The 1999 EB 18/4 Veyron concept that predated the record-setting road car was one of Bugatti's first creations under Volkswagen ownership. Bugatti Good morning and welcome to The Downshift, a daily sweep of today’s top headlines from the auto industry and car culture, curated by The Drive’s editorial team. Each story gets a short summary and a link to the original source if you want to dive deeper. Here’s what’s cooking on Thursday, September 10, 2026: 🔊 The latest episode of The Drivecast, The Drive’s weekly podcast, went live yesterday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. 👋 It’s official: No part of Bugatti belongs to Porsche anymore. On Thursday, a consortium of investors led by HOF Capital completed its acquisition of Porsche’s minority stake in Bugatti Rimac. Rimac is still the majority shareholder at 55%, but Porsche is no longer involved in the French hypercar maker’s future. With this move, Bugatti Chief Operating Officer Christophe Piochon, whose tenure dated back to the Veyron days, has stepped down from his position, and will be replaced by Marko Brkljačić, formerly COO of Rimac Technology. [Bugatti Rimac] 🚙 We’ve heard before that Hyundai has sought to make its XRT badge a permanent, ongoing fixture of its lineup, but we didn’t necessarily know how hard the company wanted to push its off-road label. On Wednesday, an executive for the automaker’s Australian arm said in an interview that it’s “considering factory-built XRT Pros or XRTs across basically any model across a range.” Hyundai sells SUVs of many different shapes and styles, so there could be a lot of different XRT models in the not-too-distant future. [Drive.au] 🤷 A Ford spokesperson commented Wednesday on the sharp letter of critique it received from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy for its partnerships with Chinese firms, while being praised by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and the White House this very same week, saying: “This whole situation is very puzzling. We have such a good and productive dialogue with the administration, and this letter came out of left field.” [Reuters] 🆕 McLaren laid out its roadmap for the future at a recent dealer meeting. Those plans include its “first four-door performance utility model; a 1,258-hp hypercar; a front-engine sedan-like grand tourer; and a new class of ultra-exclusive, heritage-bound supercars.” It will also bring a vehicle tentatively titled P34—a new V6 hybrid coupe that will sit between the Artura and 750S in the brand’s lineup. [Automotive News] 📱 Land Rover has evidently heard customer criticism and intends to downsize its interior screens going forward. However, that reduction in display real estate won’t necessarily bring a return to physical buttons. That last part sounds strange because, if you’ve spent any time in a Range Rover in recent years, you’ll note that aside from a big center screen, that model has practically nothing to interact with on its dash as it is. [GoAuto via Autoblog] 🔋 Lithium manganese-rich (LMR) batteries are poised to become the next cost-effective battery chemistry for EVs, but their durability over time remains a question. LG says that it recently found ways to potentially increase LMR longevity, to stave off a significant degradation in maximum capacity over time. [InsideEVs] 🌍 Volvo will become the exclusive distributor of Lynk & Co vehicles in Europe starting in January. Both brands are owned by Chinese firm Geely, and Chinese automakers have been looking overseas to expand business as their own market has become oversaturated and is now showing signs of stagnation. [Reuters]
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