March 31, 2026 | General Motors idles 1,300 workers at its Detroit EV plant; GasBuddy’s Patrick De Haan talks gas prices; Infiniti scales back growth targets

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Welcome to Daily Drive for Tuesday, March 31st, 2026. I'm Kellan Walker in New York City.

Today on the show, General Motors idols 1,300 workers at its Detroit Electric Vehicle Plan.

The U.S. want to allow Chinese electric vehicles to enter through Canada, and Infinity dials back its growth targets.

Plus, Daily Drive producer Jake Nier sits down with Patrick DeHon, head of petroleum analysis at gas buddy.

Well, a lot of it really is to do with the fluctuation and the price of oil, the underlying commodity that 60% of what you're filling up with is essentially refined crude oil.

Let's run through all the news you need to know to keep up in the auto industry.

General Motors is idling production at its EV plant in Detroit due to a waning demand.

The stoppage comes less than three months after a mass layoff at factory zero.

Today, only 1,300 workers remain, and they are temporarily laid off from March 16th to April 13th.

The plant produces the electric GMC Hummer, Chevy Silverado, Sierra Pickups, and the Cadillac Escalade.

Sales for these electric models have waned as GM ramps up production of gas powered vehicles.

The US will not allow Chinese EVs to enter from Canada, according to President Donald Trump's ambassador in Ottawa.

Pete Hookstra told Canada's Rebel News, quote,

that ain't gonna happen.

The comment comes after a January deal in which Canada lower tariffs on Chinese EVs.

Hookstra cited security concerns related to data collected and transmitted by modern vehicles as a reason for barring their entry.

He did not specify how the US would block these vehicles from entering the country.

An infinity is scaling back its US growth targets amid intensifying competition and a sparse lineup.

The brand originally told dealers it was targeting a 30% increase in US retail sales for the fiscal year,

but executives have dropped the goal to about 20%.

Infinity started the year with its lineup halved in part by tariffs.

Dealers are struggling with the thin portfolio to pitch to luxury buyers.

In the first two months of 2026, infinity stores posted an average net loss of $26,000.

The brand's new nameplate, the QX65 midsize crossover, will hit dealerships in May.

Executives at infinity said the launch is critical to restoring momentum for its dealer network.

And those are today's headlines, you can find more details on all those stories at autonews.com.

Coming up, Patrick DeHon, head of Petroleum Analysis at GasBuddy,

joins the show to talk about gas prices and consumer behavior.

That's next on Daily Drive.

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Welcome back to Daily Drive, I'm Kellan Walker.

Gas prices affect nearly every aspect of the automotive business,

from consumer vehicle choices to shipping costs to dealer inventory strategies.

And with the Iran War pushing prices up sharply over the past few weeks,

industry executives and dealers are watching the price at the pump closely.

Daily Drive executive producer Jake Near spoke with Patrick DeHon,

head of petroleum analysis at gasbuddy.com about what drives gas prices,

how high they could go, and what price points trigger real changes in consumer behavior and supply chain costs.

Patrick, it's great to have you here on Daily Drive, thanks for joining us.

Thanks for having me.

So I wanted to do this in a way to illuminate what is behind gas price fluctuations

in the United States and how that can affect the market for those of our audience

that are in the automotive industry, which is just about all of them.

So let's start with the basics for our audience.

When you see gas prices spike or drop, what are the main factors at play?

Well, a lot of it really is to do with the fluctuation of the price of oil,

the underlying commodity that 60% of what you're filling up with is essentially refined crude oil.

So that's a big part of it and you know, sounds very simple,

but the supply and demand scales can be tipped very quickly.

And you know, when you see interruptions or delays or weather,

anything that can be very impactful to either one of those balances supply or demand,

can really tip oil prices in a way that send gas prices soaring or plummeting.

So let's take the example of the Iran war and what's happening right now.

Obviously we've talked a lot about the straight-of-war moose

and not being able to get through that channel right now,

but what are your expectations for what that will mean

and sort of the different scenarios that could play out based on how long this lasts?

Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of different ways to look at this,

just the highlighting the uncertainty though,

you know, even in the last couple of days watching oil prices swing violently

in search for some sort of clarity on what's happening.

The risk calculation is changing in an hour-by-hour basis

as actions cause deviations amongst traders to think differently

as oil more at risk because it less at risk.

You know, and there's been a lot of that back and forth between the United States and Iran.

There's been a lot of other countries that seemingly are offering to take part in some way

to either help or to work on a peace deal, a potential peace deal.

And so the calculation that the risk is changing

and a lot of that risk for the price of oil goes to the straight-of-war moose,

which is essentially closed off, blocked, kinked because of the risk of attack

that Iran would launch additional attacks on vessels in the straight.

We've already seen drone attacks on some vessels transiting through the straight,

which has caused much of the fleet of ships that carry crude oil to remain parked.

So essentially, the threat of attack has blocked 20% of the world's daily oil supply

through the straight countries like Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the UAE,

all-ship oil gas through the straight-of-war moose.

And essentially now, this has really ceased traffic through the straight,

which obviously has a very major impact to that balance of supply and demand I was referring to.

Demand hasn't changed, but supply has suddenly plummeted overnight,

and that's caused a major escalation, a major jump in the price of oil,

which is now highly sensitive to any new developments.

I know that the government of Iran has said, sort of threatened that Americans could see gas prices

above $6 a gallon, and I would sort of assume that they mean not just in California,

but what's your reaction to that extreme scenario?

Yeah, I mean, you know, you look at it, it may feel less credible,

but the only thing I've learned through situations like 2022 and 2028 is,

you know, you never bet against something as being impossible.

Most of these types of numbers are still improbable,

but you know, it highlights the uncertainty of economics that we just don't know how high prices will go.

We don't necessarily know the inelasticity of gasoline,

where you are willing to buy is going to be different than I'm willing to buy.

And so, you know, it's hard to parse all of that down to, you know, explaining how high oil can go.

There's a lot of mechanisms that drive the price of oil up.

At the end of the day, though, you know, you at $4 might stop buying gasoline,

and I might continue to buy until $6 or $7.

And, you know, and that can change on a daily basis, your need for gasoline,

if you have a big road trip, you might say, well, I don't care if it's $6.

So, we all have a level of what is too high to pay,

and that's what makes determining how high oil can go virtually impossible.

So, you know, while $200 today sounds improbable, it's not impossible,

and there's really no definite way to say, you know, here's the likelihood of that,

because our decisions change on a momentary basis.

Yeah, I mean, sort of going off of that.

From your data at gas buddy, at what point do you usually see, you know,

sort of widespread shifts in demand patterns or consumer behavior at certain price points?

Price points are certainly very distinguishable when prices hit $3 after being below $3 for a long period of time.

There's a bit of resistance there.

$4 there's more resistance, right?

Because consumers haven't seen that since 2022, and $5 there's still a lot of resistance

because we only hit that for seven days, but it also goes down to what consumers are earning.

There is the psychological impact of sticker shock of $5 or $6 or $7 prices,

but at the end of the day, those are the things that we look at to complain or to make, you know, how do we feel?

But ultimately, it's the amount that you're paying at the pump, that $70 or $80 is only getting you a third or a half of a tank.

That is really where motors are making their behavioral changes when they leave 4% behind at the pump.

That is really what sparks change.

The optics are we might feel less good about the economy.

We may scale back a little bit, but ultimately how much we're paying is really that key psychological level of, wow,

I have nothing left in my paycheck because I just put it all in my tank.

So, you know, the three, four, five, six dollar marks, those are all key psychological barriers, resistance points.

But a lot of what it comes down to at the end of the day is how much percent of your paycheck you're leaving behind.

And earlier just a couple months ago, the average household was spending about two and a half percent of its paycheck on filling a tank up.

Now it's about 3.2%.

Once we get to the four and definitely the 5% levels are where you see a lot more resistance.

Consumers that would have to pay 5% of their paycheck to filling their tank.

There'd probably be a lot of discretionary income impacts from that happening.

And that's really where people bust out the bicycles.

They start using their legs a lot more.

That's really a major resistance point is 5% of their income is a huge resistance point.

Not so much $5 a gallon though.

Interesting.

And do you have you seen any reason to think that, you know, obviously when you're paying more for gas, that is a hit.

But instead of just breaking out the bicycles or walking more, do you think that powertrain choices might be affected by this too?

Or is that such a big investment in itself that it sort of makes it difficult for people to make a jump to something like a hybrid or an EV based on gas prices?

Yeah, I mean, it's a lot easier to bust out the bicycle than it is to rip the transmission out or say, hey, let's go buy a new car that has a CC CVT or something like those, you know, new purchases that are expensive.

Everyone's like, well, just go out and get an EV while it's not quite that simple.

There's a cost to that.

So, you know, consumers generally, if gas prices are at very elevated levels for beyond six or 12 months, that's really when consumers start to raise up the importance of fuel economy.

But yeah, I mean, the next time people buy a car, people in car dealers today are probably thinking about that, you know, prices have gone up pretty fast and furious across much of the country.

So, you know, do I look at something that's more fuel efficient?

People generally aren't going to be compelled to go look at a new vehicle until prices remain elevated for beyond a year.

Then you have a lot of folks trickling into the car dealer.

Hey, do you have something that's a hybrid? Do you have a, you know, plug-in hybrid electric vehicle?

That's really what sparks change right now.

Consumers are making low-level behavioral changes.

But if it does stick around six months, you know, people are going to be a lot interested in, hey, what's the fuel efficient hybrid that you have at the dealer?

What can I get into next and where I don't have to pay $3,000 a year on gasoline?

Now, beyond consumer choice, gas prices affect the entire auto supply chain, whether it's shipping costs, dealer logistics, parts distribution.

What's your sense of how sensitive, you know, supply chains could be to these fuel price swings?

And are there break-even points where certain operations kind of become unprofitable?

Well, I'd almost argue that a lot of folks are going to become unprofitable given the huge cost increase in diesel over the last four weeks.

I mean, if your business isn't adopting for that immediately, whether it's automakers or airlines or, you know, farmers out in the field construction.

If you're not passing that a lot of costs long now, you're probably, you know, you're going to have to have a really tough conversation here with your bank in the days ahead.

But, you know, diesel prices, we sit and talk about gasoline and consumers are really in touch with gas prices, but a lot of consumers ignore those green LED signs below the regular gasoline.

And those are screaming even louder, right?

Diesel prices at $5.35 a gallon. And as you mentioned, supply chains that are constantly moving auto parts around, you know, final assembly, all of that is using diesel to get these parts to where they need to go for final assembly.

And I mean, there's probably going to be some searching in the logistics chain for how do we improve this?

How can we cut down on the distances that these parts are traveling because, you know, we're, we're very exposed. I mean, you look at markets like California where diesel has now clips $7.00 a gallon.

And if you have any parts coming from California, you're probably going to say, well, what can we do to mitigate the cost of fuel? And I mean, yeah, to your point, you know, supply chains probably are very in touch with their costs.

But, you know, you can immediately in this environment where consumers have already been slowing down new vehicle purchases or they've, you know, shifted elsewhere.

It's not like you can just raise up the price and other $200, $300 for the cost of vehicle.

So, you know, some of these, some of these logistics and supply chains, it's very difficult to recoup the increase in the price of diesel.

But at the same time, I mean, diesel has gone up so dramatically that I don't think that many supply chains can survive if they don't pass the cost along. So, you know, this is where, you know, company like Apple has a very different supply chain, but it's very in touch with the cost that go into it.

I mean, look, you know, Apple's down to the packaging on their iPhones for saving a few cents every shipment.

And that's where the calculus is going to be different. A lot of auto manufacturers may not look at their logistics changes closely as a company like Apple that, I mean, obviously very focused.

They have one product, you know, a lot of the time when you go to a car dealership, there's not one product. There's multiple different parts for different, you know, purposes.

So, that's where the logistics and knowing the data is going to be imperative to address the increased cost of diesel.

Patrick Dahan is head of petroleum analysis at gasbuddy.com. Patrick, thank you so much for taking time to offer these insights really valuable.

Thanks for having me, Jake.

That's daily drive for today. I'm Kellan Walker. Thanks to automotive news executive producer Jake near, as well as our own Riley Hodder, Kurt Nagel and Irvash Kakaria for their reporting for today's podcast.

You can get the latest news on production stoppages, U.S. trade policy, brand growth targets and everything happening in the auto industry at autonews.com.

Come back tomorrow for an interview with our own Molly Boygon on how the auto industry is responding to six years of crises.

The auto industry has made a lot of significant adaptations, reassuring supply chains, diversifying supply chains, and also just kind of on a personnel level.

People have become so much more resilient.

We'd love to hear from you. Let us know what you think of the show and the topics we cover today.

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