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Welcome to Daily Drive for Wednesday, September 30th, 2026. I'm Kellen Walker in downtown Detroit where we're hosting our 50th Automotive News Congress, featuring some of the biggest names in the industry. Today on the show, Jose Munoz announces Hyundai is placing a big bet on Alabama to build the next wave of hybrids. Toyota's ultra-luxury flagship is angling for a spot on the world stage, and service contracts are quietly propping up dealer profits as front-end margins slide. Plus, Ford CEO Jim Farley sits down with our publisher Casey Crane here at Automotive News Congress to talk about the threat from China, company culture, and lingering quality challenges.
I'm confident because I don't see any comfort at Ford at any level with what we've achieved in J.D. Power's number one in IQS.
Let's run through all the news you need to know to keep up in the auto industry. Hyundai is putting about half a billion dollars into its Alabama plants to build new engines and hybrid components. CEO Jose Munoz announced the investment here at Automotive News Congress on Tuesday.
We are bringing Tucson hybrid to Alabama, and then we'll bring also the Santa Fe ERV.
The investment will fund US-built Tucson and Santa Fe hybrids plus an extended-range EV powertrain. The shift moves Tucson hybrid production out of Korea, helping Hyundai dodge tariffs. It's part of Hyundai's $26 billion US pledge through 2028. Toyota wants the Century, Japan's answer to Rolls-Royce, to go global. Chairman Akio Toyoda rolled up to his Automotive Hall of Fame induction in Detroit in a new Century SUV. CTO Hiroki Nakajima says the brand is meant to compete worldwide. Toyota's already elevated Century to standalone status. It recently unveiled a coupe concept and sells the SUV in China. And F&I profits are holding steady even as vehicle margins keep shrinking. JMA Group's second-quarter report shows F&I profit per vehicle rose 0.8%, while front-end profit fell 0.9%. The company says that reflects lingering pandemic-era effects, including customers still upside down on trade-ins. Service contracts are picking up the slack, with profitability rising year-over-year as repair costs climb. JMA's Bo Jarrett says he's bullish heading into the back half of 2026, expecting service contracts to remain F&I's top performer. And those are today's headlines. You can find more details on all those stories at autonews.com. A lot of this week's headlines were made right here on our stage at Automotive News Congress. Our own Jake Near caught up with Automotive News Asia editor Hans Grimmel to talk about the biggest themes emerging from this year's event. Hans Grimmel spoke with our own Jake Near.
All right, Hans Grimmel, great to have you back on the show yet again here in person.
Thank you very much, Jake. Good to talk to you.
Now, we've been, you know, a couple days into Automotive News Congress. What are some of the highlights for you? I mean, we've had three CEOs of major automakers now speak on stage. Anything that really jumped out to you?
Well, you're right. It's been a really an all-star lineup here of big names and leaders across the field, international and of course here in the United States. And there are a couple themes that are really popping up. I would say that China and artificial intelligence are the big themes this time around, especially China. And I'll take that because I work from Asia, so that's something close to me. But that is maybe I would say 60 to 70% of the topics here. Everybody is bringing that up in one way or the other in their talk sessions here. Even if the major theme is not supposed to be China, they'll be talking about China, China technology, China trade, China vehicles, China sales, you name it. The world's biggest market is really weighing on people's minds.
So yesterday we heard from Hyundai CEO Jose Munoz who is announcing more investment here in the US for Hyundai. I'm curious, you know, from your perspective again from covering the industry in Asia, how does that, how are a lot of these Asian automakers thinking right now about making investments at all, especially here in the US as policy has whiplashed back and forth and as we've heard here this week likely to whiplash back again?
Well, I think that global automakers like domestic automakers as well are really struggling in the China market because sales there are falling and it's undergoing intense price war competition. So they see the United States as a critical hedge against the slumping China market. So I think the Asian automakers in Korea and in Japan really want to lean into the United States now as a hedge against China. And it's interesting because Munoz said yesterday that, you know, they've been investing 26 billion from 2025 to 2028, that's Hyundai, into the United States. And he wants to be kind of assured that that investment is going to get a return. And it came in the context of talking about China because China maybe doesn't have a fair playing field and it should be maybe handled with great care if the topic of China allowing China into the US market comes to the table. And that was a major point of concern for him. And you know, he wanted to strictly point out that Hyundai has been long investing in the United States market to create jobs and create a manufacturing base here, and he doesn't want the Chinese to come in and undermine the market stability here.
Do you think that that's common among, you know, you're in Japan most of the time. Is that how Japan CEOs see this too, that China getting into the US market is also a threat to one of their most important markets?
I believe that the Japanese think the same way, but they rarely if ever vocalize it in those same terms. But, you know, protecting the US market is as crucial for the Japanese, the Koreans and the Europeans for that matter as it is for the Detroit 3, you know, General Motors, Stellantis, and Ford. This is the cash cow for the legacy automakers worldwide. This is the last redoubt, you could say, of the old school players that has not yet been breached by the Chinese cut-throat competition. So they have all the reason in the world to want this market protected.
Hans Grimmel, always great to have you here in Detroit. And we got to of course, you know, make sure we take every advantage while you're here to get you on the show. Thank you again.
Thanks. It's good to be back.
Coming up, Ford CEO Jim Farley talks about reinventing an American icon and why he says North America is now the most important profit pool in the industry. That's next on Daily Drive.
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Welcome back to Daily Drive. I'm Kellen Walker in Detroit. Yesterday, here on stage at Congress, Automotive News publisher Casey Crane sat down with Ford President and CEO Jim Farley. They talked about Ford's cultural transformation around quality and cost, why Farley believes North America has become the industry's most important profit pool, and how the growing competitive threat from China is forcing a full reinvention of the company. Here's a piece of that conversation.
Jim, you've led Ford through a period as turbulent as any in recent memory, and I'd like you to just take a minute and step back for this room. Talk about, is this a moment of danger for the American auto industry, a moment of reinvention, or a little bit of both?
Well, I think we happen to be in the most precious automotive zip code in the world. When I grew up in the industry for 40 years, there were three profit pools. There was the luxury profit pool, there was China, and there was North America. It's pretty clear to me that North America is now the main profit pool of our industry globally on the vehicle side. So, and of course at Ford, yeah, I would say we're America's car company, but we also do most of our business outside of the US. And the competitive threat from China especially really requires a complete reinvention. In addition, the EV connected car mobility world turned out to be totally different than we thought. And so reshooting your capital at this moment in time allows you to build auto adjacencies and even, you know, diversification like Ford Energy as an auto company.
Yeah. And so it not only requires you to focus on your home market, and we are still thankful this is our home market, as well as build all these great adjacencies and even diversify your company from the traditional vehicle business. All of that requires complete reinvention of your company.
Let's stay on that for a minute. Jim, you and I chat all the time about this amazing industry. If you think about, you know, this morning everyone was talking about the rate of acceleration, the way everything's moving. When you think about where Ford is today compared with even 12 months or 18 months ago, in your words, what progress gives you the most confidence in your company's direction, and how do you think that really positions Ford for this next phase on the growth trajectory?
Well, I have to say the company is positioned in a way that I didn't really even anticipate at this moment. I really think we're entering a whole new phase of Ford being positioned as a huge winner in our industry. And I think the thing that gave me the most confidence in saying that is our transformation of our culture at the company, where accountability, cost and quality is something that is a first principle in anyone who walks in the building. That has taken almost a half a decade to build that cultural transition. Now that I have confidence in that, I have confidence in the base earning ability for our vehicle business. We can double down on more nameplates in our home market, taking on the Chinese in places like Southeast Asia, Latam and Europe, and building these auto adjacency businesses from our software, fleet management, Pro, of course, to a much bigger focus on parts and service than we ever have as a company, and even building a whole new business like Ford Energy. If we did not have that foundation of quality and cost, that first rotation, I don't think any of that, I would be concerned about the rest.
