Volkswagen’s Downsizing Starts With Selling A Factory To Israeli Arms Manufacturers – Jalopnik

Happy Tuesday! It’s September 8, 2026, and that is The Morning Shift — your day by day roundup of the highest automotive headlines from around the globe, in a single place. This is the place you will discover crucial tales which can be shaping the way in which Americans drive and get round.

In this morning’s version, we’re taking a look at Volkswagen’s manufacturing facility sale to Israeli weapons makers, and Tesla’s newest European FSD approval. We’ll additionally take a look at BYD’s 2027 gross sales objectives, and Jaguar Land Rover’s personnel cuts. 

If you would like a recap of the newest auto information despatched to your inbox every weekday, you may join Jalopnik’s free Morning Shift e-newsletter right here.

Volkswagen’s been doing its greatest to cease being one of many world’s largest automakers — as an alternative of scale in any respect prices, the corporate is now seeking to downsize for larger earnings. Those downsizing plans embrace chopping factories free, and now one appears to have a purchaser: Israeli weapons producer Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, by way of a cope with personal fairness agency Aurelius Capital. From the Wall Street Journal:

Volkswagen stated it’s promoting its manufacturing facility within the German metropolis of Osnabrueck to Israel’s Aurelius Capital and the state of Lower Saxony, which purpose to repurpose the positioning to make protection gear.

…

Under the cope with Volkswagen, funding firm Aurelius would take over the plant as majority proprietor, along with the state of Lower Saxony, and switch it right into a safety and protection facility, Volkswagen stated Monday. Financial particulars weren’t disclosed.

The web site’s new house owners plan an anchor challenge with Israeli firm Rafael Advanced Defense Systems that will contain doubtlessly producing air-defense methods and elements for Germany and Europe, Volkswagen stated.

This sale could possibly be difficult by, of all issues, the United Nations. Nicaragua went to the UN over Germany’s weapons gross sales to Israel, accusing the nation of enabling genocide. A German authorities — the state of Lower Saxony — co-operating a weapons plant with a nation that the UN has repeatedly decided to be orchestrating a genocide would in all probability not be a improbable look within the face of these accusations.  

Tesla has been making an attempt to get broad regulatory approval for FSD in Europe for a while now, somewhat than the piecemeal nation-by-nation strategy up till this level. The EU is coming to a broad vote, however some nations are attempting to get in underneath the wire to sign their approval of the tech. Latest amongst them is Slovenia, which simply permitted FSD to be used on its roads. From Reuters: 

STOCKHOLM, Sept 8 (Reuters) – Slovenia has allowed Tesla’s FSD driver-assistance system for use on ​its roads, the U.S. automaker stated, turning into the sixth European ‌nation to take action forward of a possible EU-wide vote.

* “FSD Supervised now approved in Slovenia. Rollout will begin soon,” Tesla wrote in a put up, opens new tab on X on ​Monday that was reposted by CEO Elon Musk.

* Slovenia’s Energy and ​Infrastructure Minister Jernej Vrtovec additionally reposted the announcement with ⁠the phrases “Developing Slovenia”.

Slovenia, I swear to god, if Janja Garnbret will get hit by a Tesla working FSD I’ll flip out. You cannot be placing arguably the best lady in trendy mountain climbing in danger like this. Now I’ve to hope for an EU-wide FSD ban, simply to maintain her protected. Also as a result of it will be extraordinarily humorous to look at Elon flip out on Twitter about it. 

BYD needs to problem the largest carmakers on the worldwide stage, and the corporate has realized it will must promote much more automobiles with a view to do this. The Chinese market is getting saturated, so BYD is more and more turning to export gross sales for these numbers — numbers that, subsequent yr, are set to hit 2.5 million automobiles offered abroad. From Bloomberg: 

BYD Co. has set an formidable goal to promote greater than 2.5 million automobiles abroad in 2027, accelerating its push past China the place a fierce value struggle has eroded profitability.

The automaker additionally raised its 2026 abroad gross sales steering to between 1.9 million and a pair of million automobiles, from its earlier purpose of 1.5 million, in line with a notice from Deutsche Bank Research primarily based on an investor briefing held Monday. BYD representatives did not instantly reply to requests for touch upon the targets.

The enhance in exports — from as few as 45,000 in 2022 — underscores how China’s largest electrical carmaker is changing its dominant home place into a worldwide footprint.

Going from 45,000 gross sales overseas to 2.5 million in 4 years is bonkers. It’s no marvel that each different automaker is making an attempt to duplicate “China speed,” to the purpose the place Chinese automakers now provide that type of engineering as a service. All these different automakers at the moment are making an attempt to shrink their very own employees and manufacturing as a lot as potential, although, so better of luck to them on that. 

Speaking of carmakers downsizing to chop prices, Jaguar Land Rover is doing simply that — chopping almost one in ten of its employees globally with a view to decrease the corporate’s break-even level. That level is the variety of gross sales at which the corporate turns into worthwhile for a yr, and JLR is focusing on 300,000 automobiles for the benchmark. From Reuters: 

LONDON, Sept 7 (Reuters) – Britain’s Jaguar Land Rover stated on ‌Monday it will reduce almost 10% of its workforce via voluntary redundancies over the following two years, because the automotive trade faces heightened pressures together with from Chinese competitors and tariffs.

The luxurious carmaker, which is owned by India’s Tata Motors ​and has 17 websites in England, stated it will reduce round 4,000 jobs, focusing on £1.7 billion ($2.30 ​billion) in financial savings and looking for to decrease its break-even level in the direction of 300,000 automobiles.

JLR ⁠employs about 43,000 folks globally, together with 34,000 in Britain, however didn’t say the place the roles would ​be reduce.

Salaries are often the most important expense to an organization, and chopping them is a simple manner for spreadsheet-brained MBA directors to pat themselves on the again for quarterly profitability. Unfortunately for the long-term well being of an organization, although, all these individuals are usually being paid to do one thing — one thing the corporate will now not be doing as soon as that wage is faraway from the stability sheet. Will JLR reduce its engineering employees, and now not innovate with future automobiles? Will it reduce high quality assurance, and ship automobiles much more damaged than earlier than? 

They cannot sue all of us! I imply, uh, all of them. Certainly by no means me. 

I picked a very nice time to get a string of press automobiles, huh? At least they don’t seem to be diesels. It’s additionally good that diesel is not the first gasoline for transferring items across the United States, as a result of all these firms that transfer items round would begin passing the additional gasoline prices on to shoppers fairly rapidly. 

There are valuable few monitor titles on this album that I can really correctly kind out in a weblog, given the language filter, however I’m fairly certain neither Throat nor Goat will set off it. Let’s discover out!