Nissan Turns A Profit For The First Time In Two Years As Pigs Fly, Hell Freezes Over

Good morning! It's Monday, August 3, 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, Nissan managed its first quarterly profit in two godforsaken years while Toyota's monetary "struggles" continue, a Stellantis United Auto Workers union member was killed in an accident during a renovation at a Michigan facility, and Ram is recalling 1.5 million 1500 pickups across the globe for a seatbelt issue.

Oh, and if you want a recap of the latest auto news delivered to your inbox each weekday morning because life is busy and you can't always head to our website, you can sign up for Jalopnik's free The Morning Shift newsletter right here.

Are you folks sitting down right now? Good, because Nissan just posted its first quarterly net profit in two years. I know, I could hardly believe it either. Additionally, the Japanese automaker announced it would be keeping its annual earnings forecast unchanged, even though it lowered its vehicle sales projection.

All in all, Nissan reported a $23.9 million net profit for the three months that ended in June. That's way up from the $740-ish million loss it took during the same time just a year ago, and it beat out the $23.3 million estimated loss analysts expected Nissan to take. This has gotta feel great for CEO Ivan Espinosa. From The Wall Street Journal:

First-quarter revenue grew 9.5% from a year earlier to ¥2.964 trillion.

For the fiscal year ending March 2027, the carmaker now expects global sales of 3.15 million units, compared with 3.30 million expected previously. The company continued to project an 8.3% rise in revenue to ¥13.000 trillion and net profit of ¥20.00 billion.

The surprise swing to profit comes as the Japanese carmaker has taken a series of restructuring steps to cut costs and address falling sales, including selling its headquarters and reducing manufacturing sites and global production capacity. Nissan has also said it will cut 20,000 jobs over the four years through March 2028.

In June, Nissan said it was in talks to manufacture cars for China's Chery Automobile at its Sunderland facility in the U.K., a month after the company announced plans to slash hundreds of jobs in Europe and overhaul its operations in the region.

Aside from restructuring, Nissan is also working to fix its, uh, not-so-great lineup. The first step in that was releasing the QX65 midsize crossover coupe over at Infiniti, and while it might not be a world beater, it's certainly a step in the right direction. It's also bringing back the Xterra and other body-on-frame offerings, a new GT-R, new Skyline and a new Juke EV among a slew of other vehicles.

While Nissan might be doing its happy dance today, Toyota isn't having quite as good a time. The automaker is expected to post its fifth straight quarterly operating profit decline as a weak yen, sour vehicle sales, and rising costs ravage its business. Just to add a cherry on top, the company is also trying to sort out the impact of last week's southern Japan earthquake on its operations.

The world's largest automaker will reportedly post $7.04 billion in profit from the April to June quarter — down 5% from the same time last year, according to the median estimate of eight analysts surveyed by LSEG. They point to weaker sales volume in some overseas markets and rising costs across the supply chain linked to the U.S. and Israel's war with Iran. From Reuters:

Global sales of Toyota and Lexus vehicles fell ​3% to just over 2.5 million units in the first quarter, with sharp declines in China and the Middle East ​outweighing modest growth in the United States.

Investors will also be looking for clues on the fallout from a deadly earthquake that struck Japan's Kyushu island last week, disrupting production at suppliers and forcing Toyota to halt output at four domestic plants.

Toyota has suspended production at three plants ​in the region through Wednesday and halted output at another plant in central Japan through Friday. Two of the ​four plants are vehicle assembly sites.`

The uncertainty was highlighted on Friday when supplier Aisin said it could not say when output at a ‌damaged ⁠plant near the quake's epicentre would resume. About 200 people were working on recovery efforts at the site.

Global sales in the quarter were dragged down by a 28% decline in China and a one-third drop in the Middle East.

[...]

Toyota's sales in Oceania fell 16%, while those in Central and South America were ​down 5%.

The conflict in the Middle East, which began in late February, has pushed ​up prices for ⁠materials including aluminium and naphtha and disrupted vehicle shipments to the region, analysts have said.

Some of Toyota's woes can also be attributed to the fact it can't get RAV4s out the door fast enough. As it transitions from one generation to the next, the production ramp-up hasn't been as expeditious as one might hope, so it has left some customers waiting — in some cases — months to get their new compact crossovers.

A laborer who had been a United Auto Workers union member for over 30 years was killed in an accident while working on a renovation project at Stellantis' facility in Center Line, Michigan. A statement from UAW President Shawn Fain and Vice President Richard Boyer said the worker, James Brasher, "went to work today expecting to complete his shift and return home to his loved ones, but sadly, that will not happen."

The UAW said it will investigate what occurred, and it is demanding details from Stellantis about the situation as well as how it will prevent this sort of accident from ever happening again. The automaker said the incident occurred at its Mopar parts distribution center. From the Detroit Free Press:

Stellantis released a statement Sunday about the death.

"Our heartfelt condolences go out to the family, friends and coworkers of an employee who was involved in a fatal workplace accident on Aug. 1 at the Centerline location, leased by Stellantis. The safety of our employees is our top priority. We are continuing to work with authorities to thoroughly investigate the cause of this accident. Out of respect for the family, we will not confirm the identity of the employee. The building, which previously housed Mopar's administrative functions, is currently unoccupied as the company has relocated those operations to Auburn Hills," read the statement, provided by spokesperson Ann Marie Fortunate.

The UAW said it extends condolences to Brasher's family and members of UAW Local 1248 in Warren.

"Our focus is to make certain that every UAW member, and every American worker, knows they are safe on the job," the UAW said in its post.

This news comes after a Jeep assembly line worker was killed after being crushed at its plant in Toledo, Ohio in 2024.

Ram is recalling a beastly 1.5 million 1500 pickups across the globe because of faulty second-row seatbelts in trucks built between 2019 and 2026. Apparently, they may have been built with second-row center or second-row driver-side seat belt buckle anchors not properly attached to the truck's body structure. In a crash, that's less than ideal. From Reuters:

The issue could impact the performance of the second-row ​seat belt system and increase the ​risk of injury to occupants. Stellantis is aware ‌of ⁠one potentially related injury tied to the recall but no fatalities.

The recall includes 1.27 million vehicles in the United States, 156,000 ​in Canada, ​15,000 ⁠in Mexico and about 75,000 outside North America.

The automaker will ​notify impacted vehicle owners to contact ​dealers ⁠to schedule an inspection. Dealers will inspect the second-row center and second-row driver ⁠seat ​belt buckle anchor and ​if needed properly attach it to the vehicle's body.

If you're riding one of these bad boys and get in a crash while sitting in one of those two seats, I suppose you should really just hold on tight, because it's likely to be a wild ride.

History.com

During the NBA's entire run, there have been just three relevant seasons: 1969-1970, 1972-1973, and 2025-2025. God bless the New York Knicks for keeping the NBA relevant and in the cultural zeitgeist. Who knows where we'd be without it. Anyway, if you want to learn more about the league's inception, head over to History.com.

It would seem that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Despite the constantly evolving situation between the U.S., Israel and Iran, gas prices have remained almost exactly where they've been for about a week now. Similarly, WTI Crude Oil futures and Brent Crude prices are little changed, sitting at $79 and $83 at the time of publication.

Here's where national average prices stand right now, according to AAA:

AAA

All of this is to say that the average price of a gallon of regular gas remained flat overnight at $4.10. It has been within a cent of that mark forever at this point In fact, the last time it was more than a cent away from $4.10 in either direction was all the way back on July 22. Strange.

This song is actually about two of my (three) cats who eat their dinner together every night because they're bonded with each other despite not actually being related. Janet and Edie, you two are my inspiration. Clio, you are too, but you're more of a people-friendly cat, and they need each other more.