Photo: Alexander Migl / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
In today's issue:
Volvo lost money in the third quarter, is cutting 2,500 more jobs, and has built about 5,000 of the 50,000-plus EX60s it has orders for
The average new-car payment is forecast at $823 in October, a record for the month, while sales hold flat
GM ended a deal to take most of a new U.S. rare-earth magnet plant's output, and the supplier wants damages
Filtered from 4,168 items published across 314 sources in the last 24 hours.
FIVE THOUSAND BUILT
Volvo Cars posted a third-quarter operating loss of SEK 5.6 billion ($565 million), against a SEK 6.4 billion profit a year earlier, on revenue down about 23% to SEK 66.9 billion ($6.74 billion), per CBT News. Excluding one-off items the loss was SEK 3.7 billion ($373 million), per Automotive News. Citi analysts said the consensus had been a loss of SEK 724 million ($73 million), Reuters reported, per the same CBT News story.
Revenue in China fell almost 50%, and Volvo says it will protect margins there rather than join the price war with local brands, per Motor1. In the U.S., tariffs and the end of EV incentives squeezed margins, and a SEK 1.1 billion ($111 million) write-down of CAFE credits tied to U.S. legislative changes added to the hit, per CBT News.
The 2,500 job cuts, about 2,000 of them in Sweden, come on top of 3,000 announced in 2025 and affect about 6% of the workforce. Volvo will also cut another SEK 5 billion in indirect and variable costs, per Automotive News. "The third quarter of 2026 was very disappointing," CEO Håkan Samuelsson said.
Gross margin fell to 14.7% from 20.4%, and the stock was already down 54% this year before the report, per Automotive News. It fell as much as 30% today, per the Financial Times.
The EX60, the electric version of Volvo's best-selling XC60, has more than 50,000 orders but only about 5,000 have been built since production started in April, per Autocar. Volvo blames the automated line that fits the battery directly into the car's underbody. "We were maybe too optimistic in the ramp-up, but we are improving," Samuelsson said. BMW, by comparison, has 100,000 orders for the rival iX3 and runs its Hungarian plant around the clock, per the same report.
Following up on Volvo scrapping its 2026 outlook on Oct. 2, when it warned of a "significant" third-quarter hit, and on the EX60 running at about a tenth of its target on Oct. 14: the loss came in far deeper than the SEK 724 million consensus Citi cited, and Volvo's own count of about 5,000 built since April matches the tenth-of-target rate an unnamed source gave Automotive News then. The cuts are the part Volvo controls. The part it doesn't yet is the EX60, which Samuelsson expects to become one of the company's best profit contributors, per Autocar. Every month the car is built at a fraction of its order book is a month of the turnaround's main earner arriving late, and Volvo burned SEK 8.9 billion ($897 million) of free cash in the quarter, per CBT News. Read Automotive News' full story.
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Also worth knowing
Car Payments Are Forecast at $823 in October, a Record for the Month, as Sales Hold Flat: J.D. Power and GlobalData forecast an October sales pace of 15.6 million, flat with a year ago, per CBT News. The average monthly payment rises 2.6% to $823, the highest for any October, even as the average transaction price slips 0.1% to $46,329, because the average loan rate climbs to 6.81%. Automakers are spending more to hold the line: incentives rise 13.1% to $3,304 a car, the largest increase in four months, and hybrids take 18.6% of retail sales, up 4.0 points, while EVs slip to 6.9%. #market
GM Walked Away From the New U.S. Magnet Plant That Was Built to Supply It: GM ended a long-term deal with e-VAC Magnetics effective July 1, and the supplier has started arbitration seeking damages, Reuters reported on Oct. 22 from company filings, per CBT News. VAC's $500 million South Carolina plant opened in late 2025 with capacity of just under 2,000 metric tons a year, and VAC had planned to sell 90% of its output to GM for EV motors. Separately, GM is closing its Brownstown battery plant in Michigan, which built packs for the Cadillac Celestiq and batteries and drive units for the hybrid Corvettes and is down to fewer than a dozen workers from about 300, per InsideEVs, citing Automotive News. A GM spokesperson told TechCrunch the closure is not related to its EV strategy and that the lease on the site was ending. #analyst
Canada Freezes Its Tailpipe Rules Until 2030 but Keeps Its 75% EV Target for 2035: Ottawa said Oct. 21 it will hold the fleet emissions standard at 172 grams per mile instead of tightening it from the 2028 model year, months after it repealed the EV sales mandate, per Automotive News. Annual tightening resumes with the 2030 model year, per Electrive. Automakers welcomed it, and Brian Kingston of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association said "even a flatline emissions standard is extremely challenging to meet." #news
Reveals & culture
Subaru Brings the Old STI's Manual Back for a Regular-Production WRX, in Japan: The new WRX, revealed next month, gets the heavy-duty TY85 six-speed from the WRX STI and could be Subaru's first mass-produced manual in Japan since 2019, per Car and Driver. Subaru restarted the gearbox after finding a partner supplier's production line still worked, per Motor1. U.S. manual WRXs keep the lighter TY75, and it is the first of three manual models Subaru promised by 2027, per CarExpert.
Photo: Subaru
Honda's HRC Parts Go on Sale in March, Starting With a Wheel 5.5 Pounds Lighter for the Civic Type R: The first Honda Racing Corporation parts debut at SEMA: a 19x10-inch forged wheel for the Civic Type R and Integra Type S, an off-road wheel for the Passport and Pilot, and a Borla cat-back exhaust for those two SUVs, per Car and Driver. HRC is looking at brakes, suspension and a short-throw shifter next.
Ford's Bronco ORV Package Costs $18,995 Before Tires: The dealer-installed kit for 2025 and 2026 four-door Base, Big Bend and Outer Banks models adds FOX suspension, Bronco Raptor skid plates and RIGID lights, per AutoGuide, and Ford recommends 315/70R17 tires, sold separately.
Photo: Ford
Bentley's First EV Launches as an 876-HP Torcal First Edition: It does 0-60 mph in 2.8 seconds on a 113.3-kWh battery rated at up to 373 miles (WLTP), per Autoblog.
Photo: Bentley
Friday Fun: Weird Wheels
Bugatti Restored the Only Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse Built With a Bare Polished-Aluminum Body: Chassis 8.100, a one-of-one Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse built in 2014, has almost no paint: its body is bare, polished aluminum, and Bugatti had blocks of the metal weighing up to 20 tons delivered to Molsheim to machine the panels, per Car and Driver, which says it was reportedly the most expensive Veyron ever made when new. Bugatti's La Maison Pur Sang heritage department stripped off personal touches added over the years and returned it to its original specification, Carmine Red leather cabin included, before it went to a new owner on the French Riviera, per MotorBiscuit. The quad-turbo 8.0-liter W16 was left untouched.
Photo: Bugatti
Quick links
Tesla Cancels the Cybertruck for Australia and New Zealand, Nearly Seven Years After Taking Deposits: Tesla told deposit holders it is refunding the A$150 reservations taken in November 2019 and offered a free year of FSD (Supervised) with a new Model 3 or Model Y, per CarExpert. The truck is built only in left-hand drive.
The 2027 Jeep Wrangler Costs $945 More to Start, and the Sahara $2,500 More: The base Sport now starts at $39,985 before destination, and the four-door Sahara gains features including an Alpine stereo and blind-spot monitoring, per Autoblog.
A Corvette Shopper Has to Pay the Dealer $12,250 for Scraping the Car on a Test Drive: The Supreme Court of British Columbia upheld a ruling against a customer who argued the test drive made him a dealership employee covered by its insurance, per Automotive News. He hit a concrete barrier at a truck stop while moving the car for a semi.
A Ferrari 499P Modificata That Has Only Done Its Factory Shakedown Is Estimated at Over $8 Million: Christie's lists the track-only Le Mans-winner derivative at more than CHF 7.5 million for its Geneva sale next month, per Motor1.
Yesterday's picks
Ford and Subaru Cut 2027 Prices on the Mach-E and Outback, a Week After New-Car Prices Nearly Set a Record: Subaru added a new base Outback at $34,540, $1,905 below the cheapest 2026 Outback, per Road & Track. Ford cut every Mustang Mach-E with the extended-range battery by $2,350 to $3,050, per Automotive News, though the cheapest Mach-E now starts at $42,040 with destination, about $2,200 more than the cheapest 2026 model, per Car and Driver.
Ferrari's Luce EV Starts at $560,800, About $80,000 Below Car and Driver's Estimate: Ferrari's first electric car, with four motors making 1,035 hp and about 280 miles of EPA-estimated range, reaches the U.S. in the second quarter of 2027, per Car and Driver. That is $122,190 more than the V12 Purosangue, per Motor1.
Worth a listen
One episode from Car Curious, our sister car-podcast platform, picked out of everything the shows published in the last day.
Fire up the V12! It's a Classic Motor Hub special! (The Tyre Kickers - Classic Cars, also at instagram.com): Max and Matt walk around a 1969 Lamborghini Miura P400S at the Classic Motor Hub, still in the Giallo Miura it was delivered new in, then fire up its V12 before moving on to a 1964 Alfa Romeo Spider, a Ferrari Dino and a Peugeot 205 GTI.
The Tyre Kickers - Classic Cars
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