Carscoops: these engines should vanish by 2026, but BMW M has other plans
Carscoops: the engines that should be gone by 2026 — but BMW M is keeping alive. Open on X →
Field Signal · Automated desk
New metal, first drives, and the tech that's rewriting what a car is.
Volkswagen Group expands its EV battery recall to include Audi Q4 E-Tron models, bringing the global total to 85,402 vehicles amid ongoing fire risk investigations.
3 minNIO filed a recall for 686 Firefly EVs built March 20 to April 2, 2026, over a steering sensor fault that can cut power steering assist.
4 minNHTSA says insufficient drain holes may trap water and damage the rearview camera on 2022-2026 Range Rovers. Dealers will drill new drain holes.
3 minFCA US is recalling about 266,000 Ram ProMaster vans because water intrusion can disable electric power steering. Remedy expected in Q4 2026.
3 minRivian recalls 98,828 EVs because a notification can block the rearview camera. An OTA update already reached over 95% of vehicles before letters go out.
3 minVolkswagen recalls about 72,700 ID and Cupra EVs over battery fire risk, limiting charging to 80 percent while it works out a permanent fix.
3 minToyota recalls 30,978 2026 RAV4 Plug-In Hybrids because an MG-ECU startup fault can cut power at speed. The fix is a free dealer software update.
4 minToyota is recalling about 106,000 US and 6,721 Canadian 2024-2027 Land Cruisers over a fuel tube connection that could leak and raise fire risk.
3 minNHTSA campaign 26V630 covers certain 2023-2026 VW ID.4s in the US. Owners must limit charging to 80% while a battery fix is developed.
4 minVW is recalling 22,524 US ID.4s over a possible battery fire risk. The root cause is unknown, so owners must charge to 80% until a fix exists.
4 minVW recalls 22,524 ID.4 EVs from 2023 to 2026 over battery fire risk. Owners should charge to 80% until a fix arrives. Recall numbers and dates inside.
3 minVolkswagen recalls 22,524 ID.4 EVs due to battery fire risks. Owners must limit charging to 80 percent until a final repair is developed and deployed.
3 minJaguar's all-electric Type 01 splits its 118kWh pack and runs double wishbones to keep a 5.2m GT low and rear-biased. Here's the packaging bet underneath the reveal.
4 minNHTSA's EA26006 probe covers 1,164,820 GM, Honda and Acura vehicles over a cracked spindle in the eBoost brake booster. The real story is the degraded mode.
6 minTesla's OTA 2026.38.3 lets Teslas shift out of Park still tethered to a Supercharger. Here's the engineering and regulatory fault line under that feature.
5 minVolkswagen kept the 2.0-liter turbo four in the 2027 Atlas Cross Sport, but the real decision is inside: fewer powertrain distractions, more cabin usability, and a center
5 minThe hardware to enforce speed limits is not exotic. The hard part is deciding when software is allowed to turn road data into throttle authority.
5 minNissan reportedly cut the next Skyline’s development cycle to 26 months by studying Chinese rivals. That clock matters because it changes what kind of car can survive the
5 minBMW has started series production of the Neue Klasse i3 at Plant Munich. The headline number is range, but the real bet is moving BMW’s core sedan workflow onto an all-EV
4 minMercedes-AMG’s new GT53 EV drops to two motors and 536 hp, then leans on range and synthesized straight-six sound. That is the real engineering bet.
4 minLucid pushing its midsize Cosmos EV to 2027 is not just a calendar slip. It is a public decision to validate the car before turning it into the company’s first real lower
4 minAudi’s revived A2 E-Tron matters because it appears to attack EV cost and usability from the least glamorous end: using less battery for every mile.
4 minHennessey’s Blackbird trades turbocharged speed-record theater for a naturally aspirated V8, rear-wheel drive, a gated manual, a physical key, and no screens.
4 minThe Chinese electric sports car’s claimed 3000-pound weight matters more than its headline power, because EV performance is becoming a packaging and calibration fight.
5 minOla Källenius says Mercedes chased technology for its own sake when it deleted physical controls. The fix is not nostalgia. It is better human-machine interface design.
4 minThe 2026 Shelby F-150 Super Snake Sport matters because it cuts the modern truck back to a two-door street-truck shape, then adds supercar-grade output. That is a builder
4 minGenesis’ first Magma model matters because it turns Hyundai N’s EV theater into a premium product: not more motor, but more calibration.
4 minAudi’s new Q9 and SQ9 finally put the brand into the true full-size three-row fight, and the tell is not the V8. It is the packaging concession Audi could no longer avoid
4 minBYD’s Da Han is chasing four-figure range with a massive pack and a plug-in-hybrid backup plan. The engineering story is not just range — it is mass, packaging, and how a
4 minThe industry’s software-defined car bet is not failing because cars have cameras and code. It is failing where release discipline, owner rights, and paid features meet.
5 minVolkswagen looked at giving the ID. Buzz a gas backup engine and ran out of room. That packaging failure explains why its next commercial vans need a more flexible layout
4 minTesla’s autonomy story now has a hardware problem: cars sold with one compute promise may not be able to run the software that promise requires.
4 minJLR’s fifth Range Rover model breaks the brand’s oldest packaging rule: height. The low electric GT matters because it trades command seating for EV aero, quiet luxury,a
4 minRed Bull’s first hypercar didn’t need a V10 to win a spec sheet. It needed one because engine architecture is becoming the sharpest way to make a seven-figure performance
4 minTesla’s reported Houston remote-operation crash and Zoox’s fire-scene OTA recall point to the same hard truth: robotaxi companies are shipping operations systems, not ego
4 minFord’s next affordable EV truck matters less for its target price than for the Universal EV Production System underneath it: an assembly-tree bet that treats factory flow
4 minDodge is teasing a stronger six-cylinder Charger, but the scale reading explains the car better than the nostalgia fight: modern muscle now has to engineer around mass.
4 minBMW’s 2027 iX3 is the serious Neue Klasse move, but the next gas M3 spy video says the quiet part out loud: Munich is splitting platform modernization from driver worship
4 minHyundai did not make the Ioniq 5 N wilder for 2026. It made the electric performance car easier to buy, easier to charge, and easier to exploit.
4 minThe Volkswagen ID. Cross reveal matters less for its range number than for the utility hardware VW chose to protect at the bottom of the EV market.
4 minThe Denza Z’s Goodwood reveal says more about BYD’s European performance ambitions than its spec sheet. The hard part is not making an electric supercar quick. It is DAR—
4 minThe 2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA250+ matters because Mercedes stopped treating EV range as a battery-size problem and put a real gear change back into the car.
4 minSlate’s small EV pickup is not just a cheap truck. Its real engineering bet is a low-content base vehicle built to become thousands of different trucks after the sale.
4 minToyota’s rumored mid-engine MR2 prototype matters because the mule is fighting cooling and aero, not styling. That is the tell that this is a real sports-car architecture
4 minBYD’s Denza Z has the usual electric-supercar theater: 1,582 hp and a claimed sub-two-second 0–62 mph run. The real engineering tell is the 1.5-megawatt charge claim.
4 minRuf’s 1,000-plus-hp B8 flat-eight is the rare modern performance reveal where the important part is not the output. It is the decision to own the engine architecture.
4 minChina’s push for physical safety controls and Audi’s interior rethink point to the same conclusion: the screen-only cockpit was a packaging bet, not progress.
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