Nissan’s Grand U.S. EV Plans Are Already Falling Aside

Good morning! It is Tuesday, September 2, 2025, and that is The Morning Shift, your day by day roundup of the highest automotive headlines from world wide, in a single place. That is the place you will discover a very powerful tales which are shaping the way in which Individuals drive and get round.

On this morning’s version, Nissan’s EV plans are in for a bumpy experience within the U.S., Tesla cannot get a win in Europe, Audi is feeling good about the place it is headed and Ford points yet one more recall.

Nissan’s grand $500 million plan to show its Mississippi manufacturing facility right into a “middle for EV manufacturing and know-how” is in deep trouble proper now, and the corporate’s plan to deliver a pair of U.S.-made electrical crossovers to market later this decade has utterly stalled. I haven’t got to inform you this, however neither of those are good or splendid for an automaker that’s already struggling mightily. 

A supply advised Automotive Information that the Japanese firm has “a value downside,” and the crossovers are going to should be reengineered to be extra price-competitive due to lower-than-originally anticipated gross sales volumes. Initially, Nissan aimed to promote 200,000 EVs within the U.S. in 2028, and that is nearly definitely not going to be the case anymore, as demand for EVs. From Automotive Information:

Nissan spokesman Brian Brockman mentioned suppliers have been requested to “briefly pause work” on the electrical crossover applications whereas the corporate assesses “competitiveness and EV market development alternatives.”

The subsequent-generation EVs will probably be constructed on a scalable platform that may help a number of fashions and may very well be shared with different automakers.

Nissan beforehand delayed the battery crossovers by 10 months, to November 2028 for a Nissan-branded mannequin and March 2029 for an Infiniti model.

Brockman mentioned the applications are beneath evaluate however that these manufacturing timelines stay unchanged for now.

Whereas all of this is occurring, Nissan is planning to focus its 4.7 million-square-foot Mississippi complicated on producing electrified truck-based automobiles. It’s going to nonetheless contain some heavy lifting: modifying one of many two meeting traces on the plant (which at the moment builds the Altima). 

Beginning in 2028, Nissan will ship as much as 5 automobiles on a brand new body-on-frame platform, together with the Frontier, a brand new Xterra, the Pathfinder and Infiniti QX60. Nissan’s CEO mentioned manufacturing volumes of those body-on-frame automobiles might attain 250,000-300,000 models per 12 months.

Relying on the way you take a look at it, it’s both an extremely thrilling time for Nissan or a really worrying time. I suppose there is not a lot left to lose for the corporate. Let’s simply hope it will probably return itself to a few of its former glory.

Tesla’s gross sales numbers are not turning round in Europe in any significant means, as sturdy competitors and backlash in opposition to CEO Elon Musk proceed to show off patrons. Registrations of recent Teslas in France have been down a whopping 47.3% year-over-year in August, even though the general market grew 2.2%. Issues have been even worse in Sweden, the place gross sales dropped 84% regardless of 6% market development. In addition they dropped 42% in Denmark, 50% within the Netherlands and 4.4% in Italy. Nonetheless, it wasn’t all dangerous information. Tesla made some positive factors in a couple of nations. From Reuters:

Norway, the place Tesla has deep roots and just about all new automotive gross sales are electrical, noticed a 21.3% soar in registrations for the U.S. EV maker. However BYD’s registrations jumped 218%.

After seven months of declines, Tesla’s registrations in Portugal rose 28.7% in August.

And in Spain, which gives EV subsidies of as much as 7,000 euros ($8,200), Tesla’s gross sales rose 161% to 1,435 vehicles from 549 in August 2024. However BYD’s gross sales rose greater than 400% to 1,827 vehicles.

Within the 12 months to this point, BYD’s gross sales in Spain have surged 675% to 14,181 vehicles, whereas Tesla’s gross sales have risen 11.6% to 9,303 automobiles.

[…]

Earlier this 12 months Tesla representatives in Europe argued that the gross sales decline was largely as a result of manufacturing was shifting to a revamped model of the Mannequin Y that had been Europe’s top-selling automotive in 2023.

Deliveries started throughout a lot of Europe in June, however Mannequin Y gross sales have been down 46.5% in Denmark in August and 87% in Sweden.

In the UK, one thing that’s definitely hurting new Tesla gross sales is the truth that there are such a lot of G-D used Teslas obtainable. Gross sales of used Teslas hit a file in July — leaping 270%, in response to Reuters, whereas the common value of a used Mannequin Y hit a brand new low — down 41% in two years.

Audi is feeling good about its prospects, and it might find yourself concentrating on annual gross sales of a minimum of 2 million automobiles — up a fifth from 2025 — beneath a brand new technique the German automaker is predicted to launch later this 12 months. This objective would really be an annual file for Audi, and it factors to a extra aggressive method following some severe down years. From Reuters:

Audi has been a headache for guardian Volkswagen, affected by mannequin launch delays and technological setbacks which have widened a niche with rivals, challenges which are being compounded by U.S. automotive tariffs that pressured the corporate to chop its outlook.

Underneath CEO Gernot Doellner, who took the helm in 2023, Audi is at the moment revamping its technique and will embrace the long-term gross sales goal when it briefs the general public about its new plans later within the 12 months.

The particular person didn’t tie the two million automobile goal to a particular 12 months.

For 2025, Audi is concentrating on automobile gross sales of 1.7-1.8 million, following a 11.8% decline to 1.67 million final 12 months.

The upbeat long-term outlook partly rests on better expectations for the USA – the world’s second-largest auto market after China – the place Audi might almost double gross sales from the roughly 200,000 vehicles offered yearly within the U.S. now, the particular person mentioned.

Audi has been hit a lot more durable than BMW and Mercedes-Benz in terms of President Trump’s tariffs for one easy motive: it would not construct any vehicles within the U.S. Due to that, it has spent $702 million within the first half of 2025 alone on tariffs. Nonetheless, it believes the model can catch as much as these two. Godspeed.

I do know y’all thought Ford would take the lengthy weekend to repair its recall concern, however that is not the case. The Blue Oval is recalling 105,441 2024 and 2025 Mustangs due to improperly sealed physique seams, however simply 1% of these Mustangs will even have the defect. The issue might enable water to get into the automobile’s management fashions and mess up its exterior lighting, in response to the Nationwide Freeway Visitors Security Administration. From Automotive Information:

Ford mentioned one other 8,528 vehicles are being recalled in Canada together with 2,181 models in Mexico.

Water could get into the automobile’s physique management modules, which can lead to a lack of communication with the outside lighting elements. This will likely lead to sign lamps not turning on when the low beams are on.

Ford first grew to become conscious of the problem in April, with 69 guarantee claims courting to August 2024. The automaker will not be conscious of any experiences of accidents or accidents associated to the defect.

The difficulty may be remedied by sealing the affected physique seams and changing the physique management module if essential. Homeowners can take their automobile to Ford or Lincoln sellers.

From the seems of it, Ford has issued a staggering 109 remembers in 2025 alone. It has already eclipsed its personal file for many remembers in a single 12 months, and again in July, it mentioned it was taking a extra proactive method to remembers. I suppose we’ve got but to see the outcomes of that motion.

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The endurance of the human spirit is wild, man. If you wish to study extra about Nyad and her swin, head over to Historical past.com.