Good morning and welcome to The Downshift, or TDS for short.
Tight, light, and right, TDS gathers all the latest automotive news bubbling around the universe in one place. Stories are summarized in a single (sometimes long) sentence with a link provided for those seeking more information.
I’m back in the driver’s seat after a long fishing weekend with plenty of walleye, northern pike, perch, and muskie stories.
The first cup of coffee’s is gone, so let’s get into it.
? What I’m driving: The 2025 Cadillac Escalade V is gone, and might I say what a machine for road trips, and there’s nothing in the driveway at the moment as I hit the road tomorrow.
? Despite Tesla’s market share in the U.S. dropping to its lowest point since 2017 as the competition heats up, the automaker aims for an $8.5 trillion market valuation to justify CEO Elon Musk’s new pay package, but the plan relies on humanoid robots, a robotaxi network that doesn’t exist, and hope, rather than simply just selling vehicles.
⚠️ Another day and another Ford recall, and this time the Blue Oval’s recalling nearly 1.5 million vehicles in the U.S. over faulty rear-view camera issues.
❄️ The 2026 Toyota Highlander lineup debuted with standard all-wheel drive across the model range.
? The 2026 Lexus IS debuted, did not get killed off, and actually brings forth a mild refresh marking the current model’s third update.
? The 2026 Polestar 5 fastback debuted, but it’s unclear if the EV will come to the U.S. market.
? The mid-size Lucid EV, presumed to be named Earth, is set to arrive late next year if the startup automaker can drum up enough cash to keep the lights on, and it’ll have an off-road variant.
? The face of the Mercedes-Benz C-Class EV was teased, and it looks similar to that of the GLC EV that just debuted in Munich.
? Mercedes-Benz made a flurry of EV charging and battery announcements including an EQS prototype with solid-state batteries traveling 749 miles on a single charge, the integration of 600-kW chargers to its EV charging network in 2026, and hitting a charging speed of 1 megawatt for 2.5 minutes using just one cable in half a second.
? Volkswagen is talking with the U.S. about an investment deal that would see possible production of Audis and maybe even Porsches stateside, this all while the automaker’s looking to invest billions of Euros in AI by the end of the decade.
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As Director of Content and Product, Joel draws on over 15 years of newsroom experience and inability to actually stop working to help ensure The Drive shapes the future of automotive media.
