Good morning and welcome to The Downshift, or TDS for short.
Quick, dense, and short, 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 a second is needed. Let’s get into it.
🚘 What I’m driving: Spending the week with the 2026 Lexus GX and am truly interested to see how I feel about this thing after the weekend and a road trip up north. At the launch, in a short, curated session I loved the GX and felt it challenged the Land Rover Defender, but after spending a week with it road tripping and towing in the real world I found it loud, crude, thin, and annoying despite it’s gorgeous design. It’s been two years, let’s see how things shape up this time in a new timeline.
🪫 After bailing on the electric future and taking a massive loss Honda America planning chief Gary Robinson said hybrids will form the “core” of the automaker’s business and are now expected to overtake pure gas-powered vehicle sales later this decade; Acura’s lineup will shift to be almost all hybrids while Honda’s showroom will be a little more selective on which vehicle gets which powertrain.
🚨 Jeep recalled 61,711 Cherokee SUVs because the two-speed power transfer unit in the transmission might experience catastrophic failure.
🔋 BMW is working on a less expensive Neue Klasse EV that will wear the 1 Series nameplate.
💰 Tesla raised Model Y prices by $500 to $1,000.
💲 The 2027 Volvo EX60 lineup was priced with a 300-mile variant costing less than $60,000; the electric EX60 also costs less than a comparable plug-in hybrid XC60 model.
🤑 Congress now wants you to pay $130 a year to drive an electric car; lawmakers say EV drivers have to “pay their fair share” since they won’t be paying a gas tax, though many states are already charging EV drivers a fee to compensate for the lack of gas tax income.
🔋 Volvo confirmed the now dead EX30 will be replaced with an affordable, larger, EV next year; the replacement is expected to wear the EX40 badge.
🇨🇳 BYD aims to take on the Land Rover Defender with the Ti7 seven-seat hybrid SUV in the UK later this year.
🇬🇧 Ford’s set to launch five “rally-bred” cars in Europe by 2029.
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