Sales of the Toyota Prius hybrid are down 51 percent as consumers embrace traditional vehicles with hybrid drivetrains. Get all the latest auto industry news in the Executive Briefing.
Today’s headlines:
+ General Motors remained the top U.S. auto seller in the third quarter despite a dip in sales, while Toyota continued to close in propelled by higher gas prices and hybrid sales. More at the Miami Herald.
+ Hyundai released specs and details of the radically redesigned Tucson compact SUV, featuring a larger, more luxurious interior and an optional hybrid powertrain rated at 42 mpg. More at Car and Driver.
+ One day after the company’s share price fell to a new low, Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa reconfirmed the automaker’s 2026 guidance figures and its cash flow targets. More at CNBC.
+ Driver Brad Keselowski, NASCAR Cup 2012 champion and co-owner of RFK Racing, will leave the team and divest his ownership share at the end of the 2026 season. More at ESPN.
+ BMW set out a restructuring plan focused on AI, management cuts, and two new model launches as the German luxury automaker seeks to restore investor confidence. More at World Auto Forum.
+ Tesla Inc.’s vehicle sales likely declined in the third quarter, and Wall Street sees little reason to expect the electric-car maker to return to meaningful growth anytime soon. More at The Detroit News.
+ Volkswagen has terminated the majority of its collective wage agreements in Germany effective December 31, sparking a potential renewal of bitter labor disputes. More at Yahoo! Finance.
+ Ram says the entire 2026 allocation of the 5.7-liter Rumble Bee, the entry-level version of the muscle truck, was sold out 90 minutes after the order book was opened. More at Autoblog.
+ Sales of the Toyota Prius hybrid are down 51 percent in the United States as consumers embrace traditional sedans and SUVS equipped with hybrid drivetrains. More at The Drive.
+ The Audi Formula 1 team revealed plans for its long-term development, including a new campus near the existing manufacturing facility and wind tunnel in Hinwil, Switzerland. More at Motorsport.com.
Photo courtesy of Toyota.
Review the previous MCG Executive Briefing from September 28 here.
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Toyota’s been operating on a limited-supply/high price per unit basis since Covid, they build what they want to build.
Sad trombone noises for Tesla, gm, Toyota, BMW, Stillantis and VW: Wah-wah-wah-waaaah…
When future anthropologists document the end of the automotive era of American history, they will quickly see the fun house mirror root cause: the contrived “paradox” of unregulated vehicle automation/illusions with baked-in unlimited single point failure modes deliberately deployed on American tax chattle roads under the classic American loophole lawyer’s speed trap infrastructure revenue mandates, self-optimized loopholegineered Ohio-style visual illusions. The fake safety of Silicone Valley user agreement liability dumping allied with shameless “Ohio ambulance chasing” poltical selfishness replaced “obsolete” American engineering ethic, honor and safety.
The late great John Volpe (1908-1994) is prolly spinning in his grave so fast he could print carbon credits like an Ohio Northern University wind lab. If green new deal could loop a daisy-chain solar turbine down to the greatest former USDOT Secretary six feet under, no doubt it would power 69% or more of the comfort dispensers inside the D.C. beltway planetoid.
The irony is the actual Volpe National Transportation Systems Center at M.I.T. in Cambridge, Mass, ground zero for ADAS/EV/AV alchemy, was originally established in 1970 to solve complex, critical and lethal American highway transportation human safety challenges with hard engineering reality in good faith and repeatable verifiable truth. Fast forward to today’s green carbon grant farming “free money” fads, synthetic data, loopholegineered loophole cascades and “legal” loopholapaloozas so obviously scientifically and mathmatically impossible, and politically obtuse that kindergarten-level engineering safety defect failures like Tesla Autopilots hitting U.S.68 roadblocks and ARL flashing text trailers in Ohio intentionally blinded by ODOT’s retarded NEPA MOU loopholegineered loophole cascade political vengence/revenge “U.S. 68 Detourgate” looholapalooza gets buried under unlimited Ohio L1 lawschool jargon monoxide, ODOT gloss and absured excuses with traffic tickets to the Ohio policeman’s ball closing the case so ODOT’s world famous cancer/luekemia/radioactive waste/black ice/crash tax/speed trap/ADAS hacker/GPS poisoning “money machine” can “legally” entrap the next Ohio road user “reverse-lotto” victim assembly line revenue event fashion, milking truckers and John Q. Public like Mrs. O’leary’s cow until it keels over desicated with nothing left to give.
Instead of providing any level of a minimal basic low-cost or no-cost kindergarten standard of ADAS/EV/AV/GPS friendly infrastructure of any kind at all, our celebrity politicians, USDOT loophole lawyers, Ohio ambulance chasers and unelected public servants pump out word redefinition manure slurries and standardized confusion-llusion-exhaustion soverign immunity scripts, the “Ohio way” whack-a-mole faster than any Ohio ambulance chaser, failed politician and an ODOT District 1 Safety Review Team rubberstamps a couple dozen blatantly non-compliant and incorrect U.S.68 detour signs cloaked in ditches behind weeds and trees in 5 counties for a year’s political vengence using no P.I.D.#, stealing U.S.68 pedestrian crosswalk/traffic signals using synthetic StreetlightData algorythms as signal warrants creating Level of Service scores out of thin air, then shamelessly certifying three sets of fingerpainted contradicting lane markings on conflict zone intersections as “engineering judgement” before sneaking out of town with that precious federal Highway Trust Fund “free money” cash-matched loot…
I just heard 2-time Indy 500 winner Gordon Johncock passed away at age 90.
R.I.P. Gordy…
Pertaining to Prius, after discontinuing Insight, Honda has strongly advanced the Civic hybrid. (I am the delighted owner of a `21 Insight. I regard the 3rd gen Insight as one of the greatly underappreciated iconic cars of all times. The drive system traces back to the Owen Magnetic.)
Tesla beat consensus estimates, delivering 486,532 cars (their numbers). The record for the 3rd quarter was set last year ahead of the loss of the tax credit. That number was 497,099 so they’re down just over 2% (10,567 cars).
I still think their cars are all smoke & mirrors but they’ve lasted far longer than I had guessed at the start. Makes me wish that I had invested in them.