BYD Wants To Be The Biggest Carmaker In The World
Happy Wednesday! It's June 10, 2026, and this is The Morning Shift — your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. This is where you'll find the most important stories that are shaping the way Americans drive and get around.
In this morning's edition, we're looking at BYD's goals of scale, and Harley Davidson's dumb war with Indian. We'll also look at Mercedes' new electric motors, and Honda's latest big recall.
1st Gear: BYD says it'll beat Toyota within 5 years
BYD has taken the world by storm over the last few years, expanding massively in scale and sales, but apparently that's not enough for the company's investors. Now, the company has a new goal: Beat Toyota. From Reuters:
Wang Chuanfu, chairman of BYD , on Tuesday said he expected the Chinese firm to become the world's largest automaker within five years, as he sought to reassure investors following a steep decline in the company's share price.
BYD, which ranked sixth globally in 2025 with 4.6 million vehicles sold, has struggled to restore growth after its domestic sales were hit by intensified competition with local peers over the past year. Shares of the company have dropped more than 45% from their peak in Hong Kong over the past year, while its Shenzhen-listed stock has fallen 33%.
Speaking at the company's annual shareholder meeting at its Shenzhen headquarters, Wang addressed nearly 1,000 shareholders, emphasizing a focus on ramping up the output of its second-generation Blade Battery, which he identified as this year's key growth bottleneck, according to the state-owned Shanghai Securities News. The report was confirmed by an attendee at the meeting.
"BYD will truly become the No. 1 automaker globally in terms of scale in five years," Wang said, highlighting the firm's strong exports and technological advancements, including improvements in battery and fast-charging technologies that he believes will drive growth at home and abroad.
On the one hand, BYD has grown incredibly over the past few years. On the other hand, it's going up against Toyota. Sure, the upstart makes some very good cars, but c'mon. Toyota.
2nd Gear: Harley-Davidson enters a chud-off with Indian
Indian Motorcycle made a baffling hard-right pivot earlier this week, working with former Trump campaign contributor Brad Parscale to get right wing influencers on board before releasing a weird political attack ad against Harley-Davidson's CEO. Harley's response? The company announced it would shift more production back to the United States, seemingly ceding rhetorical ground to Indian's disingenuous framing. From Reuters:
Harley-Davidson said on Tuesday it is bringing production of the Revolution Max engine platform for North America back to the U.S.
The motorbike maker uses the engine in its Sportster S, Nightster and Pan America 1250 models.
The move also brings machining, powertrain assembly, painting, and final vehicle assembly work back to Harley-Davidson's facilities in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
A move of this scale was likely planned well in advance of Indian's pivot, but the timing of this announcement makes it look like a response to all the dumb shitstirring that Indian initiated. The economics of Harley's move here might make sense for American buyers — the company gets to dodge tariffs on imported engines — but it risks making bikes more expensive in the overseas markets where Harley desperately needs to compete.
3rd Gear: Mercedes' fancy new electric motors enter mass production
Mercedes-Benz is introducing fancy new axial-flux electric motors for its latest EVs, which save weight and energy relative to traditional radial flux motors. Those new motors have finally hit mass production, and it won't be long before they're hitting streets near you. From Automotive News:
Mercedes-Benz launched series production of a new lightweight electric motor for the next generation of its luxury AMG vehicles, taking a step closer towards resolving the challenge of electrifying high-performance cars.
Production of the technology, known as an axial flux motor, will take place at Mercedes' oldest plant in Berlin-Marienfelde, now serving as the competence center for high-performance electric motors, the company said in a statement. The axial flux electric motor is to debut in the new Mercedes-AMG GT 4-door coupe.
"With the launch of mass production of the axial flux motor in Berlin-Marienfelde, we are turning a groundbreaking innovation for electric mobility into industrial reality," Mercedes production chief Michael Schiebe said.
I, for one, love fancy new EV tech. I couldn't care less about colored interior lighting or bigger screens, but these motors are genuinely cool new developments. I can't wait to drive one.
4th Gear: Honda recalls nearly 900,000 cars for rear suspension failures
Fourth Gear is the recall spot once again, but this time it's unrelated to Ford. Honda is recalling nearly 900,000 SUVs, for suspension components that can corrode and fail. From Reuters:
June 10 (Reuters) – Honda Motor America has recalled 880,514 vehicles in the United States over the failure of rear suspension components in the vehicles, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on Wednesday.
The recall includes certain Honda Pilot, Ridgeline, Passport, Acura MDX vehicles, the NHTSA said.
The vehicles can experience failure of rear suspension components, such as the rear control arm which could lead to the loss handling and control, increasing the risk of a crash or injury.
The actual NHTSA listing has a bit more information, specifying that the affected vehicles are the 2014-2020 Acura MDX, 2019-2023 Honda Passport, 2016-2022 Honda Pilot, and 2017-2023 Honda Ridgeline. All affected vehicles are also located in the eastern U.S., mostly in states that see snow.
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The Fuel Up
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On The Radio: The Mountain Goats - 'Shallow Grave'
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