't meet promises, they might lose that help.
People used to buy big fancy cars called luxury sedans, but now they like SUVs more. Car companies want to sell more SUVs because they make more money from them.
Car
Audi Q9
The Audi Q9 is a new big SUV that Audi is making to take the place of their big fancy car, the A8. SUVs are more popular now, so companies make more of them.
Illegal advertising means when companies say things in ads that aren't true or are unfair. The government is warning car dealers to stop doing this so people aren't tricked.
The FTC Act is a law that stops companies from tricking people with false ads or unfair business. The government agency called the FTC makes sure companies follow this law.
When you buy a car, the price you see isn't always what you pay. The out-the-door price is the full amount including all extra fees, so you know exactly how much money to bring.
A supply chain crisis means that the parts and materials needed to build cars are hard to get because of problems like shipping delays or shortages. This can make it harder for car companies to make and sell cars.
Oil dependency means car companies and the way they move parts and cars around depend a lot on oil. When oil prices go up, it can make everything more expensive.
The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow water passage where a lot of the world's oil ships pass through. If there are problems there, it can make fuel more expensive.
Parts sourcing flexibility means car makers need to get parts from different places to avoid delays if one place has problems.
LIVE
Welcome to Daily Drive!
For Tuesday, March 17, 2026, I'm Kellan Walker in Las Vegas.
Today on the show, Nissan jumps on the reverse import bandwagon.
Ben Fast slashes its North Carolina factory plans by 80% and Audi pulls the plug on the
A8 flagship sedan with no replacement coming.
Plus, Venturis CEO Ronald Kliwick talks about how the Iran War is disrupting automotive
supply chains.
It used to be a plan B was enough, now you probably need to have a plan C and a plan
D here, nowadays even, right the way you source your products from and what mode of transport
are you going to use?
Let's run through all the news you need to know to keep up in the auto industry.
Nissan is shipping its Tennessee-built Murano crossover to Japan starting early next year.
It will be the first American-made Nissan sold there since the 1990s.
The steering wheel stays on the left side, American style, that's the wrong side for
Japanese roads.
New Japanese rules now allow US spec vehicles to be sold as is a move meant to address trade
tensions with Washington.
Toyota and Honda are making similar moves, reverse importing their own US-built models.
But analysts are skeptical.
Christopher Richter at CLSA puts it bluntly.
He says, quote, who the heck will buy these?
The wheel is on the right side.
VinFast is moving forward with its North Carolina factory, sort of.
The Vietnamese EV maker plans to restart construction this year, but with a dramatically
smaller footprint.
According to Business North Carolina, the plant will now create just 1,400 jobs, that's
down 80% from the 7,500 originally promised.
The massive cut puts $315 million in state incentives at risk, and the timing's tricky.
VinFast's fourth quarter losses widened 15% to $1.3 billion, even as the company doubled
vehicle deliveries.
The company says it'll start making vehicles there in 2028.
And Audi is pulling the plug on its A8 flagship sedan after more than three decades, and there's
no replacement coming.
The automaker closed order books in Germany last month and will sell through what's left.
It's a sign of how the luxury sedan market has shifted.
Buyers want SUVs, and automakers want the higher profit margins that come with them.
The numbers tell the story.
According to Data Force, Audi sold just 2,400 A8s in Europe last year.
That's less than half what BMW and Mercedes moved.
The all-new Q9 SUV will step into the flagship role, launching later this year.
And those are today's headlines.
You can find more details on all those stories at AutoNews.com.
The FTC just sent warning letters to 97 dealership groups about what it's calling illegal advertising
practices.
Legal experts say this isn't just about those 97 groups.
It's a wake-up call for the entire industry.
Our own John Hutter has been covering this story for us at Automotive News, and he joins
me now.
John, welcome back to Daily Drive.
Hey, thanks.
So, John, you talked to some dealership attorneys about this.
What's their take on why the FTC is doing this now, especially since the car's rule
got thrown out last year?
Yeah, it was interesting.
One of the attorneys mentioned that it might have taken, since the way that changed administrations
from the Biden administration's FTC to the Trump administration's FTC, they were kind
of the leadership over at the commission were trying to figure out what their priorities
would be.
And it's about a year into the Trump's second term.
And so now they've kind of, I guess, decided they figured out where they want to go as
an agency.
And so that was one of their thoughts.
The other one, it was meant a good point about the Trump FTC is more focused on, it's focused
on enforcement.
It's not really working on developing new regulations.
And so, even though the car's rule got thrown out, the Trump FTC says, well, advertising
misleading pricing is still illegal under the FTC Act anyway, so we're going to go after
you for that.
Now, why should everyone in the industry be watching this?
The sentiment under one of the attorneys I spoke to in the Virginia Auto Dealers Association
was that this was kind of a, this matters to all dealers, not just the 97 groups that
the FTC wrote letters to.
So really, for dealerships, you're going to want to check your, kind of your advertising
practices because the FTC is pretty clear, I mean, it called six behaviors illegal, like
just outright.
And it's stuff, I'm actually, here's a preview, I'm working on some data that Carage compiled
and it's pretty common that what the prices that dealers are advertising aren't the final
out the door prices, they're actually going to charge consumers after all the non-government
fees and other upcharges are added on.
So that's going to be a big, that's a big problem for the dealers that are doing that
and that's a target for the regulators right now.
Wow, interesting stuff, John.
As always, thank you so much for joining me.
Thanks, Kel.
Coming up next, how the Iran War is creating structural disruption in automotive supply
chains.
That's next on Daily Drive.
Are you a dealer creating a workplace culture your employees are proud to be part of?
Applications are now open for the 2026 Automotive News best dealerships to work for program.
This isn't just an award, it's a chance to get real insight into what's working at your
dealership and where you can improve.
And we've expanded the categories this year, recognizing everything from technician experience
and leadership development to AI enablement and employee retention.
The registration deadline is April 17th, find out more and apply at AutoNews.com.
Welcome back to Daily Drive, I'm Kellan Walker.
With oil prices fluctuating near $100 a barrel and ongoing conflict around the straight of
Hormuz, supply chain pressures are mounting for the auto industry.
Ronald Kliwik is CEO of Venturis, an enterprise software company that helps businesses manage
supply chain resilience.
His company's recent survey found that 61% of companies are experiencing shipment delays
of up to a month.
And automotive components are the most affected category.
Daily Drive executive producer Jake Nier spoke with Kliwik about how the crisis is different
from the pandemic, why oil dependency matters more than fuel cost, and why companies need
a plan C and plan D for sourcing.
Ronald, welcome to Daily Drive.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you, thank you much for your interest, looking forward to the conversation.
So, we are seeing oil approaching and sort of fluctuating near $100 a barrel amid tensions
around the straight of Hormuz.
From a supply chain perspective, what actually changes for automakers and suppliers when oil
spikes like this?
Well, there's always an economic impact, but I would say it's not the first time that this
is happening, right, in the economic crisis.
In my previous career, I also had to do analysis for the oil going up, right, about $100 or
even more than $100 a barrel already at that time, and the consequences for that.
I would say there is, of course, an economic impact in a way that prices will go up one
way or the other.
So, that means that the carriers or logistics service providers, they most likely have a few
clause in their running contracts.
So, in other words, they pass on that cost to their customers.
Hence, these are the shippers, right, the multinational shippers, the OEMs.
And eventually, then it's a choice of either absorbing it or, again, passing it on to the
next, which are people like you and I, which are the consumers.
So, yeah, one or the other, there is a big economic impact, of course, for everybody.
It sure sounds like the conversations we were having around or have been having for
the last year around tariffs as well.
It's sort of a parallel there and a compounding parallel.
Yeah, absolutely, yeah.
It's like it becomes a wedding cake in a way, right?
So, at first, there is the trade impact where importers and, of course, consumers are impacted.
And at the same time, now with the oil price, it's another cost level, right?
Another cost aspect where, which will affect products for sure, either components or parts
and eventually the end product, which we are buying.
Would you say that the biggest risk, especially for the auto industry here, is the fuel cost
itself or is it the disruption risk if shipping through that corridor continues to be interrupted
for an extended amount of time?
I don't think it's really the corridor because the Strait of Hormuz or the Strait of Hormuz,
right, is not so much a corridor, right?
Because it's a Suez and the Suez was already impacted by the Red Sea or the Suez.
So, I think from that point of view, it doesn't have an immediate impact on lead times.
Lead times already were impacted heavily when they had to go via the Cape of Good Hope,
right, South Africa.
So, I don't think there's an immediate impact on corridors or lead times in a way.
I think the oil price and the dependency on the oil coming out of Iran or the Strait of Hormuz
in a way, that, of course, has an impact.
The oil price, the dependency on oil, particularly in China, where a lot of parts and components
are coming from China, that could have an impact in production.
So, yeah, the longer the stakes, the higher the impact.
So, I think it's not so much the price only.
It's also the dependency on the oil which is coming out of the Strait of Hormuz.
I think that could potentially have a bigger impact.
So, I want to talk about your survey here.
If you could just sort of fill the audience in on what you were looking at,
what you're trying to figure out with this survey and sort of the parameters.
So, the reason why we did the survey, we are an enterprise software solution company.
And what we are providing to our clients is a solution how they can manage
the need of resilience, I would almost say.
There is a constant crisis in the meantime, either political,
economical, environmental, which is ongoing, and they need to have a tool.
And we were just investigating what are the biggest issues they are facing
and the biggest issues they're having right now.
And, of course, the unpredictable lead times at the moment,
how do you deal with these kind of unpredictable lead times?
How do you deal with, let's say, business continuity planning,
where you need to change from one mode to another mode,
where the dependency on parts and components at certain locations?
How can you manage that?
How can you deal with that?
And therefore, it was important for us to find out.
And not by surprise, you can see that the unpredictability is a big issue,
where lead times continue to extend, where lead times will change.
And, yeah, the need for resilience is more than ever.
And not only, I would say, in supply chain per se,
it's in the entire ecosystem.
Dependency on certain sources, right?
Because people always talk about moving production from one region to another.
But the dependency on the sourcing of parts and components,
that's a much bigger issue.
So I think, eventually, having a business continuity plan
on where you source your parts and components and raw materials
is becoming even more and more importantly.
How, if at all, are you seeing this current crisis
or this conflict affecting?
Is that reflected in the survey results?
I would say so.
I mean, lead times, as we said already, or transit times, right?
That was an impact.
So even if I said the straight-of-hormus impact
is not so much immediate an impact on lead times,
of course, the ongoing crisis in the Red Sea is still a big impact,
because it adds at least 10 or 12 more days to a large extent.
There have been issues, of course, in the Panama Channel previously as well.
And that is also still not over, right?
There's still a lot of issues there.
So that is an issue.
But I think if you look what happens in the straight-of-hormus,
the dependency on the oil, that's another right.
In this case, it's not, let's say, a dependency on the sourcing location
because of a flood, right?
Or because of an earthquake.
In this case, it's, again, another war.
And you see, if to a large extent, the oil is coming from the straight-of-hormus,
it's another kind of single source of a single sourcing location,
geographic location.
It shows you how important to have a multi-source location
for your raw materials, your parts, and components.
Because that more and more is becoming very visible.
And that is also reflected in the questionnaire.
And it's part of the overall lead time and the unpredictable lead time.
Yeah, your survey says 61% of companies experience shipment delays of up to a month.
That sounds huge.
How does that compare with, let's say, the pandemic years
or even the last couple of years as supply chains normalized
and then were sort of challenged again before this conflict?
I think the difference to the pandemic is that at this very moment,
a lot of it is impacted by infrastructure, at least I call it infrastructure, right?
There's routes which are blocked.
Think about a couple of the big airlines
who are having freighter capacity or belly capacity, right,
are now affected because they're in Dubai.
Dubai is a big or has become a very big transfer hub
for freight between, let's say, China or Asia into Europe and vice versa.
The fact that airspace is closed now is a big impact.
And the fact that some of these aircrafts are now grounded, that has a big impact.
I consider that part of infrastructure as well.
So yeah, there are vessels which are still in that area which are now stuck.
There is air freight capacity which is stuck.
There are routes which are blocked.
So yeah, this is not comparable to what happened in pandemic.
That's where all the people got grounded.
But at least, right, air freight and ocean freight capacity were still floating, right?
Routes were not blocked.
Of course, there was an impact in keeping distance between each other.
But at the end of the day, there was still enough capacity to move goods, right?
I think there was an article last week, I think,
where it said if the street of Hormuz continues to be blocked,
it will impact the people, right, living in the Emirates, for instance, right?
Because supermarkets will become empty.
There is an alternative route going via Jeddah and Riyadh.
But ultimately, if normally they ship about 20,000 containers
with products, right, for a cost of living in the Emirates,
yeah, if that is not possible, there will be a huge impact over there.
So people talk about the oil, but think about all the people living there.
They cannot be provided, right, with ordinary daily products they need to have.
And automotive components were the most impacted category in your data.
What kind of parts are we talking about?
Is it everything? Is it specific to...
Yeah, well, a lot of parts and components are coming from Asia, right, at the end of the day.
So the lead times related to those parts and components on ocean have already been there,
10, 12 days easily, right, going via the Cape.
A lot of parts and components are also shipped by air freight, as you can imagine,
parcel and air freight.
The corridor going via Russia was already blocked to a large extent,
with exceptional China carriers.
Now the airspace in the Middle East is also blocked, right?
The routes are very limited.
The routes have become longer.
The freight capacity or the belly capacity has been impacted.
So yeah, there's an immediate impact to parts and components,
to automotive, where the assembly is happening in Europe,
and to an extent the other way around as well.
And does it sort of skew specifically to things like electronics,
castings, batteries, anything like that?
Or is it across the board?
Yeah, well, you name it, especially indeed, right, like batteries.
There can be pretty much any part and component, right, if not sourced in Europe or Eastern Europe.
And don't forget, right, also because the Ukraine, Russia, Ukraine war,
a lot of parts and components which originally came from Ukraine,
they had to look for other sources.
If that now became Asia, now Asia again is impacted.
So yeah, there is an ongoing, you have to be very flexible now
where to source your product from, where there used to be a plan B was enough.
Now you probably need to have a plan C and a plan D nowadays even,
right, where you source your products from,
and what mode of transport are you going to use.
We also have reporting from Frank Volk of our sibling publication, Automobile Volka.
You can get the latest news on supply chains, manufacturing,
and everything happening in the auto industry at AutoNews.com.
Come back tomorrow for a conversation with our own Hans Grimel,
whose latest column says Nissan gets the last laugh after its failed merger with Honda.
Now it's Honda that's in the world of hurt, just as Nissan seems to be finding its feet.
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 dailydriveatautonews.com
or leave us a voicemail at 313-444-2774.
And if you enjoyed the podcast, remember to like,
leave a review, and subscribe so you never miss an episode.
About this episode
Nissan is set to reverse-import its Tennessee-built Murano to Japan, marking a rare move amid new trade rules. VinFast drastically scales back its North Carolina factory plans due to financial losses, while Audi discontinues its A8 sedan, shifting focus to SUVs. The FTC targets misleading dealership advertising practices, signaling increased enforcement. Venturis CEO Ronald Kliwick discusses how the Iran War and rising oil prices are causing major supply chain disruptions, with 61% of companies facing shipment delays up to a month. The episode highlights the need for multi-source strategies and resilience in automotive supply chains during geopolitical tensions.
Nissan will export its Tennessee-built Muranos to Japan, joining other Japanese automakers now doing reverse imports from the U.S. VinFast slashes North Carolina factory plans by 80 percent. Plus, Vinturas CEO Ronald Kleijwegt talks about how the Iran war is disrupting automotive supply chains and what happens next.
