Canadians Want A European Car Market

Happy Friday! It's October 9, 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 Canada's desire for a more European car market, and new German fines on Volkswagen. We'll also look at Honda's plans for a Southeast Asian pickup, and sales for Chinese-built Teslas. 

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Europe's car market is full of affordable EVs and compacts, while the U.S. market runs on gasoline-fueled trucks and crossovers. We've generally determined the path for all of North America, but now Canadians want a market that more closely resembles the EU. From Automotive News: 

Just short of half of Canadians want the country's vehicle market to become more like Europe's — with more compact and electric options — as affordability problems persist, tariffs strain North American auto ties and Canada explores associate membership in the European Union.

Of nearly 2,800 Canadian adults polled in September, 47 per cent said they would prefer the car market move toward Europe, compared with 21 per cent who backed more U.S. influence. The remainder wanted no change, according to the Abacus Data study commissioned by think tank Clean Energy Canada.

I, too, want things over here to be more like Europe. Both because Europe gets more powerful Civic Type Rs, and because the continent gets less powerful far-right white supremacist freaks. Mostly. They're actually following in our footsteps a bit on that front. 

Volkswagen has been trying to cut costs everywhere it can, as the automaker attempts to shrink its scale to increase its profits, but it seems the company shrunk one section too quickly: Its financial compliance wing. Now it's facing $1.3 million in fines for keeping information private, and not allowing investors to act on it. From the Wall Street Journal:

The German financial supervisory authority fined Volkswagen 1.2 million euros ($1.3 million), saying the automaker failed to disclose potentially market-moving news in a proper and timely manner.

The regulator, known as BaFin, said Friday that Volkswagen's forecast for the 2023 financial year was significantly above market expectations, and that the German automaker should have issued an immediate, or ad hoc, announcement for financial markets regarding the business performance reflected in the forecast.

Instead, the company published this inside information in a press release, the regulator said.

One could make the argument that a press release is still a manner of publishing financial information, and I'm sure some very highly paid lawyers will make exactly that argument. However, if the company has a history of publishing its financial details in a manner that doesn't match this specific release, it could still have a problem — it's not a great look to bury your estimates. 

Honda builds a fantastic pickup in the Ridgeline, but many still deride it as being "not a real truck" because of its unibody construction. Now it seems Honda is looking to silence those naysayers with a proper truck, but one we won't get in the States. From Automotive News: 

TOKYO — Honda will dive into body-on-frame trucks, with a rebadged version of the Mitsubishi Triton pickup for sale in Southeast Asia, as the loss-making Japanese automaker tries to offset crumbling sales in China with new product in other markets, Japanese media reported.

Honda Motor Corp. will put its version of the Triton on sale from 2028, according to Oct. 9 reports in the Yomiuri and Nikkei newspapers. A Honda spokesman in Tokyo said the company had not announced such a decision and declined to comment on the reports.

Would you rather have your Honda truck be a real truck or a real Honda? I'd take the real Honda seven days a week, but not everyone thinks like I do. I, for one, like the Ridgeline — even if I think it's needlessly wide. Still, trucks like the Triton are a hit in more developing markets, and Honda could use the help as its China sales dwindle. 

Speaking of China sales, Tesla's are doing great. Not in China itself, but sales of cars built in China are going gangbusters abroad and the export market is buoying the Shanghai gigafactory. From Reuters: 

Tesla's China-made electric vehicle sales rose 5% from ​a year earlier in September, picking up from ‌a 3.6% increase in August, as the company's sales rebound in Europe continued.

Deliveries of Model 3 and Model Y ​vehicles built in its Shanghai factory, including ​exports to Europe, Asia Pacific and Canada, increased ⁠to 95,366 units from 90,812 the year before, ​notching the 11th consecutive month of annual gains, ​data from the China Passenger Car Association showed on Friday.

Tesla is actually putting over $1,000 on the hood of Model Ys in China, so it's likely the Shanghai factory would be in rough shape were it not for all the export sales. The company is set to have a growth year in 2026, despite the rough year for EVs in its home country, but it's still possible that "Musk" documentary could change things. Anything could happen. 

It's actually been a long time since I've seen a Che tee in real life. Do people still wear those?

Looks like we're back to another point of stability, with one-cent jumps between days. Unfortunately, the new baseline is a lot higher than the last one. 

Aren't you tired of being nice?