The Drive 🤝 your inbox. Every weekday
The Daily Brief wraps up the biggest stories and our exclusive reporting on the auto industry and car culture.
Good morning and welcome to The Downshift, a daily sweep of today’s top headlines from the auto industry and car culture, curated by The Drive’s editorial team. Each story gets a short summary and a link to the original source if you want to dive deeper.
Here’s what’s cooking on Wednesday, September 23, 2026:
🚙 Right now, Honda’s largest SUV is the Pilot. But, in this market, there’s always a reason to go bigger, and the automaker is said to be early in the planning stages of an SUV beyond the Pilot with a comfortable three rows of seating, intended to battle the red-hot Toyota Grand Highlander. The only problem is that it’d be a minute before Honda could bring it to market; the company is reportedly targeting a 2032 launch. [Automotive News]
🛠️ Speaking of the Grand Highlander, it and its posh sibling, the Lexus TX, along with the smaller RX, are being recalled for forged front-steering knuckles that, believe it or not, weren’t sent through the furnace enough times. That means they’re brittle and more likely to shatter from a strong force. The recall only covers 617 vehicles, but this is not the first time that Toyota’s big three-row SUVs have been recalled for aluminum parts that weren’t manufactured to code, as the Grand Highlander and TX ran into the same issue already this year with their rear-axle carriers, linked to the same supplier. [Autoblog]
👊 Subaru will debut a pair of “limited-production” WRX and BRZ sports cars at Boxerfest, its annual fan event in Pennsylvania, this weekend. [Subaru]
📖 BMW will open reservations for the i3 sedan on September 29—that’s Tuesday—at 6 p.m. Eastern, which is a couple of weeks earlier than expected. [BMW Blog]
🔋 Volkswagen is reportedly now selling more EVs in its native Germany than gas-powered cars, which leaves some of its domestic plants that focus on legacy models, like the Golf and Tiguan, in tough positions. [Automobilwoche via InsideEVs]
📹 Rivian will send an over-the-air update to its vehicles to fix a software issue where notifications may block the rearview camera feed. Just under 100,000 examples of the R1 series and R2 are covered in the recall—basically every vehicle Rivian has ever sold, though at least it’s easily fixable without a dealer visit. [Reuters]
🔌 Normally we don’t cover most new car releases in China, but Geely’s new Galaxy E5 SUV is worth mentioning, because it has the fastest-charging battery system in the world, capable of replenishing from 10% to 70% in four minutes, or 10% to 97% in under nine minutes. That’s pretty solid, especially since many owners don’t completely top up their EV’s battery anyway, in order to preserve long-term health. [Reuters]
🤖 Mercedes-Benz is deepening its partnership with British self-driving technology company Wayve to integrate the company’s platform into its vehicles over the next two years, theoretically expanding their urban and highway autonomous driving capabilities. [Wayve]
Got a tip or feedback for The Downshift? Reach out to tips@thedrive.com
Add The Drive as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting.
Backed by a decade of covering cars and consumer tech, Adam Ismail is a Senior Editor at The Drive, focused on curating and producing the site’s slate of daily stories.
