Ford Touts $1 Billion In Kentucky Truck Plant Investments After Sean Duffy Publicly Whined About Its Ties To Chinese Automakers – Jalopnik

Good morning! It’s Friday, September 11, 2026, and that is The Morning Shift, your day by day roundup of the highest automotive headlines from world wide, in a single place. This is the place you will discover crucial tales which are shaping the best way Americans drive and get round.

In this morning’s version, Ford is investing large at its Kentucky Truck facility on the heels of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy saying it was serving to Chinese automakers acquire a foothold in America, the Trump administration’s combat with California over stricter automobile emissions hits a roadblock in court docket, China units a 70% electrified automobile purpose for brand new automotive gross sales within the subsequent 5 years and Jeep is recalling tons of of hundreds of Grand Cherokees for suspension bits that may pop off.

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Ford is investing $1 billion for a brand new paint store at Kentucky Truck, its most worthwhile meeting plant, and the information comes simply days after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy publicly wagged his finger on the automaker for allegedly serving to Chinese firms acquire a foothold Stateside. While I’m positive the 2 aren’t related, the timing is definitely humorous.

Work on the Super Duty, Expedition and Lincoln Navigator plant is slated to start out later this 12 months. Every cent spent there may be mighty vital, and it brings in about $25 billion in income yearly. Ford touted different Kentucky investments, together with $2 billion on repurposing a newly constructed battery plant in Glendale, after it killed a three way partnership with a South Korean battery maker. It’ll now reopen subsequent 12 months as a battery power storage programs producer. From Automotive News:

U.S. battery manufacturing was among the many matters Duffy cited in a Sept. 8 letter to CEO Jim Farley accusing the automaker of “actively intertwining its future with Chinese state-backed enterprises.”

The automaker is licensing using know-how from China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. to make batteries at a plant in Marshall, Mich. Ford owns and operates the plant, which has begun producing cells.

Ford pushed again towards Duffy’s criticism, saying that it produces extra autos and employs extra hourly manufacturing staff within the U.S. than some other automaker.

In a press release, a Ford spokesperson mentioned Duffy’s letter was “a wrongheaded attempt to capture headlines,” and that Ford had “done more for American manufacturing than virtually any other in the nation’s history.”

It’s not completely clear why Duffy would throw remarks like this throughout Ford’s bow, particularly when the Blue Oval and the Trump administration have had a fairly strong relationship up to now. Perhaps it is as a result of he is a dope.

In extra egg-on-face information for the Trump administration, a combat between its EPA and California over the state’s stricter emissions requirements has encountered one other roadblock as a latest court docket motion favored the Golden State. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a preliminary injunction towards the EPA, ordering it to withdraw or appropriate a latest set of actions that might have continued the company’s elimination of the waivers.

The court docket accused the EPA of “gamesmanship” and “mind-numbing word calisthenics” for its try to reclassify six waivers in an try to provide Congress the chance to do away with the requirements. They govern every little thing from passenger autos and vehicles to small garden care gear like mowers and chainsaws. From Automotive News:

It “may seem like a clever policy move, but undermines honest compliance with the law, which is what Americans should expect from executive branch agencies,” mentioned Judge Beryl A. Howell within the memorandum opinion explaining the preliminary injunction.

A spokesperson for the EPA instructed Automotive News in an e mail that it’s “considering immediate appeal options.”

The injunction raises the stakes in one in every of two main authorized battles over the waivers, which have ripple results far past the Golden State.

Sixteen states and Washington, D.C. have adopted variations of one of many California requirements at subject within the injunction case, governing roughly 37 % of recent U.S. light-duty automobile gross sales.

The injunction impacts what is actually the fallback plan for auto firms hoping to organize for the trajectory of California’s more and more bold emissions targets.

For many years the EPA has granted California waivers to put in writing its personal emissions insurance policies to forestall air air pollution. The EPA accepted California’s laws utilizing this mechanism throughout the Biden administration.

The Trump administration and Republicans in Congress have provide you with a controversial manner of utilizing Congressional authority to strip the state of its waivers. The methodology entails reclassifying the waivers as “rules” that are topic to Congressional approval or disapproval.

So a lot for states’ rights, huh?

In 2025, the Trump EPA efficiently reclassified three waivers: Advanced Clean Cars II, Advanced Clean Trucks and the Heavy-Duty Low Nitrogen Oxides rule. The reclassification course of enabled the EPA to ship these guidelines to Congress for disapproval and President Donald Trump signed these adjustments into legislation in June 2025.

A separate court docket case in California is addressing these waivers. Many auto business gamers thought of ACC II overly strict and unrealistic, as it will have required 100% of recent automobile gross sales to be zero-emissions autos (together with some plug-in hybrids and hydrogen-powered autos) by 2035.

In June 2026, the EPA reclassified 4 further waivers with the intent to ship them to Congress for disapproval. Those waivers ruled greenhouse fuel emissions requirements from the Obama administration, Advanced Clean Cars I (additionally from the Obama administration however reinstated below President Joe Biden) and small off-road engines akin to these in out of doors energy tools.

In July 2026, the EPA reclassified two further waivers: these governing giant ships docked at ports and business harbor craft.

These six are the reclassifications at subject within the case concerned within the injunctions. The California Air Resources Board has preserved ACC I requirements whereas ACC II has been tied up in court docket, however automakers can voluntarily adjust to ACC II and its stricter necessities.

China has lofty objectives in thoughts: 70% of its new automobiles will likely be EVs or hybrids by 2030 and autonomous driving will likely be deployable at scale. Beijing additionally says it desires 40% of recent business automobile gross sales to be electrical by 2030, and it expects a number of of its automakers to be among the many world’s 10 largest whereas additionally having a higher say in setting world requirements. BYD, SAIC and Geely have been among the many high 10 final 12 months when it got here to gross sales quantity, however they trailed far behind the highest 3 of Toyota, Volkswagen and Hyundai. From Bloomberg:

While the plan did not give a goal for autonomous autos, the deal with rolling out extra driverless automobiles is a optimistic for the business after new robotaxi license approvals have been frozen for a number of months this 12 months following an outage of Baidu Inc. autos in Wuhan.

China has turn out to be the world’s largest producer of EVs and is on the forefront of deploying autonomous driving know-how together with the US, however its home market is going through a collection of challenges. Car gross sales are down 21% within the first eight months of this 12 months and a long-running worth conflict has eroded revenue margins and led to security and high quality considerations.

Policymakers have launched greater than half-a-dozen new requirements or guidelines round door handles, driver help know-how, batteries and extra to make sure security, whereas the newest Five Year Plan says the federal government appears to deepen automaker reform, encourage consolidation and the exit of inefficient producers, which can assist alleviate overcapacity.

Battery know-how and recycling are additionally on the agenda, with the plan calling for the introduction of requirements for brand new cell chemistry akin to solid-state batteries and enhancements within the recapture of key metals akin to lithium, cobalt and nickel.

While these numbers are excessive, I would not be shocked if China can really pull them out. In 2021, it needed EVs and hybrids to account for 20% of recent automotive gross sales in 2025. It flew previous that concentrate on, with gross sales reaching 54% final 12 months. It’s actually doubtless that the 70% quantity will likely be achieved forward of time — particularly as fuel costs proceed to climb.

Jeep is recalling 328,381 2022-2023 Grand Cherokees (ICE and 4xe) and 2021-2023 Grand Cherokee Ls as a result of their rear coil springs won’t be accurately connected, and when that occurs, they’ll come out of place and detach from the SUV totally with out warning, which is lower than splendid. Luckily, simply 0.1% of recalled automobiles are anticipated to have the defect, and no Grand Cherokees fitted with air suspension are impacted. From the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration:

Dealers will exchange the rear coil spring decrease isolators, freed from cost. Interim notification letters, notifying house owners of the protection threat, are anticipated to be mailed September 29, 2026. Additional letters will likely be despatched as soon as the ultimate treatment is obtainable.

In a bit of fine information, Jeep says it isn’t conscious of any accidents or accidents associated to this defect.

While Stellantis continues to be a great distance off from the 68 remembers Ford has tallied this 12 months, it is no slouch both. This marks the thirty third recall the corporate has issued up to now in 2026, which might be gnarly if the Blue Oval did not exist.

Gas and diesel costs proceed to development within the flawed course because the U.S. and Israel’s conflict with Iran, in addition to Ukrainian assaults on Russian oil refineries, squeeze oil provides and the worldwide provide chain. These elements have despatched WTI Crude Oil futures and Brent Crude costs via the roof, with them sitting at $99 and $104, respectively, on the time of publication. 

Here’s the place nationwide common costs stand proper now, in response to AAA:

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What all this implies is the common worth of a gallon of standard fuel was up one other 2 cents in a single day to $4.30, in response to AAA. It positive looks like we’re effectively on our technique to breaking the $4.56 2026 excessive we noticed again in May. 

The even larger information is the truth that we have set a brand new all-time report excessive for diesel, with costs eclipsing $6 for the primary time ever — now sitting at $6.06. That’s an 8-cent soar from yesterday alone. Get prepared for issues to get a hell of much more costly.

History.com

It’s exhausting to beleive it is already been 25 years. Please head to History.com to be taught extra about that day.

There was a variety of hopefulness across the concept of coming collectively within the wake of 9/11 — demonstrated fairly effectively by “The Rising.” Of course, with hindsight we all know that by no means occurred, nevertheless it’s good to think about what the nation would have been like if that occurred.