Good morning and welcome to The Downshift, or TDS for short.
Light, tight, and right, TDS gathers the latest automotive news simmering around the world and brings it all together in one spot. Stories are summarized in a, sometimes rather long, sentence accompanied by a link for those seeking more information.
It’s been a week, The Drive launched a new product in the form of our Spyglass spy shot newsletter, and cool fall weather is rolling in here in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. The first cup of coffee is gone and I’m definitely ready for a second, so let’s get into it.
🚘 What I’m driving: Headed into the weekend with the 2025 (sorry, been telling you most the week it’s a 2026, but it’s apparently actually a 2025) Audi A6 Sportback E-Tron and this single-motor model with 370 miles of EPA-rated range costs $75,240.
🚕 Tesla CEO Elon Musk claimed during the automaker’s third-quarter earnings call the Cybercab will enter production and launch before the end of Q2 next year, “we’re going to expand production as fast as we can, and as fast as our suppliers can keep up with,” he noted while also reconfirming the self-driving taxi will have no steering wheel or pedals because “that’s really a vehicle that’s optimized for full autonomy.”
☘️ Alfa Romeo isn’t just extending the Giulia sedan and Stelvio SUV’s life into 2027, rather the automaker’s actually said it will now bring back the fire-breathing Quadrifoglio versions from the grave.
🔌 EV charging company Ionna, which is a conglomerate founded by seven and now owned by eight automakers, has partnered with midwest convenience store chain Casey’s, which is the third largest convenience store and fifth largest pizza chain.
🪫 EV startup Rivian laid off more than 600 workers as the automaker prepares for the hurdle of launching the smaller, less expensive R2 SUV in 2026, and the shakeup puts founder and CEO RJ Scaringe sitting in dual roles taking over as interim chief marketing officer, all while the company agreed to pay an unrelated $250 million to settle a lingering IPO fraud class action lawsuit.
⏛ It’s not just EVs that are getting an electrical upgrade at GM, as the giant automaker said it plans to transform its gas-powered vehicles with a new zonal electrical architecture as well that completely ditches fuses.
💸 Porsche is set to get hit with a deep operating loss as it prepares for a new CEO in January.
🏭 Plans for a controversial EV battery parts plant set to be built in Michigan, which would’ve cost $2.4 billion and created 2,350 new jobs, have been abandoned by Gotion Inc. and the state’s economic development arm is now seeking to recover nearly $23.7 million the company received to buy land.
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