Pre-Model T Fords will be featured at the 2026 Celebration of Brass at the Gilmore Car Museum. Get all the latest auto industry news in the Executive Briefing.
Today’s headlines:
+ EV maker Lucid Motors denied reports that the company is considering going private or filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which caused the share price to fall dramatically. More at CNBC.
+ Full implementation of China’s rare earth export restrictions could put $6.5 trillion in downstream production outside the country at risk, the International Energy Agency warns. More at World Auto Forum.
+ Honda will discontinue its Prologue electric SUV, which is based on the Chevrolet Blazer EV, at the end of 2026, leaving Honda without an EV in the United States for now. More at Car and Driver.
+ The Red Bull Formula 1 team is switching back to its original 2026 rear wing after several worrying failures of the new rotating-element wing for driver Max Verstappen. More at Motorsport.com.
+ Stellantis has reintroduced a supplier rewards program that encourages the automaker’s Tier 1 and 2 vendors to identify cost-saving opportunities across their operations. More at CBT News.
+ A class-action lawsuit initiated by a Ford owner in San Diego is asking the courts to decide that the automakers owe car buyers a refund for the tariff costs they’ve paid. More at The Drive.
+ In the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, economists Niall Ferguson and Moritz Schularick speculated that Volkswagen could be acquired by a Chinese automaker. More at Autoblog.
+ In Canada, sales of electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles rose by 20 percent in May compared to the same month last year as the government reinstituted tax credits. More at Motor Illustrated.
+ Ford’s pre-Model T letter cars will be featured at the 2026 Celebration of Brass hosted by the Museum of the Horseless Carriage at the Gilmore Car Museum on July 17-18. More at Old Cars.
+ Kelley Earnhardt-Miller, co-owner of JR Motorsports in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, confirmed that driver Justin Allgaier plans to return to the organization in 2027. More at Jayski.
Photo by Mac’s Motor City Garage.com.
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In the cult classic movie “Trading Places”, Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy), Louis Winthorpe (Dan Aykroyd), and Ophelia (Jamie Lee Curtiss) intercept the real USDA orange crop report and replace it with a counterfeit one. They trick the corrupt Duke brothers into believing there is a severe shortage of oranges, causing the Dukes to frantically buy futures and drive prices into the stratosphere. Ophelia’s sassy character arc alone is a carbon reduction case study worthy of repeated review.
However, the IEA’s Global Critical Minerals Outlook is a genuine public WARNING, not trickery. China really does control over 90% of all rare earth minerals refining, and their coming supply-chain disruptions/licensing/shortages (delayed for one year by treaty) is based on Beijing policy.
The situation in Trading Places relied on a fake report used to pull off an illegal short-squeeze scheme, whereas this IEA report is a very real WARNING to American and global markets and governments to prepare for an actual “geopolitical threat” that even Helen Keller and Stevie Wonder can see coming from 5000 miles away…
Randolph and Mortimer Duke would be utterly defenseless in this scenario. The Dukes’ entire business model relied on manipulating a highly predictable, regulated American agricultural market using simple insider bribery. Confronted with a superpower monopoly like China’s rare earth stranglehold, their standard Wall Street playbook completely falls apart!
The International Energy Agency (IEA) confirmed that Beijing’s expanded mineral curbs put an estimated $7 trillion in global downstream production at risk across the automotive, high-tech, defense, and energy sectors. The U.S. and China agreed to a temporary one-year delay, that truce is scheduled to expire in November 2026, setting up a massive economic upheaval for next year.