Good morning and welcome to The Downshift, a daily sweep of the top headlines from the auto industry and car culture, curated by The Drive’s editorial team. Each story gets a short summary and link to the original source if you want to dive deeper.
Here’s what’s cooking on Monday, November 9, 2026:
Tesla CEO Elon Musk says that orders for the soon-to-be-discontinued Cybertruck “far exceed” the company’s manufacturing rate. The automaker will try to build as many as possible before production of the pickup shuts down in eight months, but Musk said it “will have to return deposits for a lot of people.” The CEO added that the vehicle being discontinued has nothing to do with it being unprofitable—”as has been misreported by legacy media,” in his words—but is rather because Tesla has much more to gain from incrementally ramping up Cybercab robotaxis in its stead. That remains to be seen. [TechCrunch]
Nissan is lending the Patrol name to the Armada Pro-4X for the 2027 model year, marking the first time that Nissan has used the moniker for a vehicle on sale in the U.S. since 1969. [Nissan]
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating 1.2 million Ford Explorer SUVs, model years 2021 through 2026, for unintentional deployment of seat-mounted side airbags that have caused burn injuries. [Reuters]
NHTSA has also launched a probe into Waymo robotaxis for illegally passing school buses, despite a software update the company pushed to its driverless cars last year to stop them from doing that. [Reuters]
The last Audi A8 rolled off the production line in Neckarsulm, Germany in October, ending a more than three-decade run of production for the company’s once-flagship executive sedan. [Motor1]
BMW is reportedly considering putting the gorgeous Vision Alpine concept coupe, first shown in the spring, into production. [Autocar]
Tennis legend Rafael Nadal is the proud owner of a Kia EV4 GT 1:1 scale model sculpted out of the clay from courts he won on in the past. Good for him! [Kia]
Weekend race winners:
- NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Miami: Kaden Honeycutt for Tricon Garage
- NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series at Miami: Brandon Jones for Joe Gibbs Racing
- FIA WEC 6 Hours of Monza: Earl Bamber, Sebastien Bourdais, and Jack Aitken for Cadillac Hertz Team Jota
- MotoGP Qatar Grand Prix: Marco Bezzecchi for Aprilia
- Formula 1 Brazilian Grand Prix: Lando Norris for McLaren
- NASCAR Cup Series at Miami: Ryan Blaney for Team Penske
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