Ford CEO Jim Farley says the company's benchmark factories today are in Mexico and China rather than the US, pointing to stronger process discipline and line-level problem solving, while crediting UAW-staffed US plants with real progress that helped Ford rank first among mass-market brands in J.D. Power's 2026 initial quality study.

Geely has unveiled the Thunder 16-in-1 Intelligent E-Drive, a compact electric drive unit that folds 12 hardware components and 4 control systems into one module. The company says it reaches 93.8% efficiency, among the best figures for a production e-drive, while cutting part count by more than 180 and bringing unit weight down to 75 kg. The unit has already debuted on the Geely Galaxy TT Ultra.

A senior Mercedes-AMG executive told German outlet Manager Magazin the electric AMG GT 4-Door "should never have happened" and was nearly cancelled after the EQS and EQE SUV lineup cost the company roughly 5 billion euros (about $5.4 billion) and AMG's own EV push passed $1 billion, but the car will still launch as the first model on the AMG.EA platform.

Shelby American has revealed the F-150 Super Snake SuperCrew, its most powerful street truck yet, built from a Ford F-150 Lariat with a Whipple supercharger added to the 5.0L V8 for 830 hp. Only 300 will be built, split evenly between rear- and all-wheel drive, with the conversion starting at approximately $105,000 on top of the donor truck. First deliveries begin in 2026, aimed squarely at the supercharged Ram 1500 Rumble Bee SRT.

Toyota is weighing whether to restore physical fan-speed controls on the sixth-generation RAV4 after owner complaints about the touchscreen-only setup, chief engineer Yoshinori Futonagane says, with pushback coming even from Chinese customers Toyota assumed preferred touch controls.