Good morning and welcome to The Downshift, or TDS for short.
Light, tight, and right, TDS gathers the latest automotive news from around the world and puts it in one place. Stories are summarized in a single, sometimes long, sentence accompanied by a link for those seeking more information.
Somehow I managed to jump right back onto Central Standard Time after jumping onto Japan Standard Time but I’m still one cup of coffee into the day, so let’s get into it.
🚘 What I’m driving: The 2025 Subaru Forester left and has been replaced with a 2026 Lucid Air Touring, which is painted in Fathom Blue Metallic (a stunning shade of blue, I might add) with 431 miles of EPA-rated range, a decent list of options, and a sticker price of $100,350.
🔋 The new 2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA EV checks in with 374 miles of EPA-rated range, but it just went 434 miles on a single charge during a real-world range test.
🔌 Stellantis said it will bring the tiny Fiat Topolino to the U.S. next year, which is a small electric car that lacks doors and has a top speed of 28 mph with up to about 50 miles of range.
💻 Volvo, which launched the electric EX90 with a laundry list of software issues, is now offering its software to rivals to run on their EVs.
👨💼 Mercedes-Benz AMG named the ex-Porsche Taycan boss as its new CEO.
👨💼 BMW named its head of production Milan Nedelijkovic as its new CEO.
⛽️ Lotus, who said it will only sell electric cars, dropped a gas engine into its Eletre SUV and named it the Lotus For Me.
🔋 Mercedes-Benz inked a deal with LG to buy billions of dollars worth of EV batteries.
🛻 Someone modified a Rivian R1T to give it over 600 miles of range for an EV Cannonball Run attempt.
🔋 Rimac is developing solid-state batteries for Bugatti.
🦁 Ineos created a convertible off-road Grenadier safari-spec for viewing wildlife.
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