Welcome to The Downshift, or TDS for short, The Drive’s morning news roundup bringing you the biggest automotive headlines from around the world.

The Downshift briefly recaps the news with links to deeper stories. Hope you enjoyed what was a great weekend for racing and sports fans in general, between the 24 Hours of Le Mans, World Cup action and, last but certainly not least, the New York Knicks. Here’s your bulletin for Monday, June 15, 2026.

New EV registrations year-over-year have unsurprisingly declined every month since the start of 2026, post-federal tax credit, but April proved to be the strongest month yet for EVs, with only a 9.8% drop versus April 2025. That follows declines of 25% on March, 37% in February, and 41% in January. [Automotive News]

Stellantis’ American brands chief Tim Kuniskis teased a surprise vehicle debut at Roadkill Nights on August 8. In 2022, Dodge introduced the Charger Daytona SRT concept and Hornet at the same event, which could give us a hint at what SRT is planning. [Carscoops]

The U.K. government will reportedly meet with automakers this week to discuss softening regulations that require 80% of new cars sold in the country to be battery-electric in 2030. Under a potential new plan, half of all cars sold would need to be electric. However, the existing ban of new purely internal-combustion cars that same year, and outlawing new hybrids in 2035, is expected to remain. [Autocar]

Independent traffic researchers say that data Tesla submitted to officials in Sweden and the Netherlands about Full Self-Driving’s supposed safety is misleading. The EV maker is still attempting to secure approval for an FSD rollout in Europe. [Reuters]

5⃣ Bovensiepen, the new coachbuilder run by the family that founded Alpina after BMW fully absorbed Alpina in 2022, has unveiled the 05 GT, an M5 Touring with 790 horsepower—around 50 more than a normal M5—and loads of bespoke design touches. [Autoblog]

Economic headwinds and high gas prices have depressed the RV industry, as manufacturers have shipped 13.5% fewer products to retailers over the first four months of 2026 compared to the same period one year ago. [Reuters]

Weekend race results:

• 94th 24 Hours of Le Mans: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, and Nyck de Vries won overall for Toyota
• NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series at Pocono: Justin Allgaier won for JR Motorsports
• Formula 1 Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton won for Ferrari
• GT World Challenge America at Road Atlanta: Jason Daskalos and Philip Ellis won overall for JMF Motorsports
• NASCAR Cup Series at Pocono: Denny Hamlin won for Joe Gibbs Racing

Got a tip? Reach out to tips@thedrive.com

Welcome to The Downshift, or TDS for short, The Drive’s morning automotive news roundup bringing you the biggest headlines from around the globe.

We hope you had a fine weekend. Here are the stories worth catching up on for Monday, June 8, 2026.

Honda is seemingly planning significant refreshes for the Accord and Passport for next year. One Honda executive teased a “substantially redesigned Accord that will feel like a new model,” while an anonymous source said the automaker is “giving [the Passport] more testosterone” and that “it’s a little more masculine.” [Automotive News]

Stellantis will sell the the new Dodge Charger in Europe, from gas-powered Sixpack models to the battery-electric Daytona, in two- and four-door varieties. [Stellantis]

Subaru has promised no less than three new manual-toting models for Japan: a new hatchback seemingly inspired by the Performance-B STI Concept from last year’s Japan Mobility Show; a WRX with the more durable TY85 manual from the prior-gen STI; and a leaner, sharper BRZ. It’s unclear if any of these vehicles will be sold in the U.S. [Carscoops]

Subaru also issued a rather odd press release over the weekend, “[announcing] that it is considering” selling the three-row Ascent in Japan, where it has not been offered to date. The Ascent is built in Indiana. [Subaru]

Toyota seemingly can’t crank out new RAV4s quickly enough, with less than five days’ worth of inventory in the U.S. at present, as the hybrid SUV has been selling fast due to rising gas prices. [Bloomberg]

⛐ Ford of Europe has continued playing coy on the prospect of a Fiesta and/or Focus revival, with its product chief saying, with respect to new ST or RS models, that, “To be credible and authentic, there needs to be some kind of performance series of our vehicles.” [Auto Express]

Uber has opened a waitlist for customers in London who want to use the company’s robotaxi service in the city first, though no prospective launch date has yet been given. [Bloomberg]

Weekend race results:

• NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Michigan: Corey Heim won for Tricon Garage
• British Touring Car Championship at Oulton Park: Dan Cammish, Ash Sutton, and Charles Rainford each won races
• MotoGP Hungarian Grand Prix: Marc Marquez won for Ducati
• Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix: Kimi Antonelli won for Mercedes
• NASCAR Cup Series at Michigan: Denny Hamlin won for Joe Gibbs Racing
• IndyCar at St. Louis: Josef Newgarden won for Team Penske

Got a news tip? Reach out to tips@thedrive.com

If you’ve been following the ongoing resurrection spree of internal-combustion engines over at the various Stellantis brands, you’re probably already well aware that after a brief hiatus, SRT has returned to pick up where it left off in its “V8 all the things” era. It was a habit that had us all wondering at some point just how far Dodge, Ram, Jeep and Chrysler could run with the idea. Well, it appears we’ve finally found a limitation: At some point, there just aren’t enough V8s lying around to build the darned things.

This isn’t so much a problem for Ram; the truck brand came into the Hemi revival with a good handle on customer expectations. And Jeep’s V8 revival is still in its earliest stages; the high-volume Grand Cherokee has yet to become an official beneficiary. But over at Dodge, the older Durango SUV was saved from retirement by the simple fact that the company has almost nothing else to sell. The short-lived, Italian-built Hornet died from the one-two punch of canceled electrification incentives and new tariffs, taking away the brand’s only affordable, mass-market entry, and Chargers remain thin on the ground as Stellantis ramps up production of the new internal-combustion Sixpack models.

As a result, Durango is responsible for nearly 90% of Dodge’s sales volume right now. You’re reading that correctly. The Durango is no stranger to its current production numbers, but it has been five years since Dodge moved them with this kind of consistency. It’s a good problem to have, certainly; Dodge would rather be selling Durangos than selling nothing at all, but with customer demand where it is, the SUV’s popularity has created a new problem for Stellantis: It can’t build V8s fast enough.

It’s another good problem, certainly, and to address it, Dodge did the logical thing: it kept the V6 model in production for 2026, both increasing the total volume of cars it could sell and lowering the Durango’s base price even more. When we recently caught up with Dodge CEO Matt McAlear, who previously announced that the Hemi would be the standard engine for 2026, we asked for an explanation. After all, it seemed like a bit of a flip-flop.

“We announced an intention,” McAlear acknowledged. “We announced an all V8 lineup.” He then (rightly) pointed out that reviving the V6 didn’t require breaking any promises.

“We did not walk back from on our pricing or position,” McAlear pointed out. “We still held the price point that we launched the V8 with on the GT 5.7. We never took away the V6 from the production facility from other markets. We had it for fleet. We had it for Canada. We had it for Mexico. We had it for Europe.”

Indeed, the Hemi is still available exactly as McAlear promised for 2026; there are simply cheaper, V6-based options beneath it.

“What we did find out was as consumer demand continues to grow with this vehicle,” McAlear told us, “we could not meet all of the demand as quickly as we wanted to with the Hemi as we looked to ramp up Hemi production across multiple nameplates.”

And by that, he means inclusive of, but not only, Dodge. As we pointed out above, Ram and Jeep have their own demands of the company’s V8 program.

“So, simply to meet consumer demand, we didn’t do it for anything else,” McAlear said. “[Durango is] the fastest turning car we have in our portfolio right now. And we brought back the V6 for consumer demand.”

There’s no guarantee this unplanned expansion will continue into 2027, McAlear told us.

“If we need to, if there’s consumer demand for it there at the price point and we can still hold to the GT 5.7 and the RT 392 and the Hellcat, we’ll do that,” he said.

And he told us that increasing V8 production capacity itself remains a core component of shaping its near-term strategy.

“We’re working on ramping up Hemi production as we’ve stated, and we will continue to work on ramping up Hemi production,” he said.

McAlear also used the situation as further proof of a multi-energy platform strategy bearing fruit for Stellantis.

“Just like we turned priority focus on the Charger to the Hurricane engines instead of the BEV,” he pointed out. “Things could change next week. Things can change tomorrow. We can shift back to 100% battery electric production if we want to.”

“We were there to meet consumers where consumers are with their choices. We’re offering power of choice and freedom of choice.”

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