Audi Aligns With Trump For New U.S. Factory – Jalopnik

Happy Monday! It’s October 26, 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. This is the place you may discover a very powerful tales which might be shaping the way in which Americans drive and get round.

In this morning’s version we’re Audi’s new pal in Trump, and the potential of a Volkswagen strike. We’ll additionally have a look at Trump’s want for an finish to his Canadian commerce struggle, and Chery’s plans to develop to North America. 

If you need a recap of the most recent auto information despatched to your inbox every weekday, you possibly can join Jalopnik’s free Morning Shift publication right here.

Audi, like many automakers, is rethinking its method to U.S. automobiles within the wake of Trump’s tariffs. The firm is trying to construct its first U.S. manufacturing unit, and it went proper to the supply for the announcement: Trump himself. From the Wall Street Journal:

Audi will construct its first-ever U.S. manufacturing unit in Macon, Ga., President Trump introduced Saturday, marking the most recent transfer by a world automaker to deal with American patrons as gross sales fall off elsewhere on the planet.

“I’m thrilled to announce a massive auto manufacturing investment in the great state of Georgia by a fantastic company,” Trump mentioned at a midterm marketing campaign rally in Perry, Ga.

Trump mentioned the plant will produce 200,000 automobiles yearly and that building will start subsequent month.

Now, I’m no fancy-pants big-city political analyst, however is it a good suggestion to hitch your company wagon to a traditionally unpopular political determine who’s staring down the barrel of a midterm rout that analysts say might rival the most important blue waves in historical past? Is {that a} good affiliation for an organization to have? Do you need the man with 34% approval to behave because the face of your organization?

Volkswagen not too long ago determined to return on its agreements with staff over wages, and the employees are unsurprisingly not tremendous jazzed about this. The firm is making an attempt desperately to chop prices, however it does nonetheless want human folks keen to do its labor for cash — if the cash is not value it, the labor will not occur. Thus, a strike menace. From Reuters: 

FRANKFURT, Oct 23 (Reuters) – Volkswagen staff on Friday threatened strikes from January except Europe’s high automaker reverses a current ‌cancellation of wage offers by the top of subsequent week.

The dispute over deliberate cutbacks got here to a head final month when Volkswagen terminated virtually all wage offers with German staff, placing long-standing labour requirements together with working hours and vacation pay up for renegotiation.

Volkswagen plans to chop 100,000 jobs and ​might shut as much as 4 crops in Germany in what could be its biggest-ever overhaul, because it faces fierce ​Chinese competitors, billions in tariff prices and a pricey shift to electrical autos.

Here’s somewhat administration tip I’ve picked up from my years in enterprise: Companies typically want staff to run. Workers typically want cash. Labor, like all issues, has a price — if an organization is not keen to pay it, that firm will not get the labor it wants. 

Donald Trump loves nothing greater than the artwork of the deal, and he is been working not too long ago on a cope with Canada. He now says the nation is “willing to give us anything” to make a deal occur, which makes good sense with the truth that we have not really had a useful commerce cope with certainly one of our solely two neighbors for all this time. From Automotive News: 

U.S. President Donald Trump says he expects his ever-evolving commerce struggle with Canada to finish “pretty soon.”

…

The U.S. at the moment imposes a 25-per-cent tariff on imported autos, together with Canadian-made automobiles and vehicles, though solely the non-U.S. content material of autos that adjust to the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement is topic to the obligation. In retaliation, Canada imposes a 25-per-cent tariff on U.S.-made autos that do not adjust to the commerce settlement, and on the non-Canadian and non-Mexican content material of people who do, with exemptions out there to qualifying automakers.

He mentioned the continuing commerce dispute between the 2 nations could be settled “pretty soon” and that Canada was “willing to give us anything at this moment.”

I’ve to surprise if Trump himself believes what he is saying. No one else does, I get that, however does Trump see the world the way in which he claims to? 

That commerce deal that Trump envisions as inevitable, although, might result in certainly one of his main threats coming true: The import of Chinese automobiles to U.S. soil. Chery is trying to begin constructing automobiles in Canada for the North American market, and a commerce cope with Canada would probably have to permit them into the States. From Bloomberg:

Chery Automobile Co. is contemplating establishing native manufacturing in Canada, constructing on the launch of gross sales in that market subsequent 12 months and placing certainly one of China’s greatest carmakers on the northern doorstep of the US.

While entry to the US stays extremely unsure, Chery sees Canada as an vital sufficient market to develop a deeper presence. Options being thought-about embrace taking on idle capability at present crops and dealing with companions, Executive Vice President Guibing Zhang mentioned in an interview at Chery’s headquarters in Wuhu, China.

Personally, I’m all in favor of something that diversifies our automotive market extra and creates some worth competitors. Not everybody, although, thinks the identical. 

We love residing in post-9/11 hell, do not we?

Prices are nonetheless excessive, however not as excessive as they’ve been. Maybe fill up. 

Somehow, I awakened with this observe caught in my head. I have not listened to Frampton in ceaselessly. Make it make sense.