Christopher Furlong/Getty Images Good morning! It's Tuesday June 9, 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, a handful of Chinese automakers have been stealthily building a presence in the U.S., even though they can't sell cars here. The American Axle UAW strike could cause major issues for GM's truck production, China's car sales had another rough month and Jeep is recalling over 1 million Wranglers and Gladiators over a spontaneous fire risk. 1st Gear: Chinese automakers set up shop in the U.S. Anthony Greene/Shutterstock Chinese automakers want their piece of the U.S. market, but obviously, they can't sell anything just yet because of sky-high 102.5% tariffs. Still, in what looks to be an effort to be ready to hit the ground running if the time comes, many of them maintain a small presence in the U.S. with offices, research centers and even some manufacturing operations. However, they avoid media contact, don't attend most industry conferences and haven't shown up at major auto shows (other than CES in Las Vegas) since before the Pandemic. It's a funky-ass situation, as Automotive News came to find out when it tried to reach out to one of these ghost operations: Take SAIC's office in a white five-story office building on Big Beaver Road eight miles north of Detroit as an example. On the fourth floor, midway down a quiet hall, a visitor sees the SAIC logo on a gray screened glass door to a darkened office. No one answers a knock on SAIC's locked office door. It's not possible to leave the company a phone message unless the caller has an extension, but no phone directory is offered. Yet SAIC, short for Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp., is one of China's most successful exporters. Its MG-brand cars and crossovers are top-10 sellers in dozens of countries, including Mexico. A call to Nio Inc.'s San Jose, Calif., research center connects to a generic answering machine and a general voicemail box that doesn't even identify the company. If Li Auto ever followed through with plans to open a Silicon Valley research center, publicly available location and contact details don't exist; and emails to the company's Chinese headquarters were not returned. Phone calls and emails to several other Chinese automakers' U.S. facilities were also not returned. Things could soon be turned on their head, though. China and Canada just struck a deal to allow up to 49,000 Chinese-made vehicles to be sold in the country at a reduced tariff rate. It could make entering the U.S. market that much easier since U.S. and Canadian safety and emissions regulations are roughly aligned. Even if their cars don't make it over here, there's still a good reason to set up shop in the U.S. Stephen Dyer, managing director in the automotive & industrial practice at AlixPartners in Shanghai, says Chinese automakers have planted American stakes to keep up with what's going on in the auto industry. Chinese automakers operating R&D centers in the U.S. are looking for talent and learning how to get access to the supply base, Dyer added. Automotive News took the time to look over the U.S. footprints of BYD, Chery, Geely, Great Wall Motors, Karma Automotive, Li Auto, Nio and Xpeng. If I summed all of it up here, you'd probably get tired and wouldn't read the rest of TMS, so I suggest finishing up here and then heading over there to get the full rundown. 2nd Gear: American Axle strike has GM worried UAW via YouTub There's a real chance that the seven truckloads of axles General Motors' Flint Assembly Plant receives every single day to produce its pickup trucks will stop arriving because of a United Auto Workers strike at American Axle's Three Rivers plant that has entered its second week. The union hit the picket line after contract negotiations with the Dauch Corp. stalled. The union and its 1,000 members are looking to recoup wages that were halved during the Great Recession — you know, the one from 2008. In any case, if the axles stop coming from Three Rivers, GM will be forced to shut down GMC Sierra and Chevy Silverado production in Flint, and that would be a disaster. From the Detroit Free Press: "It's a big monster of money," UAW Local 598 Chairman Eric Welter told the Detroit Free Press on June 2. "There's a lot on the line for GM with this strike." The Flint plant, which employs about 4,200 hourly workers, is adding an overtime production shift starting this month, which Welter said is planned to remain for the next two or three years. Then, Flint will operate three shifts six days a week to produce about 1,150 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra trucks in 2500 and 3500 variants. To keep production moving, the plant needs at least two truckloads of axles per shift. GM prepared for the strike, which may offset some of the short-term damage. The Wall Street Journal reported that GM has about two weeks' worth of axles stockpiled, which Welter said makes sense because the semis continue to arrive full and on time. Each semi holds 48 racks, and there are about four axles to a rack. After a brief stop at another supplier for configuration, axles head right into production. "We bring in trucks all day long, every couple hours to supply the line," he said. "We don't have room to store all that." In a statement to Freep, GM said it was "closely monitoring" the situation at the plant, and it was assessing any "potential impact" on production. Apparently, dealers say they're already low on heavy-duty truck inventory, and the idea of cutting any more production could be really rough for them. Folks, as always, there's an easy solution. Pay the workers the fair wage they deserve. 3rd Gear: May is no better for Chinese car sales Tyne Chin/Getty Images China's car sales extended their losses into May, with sales dropping 22.3% from the same time last year to 1.53 million vehicles. It marks the eighth consecutive month of decline for the market, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association. Those sorts of numbers aren't exactly ideal. Now, full-year car sales are forecasted to fall 11% — down dramatically from the previously estimated 1% decline. This downturn is mainly a reflection of a hit to gas-powered car sales because of high oil prices. For the first five months of the year, sales were down 19.7% to 7.18 million vehicles. From Reuters: EV and plug-in hybrid sales, making up 62.2% of the total, fell 7.5% from a year earlier last month, the fifth straight month of declines. [...] The prolonged slump has underscored a widening gap between China's headline economic growth and consumer demand for big-ticket items like cars. While Beijing is targeting economic growth of 4.5% to 5% this year, analysts say auto demand has been hit by weaker consumer confidence, reduced subsidies and a market that is mature after years of rapid expansion. [...] Last month, NIO Chief Executive William Li said China's auto industry had likely moved past its "golden era" as domestic demand stagnates even though exports remain strong. There is, at least, some good news, though. Exported EV and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle sales rose 112.6% in May from a year earlier. Overall, China's vehicle exports were up 74.7%, so things are going very well abroad; they're just starting to cool off at home. 4th Gear: Jeep recalls 1 million Wranglers, Gladiators for serious fire risk Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Jeep is recalling over 1 million Wrangers and Gladiators because of a pesky electrical issue in the hydraulic power steering pump's wiring that can cause it to, you know, spontaneously catch fire. This is very much outside of the normal operating conditions for the SUV and pickup. From the Detroit Free Press: The 2021-2025 Wranglers and Gladiators, with an estimated count of 1,076,999 affected vehicles, may have an electrical issue with the electric hydraulic power steering pump wiring that can lead to fire. "In rare circumstances, this may cause combustible materials to overheat, potentially leading to a vehicle fire," Frank Matyok, a Stellantis spokesperson, said in a statement. Recalled vehicles should be parked outside and away from structures while Stellantis works to develop a remedy, the company said. Currently, there is no known solution to the issue, though the automaker said it "anticipates a solution no later than July. [...] The latest recall is the largest in a string of large recalls on Jeep products, largely the plug-in hybrid variants of the Wrangler and Grand Cherokee, which suffered similar spontaneous fire risks. Those hybrid vehicles were recalled at least three times for a slew of issues, including risks of explosions, fires, sandy engines and sudden losses of power. At the end of 2025, Stellantis discontinued its plug-in hybrid line of vehicles. Once Stellantis nails down a solution, it will notify owners via the mail on how to schedule an appointment at their local dealer. From there, the car will be inspected and, if necessary, have the wiring harness and hydraulic power steering pump replaced. While Ford does get all the crap for its recalls (rightfully so), Stellantis isn't exactly having a banner year, either. This is the company's 19th recall thus far in 2026, and they've impacted 2,450,007 vehicles. Reverse: The GOAT History.com There will always be arguments over who the greatest athlete of all time is, but to me, the answer is simple: it's Secretariat. No living, breathing creature has ever more thoroughly dominated its sport than that horse. I mean, the dude won the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths. That's just mild boggling. His heart was literally two and a half times the size of a normal horse's. He's my hero, and if you want to learn more about him, head over to History.com . The Fuel Up Al Drago/Getty Images My beloved Knicks may have lost last night thanks to Crooked Officials and Little Donald (ignore how poorly they shot, please), so why don't we concentrate on some good-ish news instead? While gas prices haven't exactly continued the downward trajectory we've seen over the past few weeks, they've at least sort of stabilized, as prices remained largely flat overnight. WTI Crude Oil futures and Brent Crude prices are also holding steady at slightly lower prices, currently sitting at $88 and $91, respectively, at the time of publication. Here's where national average prices stand right now, according to AAA: AAA What this all means is that the average price of a gallon of regular gas stayed the same overnight, so it's currently sitting at $4.16, according to AAA. We're now down 40 cents from the 2026 record that was set back on May 21, when gas hit $4.56 per gallon. Still, prices are incredibly elevated thanks to the U.S. and Israel's war with Iran, and if this current ceasefire doesn't hold, we could see prices rise again. On the radio: Knicks Fans - Booing Trump As I just said, Game 3 of the NBA Finals was, uh, not great for me, so this was really a highlight of the night. I'm sure you all saw the chaos he caused by being there: shutting down vehicle and foot traffic in Midtown, Manhattan, keeping actual fans away from the stadium and forcing folks attending the game to go through TSA-like screenings hours before tip-off. The guy was a complete and utter vibe ruiner... AND THEN HE FELL ASLEEP.
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