The 2028 Volvo XC40. Photo: Volvo Cars
In today's issue:
Volvo drops the EX40 in the US, moves its electric entry point up $3,250, and puts the refresh money into the mild-hybrid XC40 that shares its body
China's passenger-car exports through August already exceed all of 2025, the same week a senator says Trump may open the US market to them
GM's CEO says EVs are still the endgame in the week Cadillac abandons all-EV with US sales down 22%
THE RETREAT HAS A PRICE
Volvo will discontinue the EX40 electric crossover in the US and Canada after the 2027 model year, per Motor1, and is giving the mild-hybrid XC40 that shares its CMA platform its first substantial refresh in nearly a decade for 2028, per Automotive News.
The sales gap is the reason. Volvo sold 8,863 XC40s in the US in the first half, down 34%, per Automotive News, against 1,724 EX40s in the same period, per Volvo Cars data reported by autoevolution. That is more than five to one, and the 34% slump belongs to the XC40, the car Volvo is spending on.
Volvo's own second-quarter report frames it: fully electric models were 1,588 of 34,228 US sales, down 44.7%, while mild hybrids grew 21.2% to 25,966, per Volvo Car USA.
The electric entry point moves up. Volvo says the EX60 P6 is now the entry EV SUV at $59,795, against the outgoing EX40's $56,545, per the automaker's Sept. 9 statement quoted by Automotive News. The smaller EX50, on the lower-cost SPA3 platform, is not due in US showrooms until fall 2027 in the high-$40,000 range, per Automotive News.
The 2028 XC40 arrives early next year with pricing expected to hold near the 2026 model's $41,295. "We're seeing that the mild hybrid version of the XC40 is very important in less-electrified markets," Chief Commercial Officer Erik Severinson told Automotive News Europe, per the same Automotive News report. His sales target for the refresh: "I hope for a tick up."
Volvo is replacing the EX40 with a dearer car before its cheaper successor arrives, and putting the update money into the hybrid that shares its body. The buyer who used to be the brand's entry EV customer now chooses between a mild hybrid at $41,295 and an EV at $59,795. Volvo has made its guess about which one they pick.
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Also worth knowing
China's Car Exports Have Already Beaten All of 2025, With Four Months to Go: Passenger-car exports in August jumped 67.1% from a year earlier to about 890,000 units, and the January-August total passed 6.2 million against roughly 6 million for all of last year, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said, per AP. Plug-in hybrids and EVs drove the growth while domestic sales kept falling, per the same report. The cars a US-China deal would admit are the ones China increasingly cannot sell at home. #analyst
A Senator Says Trump May Trade Chinese Car Access for a Xi Deal: Sen. Elissa Slotkin says she is hearing the administration may open the US market to Chinese-made cars as part of a broader deal ahead of Trump's meeting with Xi Jinping, per Electrek. One senator relaying what she has heard is not a plan. It does land five days after the industry asked Congress for a permanent ban on Chinese-made cars and one day after the Transportation Department told Ford it was "deeply alarmed" by a Chinese battery licence. The industry asked for a permanent ban, DOT called a licence alarming, and the White House may be trading access, all in six days. #analyst
GM's CEO Says EVs Are Still the Endgame. Cadillac Is Backing Out of All-EV.: "I don't think it's shifted our mission," Mary Barra told Fortune. "We still think EVs are the end game." The same week, Cadillac dealers are bracing for a gap year as the brand walks back its plan to go all-electric by 2030: US sales fell 22% in the first half to 66,923, triple the decline for luxury brands overall, and the gas XT4, XT6 and CT4 were dropped before their replacements were ready, per Automotive News. Redesigned gas XT5, XT6 and CT5 are due in 2027 and 2028, per Cadillac's statement to Automotive News. GM has kept the destination and dropped the timetable, and Cadillac dealers hold the empty showroom in between. #analyst
The Cadillac Escalade IQ, the EV that stays while the gas XT5 returns. Photo: Wlb5V / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Porsche Cashes Out of Bugatti for $1.16 Billion: Porsche completed the sale of its 45% Bugatti Rimac stake and 20.6% Rimac Group holding to a HOF Capital-led consortium on Sept. 9, netting about €1 billion ($1.16 billion), per Automotive News and Porsche. Porsche will put €250 million of it into its pension obligations, and Bugatti president Christophe Piochon is stepping down, with Mate Rimac taking the title himself, per Electrive. #analyst
The Bugatti Tourbillon at Goodwood, 2024. Photo: MrWalkr / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
VW's Restructuring Bill Hits $18.6 Billion, and a German State Says Not So Fast: Following up on the supervisory board approving 50,000 more job cuts last week, Volkswagen now estimates the total cost of job cuts and plant closures at around €16 billion ($18.6 billion), per Automotive News. Lower Saxony's premier says the state will block any spinoff of VW's namesake brand, per Just Auto. #analyst
Audi Pays EV Lessees $10,000 to Not Give the Cars Back: A nationwide dealer bulletin cuts up to $10,000 off the contractual lease-end buyout on the E-Tron GT, with smaller discounts on the Q4 and Q8 E-Tron, running through September 30, 2026, per Motor1 and AutoGuide. Audi would rather keep used EVs with current drivers than absorb them onto dealer lots at depressed residuals. #market
Reveals & culture
Honda Gives the Passport a Bigger Lift Than the 4Runner: The 2027 Passport TrailSport gets a reengineered suspension raising ground clearance to 9.65-9.7 inches, up more than an inch, which Honda says beats the Toyota 4Runner TRD, per Car and Driver and Honda News. TrailSport already accounts for over 80% of Passport sales, per AutoGuide. #enthusiast
The 2027 Honda Passport TrailSport. Photo: Honda
Aston Martin's First Street-Legal Motorcycle Is a 300-Unit Flex: The AMB 002 Roadster, built with Brough Superior, is a road-legal 1,083cc V-twin making 130 hp, limited to 300 examples, the brand's first motorcycle you can ride to the shops, per Car and Driver and Motor1. #enthusiast
A $54 Fix Took an Unsellable Bugatti Veyron to a $2 Million Valuation: A one-off, 1,200-hp Oakley Design Veyron sat unwanted until a YouTuber's $54 repair job restored it to a $2 million valuation, per Autoblog. The $2 million is an appraisal, not a sale price. #culture
Recalls & legal action
NHTSA Turns the Counterfeit Inflator Problem Over to Dealers: After the 11th death we covered Saturday, NHTSA is now asking dealers to check accident history on every used vehicle they take in and inspect any that received a replacement driver-side inflator after a crash, per CBT News. The banned DTN60DB inflator, which we first reported in July at 10 deaths, is now tied to 14 crashes, 11 deaths and three severe injuries, per Motor1. → If you own one: NHTSA's guidance is two-tiered, per CBT News. If your car had an airbag deployment since 2020, get it inspected promptly. If it is confirmed to carry a DTN60DB inflator, keep it parked until a dealer replaces the part with a genuine one.
Quick links
New-Vehicle Inventory Slips to 2.91 Million as Hybrids Stack Up: US new-vehicle stock fell about 30,000 units month over month even as dealers built up hybrid inventory to meet demand, per Automotive News.
Canada's Hybrid Share Hit a Record 16.8% in Q2: Standard-hybrid registrations rose 39.5% to 91,868 in the quarter while battery EVs took 7.4% and combustion fell to 72.5% from 79.3%, per Statistics Canada data reported by Automotive News Canada. The same pattern carried the US August numbers on Sunday.
Posco Spends $360 Million on Premium Auto Steel: The South Korean steelmaker is investing KRW 480 billion to expand capacity for premium galvanized low-carbon automotive steel, per Just Auto.
Yesterday's picks
Trump's DOT Says It's "Deeply Alarmed" by Ford's China Battery Deal. Ford Says Read the Deed.: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote to Ford CEO Jim Farley that his department "remains deeply alarmed" by Ford's use of technology licensed from China's CATL at its Marshall, Michigan battery plant, per Automotive News, which reports the letter is dated Sept. 3 and was delivered Tuesday.
NHTSA Reviews a Defect Petition on 500,000 Ford Edge SUVs: The agency's Office of Defects Investigation opened a review into 2.0-liter EcoBoost coolant intrusion complaints across nearly 500,000 Edge crossovers, per Autoblog and AutoGuide.
Canada's Retaliatory Tariffs Take Effect, With the 50% US Auto Tariff Still Set for Jan. 1: Duties of 15% to 50% on about $20 billion of US goods began just after midnight Tuesday with no ministerial talks scheduled, per CBT News. The threatened 50% US tariff on Canadian cars, trucks and parts remains scheduled for Jan. 1, 2027, and Canada has shipped nearly 68% of its exports to the US this year, roughly 80% of them duty-free under USMCA, per CBT 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.
The Kill Crank / How One Man Dying Saved Us All (Overcrest): The hand-crank injuries and one fatal Cadillac accident that pushed Henry Leland to build the electric starter, and the line he gave his engineers: "The Cadillac car will kill no more men if we can help it."
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