Good morning! It’s Thursday, February 5, 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, Nissan is preparing a handful of new body-on-frame SUVs to revive the brand in the U.S., Jaguar-Land Rover’s cyberattack blasted a $386 million hole in its Q4 earnings, Volvo didn’t do much better, and the UAW and Volkswagen have reached a deal in Chattanooga.Â
1st Gear: A new Xterra, other body-on-frame Nissans and Infinitis are on the way
Nissan’s President and CEO Ivan Espinosa has big plans for the brand, and it looks to be starting with a handful of body-on-frame SUVs and the revival of the long-dead Xterra nameplate — something we’ve been telling you about for a while. Dealers got a preview of the two-row Xterra, which is expected to come out in the second half of 2028, at the company’s National Automobile Dealers Association meeting in Las Vegas. Apparently, it’s aimed squarely at Jeep and will offer some sort of electrified powertrain. From Automotive News:
The electrified off-roader is the first of five U.S.-built models on a new body-on-frame platform. The lineup will include an Infiniti variant and new generations of the Pathfinder, Frontier and Infiniti QX60.
[President of Smith Automotive Group near Atlanta, Scott] Smith described the Xterra as a “radical-looking,” beefy, full-size truck with big tires, a muscular grille and a no-frills, rugged focus.
Charlie Hicks, CEO of Hicks Automotive Group in Texas, said the new Xterra carries the DNA of the original but has a modern twist.
“There’s an aggression to it,” Hicks said.
Of course, Nissan is going to have its work cut out for it if it hopes to compete with the likes of Jeep, Ford and Toyota when it comes to an off-road focused SUV. That market is — at this point — pretty damn saturated, but the Xterra has always been a cool rig, so I certainly welcome its return.
As we reported last year, it’s widely expected the Xterra will get some sort of hybrid V6, perhaps even a PHEV that’ll offer about 75 miles of range. I’d expect that motor to end up in the four other body-on-frame products as well.
Folks, I’m starting to think Nissan might be back.
2nd Gear: Jaguar-Land Rover posts massive loss thanks to cyberattack
The fourth quarter of 2025 was not kind to Tata Motors. Specifically, it wasn’t kind to Jaguar-Land Rover, and that’s mostly thanks to the lingering impact of the stifling cyberattack that shut down production for over a month. The automakers’ Indian parent company posted a $386 million loss in the last three months of the year versus a profit of $599 million a year earlier. To add insult to injury, Revenue fell 26%.
All in all, Jaguar-Land Rover — which accounts for about two-thirds of Tata’s sales — swung to a pretax loss of about $421 million, and that damn cyberattack is to blame. It shut down production at all of JLR’s factories for nearly six weeks starting in September, and it’s impact was so massive that it forced the UK government to step in with a $2 billion loan to bail out suppliers that would have otherwise gone under. From Bloomberg:
Production at Britain’s largest automaker returned to more normal levels only by mid-November, causing deliveries to slump 43% in the quarter. Volumes declined across all regions, with North America and Europe posting the steepest falls, JLR said. The planned wind-down of legacy Jaguar models, a slump in China demand and higher US tariffs also weighed on sales.
The job of turning the company around falls to new Chief Executive Officer PB Balaji, who joined in November from Tata Motors, where he was finance chief.
Tata Motors recorded exceptional costs of 15.96 billion rupees in the quarter, including from the cyberattack and related supplier claims, as well as from India’s new labor codes bill.
Luckily for JLR, it doesn’t anticipate any extra costs in the current quarter having to do with the shutdown, and its plants in England and Slovakia are now back and running at full capacity. I guess that’s something.
3rd Gear: Volvo’s Q4 was nearly as dismal
Things aren’t much better at Volvo, and it doesn’t have a cyberattack to blame. The Swiss-Chinese automaker just reported a 68% drop in fourth-quarter profits as it adjusts profits because of anemic demand. The company is forecasting year-on-year volume growth for 2026, but with dismal numbers like these, that might be a tough ask. From Reuters:
Operating profit before one-off items at the group majority-owned by China’s Geely Holding fell to 1.8 billion crowns ($199.9 million) from 5.6 billion a year earlier, hit by U.S. import tariffs, a weak dollar and low demand.
“We do see pricing being a big element in Q4,” Chief Financial Officer Fredrik Hansson told analysts and media in a call, highlighting tough market conditions in China and the U.S. after the country ended tax incentives for EVs.
Handelsbanken analyst Hampus Engellau said incentive-driven sales and price discounts had hurt the company’s profits more than the market had expected. JPMorgan analysts said in a note both profits and sales, down 16% in the quarter, had lagged market expectations.
Of course, like most things, this was partially President Donald Trump’s fault. He initially hiked import tariffs on cars built in the EU from 2.5% to 27.5% before dropping them to 15% in August.
Last year, the company cut 3,000 jobs, pulled guidance and slowed investments to offset tariff pressure, tougher competition and an overall slowdown in the EV market. Hopefully cars like the promising new EX60 mid-size electric crossover can help right the ship for the off-beat brand.
4th Gear: UAW gets Chattanooga VW workers a deal
It’s been about two years since workers at Volkswagen’s plan in Chattanooga, Tennessee voted overwhelmingly to join the United Auto Workers union, and now they’ve got a tentative agreement with the German automaker. If ratified, it would be a huge win not only for the workers but for the UAW itself, which has been trying to unionize foreign-owned auto plants for years. From Automotive News:
The UAW said the deal would give workers a 20 percent general wage increase, improved health care with lower out-of-pocket costs, a $6,550 signing bonus and annual bonuses of $2,550.
“This is a historic moment, not only for these members but our union as a whole and the entire working class,” UAW President Shawn Fain said during a Facebook Live broadcast announcing the agreement.
Fain praised the bargaining team and union organizers who have spent years pushing for representation.
“A better life is out there, and it starts with joining the UAW,” Fain said.
The UAW said workers will receive details of the tentative agreement in the coming days, and a ratification vote will follow. It was not immediately clear when the contract would end.
The UAW in a Feb. 4 press release said the agreement “reflects significant improvements over the company’s last proposal” including new product commitments, enhanced right-to-strike protections and “stronger safeguards against plant closures or the sale of operations.”
[…]
VW builds the Atlas large crossover and ID4 electric compact crossover in Chattanooga. The Atlas, one of the brand’s strongest sellers in the U.S., is set to be redesigned for the 2027 model year.
Contract talks began in September of 2024 and VW submitted its last, best and final offer to the union on September 17. It signaled that it would not continue bargaining, but the union said it sent a counterproposal about a month later, and workers authorized a strike as negotiations went on.
Clearly it paid off. Solidarity forever, baby.Â
Reverse: It was a good idea back then, and it still is
History.com
It’s a damn shame FDR never actually got around to packing the court, because we could be living in a much different world than we are now. It’s also a shame that future presidents, including the last one, didn’t take thinking like this seriously because, again, we could be living in a much different world. Alas. If you want to learn more about why FDR ultimately didn’t pack the Supreme Court, head over to History.com.
On the radio: The La’s – There She Goes
It’s time we bring Britpop back. It’s one of the few good exports that godforsaken island has ever bestowed upon the world. Is that harsh? Maybe, but it’s the truth. I mean, have you seen their food?
