Nissan Wants Hybrids To Be Its ‘Primary Powertrain’ In North America – Jalopnik

Happy Tuesday! It’s September 29, 2026, and that is The Morning Shift — your every day roundup of the highest automotive headlines from around the globe, in a single place. This is the place you may discover crucial tales which are shaping the best way Americans drive and get round.

In this morning’s version, we’re taking a look at Nissan going all-in on hybrids, and Tesla providing FSD in Croatia. We’ll additionally take a look at the state of Volvo’s hiring, and the state of Toyota’s gross sales. 

If you need a recap of the newest auto information despatched to your inbox every weekday, you’ll be able to join Jalopnik’s free Morning Shift e-newsletter right here.

The U.S. market has soundly rejected electrical vehicles, an final result we have lengthy feared, however rising gasoline costs because of the battle on Iran have meant of us do not precisely need gasoline guzzlers both. The answer? Hybrids, the half-measure powertrain possibility that is now promoting like hotcakes within the States. Now, Nissan goes all-in on them, hoping to make hybrids the corporate’s “primary powertrain” by 2030. From Automotive News: 

Nissan will blitz the U.S. market with hybrid autos to make gasoline-electrics its “primary powertrain” in North America in 2030 by including new range-extenders and V-6 setups because the model races to catch leaders Toyota and Honda, Nissan Americas Chairman Christian Meunier stated.

Nissan’s plan requires localizing manufacturing of the Rogue e-Power hybrid in 2028, bringing an e-Power model of the Kicks compact crossover to the U.S. round 2028 and rolling out a sequence of V-6 hybrid choices on its coming line of body-on-frame vehicles that launches with the XTerra SUV.

Nissan desires hybrids to account for 30 to 40 p.c of its Rogue-segment gross sales “very quickly,” Meunier stated at a Sept. 28 briefing at Nissan Motor Co.’s international headquarters.

I do not envy anybody who works in product planning technique proper now, as a result of it is unattainable to inform what the world appears like in 10 years. Will all of us have gone in on EVs? Will additional relaxed gasoline financial system rules make gasoline autos sensible once more? How the hell do you intend future product when the world itself is so unpredictable?

Tesla desires very badly to supply its FSD driver-assist software program suite in Europe, however to date the bloc has dodged universally approving the software program. Instead, nations have authorised it on a case-by-case foundation, and now Croatia is throwing its lot in with the supporters. From Reuters: 

Tesla stated on Tuesday that its supervised Full Self-Driving system has been authorised in ​Croatia, with a rollout throughout the nation ‌anticipated to start quickly, becoming a member of a rising checklist of European nations which have authorised the know-how.

– Dutch regulator ​RDW authorised the system in April, with ​Belgium and a handful of different nations ⁠following swimsuit. Neighbouring Slovenia additionally authorised earlier ​this month.
– RDW can be proposing that the software program ​be authorised throughout the bloc. A security group and a number of other EU member states have, nonetheless, expressed issues concerning the ​system’s skill to exceed velocity limits.
– The concern ​has emerged as one of the contentious features ‌of ⁠Tesla’s push for a European rollout of FSD, which the automaker has stated is essential to boosting gross sales and regaining market share amid rising ​competitors from ​Chinese electric-vehicle ⁠makers.

CEO Elon Musk’s plan to deprioritize vehicles in favor of AI, robots, and autonomy appears dumb on its face, however bear in mind: Musk thinks robots are cool. Can you actually put a value on cool? Because he’d prefer to, in any other case he is not going to make any cash off this endeavor. 

Things aren’t wanting nice at Volvo, the place the corporate has determined it is achieved hiring white-collar staff. Sure, the corporate could also be going by means of some completely regular restructuring, but it surely’s by no means a terrific signal when an organization stops hiring totally — with Volvo solely on the lookout for manufacturing facility staff now, the impact is comparable. From Automotive News: 

Volvo Cars has imposed a worldwide hiring freeze for white-collar jobs and begun taking a extra “restrictive approach” to exterior spending, in accordance with an inside memo reviewed by Automotive News.

The transfer comes because the Swedish luxurious automaker contends with softening demand in key markets, together with China and the United States. Volvo Cars employs about 20,000 white-collar staff globally, together with practically 1,000 within the U.S. and Canada.

…

Internal recruitment is also being briefly paused whereas the corporate critiques its method to expertise improvement, profession alternatives and job rotation. The measures are meant to “reduce complexity, create stronger regional synergies and ensure resources are focused on the areas that have the greatest impact on our performance and transformation,” the memo stated.

I would not be stunned if this results in layoffs, however firms at all times like to indicate buyers they’re rising — it is why LinkedIn is so stuffed with job listings that by no means message you again. If Volvo is not even pretending to rent white-collar staff, issues should be unhealthy on their books. 

Toyota, too, hasn’t been wanting so scorching not too long ago. The firm has been a laggard on alternate options to pure ICE energy, and now it is paying the worth as gasoline prices rise. Plus, its gross sales are crumbling in China, because the nation’s consumers largely go for home autos. From Reuters: 

TOKYO, Sept 29 (Reuters) – Toyota Motor (7203.T), opens new tab stated on Tuesday its international automobile gross sales and manufacturing ​fell for a second straight ‌month in August, as declines in China, the US and the Middle East continued after ​dragging down ends in the ​prior month.

– The world’s greatest automaker noticed international ⁠gross sales fall 6.4% from a yr ​earlier to 790,743 autos and manufacturing ​drop 5.9% to 700,860 autos.
– A 22.8% plunge in China dragged gross sales down for a seventh consecutive ​month, as increased petrol costs weighed ​on demand for hybrid and conventional combustion-engine autos.

As a lot as I do not need to be in product planning proper now, I additionally do not need to be Koji Sato. That man has the unenviable job of modernizing Toyota at an unimaginable tempo, if he desires the corporate to stay aggressive. 

How many once-in-a-lifetime recessions have you ever lived by means of? I feel I’m as much as three — the Dot Com crash, the housing crash, and the Covid crash — and it looks like we’re staring down one other. This might be high quality although. 

Yesterday I speculated that Trump may very well like the worth of gasoline, provided that it led to a 47 — seemingly his favourite quantity. Now we’re right down to a forty five, however that is additionally a quantity for his presidency. 

I noticed Machine Girl as soon as, years in the past, and did not love them. Now I’ve warmed, even when a few of their vocals are harsher than I’d like.