No One Knows How To Plan For The World After 2028

Happy Wednesday! It’s March 4, 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 how companies are struggling to plan for possible post-Trump futures, as well as Hyundai’s big ‘bot bonanza. We’ll also look at how underwater Americans are on their car loans, and how many cars we’re all buying anyway. 

Donald Trump campaigned on being a friend to American businesses, and in some ways he’s been one — just look at Dodge, which is still as internal combustion-happy as ever. The only issue is, Trump’s policies have been such a wild swing backward that those same companies now aren’t really sure how to plan for the future. Will they need to meet new emissions targets in 2028, or is this just how life is now? From the Wall Street Journal: 

Companies say President Trump’s climate overhaul makes it tough to frame their future emissions plans and prepare for what they see as inevitable environmental restrictions—particularly as their goals extend beyond the president’s term.

In recent annual reports delivered to investors, companies said that, despite the Trump administration’s easing of environmental rules, businesses will still need to plan to lower their emissions to meet standards in the long term.

The statements come as the Trump administration recently repealed the “endangerment finding,” a landmark Obama-era legal foundation for greenhouse gas emissions regulations. But companies say in their filings that they ultimately expect climate rules across the globe to ramp up—and need to be prepared to meet them.

ConocoPhillips said in its recent 10-K report that, while the EPA under Trump has moved to dismantle some climate regulations, “these policy swings create additional uncertainty for companies who need to plan for operations that will endure through administrations.”

Exxon Mobil took a bolder stance.

“Without supportive policies and the innovations they drive, net zero will remain out of reach—for society and for Exxon Mobil,” the company said in its 10-K, adding “society’s progress continues to lag in these areas.”

Can you imagine even being able to plan out to 2028, let alone past it? I haven’t even planned breakfast for today yet, let alone much of my life past this month. 

Tesla decided it was going to become a gazillion-dollar company on the back of robot workers building robot servants, and its stock price is through the roof on such promises. Hyundai, a massive conglomerate with more manufacturing experience than Tesla, now seems to want in on that sweet sweet tech hype cash. The company is already planning a robotics plant in the States, and now wants a plant for data and robots in Korea, too. From Automotive News: 

Hyundai Motor Group will invest $6 billion in a new high-tech robot, data and energy hub south of Seoul. The complex complements the robotics factory Hyundai plans for the U.S. and positions the South Korean automaker to challenge Tesla as a major robot maker by decade’s end.”

The new site will produce 30,000 robots a year, matching the capacity of the U.S. plant in Georgia that Hyundai announced in January. The South Korean plant will build robots based on platforms developed in-house by the company, such as its Mobile Eccentric Droid, or MobED.

Hyundai Motor announced plans March 4 to commercialize the MobED, a kind of omnidirectional four-wheeled autonomous logistics wagon that can haul up to 125 pounds.

The South Korean site will also have a massive solar-powered hydrogen production facility and a data center to support physical artificial intelligence capability in its next-generation gadgets.

Will robotics be the next speculative bubble after AI, the way we had the blockchain and NFTs before? Or are AI and robotics too closely linked? I guess only time will tell. 

Cars on U.S. roads keep getting older, as drivers are increasingly unable to afford something newer. When the old shitbox kicks the bucket, though, drivers are carrying record levels of negative equity into their new loans. From Automotive News:

An increasing number of new-vehicle buyers are underwater on their trade-ins, with the average red ink reaching a record $7,214 in the fourth quarter.

That broke the high of $6,905 during the third quarter, according to Edmunds, which collects the data. These figures are more than $1,000 over what underwater buyers owed at the end of prepandemic 2019.

Rising negative equity limits the number of consumers able to trade in to a new car, reducing sales.

“It’s pretty hard to put a deal together if they’re coming with several thousand dollars that they owe on their current vehicle,” said Brian Maas, president of the California New Car Dealers Association. “Negative equity can be managed, up to a point. And at some point, if it’s too large, even the most creative dealer can’t figure out a way to help their customer get into a new car.”

I’m pretty sure most vehicles I’ve owned weren’t even worth $7,214. This seems like a fundamentally unsustainable way to run a sector of the U.S. economy as necessary as transportation, but I’m just some silly woman without an economics degree. 

February car sales numbers are trickling out, and the U.S. is looking like a strong enough market for most companies — provided you aren’t one of a few specific Japanese brands. If you’re from Honda, Mazda, or Subaru, though, you might like the state of things a little less. From Automotive News:

Toyota Motor Corp., American Honda, Hyundai and Kia posted higher U.S. sales in February, bucking what is expected to be another weak month across the auto industry.

Volume rose 3.2 percent at Toyota Motor, with deliveries up 3.3 percent at Toyota and 2.5 percent at Lexus.

Toyota’s results were driven by a 22 percent increase in pickup sales and a 14 percent gain in cars.

…

A 9.4 percent increase in car sales helped American Honda overcome a 2 percent decline in light-truck deliveries for the month.

Overall, American Honda sales edged up 1.1 percent, with volume down 0.5 percent at Honda and up 17 percent at Acura.

American Honda is doing well, but that’s on the back of Acura sales — not the Honda brand itself, which is down a touch. Still, there’s time for Honda to get things back in order, as the winter months end. 

I should watch “Spaceballs” tonight. 

Another great artist that KEXP introduced me to. Gotta love a Walker Wormhole Wednesday.