Blissful Wednesday! It is January 28, 2026, and that is The Morning Shift — your day by day roundup of the highest automotive headlines from all over the world, in a single place. That is the place you may discover an important tales which can be shaping the way in which Individuals drive and get round.
On this morning’s version, we’re taking a look at GM’s response to Canada welcoming Chinese language EVs, in addition to the Trump administration’s makes an attempt to make Mercedes-Benz an American firm. We’ll additionally take a look at BYD’s growth plans for 2026, and GM employees getting enrolled within the Jelly of the Month membership.
1st Gear: Mary Barra ‘cannot clarify’ Canada welcoming Chinese language EVs, says it is a ‘very slippery slope’
Canada not too long ago reworked its worldwide commerce offers to welcome Chinese language EVs, and final night time we bought GM CEO Mary Barra’s ideas on the transfer. She sounds, in a phrase, miffed — maybe even baffled. From the Wall Road Journal:
A current deal by Canada to permit tens of hundreds of cheap Chinese language electrical automobiles into the nation is a danger to North American auto manufacturing, Basic Motors Chief Government Mary Barra mentioned Tuesday.
Barra mentioned Canada’s China deal, introduced earlier this month, is counter to constructing a powerful North American industrial base and to defending jobs and nationwide safety on the continent.
“I can not clarify why the choice was made in Canada,” Barra mentioned throughout an all-hands assembly with workers Tuesday. “It turns into a really slippery slope.”
The attraction is, after all, apparent. Canada is not proof against the worldwide price of dwelling disaster, and politicians that ship cheaper, extra environment friendly automobiles to their constituents are prone to be seen as doing one thing to assist — particularly once they come up for reelection.
2nd Gear: Trump administration tried to lure Mercedes headquarters to US
Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius would not appear to be the largest fan of Germany. The Trump administration apparently took discover of this, and despatched Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to try to poach the corporate’s headquarters over to U.S. shores. As you may think, it did not work out. From Bloomberg:
Mercedes-Benz Group AG’s chief government officer turned down a Trump cupboard secretary’s try and lure the producer’s headquarters to the US from Germany, the place its roots date again to the invention of the car.
In an interview with The Pioneer, a German media outlet, Mercedes CEO Ola Källenius mentioned US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick made the overture roughly a 12 months in the past, dangling tax reduction and different incentives. Though Källenius declined, Mercedes later introduced plans to shift manufacturing of a sport utility automobile from Germany to its current plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
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Källenius has repeatedly condemned German forms and labor prices, and has drawn ire from employee representatives after publicly highlighting excessive sick-leave charges. Throughout his tenure, Mercedes has shifted some manufacturing to crops in Kecskemét, Hungary, in addition to China and the US.
Europe has loads of sturdy employee protections, so it is smart that the Trump administration would not perceive the attraction of working an organization there. Fortuitously for Mercedes employees, Källenius will get it slightly extra.
third Gear: BYD units its sights on Europe and Canada for 2026
BYD is the best-selling EV maker on the earth, and it is trying to prolong its lead over the floundering Tesla in 2026. To try this, it is aiming to get much more patrons in Europe — and benefiting from that Canadian commerce deal that Mary Barra maligned. From Automotive Information:
Chinese language electrical automobile large BYD plans an enormous leap into worldwide markets this 12 months, eyeing additional growth in Europe and probably Canada, as worldwide gross sales supersede home demand as its revenue engine.
Gross sales exterior China are anticipated to surge 24 p.c to 1.30 million automobiles in 2026, following an enormous growth the 12 months earlier than, the corporate mentioned.
BYD is contemplating a second meeting plant in Europe, whilst its readies its first to start out manufacturing in Hungary within the coming months. In the meantime, the corporate is assessing a potential entry into the Canadian market, following the current commerce deal between Ottawa and Beijing to decrease tariffs on China-built EVs.
Constructing your second manufacturing unit on a continent earlier than the primary is even pumping out automobiles is daring, however BYD’s automobiles appear fashionable — the corporate seemingly understands its attraction, and is scaling manufacturing to match.
4th Gear: GM employees will get smaller bonuses for 2025
GM workers normally get a bonus examine each February, however subsequent month’s checks will seemingly be smaller than these employees hoped. The corporate did not hit all its monetary targets for 2025, and employees pays the value. From the Detroit Free Press:
GM’s bonus program relies on each an worker’s efficiency and the corporate’s. The automaker, which reported fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings on Jan. 27, fell in need of the efficiency targets it hit in 2024. Subsequently, GM will use a smaller multiplier to calculate bonus payouts for salaried employees, two folks confirmed to the Detroit Free Press. The folks requested to not be recognized as a result of they don’t seem to be approved to talk to the information media.These sources additionally mentioned that GM knowledgeable its salaried workforce on Jan. 27 that the bonus proportion in its system that determines workers’ bonuses can be a multiplier of 114% ― a big drop when put next with final 12 months’s 144%.
What that 114% multiplier means for a salaried worker who has a base wage of $100,000, in a wage class that earned a 13% bonus, is they might obtain a bonus of about $14,820 in contrast with the earlier 12 months when that particular person would have acquired a bonus of $18,720 at 144%. The calculation assumes that worker met their very own efficiency goals. A supply conversant in GM’s plan confirmed these figures.
That supply additionally famous that the salaried workers’ bonus system was impacted by the rising price attributable to President Donald Trump’s tariffs the identical approach the profit-sharing checks to union workers have been impacted. Trump imposed 25% tariffs on all imported automobiles and auto elements in March 2025. Although the tariff panorama modified repeatedly in 2025, and GM altered its technique to keep away from a worse influence, GM in the end recorded a $3.1 billion tariff hit for the 12 months.
“The Trump administration took cash out of your bonus examine” looks as if a successful message for Democrats going into the midterms, so do not count on to ever hear it. Simply be glad together with your Jelly of the Month Membership membership.
Reverse: The Bathtub Riots
The place we’re immediately, as a rustic, did not come out of nowhere.
On The Radio: the Mountain Goats – ‘Woke Up New’
