Honda Wants To Cut $9 Billion In Costs

Happy Monday! It's September 2, 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 Honda's latest cost-cutting measures, and August's auto sales. We'll also look at Tesla's latest FSD push in the EU, and more Chinese EVs in Canada.

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Every automaker outside of China is in a panic-induced cost-cutting era, and Honda is no different. The company is looking to save over $9 billion within the next four years, and it has a method it's trying right now: Telling suppliers to charge less. From Reuters: 

TOKYO, Sept 2 (Reuters) – Japan's Honda aims to cut more than $9 billion in ​costs over the next four years and has instructed suppliers to drastically reduce their prices, according to internal documents and one person familiar with ‌the matter.

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The maker of the CR-V sport-utility vehicle now aims to save 1.5 trillion yen ($9.4 billion) by 2030, according to the documents and the person.

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Honda managers briefed suppliers on the plan and ​said it would also look to source more components from Chinese suppliers, one of the people said. Each supplier was later presented with company-specific targets to cut costs, the people said.

Honda is ‌aiming to ⁠reduce costs by 30% in three key parts categories: pressed and forged components, electrical parts and parts related to software-defined vehicles (SDVs), according to the documents. Such a reduction would allow Japanese suppliers to better compete with Chinese rivals, the documents said.

I understand this amounts to bargaining, but I'd love to be able to tell my suppliers to charge less. I want to set prices for gas, grocery stores, and for the cars on Facebook Marketplace. 

August sales numbers are coming in, and the month wasn't fantastic for Toyota. Its sales dropped, largely thanks to a lack of Rav4s as the company retools to produce the updated model, but its business partner had a much better outlook. From Automotive News: 

U.S. sales edged up at Honda Motor Co., Kia and Subaru but fell at Toyota Motor Corp., Hyundai and Mazda in August, previewing what is expected to be a weaker month across the industry.

Toyota reported a 4.4 percent drop in August deliveries, with volume down 4.8 percent at the Toyota division and 1.6 percent at Lexus.

It was a mixed month for Toyota's biggest sellers: RAV4, down 19 percent; Camry, down 9.7 percent; Tacoma, off 8.9 percent, Corolla, up 1.5 percent; Corolla Cross, up 25 percent; Grand Highlander, down 24 percent; and Prius, off 32 percent.

Toyota, already facing the industry's leanest supplies, is also hamstrung by a shortage of RAV4s. The compact crossover has been redesigned for 2026 and supplies are tight as Toyota retools several plants to build it.

Subaru saw a 1.3% rise in sales, which is notable at a company that only currently sells two hybrids. Fuel-efficient vehicles are where the market is, and that segment has never been Subaru's strong suit. 

Tesla's FSD software suite is available in a few select parts of Europe, but not the entire economic bloc. The company is looking to change that with an EU vote, but it's going to need data to support its safety claims — data that experts say isn't all it claims to be. From Reuters: 

STOCKHOLM, Sept 1 (Reuters) – Tesla's  supervised self-driving technology recorded 4.1 times fewer collisions than manually driven Tesla cars in the five European countries where it is permitted, the ​automaker said on Tuesday, as it steps up lobbying efforts ahead ‌of an EU vote on wider deployment.

The Netherlands in April became the first European country to grant provisional approval for Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) system, prompting Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, and Lithuania to follow suit ahead of a ​European Union vote on broader approval.

Tesla said its findings were based on ​more than 100 million km (62 million miles) of driving data collected ⁠between April and August in those five countries, where FSD-equipped cars were involved ​in three collisions on highways and nine on non-highway roads, compared with 137 ​and 490 collisions respectively involving manually driven vehicles.

You're telling me Tesla massaged its numbers to make itself look good? I am shocked. Shocked, I tell you. There are lies, damned lies, statistics, and anything Tesla tells you. 

Canada's Chinese car quota is back open, and it's time for EVs to come pouring in. The nation set a limit of 49,000 Chinese cars per year in a trade deal back in January, but for 2026 that quota is split — half at the top of the year, half at the end. Tuesday, that back half opened up. From Automotive News: 

Canada opened the door Sept. 1 to another 24,500 China-made electrified vehicles as its import quota reset and the new trade policy began its seventh month.

The fresh allotment comes as Chinese automakers build a more visible presence in Canada and inch closer to launching sales.

Ottawa installed the quota for imports as part of a trade deal with Beijing in January, replacing an inhibitive 100-per-cent tariff in place since 2024. It will allow 49,000 China-made EVs into Canada in its first year, but the government divided the 12-month period in half, making 24,500 import permits available March 1, followed by the remainder Sept. 1. Chinese EVs that enter Canada within the quota are still subject to Canada's normal 6.1 per cent most-favoured-nation tariff.

Global Affairs Canada issued quota for 15,344 China-made EVs and 259 hybrids, during the import system's first six months, according to the most recent accounting Aug. 28.

It's a little funny to read over the list of brands that have made their way to Canadian shores, given how few of them come to mind as Canadian. Polestar, Lotus, Tesla, even Ford have ruled imports from China recently — though the brands that started in China are likely to come soon. 

It's all about musubi.

Now this is the kind of jump that made us start The Fuel Up in the first place! Three cents in a day — that's not a small number.  

I'd been working on this boulder problem for days, and finally got it last night! It's a totally different type of climbing from what I'm used to — crack climbing, where you wedge your hands into gaps rather than using them to grab onto holds — and it's so fun to now have that as a skill in my quiver.

I've been in a Speedy Ortiz mood recently, and this is the track that got me into the band! Weird to go from hearing a song in a video game to being in one of that band's music videos.