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Good morning and welcome to The Downshift, or TDS for short, The Drive‘s daily news roundup that gathers the biggest automotive headlines from around the world.
The Downshift summarizes stories into a few sentences and peppers in links for those seeking more detail. We hope you had a nice, hopefully long weekend—here’s your bulletin for Tuesday, September 8, 2026.
3️⃣ BMW has let some powertrain figures slip for the new range-topping, gas-powered M350 xDrive—yup, the “i” is officially gone—and it sounds like a hoot: 443 horsepower and 428 lb-ft of torque from the latest edition of its B58 3.0-liter, twin-turbocharged inline-six. Oh, and there will be a drift mode, called ‘Drift Moment,” even though technically this isn’t a full-fat M car. [BMW]
🔧 Stellantis has expanded an earlier recall pertaining to rear coil springs on the Jeep Grand Cherokee to more vehicles—many more, now totaling just under 330,000 examples spanning model years 2021 to 2023, across regular, L, and 4×3 models. It’s important to stipulate that Stellantis does not believe every single one of the vehicles in the recall group bears the fault (the estimation is in fact just one-tenth of one percent), but suspension failure is a rather serious problem, and Stellantis has previously tried to nip this in the bud twice over the last few years. [Mopar Insiders]
2️⃣ The Audi A2 is back (not for Americans, as it was never here in the first place) in the form of a 400-mile supermini EV starting at about $45,000, and with a design harkening back to its innovative predecessor from a quarter-century ago. This is a foreign-market EV I reckon we’ll be sad to miss out on. [Automotive News]
🏍️ Volkswagen is considering selling off Ducati, given its deep troubles at the present. Audi acquired the motorcycle maker back in 2012, and it’s estimated that the brand could be worth up to $1.5 billion. [Automotive News]
🔥 Here’s a positive VW development, though: The all-electric ID Polo is sold out in Europe and the current wait list to get one is 10 months long. Good news for a brand that could so desperately use it. Again, like all of the cool stuff the VW Group makes, we don’t get that car on this side of the pond. [Automotive News]
⭐ Polestar has issued a teaser for a concept car called the Formula 2030, previewing design trends that the brand will bring to the upcoming Polestar 2 and 7. All we’ve been treated to is a shot of the face, which is certainly very low and wide. [Polestar]
🏭 Jaguar Land Rover, which employs about 43,000 people globally, plans to cut 10% of its workforce over the next two years. It’s not currently clear whether those jobs will come from its staff in the U.K. or elsewhere. [Reuters]
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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.
