Chameleonseye/Getty Images Add Jalopnik on Google: Google Discover Happy Wednesday! It's August 26, 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 Honda's plans for another U.S. plant, and Nissan's plans for body-on-frame supremacy. We'll also look at Kia's tentative union deal, and XPeng's lust for robots. If you'd like a recap of the latest auto news sent to your inbox each weekday, you can sign up for Jalopnik's free Morning Shift newsletter here. 1st Gear: Honda wants another plant in the States, but not without free trade through Mexico and Canada Jetcityimage/Getty Images Honda has long been big on its U.S. manufacturing base. The company even once paid to ship lil ol' me out to Ohio to show off production of the last NSX Type S. It wants more production capacity in the States, but the company is now saying it's unlikely to invest without a signed USMCA agreement. From Reuters: WASHINGTON, Aug 25 (Reuters) – A senior Honda executive said the Japanese automaker might not build an eighth assembly plant in North America unless a key trade deal is extended. The Trump administration is currently negotiating with Canada and Mexico over the fate of the free trade deal known as USMCA. Honda Executive Vice President Noriya Kaihara told reporters at a roundtable in Washington the automaker is close to full production capacity in North America and needs a new factory. However, "if there is no USMCA agreement in the future, we may have to change our direction," Kaihara said, adding the company will need to make a decision within a year or two and would like the plant to be running by around 2030. Are you telling me that antagonizing our closest trading partners has consequences? Well, I'll be. 2nd Gear: Nissan is going all-in on body-on-frame GaroManjikian/Shutterstock Nissan is reworking its product mix globally, with a particular focus on navigating the U.S. in the wake of tariffs and changing subsidies. Turns out: Americans love rugged body-on-frame vehicles, so we're getting five of them from Nissan — all from the same mold, and including a new XTerra. From Automotive News: Nissan is recalibrating its U.S. strategy in response to import tariffs, while backing away from an aggressive electric vehicle rollout toward a focus on hybrid body-on-frame utility vehicles. The Japanese automaker has expanded production in Tennessee and Mississippi, cutting its tariff exposure by more than 60 percent in the past year. This America-first approach has helped fuel demand on key U.S.-built models, including the Rogue, Pathfinder and Frontier. ... Meanwhile, dwindling customer demand and federal incentives for EVs forced Nissan to retrench. The automaker has discontinued the Ariya crossover and canceled several electric models planned for its factory in Canton, Miss. Nissan instead will repurpose that plant to build a new family of up to five rugged utility models, including a revival of the iconic Xterra SUV nameplate. Supply chain sources told Automotive News that the body-on-frame lineup would have 70 percent parts commonality, with everything forward of the B-pillar shared among the models. I just showed my girlfriend the last episode of HBO's "The Dark Wizard" last night, which heavily features a Nissan XTerra. I have to say, it made me want one a bit. Nissan, do well with this new one, and we'll see if we can make something work. 3rd Gear: Kia tentatively agrees to a union deal JHVEPhoto/Shutterstock Kia workers have been walking off the job recently over union negotiations, particularly surrounding wages and retirement. Now, it seems the former issue has been addressed, and Kia workers seem willing to compromise on the latter. From Reuters: Aug 25 (Reuters) – Automaker Kia Corp and its South Korean labour union have reached a tentative wage agreement, the union and company said, averting partial strikes that had been scheduled to begin on Wednesday. The agreement reached on Tuesday will be put to a vote of union members on Friday, according to the union. Partial strikes scheduled for August 26-28 have now been withdrawn by the union following the agreement. "We appreciate our employees for their dedication and our negotiating teams for their tireless efforts throughout this process, marking the sixth consecutive year the two sides have reached a tentative agreement without a strike," Kia said in a statement on Wednesday. Under the tentative agreement, Kia workers would receive a 100,000 won ($72.34) increase in monthly base pay and a performance-related incentive package worth 400% of monthly wages plus 12.7 million won, according to the union. The retirement age issue was enshrined in law, so it's likely something Kia would've needed to lobby for rather than just outright changing. Still, it made for a useful bargaining chip, it seems. 4th Gear: XPeng thinks cars are over, robots are the future gracethang2/Shutterstock Tesla has gotten bored of the whole "selling cars" thing, and is now pivoting to hotter, newer buzzwords like "AI" and "robotics" and "a future for white children." Now the company seems to be inspiring Chinese competitors, as XPeng re-prioritizes its profit estimates to focus on robotics rather than automaking. From the Wall Street Journal: XPeng carved out a space in China's car market with autonomous driving. But it's robots, not vehicles, that could become the company's biggest money maker. Though the U.S.-listed company's robotics unit has yet to generate meaningful revenue, XPeng Co-President Brian Gu thinks its margins will eventually eclipse those of the core electric-vehicle business. Valued at more than $6.3 billion, the unit will start mass producing XPeng's humanoid robot this year. Iron, a realistic-looking robot with electronic skin and a bionic spine, could deliver a hardware gross margin of more than 50%, said Gu, who is also vice chairman of the Guangzhou-based company. That compares with the 12.1% gross margin XPeng's vehicle segment recorded in the second quarter. "Once it [Iron] has reached volume production at a steady state, we think it has potential to be more than twice of the BOM [bill of materials] cost," Gu said, referring to the amount spent to manufacture a product. Hey why'd they give the robot boobs? Why is the subservient humanoid object feminine? Reverse: Thanks, suffragettes We've had the right to vote for less than half of this country's history. The Fuel Up AAA When we started this segment, I really didn't expect I'd have to come up with a fun, snarky way to say "gas prices are pretty much the same as yesterday" multiple times per week. On The Radio: Kim Petras - 'Treat Me Like A Sl*t' Sometimes that's just the vibe.