In today's issue:

That is a bet made in a shrinking market: U.S. EV sales fell 24% in the first half of 2026, per Automotive News Europe citing Cox, and Glover himself figures about 20% of buyers at this price will reject anything without a combustion engine, per Automotive News Europe.

Porsche Makes the 718 All-Electric, Brings Back a Gas Macan and Shelves a U.S. Plant: Porsche's "Sportwagenschmiede '35" plan aims to lift the average price of its top 10,000 cars from about €270,000 to more than €330,000, a jump Automotive News puts at 20%, per Automotive News and Porsche's release. The 718 Boxster and Cayman will be EV-only, per Motor1. Autocar, Car and Driver and MotorTrend took passenger rides in a prototype at Porsche's Weissach track and describe a battery behind the seats where the engine was, simulated gearshifts and an engine-style soundtrack; Car and Driver puts the weight over the rear axle at 55.2%, against 59.8% in the gas Boxster, and notes Porsche has not given power or range figures. A gas-powered Macan is tentatively due in 2028, per Hagerty Media. We reported in July that Porsche was ending gas Macan production with no successor planned. The workforce will shrink 25% in the medium term and management positions 40%, and CEO Michael Leiters said a U.S. factory is "not on the table for us right now," per Porsche and Automotive News. The release also cites the 9,000-job reduction already agreed with employee representatives. #analyst

Mitsubishi's New Eclipse Sportback EV Is a Nissan Leaf Twin That Costs Nearly $8,000 More: Mitsubishi's first EV in the U.S. since it dropped the i-MiEV in 2017 is built on the redesigned Nissan Leaf's platform and 75 kWh battery, a product of the two automakers' alliance, per Electrek. It starts at $37,745 before destination, against $29,990 for the base Leaf S+, per Motor1. Mitsubishi sells one loaded trim, so the comparison is less lopsided up the Leaf range: the top Leaf Platinum+ lists at $38,990 and is rated 259 miles of EPA range against the Mitsubishi's 282. #market

GM Says Hybrids Are "Part of the Plan," Without Saying When: GM propulsion engineering VP Mike Anderson told CNBC hybrids are "part of the plan" and that GM is not "tone deaf" to demand, per Autoblog. GM's U.S. hybrids are limited to Corvettes such as the roughly $110,000 Grand Sport X, and the 70-mile plug-in hybrids for the Equinox and Silverado in late 2027 or 2028 are AutoForecast Solutions' projection, not a GM commitment. #analyst

Sedans Are Selling Again: Honda's Grew 15.6% in Q3 While Its SUVs Barely Moved: American Honda's sedans, hatchbacks and sports cars rose 15.6% in the third quarter while its SUVs and trucks grew 0.3%, per Motor1. The Accord sold 145,520 through September, up 32.7%, with hybrids at 44% of September Accord sales, and the Camry is still the best-selling sedan. The Mazda3 (up 42.3%), BMW 3 Series (about 51%) and Lexus IS (51.7%) are also up this year. #market

Honda Delays the Next CR-V by Three Months and Drops Indiana Civic Production: Honda has pushed the redesigned CR-V's start of production to April 2027 and cut planned first-year volume 6.7% to 41,315, and has canceled plans to build the next Civic sedan at its Greensburg, Indiana plant from May 2028, per a supply-chain source cited by Automotive News. Honda says it cannot comment on speculation about future CR-V changes. AutoForecast Solutions' Sam Fiorani says dropping the Indiana Civic frees capacity for the more profitable CR-V, which is up 9.5% to 336,844 in U.S. sales through September against a dealer inventory Honda puts at about a 17-day supply. #analyst

The EU Preps a Quota on Chinese Hybrid Imports: Brussels is preparing safeguard measures on Chinese hybrids, potentially tariff-rate quotas to limit imports, per CnEVPost citing Bloomberg. The UK is separately weighing tariffs on Chinese EVs. #news

Used Wholesale Values Keep Falling Faster Than Normal: The Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index fell to 205.9 in September, down 1.1% from August and 0.6% from a year ago, per Cox Automotive. Chief economist Jeremy Robb said September's depreciation was "steeper than we typically see this time of year," and Cox cut its year-end outlook to an index up about 0.2% for 2026, from the 2% rise it forecast in July. #market

Stellantis Tries Playing Nice With Suppliers: Stellantis, which Automotive News describes as known for being tough on suppliers, is rolling out a "co-location" program: select "top hat" suppliers will work alongside its engineers at its Michigan headquarters in 10-week stints, starting with the next-generation Ram 1500 due by 2030, per Automotive News. Separately, the Fim-Cisl union cut its 2026 forecast for Italian output about 10%, to roughly 450,000 vehicles, after production stops at Mirafiori, per Automotive News Europe. #analyst

Nissan Is on Pace for Its Worst Global Sales in 23 Years: Nissan delivered 1,932,725 vehicles worldwide in the first eight months of 2026, down 9.2%, which puts it on pace for about 2.9 million, below 2003's 2.968 million, per Automotive News. China, now its second-largest market, accounts for more than half the decline, with sales down 27% this year and down 52% in August alone. The U.S. is holding up: deliveries are up 0.6% through September and retail up 8.1%, while Nissan's September incentives averaged $4,254 per vehicle, up 23%, against an industry average of $3,360. Nissan says it has logged 19 straight months of year-over-year U.S. retail growth, with fleet sales down 45% in the third quarter, per Motor1. #market

A Five-Mile Corvette ZR1X Just Sold for $441,000: The nearly new 2027 ZR1X carried a $296,100 window sticker and resold on Bring a Trailer for a $144,900 premium, nearly 49% over MSRP, per Autoblog.

Mini Builds an Off-Road Countryman: The 2027 Countryman Untamed Edition gets a suspension lift, all-terrain tires, and standard all-wheel drive, starting at $45,250 in the US including destination, per Motor1 and BMW Group's pressroom.

California Closes the Montana Loophole for Luxury Car Buyers: SB 1406, signed Sept. 30, treats a shell company as a California resident, and its vehicles as taxable there, if any shareholder, partner, member or beneficial owner lives in the state, replacing the old more-than-half-held-outside test, per The Drive and the bill page. Officers and members can be held personally liable for unpaid tax, interest and penalties, and California's tax agency puts the lost revenue at up to $20 million a year, per Motor1.

BMW's iX5 and iX4 Make Their Greek Debut: A Frozen Tanzanite Blue iX5 60 xDrive headlines BMW's Athens Auto Show stand alongside the facelifted 7 Series, per BMWBLOG, with the new iX4 teased for an imminent reveal.

Suzuki's First Kei EV Starts Under $10,000 After Subsidies: The eSky lists at ¥2,120,000 ($13,400) and drops to ¥1,552,000 ($9,800) with up to ¥568,000 in local subsidies, per Carscoops. Japanese sales start November 16 with a target of 1,000 units a month, and Europe and the UK follow in 2027.

VW's ID. Polo Gets Its First Recall: A B-pillar seatbelt anchorage flaw triggered the brand-new EV's first safety action, per autoevolution.

Yesterday's picks

Gas-Only Cars Fall Below Half of Global New-Car Sales for the First Time: Gasoline-only vehicles made up 49% of global new-vehicle sales in the first half of 2026, down from 52% a year earlier and 73% in 2021, per Mobility Global data (the firm formerly known as S&P Global Mobility) first reported by Nikkei, via Electrek. The count excludes hybrids, per OilPrice.

Lucid Delivered 852 More Cars Than It Built in Q3: Lucid delivered 3,806 vehicles and built 2,954, its first quarter this year delivering more than it built, per Electrek. Output fell 38% from Q2's 4,774, and CEO Silvio Napoli says Lucid is selling down unsold Airs and Gravitys that piled up in the first half. Lucid also led Sunday's issue with its $950 Air software upgrade.

Stellantis Idles Cassino for the Third Time This Year: The Italian plant pauses body, paint and assembly from October 6 through 9, per MoparInsiders. Automotive World reports Italy's overall Stellantis output rebounding this year, but Cassino alone is sliding by more than a third.

The week in attention

How many separate outlets ran a headline naming each company over the last 7 days, across the 560+ sources we monitor. Press releases and Reddit are excluded, so this counts what got written about, not what got announced.

Suzuki: 19 outlets this week, about 10 in a median week. Most of it: "2026 Suzuki Jimny Heritage edition is back in limited numbers, and this time the tiny alternative to the Jeep Wrangler and GWM Tank 300 gets an auto!".

Aston Martin: 42 outlets this week, about 25 in a median week. Most of it: "2027 Aston Martin DBX GT First Look: The Aston SUV More Rich People Should Buy".

BMW Group: 91 outlets this week, about 57 in a median week. Most of it: "2027 BMW 3 Series First Look: Tons of New Tech, $51,250 to Start".

Quieter than usual: McLaren (13 outlets against about 22), Mitsubishi (15 outlets against about 22).

Most covered overall: Volkswagen Group, BMW Group, Ford Motor.

Worth a listen

One episode from Car Curious, our sister car-podcast platform, picked out of everything the shows published in the last day.

Episode #245 - Love The One You're With (Another Pointless Automotive Podcast, also at YouTube): The hosts push back on "bulletproof" as the excuse owners use to keep bad cars, then get into a Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 build with an ECM Link setup that switches back to stock for smog.

New on Car Curious: Radar shows which topics several car podcasts are covering in the same week, measured against what is normal for each. This week the Range Rover Sport is on 11 shows against a usual 4.

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