In today's issue:

For one week the industry stops talking about tariffs and margins and puts the cars on a golf course. Almost nothing unveiled this week will be sold to anyone reading this, and that has never once made it less fun to watch.

GM Sells Its Half of a Battery Plant That Never Got Its Machinery: GM will sell its 49.99% stake in the SynergyCells joint venture to Samsung SDI, handing over a $3.5 billion New Carlisle, Indiana site that has a finished building and no production equipment in it, per Automotive News and Electrek. Samsung SDI will initially focus on energy-storage cells there rather than the EV cells the plant was drawn up for, per just-auto, and separately the two agreed to jointly develop next-generation prismatic EV batteries for GM's future lineup. The 1,600 jobs the site was meant to create are still a plan, not a payroll. We wrote up the $10.9 billion writedown that started this retreat when GM brought back gas Cadillacs. #analyst

Pebble Beach's Incoming President Wants Better Merch: Vince Finaldi, a trial attorney and former US Marine who runs his own Monterey-area auto shop, joined as Concours president in January and takes over from 40-year chairman Sandra Button on October 1, per the Pebble Beach Concours. Top of his fix list for the $550-a-head show: parking, official merchandise and social media, per Bloomberg via The Autopian. "Car guys don't wanna wear golf stuff," he said. #analyst

Truck Prices Actually Fell in July: Bestselling truck transaction prices dropped 1.8%, or $1,035, in July as truck incentives rose 30% and car incentives climbed 17% from June, per CBT News citing CDK. It's the first monthly decline for bestselling cars since February. #market

China Buys Its Way Into Europe's Parts Supply: Chinese firms are acquiring European parts makers even as EU officials resist Chinese vehicle exports, worrying regulators about how much of the region's supply chain ends up under Chinese ownership, per the Financial Times. #analyst

UK EV Sales Set a July Record. The Mandate Might Get Weaker Anyway.: Britain's battery-electric share hit 27.5% in July, a record for the month, per GoodCarBadCar citing SMMT, with the trade body still forecasting 27.4% for the full year against the ZEV mandate's 33%. The government is now weighing a consultation to loosen that mandate, per transportandenergy.com. #analyst

A Roofless Lamborghini Diablo With a Gated Manual: Eccentrica's V12 Roadster drops the top off its Diablo restomod, running a 550-hp 5.7-liter V12 to 62 mph in 3.8 seconds through a six-speed manual, capped at 19 units worldwide, per Car and Driver and Carscoops.

VW's Atlas Cross Sport Drops a Row, Gains Power: The redesigned 2027 Atlas Cross Sport keeps its two-row, coupe-roofline layout while adding horsepower, comfort gear and driver-assist tech on VW's updated MQB Evo architecture, per Automotive News and AutoGuide.

Chrysler Builds the Minivan Nobody Asked For, and It's Great: Chrysler showed two lowered, sportier Pacifica concepts at Roadkill Nights, betting that Gen Z and millennial buyers are warming to minivans, per Autoblog and Carscoops.

Tesla Recalls 20,349 Cars for Headlights That Are Too Bright: The low beams throw too much light into the upper corners of the beam pattern, breaking federal standards and raising glare risk for oncoming drivers, per Autoblog. Tesla filed the recall on August 4 as NHTSA campaign 26V507, named Marelli as the lighting supplier, and has not settled on a repair. → If you own one: Affected cars are 2017-2023 Model 3s and 2020-2023 Model Ys carrying headlamps built on or after June 2, 2023. Recall letters go out in phases from mid-September, and there is no fix to book yet.

GM Canada Talks Open With a Sierra Ask: Unifor wants GM to add GMC Sierra production at Oshawa Assembly as contract talks begin, with US tariffs already curbing Canadian output, per Automotive News.

Ford's New App Reads the Owner's Manual for You: Ford and Lincoln rolled out an AI Assistant app that pulls from owner's manuals and vehicle data to answer driver questions, per Carscoops.

Tesla's "Insane" Mode Test-Drive Suit Moves to Federal Court: The $10 million case, brought by a Virginia woman who crashed a Model Y into a hair salon on a 2024 test drive, moved to US District Court in Alexandria on July 22, per Automotive News. Tesla's response says she "failed to take reasonable care."

A Rare Rotary Mazda Burned at Laguna Seca: The car caught fire during vintage racing at Laguna Seca last weekend, per CarBuzz.

Used-Vehicle Prices Fell Faster Than July Usually Does: Manheim's wholesale index dropped 1.4% in July against the 0.4% gain a typical July brings, leaving it about 2.5% below March's peak, per CBT News. The year-over-year gain slowed to 1.3% from June's 2.1%.

Yesterday's picks

Daimler Truck's CEO Names Her Own Fine Before Brussels Does: Daimler Truck could owe roughly €1 billion ($1.2 billion) in EU fines if it misses its 2030 emissions target, CEO Karin Rådström said, per Automotive News Europe.

A third of premium SUV buyers now buy mainstream instead: Nearly a third of premium SUV owners defected to mainstream brands in H1 2026, per CBT News citing J.D. Power. The satisfaction gap between premium and mainstream brands shrank to 29 points, down from 66 in 2008, while premium brands now spend 7.3% of MSRP on incentives against mainstream's roughly 6%.

FTC quietly narrows its dealers discrimination enforcement: The FTC will no longer pursue disparate-impact discrimination claims against dealers under its Section 5 policy, per CBT News. ECOA disparate-treatment enforcement stays in place, but the standard that flagged unintentional bias in lending patterns is gone.

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