Good morning and welcome to The Downshift, or TDS for short.

Quick, dense, and short, TDS gathers the latest automotive headlines from around the globe and places them in one spot. Stories are summarized in a single sentence accompanied by a link for those seeking more information.

The first cup of coffee is gone, and a second is needed. Let’s get into it.

What I’m driving: Spending the week with the 2026 Lexus GX and am truly interested to see how I feel about this thing after the weekend and a road trip up north. At the launch, in a short, curated session I loved the GX and felt it challenged the Land Rover Defender, but after spending a week with it road tripping and towing in the real world I found it loud, crude, thin, and annoying despite it’s gorgeous design. It’s been two years, let’s see how things shape up this time in a new timeline.

After bailing on the electric future and taking a massive loss Honda America planning chief Gary Robinson said hybrids will form the “core” of the automaker’s business and are now expected to overtake pure gas-powered vehicle sales later this decade; Acura’s lineup will shift to be almost all hybrids while Honda’s showroom will be a little more selective on which vehicle gets which powertrain.

Jeep recalled 61,711 Cherokee SUVs because the two-speed power transfer unit in the transmission might experience catastrophic failure.

BMW is working on a less expensive Neue Klasse EV that will wear the 1 Series nameplate.

Tesla raised Model Y prices by $500 to $1,000.

The 2027 Volvo EX60 lineup was priced with a 300-mile variant costing less than $60,000; the electric EX60 also costs less than a comparable plug-in hybrid XC60 model.

Congress now wants you to pay $130 a year to drive an electric car; lawmakers say EV drivers have to “pay their fair share” since they won’t be paying a gas tax, though many states are already charging EV drivers a fee to compensate for the lack of gas tax income.

Volvo confirmed the now dead EX30 will be replaced with an affordable, larger, EV next year; the replacement is expected to wear the EX40 badge.

BYD aims to take on the Land Rover Defender with the Ti7 seven-seat hybrid SUV in the UK later this year.

Ford’s set to launch five “rally-bred” cars in Europe by 2029.

Got a news tip or feedback? Drop us a line at tips@thedrive.com

• The Honda Super-N is an EV city car set to go on sale in Europe this year.
• It will have simulated shifting paired with synthetic engine sounds. 
• Price will be under $26,900 when it goes on sale.

Honda may have given up on its own self-developed EVs for North America, but that doesn’t mean it’s down for the count everywhere else. 

Meet the Honda Super-N. We’ve seen it in preproduction prototype form, and barely camouflaged, running around the Goodwood Festival of Speed, but now it’s been revealed. This car is headed to “select global markets,” starting with the UK. Oh, and it shouldn’t break the bank. Honda says that it’ll start under £20,000, or around $26,900 according to current exchange rates.

Photo by: Honda

Mechanically, the Honda Super-N started life as the Honda N-One kei car. From there, Honda has converted it to electric power, while widening the N-One’s narrow body. The Super-N’s output is only 63 horsepower, but its boost mode increases that to 94 horsepower on demand. Honda hasn’t said much about official 0-60 times or top speed yet.

To make it sharper to drive, the Super-N has simulated shifting and artificial combustion noises. I’ve tried a prototype version of this system in Japan; it’s remarkably convincing and definitely adds charm to the EV experience. It’s not clear if Honda’s greatest-hits style selectable engine sounds will be available here, though.

The Super-N is rated for 128 miles of range (combined) from the WLTP cycle. If the Super-N were to ever come to the U.S., I’d expect that to be closer to 100 miles. Honda hasn’t confirmed the battery size, although older prototype drives do suggest that a 29 kWh battery is under the floor. 

Stylistically, the Super-N is smart-looking, if slightly old. This retro-styled small car has been a strong seller on the Japanese market in gas form since its introduction in 2011. Even though this latest generation was released in 2020, the car still looks fresh, especially with its wide-body kit meant to recall cars like the Honda City Turbo from the 1980s. 

Photo by: Honda

The Honda Super-N is unlikely to come to the U.S. It’s really small, likely to be kind of slow, and would have a very low electric range. Just look at how poorly the Fiat 500e, America’s closest equivalent to the Super-N, is doing.

But U.S. tastes don’t always track across the globe. The Super-N’s price and market position put it right in the sights of other affordable EVs we don’t get here, like the swanky new Renault Twingo and the BYD Dolphin Surf.

On one hand, it’s frustrating to see Honda throw away its EV aspirations in the U.S. On the other hand, there’s a real dearth of affordable EV models, and it looks like the Super-N meets that need with a surprising amount of charm. If you’re in the UK, the Honda Super-N will be on the roads before the end of this year. 

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Source: Honda

Contact the author: kevin.williams@insideevs.com 

Honda’s Formula 1 power unit effort is effectively starting over from scratch with new partner Aston Martin. That’s naturally going to lead to some teething problems as it gets up to speed with the competition, in addition to the new 2026 engine regulations presenting uncharted territory for everyone. Among those problems are nagging vibrations that, according to Honda Racing’s powertrain boss, are shaking the hybrid system’s batteries to death.

Ikuo Takeishi, who runs HRC’s power unit operation, told the media that Aston had to call off a day of testing in Bahrain earlier in the month because of “abnormal vibrations” that damaged the battery system.

“We stopped the car because we felt it shouldn’t continue running in that state,” Takeishi said to Motorsport.com. “It wasn’t that an accident was imminent or anything like that, but we stopped the car because it was dangerous.”

Not imminent—just dangerous. Worse yet, Takeishi said the crew hasn’t yet been able to pinpoint precisely where the vibrations are coming from. It could be the powertrain, or the chassis, or a combination of both. What he is sure of, though, is that the battery is being rocked around in its cage, and the team’s been faced with a hefty fact-finding mission.

“You could think of it as the battery pack being shaken within the vehicle body. Essentially, the area where the battery pack is attached is vibrating,” Takeishi summed up, adding that, “If the cause were pinpointed to something like the transmission or the engine, it would be much easier to tackle. However, I suspect multiple components are interacting to generate the vibration. Given that, it’s unclear whether fixing one part alone will resolve it, so we can’t rule out the possibility of this dragging on.”

The trouble is, the damage has already been done to Aston and Honda’s pre-season testing, as the team was able to amass only about 1,300 miles across all testing sessions—practically a tenth of Mercedes’ total, and well below everybody else’s after ripping through all its spare batteries on the last day in Bahrain. Now it’s a sprint to mitigate the problem as much as possible before the season begins in Australia next weekend. It sounds like Honda’s homecoming race at Suzuka at the end of March, however, poses a more likely timeframe for a solution.

“The recent pre-season tests in Barcelona and Bahrain were, frankly speaking, extremely challenging for us,” HRC president Koji Watanabe said. “We were unable to achieve the performance levels we had anticipated, and a complex set of issues became apparent. However, these tests were also a crucial process in that they allowed us to visualise these challenges.”

Still, Watanabe stressed that Honda is in this for the long haul with Aston Martin, saying that he believes the two sides “are united in our desire to resolve matters as one team.” The early days ahead might be tough—ask anyone who’s stuck around the company since its foray back into F1 a decade ago with McLaren. But if the two parties can push through, they might just discover glory in the end. Honda’s got the recent hardware to prove it, after all.

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