Head Of Nissan America Says The Company Needs A ‘North Star’ – Jalopnik

Happy Wednesday! It’s December 10, 2025, and that is The Morning Shift — your day by day roundup of the highest automotive headlines from around the globe, in a single place. This is the place you may discover an important tales which are shaping the best way Americans drive and get round.

In this morning’s version, we’re taking a look at what Nissan’s American head says the corporate wants, in addition to Lucid’s tackle the worldwide EV market. We’ll additionally have a look at the individuals who suppose AI will assist them promote automobiles, and the sellers which are suing Ford over guarantee work pay. 

Nissan’s new world CEO could also be making an attempt to chop prices anyplace he can, however he isn’t the one particular person preventing an uphill battle throughout the firm. The American chairman of Nissan, Christian Meunier, is preventing simply as laborious for market share on our shores. From the Wall Street Journal: 

When Christian Meunier took over Nissan’s Americas enterprise at the beginning of the 12 months, he stated the corporate was misplaced.

“There was no North Star. There was no vision. There was no direction,” Meunier stated in an interview

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The automaker has struggled to seek out path because the arrest of its longtime chief government, Carlos Ghosn, in 2018. Its plight—as Japan’s No. 3 carmaker—turned so dire that the Japanese authorities final 12 months inspired a rushed merger with its stronger rival Honda, however the tie-up fell aside.

Meunier’s job is popping across the firm in its largest market, the U.S. Sales have fallen about 40% over the previous decade, and its share of the market has dwindled to six.4%, from a peak of 8.4% in 2017, in accordance with Cox Automotive. Nissan sellers typically battle with greater stock ranges than their opponents and incessantly need to low cost merchandise to get them off the lot and earn quantity bonuses from the automaker.

So Nissan wants extra “vision,” however the firm’s newest automotive is a rebadged Mitsubishi — maybe the one automaker with extra of a reduction fame within the States than Nissan itself. Not a fantastic look to kick off a brand new period. 

Electric autos are the way forward for personal transportation, except all of us wish to get actually good at driving camels by way of arid landscapes. Consumers, although, have not fairly gotten on board — even Lucid is noticing the dropoff in curiosity around the globe. From Bloomberg: 

Lucid Group Inc. is seeing clear deceleration in demand for electrical autos in each the US and Europe, the producer’s prime government stated.

The discontinuation of federal tax credit within the US pulled EV purchases ahead into the third quarter, Marc Winterhoff, Lucid’s interim chief government officer, instructed Bloomberg Television on Wednesday. The first batch of Gravity sport utility autos — Lucid’s second mannequin, after the Air sedan — will arrive in Europe late this 12 months, with deliveries beginning within the first quarter of 2026.

“We are still working through our backlog, so we are a little bit insulated,” Winterhoff stated. “But definitely, there is a slowdown, there’s no question about it.”

If Lucid is seeing a downturn in gross sales, it is actually a commentary on EVs — the varieties of shoppers who purchase six-figure automobiles seemingly aren’t feeling the identical types of financial anxiousness as the parents desperately turning to Kalshi in hopes of successful this month’s lease. This is not the recession, that is EV disinterest. 

AI is infesting just about each side of our lives, and that’ll quickly hit your native seller ground — if it hasn’t already. Dealerships have lengthy needed to hop on the AI prepare, and now many are beginning to. They’re nonetheless determining what AI will really do for them, if something, however that hasn’t stopped them from placing their cash down. From Automotive News: 

A CDK Global survey of 251 U.S. dealerships from Sept. 15-28 discovered 63 p.c of respondents had been very seemingly or considerably prone to put money into AI within the months forward. And AI consciousness is on the rise, with 51 p.c both extraordinarily or very accustomed to synthetic intelligence, up from 40 p.c in 2024 and 41 p.c in 2023.

“There are a lot of dealers out there looking for it,” stated Leigh Ann Conver, CDK’s senior director of product advertising and marketing for information and intelligence

Automotive News interviewed (dealership AI advisor Yuriy) Demidko, expertise specialists and different dealership professionals who supplied suggestions on learn how to successfully purchase and implement AI.

The actual reply to “how dealerships should buy AI” is that they should not, however good luck telling a seller that. Putting apart the entire “largely useless tech that’s built an economic bubble on the verge of popping and tanking the entire global economy” factor, do we actually count on dealerships to have the ability to deal with such tech? Look on the common seller web site and inform me with a straight face they know what they’re doing with computer systems. 

Dealerships are beginning to deal with EV battery replacements underneath guarantee, and it appears they don’t seem to be pleased with how a lot they’re being paid. Two sellers from New York at the moment are suing Ford for almost one million {dollars}, collectively, for what they declare are underpayments for guarantee work. From Automotive News: 

Two New York dealerships accuse Ford Motor Co. of underpaying them tons of of hundreds of {dollars} for electrical car battery replacements. The challenge might mushroom right into a wider reimbursement controversy as extra lawsuits are filed, the dealerships’ lawyer stated.

The criticism, filed by Jericho Turnpike Auto Sales and Patchogue 112 Motors, claims Ford underpaid a Jericho franchised dealership almost $300,000 and Patchogue by greater than $615,000 for a number of EV battery replacements

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At challenge is New York’s authorized definition of a franchised dealership’s duty for fulfilling guarantee agreements or service contracts. The lawsuit accuses Ford of ignoring authorized necessities in a state statute that requires producers to moderately cowl repairs and producer service contracts not “less than the price and rate charged by the franchised motor vehicle dealer for like services to non-warranty and/or non-service contract customers.”

Ford’s obligation is outlined by the lawsuit as the price of components plus a 40 p.c markup. On prime of that, the lawsuit stated, sellers can apply for a retail markup usually used for nonwarranty repairs from 70 to 200 p.c.

Jericho’s Ford-Lincoln dealership changed 15 batteries since early 2024, however the automaker solely reimbursed the dealership $600 per battery for 13 of them, in accordance with the lawsuit. Jericho ought to have acquired $22,600 per battery, which created a $286,200 shortfall, the lawsuit alleges. Jericho acquired $13,000 for changing two different batteries, however Ford allegedly did not pay compensation in that case.

Similarly, Patchogue’s Stevens 112 Ford changed 28 batteries since early 2024. Ford allegedly paid it a “handling” price of $600 per battery. The lawsuit stated the right reimbursement from Ford ought to have been $22,600 per battery, or $632,000. Out of that, the lawsuit calculates damages to Stephens 112 Ford of roughly $615,200

Of course, guarantee battery replacements do not essentially imply some horrible failure with the EVs. There are loads of regular causes a battery might fail, or that one might have a difficulty that is merely not price diagnosing and repairing onsite on the seller — typically swapping the entire half is less complicated. These sound like some absurd sums for the sellers to demand for this sort of work, however what would a seller be if not a cash vacuum?

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