The Car Curious Weekly is a look at what the automotive podcast world is talking about, who's saying it, and what patterns emerge when you listen to all of them at once.
May 10 - May 16, 2026 · 247 episodes across 163 podcasts.
This week's most discussed topics: Brembo's Sensify brake-by-wire system, which removes hydraulics entirely and puts an electric motor at each corner, got serious treatment from two shows as a genuine architecture shift rather than an upgrade. CATL's CTO put a precise number on fast charging and walked through the tradeoffs between sodium-ion, lithium, and solid-state chemistry.
Meanwhile, Honda, Mazda, and Subaru all announced EV retreats in the same week, Toyota disclosed a $1 billion North American tariff hit alongside a new Texas plant filing, and GM settled a connected-car data case that prompted three separate podcasts to ask what driver data is actually being sold.
Brembo Sensify Drops the Hydraulics: What Brake-by-Wire Actually Changes
Brembo's Sensify system, covered this week by both The Avants Podcast and Everyday Driver Car Debate, replaces the entire hydraulic braking circuit with electric motors at all four wheels, a shift the hosts treated as a genuine architecture change rather than an incremental upgrade.
The Avants Podcast detailed how per-wheel actuation means ABS can engage at a single corner while the other three maintain full traction, and how losing a brake line in a collision no longer takes out the system.
A Big-Budget Garage, An EV Might Be Perfect, Taking The Family | Episode 1,045
"That means that each of the four brakes individually can apply a different amount of brake pressure based on speeds."
Everyday Driver Car Debate flagged the EV angle: regenerative braking already complicates pedal modulation, and the hosts noted that electronically controlled feel is precisely where current brake interactions have fallen short. Both shows treated Sensify's market arrival as the inflection point where that problem becomes solvable.
Brake-by-Wire Is Here… Are We Still Driving?
"Brembo Sensify is basically brake-by-wire — true brake-by-wire. It removes the hydraulic master cylinders, the whole hydraulic system in some cases all the way down to the wheels, and it adds electric motors at all four wheels."
CATL's CTO Puts a Number on Fast Charging, While Fleet Data Challenges EV Battery Anxiety
Lim Bosu, CATL's head of overseas technology development, told Everything Electric Podcast that the company's latest cells can charge from 10 to 80 percent state of charge in three minutes and 44 seconds, and that sodium-ion chemistry offers a particular edge in cold-weather performance.
On solid-state batteries, he described demo vehicles arriving within two years but mass production still several years beyond that, partly because solid-state energy densities above 250 watt-hours per kilogram make the chemistry harder to control safely.
CATL CTO On The Truth About 3-Minute Charging, Sodium & Solid-State!
"For the fast charge, you talk about like 10% to 80% SoC is like three minutes, 44 seconds."
What the interview establishes is that the gap between fast-charging marketing and actual chemistry tradeoffs is narrower than the fear narrative suggests. Each chemistry — sodium-ion, lithium, solid-state — carries a defined tradeoff rather than a binary win.
Japan's EV Retreat: Honda, Mazda, and Subaru All Pivot to Hybrids in the Same Week
Honda posted a $2.6 billion operating loss for the fiscal year ending March and responded by scrapping its 2040 combustion-free goal entirely. Automotive News Daily Drive reported the company is now planning 15 new hybrid models through 2030, while delaying the Odyssey, Accord, HR-V, and MDX until after 2030. Auto Buyers Guide Podcast put Honda's 2025 sales decline at 24% and questioned whether the company has the engineering bandwidth to execute a fast hybrid pivot after not building out a serious EV platform to begin with.
Honda's Product Delays, The RAV4 Is The Only PHEV That Makes Sense & Alex Is Still Car Shopping
Honda's retreat was matched by Subaru, which recorded a $362 million charge tied to EV write-offs with tariffs pushing its profit down 90%, and by Mazda, the sharpest case study of the three. EV News Daily reported April sales fell 17.3% year over year. Mazda simultaneously pushed its first dedicated EV platform back by at least two years to 2029, cut EV investment by roughly half, and now expects EVs to make up just 15% of sales by 2030, down from a prior forecast of 25 to 40%.
May 14, 2026 | Honda posts first loss since 1957
Three Japanese brands. Three separate announcements. All pointing the same direction in the same week.
GM's $12.75 Million OnStar Settlement and What Connected-Car Data Actually Costs
GM agreed to pay $12.75 million in civil penalties to California after selling driver data collected through OnStar to data brokers and insurance companies between 2020 and 2024. CarEdge Live covered the settlement in detail, noting the data included names, locations, and driving behavior from hundreds of thousands of drivers. The FTC separately banned GM and OnStar from sharing geolocation and driving behavior data with consumer reporting agencies for five years.
The Truck Show Podcast placed it alongside a John Deere right-to-repair settlement as part of a broader pattern of companies paying to settle data and access disputes after the fact. The Watt Car EV Podcast raised the practical angle: OBD2 dongles that track driving habits for insurance discounts are feeding the same data pipeline, and most drivers connecting them have no clear picture of where that data goes.
S3, E92 - Have You Heard? Truck News!
270: Morbid Curiosity
Toyota's $2 Billion Texas Plant, and Why Tariffs Are the Subtext
Toyota filed for state and local tax incentives on a proposed $2 billion assembly plant in Texas, to be built next to its existing truck plant where the Tundra and Sequoia are built. Automotive News Daily Drive reported the filing and noted the plant would expand North American manufacturing capacity at a moment when tariffs have already cost Toyota more than $1 billion in North American profits.
With the average new-vehicle sticker price now over $50,000 and hybrid demand outpacing what any manufacturer can currently supply, the Texas plant announcement is less about growth and more about reducing exposure to import costs on vehicles that American buyers are actually buying.
May 15, 2026 | Toyota eyes $2B Texas plant; AutoPayPlus CEO on affordability
Hidden Gems
Episodes worth checking out that you might have missed:
- The 2026 9WERKS Awards Live & Grant Larson's Design Secrets (9WERKS Radio : The Porsche and Car Podcast), Direct access to a Porsche designer explaining the evolution from Boxster to 911 derivatives, Sonderwunsch customization secrets, and the real design workflow, clay, digital, motorsport mentorship, rather than just reviewing finished cars.
- Episode 116: Skywalker Ranchero (Tired: The Car Podcast For People Who Understand That Cars Are Bad), Rare behind-the-scenes look at Ford's EV 'Skunk Works' development setup with climate-controlled rolling road, battery validation labs, and metrology, showing how cost-cutting and rapid prototyping actually work in practice.
- 351: ADAS Warning Lights With No Codes (Automotive Diagnostic Podcast), Deep technical troubleshooting that walks through real no-code ADAS scenarios (Toyota ROB data, ECU security key resets, Nissan windshield camera obstruction) that dealers and techs actually encounter but rarely discuss publicly.
- Nathan Merz: Is a 911 Cabriolet the Best Way to Buy Your First Porsche? (Porsche Club Insider), Practical first-Porsche buying strategy with honest talk on 996 water-cooled affordability, convertible top durability, PDK service risk, and HVAC repairs, the real ownership details that forums skip over.
Quotes of the Week
"Honda is delaying the Odyssey, the Accord, the HRV and the MDX until after 2030, which is a wow."
"Most people are happy with 40 to 50 miles in the latest crop of plug-in hybrids, so 150 miles is triple that, which I think is plenty."
Here's The Latest And Greatest News About The New Scout Range Extender! | Ep. 337 on TFL Car Chat
Recommendations
If You Only Listen To One
Here's The Latest And Greatest News About The New Scout Range Extender! | Ep. 337, TFL Car Chat
TFL gave the Scout range extender the most detailed treatment of any new EV program this week, and the architecture is what makes the episode worth your time. It's a true series hybrid: no mechanical connection between the gas engine and the wheels, the engine's only job is to charge the battery. The full electric version offers 350 miles of range; the range extender reaches 500 miles, with 150 miles of battery-only range before the engine engages. Two models are confirmed — the Traveler (SUV) and the Terra (pickup) — and current reservations are skewed sharply: 75% are for the SUV and 85% are for the range extender variant. Production begins in 2027 at a factory being built in the Carolinas, with deliveries starting in 2028. TFL's point that 150 miles of all-electric range is triple what most plug-in hybrid owners use day-to-day reframes the range extender as a confident primary vehicle rather than a compromise.
More Episodes Worth Hearing
- C7 Corvette, Porsche 930 & Car Trailers: Towlos Startup (To All The Cars I've Loved Before), The first half is a tight driving-dynamics conversation: why the Porsche 930 earned its "Widowmaker" reputation (lift the throttle mid-corner, the turbo lag spikes on the way back down and the tail goes), why bridges ice before the road surface, how a C7 Grand Sport handles Chicago winter before the tires warm up. The second half is the surprise — one of the hosts co-founded Towlos, a peer-to-peer trailer rental marketplace pitched as Turo for enclosed and open trailers. The logistics of vetting listings, handling unusual trailer types, and booking via mobile all get worked through in a way that's genuinely useful if you've ever needed to move a car and found the options thin.
- The Motorcycle Sidecar Journey That Changed Everything (Adventure Rider Radio, Motorcycle Podcast), Eva Streler's story (picking up a rescue dog, building a sidecar, setting off across the US at 37 with a loose plan) is the kind of travel narrative that works whether or not you ride motorcycles. The practical details about sidecar handling (the bike stays upright, can't lean into corners) add real weight to what's otherwise a personal story about trusting strangers and adapting when things go sideways.
- 296 The Battery Charging Percentage Episode (The EV Musings Podcast), Uses the iPhone battery as an entry point to explain state of health and why '100%' means less over time, which immediately makes the concept accessible. The breakdown of NMC versus LFP and why heat is the real enemy of the former is handled without jargon overload. Practical charging advice is specific rather than vague, and the evdatabase.org tip for identifying your car's actual battery chemistry is a useful find.
- Brown March (Smith and Sniff), Easy, unforced host chemistry. The strimmer cold-start saga lands as a metaphor for every over-complicated diagnosis that turns out to be operator error, and the pivot from small-engine tinkering to auction-car picking feels natural. The MBtec leather tangent is the sort of nerdy-but-accessible detail that rewards paying attention. Even if you've never looked at an R107 in your life, it's a good listen.
- Car Pro Radio Show May 16 26 Hour 2 (CarPro Radio Show), The listener call about oil consumption on a 2020 F-150 5.0 V8 (a quart every 2,000 miles) opens up a broader conversation about what's normal, what's not, and how to think about warranty decisions when an engine is technically within spec. The diminished value claim segment is practical consumer advice that most people don't know to ask for after an at-fault accident repairs their car.
- DAILY: BYD To Develop Cars In Europe, Mazda Retreats To Hybrids and German Automakers Still Fighting Clean Air Targets (EV News Daily), Martyn Lee's twenty-minute daily format covers the Mazda retreat in numbers (platform delayed to 2029, investment halved, EV share guidance cut from 25–40% to 15% by 2030), and the BYD-in-Europe coverage draws the contrast: Chinese automakers are building local engineering capacity in the same week Japanese ones are pulling back. The German clean-air-targets segment rounds it out with what regulatory pressure looks like when manufacturers push back.
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By the Numbers
Most-Discussed Cars
| Car | Mentions |
|---|---|
| Ford Mustang | 30 |
| Dodge Charger | 25 |
| Chevrolet Camaro | 20 |
| Toyota Camry | 19 |
| Porsche 911 | 18 |
| Toyota RAV4 | 17 |
| Honda Civic | 17 |
| Chevrolet Corvette | 17 |
| Tesla Model Y | 15 |
| Toyota Corolla | 14 |
| Ford F-150 | 13 |
| Toyota Tundra | 13 |
| Ford Maverick | 12 |
| Toyota Prius | 12 |
Trending Terminology
| Term | Mentions |
|---|---|
| horsepower | 24 |
| torque | 23 |
| EV | 15 |
| clutch | 12 |
| warranty | 12 |
| transmission | 11 |
| MSRP | 11 |
| downforce | 10 |
| Apple CarPlay | 10 |
| hybrid | 10 |
| oil change | 10 |
| fuel injection | 10 |
Publishing Pattern
| Day | Episodes |
|---|---|
| Sunday May 10 | 17 |
| Monday May 11 | 41 |
| Tuesday May 12 | 38 |
| Wednesday May 13 | 45 |
| Thursday May 14 | 49 |
| Friday May 15 | 37 |
| Saturday May 16 | 20 |
247 episodes. 2,799 car mentions. 10,776 terms explained. Browse every episode with searchable annotations and plain-language term definitions in the Car Curious app.