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The Detroit skyline and GM Renaissance Center lit up at dusk, seen across the Detroit River from Windsor, Ontario
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Week in Reverse: October 18–24, 2026

Written by AutoGathering Staff
The Detroit skyline and GM Renaissance Center lit up at dusk, seen across the Detroit River from Windsor, Ontario

Week in Reverse: October 18–24, 2026

Earnings week hit hard. GM posted a record-revenue quarter and a $20 billion buyback, Tesla’s profit shrank while its Cybercab racked up robotaxi miles, and Volvo cut 2,500 jobs. Up here in Canada, Stellantis workers handed Unifor a 97.3% strike mandate just as Ottawa and Ontario put C$8.7 billion on the table to fight US tariffs. Here’s everything you missed, biggest stories first.

Week in Reverse · Automotive News

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October 18 to 24, 2026 · 8 min read

This Week at a Glance

The numbers that defined the week:

GM third-quarter revenue $50.0 billion Up 2.9%, with a new $20 billion buyback

Unifor strike vote 97.3% Stellantis workers in Canada voted yes

Canada-Ontario support package C$8.7 billion Including C$2.5 billion for the auto sector

EU electric car registrations +72.9% September, versus a year earlier

Volvo Cars job cuts 2,500 About 2,000 of them in Sweden

Land Cruiser Hybrids recalled 105,794 For a fuel leak and fire risk

01 · Business

Earnings Week: GM Cashes In, Tesla Bets on Robots, Volvo Bleeds

Three very different report cards landed this week, and together they tell you a lot about where the car business is right now: trucks still pay the bills, EVs are a grind, and anyone too exposed to China and US tariffs is getting squeezed.

Gold two-seat Tesla Cybercab driving on a San Francisco street

A Tesla Cybercab out in San Francisco in June 2026. Tesla says the two-seater started giving Robotaxi rides in Austin on September 3.

GM posts a record-revenue quarter (Oct 20)

Chevrolet and Cadillac parent General Motors brought in $50.0 billion in revenue in the third quarter, up 2.9% from a year ago and the biggest quarter in its history. Net income jumped to $3.3 billion from $1.3 billion, and adjusted operating profit (what GM calls EBIT-adjusted) rose about 22% to $4.1 billion.

Profitable pickups and big SUVs did the heavy lifting again, and the charges from GM’s EV pullback shrank to $238 million, down from $1.6 billion a year earlier. GM narrowed its full-year profit forecast to $14.5 billion to $15.5 billion of adjusted operating profit, and its board approved a fresh $20 billion share buyback.

Tesla’s profit shrinks, but the Cybercab is driving (Oct 21)

Tesla revenue was flat at $28.05 billion, but GAAP net income fell to $787 million and operating margin dropped to just 2.6% as operating expenses rose 39%. Deliveries were 486,532, and Tesla says it set delivery records in Canada, Australia, Japan and Taiwan.

The story Tesla wants you to hear is software and autonomy. More than 75% of new North American deliveries came with FSD (Supervised), active FSD subscriptions rose 67% to 1.74 million, and the Cybercab has been giving Robotaxi rides in Austin since September 3. Unsupervised Robotaxi miles grew eightfold in the quarter to nearly 2 million (about 3.2 million km). The Semi is in volume production in Nevada, and the Roadster shown on October 15 is still in design development.

Volvo Cars hits the wall (Oct 23)

This was the ugly one. Volvo Cars’ revenue fell 22.6% to SEK 66.9 billion, it swung to an operating loss of SEK 5.6 billion, and it announced about 2,500 more job cuts, roughly 2,000 of them in Sweden, on top of 3,000 cut earlier. Its shares fell more than 26% to a record low. Volvo blamed weak demand, China and US tariffs.

There’s a sliver of good news: Volvo says a cheaper EV on its SPA3 platform is coming in 2027, and the new EX60 has passed 50,000 orders in Europe. Reports disagree on how cheap the US entry model will be, so wait for Volvo to say.

Our take: GM is proof that big, profitable trucks still pay for everything else. Tesla is asking you to value it as a robotaxi company while the car business sputters, and that’s a bet, not a result. Volvo is the warning: a premium brand with no cheap answer to China gets hurt fast.

02 · Canada

Canada’s Auto Industry Digs In: A Strike Mandate and C$8.7 Billion

It was a huge week for the Canadian car business, and not in a relaxed way.

On Monday, October 19, Unifor announced that 97.3% of its Stellantis members who voted had backed a strike mandate. The union represents more than 9,000 Stellantis workers in Canada, including about 6,400 at Windsor Assembly. The sticking point is Brampton Assembly: the plant has sat idle for almost three years, and Stellantis wants to sell it to Roshel, a Canadian armoured-vehicle maker, which would end car production there. Talks have been stalled since September 11.

Don’t expect picket lines tomorrow, though. Neither side has asked Ontario for a “no board” report yet, and a legal strike can only start 17 days after one is issued. Unifor says a deal is still achievable, while Windsor sits through a three-week layoff that started the same day.

Two days later, on October 21, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced a joint package of about C$8.7 billion for industries hit by US tariffs. That includes C$2.5 billion to help Ontario’s auto sector retool, C$5 billion for steel and C$1 billion for roads to the Ring of Fire mining region. Ottawa also plans to freeze its fleet-average emissions standard for new light vehicles at 172 grams per mile (about 107 g/km) through 2029, giving automakers breathing room. Early reports gave different totals, so we’re using the corrected figure from BNN Bloomberg.

Unifor welcomed the money but wants it tied to hard guarantees, starting with keeping Brampton building vehicles.

Our take: Money for retooling is nice, but it doesn’t fix the real problem: US tariffs that make Canadian-built cars more expensive to sell south of the border. If you work in the industry, Brampton is the one to watch. If it becomes an armoured-vehicle plant, Canada loses another assembly line for good.

03 · New Cars

New Metal: A Cheaper Mach-E, a $239,000 Escalade and a $10,000 BYD

No big auto show this week, but plenty of news you can actually shop for:

Blue Ford Mustang Mach-E driving through a city intersection

A 2024 Ford Mustang Mach-E. The 2027 model announced this week looks much the same but drops the standard-range battery.

  • 2027 Ford Mustang Mach-EFrom $39,995Ford dropped the standard-range battery, so every Mach-E now gets the bigger pack. EPA range tops out at 320 miles (515 km) for the rear-drive car. A new $2,295 Trail package for the Select eAWD adds a slight lift and 19-inch wheels; its range isn’t out yet.
  • Cadillac Escalade-V 125th AnniversaryAbout $239,000Only 252 will be built to mark Cadillac‘s 125th birthday, with 24-inch forged wheels, carbon trim and blue calipers. Buyers can pick their serial number. The supercharged V8 carries over.
  • 2027 Lexus TZ 450eFrom $64,050Lexus priced its three-row electric SUV in the US. It makes 308 hp, uses a NACS port, and EPA range runs from 253 to 315 miles (407 to 507 km) depending on trim.
  • BYD Seagull (China)From 65,900 yuanThe all-new BYD Seagull starts at about US$9,800 in China, with up to 420 km (261 miles) on China’s generous CLTC cycle. Top trims get flash charging, 10 to 70% in about five minutes. No word on exports.
  • 2027 Jeep WranglerFrom $39,985Jeep‘s 2027 update adds features and new colors. Prices are up across the board, and the Sahara jumps $2,500 to $51,410, slightly more than a Rubicon.

Our take: The Mach-E is the quiet winner here. Dropping the small battery and keeping the price near $40,000 makes it a much easier recommendation. The BYD Seagull is the one that should worry everyone else: that’s a real EV for about the price of a used compact.

04 · EVs

Europe’s EV Sales Are Booming Again

While North American EV sales stay soft, Europe is going the other way. New figures from ACEA, the European automakers’ association, released October 22, show EU new-car registrations rose 9.3% in September to 971,048. Battery-electric registrations jumped 72.9% to 290,117, almost 30% of the market for the month.

So far this year, EVs have taken 22.7% of EU sales, up from 16.1% a year ago, while hybrids lead at 36.3% and gasoline-only cars are down 19.1%. High fuel prices, subsidies and cheaper models are doing the work. And BYD more than doubled its EU sales in September to 28,309.

Why you should care When almost one in three new cars sold in a month is electric, the old “nobody wants EVs” line stops working, at least in Europe. It’s also why automakers keep developing EVs even while they scale back in the US: the rest of the world is still buying them.

05 · Tech

Tech Moves: Waymo Heads to Madrid, GM Closes a Battery Plant

Waymo picks Madrid (Oct 20)

Waymo announced the Madrid region as its next market, with first riders targeted for 2027 in Jaguar I-PACEs, starting with human-driven mapping. Separately, Reuters and Semafor reported that Waymo wants to double its fleet to about 8,000 vehicles by the end of 2026. Waymo hasn’t confirmed those numbers.

GM closes its Brownstown battery plant (Oct 20-21)

GM is shutting its Brownstown Battery Assembly Plant south of Detroit, which built packs for the Cadillac Celestiq and the hybrid system for the Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray. GM says the lease is up and the move isn’t about its EV strategy, and the work and employees will move to other GM plants.

Solid-state batteries get closer (Oct 21)

SAIC and battery maker Qingtao commissioned the first phase of a 10 GWh solid-state battery plant in Kunshan, China. SAIC hasn’t said what energy density the cells deliver, so treat the hype carefully until real cars use them.

06 · Racing

Racing: Reddick Shakes Up the Chase, Bulega Signs Off

No F1 this week (the Formula 1 US Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas is on Sunday, October 25), but there was plenty going on.

NASCAR: Reddick wins Phoenix, Larson’s lead nearly gone (Oct 18)

Tyler Reddick passed Chase Briscoe with 17 laps left to win at Phoenix, his sixth win of the season. The bigger story was Kyle Larson: he started 22nd, went a lap down, then hit the wall with a flat tire and finished 34th. His 49-point lead shrank to just 5 over Christopher Bell with three races left in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. Talladega is next.

WorldSBK: Bulega wins everything (Oct 18)

Already champion, Ducati’s Nicolò Bulega won both Sunday races at Jerez to finish with 32 wins from 36 races and 726 points. Ducati won every race of 2026. Bulega moves to MotoGP with VR46 next year.

Super GT: Honda’s Prelude-GT wins Autopolis (Oct 18)

Yamamoto and Makino won the penultimate Super GT round in the #100 Team Kunimitsu Honda Prelude-GT, 1.363 seconds clear, and moved within 3 points of the title leaders heading to the Motegi finale on November 7-8.

Supercars: Mostert masters the Gold Coast rain (Oct 24)

Chaz Mostert won Saturday’s wet Race 31 at the Gold Coast 500 in his Toyota, his third straight Gold Coast win, which earns him the first ticket into the Sandown semi-final of the Supercars Championship finals. Matt Payne finished third after a penalty and stretched his points lead.

Our take: Larson went into Phoenix looking like a lock and left it in a dogfight. With Talladega next, anything can happen, and that’s exactly the chaos NASCAR’s playoff format was built for.

07 · Recalls

Recall Roundup: Check Your VIN

  • 2024-2027 Toyota Land Cruiser Hybrid105,794 vehiclesA fuel tube connection near the tank can come apart and leak fuel, a fire risk. Dealers will add a clamp or replace the tube for free.
  • 2022-2026 Land Rover Range Rover93,997 vehiclesToo few drain holes can let water damage the rearview camera, which may stop showing an image.
  • 2025-2026 Volvo EX30 and EX30 Cross Country9,930 vehiclesThe head restraint cushion may come loose in a crash.
  • 2026 Ram 25008,329 trucksThe steering column control module can cause a loss of electronic stability control.
  • 2024 Porsche 911 and 718 with center-lock wheels548 vehiclesThe center-lock wheel bolt may fracture and a wheel could come off. Porsche says don’t drive these cars until they’re fixed.

Own one of these? Run your VIN through Transport Canada’s or NHTSA’s recall lookup, or call your dealer. Recall repairs are free.

08 · Quick Hits

Quick Hits

  • The Mercedes-Benz S-Class is MotorTrend’s 2027 Car of the Year. Mercedes-Benz‘s flagship took the title, announced October 21.
  • NASCAR fined Zane Smith $50,000. On October 20 NASCAR penalized him for ramming Carson Hocevar’s car on the cool-down lap after Phoenix.
  • QuantumScape is building a 100 MWh solid-state battery line. Announced October 21 with Muehlbauer, production is planned from 2028, but it’s aimed at data centers, aerospace and defense rather than cars.

That’s the week. See you next Sunday for another Week in Reverse.

Keep Reading

Want the backstory on this week’s headliners? Dig into the brand pages and our racing coverage.

Ford
Tesla
NASCAR Cup Series

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Photo Credits

  • The Detroit skyline and GM Renaissance Center lit up at dusk, seen across the Detroit River from Windsor, Ontario. Photo: Michael Barera / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Gold two-seat Tesla Cybercab driving on a San Francisco street. Photo: 9yz / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
  • Blue Ford Mustang Mach-E driving through a city intersection. Photo: Charles from Port Chester, New York / Wikimedia Commons, CC0
Photo credits
  1. Header image: Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped and resized.
  2. Gold two-seat Tesla Cybercab driving on a…: 9yz, CC BY 4.0, cropped and resized.
  3. Blue Ford Mustang Mach-E driving through a…: Charles from Port Chester, New York, CC0, cropped and resized.