Happy Wednesday! It’s January 7, 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 the upcoming Senate hearing on affordability, and automakers’ grim outlooks for U.S. sales in 2026. We’ll also look at open-sourcing in auto tech, and Nissan’s new head of U.S. sales.

The Senate is planning a very dumb hearing with American auto CEOs, about how emissions regulations have made cars just too expensive. That hearing was supposed to happen next week, but it’s now been delayed after Ford complained. Specifically, the Senate wanted CEOs from Ford, GM, and Stellantis, but was happy to take an executive from Tesla — something Ford said was unfair. Now, the hearing will have to wait. From Automotive News:

A U.S. Senate committee hearing on vehicle affordability that was to feature the Detroit 3 CEOs and a top Tesla executive has been postponed after Ford Motor Co. pushed back on the timing and format.

The hearing, initially scheduled for Jan. 14, would have brought the heads of Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Stellantis together on Capitol Hill for the first time since 2008.

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation had planned to quiz the three executives and Lars Moravy, Tesla’s vice president of vehicle engineering, on “how radical global warming regulations and mandated technologies have driven up the cost of vehicles for American consumers,” according to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, the panel’s chairman.

But Ford balked at the idea of sending CEO Jim Farley when Tesla CEO Elon Musk was not called to testify, according to a letter to the committee first reported by Politico and obtained by Automotive News.

“If a vice president of engineering is appropriate for the planned hearing, the other companies should have the opportunity to offer a similar witness,” wrote Brian Smith, a lawyer for Ford from the firm Covington & Burling.

This hearing is, as a whole, extraordinarily dumb. The “radical global warming regulations” are still less restrictive than most of the world, and are in fact the bare minimum amount of effort automakers could put towards ensuring the Earth stays habitable. In the land of the free market, automakers long ago figured out that giant polluting cars make them more money. That’s it. That’s the affordability crisis.

Remember tariffs? Automaker sure do, because the companies have been paying those extra fees out of their own pockets. Come 2026, that practice is likely to end, and car prices will soar — meaning car sales will plummet. At least, that’s what Toyota and GM expect. From the Wall Street Journal:

General Motors and several rivals reported year-end sales slumps, an ominous sign that U.S. auto sales will slow this year as consumers push back on higher prices.

GM, the biggest automaker in the U.S. by sales and a bellwether for the U.S. industry, said Monday that sales fell 7% in the final quarter of 2025. Honda, Hyundai, Mazda and Nissan also said on Monday that their U.S. sales fell toward the end of the year.

The slowdown is expected to extend into this year. Analysts and automakers predict U.S. annual sales will fall in 2026 following three straight years of gains as belt-tightening American car buyers collide with tariff costs that companies probably won’t keep absorbing.

Executives at Toyota, which notched an 8% increase in U.S. sales during the fourth quarter, said they are preparing for a bruising year ahead.

Toyota was able to maintain sales momentum at the end of last year by absorbing the costs of U.S. tariffs, and because car buyers gravitated toward the company’s entry-level models like the Corolla sedan. Yet executives said companies won’t be able to keep footing the bill for tariffs.

“Prices are going to go up for us and for our competitors,” David Christ, Toyota’s U.S. sales chief, said on a call with reporters.

New cars are already too expensive for American consumers, so why not bump the prices further? Surely this will only go well as the economy balances on the precipice of a collapse that would make 2008 look like a bull market. 

Automakers use tons of software in their cars, and that can be a pain to fix. Every car company has its own trademarks and patents, its own way of doing things, and its own code — all things that shops have to either learn or work around for an increasing number of repairs. One German trade group wants to change that, by getting automakers on board with sharing tech. From Reuters:

More than 30 companies across the automotive supply chain have agreed to collaborate on open-source software to develop next-generation cars and cut costs, the German industry lobby behind the initiative said on Wednesday.

Germany’s VDA announced the expansion of the initiative at the CES trade show in Las Vegas, where carmakers and suppliers are betting on AI and software to revive an industry struggling with slow progress and high costs.

European auto group Stellantis and truck maker Traton ave signed the memorandum of understanding, along with German supplier Schaeffler and chipmakers Infineon and Qualcomm, the VDA said.

They join German carmakers Volkswagen, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz, among others, lifting the number of participating firms from 11 when the group was announced last year to 32.

The idea behind open-source software is simple: Everyone can contribute to the code, everyone can use it, and no one profits off of it. That last part may be a sticking point for automakers, and why this whole endeavor is a “memorandum of understanding” rather than anything more binding. 

Nissan has been having a hell of a time recently. Fresh on the heels of an executive-lead rework of the company, one that will have to win back the trust of dealers, now the automaker’s head of U.S. sales has left after just four months on the job. This is for sure a good sign, one that bodes great for the new guy who just got a promotion to U.S. sales head. From Automotive News:

Nissan’s leadership revolving door spins again.

Michael Soutter, senior vice president of U.S. marketing and sales for Nissan, has resigned for personal reasons just four months into the role.

Tiago Castro, a 23-year veteran of Nissan Motor Co., will succeed Soutter, Automotive News has learned. Castro has led Infiniti’s Americas business as vice president since April 2025.

Soutter’s exit adds to Nissan’s executive turnover as the automaker works to revive its struggling U.S. operations amid flat sales and persistent dealer discontent.

These damn Millennials just have no concept of company loyalty. Back in my day, you’d work at the same place for 30 years until they gave you a gold watch and a pension and sent you on your way (to Florida). Nowadays, they’re leaving jobs every four months! Kids, I swear. 

As a kid, I was set up to believe that adult life would be full of a few things that haven’t really appeared since. Quicksand, house fires, and the Harlem Globetrotters are all on that list. 

Did you know that Twitch embeds don’t work on our site? Well, I didn’t, when I tried to embed the GDQ Twitch stream into TMS on Monday. Let’s try YouTube this time.