The Scout Traveler. Photo: Scout Motors
In today's issue:
Scout's South Carolina plant is building its first test vehicles, and 87% of its 212,000 reservations are for the versions with a gas engine aboard
Tesla dropped its cheapest all-wheel-drive Model Y while holding 56% of U.S. EV registrations
Audi's U.S. product chief says that if there is a next RS6 Avant wagon, it will come to America
Filtered from 4,329 items published across 326 sources in the last 24 hours. Watch the filtering live at Suspension Today.
212,000 IN LINE
Scout's $2 billion plant in Blythewood, S.C., is now stamping, welding and painting validation versions of the Traveler SUV and Terra pickup, early builds that test the line and will never be sold, per Motor1. Those builds run into 2027, per Scout. Sellable production starts next year and deliveries begin in 2028, per InsideEVs.
The gas engine won the reservations. About 87% of roughly 212,000 reservations are for the range-extended Harvester versions, whose gas engine works only as a generator, and 75% are for the Traveler, per The Drive. Scout had planned to launch its pure EVs first, per MotorTrend; the range-extended Traveler now goes first, followed by the Terra and the EVs, per InsideEVs.
The buyers are coming out of Broncos and Wranglers. Traveler reservation holders most often own a Bronco, then a Wrangler, then an F-150, with the Mustang Mach-E the first EV on the list at No. 4; Terra holders most often own an F-150, per The Drive. Scout says the Mountain West, Texas and South Carolina make up a bigger share of its reservations than those states do of all-electric rivals' sales, per The Drive.
Scout reported 160,000 reservations in March, per Automotive World, a count our August look at the Scout Terra as VW Group's U.S. pickup carried. Each costs $100 and is fully refundable. "I'm not naïve," CEO Scott Keogh told Kelley Blue Book. "I know that's not 212,000 sales. But it is a very good sign." The plant can build up to 200,000 vehicles a year, officials told KBB.
The dates still have to hold. In June, AutoForecast Solutions put the Terra at March 2030 and the Traveler at September 2028, per Jalopnik. Der Spiegel reported in February that the launch had slipped to mid-2028, per MotorTrend, and Scout says the plan was always validation builds in 2026 and production in 2027. When the site was picked in 2023, the target was production by the end of 2026, per Motor Illustrated.
Where Scout can sell is still open. It plans to sell direct, without dealers; Washington dealers sued to stop it in June, and Tennessee denied Scout a license to sell direct last month while a California judge kept VW dealers' own lawsuit alive. Read Scout's announcement.
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Also worth knowing
Mercedes Froze Spending on Its German Plants and Is Studying Closures After Talks on Longer Hours Stalled: Production chief Michael Schiebe said in an intranet interview that management had "jointly decided to halt all further investments in our German locations," after months of talks with the works council and IG Metall over working longer for the same base pay failed, per Automotive News Europe. The freeze could reach the Sindelfingen, Bremen and Rastatt assembly plants, and works council chief Ergun Lümali answered, "We firmly reject plant closures and know how to defend ourselves." Since Mercedes cut its outlook on Oct. 27, it expects its car division to return just 2% to 3% on sales this year. For U.S. buyers, the GLC is built in Germany and pays a 15% tariff after Mercedes reportedly pushed its Alabama production back to 2030, per The Auto Wire. #analyst
An electric GLC body on the line at Mercedes' Bremen plant. Photo: Mercedes-Benz AG
Tesla Dropped Its Cheapest All-Wheel-Drive Model Y While Holding 56% of U.S. EV Registrations: Tesla pulled the $41,990 Model Y All-Wheel Drive from its U.S. configurator after about nine months, so the cheapest AWD Model Y is now the $49,990 Premium, and both Premium trims rose $1,000, per Electrek. The cut comes as Tesla holds more of a smaller market: it took 56.2% of U.S. EV registrations in September, up 13.7 points, and Rivian took 7.6%, while total EV registrations fell 44% to 93,524, or 7.1% of the market against 12.4% a year earlier, per Mobility Global data reported by Automotive News. Ford's EV share fell to 2.0% from 8.0%. #market
Tesla Model Y Standard. Photo: Tesla
Canada Gave Stellantis 30 Days to Fix the Brampton Deal or Be Sued: Ottawa served Stellantis a notice of default on its 2022 funding agreement, saying it broke the terms by halting the planned Jeep Compass at Brampton, naming no replacement vehicle and selling the plant to armored-vehicle maker Roshel, per Automotive News Canada. Stellantis says it will return C$24 million it received for the plant's original retooling; Industry Minister Mélanie Joly wants back the "hundreds of millions of dollars" it received. "Basically they have 30 days or else, of course, we'll sue them," she said. #analyst
Germany's Military Is Keeping Some Connected Cars Off Sensitive Bases, and Internal Lists Name Chinese Models: Soldiers driving an affected car must park outside sensitive Bundeswehr sites and walk in, and lists circulating inside the Bundeswehr name specific Chinese models, with BYD, Nio and Geely cars among those stopped, per Motor1, citing Bloomberg and Der Spiegel. The defense ministry says the rule covers connected cars in general, not named brands, and that cameras, microphones, radar and ultrasonic sensors are the concern; local security officers decide site by site. Poland set a similar restriction in February. #news
Reveals & culture
If Audi Builds Another RS6 Avant, It's Coming to the U.S.: "If there is globally an RS6 Avant, then it will come to America," Audi of America product chief Filip Brabec told The Drive, adding that the outgoing wagon beat Audi's internal sales targets. The next one is expected to be a V8 plug-in hybrid; an RS5 Avant for the U.S. is still undecided, per Motor1.
The current Audi RS 6 Avant performance. Photo: Audi
Acura's 2027 Integra Type S Heritage Edition Brings Back Phoenix Yellow: The 700-car North American run marks 30 years since the DC2 Integra Type R reached the U.S., and its Blazing Phoenix Yellow is the first yellow offered on an Integra since 2001, per Kelley Blue Book. It adds a titanium shift knob, black Type S badges and copper 19-inch wheels; the 320-hp turbo four and six-speed manual are unchanged. It costs $58,295 with destination, against $55,995 for the regular 2027 Type S, which rose $700 and gains a memory driver's seat and yellow Brembo calipers. Both reach dealers in December, after a first public showing Nov. 14 in Santa Ana, California, per AutoGuide.
The 2027 Integra Type S Heritage Edition with an original Integra Type R. Photo: Acura
Theon Built a 419-HP, 2,535-Pound Porsche 911 for Its 10th Anniversary: The 964-based coupe has a carbon-fiber body, a naturally aspirated 4.0-liter flat-six and a five-speed manual, per Stuttcars. Commissions start at £435,000, and the British shop is adding customer support in North America.
Theon Design's 10th-anniversary coupe. Photo: Theon Design
Friday Fun: Weird Wheels
The Sanrivatti One Is a Hypercar You Drive Lying on Your Stomach: Engineer Santiago Sánchez Rivero built his track-only car around what he calls the Apex Position: head forward, arms out to the wheel, legs stretched back to pedals behind you, like a motorcycle racer, per Motor1. It pairs that with an 800-hp, 5.5-liter Judd V10, and the first customer car is due in 2030. He claims a 28-degree vertical field of view against 15.5 degrees in a benchmark hypercar, and buyers get a driver program, because "no one has experience in driving this type of vehicle."
Sanrivatti One. Image: Sanrivatti
Quick links
SpaceX and Tesla Could Reportedly Announce a Merger in December: Talks are now about price and control, per Bloomberg as reported by Electrek; December is the target, but early 2027 is also possible. Electrek puts SpaceX's value at over $1.9 trillion after its June IPO and Tesla's at about $1.5 trillion.
Tim Kuniskis Now Runs Stellantis' U.S. Sales and Dealers, Too: He adds the job after sales chief Michael Orange left seven months after arriving from Hyundai, and Bob Broderdorf returns to run Dodge, per Automotive News; Ram sales rose 20% through September while Jeep's fell 8%.
U.S. Road Deaths Fell 2.5% in the First Half of 2026: NHTSA estimates 16,750 deaths and a rate of 1.02 per 100 million miles, the second-lowest first half on record after 2014's 1.01, per Repairer Driven News.
Recalls & legal action
A Judge Ended the Seven-Year Class Action Over Ford's F-150 10-Speed: The 2019 suit over 2017-2019 F-150s with the 10R80 automatic had shrunk to four states before the judge denied class certification, citing the class-action waiver in Ford's warranty and finding the plaintiffs never showed a common defect, per CarComplaints. Owners can still sue individually.
A Class Action Says Honda Has Known for 15 Years That Its Keyless Entry Makes Cars Easier to Steal: The proposed nationwide class covers anyone who bought or leased a Honda or Acura with passive keyless entry from a dealer since Jan. 1, 2015, and claims Honda never disclosed the weakness or offered added anti-theft protection, per Autoblog. The suit cites an April indictment of a six-person theft ring that targeted recent Hondas and Acuras with devices that made the cars accept a blank key fob.
Yesterday's picks
Honda Will Sell the Next CR-V Only as a Hybrid, a Year After Toyota Did the Same With the RAV4: Honda said Nov. 12 that the 2028 CR-V, arriving next year, will be sold only with a new two-motor hybrid on an all-new platform, per Honda. It is the first of the 15 models getting Honda's next hybrid system by March 2030, most of them for North America. Honda is aiming for more than 10% better fuel efficiency and has not given power or price; today's CR-V hybrid makes 205 hp and is rated up to 38 mpg combined, per Car and Driver.
Global EV Sales Grew 8% in October, but North America's Gain Comes Off the First Month Without the U.S. Tax Credit: Buyers worldwide took 2.09 million electric and plug-in hybrid cars, per Benchmark Mineral Intelligence data reported by Electrek. Europe grew fastest, with fully electric sales up 49% and Germany's share for electric and plug-in hybrid cars together above 45%. North America rose 24% to 130,000, its first year-over-year gain of 2026, but October 2025 was the first month after the federal tax credit ended. "The US market has stabilized at a lower level rather than recovered," said Benchmark's Charles Lester. By Benchmark's count, China's EV sales fell 12% to 1.14 million while its exports set another monthly record, near 600,000.
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.
Scion: 53 outlets this week, about 1 in a median week. Most of it: "Toyota Revives Scion With the Compact KEI-01 Kei Truck for American Fleets".
Yangwang: 42 outlets this week, about 3 in a median week. Most of it: "BYD Yangwang U9 Xtreme breaches 500 km/h barrier to set new world record for production cars".
Alpina: 12 outlets this week, about 3 in a median week. Most of it: "BMW Could Put Its Stunning Alpina Coupe Into Production After All".
Scout: 17 outlets this week, about 4 in a median week. Most of it: "Scout Motors has 212,000 vehicle reservations as $2 billion South Carolina plant nears completion".
Quieter than usual: Renault Group (24 outlets against about 39), Hyundai Motor Group (60 outlets against about 85).
Most covered overall: Volkswagen Group, Stellantis, Honda Motor.
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.
Nov. 13, 2026 | A fireside chat with Mercedes-Benz’s Susann Mayhead (Automotive News Canada Podcast, also at soundcloud.com): Mercedes-Benz Canada CEO Susann Mayhead explains why she wants a CLA or certified pre-owned buyer treated "the same way as an S-Class or a G-Class customer," and why the dealer should know what a shopper saw online before they walk in.
Automotive News Canada Podcast
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