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 places it in one spot. Stories are summarized in a single sentence along with a link provided for those seeking more information.
The first cup of coffee is gone, the real feel is 29 degrees outside here in Minneapolis, so let’s get into it.
🚘 What I’m driving: Spending time with the 2026 Audi A6 Sportback E-Tron and am finding the control interfaces easy-to-use, some of the feeling behind the wheel to be similar to that of the Lucid Air, and nice materials overall.
🚨 Tesla recalled 12,963 electric vehicles in the U.S. due to a defective battery pack component that could cause sudden loss of drive power, which would mean the driver will lose the ability to accelerate; the recall comes right on top of Tesla releasing its third-quarter earnings later today.
🪫 General Motors killed its Brightdrop electric van, which made a ton of sense as a delivery van and might have been one of the most practical and coolest electric camper vans.
💸 The cyberattack that crippled Jaguar Land Rover is estimated to have cost the UK economy $2.5 billion.
💪 The 2026 Porsche Macan GTS expanded the electric crossovers lineup with more power and a focus on handling.
🚨 Ford recalled 1,448,655 vehicles in the U.S. due to a rearview camera display issue that could distort or simply not display an image while a vehicle is in reverse.
🤖 General Motors said it now has over 500,000 Super Cruise users and to date zero crashes.
🇮🇹 Alfa Romeo abandoned its plans to make bigger vehicles with its CEO stating, “large cars are not the brand’s territory.”
🔧 Toyota unveiled a lifted Corolla Cross dubbed the Nasu Edition ahead of SEMA.
Have feedback on the formatting of TDS? Send us a note: tips@thedrive.com