The Latest SAA Newsletter
Unlock the Latest Consumer Behavior Trends: Essential Ipsos Global Trends Toolkit for SAA (Webinar)
Global optimism plummeted in 2025: Only 59% of consumers remain optimistic about themselves and their families, and just 45% about their communities. Join the SAA and Ipsos on February 25 at 12:00 pm for a discussion of insights taken from the ninth annual Ipsos Global Trends report: ‘The Uneasy Decade.‘
This report captures the mid-decade shift, drawing on data from 43 global markets and insights from over 5 million data points. Jennifer Bender, Ipsos Global Head of Trends & Foresight and Associate Partner, Ipsos Strategy3, will lead the webinar.
Click here to register for this free event.
SAA Announces Updates to Its 2026 Board of Directors; Adam Bernard to Serve Second Term
The Society of Automotive Analysts (SAA) has announced its Board of Directors for 2026. Adam Bernard, Founder and Principal of AutoPerspectives, will serve a second term as SAA president, while Mark Barrott, Partner, Plante Moran, steps into the vice president role. The SAA, now in its 39th year, provides outstanding networking opportunities, timely and useful data and a forum for the discussion and dissemination of ideas, concepts and solutions.
Click here for the rest of the article and to see the complete Board of Director list.
SAA’s Young Professionals Network Announces Leaders
SAA’s Young Professionals Network (YPN) announced its 2026 leadership. The YPN aims to foster connections and create growth opportunities for young professionals in the automotive industry through insightful events and networking opportunities. Leaders for 2026 are:
- Chairman: Ashwin Umamaheswaran, North American Marketing Lead, Caresoft Global
- Lead: Carl Rivera, Vice President, Middle Market Banking, Comerica
- Co-Lead: Alli Wheatley, Business Development Manager, Roush
The SAA thanks Joe Tenbusch, Managing Director, Forge Venture Partners, and Jeff Johnson, Principal, Plante Moran, who led the YPN to significant growth in prior years.
Nicholas Ellis and Vanessa Miller Assess Transportation Policy Trends
Foley & Lardner LLP partners Nicholas Ellis and Vanessa Miller highlighted transportation policy trends in the Law360 article, “Transportation Regulation, Legislation To Watch In 2026.”
Ellis and Miller detailed challenges the automotive industry is facing, including around trade and regulatory uncertainty.
Click here for the rest of the article.
How OEMs Succeed in the Age of Saturation
From 2000 to 2016, annual global light‑vehicle sales rose 68%, a period of “easy growth” for OEMs. But that era is over. Today, the industry is operating in a phase of “painful saturation,” where volume increases are modest and the path to success depends far more on operational efficiency and disciplined revenue management than on scale alone.
Moving forward in this environment requires a four-pronged strategy: cost competitiveness, stronger products, regionalized offerings, and profitable volume maximization. The road won’t be without fresh challenges, however, including overcapacity, fragmented regulations, and managing parallel ICE/hybrid/BEV portfolios through the 2030s, while navigating slower growth and intensifying competition.
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Shifting Gears in Loyalty: Fresh Insights from Our Proprietary Study
LexisNexis® Risk Solutions has released the third edition of its Automotive Owner Brand Loyalty Study. With unmatched speed and depth in the market, LexisNexis® Risk Solutions delivers brand‑loyalty insights to automakers faster than any competitor. Their proprietary, daily‑refreshed data provides a comprehensive view of owner loyalty, enabling continuous analysis of trends across all 52 weeks of the year.
Discover how these insights can help you strengthen customer retention and sharpen your competitive edge—Click here to Request Your Free Customized Brand Report.
New Cars Are Increasingly Becoming a Luxury Amid K-shaped Economy Concerns
American consumers are hitting a fork in the road when it comes to the U.S. automotive industry. Affluent buyers are purchasing new vehicles at increasingly higher prices, while lower-income ones are continuing to drive used models.
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January 2026 U.S. Auto Sales Reflect a Chilly Start to the New Year
January 2026 U.S. auto sales are projected to reach 1.13 million units, according to S&P Global Mobility. This would translate to an estimated sales pace of 15.2 million units (seasonally adjusted annual rate: SAAR), a drop from the 16.0 million unit SAAR reading in December but also reflective of a pattern from the prior two years; slower January sales following strong year-end close outs.
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Vehicle Design Outranks Range in BEV Purchase Decisions
New research from Escalent challenges assumptions about what motivates electric vehicle purchases. According to the firm’s EVForward 2025 Product DeepDive study, interior and exterior design surpass technical specifications as the primary drivers of BEV consideration among new-vehicle buyers.
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KPIT Reimagines the Future of Mobility Software with Agentic AI Solutions on Microsoft AI Infrastructure
KPIT Technologies, a global leader in mobility technology solutions, is showcasing its Next-Generation Agentic AI solution suite at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2026, marking a significant leap in how vehicle software is developed, validated, and integrated for the mobility ecosystem.
Click here for the rest of the article.
'More Out There': Ford Shares 2026 Roadmap After January Sales Decline
Ford Motor Co.'s 5.3% U.S. sales decline year-over-year in January showcases the challenges the Dearborn automaker faces from discontinued product, bumpy electric vehicle adoption and a market marked by affordability challenges.
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Canada’s Auto Industry Has a Chance to Reset with EV Market
Despite close to 1,200 General Motors workers walked off their final shift in Oshawa, Ont., one expert says there might be an opportunity for Canada’s auto industry. U.S. President Donald Trump has claimed his U.S. tariffs on Canadian sectors are encouraging car companies to come back to the U.S. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mark Carney has been making efforts to reposition Canada’s relationships on the world stage, negotiating a substantially lower tariff rate on Chinese-made EVs while on an official trip to China to meet with President Xi Jinping.
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In Another Climate Retreat, Canada Scraps EV Sales Mandate
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said his government was scrapping a national electric vehicle mandate, marking another retreat from climate measures after previously dropping both an emissions cap on the oil and gas sector and regulations for clean electricity.
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Chinese BYD Cars Emerge as Threat to Automakers
BYD vehicles are sold in over 112 cities across 102 countries spanning six continents, according to its website. According to AlixPartners, Chinese car brands are expected to make up 30% of the global new vehicle market by 2030. Chinese automaker BYD Co. has quickly grown to become the world’s largest electric-vehicle maker, outselling Tesla Inc. on a global scale in 2025.
Click here for the rest of the article.
Made in the USA: End-to-End Guide to Developing Your U.S. Manufacturing Footprint
Foley & Lardner has released Made in the USA: End‑to‑End Guide to Developing Your U.S. Manufacturing Footprint — a comprehensive, practical resource designed to support companies evaluating or executing U.S. manufacturing expansion, reshoring initiatives, or supply chain transformation.
As global pressures, shifting trade dynamics, and renewed federal and state incentives accelerate the return of manufacturing to American soil, companies across industries are making pivotal decisions about where and how to build. This guidebook brings together cross‑disciplinary insight from Foley’s Manufacturing Sector team to help businesses navigate every stage of that journey.
Whether you’re exploring reshoring for the first time or expanding an existing U.S. footprint, this guide offers actionable frameworks, data, and strategies to help your organization make confident, forward‑looking decisions.
Click here to download the Guidebook.
China Trumps U.S. in Global EV Sales by 21 Percent, Exports Surge
Global electric vehicle sales (BEV, PHEV and fuel cell) reached 20.7 million units through December 2025, up 20 percent year-over-year. China holds 62 percent of global market share. EVs accounted for 9.4 percent of U.S. new light-vehicle sales in 2025, below the 9.8 percent share recorded in 2024, according to a report by Cox Automotive and Edmunds.
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Did You Miss APA’s New Vehicle Roundtable?
The Automotive Press Association’s annual New Vehicle Roundtable in January did not disappoint as Mark Phelan of the Detroit Free Press, Stephanie Brinley of S&P Global Mobility and Alex Neysick of Consumer Reports, engaged in a lively discussion about their views on the latest vehicle models, the EV market and hybrid/plug-in-hybrid segments, and much more.
Click here to watch a replay of the event.
Why America Losing the Global EV Race Hurts Its Own Auto Industry
At the 2026 Detroit Auto Show, the spotlight quietly shifted. Electric vehicles, once framed as the inevitable future of the industry, were no longer the centerpiece. Instead, automakers emphasized hybrids, updated gasoline models and incremental efficiency improvements. The show reflected an industry recalibration happening in real time: Ford and General Motors had recently announced $19.5 billion and $6 billion in EV-related write-downs, respectively, reflecting the losses they expect as they unwind or delay parts of their electric vehicle plans.
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Ford and Geely in Talks for Manufacturing, Technology Partnership
Ford and China’s Geely are in discussions about a potential partnership, eight people with knowledge of the ongoing talks said, as the world's carmakers look to share heavier technology and manufacturing costs. The companies are in talks to have Geely use Ford factory space in Europe to produce vehicles for the region, three people familiar with the matter said. They also have discussed the potential framework for shared vehicle technologies, including for automated driving, according to two different people with knowledge of the talks.
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Automakers Largely Sit Out 2026 Super Bowl Advertising Amid Industry Uncertainty
Automakers are largely sitting on the advertising sidelines during this year’s Super Bowl amid uncertainty in the U.S. automotive industry involving sales, tariffs and regulations. Carmakers — historically major buyers of ads during the big game — have been inconsistent with advertising during the Super Bowl in recent years, with only a handful putting out spots each year.
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