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Welcome to The Downshift, or TDS for short, The Drive’s morning news roundup serving the biggest automotive headlines from around the world.
The Downshift summarizes news items in a few sentences, with links to other sites to get the deeper story. Here’s your bulletin for Tuesday, June 30, 2026.
🧑🔧 Ford is recalling 741,195 vehicles in the U.S., including certain 2018-2021 Ford Explorer, Expedition, and F-150 and Lincoln Aviator and Navigator models, for a transmission fault that could damage the parking pawl, preventing it from holding the vehicle in place and thus creating a rollaway risk unless the parking brake is also engaged. To remedy the issue, Ford will update the Powertrain Control Modules of affected vehicles and inspect the park system for damage, replacing compromised components where needed. Until then, make sure to use that parking brake every time. [Associated Press, NHTSA]
🍁 A Slate spokesperson matter-of-factly said the young company does “not have plans to sell vehicles in Canada” without offering further details. The Slate electric pickup will go on sale in the U.S. for a starting price of $24,950, before destination charges. [Automotive News]
🏭 Volkswagen could spin off its automotive components business in Germany from its core automaking arm, allowing it to close German factories that it ordinarily wouldn’t be able to because of the so-called “Volkswagen Law,” which gives the state of Lower Saxony 20% voting rights at the company’s general meetings. [Reuters]
⚡ Ferrari and BMW are among the automakers shifting from copper to aluminum for wiring applications, which happens to be cheaper these days due to data centers driving up the cost of the former. Chinese automakers and Tesla have done the same in recent years. One added benefit of aluminum is that it’s lighter than copper, and weight is a particularly important consideration for EVs. [Reuters]
🦅 Nissan has jumped on the America 250 special-edition bandwagon for its pickup, announcing that it will make 2,500 examples of the Frontier that have stars-and-stripes inlayed into the truck’s large tailgate badging. [Nissan]
💸 Speaking of Nissan, if you’re looking for a new car under $20,000, your options have pretty much all disappeared unless you can snag one of the few remaining 2025 Versa S examples still for sale around the country. The S trim, which comes equipped with a manual, was discontinued, pushing the subcompact sedan’s starting price above $20,000. [CarsDirect]
🔧 Stellantis has extended a previously planned production stoppage for the Fiat 500 at its Turin plant, due to components shortages. [Reuters]
Got a tip or feedback for TDS? Reach out to tips@thedrive.com
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.
