Electric vehicles are cars that use electricity from batteries to move instead of gas. They are better for the environment and are becoming more common.
Battery factories are places where the batteries that power electric cars are made. Without these factories, electric cars wouldn't have the power they need to run.
The dealer sentiment index is like a score that shows if car dealers think selling cars will be good or bad soon. It helps understand if dealers are hopeful or worried.
Cox Automotive is a big company that helps car dealers and buyers by providing information and tools. They make a report that shows how car dealers feel about selling cars right now.
A spring sales bounce means more people buy cars in spring because they might have extra money from tax refunds or the weather is nicer to go shopping.
Hybrids are cars that use both gas and electricity to help save fuel and pollute less. They can use the electric motor, the gas engine, or both to move the car.
EV adoption means more people buying and using electric cars that run on batteries instead of gas. Things like high gas prices or good deals can make more people want these cars.
EV investments mean the money car companies spend to make electric cars and their batteries. This can be expensive and sometimes cause the company to lose money before they start making profits.
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Welcome to Daily Drive for Friday, March 6, 2026.
I'm Jake Neir in Detroit in for Kellan Walker.
Today on the show, Chrysler CEO Chris Fuell has left Stellantis, the Iran conflict threatens
global automakers, especially Asian brands, and Ontario is courting Korean automakers
to build a Canadian plant.
Plus, Cox Automotive executive analyst Erin Keating joins the show to talk about the company's
latest dealer sentiment survey and what this year's tax refunds might mean for new and
used vehicle sales.
I'm still a betting woman that maybe May and June and July start to show us some interesting
follow on trends because hiring households tend to file later, and they're going to benefit
a lot from these new exemptions.
Let's run through all the news you need to know to keep up in the auto industry.
Chrysler CEO Chris Fuell has left Stellantis for personal reasons.
Dodge CEO Matt McHallyer will now oversee both Chrysler and Dodge.
Fuell joined Stellantis in September 2021 and also led Alfa Romeo in North America.
Under her leadership, Chrysler dropped the 300 sedan and became a minivan-only brand.
Chrysler sales rose 29% in the fourth quarter and were up 1% for all of 2025.
The brand plans to launch a refreshed Pacifica this year with design elements from the Halcyon concept.
The war in Iran is threatening global automakers, especially Asian brands.
According to Bernstein Equity Research, Toyota accounts for 17% of Middle East sales, Hyundai
for 10% and Cherry for 5%.
Chinese automakers who dominate Iran's market face the biggest direct hit.
But Bernstein says the greatest risk is rising oil prices from disrupted tanker shipments
through the Strait of Hormuz. That could crash auto sales well beyond the gulf,
hitting gas-dependent automakers like Stellantis hardest.
And Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Federal Industry Minister Melanie Jolie
are courting Korean automakers to build a Canadian assembly plant.
Korean brands sold nearly 250,000 vehicles in Canada last year, capturing 13% of market share.
That's according to the Automotive News data center.
Only GM Ford and Toyota sold more than Kia alone.
Ford says he's ready to roll out the red carpet for them.
Well, there's 200 and roughly, last count I got 230,000 cars
and anyone who sells 230,000 cars needs to open up a plant here.
Meanwhile, Jolie is tying a $12 billion submarine contract to auto investment.
Obviously, because the procurement process is now in its final mode,
I can't comment what's going on. But I'll be clear, we want a car plant.
Joining me now to talk more about that story is Greg Lason,
Automotive News Canada's digital and mobile editor and host of the Automotive News Canada
podcast. Greg, great to have you here on Daily Drive.
Oh, it's good to be here.
All right, so you were there at the Next Star Plant opening where this all unfolded.
South Korea's trade minister was literally sitting right in front of Doug Ford on stage.
So I'm curious, you know, what the atmosphere was like in the room.
Did it seem like this very public courtship is gaining any real traction with Korean officials?
I mean, in the room itself, it was pretty muted.
I think everyone's sort of walking on eggshells when it comes to any auto investment in North America.
Essentially, no one wants to upset Donald Trump or upset trade negotiations between Canada and
the United States. So there was no outward applause or approval of this.
Is it gaining traction? I don't know if it's gaining traction or momentum, but I will say,
you know, as a basketball coach, I can see the full-court press is being employed.
Melanie Jolie, our industry minister, was also there.
She is pulling no punches. It is essentially as blunt as it comes.
We want an auto plant. And Ford, who in the past has already spent $500
million on a battery plant, another $5 billion on a battery plant in Windsor,
they are on board with whatever it takes to land an auto investment in Ontario.
There hasn't been one here in decades, and this is as close as we've ever been,
even if they are just words in a courtship.
So interesting. Now, Hyundai Canada CEO Steve Flamon gave a pretty diplomatic answer when you
asked him at and Canada Congress, basically saying, we'll see where it goes when it comes
to this issue. Given that Hyundai already has four North American plants and global overcapacity
is an issue, how realistic do you think it is that Ontario's pressure campaign actually
results in a new assembly plant? You know, just from Matt's standpoint alone,
you know, I talked to Lana Payne about this had a uniform, she admits there's overcapacity,
that there's available production elsewhere. I've talked to auto forecast solutions about
this. They also say it's probably unrealistic. So I don't know, you know, one of the things
that insider told me was, if the goal of the Ontario and federal governments are to lure
Hyundai here to build electric vehicles, which might be something different because one in four
vehicles globally are electric. So if the idea is to build electric vehicles here and export them,
that might be a play. But here's the thing, the federal government here just offered up 49,000
electric vehicle spots to Chinese brands. And so Hyundai might say, well, what's in it for me
if you're going to sell my competitors vehicles? So there just continues to be more and more
hurdles and roadblocks and things in the way to get this to happen. I never even thought of that
issue of the Chinese EVs until someone in the inside brought it up. So it's possible that the
whole idea is for electric vehicles to be built here exported globally, not necessarily to the
United States. Remember, we've got the critical minerals, the battery factories, it's not lost
on me that LG Energy Solutions owns the next star plant in Windsor. That's a Korean company.
So there are a lot of breadcrumbs that would lead me to believe it's possible and it's plausible.
I don't know if anyone pulls the trigger at Hyundai to come here yet given all of the other factors.
Fascinating stuff, Greg. Really appreciate you digging into this for us and we'll be watching
this as it develops if it does. Thanks so much for joining us here on Daily Drive.
Anytime. Coming up, dealers are feeling optimistic about a spring sales bounce
despite economic headwinds. We'll talk with Cox Automotive's Aaron Keating about the
company's latest dealer sentiment survey. That's next on Daily Drive.
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Cox Automotive's latest dealer sentiment index shows dealers facing a cloudy outlook as they come
down off a difficult end of 2025. But there's optimism ahead. They're expecting a spring sales
bounce fueled by higher tax refunds and improving February numbers. Interest rates, political climate
and affordability remain top concerns. Automotive news senior retail editor, Dan Schein, spoke with
Cox Automotive executive analyst, Aaron Keating, here at our Detroit office about what dealers
are thinking going into spring. Aaron, thanks so much for joining us, coming from sunny Atlanta to
cold dreary Detroit. So sad, I heard it was sunny over the weekend and I always prefer to join you
guys when it's sunny. You missed it. We saw the sun briefly. Thanks for having me. We want to talk
about the Cox sentiment index, the most recent one. It's maybe mimicking the Detroit weather.
It's a little doom and gloom out there. It's a little cloudy. What's going on with dealers?
I mean, it is, but they are seeing that the sunshine is coming their way, right? It's key to
remember the timing of the survey. This was done towards the end of January, beginning of February.
So a little bit before some of these headlines have come out recently around some global conflicts
and such that might start to change some opinion, but most of them were feeling, of course, coming
down off of last year. Fourth quarter was a little bit difficult. January is always sort of a slower
time. Weather was a major impactor, but February, you know, to be honest, we've just started to see
some of the results and they sort of match what their optimism was that February sales started
to pick up. And so they do see that that spring bounce as usual is something to be optimistic
about. Yeah, there is a little optimism. They do talk about that spring bounce. People are getting
tax refunds and they expect them to go buy a car or use car, a new car. And the refunds are higher.
I mean, we're already seeing them come in around 10% higher than they normally are at this time
already. What are some of the headwinds that dealers are kind of citing when they talk to you
for this study? Yeah, I mean, the economy, the political climate still is up there. That was
something that actually stood out to me as I kept looking through the numbers because I know we've
talked about them a little bit, but that the political climate has actually climbed up. And
I think that's, you know, really pointing to that fatigue consumers and dealers in the general
public has around the headlines just consistently driving our mood. Consumer sentiment has been
volatile over the years. So that's, I think they're struggling wrapping their heads around how our
consumers responding to these headlines and what that mood indicator really means for their business.
And, you know, affordability is we're never going to stop talking about that, I feel like, but that
is a concern for them is making sure that they can find the right vehicles for the right customers
at the right prices because that's still a concern of consumers.
Is it as simple as to say that a tax refund is going to make someone go buy a car? They're still,
still got to pay for the insurance, which is very high. Gas prices may be going higher.
Is it really that much of a panacea to all the kind of the economic doldrums that people kind
of feel themselves are in? Yeah, it's a great question because I do think that our instinct is
to say, well, you get a windfall, you want to go spend it, but we do know we're working with a
consumer who has been struggling with affordability. We also know that most consumers when they're
looking for cars are typically shopping by monthly payment. So they're not always actually taking
into consideration the total cost of ownership TCO. So even though we know insurance and price
of gas and everything is continuing to go up in that moment when they're looking at that payment,
they're typically, you know, more focused on what that monthly payment is. And that has been what's
been really stuck because of the interest rates and it's starting to come down a little bit more.
What the tax refunds do typically do is they show up in used cars, right? And we're seeing this.
Mannheim is going really proactive right now. We're seeing a lot of business turn in Mannheim,
which means the dealers are getting excited. They're getting new used vehicles into their inventory
because they know they're about to get the rush, the spring bounce. But we do know, again, coming
off this consumer having been a little bit more economically challenged last year, there's a good
chance that some of those refunds are going to go to paying off debts from Christmas or going
towards helping pay for other things in their households that they've needed to catch up on.
I think the two places we're going to see it is yes, for sure. It might help with some down
payments in used cars or at least getting them a little bit towards their service and maintenance.
I think that's really where I would advise dealers to look, you know, keep a real strong
eye on who's coming through your service lanes, not just to make sure that you're getting the best
bang for your buck on the RO, but also is there good equity mining you can do there to sort of
think is really interesting is that the increase is hitting disproportionately
higher income individuals as well in certain geographies because of the salt exemptions.
So I'm still a betting woman that maybe May and June and July start to show us some interesting
follow on trends because higher income households tend to file later. So and they're going to benefit
a lot from these new exemptions. So it should be interesting and hopefully maybe it will string
out a little bit longer than it normally does, you know, fingers crossed with the dealers.
Interest rates always a topic. There's probably going to be some change at the top of the of
the Fed. How big a factor is that in again, affordability is one kind of just one more
piece of the puzzles that maybe will push that consumer who's been on the sidelines for a while
into a showroom. It's a big impact. I mean, we do know when we did our quarterly call in December
that the number of weeks it takes for annual income to purchase a vehicle really hasn't
changed all that much over 13 years, 10 years. What's really doubled is that household interest
burden on the loan. So any push in the right direction on interest rates is certainly going
to help the industry because they they will, you know, even a point is a huge deal for consumers.
But interest rates are still high and the Fed fund rates don't always translate immediately to what
the auto loan rates are going to be. So it's a little bit more complicated than just saying,
you know, if Fed fund rates are lowered, auto loan rates are lowered, but we're optimistic that
auto loan rates would keep coming down this year. Well, you kind of mentioned earlier that I think
could be a factor that might impact sales is this, you know, new war, whatever conflict going on over
in the Middle East. It would seem to me that again, you have people who are who've been
on the silence because they're the instability of a number of things, the economy, tariffs and
the, you know, the milks, you know, eggs, whatever it might be. And so they've, you know,
have really gone out and bought a car. Now there's more instability in for how many
knows how many weeks this may come, but gas prices might go up. They're expecting to go up,
which is like another household burden that maybe they don't want to. How do you think that could
factor into what we see in the coming months in, you know, in the showrooms and sales?
Yeah, I think a little bit will depend as we've seen since the beginning of last year on the
cycle of headlines, I would say, are we flip-flopping almost every day with what we're hearing? I think
we do have to take into consideration how sort of head on a swivel type of action
can really create chaos for the customers and really put them in the paralysis by analysis,
if you will. If it's a little bit more of a drawn out process, I could see people starting to
normalize the news in the background and still making the decisions they have to make. I mean,
a lot of the times people really just need engines and four wheels to get to where they need to go.
And we're sitting on vehicles and operation out there that are really old. And so people are
just, you know, there is demand out there. The question is going to be, will automakers be impacted
as far as getting vehicles here? Will gas prices drive them more towards the hybrids, which we
already anticipated anyway? And are there enough affordable hybrids out there? Will we actually
see that organic tick up in EV adoption because gas prices go so high and because there's really
good deals to be had on used EVs and newer EVs, even without the tax credits. So I think those
are the couple of things that I'd be looking for. But at the end of the day, you know, we know our
U.S. consumers are a quirky bunch. And when they need a car, they go looking for one. And dealers
are often the best place to go help you figure out what can you put in your driveway today for
the right price? I would be remiss if I didn't ask at least one service and parts question. Again,
we know the forecast is kind of a flat sales for new vehicle growth. So that might be put a little
impact, a little more attention, focus on service of parts and their profitability.
How important is that back end of the dealership going to be in 2026?
It's the little or big engine that could. I think that every automaker I've talked to
and every dealer I've talked to, the focus is on fixed ops. And it's because both of them win when
fixed ops is doing well. You know, it's not just a dealer profitability part of the equation. The
automakers are also certainly invested in making sure that's happening. And there are a ton of
vehicles in operation that need the work. And there is a competitive environment out there for
dealers with independent shops, repair shops and collision repair shops and things like this. And
so I think that the dealers are really focused. And the ones that I've spoken to are just continuing
to ask, like, what do we need to be thinking about? How do we need to be bringing these customers
into our service lanes? You know, how do we focus on convenience and pricing comparison and things
like that? So I think it's going to be a big engine that could and that they're all going to be
focused on it for the year. So I think the next dealer item comes out in June, I want to say.
What do you expect we'll be talking about in June? That's a good question. I love being asked if I
have that crystal ball. You know, I think that we're probably going to see that the spring bounce
did happen and did help and did keep sales going, at least set a normalized pace. What I'm really
hoping is that we're not going to have as much volatility and so that they see that the spring
went okay and that they're feeling decently confident going into the summer. And then we
can see some sustained growth. But we may see some pushback because of consumer sentiment. And if
the new Fed comes in and doesn't necessarily do anything with interest rates or there becomes
some unraveling there, we should expect, I think, for the foreseeable future, political climate,
economy and market conditions stay in those top five factors that are not the weather this time.
Not the weather this time. Hopefully, geez, because otherwise we're opening up a whole
other can of worms politically discussed. But yeah, I think I think that the top five factors
are going to continue to swirl around as the top five factors. It's just a matter of how,
you know, the severity of one over the other. Great. Well, the index is always a great
window into the dealership and seeing what the folks are thinking about. So we really appreciate
you coming on and talking about it. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me, Dan. Good to see you.
You too. That's Daily Drive for today. I'm Jake Nier and for Kellan Walker. Thanks to Automotive
News journalists Hans Grimel and Vince Bond Jr. for their reporting for today's podcast.
We also had reporting from Greg Lason of our sibling publication, Automotive News Canada.
You can get the latest news on dealer sentiment, the Iran conflict and everything
happening in the auto industry at AutoNews.com. Come back over the weekend for our weekend drive
edition of the show. Our own Larry Veliquette and Michael Martinez talk about the biggest stories
from the past week, including impacts of the Iran conflict on global auto supply chains,
as well as Ford's efforts to use its new battery business to spin profits out of costly EV investments.
I'll admit I was on this podcast a couple of weeks ago talking about how when automakers do
things beyond automaking, it tends not to work out very well. But I will say this seems like, to me,
the best idea they have as opposed to just letting a plant sit idle or taking an even
bigger loss than the $21 billion are already losing on EVs here. 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 dailydriveatautonews.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
The discussion covers Chrysler CEO Chris Fuell's departure and Chrysler's strategic shifts, the impact of the Iran conflict on global automakers, and Ontario's efforts to attract Korean automakers for a new Canadian plant. Insights from Greg Lason highlight the challenges and potential of this courtship amid trade and overcapacity concerns. Cox Automotive's Erin Keating shares dealer sentiment showing cautious optimism for a spring sales rebound driven by higher tax refunds, despite economic and political uncertainties. The episode also touches on the growing trend of online car buying and dealer adaptation to digital retailing.
