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A daily hot lap of headlines from the auto industry and car culture, curated by The Drive’s editors.
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, October 21, 2026:
🔊 Program note for The Drivecast, The Drive’s weekly podcast. Instead of going live today, the next episode will be out tomorrow in the usual places—Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
🍒 Vice President of Chinese automaker Chery, Charlie Zhang, told media that the company is “very open to different options, even a potential partnership with American automakers.” Chery is preparing to enter the Canadian market in 2027, and if you’re thinking that it might be thwarted by Congress’ efforts to prevent China’s carmakers from selling south of the border, Zhang isn’t so concerned. “Definitely from a technical point of view, we will be able to find a China-free solution in terms of hardware and software,” he said in the interview. [Reuters]
⛽ Toyota is facing a significant recall on almost 106,000 Land Cruiser hybrids, model years 2024 through 2027. The tube that carries fuel from the tank is at risk of disconnecting from the tank, raising an obvious fire risk. Dealers are ordered to install a “supplemental clamp” or replace the tube. [Reuters]
⏱️ Acura revealed plans to expand its lineup from four vehicles to six, including five new or updated models, at a dealer meeting in Las Vegas. Honda’s premium arm wants to sell 200,000 vehicles a year in the U.S., but a replacement for the on-hiatus RDX compact crossover—the biggest volume segment the brand plays in—is still two years away, and retailers are struggling to wait that long. [Automobile News]
💥 Mercedes has conducted what it claims to be the first ever high-speed side impact test between two moving vehicles, involving a hybrid CLA Shooting Brake striking a fully-electric CLA, T-bone style, as if at an intersection, with both moving at about 35 mph. The automaker reports that the passenger cells in both vehicles “remained intact,” with a low risk of serious or life-threatening injuries to occupants. Moreover, the CLA EV’s battery was not damaged. [Mercedes-Benz]
🔌 BMW conducted a live charging demonstration of the peak speed its new iX5 SUV is capable of at an Ionna charging station outside Los Angeles. The iX5 can deliver up to 460 kW of power, which is actually 60 kW more than Ionna stations are broadly capable of—this site was specially tweaked for the demo. That speed meant the iX5 could replenish 170 miles in just 10 minutes, and go from 10% to 80% on its gigantic 144-kWh battery in only 22 minutes. Fun fact: I was present for this demonstration, and can confirm the results. 🫡 [BMW]
🏭 Germany’s IG Metall union says that Volkswagen is planning to freeze pay for its 660,000 employees until 2030 as part of its massive restructuring effort, and as a Plan B after being disallowed from closing more plants and even wider layoffs in its home country. The automaker did not confirm or deny the report. [Reuters]
🏷️ Today in weird recalls, the new Corvette Grand Sport has been caught with the wrong emissions certification label, which does not represent the “correct evaporative emissions family name.” This hiccup has reportedly resulted in a brief stop-sale for the mid-engine sports car as well. An amusingly detailed explanation of the remedy reads that, “The service procedure includes removal of the original label, cleaning of the surface with isopropyl alcohol, and installation of a new label with the correct information. GM estimates that the full procedure should take roughly 30 minutes to complete.” Hmm, wonder what concentration of isopropyl they’re using. [GM Authority]
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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.
