Good morning and welcome to The Downshift, or TDS for short.
TDS is your daily download of car-scene stories worth knowing about from around the internet. Let’s get into it.
🔺 Honda just hosted its 2026 Business Briefing, where it shared plans to recover from the fallout of abandoning the “0” EV projects. That briefing included the reveal of two new prototypes, a kind of cyber-Accord-looking sedan and a more sedate Acura SUV. It was weirdly challenging to find Honda’s official images of these cars—they’re not on the U.S. newsroom site at all. Honda claims the cars are scheduled to go on sale ‘within the next two years,” but the lack of fanfare around the prototypes is odd. [Honda]
⛰️ Overland Expo has crowned the 2026 Nissan Frontier Pro-4X its “Ultimate Overland” vehicle this year, with a cool sponsored build utilizing the platform. [Overland Expo]
🛞 MotorTrend’s “Roadkill Nights” Hot Rod and muscle car show plus drag-racing event is officially coming back to Woodward Ave. this summer. [Hot Rod]
🇰🇵 North Korean car culture is becoming a thing. Exporting cars there is prohibited under U.N. sanctions, but somehow it’s becoming hard to find a parking spot in Pyongyang. [Reuters]
📈 Ford stock is way up because people think the automaker will start increasing battery production—but not for electric cars. Speculation is that the automaker will get into the large-scale energy storage business. [Motley Fool]
🛢️ Cuba is completely out of diesel and fuel oil. [BBC]