Stellantis is betting its U.S. sales comeback on Ram trucks as the Jeep brand falters. Get all the latest auto industry news in the Executive Briefing.
Today’s headlines:
+ Tesla is on course to end two straight years of falling sales after its third-quarter deliveries beat Wall Street estimates, triggering a rebound in the EV maker’s share price. More at Reuters.
+ Ford, JPMorgan Chase, and the state of Michigan are launching a $3 billion program to provide companies with financing, workforce support, and other resources to scale production. More at Ward’s Auto.
+ California’s new CARS Act targets dealer junk fees to require transparent pricing, limit add-on charges, and create a three-day cancellation period for many used vehicles. More at Autoweek.
+ The Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix race in Malaysia was delayed for an hour when multiple cars slowed or stopped on the parade lap due to a software bug in their power units. More at Motorsport.com.
+ Toyota opened a 30,000 square-feet, $50 million research center in Southeast Michigan to serve as its North American hub for EV battery development and evaluation. More at CBT News.
+ Rivian reported record third-quarter deliveries of 19,248 vehicles, beating analysts’ estimates after rolling out its cheaper R2 SUV targeted at a broader section of the EV market. More at World Auto Forum.
+ Aston Martin CEO Adrian Hallmark says the luxury carmaker won’t release its first EV until 2033 at the earliest, advancing a plan to produce V8 and V12 models through 2025. More at Car and Driver.
+ Pebble Beach Company announced that Vince W. Finaldi has been appointed Chairman of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, while Sandra Button remains as an advisor. More at Old Cars.
+ While Jeep remains the corporate leader for Stellantis in U.S. sales, the automaker is betting on Ram trucks for its sales revival in the U.S. due to its greater momentum. More at The Drive.
+ NASCAR has adjusted its superspeedway rules for the Oct. 25 Cup Series restrictor plate race at Talladega, reducing the rear spoiler height and adjusting the stage lengths. More at Yahoo! Sports.
Photo courtesy of Stellantis.
Review the previous MCG Executive Briefing from October 2 here.
Join Mac’s Motor City Garage on Facebook and X to receive notices when every new story is published.
More sad trombone noises for Toyota, Rivian, Aston Martin, F1, Sillantis, Jeep and NASCAR: wah wahh waahhhhhh…
From that bizarre Aston Martin EV article, evidently C&D is not allowed to say bad things about Tesla by name. Secret safety-related defect recalls used to be illegal even under a loophole lawyer’s Non Discosure Agreement. Trying to use a legally binding “shhh, don’t tell” NDA contract to bypass federal safety laws is the automotive equivalent of a screaming toddler putting their hands over their eyes and thinking they’re invisible with a stinky loaded diaper.
The most recent F1 debacle according to mr. internet- during the wet formation lap following a heavy tropical downpour, a bug, glitch, error, hiccup, issue, problem, defect, fault, failure, exception, anomaly, deviation, regression, crash, fatal error, kernel panic, meltdown, gremlin, heisenbug, bohrbug, mandelbug, schrödinbug, gargoyle, spaghetti code bug, screwup, ghost in the machine, or FUBAR in the mandatory FIA power unit software caused the cars to dramatically lose power before the race started, crawl to a halt, or fail to accelerate. The incident forced F1 to abort the start, resulting in a chaotic 100+ minute race delay while F1 scrambled to deploy a code patch, update, hotfix, fix, new release, version upgrade, deployment, push, commit, merging, service pack, firmware flash, ota, point release, maintenance release, software patch or a bugfix. The specific coding botch belonged to a new wet-weather restriction feature that had never been used in a live race scenario before. The physical SECU hardware and its foundational base software built by Motion Applied (formerly known as McLaren Applied). They have been the FIA’s exclusive, mandated electronics supplier for F1 since 2008 and hold the contract through 2030. They write the core operating system that all teams must use. F1’s newly mandated SECU hardware running the fresh 2026 “anti-cheating framework” code caused the 60-second emergency lockdown (“continuous offset”) designed to stop teams from illegally cutting the MGU-K accidentally thought the drivers were cheating because they were crawling through Sepang’s tight sectors in a low-speed, tropical downpour bottleneck. So simple any idiot can understand it…