LG Energy Solution has started production at its $2 billion battery plant in Lansing, Michigan, and Toyota is the named automotive customer. The site builds the NMC cells for the 2027 Highlander EV, which Toyota assembles in Kentucky. General Motors part-built the plant, then sold its stake.

Audi has posted the first hard numbers for its entry-level electric compact: four power levels from 125 kW to 240 kW, up to 649 km WLTP and a German list price from €38,200 (about $41,600). Production starts in Ingolstadt this autumn.

Ford is rolling out its AI Assistant to up to 8 million eligible Ford and Lincoln vehicles through the brands' phone apps. It answers questions about the specific car using live telemetry, reads photos, and moves into the dashboard from 2027. Google Gemini arrives separately as a voice assistant option.

The Volkswagens sold in China are built by two companies, and one of them is Chinese. That arrangement started in 1983 as a condition of entry, and it has since produced badges that exist nowhere else: Jetta, Wuling, and AUDI in block capitals with no rings. Who holds which half, which brands the ventures invented for themselves, and which of the old partnerships have quietly ended.

Aion is GAC, Jaecoo and Omoda are Chery, Deepal is Changan, Nammi is Dongfeng. Ten Chinese brands whose names do not carry the parent company, grouped by how each one relates to its owner: brands sold only outside China, recent badges on long-established state groups, brands two levels below the group, and one that Huawei supplies but does not own.

Twelve European badges whose nationality does not match their ownership: Cupra, Vauxhall, DS, Opel, Lancia, Alpine, Abarth, MG, Ebro, DR Automobiles, smart and Leapmotor. Some are Spanish or British names owned in Germany or the Netherlands, some are revived badges on Chinese hardware, and several are assembled in a third country again.

Kelley Blue Book puts US electric vehicle sales at roughly 463,000 in the first half of 2026, half of them Teslas. The Model Y alone accounted for 163,454 of them, more than ranks two through nine put together, while Toyota and Lexus were the only names in the top 10 to post triple-digit or near triple-digit growth.

New-energy vehicles took a record 64.4% of China's retail car sales in July 2026, even as NEV retail itself fell 2% year on year - the seventh straight monthly decline. The record came from combustion collapsing faster than EVs are growing.

Skoda registered 457,663 cars across the EU27+4 in H1 2026, up 10.8% year on year, holding second place among all brands for a second straight quarter and pulling 14,966 cars clear of Toyota. Skoda's own EV deliveries rose a record 48%.