GM CEO ‘can’t explain why’ Canada would welcome Chinese electric cars – Jalopnik

Happy Wednesday! It’s January 28, 2026 and this is The Morning Shift: your daily digest of the most important car news from around the world, in one place. Here are the top stories shaping the way Americans drive and get around.

In this morning’s edition, we look at GM’s response to Canada welcoming Chinese electric cars, and the Trump administration’s efforts to turn Mercedes-Benz into an American company. We’ll also look at BYD’s expansion plans for 2026, and GM employees signing up for the Jelly of the Month club.

A recent deal by Canada to allow tens of thousands of cheap Chinese electric vehicles into the country poses a risk to North American auto production, General Motors Chief Executive Mary Barra said Tuesday.

Barra said Canada’s deal with China, announced earlier this month, runs counter to building a strong North American industrial base and protecting jobs and national security on the continent.

“I can’t explain why the decision was made in Canada,” Barra said during a meeting with employees on Tuesday. “It’s going to be a very slippery slope.”

The appeal is of course obvious. Canada is not immune to the global cost of living crisis, and politicians who provide cheaper, more efficient cars to their constituents are likely to be seen as doing something to help – especially if they are running for re-election.

The CEO of Mercedes-Benz Group AG has rejected an attempt by a Trump Cabinet secretary to lure the manufacturer’s headquarters from Germany to the US, where its roots date back to the invention of the automobile.

In an interview with The Pioneer, a German media company, Mercedes CEO Ola Källenius said U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick made the overture about a year ago, sidelining tax cuts and other incentives. Although Källenius declined, Mercedes later announced plans to move SUV production from Germany to its existing plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

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Källenius has repeatedly condemned German bureaucracy and labor costs, and angered workers’ representatives after publicly highlighting high absenteeism rates. During his tenure, Mercedes moved some production to factories in Kecskemét, Hungary, as well as in China and the US.

Europe has strong enough worker protections, so it makes sense that the Trump administration wouldn’t understand the appeal of running a business there. Fortunately for the Mercedes employees, Källenius gets it a little more.

Chinese electric car giant BYD is planning a big leap into international markets this year, with an eye on further expansion in Europe and possibly Canada as international sales replace domestic demand as a profit driver.

Sales outside China are expected to rise 24 percent to 1.30 million vehicles by 2026, following a massive expansion the year before, the company said.

BYD is considering a second assembly plant in Europe as it prepares its first plant to start production in Hungary in the coming months. Meanwhile, the company is assessing a possible entry into the Canadian market, following the recent trade deal between Ottawa and Beijing to reduce tariffs on Chinese-built electric vehicles.

Building a second factory on a continent before the first has even pumped out cars is daring, but BYD’s cars seem popular. The company likely understands its appeal and is scaling up production.

GM’s bonus program is dependent on both an employee’s and the company’s performance. The automaker, which reported fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results on Jan. 27, fell short of the performance targets it set in 2024. As a result, GM will use a smaller multiplier to calculate bonus payouts for employees, two people confirmed to the Detroit Free Press. The people asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to speak to the news media. Those sources also said GM informed employees on Jan. 27 that the bonus percentage in the formula that determines employee bonuses will be a 114% multiplier – a significant drop from last year’s 144%.

What that 114% multiplier means for an employee with a base salary of $100,000, in a salary category who earned a 13% bonus, is that he or she could receive a bonus of approximately $14,820, compared to the previous year when that person would have received a bonus of $18,720 at 144%. The calculation assumes that the employee has achieved his own performance targets. A source familiar with GM’s plan confirmed these figures.

That source also noted that the bonus formula for salaried workers was affected by rising costs due to President Donald Trump’s tariffs, in the same way that profit-sharing checks for union workers were affected. Trump imposed 25% tariffs on all imported cars and auto parts in March 2025. Although the rate landscape changed repeatedly in 2025 and GM changed its strategy to avoid an even bigger impact, GM ultimately recorded a $3.1 billion rate hit for the year.

“The Trump administration took money from your bonus check” seems like a winning message for Democrats heading into the midterm elections, so don’t expect to ever hear it. Just be happy with yours Jelly of the Month Club Membership.

Where we are now as a country did not come from nowhere.