Good morning and welcome to The Downshift, or TDS for short.
Quick, dense, and lacking fluff, TDS gathers the latest automotive headlines from around the globe and places them in one spot. Stories are summarized in a single sentence accompanied by a link for those seeking more information.
The first cup of coffee is gone and I’m ready for a second, so let’s get into it.
🚘 What I’m driving: Still spending the week shuttling the kids around town in the 2026 Mazda CX-70 and while not perfect, really find myself liking the turbocharged inline-six for its overall smoothness and refinement. Still struggling to determine why someone would buy the two-row CX-70 instead of the three-row CX-90, though.
🪫 General Motors CFO Paul Jacobson said the company is losing money on its EVs but healthy finances, which is thanks to extremely profitable gas-powered trucks and SUVs, provide “the ability to incur some short-term losses” to pursue long-term electric vehicle profitability; Jacobson said, “we have an opportunity to grow our share and do it in a way that sets us up well over the next three to five years.”
💸 Jaguar Land Rover’s parent company, Tata Motors, reported a $386 million loss attributed to the company’s six-week shut down due to a cyberattack.
📉 Ford reported a January sales decline of 5.3% year-over-year as EV sales crater and the automaker kills the Escape.
💸 Volvo’s Q4 profit plunged 68% due to U.S. tariffs and a negative currency effect of a stronger Swedish krona.
🪦 The Hyundai Kona Electric is dead for 2026, though the automaker said the model will return for 2027.
🪦 The Kia Niro plug-in hybrid is dead and will not return for 2026.
📈 In a surprising twist the Toyota bZ proved to be one of the best-selling EVs in January.
🙏 Ed Iskenderian, known as “The Camfather,” died at the age of 104.
🏎️ Dario Franchitti is headed back to the race track in a NASCAR truck after retiring 13 years ago.
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