Nissan's New CEO Has To Win Back Dealer Trust

Happy Monday! It's January 5, 2026, and this is The Morning Shift — your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. This is where you'll find the most important stories that are shaping the way Americans drive and get around.

In this morning's edition, we're looking at Nissan's relationship with its dealers, and Hyundai and Kia's year-end sales numbers. We'll also look at Hyundai's predictions for 2026, and Honda's Chinese production pause. 

Nissan's been working on a big turnaround recently, helmed by new CEO Ivan Espinosa. He's been big on cutting costs, up to and including selling decontented Mitsubishis under the Nissan brand, but now he has another problem to face: Nissan dealers don't trust the brand. From Automotive News: 

Many auto dealers in the year ahead expect their dealerships will generate similar profits and carry a similar valuation as they did in 2025, but a growing number anticipate having a better 2026, according to survey data from Kerrigan Advisors.

However, many dealers also felt stores representing certain brands were poised to decline in value — a bearishness which tends to correlate with the automakers dealers trust the least including Nissan and Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram, according to the 2025 Kerrigan Dealer Survey

...

Both Stellantis and Nissan were distrusted by 64 percent of dealers, and 61 percent of dealers said they had no trust in Infiniti. Stellantis cut its "no trust" percentage year-over-year by 8 percentage points, which Kerrigan Advisors called one of the best improvements among automakers.

"Dealers that trust the franchise are going to invest in the franchise," Kerrigan said. "They're going to ... feel comfortable putting their dollars into blue sky."

Nissan Group said in a statement that it values "all feedback from our dealer network and remain committed to strengthening these partnerships." The automaker said in the statement both brands "are investing in innovative vehicles and services and enhanced dealer support programs designed to build trust and drive long-term profitability."

Dealers don't expect Nissan's value to increase, which scans with the company's seeming commitment to becoming a low-margin, high-volume brand. Will that approach work in the event of the AI-bubble-pop economic collapse that people are predicting? I guess we'll see. 

2025 was a year of big swings for automakers, the epic highs and lows or high school football, thanks to tariffs and incentives that swung buyer interest in all directions. Hyundai and Kia, it seems, took advantage of the confusion and made out like bandits — increasing year-over-year sales by over 7% at both brands. From Automotive News: 

Hyundai and Kia, behind hybrids, strong crossover demand and holiday promotions, posted slightly higher U.S. sales in December, capping a record year for both brands.

Sales rose 0.6 percent to 78,930 at Hyundai and 2.3 percent to 75,003 at Kia last month, the automakers reported Jan. 3.

For the year, sales rose 7.8 percent to 901,686 at Hyundai and 7 percent to 852,155 at Kia, marking the third consecutive annual record for both brands.

Last year was a tough one to succeed in, but Kia and Hyundai managed. As for 2026, though...

2026, though, isn't looking quite so rosy. Hyundai executive chair Euisun Chung expects global auto sales as a whole to be on a downswing, and says that the position of his own brands needs to improve. From Automotive News:

Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung has warned of a tough year ahead for the global auto industry, and said the South Korean automaker needs to upgrade its AI capability.

In his New Year remarks, Chung warned that global trade tensions and intensifying competition would curb industry profitability, while geopolitical conflicts may impact operations in some regions, potentially leading to a suspension of business.

"This will be the year when the crisis factors we have long worried about become reality," Chung said

The largest South Korean automaker has been hard hit by U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff regime, which has imposed a 15 percent levy on Korean-made cars. That cost Hyundai about 1.8 trillion won ($1.2 billion) in the third quarter alone.

Adding to the challenges, an immigration raid on a Hyundai-LG Energy Solution plant in the U.S. in September is expected to delay construction by at least two to three months.

Chung also said Hyundai is falling behind rivals in the artificial intelligence race, calling for collaboration with a range of partners to ramp up its AI capability.

It's funny to see the two approached to 2026 here. On the one hand, many are predicting the AI bubble will pop. On the other, Chung wants to invest more into AI in hopes that it'll buoy sales and valuation the way it did in 2025. Who will be right? It likely won't be long until we see for ourselves. 

Remember that chip shortage that hit last year, after Denmark and China got mad at each other over ownership of a semiconductor company? You may not have noticed, compared to the Covid chip shortage, but the shortage last year managed to shut down production all the same. In fact, for Honda in China, it's still causing problems. From Reuters: 

Honda Motor said on Monday it will extend a production halt at three car plants in China by two weeks due to a semiconductor shortage, highlighting persistent supply chain strains for Japan's second-biggest automaker.

The factories, run with Guangzhou Automobile Group, had been set to restart operations on Monday but will now resume on January 19, a company spokesperson said.

The disruption follows delays in chip shipments of Nexperia, a Dutch subsidiary of Chinese firm Wingtech, which has forced some automakers to slash output over the past months.

This is unlikely to affect most buyers, but folks in China looking to buy Hondas are likely more than a little frustrated with the production pause. For their sake, hopefully things spin back up soon. 

I've always been a big fan of the space shuttle, though even I have to admit that the Buran might be better.

I don't have my usual KEXP on in the background this week — instead, I have the Awesome Games Done Quick stream! Come hang out in chat, watch speedrunners race through games, and chip in some cash towards cancer research!