Public infrastructure for charging an EV in America is a mess. Executives have all been vocal and up front about it. So much so that seven of the world’s largest automakers formed a joint venture called Ionna to tackle the issue and stand up a nationwide charging network. Toyota joined the party a year later to bring the count to eight. But this isn’t just about selling EVs, it’s an entirely new form of business diversification.
During an interview on The Drivecast Ionna CEO Seth Cutler said, “This is a for-profit business.” That business is EV charging.
Listen to the entire conversation starting at the moment Cutler discuses Ionna needing to turn a profit below.
“We know the company has to get to financial independence and profitability over time,” Cutler said. Currently Ionna exists off an undisclosed amount of money invested into the joint venture by BMW, Mercedes, GM, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, and Stellantis along with Toyota joining a year later.
At some point the faucet will be turned off, and Cutler, who has spent most of his career in the EV charging and energy vertical, knows it.
Cutler said, “Infrastructure has to be for-profit or it’ll never survive, and if it never survives, EVs will never survive.”
The approach to profitability and scale has been multi-pronged including various partnerships with Circle K, Wawa, Sheetz, and Casey’s.
Beyond partnerships, Cutler said, “Very early on, we said let’s make some bets and plant some seeds for future trees. We’ve bought land at several dozen sites; we’ve built our own amenities where you’ve got buildings that we operate with vending machines, bathrooms, and other technology inside, like Amazon Just Walk Out; we’ve taken a piece of land, have a ground lease, and can come back later to add to it, add a building, or find a co-tenant. These things are all sitting there underground as seeds, but we’ve not focused time on that because it’s easy for an organization to get distracted and not have everybody working on driver quality and charging quality at scale. But we know that in 2027, 2028, or beyond, we’ll start to invest resources in terms of other ways to monetize or provide value to drivers with these things that we’ve developed that are different in the marketplace. But it is definitively not a focus right now.”
Ionna isn’t alone in trying to build out a nationwide network of EV fast chargers to rival Tesla’s Supercharger network. Rivian Founder and CEO RJ Scaringe is making similar bets, though his focus is a bit more spread out than Cutler’s. Despite launching the R2 and being keenly aware everyone has ants in their pants for the R3X, a large focus is being put on building the Rivian Adventure Network (RAN). As of the summer the Rivian Adventure Network was a hair smaller than Ionna’s network today, and about 4% of Tesla’s Supercharger network.
For now, Cutler was up front about the path forward, “My goal is to triple the size of the network this year from where we started at 80 at the beginning of the year. That scale isn’t baked into a lot of what people are seeing because we’re moving so fast right now,” he said.
What happens when you mix sky-high fuel prices with a rollback of EV incentives? A boom in hybrid sales, as it turns out. A year after Congress officially ended America’s electric vehicle subsidies, we’ve seen an unsurprising decline in EV sales. But as the stagnant and unfavorable geopolitical climate continues to put pressure on global fuel prices, Many (though clearly not all) buyers are turning to hybrids for their new-car purchases, and companies like Toyota are reaping the benefits. But with hybrid sales exploding, why the heck is no one buying the Prius?
Let me give you some context. At this point last year, automakers with deep EV portfolios were doing everything they could to blow out their inventory while they could still send customers home with some cash in their pockets. Toyota would have been pushing its U.S.-built plug-in hybrid models hard, while the Prius languished despite a strong start to 2025. Toyota sold only 2,011 of them last September. This year, without that same EV pressure, that number fell again—to just 1,897.
Toyota moved more than 25,000 Camry Hybrids and more than 28,000 RAV4 Hybrids in the same period. In fact, the only hybrids in the Toyota lineup that sold worse than the Prius last month were the Corolla Cross (1,821), Tacoma (1,705), the Highlander (1,088), and the Crown (406). Toyota sold more BZ EVs in September than regular Prius hybrids; you have to throw in the plug-in variant just to sneak past the EV. Consequently, in a year when hybrids are taking market share left and right, the industry’s best-known model is headed in the opposite direction. Year to date, Prius sales are down 51%, to just 16,731.
Are Toyota buyers spoiled for choice, or is America just over the Prius?
Plenty of support backs the former argument. Toyota sells multiple hybrids in its own showroom that compete with the Prius, including the Corolla and Corolla Cross; even the Camry and RAV4 overlap in price. Like the Prius, the hybrid Corollas move in modest numbers, especially compared with their gas-powered sibling. Toyota has sold nearly 200,000 ICE Corollas so far in 2025, to just over 34,000 hybrids. Not even close.
But even if there’s a case for cannibalization, there’s still one more factor to consider: the Prius is actually kind of cool now. I’d certainly rather drive this than any Corolla short of a GR. Clearly, many Toyota buyers feel differently. Bummer.
Ten years (and about a half-dozen daily drivers) ago, I purchased a brand-new Ford Fiesta ST. Back then, when you bought one of Ford’s fun cars, the company threw in a complimentary day of driver “education” at what we colloquially call Utah Motorsports Park. If you bought a either the Focus or Fiesta ST, that program took the form of ST Octane Academy.
The Academy was a day-long school that mixed time on track with classroom sessions and a massive autocross/gymkhana course. It was in that sea of cones that we were expected to apply all of the knowledge we’d gained throughout the day for a best-of-three timed runoff—with trophies and all. As one of the few in the room with any prior autocross experience, I was salivating at the prospect of climbing to the top of our small classroom podium. You can’t win a track day, after all, but you certainly can win an autocross.
There was a catch, however: this wasn’t a traditional autocross, and these weren’t entirely stock cars. While both of Ford’s hot hatches came with an old-fashioned hand brake, these had custom-fabricated “drift” brakes instead. Functionally, they’re not really all that different. They both engage the rear brakes with the yank of a handle; the major difference is that a drift brake lacks the latching detents you find in a regular hand brake. When you let go, it simply springs back to the “off” position.
That renders it useless for holding your car stationary on a hill while you visit a restaurant, but it’s super helpful if you’re trying to break a car’s rear end loose on command. And that’s precisely what our instructors (and, at this point, scorers) wanted us to do just a few seconds into the course, where they’d placed a 180-degree turn so tight that we simply had no choice but to attempt a j-turn.
If you’ve ever autocrossed with people who take it seriously (which is most of them), you already know that getting sideways is often frowned upon. Sure, some cars drive loose, but a good course is designed so that it can be negotiated without resorting to the sort of trickery expected of us here.
Ford
Since I considered myself one of those autocrossers who took it seriously back then, I felt a bit personally offended that such showboaty tomfoolery was going to count against my time. In my mind, “sideways” was synonymous with “slow,” and this “drift brake” was nothing but an equalizer designed to keep people like me from dominating the newbies.
Suffice it to say that I’ve mellowed quite a bit over the past decade. My inner old man may still be yelling at clouds over the fact that the EcoBoost Mustang lost its stick-shift with the S650 redesign, but I don’t view the RTR’s drift brake with the same ire I might have ten years ago. In fact, I consider myself a full-blown convert; that turbocharged RTR Mustang is actually a fun little package.
As it turns out, I actually just miss the entire notion of a hand brake. It’s one of those things whose utility is made more obvious by its absence, and where a dual-clutch gearbox can do a respectable impression of a manual in some cases, a button-activated parking brake, while perfectly adequate for use as an actual parking brake, is even more useless than a pedal-activated parking brake when it comes to traction management.
Even in the dwindling population of cars still available with a manual transmission, the old-fashioned, pull-handle parking brake is virtually extinct. Almost every one of them has been replaced by an electronic button or switch. In a way it’s strange and funny that Ford and RTR had to come together to engineer a hand brake back into the Mustang; it hasn’t even been gone long enough for anybody to really miss it.
But miss it, I do. Like the manual gearbox, it’s yet another tool we no longer have access to. It was just another sacrifice in the name of saving space—and saving somebody else money. And so I’m glad Ford and RTR took the time (and resources) to keep some part of that functionality alive. It’s nice to see that somebody still thinks “It’s just fun” is a good enough reason to do something.
Oh, and that autocross? I finished third. Yep, still bitter, just less.
Unique colors, paint jobs, and even wraps are cool. After all, it’s the unique individuals who spring up for these that keep our roads looking less bland than they already are. But how much are you willing to pay for that visual pizazz? What about 20% of the vehicle’s purchase price?
A Ford F-150 Lariat SuperCrew starts around $60,000, so checking the box for the new $12,545 two-tone paint job offered on 2027 models means you’ll spend roughly 20% of your truck’s cost on a single option. Of course, that percentage will vary depending on which trim and options you ultimately buy, but regardless, that just seems silly and, not to mention, a poor financial decision. I can’t imagine anyone will salvage any resale value from it down the road.
Ford
Speaking of poor financial decisions, you can dig yourself into an even bigger hole by opting to roll the price of that paint job into the lease or finance monthly payment. Yes, you can actually do that. Depending on your personal history and financing terms, that could mean anywhere from $200 to $320 per month on top of the car’s monthly payment. Or, y’know, you can just pay it out of pocket.
For the record, I’m a big supporter of people doing whatever they want with their money as long as it makes them happy. If you want to pay almost $13,000 (or more) for a paint job, wheels, or engine mods, by all means, do it. What I’m emphasizing here is the ridiculously high cost of that standalone option and, to a certain extent, the fact that an automaker and its credit division are salivating at the revenue they can make off this thing, fully knowing it’ll put consumers in a tough place down the road.
Today Amazon started running some great discounts on tools (hand and power), full mechanic sets, and specialty tools along with special sale pricing on car accessories like OBD scanners and dashcams ahead of Prime Big Deal Days (aka Amazon Big Deal Days). Most of the flagship mass-appeal sales will be happening on October 6, but the car-stuff category niche has live discounts now.
I’ve been covering consumer products here at The Drive for over a year now, and I’ve figured out it takes a lot more than just endlessly scrolling through Amazon hoping to hit something good to find the real deals. Here’s what we were able to dig up by aggressively trawling sale aggregator sites, Amazon’s own product lists, studying pricing history, and of course, deploying AI agents to help us parse and comparison-shop at 100 mph.
Full disclosure, pricing may change from the time we found it to when you click the link.
Top 5 Early October Prime Day Deals for Car People
DJI Mini 2 Fly More Combo: $499 (17% off) … word to the wise, though—I think this price will drop even more during the October 6–7 Prime Day event. I don’t know that for a fact, but that’s what the consumerist crystal ball’s telling me.
Good morning, and welcome to The Downshift, which is a lap of today’s top stories from around the auto industry and car culture, curated by The Drive‘s editorial team. Each story gets summarized into a sentence or two accompanied by a link to the source for those seeking more information. Senior Editor Adam Ismail is still out on assignment and I’ll be your driver today.
Here’s what firing on Thursday, October 1, 2026 as fall gets underway:
Stellantis opened orders for the 2027 Ram Rumble Bee with the 5.7-liter Hemi V8 and all 2026 models were spoken for in 90 minutes while production through March 2027 was sold within 24 hours. “The speed at which the Rumble Bee sold out speaks volumes about the passion our customers have for performance trucks,” said Matt VanDyke, CEO of Ram. Notably, Ram hasn’t released production volumes and it’s unclear how many Rumble Bees are being made instead of Big Horns or Long Horns, though the margins on a Rumble Bee are likely far greater than those of a Big Horn. Kind of makes you wonder what the heck Ford and Chevy are doing leaving the entire segment to Ram. [Stellantis]
Speaking of muscle cars, we drove the 2026 Ford Mustang RTR and the old-school handbrake is the star of the show. Don’t sneer at its turbo-four powertrain because this Mustang is far more fun than you think. [The Drive]
As BMW trims its lineup to save costs the automaker’s considering a new SUV that would be larger, and presumably more expensive, than the X7 as a range topper to take on the upcoming Audi Q9. [Motor1]
General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis expect to lose marketshare to the Asian competition as third-quarter sales results filter out, according to analysts, thanks to the Iran war, fuel prices, and buyers seeking fuel-efficient models. [Reuters]
Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa said the automaker’s tackling its quality woes and has established nearly 50 war rooms staffed by engineers focused on quality. “We are fixing them very, very, very quickly. We have a target to get, in 2028, first quartile in quality with all the segments and markets where we compete, and we will get there,” Filosa said. [Automotive News]
The 2027 Honda Passport is now arriving at dealers and costs $42,790 including a $1,595 destination charge. [Motor1]
Longtime BMW tuner AC Schnitzer was set to close after 39 years, but a Dutch company, AM Group, has stepped in and saved the legendary German tuner. [BMWblog]
The Aston Martin DBX GT debuted with a focus on long-distance luxury as a grand tourer. The plusher version of the automaker’s SUV features a twin-turbo V8 under its hood and is said to be “aimed at customers who prefer assured elegance over sporting aggression and demand a higher degree of luxury.” [Autocar]
A Porsche 944 has been transformed into a shooting brake and dubbed the GT-K44. Each one will cost over $132,000 at current exchange rates. [Top Gear]
Got a tip or feedback for The Downshift? Reach out to tips@thedrive.com
Perhaps Ford has some spare time, money, and personnel despite its Formula 1 involvement, because it has now decided to launch a full factory racing effort in the World Rally Championship starting in 2028. High five, Ford.
Ford has been involved in WRC in one way, shape, or form for decades, and it has the cars and hardware to show for it. From the famous Michelin-liveried Escort, the Sierra, and of course, the Colin McRae and Carlos Sainz Focuses, only Subaru and Audi evoke more dirt-loving memories.
The Blue Oval is once again looking to its long-time partner, M-Sport, to launch its factory effort, which will technically begin in 2028 but will really peak in 2029 when its all-new Ford race car hits the road.
“As we celebrate 125 years of Ford Racing, our 50-year legacy in the WRC stands out as one of our proudest because of its direct connection to the fun and exciting cars that came from that,” said Mark Rushbrook, Global Director of Ford Racing. “We can’t wait to compete again in rally racing in 2028 and beyond.”
Ford
It’s too soon to know who will be driving for Ford come 2028 or 2029, let alone what its car will look like, but Ford promises that its WRC racer will “help shape Ford’s new European portfolio of rally-bred passenger vehicles to help turn everyday commutes into drives worth looking forward to.”
Ford is currently involved in a myriad of racing disciplines, from F1 as Red Bull’s engine partner to NASCAR, the Dakar Rally, GT3 with the Mustang, and will take on Le Mans in the Hypercar class in 2027.
Oh, and remember when a Ford engineer had an F1 turbocharger confiscated at the Detroit airport? Here’s that scoop.
The 2026 Ford Mustang RTR is a lot of things. It’s turbocharged, loaded with performance-package goodies, and tuned to let you have as much fun as possible before its electronic babysitters kick in. But despite its badge and all that implies, the Mustang RTR is not actually a drift car. But it could be.
First, let’s go over the recipe Ford cooked up. At a brief glance at the spec sheet, you might mistake the RTR for just a visual punch-up package, but don’t let the 315-horsepower output fool you. There’s actually quite a bit going on here. Compared to a stock EcoBoost, the RTR ships with a Torsen limited-slip differential (3.55:1), Brembo brakes, an active exhaust, a unique spoiler, a custom suspension, and wider wheels. It even has a unique calibration for the optional MagneRide suspension and, to top it all off, nearly 20% more maximum steering angle.
This all comes at a price—well, two prices, really. There’s a literal increase of $6,520; there’s also the metaphorical weight penalty of about 200 pounds over a base EcoBoost. Part of that comes from the added mass of the Dark Horse’s rear subframe, which the RTR uses; it also lifts the front and rear sway bars and adjustable strut top mounts from the Dark Horse’s Handling Pack. All in, that makes the RTR nearly as hefty as a zero-option Mustang GT, which comes with the 5.0-liter Coyote V8.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a fun Mustang built around something other than a V8. We’ve seen turbocharged SVOs, the V6-powered “Mayhem,” and most recently, the EcoBoost High Performance Package. Each time, the formula has been pretty much the same: Offer the performance advantages of a high-spec GT without having to spring for the eight-cylinder upgrade. Not only do you spend less up front, but if you plan to take it to the track, your consumable prices (fuel, tires, etc.) will be lower too. Win-win.
Gittin It
Vaughn Gittin Jr. and his merry band of miscreants didn’t build “RTR” just to go a little faster around a race track. It doesn’t stand for “Ready to Race,” after all; it stands for “Ready to Rock.” That doesn’t mean you couldn’t build the RTR into a race car; that’s entirely within its brief. But really, the RTR is the latest in an intermittent line of cars built for a singular, but catch-all purpose: hooning.
Remember the Focus RS, with its over-the-top all-wheel-drive system and “drift mode” toggle? This is like that, only it’s a rear-wheel-drive pony car, not a ‘roided-out hot hatchback. The Mustang is longer and far more graceful in rotation than the Focus ever was, making it a more natural platform for something that wants to go sideways.
From the description, the RTR sounds like it might be a bit of a handful, but on the road, that couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, if you set off in the RTR without activating Sport mode, the only tell you’re driving anything other than a base EcoBoost Mustang is the abundance of “Hyper Lime” accents.
It helps, of course, that all the test vehicles had Ford’s MagneRide adaptive dampers (a $1,750 standalone option), but even with the firmness Sport mode adds, the RTR’s ride isn’t punishing. If anything, that’s the Mustang chassis’s sweet spot. The one thing that does get a bit rougher as you dial up the aggression is the exhaust note. It doesn’t sound bad; it just doesn’t really sound like much of anything.
A Different Approach
The RTR may weigh about as much as a Mustang GT, but it wears its surplus weight more gracefully than its V8-powered sibling. The Coyote’s extra mass sits up front, where you least want it. That big engine wants to lead you around; the smaller EcoBoost isn’t quite so insistent. Combined with the RTR’s bonus steering angle, this little thing really enjoys rotating—which, again, sounds a bit sketchy in a car like this, but that’s where the last unique element comes in: the drive mode calibration.
These days, most even remotely sporty or youthful cars have a drive mode that eases off stability and traction control, letting the driver get closer to the limit of grip when the car starts to rotate. Proper performance cars, like the Mustang, tend to have more than one. Here, for example, you’ve got both Sport and Track modes. Typically, Track mode (or its equivalent) is rather lenient, but the stability control will still attempt to intervene before you can get the car completely crossed up.
And at some point during the RTR’s development, somebody dared to ask the obvious question: “Does it have to intervene?” After all, Track mode gives most drivers enough rope to hang themselves already, so what harm would it do to teach the car’s calibration to allow more rear-end tomfoolery? Apparently, nobody came up with a good enough reason not to, and the RTR’s software advantage was born. Couple that with a physical “drift brake,” and you’ve got the makings of a fun, funky little car.
Like, Sideways
If the RTR is trying to defy the “drift car” label, its hand brake certainly isn’t helping. If you’ve looked around lately, you’ve probably noticed that legit handbrakes have gone extinct. Even in most cars with a six-speed stick, you get an electronically actuated parking brake. This, meanwhile, is a manual handbrake that doesn’t function as a parking brake; its sole job is to temporarily break rear traction.
Stupid, right? It is, in the best possible way.
From a purely enthusiast standpoint, there’s no downside. The RTR steers quicker and harder, rotates more before the computers intervene, and looks pretty good doing it. What’s not to like (ahem, besides the mandatory 10-speed automatic)? To prove the point, RTR set us up with some track time on Thunderhill’s West circuit to see exactly what their playful little pony could do.
I don’t think I’m that old, but I’m old enough to have shopped for brand-new Mustangs back when a 315-horsepower, 4.6-liter V8 was the top dog; this 2.3-liter 4-pot even has more torque, but it also has more work to do. Down on cylinders, though, this little Mustang may weigh nearly 300 pounds more than that old Mod-motor GT.
By modern standards, I would hesitate to call the RTR Mustang “fast,” but it gets out of its own way well enough. Pushing all that tire out to the corners gives the RTR an aggressive look, to be sure, but it also increases the feedback you feel in the front end. On a modern performance car with electric power steering, every bit of communication counts. Fortunately, part of that hefty curb weight comes from the RTR’s big brakes. Six-piston Brembos grab the 15.4-inch front calipers; four-piston fixed calipers clamp down on 14-inch discs out back. They work splendidly.
Nimble and Predictable
The RTR’s tendency to rotate works both for and against it when it comes to fast lap times. Turn-in is crisp and rewarding, but the RTR tends to get squirmy under hard downhill braking, and despite its nimble character, it’s still a lot of car. Get off the brakes before you have it collected, and that rear end will take you for a ride. Fortunately, this is the sort of car that likes to be driven a bit loose. Still, open lapping isn’t the best place to get sideways. Fortunately, RTR scored us some time on a skidpad to do just that.
I say RTR, but in this case, I really mean Gittin himself. While the RTR Mustang may be his baby, this side of the house is obviously where he feels most at home. And because he wanted me to get the most out of my time in the RTR, he structured my skidpad session as a miniature clinic on getting sideways.
Until you’re in Track mode with the proper toggle enabled, the RTR’s drift brake lies dormant. Once it’s enabled, you can modulate it like a real handbrake, only it springs back to the rest position immediately after you release it. There’s no way to latch it in place. It responds like an analog brake, so you need to use it decisively if you want to break traction.
Zero to Hero
If you’ve ever done handbrake turns in an empty parking lot, you’ll feel right at home with the RTR’s drift brake. The action is natural and predictable. Like a real handbrake, you can use it in concert with the throttle, and, like a real handbrake, you can completely overpower it if you’re using too much right foot.
The skidpad was divided into two stages. The first half was designed to get me comfortable with the basics (J-turns and pirouettes), and the second half was structured to help me learn transitions—the trickiest thing for beginner drifters. Getting loose in one direction is easy. Weaving from one to the other like you know what you’re doing? That’s a lot tougher.
After 30 minutes and about a million hoots, hollers, and grins, I would have been perfectly content to stay right there and keep working on transitions. It’s hard to describe the sensation of using a handbrake in 2026, except to say it simply feels right.
The Early Verdict
Ultimately, that’s how I feel about the RTR itself. It’s not a drift car, and it’s not a track car, but it can be either. And that feels right. This car gives enthusiasts a jumping-off point from which to build pretty much anything. A drift car? Certainly. A track or autocross car? Why not? The bigger wheels and tires don’t make it too well-suited to drag racing, I suppose, but even that is fixable.
The field of fun, sub-$45,000 cars is awfully barren these days. The 2026 Ford Mustang RTR slides in just under that threshold, and offers a lot of fun for the dollar in a segment that lacks high-output, rear-wheel-drive entries. Apart from the Nissan Z and the now-departed Toyota Supra, this price range is largely the domain of high-output hatchbacks and low-output sports cars. As compromises go, the RTR doesn’t seem so bad in this company.
Ford provided The Drive with travel, accommodations, access to Sonoma Raceway, and the use of a vehicle for the purpose of writing this review.
Do you own a fun car with a dual-clutch automatic transmission and sometimes wish you would have gotten a stick? These days, it may not even be your fault. Plenty of fun cars are sold exclusively with paddle-shifted automatics, and they’re probably faster (and safer) in the hands of mortal drivers as a result. But driving enjoyment doesn’t always come from being quick, and the art of operating a manual is something many enthusiasts still embrace.
Enter the Quickshift, from Limitless Engineering—a new effort from Ferris Rezvani (yep, that Rezvani). This fancy little piece of machinery puts a gated manual shifter in the palm of your hand. It’s designed to interface with your car’s existing transmission control system, allowing you to crack off manual, rev-matched shifts as if your car had a full three-pedal setup. And the best part? Limitless says it installs in hours and requires no permanent modifications to your car.
And when I say “your” car, in this case, I mean it fairly literally. Limitless showed off a demonstrator of the kit in a Ferrari 458, but Rezvani himself says the system can be adapted to work in any car.
“Modern cars have amazing technology, but along the way they’ve lost the emotion,” Rezvani said.
“Quickshift is not meant to be an old fashioned manual but the modern version of a manual; giving drivers the tactile gated feel to row your own gears without a clutch pedal to slow you down,” Rezvani said.
“The way you interact with the car matters,”Rezvani continued. “Reaching for a gated shifter, feeling it move into position, hearing the engine respond; that creates an emotional connection. Quickshift is about giving drivers more of those moments.”
Made with Google AIMade with Google AIMade with Google AI
So, what’s the catch? Well, for starters, Rezvani isn’t exactly known for budget-friendly projects. In fact, the company’s web site boasts about its bespoke commission program. Sure, Limitless can probably build you one of these for the ratty, 20-year-old GTI you occasionally see on Facebook Marketplace, but it would probably cost you more than the purchase of the car itself—perhaps several times over. In that same vein, the cost to integrate this kit cleanly into your car’s interior is likely to vary wildly depending on what you’re driving. This is very likely an “if you have to ask…” type situation.
And after all that, you still don’t get a clutch pedal out of the deal.
Modern vehicles, like every other technology device we own, from smartphones to fridges and even dog collars, are connected to the internet 24/7. They learn from us, know things about us, and most of the time use that information to make our lives easier. Cars, specifically, collect vital driving and behavior data that is borderline impossible to opt out of if you want to use your vehicle’s modern convenience features. And a new study recently found that your sensitive information (some of which isn’t even car-related) is being shared with far more parties than you realize.
The only way you’ll be surprised by what you’re about to read is if you’ve been in a coma for the last decade or two. But even for those of us who are mildly aware of how the technology we rely on every day interacts with us and the data we generate, this recent study by Boston’s Northeastern University in partnership with Consumer Reports will make you raise an eyebrow—several times.
The study covered 21 vehicles of 19 different brands (listed below) and 30 companion mobile apps that process and handle user data.
You can peruse the 18-page paper here, but you can also see the main takeaways below:
Companion Apps Share Data That Goes Beyond Car Stuff: 70% of companion apps contacted more than five unique ATA (advertising, tracking, analytics) domains, typically sharing location, timing, and other data packets. For most test vehicles, adding the automaker or third-party (usually pre-installed) app at least doubles the number of ATA companies exposed to the owner’s data. The Envista and Nissan Ariya, which were nearly silent on their own, each reach 20+ ATA companies once the app is counted. myCadillac contacted 51 ATA domains.
How Many Third-Party Apps Your Car Contacts Wildly Varies: Over Wi-Fi, vehicles contacted at most four first-party domains but averaged about 9 integrated third parties. The Tesla Model 3 contacted 34 ATA domains and the Cybertruck 23, while the Mercedes EQS and Buick Envista contacted no third parties. Thirteen of the 21 vehicles contacted Google ATA domains, including ones like doubleclick.net that aren’t needed for core services. Vehicles with Android Automotive and Google services contacted many more trackers, and even sibling brands differed; oddly enough, the Envista, Lyriq, and Blazer did not behave in the same manner.
Some Apps Share Your VIN With Vendors, Something Not Even Your Smartphone Can Do: Seven apps (19 of 21 cars) transmitted personal information to ATA third parties: all four GM apps, HondaLink, Lincoln, and MyNissan. VINs were the most common, sent to recipients including Google, Microsoft, and Meta. The worry is that a VIN plus an email, phone number, or location lets an ad company link a specific person to their browsing and purchase history. The study also highlights that a VIN can’t be reset the way a phone’s advertising ID can. Also, I just published a blog this week about how I enjoyed Honda’s infotainment with Google Built-in, and cracked a joke about the price I am willing to pay for convenience.
OEMs Mostly Pass the Buck to Their Partners and Vendors: Of 17 manufacturers contacted for the study, 14 responded. All said their vendor contracts covered data flows. Five blamed embedded browsers in their apps, and seven said reading third-party terms is the consumer’s responsibility. Of course, if you opt out or simply don’t use the features, then you wouldn’t be utilizing your car to its full potential. Tesla warned about reduced functionality or inoperability, while Rivian warned about disabled navigation and over-the-air updates. The privacy policies disclosed that data may go to third parties but not which ones or why. Only Honda changed course. It had Amplitude delete the location data it received and stopped the app from sending it. Go Honda.
Gathering This Data Wasn’t Easy: Even if you only use the official apps pre-installed in your car, some of these may connect to your phone and ultimately open your browser. Once it does, the whole flow of data changes because it follows your phone’s browser settings, not your car’s. This means your car is now receiving cookies and browsing data and sharing them in ways you weren’t aware of or expected.
America’s path into the EV future alongside the rest of the world has been put on ice thanks to political winds, but automakers are keenly aware of the end game. Today might not look like tomorrow, and the topic of range anxiety, EV charging infrastructure, and charging times is enough to create a fight at the Thanksgiving table.
Automaker’s see the issue, and it’s large enough that seven of the world’s largest—BMW, Mercedes, GM, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, and Stellantis—got together and created a joint venture called Ionna to build a nationwide network of fast chargers to rival Tesla’s Superchargers. Then Toyota joined a year later, bringing the total to eight. On the latest episode of The Drivecast, Ionna CEO Seth Cutler sat down exclusively with The Drive for a candid discussion about what’s taking so long, where are we today, and will EV fast-charging infrastructure really become what it needs to be in America to make the transition, and future, work?
Even though electric vehicle adoption has slowed in the US, it hasn’t stopped. Right now there are about 5.7 million EVs on the road here, with more being registered every day. Meanwhile, America only has about 250,000 public chargers to serve those drivers, and only 73,000 of those are the coveted DC fast chargers capable of juicing up an EV in less than 30 minutes. And as anyone who’s tried to use an Electrify America station recently can attest, it feels like they’re usually broken. The only company that’s really figured it out is Tesla, and although they’ve opened up their charging standard to other automakers, it’s still not enough.
The mission for Ionna was simple: build a reliable, high-powered electric vehicle fast-charging network across North America with at least 30,000 chargers and 2,000 stations in the U.S. by 2030 followed by Canada. Seth Cutler was appointed as Ionna’s CEO and tapped with making all this happen.
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Full Transcript
Kyle: All right, big day on The Drivecast. We have Joel back from fishing—he survived, hopefully caught a lot. And Seth Cutler, CEO of Ionna Charging, here to talk about why charging is the way it is in America and what they’re trying to do about it. Seth, welcome.
Seth: Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Joel: Definitely welcome, Seth. And yes, I did catch a lot of fish—everything from crappie and northern to some perch and some amazing, beautiful walleye. I got a great 24-inch walleye; it was gorgeous. But we’re not here to talk about my fishing trip. Seth, you and I have met before. You crashed one of my interviews with one of your board members. It was a good time though; we had fun. Let me start there with the main tough question: why is America’s EV charging situation such an absolute hot mess? Like, why?
Seth: I think it boils down to probably two or three things. One is when you’re dealing with a nascent industry or nascent market, you’ve got new equipment coming to market, you’ve got not enough people staffed and trained on how to actually service that equipment, and there’s a lot of new technology interoperability—quirks in the system that have to be worked out. Honestly, having first-mover advantage isn’t always an advantage in a market. Sometimes being second or third is actually a bit of a blessing—better to be lucky than good, and I think that’s definitely helped us a little bit on the Ionna side. The second piece of that is really making sure that you’re building and focusing on the right things. It’s easy to get lost in, “Yeah, we’re just trying to put chargers in the ground to build out a national network,” versus “I’m trying to build out charging stations to service drivers and deliver an amazing experience.” While that distinction might not sound large enough, it definitively drives different behaviors culturally inside of an organization to deliver vastly different results to customers.
Kyle: Just to press on that a little bit, every industry has its challenges and its particularities, EV charging being a relatively new one, although not that new—I mean, the first public chargers appeared on America’s roads back in 2007, so we’re coming up on 20 years. You could argue that the first 20 years of gas stations were full of issues and a lot of learning happening. But I think from a normal consumer perspective, people who are not driving an EV or really knowledgeable about the space look at a gas station, look at an EV charging station, and a gas station seems to be a lot more complex in terms of the construction needed, the underground tanks, the environmental stuff, the fact that there’s a whole industry built around the convenience stores and the land and all that. EV charging, again from the normal consumer’s view, is just some cables. I know it’s more than that, but the point is, I think a lot of people don’t quite understand what’s taking so long. Why is growth where it is right now? Why hasn’t it reached the heights that were predicted five years ago?
Seth: It’s a great question. People often equate it to gas stations, but I’ve been much more equating it to cellular communications or cell towers. I remember my parents getting their first cell phone in the early ’90s as a kid, to 2026. Think about how many decades it took before people said, “Hey, I’m going to get rid of my landline and only rely on a cell phone as my only form of communication from a phone perspective, because I trust that it’s reliable and I have all the coverage I need.” It took probably 20-plus years, honestly. I think that’s very similar to what you see here: nascent market, not a lot of cars, so I’m not going to build 1,000 chargers in California at one time when there’s 10 cars on the road; I’m going to build just enough to survive from a capital deployment standpoint. It’s interesting to equate it that way when you think of it in that regard.
In terms of the complexity that goes into building these charging stations, there’s a few things that people don’t necessarily realize. One is, you’re trying to deploy an energy or power density in a footprint that people are normally used to deploying for a mall. You think about building out a mall, that’s going to take you three to five years. I’ve got to first design it, go through planning boards and zoning approvals, and then I actually have to build it. Construction of a mall could take a year or longer. When we sign a site for charging—not just us, but anybody—you could be shovels in ground after you get the permit within a week, and you could be ready for the utility to energize within six weeks. We’ve done sites in four weeks. Utilities just aren’t ready for that, they’re not used to that type of movement. The whole idea of charging, from signing sites and renting out parking spaces, to how you engage with utilities and bringing that much power to a small area very quickly, to the fact that a lot of these stations are unmanned—how do you make sure that irrespective of the fact there aren’t people there to keep an eye on the chargers and maintain them, you can build an operating model of data coming off these stations, telemetry, etc., to be able to remotely diagnose, monitor, and fix issues? Or having staff within two hours of every site built so that I can constantly fix these assets if they go down? It’s more than just deploying cables and wire and a post. It’s an entire industry that’s been developed in the last two decades for charging.
Kyle: That is good perspective. We’ll get back to the maintenance part especially, because that is one of the things I think people see the most: chargers that are out of order—not Ionna’s necessarily, but certainly a bad reputation the industry’s gotten off the start. Let’s get a little background to talk about Ionna’s growth specifically. The goal when the company was founded as this joint venture between seven automakers—and then Toyota joined—was put out for 30,000 chargers and 2,000 stations by 2030. Where are you guys at right now?
Seth: We’re at about 185 stations live to the public right now. It’s important to give history as well as to where the company’s at. We started operations as a company in February of ’24, so we’ve only been a company for two and a half years with building a team and everything else. We opened our first site a year and a half ago, so we went from zero sites live to about 180 right now. There’s another 100 sites in construction, and there’s several hundred more sites that are working their way through permitting, power, and about to start construction. We’ve got about 600 sites right now already contracted, and we’ll have probably another 100-plus contracted by the end of the year. We’re making hay in a short period of time. There’s still a big mountain to climb, honestly, but there’s been a lot of folks in this industry for a long time that have had big promises and big ideas. The thing that we’ve been heavily focused on, back to what we think makes us different, is a very strong attention to execution around the driver. That’s all that matters. We’re not working on battery storage right now. We’re not working on a mobile app. We’re not working on how to make more money from the driver lounges and how to sell more potato chips. All we’re working on is quality of charging at scale, and that’s how we’ve been able to move so fast in a short period of time.
Kyle: I’m jumping out of order here, but you just said something interesting I wanted to ask about. You mentioned potato chips. For gas stations, gas is not where they make their most money; it’s everything they sell in the convenience store. The margins on gas, especially for a solo station operator or small franchisee, are pretty small. As you guys have built out this Rechargery concept and tried to add more amenities and services to fast chargers, do you see that as part of the profit margin—offering all these other things that people then buy, even though the costs of utilities and electricity don’t leave a huge margin to build on?
Seth: I’ll answer starting this way: we know the company has to get to financial independence and profitability over time. This is a for-profit business. Infrastructure has to be for-profit or it’ll never survive, and if it never survives, EVs will never survive. Very early on, we said let’s make some bets and plant some seeds for future trees. We’ve bought land at several dozen sites; we’ve built our own amenities where you’ve got buildings that we operate with vending machines, bathrooms, and other technology inside, like Amazon Just Walk Out; we’ve taken a piece of land, have a ground lease, and can come back later to add to it, add a building, or find a co-tenant. These things are all sitting there underground as seeds, but we’ve not focused time on that because it’s easy for an organization to get distracted and not have everybody working on driver quality and charging quality at scale. But we know that in 2027, 2028, or beyond, we’ll start to invest resources in terms of other ways to monetize or provide value to drivers with these things that we’ve developed that are different in the marketplace. But it is definitively not a focus right now.
Joel: Before we move on, I want to circle back to what you just mentioned about the 185 chargers. I interviewed Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe on The Drivecast a couple months ago, and he noted that—he’s been very clear about this throughout time, so this is not a new line—there are, in his words, two reliable and notable EV charging networks in America: the Tesla Supercharger network, which he’s been very kind in praising what they’ve done, and the Rivian Adventure Network, which as of June was 4% the size of Tesla’s, with Rivian having about 150 stations, just a little lower than the 185 you noted. He noted his goal is to be one of the largest networks in the US in the coming years, and the thing he leaned into specifically is the extremely high uptime. I’m curious about your reaction to Scaringe’s comments, given that you guys have a network just a smidge larger than theirs right now, and I believe you lean on the whole “we’re reliable, we don’t have an app” philosophy.
Seth: I have a lot of respect for RJ and everything that the guys have done at Rivian; it’s pretty tremendous, and the same thing for Tesla. On the Ionna side, J.D. Power ranked Ionna as number one in their 2026 study, and that’s based purely on survey results they get from drivers that they go out and sample. The J.D. Power recognition was a great way to independently say not only do we think we’re good, but drivers are saying that they think we’re good. We’re seeing that with higher utilization and a lot more organic traffic on social media of people talking about Ionna and the experience they’re having, so that’s really promising. But there’s still a lot of work to be done. I know we can do even better than we’re doing now, and we have a lot more sites to go build. Again, we’ve only been doing this for 18 months from when we opened the first site. If you looked at our network back in June, I think we had about 130 or 140 sites live; we had 80 sites live in January. We’ve more than doubled the network in the last nine months, and we’ll have well over 200 sites live by the end of the year. My goal is to triple the size of the network this year from where we started at 80 at the beginning of the year. That scale isn’t baked into a lot of what people are seeing because we’re moving so fast right now.
Kyle: Speaking of scale, it sounds like if this growth continues, you guys are on pace for this 2,000 charging station goal by 2030. But 2,000 charging stations leading to 30,000 actual chargers seems like a bit of a leap, considering a lot of these stations so far have between four and six chargers themselves. How do you get to that actual saturation of 30,000 chargers? Charging stations is a great metric, but the actual plugs are what makes a difference for drivers.
Seth: There’s always a debate: is it bays, as we call them, or plugs, or is it sites? What matters most, particularly in this market right now, is making sure that we have the right coverage for drivers across the country so you can get across states, but also inside of certain cities. We are heavily focused on making sure that when we deploy in a geographic area, we’re providing enough coverage that Ionna can be their network of choice. Look at Florida: we’ve got about 24 or 25 sites live right now in Florida. Looking at powered charging rates at 150 kilowatts and above, we’re the third largest network provider in all of Florida behind Electrify America right now, based upon the number of high-powered bays. That’s real market coverage. By the end of the year, we’ll probably have 30 sites live and a couple hundred more bays, which will put us in an even better position in that state. We’re doing the same thing in Dallas, Houston, and across California. We’re heavily focused on making sure right now that we provide densely populated areas with the right Ionna network coverage that they can rely on today.
Kyle: Speaking of, I have a little bone to pick with you, Seth. I live in LA, where there are, as of now, a grand total of zero Ionna chargers. I know a couple are being built, not really in LA itself, but more in the Southern California region. But Joel lives outside Minneapolis, where there are eight Rechargeries in operation right now, with a few more on the way. LA has four times the population of Minneapolis, and yet we have no Ionna presence right now. I keep looking because I see the pictures of these beautiful stations, but so far, no dice. Why is it that a city like LA doesn’t have a presence, and a city like Minneapolis seems to have a pretty high saturation? Are you basing expansion off perceived demand and opportunity, or just ease of construction?
Joel: We will accept the answer that Minneapolis is just a better place. That’s an acceptable answer on this podcast.
Seth: Totally fair. Early on, what I wanted to make sure of was that we could start to deliver results to the market in terms of chargers live. In 2024, we came in, had to hire people, find a headquarters, and figure out how to make this vision real. The truth is that we deployed assets in places that were easier to build in to get stuff in the ground to go learn from. I didn’t want to go build the first site in LA because it would take a longer time, and second, that’s where you have highest utilization. I wanted to go learn in Kansas first, in Raleigh first, in Minneapolis first. That was very much intentional—I wanted to make sure that within the first nine months of operation as a company, we had the first sites live, which was pretty incredible. Now, we’ve got over 100 sites contracted in California right now. We’ve got over 30 sites that are either in construction or live across California, so from a sequencing standpoint, we are focusing a lot of time, energy, and effort into building scale in California. In NorCal, in PG&E territory, we’ll have over a dozen sites live by the end of this year. In Southern California, I think there’s probably close to half a dozen or more that are in construction right now with Southern California Edison, working hand-in-hand with them to get those energized either this year or into next year. The short answer is, in 2027, you’ll see a markedly different network of Ionna in California than you did prior. One of the sites that we’re opening in Southern California this year is our first flagship or beacon site in Orange County, just off the 405. Again, it’s not just more chargers in the back of a shopping mall; this site off the 405 is going to be 22 high-powered charging bays, a Just Walk Out Amazon partnership convenience store, outdoor seating, and all types of amenities nearby. We’re really trying to elevate that charging experience in addition to getting scale for drivers.
Joel: Now that we’ve established that Minnesota is training wheels to prep yourself for LA, Minnesota has a unique situation where people have cabins and cottages and go on road trips very often to go north on the weekend during the summer, or even in the winter for ice fishing and snowmobiling. As a Minnesota person, I would know where I would stop along I-94 or whatever if I were going up north. Do you guys tap local people when deciding on locations? How do you do that?
Seth: We’ve got what we think to be a fairly sophisticated model in terms of looking at traffic patterns, where people go from a city outward. Typically, people are going inside of a city during the week, and in Minneapolis, you’ve got a lot of people going out to their cabins. We’re constantly looking at what is that outflow of traffic outside of a city, where are they coming, where are they coming back, and then we look at annual average daily traffic on some of these roads to say, “Hey, this road doesn’t have a lot of traffic on it, probably shouldn’t build here, but this one does.” St. Cloud, we have a conversion going on right now with Circle K in St. Cloud, which is like 90 minutes or so northwest of the city. We know people are going to head up I-35 towards Duluth on the weekends, so we try to make sure we hit some of these corridors. We have a whole vacation corridor strategy, whether it’s in Minnesota or here in Raleigh where people go to Wilmington to Wrightsville Beach. We just opened a site near Wilmington, and two sites near Myrtle Beach in South Carolina, because we know that they’re trying to get to a specific vacation spot weekly or monthly.
Joel: On Saturday, my dad and I and some buddies were on our annual Canadian fishing trip, drove all the way up to Baudette and then crossed over into Canada. I was thinking to myself, if I owned a Rivian R1S or a Lucid Gravity, on this route, where would I charge? Which, by the way, is not a typical route; this is definitely an outlier situation. But there aren’t a lot of options on the way there. On the way home, it poured the entire way home—those six hours that we drove. I thought to myself, forget where would I charge for a minute; if I was charging—like the Tesla Supercharger in Bemidji, they’re in a Target parking lot with no canopy—if I had to get out to plug in, it would be awful because it was pouring rain, whereas every gas station we stopped at had a canopy. Not all of your Rechargeries have a canopy. Talk to me a little about the decisions to have canopies versus non-canopies.
Seth: Almost 30% of our sites that are live today have canopies right now. If you look at other networks today, most of them are single digits. We very much had a concerted effort to say we want to put covered charging out into the marketplace because we wanted to make sure that we try to provide the same level of convenience—trash cans, squeegees, canopies where possible—to drivers that drive EVs, because they expect it today on the gasoline side. I’ve still got garbage in the car to throw out; I’ve still got to clean my windshield. It’s also impossible to put canopies everywhere, whether it’s jurisdiction permitting offices that say they don’t want canopies in their jurisdiction, or because it’s going to block a sign of another store. We’ve had canopies where we get out there and dig a hole, and find that the water table is five feet higher than we thought it was, and you just can’t get the casings down for the footers. You go, “Do I kill the site or do I kill the canopy?” I say keep the site for reliable charging, kill the canopy. Where we can, we put in canopies, and where we can’t, we build reliable, affordable, convenient charging.
Kyle: We’ve been talking about the partnerships you guys are moving into with Circle K, Sheetz, Wawa, Casey’s… Because a lot of those are building on existing gas stations, I would imagine it’s more challenging to get a new canopy built just in terms of space availability when the gas station already might have two or three massive ones themselves. But I also feel like that’s probably the fastest route to increasing the number of plugs or bays, rather than trying to build your own Rechargery stations. Do you see these partnerships as the path to scaling here?
Seth: It’s a multi-pronged approach for sure. The Circle K relationship has been tremendous. We’ve taken over the vast majority of their existing US network and replaced those older 180-kilowatt chargers with our equipment. Those already have transformers and interconnects with utilities, so it helps give you a little bit more speed on some of those sites, while some of our more complicated sites take a bit longer to work their way through the funnel. We’ve been heavily focused on high-quality, large-scale retail partners—Circle K, Wawa, Sheetz, Casey’s—to provide drivers with a really great amenity that we can partner with, and then where we can’t or where we want to, we build our own amenities to complement that in the network.
Kyle: I’m curious how the partnership actually works structurally with these chains. Is it a lease agreement where you pay a monthly fee, or do they get a cut of the charging costs? How does it work financially?
Seth: We’re just a tenant in their parking lot. Part of the superpower of Ionna is the fact that we’re founded and funded by eight large automakers, both from a capital standpoint, but also in terms of what the potential is for digital integration into the OEMs. If I’ve got digital integration with the OEMs and digital integration to the retail partners, matching those two up, Ionna could be heavily focused on affordable, reliable, convenient infrastructure, and allow for these retailers and OEMs to work together on providing that next opportunity of experience.
Joel: It’s always bewildered me that no one—forget Ionna, Tesla, Rivian—has hooked up with McDonald’s, because they dominate America everywhere. It’s the ideal thing. Why are you or anyone not in every McDonald’s parking lot?
Seth: Putting charging stations in requires space and parking spots. Even with some of our Circle K or Wawa sites, there’s sites we’ve had to turn down because we’ve tried every which way to fit in eight stalls or 10 stalls and there’s setbacks or rules on how far from the road you have to be. Every store you build has minimum parking requirements from the town. The smaller the footprint of that retail provider or QSR (quick-service restaurant), the harder it is to actually deploy chargers. A lot of places we’d love to go, at the end of the day, it just becomes geometry.
Joel: That makes a lot of sense, because a lot of these McDonald’s don’t have large parking lots. But a lot of these charging networks are in Menards parking lots, Target parking lots, or Walmart parking lots, because these are big parking lots with plenty of space to put them in the back. That makes a lot of sense; thank you for shedding that light.
Seth: Yeah, for sure.
Kyle: On the topic of the chargers themselves, you guys use Alpitronic hardware, is that correct?
Seth: That’s correct.
Kyle: And the software is all done in-house, right?
Seth: We have a lot of different partners, so we do have other providers of software pieces that go along. We’ve got a charging station provider, credit card terminals… every one of these things has software that ties to them. What we’ve built in-house is providing an overall software platform layer that sits across all the different systems that we have. As these sites get more complicated, I’ve got electronic door locks, cameras, credit card terminals, internet providers. We’ve built all types of software controls, monitoring, diagnostics, and alerting that sits across everything that we deploy in our ecosystem.
Kyle: A two-part question on that: One, what have you guys done differently to avoid the reliability pitfalls that have bedeviled the whole industry? Half the plugs at a given station near me are always down, which is frustrating. More uptime would help everyone feel more comfortable with charging as a public utility. And two, I think it’s great that you guys don’t have an app. What did you have to do to make the whole business function without a dedicated app for payments and locating chargers?
Seth: On the reliability piece, it comes down to culturally how we built the business. What we’ve told our team and live by every day is the driver is the first and foremost center of our world when we make a decision. There’s a lot of times where a customer might say the charger didn’t work for me on the first try. Now you have a decision to make: do you ignore it because the next person charged okay, do you roll a truck, or do you wait to see if it worked for somebody else? Because we put the driver first culturally, that drives different behaviors where you say, “Nope, roll a truck.” We do what we call a health check and validate and verify what we heard from that driver. Most times it comes back as working fine, but other times we might find an issue and swap out a cable while on site. That permeates through the entire organization. When you have a decision to make, you look and say, “I’m going to do it with the driver in mind,” and that drives certain behaviors. That is part of our secret sauce. In addition to that, we’ve built a lot of tools, diagnostics, and now with AI, there’s a lot more you can do in terms of inferring what might be going on. We take an approach of when we think there’s something wrong, we take a “field medic” approach: go to the site with 10 parts, bring a Pelican case with every part to rebuild the charger, swap out all 10 parts, bring back all 10 parts, figure out what actually was broken, and then get smarter so the next field visit we only bring eight parts. That’s a different approach because we’re thinking about the driver and resolution time first and foremost.
Kyle: Before we get to the app question, what is the thing that breaks the most on a charger? What is the number one replaced item?
Seth: Physically, it’s the charging cable. It gets dropped, there’s interference, wear and tear, and then that causes an issue in the performance. Also, we’re finding we have to reset chargers more often than I’d probably like to, especially the credit card readers. But now we’ve built automation where when we see a certain behavior, those credit card readers automatically reset in the middle of the night, whereas before we just staffed up and reset all the readers as often as possible. Now we’ve built software tools to do that for us.
Kyle: You guys just need that little button you can only press with a toothpick, like on electronics: “Reset,” so the consumer can do it.
Seth: Exactly.
Joel: As we transition, America has decided on NACS—for those listening, NACS is the Tesla-style charger versus CCS, the clunky one we started with. Is CCS more or less reliable than NACS?
Seth: We haven’t seen any difference in performance between the two with our customers. By and large, our utilization right now is on CCS, but it’s interesting that we’re starting to see a lot more utilization and quicker growth on the NACS side, which lends itself to seeing more Tesla drivers charging with us than before. And keep in mind, a lot of vehicles being sold now are native NACS.
Joel: Just for context, the Ioniqs from Hyundai announced switching to NACS, Rivian switched for 2026 model year, Subarus and Toyotas switched, GM is switching… Teslas obviously outnumber everything on the road, but the automakers themselves, their newer cars have NACS.
Seth: Yeah.
Kyle: Speaking of automakers, Ionna is unique in that it’s a joint venture founded by seven, now eight, automakers. What’s it like having eight different bosses?
Seth: It’s a very unique company and opportunity. It really is a partnership between us and the eight OEMs. We have a Board of Directors from the OEMs on the investor side, so we have a lot of engagement with them in terms of oversight and governance. Our results are a testament to the relationship we’ve built to go build this company, because early on people asked how Ionna could be successful with eight car companies building it. There’s not eight car companies building it; there’s an Ionna team building the company with oversight from the investors in terms of specific results they’re looking for: quality at scale within the capital framework. As long as we operate within that framework, things work really well and we can make decisions day-to-day to drive results. But the next part of it is strategic: how do we integrate into the OEMs and automakers? These automakers are giving discounts to their drivers that charge at Ionna. We’re heavily focused on Plug & Charge and AutoCharge across all the automakers, and integrating into their apps. We don’t have an app partly because we don’t want to be in the way of the automakers and their customers. We want to provide reliable, affordable, convenient charging so that automakers can go sell more cars.
Kyle: So it’s not a case where GM is like, “Hey, we’ve got a high concentration of GM owners in this city, you should build more chargers there,” and Mercedes is like, “No, put it over here!” It’s not an activist investor presence?
Seth: No, it wouldn’t work. It would never work; that’s the key thing.
Joel: The elephant in the room is Ionna is owned by eight automakers, and they’re building the cars, selling the cars, and now selling you the fuel. Should this matter to anybody, or not really?
Seth: I think it should matter to people in a positive way—that you can take eight car companies as staunch competitors and they can come together to found and fund this type of entity for it to be successful. Sometimes what it takes is partnerships to drive innovation and forward momentum in any industry. When I saw the announcement in 2023, I thought this could be really interesting to finally solve charging, and that’s why I wanted to come work with the automakers and Ionna to build this company from literally zero and realize a vision they all had. There are days where I reflect back and think, I can’t believe we’re actually sort of accomplishing what was in that press release from 2023. It was a daunting task, and the level of support and engagement from the carmakers has been unprecedented.
Kyle: How does it work with the automakers’ own charging efforts and partnerships? GM has their own branded chargers with EVgo at Pilot stores, Mercedes has been launching their own branded chargers, yet they’re also investors in Ionna. How does that work when they’re kind of competing with each other as we’re all trying to build out this nationwide network?
Seth: There’s a big need for charging infrastructure in the country, as you guys know. There are EVs on the road today that still don’t have the charging they need, and there’s still cars being sold today, next year, and the year after, so we’ve got a gap. There are legacy programs that were set up that are still running their course. They’re separate entities; there’s no relationship to Ionna or interaction between us and those entities. It just allows for larger penetration of EV charging into the industry. But Ionna is special in that you’ve got this strategic joint venture that exists with eight car companies part of the effort.
Joel: How fast do we need to go? How fast do our chargers and how quickly do they need to be able to recharge go? News broke this morning out of China about how they have quote “five-minute charging that’ll take you to 70%,” leaving the rest of the world behind. But we are already getting fast. I had a Volvo EX90 in June, drove it to the lake, plugged into a 350 charger at an EA stop at Menards in Alexandria. At 44%, it took me 18 minutes—it instantly went to over 300 kilowatts, like 315, sustained it, and took me from 44% to over 90% in 18 minutes. How fast do we need to be, or is China just showing off?
Seth: Nobody stops to fuel their vehicle taking gasoline, gets out, rushes as fast as possible, puts as much fuel in the car as possible, and gets back in the car and drives away. Some of these gas stations today are more like a restaurant than a gas station. Look at Wawa, Sheetz, Casey’s, Buc-ee’s, Wally’s—these are places people are spending time inside the store. A lot of these places actually make a lot of their money inside the store because that’s where people spend their time. This idea that charging has to be done in five minutes or people won’t buy EVs is just not accurate. The proof is in the pudding in that 6% of all cars sold in July were still EVs with the existing current infrastructure set and technology set on the cars. You’re looking at how do you get to a place of 10 to 20 minutes from the charging speed, which gives you enough time to use a bathroom, get a sandwich, stretch your legs, take the dog for a walk, versus “I’m going to jump out of the car and make believe it’s Supermarket Sweepstakes and see how fast I can fuel up and drive away.” I just don’t think that’s what people are doing.
Joel: As a dad with a wife and two kids, two years ago we went down to Iowa for Christmas in the cold and snow. I timed it from the time I put it in park to the time I put it in drive: we parked, everyone went inside to the bathroom, grabbed McDonald’s, filled the car with gas. I timed it: it took 31 minutes. Four people, it takes a minute. If I had a Rivian, a Lucid, or an Ioniq 9, that would have been plenty of time on that Supercharger. That’s just the reality.
Seth: 100%, exactly. Everything we deploy now is 400 kilowatts; we’re looking at 500 kilowatts in our next generation of sites. Much above that, I don’t think you need it. I just don’t.
Kyle: I’m with you on the principle there, but I do wonder how you guys view the mindset that if you own an EV, a DC fast charger should be able to serve as your main charging source, whereas a lot of automakers will tell you that you should be charging at home every night, so DC fast chargers are only for road trips. A 30-minute stop might make sense when you’re on a road trip with family, but if you’re swinging by your local charging station for your weekly commute, you don’t want to be there for 30 minutes necessarily. Are you trying to focus on those kinds of drivers at all, or is it really the ideal use case for DC fast charging?
Seth: 70% of our investment is going to happen inside of cities. We’re building in Orlando, in Tampa, in Jacksonville. What we’ve built on the interstate system of Florida is minimal. It’s not necessarily easy to put chargers in your house. You’ve got older homes; it could be cost-prohibitive. So there’s definitely an advantage of charging at home, for sure. But we want to make sure that as you get into high-rise buildings, condos, or older homes that can’t support home charging, or if you do a lot of driving in a weekend, we want to make sure we’ve got charging in place in these cities to support these drivers.
Kyle: The real dream is if we could all have DC fast chargers at home.
Seth: At home, I’m sure the utility would love that.
Kyle: I’ve asked Southern California Edison about that; they are not on board, unfortunately.
Joel: Tesla’s really done a good job about targets if you ask me, but no one’s really doing a great job at grocery stores. I don’t know why, at least here in Minnesota…
Seth: Have you been to our Hy-Vee site? We’ve got a couple Hy-Vees up in Minnesota. We’ll send you a list afterwards.
Joel: I have a home charger. We put a charger up at the lake, put a charger here. But fast charging to go see family or go on a road trip is important. And 30% of people live in non-single-family homes in America—a big market.
Kyle: And I’m the guy with an EV who doesn’t have charging at home, hence my question.
Seth: It’s a challenge.
Kyle: It is a challenge. I live in an old house, don’t have a garage, it’s expensive to install one, and I’m on a two-year lease.
Seth: Our first house was in Connecticut built in the ’30s. I charged Level 1 all the time because it was impossible to get a Level 2 charger from my basement to the detached garage in the back of my yard, so I just plugged into an extension cord every night.
Joel: Hope that was safe!
Seth: It was definitely properly rated and properly installed.
Kyle: Well on that note, Seth Cutler, thank you so much for your time, really appreciate it.
Seth: Thanks for having me. Appreciate it too, great conversation.
The 2027 Jeep Cherokee has finally earned its “Trail-Rated” badge with the introduction of a Trailhawk. Once upon a time, Jeeps held virtually indefensible positions at the top of their respective segments when it came to off-road capability. These days, the 4×4-adjacent space is much more crowded, and simply wearing a Jeep badge isn’t a guarantee of automatic victory anymore.
Given that the new Cherokee shares its basic formula with the model it replaced, you probably won’t be surprised to learn that the new car isn’t exactly a quantum leap forward in capability. That said, the new midsizer does have a couple of tricks up its sleeve. It offers 9.0 inches of ground clearance thanks to a 1.0-inch lift over the standard Cherokee, and according to Jeep, it can ford 24 inches of water.
But the real party piece is Jeep’s “Active Drive II” all-wheel-drive system, which incorporates a two-speed transfer case and an electronic locking rear differential. The former is a segment exclusive, and Ford is the only competitor with a mechanical locking rear axle.
Year/Make/Model
Ground Clearance
Approach Angle
Breakover Angle
Departure Angle
Low Range
Locking Rear
2027 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk
9.0 in
28.8°
21.9°
31.8°
Yes
Yes
2026 Subaru Forester Wilderness
9.3 in
23.5°
21.0°
25.5°
No
No
2026 Honda CR-V TrailSport
8.2 in
17.7°
N/A*
22.1°
No
No
2026 Toyota RAV4 Adventure
8.5 in
20.0°
N/A*
24.0°
No
No
2026 Ford Bronco Sport Sasquatch
8.7 in
31.2°
21.7°
27.9°
No
Yes
*Breakover angle is not published officially by Honda or Toyota for these trim levels.
On paper, Jeep is clearly aiming for a segment-best entry here. The Bronco Sport brings similar mechanical capability (and even has the advantage in approach angle) but lacks a proper crawl ratio. Subaru enjoys an advantage in ground clearance, but relies on its fairly rudimentary X-Drive programming for the technical bits.
We’ll have to see exactly how this plays out in the real world, especially since one of Jeep’s main drawbacks doesn’t appear here: size. The Cherokee leans toward the midsize space much the same way the Compass leans subcompact, and that extra length and width will work against it when trails get tight.
I’ve already logged almost 4,000 miles in The Drive‘s 2026 HondaPreludelong-term test car, and I’ll put in many more before the project wraps up next year. That’s already enough seat time to get to know a car pretty darn well, but most importantly, to explore its tech, safety, comfort, and entertainment features.
Like most cars from any manufacturer today, the Prelude shares a standard suite of equipment found across the Honda lineup. It also runs on the same hardware and software as our previous long-termer, so you‘ll definitely see some stuff that isn’t super unique to the sporty coupe. That said, I’ll also touch on features that impact its driveability; specifically, its driving modes and multi-purpose paddle shifters.
I’m jumping straight to the nitty-gritty and classifying these into three categories: Like, Dislike, and On the Fence. Each item will include a brief explanation of why it’s in that category, plus any relevant details or rambling thoughts.
Seats: Not sure how Honda overlooked this, but neither the driver’s seat nor the passenger seat has adjustable lumbar support.
Steering Wheel: Love the shape and feel, but hate that in a $45,000 car it isn’t heated.
Adaptive Cruise: A major improvement in calibration and lane stability compared to other Honda models, but the Prelude brakes a bit too abruptly at the slightest sign of a car in front, or one alongside that’s driving too close to the lane markers.
Shut-Off Sequence: This issue appears across the lineup, and I will keep mentioning it until Honda addresses it. When you shut off the engine, everything shuts off. If you’re listening to music, that shuts down immediately. If you’re on a phone call via the car’s Bluetooth, that will also shut off. If you park on a city street, your blind spot monitors will not alert you to a car or cyclist approaching, so you don’t open your door. Most other cars keep auxiliary power on for 60 seconds after you press the Engine Start button, or let you customize this setting.
Electronic Parking Brake: I am not being super harsh on this one because I get that there is a safety aspect to it, but an automatically disengaging parking brake would be ideal. Nothing is more annoying than starting the car, putting it in gear, and hitting the gas, only to be held back by the parking brake. Ideally, the parking brake should disengage if the doors are closed, the driver’s seatbelt is buckled, and moderate throttle is applied.
Honda
Like
Suspension: I covered this in my First Impressions blog, but the electronic adaptive dampers are straight out of a European sports car at least twice the price of the Prelude. Yes, these are borrowed from the Civic Type R, but they have their own tuning, and they’re amazing whether you’re taking a chill drive or carving up some country roads.
Lighting: Again, the Prelude punches above its weight with projector-style LED headlights. The color of the beam is just right, not too yellow or too white or blue. The intensity is great, and so is the depth. They perform like something you’d check a $6,000 option box for on a Mercedes or BMW.
Visibility: Perfect forward, side, and rear visibility despite the Prelude riding fairly low to the ground and having a pretty sloping roof.
Driving Modes: Comfort, GT, and Sport. Comfort is super soft and a bit lethargic, but you can easily maximize fuel savings due to the throttle and hybrid system’s configuration in this setting. My go-to is GT, and that’s what I drive on every day. The suspension is less bouncy, and the drivetrain is reactive enough without the hybrid jolt being too punchy.
Google Built-In: Honda’s new Google-based infotainment system is quite lovely. I enjoy that once I log into my Google account, it knows everything about me. (Scary, I know.) All I have to do is press the Google Assistant button on the screen and tell it to take me somewhere, call someone, or find any necessary information on the internet without taking my eyes off the road. Ah, the sweet convenience I trade for my privacy.
Sound System: I’m not what you’d call an audiophile, but like most people who enjoy music, I appreciate a decent sound system. The standard Bose system in the Prelude features seven speakers plus a subwoofer, and it delivers good volume and clarity; when cruising on a smooth road with the windows down, I can pick up a song’s more intricate bits like I do with over-the-ear headphones.
Honda Sensing: Another thing that the Prelude shares with the rest of the Honda lineup, though a very important one. These features come as standard: Collision Mitigation Braking System, Forward Collision Warning, Lane Departure Warning, Road Departure Mitigation System, Adaptive Cruise Control, Low Speed Follow, Lane Keeping Assist System, Blind Spot Information System, Cross Traffic Monitor, Low-Speed Braking Control, Traffic Sign Recognition, Traffic Jam Assist, Auto High-Beam Headlights, and Driver Attention Monitor.
Honda
On the Fence
Door Handles: Yes, the pop-up handles that sit flush with the door look very cool. When you approach the car with the key fob on you and they pop out automatically, they’re great. When the keys are already in the car, and you’re trying to open the door, you have to push one end of the handle to make the other pop out so you canpull it to open the door. If you have both hands available, this is no biggie—though still annoying. If you only have one hand available, it’s challenging.
Paddle Shifters: The metal paddles in the Prelude can do two things depending on what driving mode you’re in. When S+ Shift is deactivated, the left paddle (normally used to downshift) increases brake regeneration—but there’s a catch. This regen, activated by clicking the paddle once or multiple times, isn’t permanent. It resets once the car comes to a standstill. It’s really just a way to slow down more strongly as you’re cruising to a stop (you can also use it when driving spiritedly) while taking advantage of or recharging the battery. The right paddle (normally used to upshift) cuts out drag and lets the car glide down the road without recapturing any energy. It’s a very neat—and, if you’re not used to it, a slightly unnerving feeling I’ve only felt in the bonkers Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX. When S+ Shift is activated (and it can be active in any driving mode), you can simulate gear shifting like you would in most semi-automatic cars. The reason why I’m “on the fence” about it is that it takes some brain power and understanding to figure out how this all works and when and how. It’s not all very straightforward.
Good morning, and welcome to The Downshift, which is a lap of today’s top stories from around the auto industry and car culture, curated by The Drive‘s editorial team. Each story gets summarized into a sentence or two accompanied by a link to the source for those seeking more information. Senior Editor Adam Ismail is still out on assignment and I’ll be your driver today.
Here’s what firing on Wednesday, September 30, 2026:
A new episode of The Drivecast, The Drive’s weekly podcast, will go live later today on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.
Ford CEO Jim Farley said the U.S. must “be extremely careful around how the Chinese OEMs come to our country,” and noted that Chinese imports quickly gobbled up European marketshare once entering the market. “It’s too late” for European countries, the CEO said. [Reuters]
3⃣ The 2027 BMW 3-Series debuted with Neue Klasse design inside and out and a starting price of $51,250. While it looks like the electric i3, it’s an entirely different car with its own proportions and details. [Motor Trend]
Meanwhile, the electric i3 gained a M60 model, which will serve as a M Performance version of the electric sedan that debuted earlier in the year. Specs haven’t been released, but M Performance Parts have been grabbed from the bin and tacked on for a more eye-catching look. [Motor1]
Mazda refuses to give up on the rotary engine. Moritz Oswald, project manager for product planning and co-creation at Mazda Motor Europe, noted that people love the rotary because of how it revs, and the easiest way to bring that to customers is to let them experience it. You can only experience something if it exists, though, if Mazda does bring back the rotary you can bet it’ll likely be attached to a hybrid powertrain of some sort. [CAR]
The U.S. Department Transportation Department said General Motors will see its technology costs go down by $20.4 billion through 2031 due to the new lower vehicle fuel economy rules. GM did not confirm the number, but said it is in favor of the rules and the “intention to better align fuel economy standards with market realities.” [Reuters]
BMW’s comeback plan includes growing margins by simplifying its business, lineup, cutting costs, and selling more expensive cars. [Bloomberg]
Porsche unveiled a retrofit infotainment system for 2009 to 2016 models including the 911, Cayman, and Boxster. The touchscreen-based system adds wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and will arrive at Porsche dealers in early 2027. [Road & Track]
The Range Rover Sport Electric Debuted and looks … like a Range Rover Sport. Aside from the lack of tailpipes it would be hard to know this is powered by a big battery pack. The electric SUV will have 543 horsepower and 627 lb-ft of torque and go 0-60 mph in 4.3 seconds. Final U.S.-specs haven’t been released yet, but expect about 300 miles of range. [Motor1]
Lucid overhauled the Air’s infotainment system and aligned its interface with the newer tile-based design found in the Gravity SUV. The 2024 and older Air models will need a $950 hardware upgrade for the new software to work. [InsideEVs]
General Motors announced its lithium-manganese-rich batteries will be made in Spring Hill, Tennessee. The next-gen batteries will power EVs set to arrive in 2028. [InsideEVs]
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