Photo: Nissan
In today's issue:
Nissan is paying up to $1,500 to anyone who trades a 2021-or-newer RAV4 for its new Rogue Hybrid, while short supply has RAV4 sales down 26%
Tennessee's dealer-heavy motor vehicle commission denied Scout a license to sell direct, and a California judge kept VW dealers' lawsuit alive
An Arkansas Chevy dealer listed a Corvette ZR1X at $696,445, a $400,000 markup on a car Chevrolet does not limit
Filtered from 3,377 items published across 277 sources in the last 24 hours.
CONQUEST CASH
CarsDirect reported, citing a Nissan bulletin to dealers, that anyone trading in a 2021-or-newer Toyota RAV4 gets up to $1,500 toward buying or leasing a 2027 Rogue Hybrid. The offer started Nov. 3, runs through Jan. 4, can be used by anyone in the same household, and stacks with Nissan's 4.9% financing for 60 months. Neither CarsDirect nor the outlets that followed it carried a comment from Nissan.
The target is a car Toyota could not build fast enough. Toyota has sold 293,552 RAV4s through October, down more than 26% from last year, because the redesigned, hybrid-only RAV4 has been short at dealers all year, per Autoblog. October was its first monthly gain of the year, up 0.6% to 39,888.
The Rogue already trails only the RAV4 and the Honda CR-V in compact SUV sales this year, per the same CarsDirect report. The Rogue Hybrid's engine never drives the wheels: a 1.5-liter three-cylinder charges a small battery that feeds a motor on each axle. MotorTrend's test car ran 0 to 60 mph in 6.2 seconds, against 7.0 for the RAV4 hybrid it tested, per MotorTrend. Nissan estimates the Rogue Hybrid at 38 mpg combined, per Jalopnik; the EPA rates the 2026 RAV4 hybrid at 41 to 43 mpg combined on every trim except the 38-mpg Woodland, per fueleconomy.gov. Car and Driver still called it the best Nissan on sale after driving it next to RAV4s.
The $1,500 does not close the price gap yet. The only Rogue Hybrid on sale now, the SR Technology, costs $43,065 with destination, and a cheaper $37,065 SR does not arrive until early 2027, per CarsDirect. The 2027 RAV4 starts at $32,300 before a $1,595 destination fee, per Motor1, so by our arithmetic a base RAV4 costs about $9,000 less than the Rogue Hybrid on sale today, a gap that narrows to about $3,000 when the $37,065 SR arrives.
In September we wrote that the RAV4 was hard to find and Nissan's hybrid Rogue wanted its buyers. Now Nissan has put a number on it, and the offer ends Jan. 4. Read CarsDirect's full story.
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Also worth knowing
Tennessee Denied Scout a License to Sell Direct, and a California Judge Kept VW Dealers' Lawsuit Alive: Fourteen of the 16 members of the Tennessee Motor Vehicle Commission voted against Scout's dealer license on Oct. 27, and many of them are franchised dealers or dealership employees, per Automotive News. Scout argued it is a separate brand that happens to be 100% funded by Volkswagen AG; a lawyer for Tennessee VW dealers said that if it works, "Every legacy OEM with dealers would feel emboldened to create a subsidiary to cut dealers out." In California, a federal judge denied VW and Scout's second attempt to end the state dealers' association lawsuit and sent it into discovery, per The Auto Wire, which notes Scout says full production starts at the end of 2027. Scout says it expects the Tennessee decision to be overturned. #news
Scout Traveler Mountainside concept. Photo: Scout Motors
The AI Boom Is Squeezing the Old Memory Chips and Circuit Boards Every Car Needs: Chipmakers are prioritizing AI customers over the older memory technologies carmakers depend on, and the pressure could last into 2028, according to a Berylls by AlixPartners analysis, per Automotive News. Basic circuit-board material costs rose 70% from 2025 to 2026, and AI companies are booking the output of entire Asian board factories years ahead. "This isn't yet a semiconductor shortage comparable with 2021," AlixPartners said, but automotive parts take long qualification, so "available global capacity is therefore not the same as available automotive capacity." #analyst
Electric Cars Took a Record 34% of New-Car Sales in 12 Big European Markets in October: Battery-electric sales rose 57% across 12 major markets, up from a 22.4% share a year earlier, per an Automotive News Europe analysis. Germany hit a record 37%, as we noted Thursday in Europe's EV resale story, helped by renewed purchase incentives, and France ran at 41.5%, while Italy sat at 6%. Automakers have warned that electric margins are below those of gas cars, per the same report. #market
A Chevy Dealer Listed a Corvette ZR1X at $696,445, With a $400,000 Markup: George Nunnally Chevrolet in Bentonville, Arkansas, added a $400,000 "Exclusive Market Value Adjustment" to a fully loaded 3LZ convertible stickered at $296,445, per Motor1. The window sticker cites "strictly limited production quantities," but Chevrolet has not made the 1,250-hp ZR1X a numbered or limited edition. The markup alone is nearly double a base 2027 ZR1X coupe's $227,695 sticker, and it makes the $100,000-plus ZR1 markups already seen "look reasonable," per The Drive. #market
Photo: Charles from Port Chester, New York / Wikimedia Commons, CC0
Stellantis Has Idled Its Windsor Plant for a Fourth Straight Week: Production is canceled for the week of Nov. 9, after the weeks of Oct. 19, Oct. 26 and Nov. 2, at the Ontario plant that builds the Dodge Charger and Chrysler Pacifica, per Mopar Insiders. The notice gives no reason and says nothing about Nov. 16. #analyst
Reveals & culture
Yangwang Unveiled the Altior, a $311,500 Electric Sedan Aimed at Rolls-Royce: BYD's luxury brand showed the four-seat sedan in Abu Dhabi, the day after Yangwang announced its U9 Xtreme's 312-mph one-way run, with rear coach doors that open to 90 degrees, an umbrella holder in the door and a front passenger seat that folds flat for the person behind it, per CarNewsChina. It is 5.6 meters long on a 3.5-meter wheelbase, runs four motors, and pre-sales in China opened at 2.08 million yuan. Its named rivals are the Rolls-Royce Ghost, the Mercedes-Maybach S-Class and the Maextro S800.
Photo: Yangwang
Lucid Teased the Cosmos, the Sub-$50,000 SUV It Needs to Become a Volume Brand: The Cosmos is the midsize SUV Lucid says will start under $50,000 and turn it into a volume automaker, per Electrek. A new video shows its lighting and a "LUCID" tailgate matching a design Lucid registered in Europe in May. Lucid claims about 300 miles from a 69-kWh pack, but production has slipped to 2027, "most likely the second half," and Lucid delivered 3,806 vehicles in the third quarter, down 7%. It reports earnings Monday.
Photo: Lucid
Quick links
BMW Will Pay for $500 of Charging on Its 2027 EVs, but Only for a Year: Buyers of a 2027 iX3, i5 or i7 get $300 for BMW's charging network, $200 for IONNA and a year of 25% off at IONNA, all expiring a year after delivery, per BMWBLOG. 2026 i7 buyers got 2,000 kWh at Electrify America over 36 months.
Toyota Named Mark Templin Its Next North America CEO: Templin, the region's COO and a former head of Lexus International, succeeds Ted Ogawa on Jan. 1, per Automotive News. Ogawa ran the region since 2020, through the pandemic, the chip shortage and this year's tariffs.
Canada Will Spend $587 Million More on Public EV Chargers: The budget renews a program that was set to lapse in 2027, funding 55,000 more chargers through 2032-33 on top of the 58,874 it has already backed, per Automotive News Canada.
Amazon Will Put 3,000 Tata Electric Trucks on India's Roads: The 7.5-tonne Ultra E.7 trucks will start on city routes, and Electrek says it will be India's largest electric-truck deployment, per Electrek.
Photo: Tata Motors
Recalls & legal action
NHTSA Is Offering States $1.5 Million to Get More Recalls Fixed: Recalls on 15-year-old vehicles get fixed only 18% of the time, against 68% for three-year-old vehicles, NHTSA said, so the grants will fund ways to flag open recalls at registration or renewal, per Autoblog. States have until Feb. 4 to apply.
A Massachusetts Man Sued a Honda Dealer Over AI Robocalls Asking to Buy His Car: Jonathan Kamens, who says he was never a Cambridge Honda customer and is on the Do Not Call Registry, is seeking class-action status under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act over prerecorded calls from "Roger" offering cash for his car, per Jalopnik. When he called back and asked whether it was a real person, the voice said it was AI.
Yesterday's picks
BYD's $3 Million Hypercar Hit 312 MPH, Past 500 km/h, but Only in One Direction: Electrek reported that the Yangwang U9 Xtreme reached 503.17 km/h (312.66 mph) on a closed 10 km section of Abu Dhabi's E11 highway, which left the team a 7 km straight. The FIA and Guinness World Records both recognized the run as the first by a production car past 500 km/h.
Tesla Will Wind Down Cybertruck Production in Texas Around Mid 2027, and Raised Prices the Same Day: Elon Musk posted on X that "Tesla will be winding down production of the Cybertruck at Gigafactory Texas around the middle of next year to make room for increased Cybercab production." It is not clear whether production moves to another plant or stops altogether, since Giga Texas is the only factory that builds it, per Paul Tan. The same day, Tesla stopped taking orders for the base Dual-Motor AWD and raised the Premium to $92,490 and the Cyberbeast to $102,490, per InsideEVs. Kelley Blue Book estimates 11,586 U.S. sales in the first nine months, down 28%, per Motor1. Two weeks ago Tesla canceled the Cybertruck for Australia and New Zealand.
Mitsubishi Now Expects Profit to Fall Because Hormuz Stayed Shut, While the New Pajero Has 9,000 Orders: It now expects operating profit to fall 7.3% this fiscal year after forecasting 19% growth in August, and sees North American deliveries down 7% to 154,000, per Automotive News. "Our initial plan assumed that the Strait of Hormuz would reopen by the end of June," COO Keisuke Kishiura said. The new Pajero already has 9,000 orders against a goal of 10,000 by March, up from the Pajero's 5,500 pre-orders on Oct. 29.
Every car, as the shows see it: cars.suspension.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.
This Dealer Wants FULL PRICE for a USED Car?! (The Price Isn't Right: Car Negotiations w/ Delivrd, also at YouTube): A dealer wants full sticker for a demo Porsche Cayenne Turbo Electric, and Delivrd's host shows how he pushes back: make other dealers compete, and don't believe a deal exists until the out-the-door price is in writing.
The Price Isn't Right: Car Negotiations w/ Delivrd
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