‘Darkish’ Automobile Factories Are Coming Sooner Than You Suppose

January 16, 2026

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Welcome again to Important Suppliesyour go-to supply for the largest tales driving the way forward for transportation. On the docket at the moment: Totally automated automobile factories could occur earlier than you suppose, EV battery recycling will get supercharged, and a few troubling knowledge is out on America’s automobile loans.

The must-read auto and tech briefing, each weekday.

25%: ‘Darkish Factories’ Are Coming

Tesla needs its Optimus robots to assist out in its factories.

Photograph by: Tesla

More and more succesful robots and synthetic intelligence might essentially change how vehicles are made this decade. By 2030, there might be at the least one automotive “darkish manufacturing unit” within the U.S. or China, specialists advised Automotive Information.

That’s a facility the place 100% of the meeting line is automated and requires no human enter. Since no persons are theoretically concerned, such a plant could be “darkish” and function at full steam, 24/7.

Carmakers have been chasing this sci-fi idea for many years—they usually aren’t slowing down.

Hyundai, for instance, simply introduced plans to construct 30,000 Atlas humanoid robots per yr by 2028 and put them to work in its factories. Tesla is already making Optimus robots on a restricted scale in California. Elon Musk has been clear about his imaginative and prescient right here; he needs to construct a robotic military that may assist out at Tesla factories and tackle different menial labor.

I’ve been to about half a dozen automobile factories within the U.S. and India. From what I’ve noticed, even essentially the most superior meeting traces at the moment nonetheless rely closely on human labor. Putting in issues like wiring harnesses and dashboards requires employees to contort at awkward angles. These are the sorts of duties the place human dexterity nonetheless outperforms machines.

At the moment’s factories are designed round human fingers that may adapt and carry out advanced duties in unpredictable environments. Robots merely aren’t there but. That will change over time, however for now, people are nonetheless those doing a number of the soiled work.

Famously, Tesla overdid it on automation within the early days of Mannequin 3 manufacturing and needed to pivot. “Sure, extreme automation at Tesla was a mistake,” Musk tweeted in 2018. “People are underrated,” he added.

However that was nearly a decade in the past. Has know-how gotten so good that people are actually overrated? We could discover out within the subsequent few years.

50%: Colorado Desires To Mandate EV Battery Recycling

Thousands and thousands of EV batteries will attain the tip of their usable life within the coming years.

Colorado has among the many highest EV adoption charges within the U.S., and now the state needs to be a pacesetter in one other space: battery recycling.

Democratic lawmakers within the state legislature launched a invoice this week that may mandate the secure recycling of high-voltage lithium-ion batteries. If it turns into regulation, EV batteries must be correctly recycled as soon as autos attain the tip of their usable life.

Automakers might deal with that duty themselves or hand out contracts to recycling firms. The laws would take impact on August 1, 2028.

Right here’s extra from Colorado Public Radio:

By recovering supplies from current batteries, carmakers might keep away from importing important minerals, create native jobs and maintain fire-prone EV batteries out of scrapyards. It’d additionally make future EVs much more climate-friendly, in response to State Sen. Katie Wallace, a invoice co-sponsor and a Democrat representing Longmont.

“Colorado is main in electrical automobile gross sales, which is nice for local weather change, however that solely issues if they are often responsibly disposed of,” Wallace stated.

Thousands and thousands of EV batteries are anticipated attain their finish of life within the coming years. With out clear rules, these batteries danger ending up in landfills or junkyards—as an alternative of getting their supplies reprocessed and put again into the availability chain. So, regulation that units clear recycling requirements is definitely a welcome transfer.

75%: Underwater Commerce-Ins Are Hovering In The U.S.

People are extra underwater on their automobile loans than ever.

Photograph by: Patrick George

Affordability is a big and deepening subject within the U.S. automobile market. And the big quantity of debt many consumers are taking out to purchase vehicles isn’t serving to issues.

Almost 30% of trade-ins towards new purchases got here with adverse fairness in This fall 2025, in response to the automotive website Edmundsthe very best charge in years. Furthermore, common quantity owed on these underwater trade-ins hit $7,214, the very best stage Edmunds has ever recorded.

Which means a lot of automobile house owners now owe considerably extra on their mortgage than what their automobile is price once they commerce it in towards a brand new buy. So, in case your Toyota Corolla is price $20,000 at the moment, however you owe $27,000 on it, then you definitely’d have $7,000 of adverse fairness.

The agency attributed these underwater trade-ins to a bunch of things. Excessive costs throughout the pandemic locked consumers into costly loans from the beginning. Folks weren’t capable of repay these loans on the identical charge as their vehicles have been depreciating. And once you to commerce in, your excellent debt doesn’t routinely vanish, which suggests that is cycle that might be very tough to flee for some consumers.

Edmunds advises consumers to consider all these components earlier than pulling the set off on a brand new automobile. Reduce debt and consider the true value of proudly owning a automobile—not simply month-to-month funds—earlier than you’re tempted to commerce up for the shiny new factor.