Good morning and welcome to The Downshift, or TDS for short.
Tight, info dense, and short, TDS gathers the latest automotive headlines from around the world and puts them in one place. Stories are summarized in a single sentence accompanied by a link for those seeking more information.
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The first cup of coffee is gone and it’s already time for a second, so let’s get into it.
🚘 What I’m driving: Shuttling the kids around town to school and activities in the 2026 Polestar 4 and like the simple-to-use digital interfaces, large volume knob, and the suspension seems well tuned with the adaptive dampers despite the broken midwest pavement in the winter months, but still not fully bought into this no rear window business and relying solely on a digital rearview mirror with a video feed.
⚙️ Ford’s chief of EVs says the Blue Oval can beat China on cost and build the world’s cheapest EV motors for its upcoming $30,000 electric truck; how the automaker can achieve this apparently simply comes down to hiring expensive people from California that have nothing to do with and no experience in Detroit that produce 20 times more than an average employee.
🚕 Waymo is rebranding its Chinese-sourced Zeekr RT robotaxi as the Ojai.
🎽 The 2026 Rezvani Tank debuted and somehow has an even more angular exterior design; a supercharged V8 engine option with 1,000 horsepower costs $85,000.
🤖 Ford said it plans to offer an eyes-off hands-free driver assist system in its $30,000 electric truck platform in 2028.
🔋 Lucid’s interim CEO said the automaker’s midsize EV will come in three different body shapes, but none of them will be a sedan as the automaker’s done with that body style; the first of the three midsize EVs will debut later this year.
💥 The 2026 Subaru Forester was named a Top Safety Pick+ by the IIHS.
‼️ Rivian recalled 19,641 previously serviced R1S and R1T EVs in the U.S. due to an incorrectly assembled rear toe link.
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