Happy Wednesday! It’s May 13, 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, we’re looking at Nissan’s growth goals, as well as Stellantis’ plans to make new partnerships. We’ll also look at high gas prices pushing ever more buyers into EVs, and Volkswagen’s bosses wanting more cash.
1st Gear: Nissan is done cutting costs, and now wants more sales
Nissan’s new boss Ivan Espinosa has spent his tenure up until now in cost-cutting mode — closing factories, rebadging Mitsubishis to fill the lineup, and other classic automaker tricks. Now, though, Espinosa says the holes in the budget are filled. Now he says it’s time to grow. From Automotive News:
Embattled Nissan Motor Co. has finally shifted into growth mode, posting profits and forecasting sales increases as CEO Ivan Espinosa’s turnaround gains traction after years of sliding sales, despite headwinds from tariffs and war in the Middle East.
Nissan forecasts global deliveries to expand 4.7 percent to 3.3 million vehicles in the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2027, after contracting in seven of the last eight years.
Operating profit will more than triple to ¥200 billion ($1.3 billion), and the carmaker expects to post net income of ¥20 billion ($125.3 million), as it bounces back to the black, Espinosa said May 13 while announcing financial results for the fiscal year ended March 31.
Meanwhile, the company has stanched its cash burn and is poised to wrap its plant closures.
“We have now moved into a growth phase,” Espinosa said at the Japanese carmaker’s global headquarters here south of Tokyo. “We are ahead of plan, and the progress is visible.”
Now is an interesting time to be trying to grow your car company, given gas prices and the impending economic doom of the AI bubble collapse. I hope Nissan pulls it off, though, because I want a new GT-R.
2nd Gear: Stellantis wants to make friends
Stellantis is a sort of automotive Frankenstein’s monster, a shambling grotesquerie of brands haphazardly stitched together in hopes of making one functional system. But the company hasn’t exactly been feeling fantastic lately, so CEO Antonio Filosa is turning to Stellantis’ cardinal directive: Get more brands. Rather than buying them out, though, Filosa is looking to make partnerships. From Automotive News:
Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa said the embattled automaker will lean on partnerships for growth, days before the company is due to reveal details of a deep overhaul.
“Partnerships will be embedded in our strategy going forward,” Filosa said May 12 at the Financial Times’ Future of the Car conference in London. Stellantis, which has been working to recover volumes and market share in both the U.S. and Europe, this month already unveiled a plan for deeper cooperation with China’s Leapmotor in Europe.
The automaker, which disappointed investors with weaker-than-expected first quarter results, is working to ink partnerships that can have “benefits for both sides,” Filosa said. The goal is to retain jobs while coming up with attractive models for brands such as Fiat, he added. Such agreements do not necessarily put at risk independence, Filosa said.
“Partnerships do not need to be mono-directional,” he said.
The owner of the Maserati, Fiat and Peugeot brands is accelerating a restructuring of its European operations while bolstering spending in its more profitable North American business. As part of the revamp, Stellantis last week said two of its factories in Spain will produce electric vehicles for Leapmotor.
Stellantis already has so many brands under its roof, so many unrelated models, why not manufacture a few more?
3rd Gear: High gas prices are turning even more people towards EVs
Everyone wants to save on gas right now, and what better way to save on something than to stop buying it altogether? As gas prices keep rising thanks to the U.S.’s war on Iran, more and more buyers globally are turning to EVs. From Reuters:
Global demand for electric vehicles rose for a second straight month in April as high petrol prices kept steering buyers away from combustion-engine cars, data from consultancy Benchmark Mineral Intelligence showed on Wednesday.
Registrations of new battery-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles rose 6% from a year earlier to 1.6 million in April, a proxy for sales, although they fell 9% from March’s record monthly high, BMI said.
“Demand continues to be supported by policy incentives, rising petrol prices, and growing Chinese OEM presence,” BMI said in a statement.
Governments kept measures in place to limit fuel prices after war in the Middle East disrupted a major shipping route for oil.
In Europe, registrations climbed 27% to about 400,000 units in April, while countries in the European Economic Area and Switzerland have committed nearly 200 billion euros ($235 billion) to their EV ecosystem, a recent study showed.
When EVs were newer on the scene, people talked often about the inflection point at which buyers would realize electric cars make better commuters. Maybe this will be it, and we’ll see EV ownership continue to rise even if gas prices fall.
4th Gear: Volkswagen’s ruling families want more money
Volkswagen’s ownership is complicated and arcane in a way that only Germany could manage, but much of it filters up to the Piech family at the top. That family has decided it would like some more money now, please, and it’s told Volkswagen to get ready to pay up. From Reuters:
Volkswagen’s controlling family shareholders piled pressure on the automaker to overhaul its business model on Wednesday after the German company’s ongoing problems led to a drop in first-quarter profit at their holding group.
Porsche SE, the holding company of the Porsche-Piech auto dynasty and Volkswagen’s largest investor, posted a 21% drop in adjusted profit after tax of 382 million euros ($469 million) for the January-March period.
Porsche SE’s unadjusted result after tax was a 923 million euro loss due to a 1.3 billion euro non-cash writedown on its Volkswagen stake, after a 1.1 billion euro loss last year.
Porsche SE is looking to defence and artificial intelligence investments as its core automotive holdings suffer from falling profits in a global market under fire from tariffs, Chinese competition and a troubled transition to electric vehicles.
Porsche going into the defense business would be wild. Can you image a diesel Cayenne technical? The absolute opposite of a Hilux.
Reverse: Remember that time Philly cops bombed their own city?
From the Battle of Blair Mountain to the MOVE bombing, just remember: The United States government is frothing at the mouth to drop ordinance on you.
The Fuel Up
Well, that was a nice respite from rising prices that we had. Looks like it’s time for prices to rise again!
On The Radio: Garbage – ‘Bleed Like Me’
I’ve been on a real Garbage kick recently. I have absolutely no explanation as to why.
