Good morning and welcome to The Downshift, or TDS for short.
TDS is about getting you up to speed on all the critical automotive headlines of the morning, and it’s designed to pair well with a cup of coffee. Really brings out those citrus notes, in my opinion. With Joel, our usual TDS artisan, taking a well-deserved couple of days off, the rest of The Drive staff is bringing the roundup to you for this holiday week. Let’s dig in.
? Porsche’s boss of the 718 and 911 model lines, Frank Moser, recently had some very kind things to say about the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, echoing our sentiments. “We learnt a lot from that [Ioniq 5 N]. I drove it several times. They made it really, really good,” Moser reportedly told media during a recent event, per Australia’s Drive (no affiliation).
? Turns out, nobody wants Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software stack, even though CEO Elon Musk has offered to license it to anyone interested. Musk admitted this himself on X on Monday, via Electrek, saying that “When legacy auto does occasionally reach out, they tepidly discuss implementing FSD for a tiny program in 5 years with unworkable requirements for Tesla, so pointless.”
? Volkswagen’s Scout is firmly in its preproduction testing phase, and is well on its way toward a target of beginning production at its South Carolina facility by the end of next year. “I drove my first mule a few weeks ago,” Ryan Decker, Scout’s vice president of strategy and brand, told Automotive News. “Super special moment. It’s dynamic for a vehicle that has our capability.” Scout has not yet displayed the final production versions of its vehicles, so expect some design details to change before they hit the road.
⛽ October was a milestone month for Europe’s auto industry, as registrations of new plug-in hybrid cars surpassed those of diesels for the first time ever, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.
? Volkswagen has announced that it will start exporting vehicles developed in and for China to other markets, like Southeast Asia and the Middle East, but critically not Europe, reportedly “due to a difference in electronic architecture and software technology for smart vehicles,” per Reuters.
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Backed by a decade of covering cars and consumer tech, Adam Ismail is a Senior Editor at The Drive, focused on curating and producing the site’s slate of daily stories.
