Photo: Ford
In today's issue:
Ford wants to sell 100,000 of a truck that costs less than a Camry, a number no single EV but a Tesla has ever done in a year in the US.
Uber and Wayve beat Waymo to a UK first, safety driver still riding shotgun.
Half a million battery health tests say the EV degradation panic was overblown, with a few small-battery exceptions.
THE FATHOM MATH
Ford is targeting 100,000 Fathom electric pickup sales in the truck's first year, a number no automaker but Tesla has ever sold of one EV model in a single year in the US, per InsideEVs citing the Wall Street Journal.
The F-150 Lightning never sold more than 33,000 in a year and took five years to pass 105,000 cumulative, per The Drive.
The truck Ford named Fathom in early August starts at $29,945 with destination on Ford's new Universal EV Platform, with prototype builds at Louisville Assembly starting Q1 2027, per Motor1.
Base trucks are rear-wheel drive with a lithium iron phosphate battery, the lower-cost chemistry Ford chose to hit that price, per Motor1.
Ford already spent $2 billion retooling Louisville for the truck's unconventional production process, per Carscoops.
The target lands in a market moving the other way: EVs were 5.7% of US sales in August, down from 10.3% a year earlier, per Carscoops.
Hit the number and Fathom is the best-selling non-Tesla EV in American history in its debut year, in a market that is shrinking around it. Whether Ford gets there depends on pulling buyers out of gas trucks, not poaching them from Rivian or Tesla.
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Also worth knowing
Uber and Wayve Beat Waymo to the UK, With a Driver Still Aboard: Uber and Wayve launched London's first robotaxi service on Sept. 3 with a fleet of Ford Mustang Mach-E EVs, though a Transport for London-licensed safety driver stays onboard for now and a fully driverless service needs a separate license, per Automotive News Europe and Just Auto. Uber beat Waymo to the UK market entirely, per InsideEVs, a month after the pair won their London robotaxi licenses for up to 15 vehicles. #news
Photo: Wayve
Honda Tells Suppliers to Cut Prices Up to 30%: Honda aims to save 1.5 trillion yen ($9.4 billion) by 2030 and has instructed suppliers to cut prices up to 30% on pressed, electrical and software-defined-vehicle parts to compete with Chinese rivals, per a Reuters review of internal documents carried by Automotive News Europe. Honda shares fell 2.5% on the news, per CBT News. The squeeze lands days after Honda and Nissan dropped their merger but kept the software partnership. #analyst
500,000 Battery Tests Say the Degradation Panic Was Overblown: Aviloo, which sells battery diagnostics, compiled 500,000 battery health checks across 20 popular EVs and found most models still hold a median 90% to 94% of capacity at 150,000 km (93,000 miles), with the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Mercedes EQA tied at the top and only the small-battery Mini Cooper SE, Nissan Leaf and Renault Zoe under 88%, per InsideEVs and the Financial Times. Tesla's Model Y (90.3%) and Model 3 (88.9%) landed in the middle to bottom of the pack. #market
Hyundai Ioniq 5. Photo: Hyundai
GM's Cameras Just Learned to Watch Your Passengers: A new over-the-air update adds a live "Cabin Glance" view and in-cabin recording modes to GM vehicles, arriving while the company still works through its FTC data-collection troubles, per Motor1 and Autoblog. Owners must opt in, and the footage stays on a USB drive GM cannot access, per Ford Authority. #news
2027 Chevrolet Traverse High Country. Photo: Chevrolet
Reveals & culture
Bristol Builds Five Supercars From a Company That Died in 2011: Bristol Cars is completing five V10 Fighters from unfinished chassis and original engineering drawings, targeting 600 hp and a 210-mph top speed, 15 years after the marque collapsed, per Motor1 and Autocar. #enthusiast
Photo: Bristol Cars
The Lexus NX Drops Its Gas Engine: The facelifted 2027 NX goes hybrid-only, with the NX 350h as the new base model and the NX 450h+ plug-in getting a 30% larger battery that lifts electric range to about 40 miles from 37, plus a 25% stiffer floor and retuned suspension, per MotorTrend and Paul Tan. #enthusiast
Photo: Lexus
Quick links
IIHS Tested Seven New Models and Gave Out Two Top Awards: Only the redesigned Kia Telluride, for units built after June, and the Tesla Model Y earned Top Safety Pick+ in the latest round, per Kelley Blue Book and Autoblog.
Uber Cuts 3,300 Jobs and Points the Savings at Robotaxis: Uber is laying off about 10% of its staff, its largest cut since 2020, to flatten management layers and fund a $10 billion-plus autonomous vehicle commitment, per Automotive News and CBT News.
China Opens a Year-Long Quality Audit After BYD, Geely Fail Checks: Four Chinese ministries launched inspections on Aug. 27 covering about 100 manufacturers after regulators found a Geely Xingyuan with its wheelbase outside tolerance and a BYD Qin L exceeding its declared fuel figures, per Motor1.
Canada's New-Vehicle Sales Post a Third Straight Monthly Gain: Canadian dealers sold an estimated 168,000 vehicles in August, up 5.4% year over year, though still short of the 180,000-plus Augusts of 2017 to 2019, per DesRosiers figures in Automotive News.
Yesterday's picks
Land Rover's First Electric Flagship Is Designed to Disappear: Land Rover spent five years building an EV that refuses to look like one, betting conservative luxury buyers want stealth over spectacle. The math on the premium depends entirely on which spec sheet you trust, and neither outlet is technically wrong.
Washington is about to cut fuel economy rules, and its own math says you pay it back at the pump: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Monday an announcement is coming soon, and the expected standard tracks NHTSA's December proposal: a fleetwide average of 34.5 mpg by 2031, down from the 50.4 mpg targeted under the Biden administration, per Autoblog. NHTSA's own estimate is that the change makes a new car $930 cheaper while raising fuel consumption by roughly 100 billion gallons through 2050 and fuel spending by $185 billion. Duffy called it "a common-sense fuel economy standard," per Reuters, and Ford Authority and Jalopnik both report the rollback as imminent.
Kia's best US month ever came from hybrids, not EVs: Kia America sold 83,793 vehicles in August, a 1% gain that was enough for an all-time monthly record, with year-to-date sales of 590,377 also an all-time high, per CBT News. Hybrid sales rose 99% year over year and six nameplates set August records, led by the redesigned Seltos at +65%, per Autoblog and Carscoops. The month was mixed across the industry: Honda and Subaru also edged up while Toyota, Ford and Mazda slipped, per Automotive News.
Worth a listen
One episode from Car Curious, our sister car-podcast platform, picked out of everything the shows published in the last day.
AI Self-Driving Cars And Manhole Covers (Self-Driving Cars: Podcast Series by Dr. Lance Eliot): Dr. Lance Eliot on why spotting a loose manhole cover is the easy half of the problem for a self-driving car, since a hard stop can be worse than the obstacle.
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