Cars

Volkswagen’s cost-cutting crusade could result in model cancellations at all of the auto giant’s brands, including the all-electric Porsche Taycan, Cayenne Coupe, and 718 successor. Other models to get the ax include the VW Jetta and Taos, and the Audi Q5 Sportback and Q6 E-Tron Sportback. VW’s profits have slumped as it faces billions in tariff costs and stiff competition from China.

The Drive has new pics of Ford’s $30,000 prototype electric truck, giving us our best look at the pint-sized truck’s real door handles and giant interior touchscreen. But maybe the most interesting aspect, as noticed by mobility investor Reilly Brennan, is the new camouflage that features soccer balls, sail boats, hearts, and other emoji-like symbols. No poops, fortunately.

It follows last year’s EXP 15 “design concept,” and follows Bentley tradition by taking its name from the El Torcal de Antequera natural landmark in Andalusia, Spain. Bentley’s CEO Frank-Steffen Walliser says it “may just be the most considered car in our history.” We’ll find out more on September 23rd.

BMW’s Neue Klasse-ified SUV launched this week, including an all-electric iX5 with 800-volt charging that can add 170 miles of range in 10 minutes and go from 10-80 percent in 22 minutes, plus a 17.9-inch in-car display with Alexa, CarPlay and Android Auto.

You might remember I took a break from Decoder last year — we had a baby, so I took some leave. In my place, we had an excellent slate of guest hosts, and we’ve been working hard to bring you those episodes in full video since we launched our official Decoder YouTube channel.

The fire occurred in Martin County late last week after “a brake pad from the trailer hauling the six Teslas ignited and quickly spread to the vehicles,” according to local news outlet WPTV. Both lanes of Florida’s Turnpike and part of I-95 were shut down as toxic fumes and smoke clouded the area.

When the Google Meet UI for Apple CarPlay launched in April, Google said Android Auto would follow soon, and now it’s here, with the rollout set to finish by June 26th. If you want to take a work call while in the car, you can see your schedule, dial colleagues, or join calls (audio only, both ways) without picking up your phone.

The recall comes just weeks after Waymo vehicles drove past ramp closure signs in Arizona and entered closed lanes in San Francisco, according to a filing with the NHTSA. The company paused freeway service last month due to the issue, which it’s fixing with a software update.

The Autopian spotted the highly anticipated EV in Long Beach this week. Although it was heavily camouflaged, the outlet was able to estimate its measurements to be around 64-inches tall and about 195-inches long, which would make it a little smaller than a Ford Maverick. That’s extremely interesting to me as a person who thinks most trucks today are way too big for their britches. Sure, it’s no kei truck, but for Ford, it’s practically microscopic. Bring on the baby trucks!

Now that Audi has an F1 team, it apparently feels ready to put the supercar label on something for the first time. A press release says it will release 499 Nuvolaris starting in the first half of 2027.

Whatever you think of the new Ferrari Luce EV, designed with help from Jony Ive, it doesn’t look much like a Ferrari. A few individual parts do, but it all adds up to something a little different.

During a recent episode of Ryan McCaffrey’s Ride the Lightning podcast, Tesla’s chief designer, Franz von Holzhausen, confirmed its second-gen Roadster (first announced in 2017) will be built in Texas. The company’s vice president of engineering, Lars Moravy, also confirmed that alpha prototypes of the vehicle are currently in testing.

I’ll let Jalopnik’s Daniel Golson set the scene for you:

Audi says that its Matrix LED headlights reduce glare for oncoming drivers by using the vehicle’s front-facing cameras to continuously shape the light pattern in real time. Audi first released the headlights in Europe in 2013, but regulatory hurdles delayed their adoption in the US. A rule change in 2022 eased those hurdles, allowing Audi to launch the new Matrix LED headlights in its Q9 and SQ9 SUVs later this year.

First teased in 2023, this ID. Polo GTI is the first EV in the GTI brand’s 50-year history, launching in Germany this fall for “just under” €39,000, and probably never in the US. It features a 52kWh battery with a max range of 424 km (263 miles). Volkswagen says the electric GTI can accelerate up to 100km/hr in 6.8 seconds.

According to documents filed with NHTSA, defective software was triggering a system reset that would result in temporarily blank screens. (If you’ve seen Mercedes’ massive screens, you’ll know that’s a lot of blank real estate.) Drivers could lose access to their driving information, which could cause a crash. The recall affects 144,000 vehicles built between 2024-2026, including the AMG GT, C-class, E-class, SL-class, CLE-class, and GLC-class.

Eight months after the iOS app launched, Tesla has released an Android version of its Robotaxi app. The service expanded to Houston and Dallas last week, but still seems to only have a small number of vehicles actually on the road.

We already reported that Geely, which also owns Volvo and Polestar, is the Chinese automaker best positioned to sell its vehicles in the US. Now the company is reportedly in talks with Ford about that exact possibility — though it seems that negotiations have already stalled. Ford is considering licensing Geely’s tech for its own cars, but there are heavy restrictions on Chinese software in US vehicles.