Photo: Mariordo / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
In today's issue:
AAA puts the cost of owning a new car at $12,863 a year, and in medium sedans, depreciation more than wipes out the EV fuel savings
NHTSA wants sworn answers from Tesla on how the Cybercab was certified without a foot brake
VW's ID.3 GTI is the first rear-drive GTI and, by one horsepower, the most powerful
CHEAP TO CHARGE, COSTLY TO OWN
AAA's annual Your Driving Costs study puts the average cost to own and run a new vehicle, across the seven vehicle categories and 34 top-selling models it prices, at $12,863 a year, a total AAA says is not directly comparable with last year's $11,577 because the method changed, per AAA.
Charging an EV at home cost about 66% to 70% less than fueling a comparable gas model across the segments AAA compared, with regular gas averaging $4.152 a gallon, up 31.8% from 2025, while home electricity rose 7.8%, per AAA.
In a separate powertrain comparison that AAA says should not be read against that total, medium-sedan EVs cost 29.1% more a year to own than gas medium sedans, $3,080 more than the gas models' $10,582, per AAA. Their depreciation ran about twice that of the gas sedans, and fees and finance costs were higher too.
Hybrids cost less to own than gas models in all four segments AAA priced by powertrain: medium sedans, compact SUVs, medium SUVs and pickups, per AAA.
Depreciation is the largest single ownership cost for every buyer, a weighted average of $4,422 a year, per AAA.
The fuel savings from charging are real, and they are large. What takes them back is what the car is worth when you sell it, which makes the EV cost question as much about the used market as about the cars.
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Also worth knowing
Nissan's UK Factory Investment Comes With a Condition: Nissan will invest £170 million to build the Kicks hybrid at its Sunderland plant, per Nissan, but Europe boss Max Messina said, "A large part of this is subject to the ZEV mandate amendment," and wants the UK's 2030 requirement that 80% of new cars sold be electric cut to 50% or lower, per Autocar. He also said the UK may need to match EU tariffs on China-built EVs to join the EU's proposed "Made in Europe" rules, because "they cannot have a Trojan horse in the UK," per Autocar and the Financial Times. #analyst
Photo: Nissan
NHTSA Orders Tesla to Explain, Under Oath, How the Cybercab Was Certified: A special order dated September 10 carries 21 requests and gives Tesla until September 30 to answer with an affidavit, per Carscoops. The agency says a vehicle without a foot-activated brake cannot be certified under FMVSS No. 135, and false certification could bring civil penalties of up to roughly $139 million, per Motor1. Zoox took the other route and secured a limited exemption from specific standards; Tesla has not disclosed one, per Motor1. #news
Column: Ford and GM Are Walling Themselves Into the US: An Automotive News column argues Detroit is isolating itself, pointing to its retreats: GM sold Opel in 2017 and shut Holden in 2020, Ford stopped building cars in India in 2022, and Ford sold more than 1 million vehicles in Europe in 2016, the column says, against 426,459 car registrations across the EU, EFTA and UK last year, per ACEA. At home, the column attributes GM's slipping US share, 16.8% in the first half from 17.6%, to a current US lineup with no hybrids, which GM plans to add. #market
Cadillac Buyers Paid Nearly $6,000 More Than a Year Ago: Cadillac's average transaction price was $85,823 in August, up 7.5% from $79,840 a year earlier but down 0.4% from July, per GM Authority. Overseas the brand is barely registering: just 20 Cadillacs were registered in the UK between July 2025 and March 2026, per AutoGuide. #market
Renault and Geely Add $388M to Their Brazil Bet: The partners pledged a further 2 billion reais to Renault Geely do Brasil, lifting committed investment to 5.8 billion reais through 2027, per Just Auto and Bloomberg. The money goes to an electrified Renault on Geely's GEA platform starting in 2027, with Geely's EX2 hatchback entering production in December. #analyst
New York City Is Putting 700 EV Chargers on the Curb: Brooklyn startup It's Electric will install 700 Level 2 curbside chargers across the five boroughs over three years, aimed at neighborhoods with many rideshare drivers, per InsideEVs. It is built for the drivers AAA's home-charging math leaves out: the ones without a driveway. #news
Photo: It's Electric
Reveals & culture
VW's First Rear-Drive GTI Is Also Its Most Powerful: The ID.3 GTI is the facelifted ID.3 GTX under a new badge, carrying over its 322-hp, 402-lb-ft rear motor unchanged, per Motor1. Because the GTX never wore a GTI badge, that output makes it the most powerful GTI yet, one horsepower ahead of the gas Golf GTI Edition 50, per InsideEVs and Motor1. It is also the first rear-wheel-drive GTI, and VW's second electric one after the ID. Polo GTI, per Motor1. #enthusiast
Photo: Volkswagen
McLaren Makes Its SUV Official: McLaren confirmed a hybrid SUV to rival the Ferrari Purosangue, Aston Martin DBX and Lamborghini Urus, after McLaren's dealer roadmap we covered September 12, per Automotive News. The first £500 million of a £1.5 billion UK overhaul under Abu Dhabi owner L'IMAD brings two new hybrid engines and their transmissions in-house, per Automotive News and Just Auto. "We will do an electric vehicle when our customers ask us for one," CEO Nick Collins said. "And they are not asking." #enthusiast
McLaren Is Reportedly Dropping the Artura in 2028: A person familiar with the plans told Automotive News the plug-in hybrid ends in 2028; McLaren declined to comment, and US registrations fell 18% to 205 in the first half of 2026, per Autoblog.
McLaren Artura. Photo: Calreyn88 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Recalls & legal action
An Ohio Dealer Admits Selling Fake Honda Airbags Shipped as Night Lights: The owner of a Galloway, Ohio, dealership pleaded guilty in federal court to trafficking at least 44 counterfeit Honda airbags from China between August 2024 and May 2025, shipped in boxes declared as desktop night lights, per Carscoops and MotorBiscuit. Separately, NHTSA's count of deaths tied to illegally imported DTN60DB replacement inflators remains at 11, per GoodCarBadCar. → If you own one: A VIN search cannot detect these parts; if your vehicle had aftermarket airbag work, ask the shop that did it which inflators were used.
A GM Dealer Sues GM for $20 Million: An Arizona Chevrolet-GMC dealership facing termination is suing GM and GM Financial for fraud, racial discrimination and retaliation, alleging the automaker induced a store purchase under false relocation promises, per Automotive News and Autoblog.
Yesterday's picks
GM Redesigns Its Trucks' Screens. JD Power Says Screens Are the Problem.: GM revealed a more minimalist infotainment UI for the 2027 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra that brings CarPlay back to the dash, per Ars Technica. Pickups make up five of the ten best-selling nameplates in the US, and the Silverado and Sierra are two of them, per Autoblog.
Volvo's New PHEVs Go 78 Miles Without the Gas Engine: The facelifted 2028 XC60 and XC90 pack 37.9-kWh batteries good for an EPA-rated 78 miles of EV range on the XC60 and 73 on the XC90 (the 124-mile figure some outlets reported is the European WLTP rating), the longest of any plug-in hybrid sold in the US, per Road & Track. Both keep a 2.0-liter turbo-four making up to 247 hp for backup, per Motor1.
Worth a listen
One episode from Car Curious, our sister car-podcast platform, picked out of everything the shows published in the last day.
Automotive History Proves One Decision Can Echo For Decades (In Wheel Time Podcast, also at inwheeltimepodcast.com): A look back at Volkswagen's emissions-cheating scandal as a case study in how one decision can echo for decades.
In Wheel Time Podcast
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