VW ID Buzz Nears Return, Rivian Is on a Roll, and the New Xterra Gets a V6: Downshift

Good morning and welcome to The Downshift, or TDS for short.

Here at TDS, we get you up to speed with the morning’s automotive industry headlines, fit with links that you can follow for more information. A well-deserved round of applause to everyone for making it to Friday. Here’s your bulletin for April 3:

🚌 Volkswagen Group America CEO and President Kjell Gruner reiterated to CarBuzz that its quirky and nostalgic ID Buzz van is indeed making a comeback here in the U.S. as a 2027 model-year vehicle, likely late this summer or early in the fall. When VW announced that there would be no 2026 ID Buzz, there was concern that the long-anticipated model would leave the market for good, but fortunately, that won’t be the case.

📉 Tesla had another down quarter, producing around 50,000 more cars than it actually sold from January through March, per Reuters. Deliveries just underperformed analysts’ projections, landing at 358,023 cars compared to 368,903, though that was a 6.8% increase year-on-year. The company had sold more vehicles every quarter in between.

📈 Rivian, on the other hand, had an upbeat Q1. The electric truck and SUV maker delivered about 500 more vehicles from January through March than analysts expected, despite the death of federal incentives last year, Reuters reported. With the cheaper R2 set to drop later this year, all eyes are on the company to continue the momentum.

6️⃣ The upcoming Nissan Xterra will offer a V6 as well as a hybrid powertrain, according to a Car and Driver interview with Nissan Americas SVP Ponz Pandikuthira.

🚢 In case there was any doubt, a Hyundai global executive said Friday that conflict in the Middle East has disrupted the company’s exports to Europe and the Americas, and rebuilding those supply chains will take time, Reuters reported.

🛑 GM has been forced to issue a stop sale for just under 3,000 units of the Corvette due to a flaw with the sports car’s brake light outage detection system, per GM Authority.

👋 The BMW 8 Series, which saw its production end last year, had an improved sales quarter year-over-year in the U.S. as buyers snapped up the final examples, BMW Blog reports. The company sold 1,170 examples of the big coupe, compared to 990 over the first three months of 2025.

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