Morningstar DBRS Finalizes Provisional Credit Ratings on Drive Auto Receivables Trust 2025-1

DBRS, Inc. (Morningstar DBRS) finalized its provisional credit ratings on the following classes of notes issued by Drive Auto Receivables Trust 2025-1 (the Issuer):

-- $146,000,000 Class A-1 Notes at R-1 (high) (sf)
-- $368,580,000 Class A-2 Notes at AAA (sf)
-- $231,250,000 Class A-3 Notes at AAA (sf)
-- $175,040,000 Class B Notes at AA (sf)
-- $144,600,000 Class C Notes at A (sf)
-- $190,260,000 Class D Notes at BBB (sf)

CREDIT RATING RATIONALE/DESCRIPTION

The credit ratings are based on Morningstar DBRS' review of the following analytical considerations:

(1) Transaction capital structure, ratings, and form and sufficiency of available credit enhancement.
-- Credit enhancement is in the form of OC, subordination, amounts held in the reserve account, and excess spread. Credit enhancement levels are sufficient to support the Morningstar DBRS-projected cumulative net loss (CNL) assumption under various stress scenarios.

(2) The ability of the transaction to withstand stressed cash flow assumptions and repay investors according to the terms under which they have invested. For this transaction, the ratings address the timely payment of interest on a monthly basis and the payment of principal by the legal final maturity date.

(3) The credit quality of the collateral and performance of Santander Consumer USA Inc.'s (SC or the Company) auto loan portfolio.
-- The pool includes approximately 71.90% of used and 28.10% of new auto loans.
-- The loans in both pools have a weighted-average (WA) FICO score of 586 and a WA annual percentage rate (APR) of 19.81%.
-- Approximately 50.8% of the collateral pool consists of vehicles with mileage less than or equal to 35,000.

(4) The Morningstar DBRS CNL assumption is 19.70% based on the pool composition as of the cut-off date.

(5) The capabilities of SC and Santander Bank, N.A. (SBNA) with regard to originations, underwriting, and servicing.
-- Morningstar DBRS received a presentation from the Company and as a result considers the entity to be an acceptable originator and servicer of subprime automobile loan contracts.

(6) The consistent operational history of SC and the strength of the overall Company and its management team.
-- The SC senior management team has considerable experience and a successful track record within the auto finance industry.
-- SC's track record and history issuing ABS transactions under the Drive Auto Receivables Trust, Santander Drive Auto Receivables Trust, Santander Retail Auto Lease Trust, and Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Trust.
-- The quality and consistency of historical static pool data and performance of the auto loan portfolio.
-- Morningstar DBRS used the static pool approach to generate static pool projected losses.
-- Morningstar DBRS was conservative in the loss forecast analysis performed on the static pool data.

(7) The transaction assumptions consider Morningstar DBRS' baseline macroeconomic scenarios for rated sovereign economies, available in its commentary Baseline Macroeconomic Scenarios For Rated Sovereigns March 2025 Update, published on March 26, 2025. These baseline macroeconomic scenarios replace Morningstar DBRS' moderate and adverse COVID-19 pandemic scenarios, which were first published in April 2020.

(8) The legal structure and presence of legal opinions that address the true sale of the assets to the Issuer, the nonconsolidation of the special-purpose vehicle with SC, that the trust has a valid first-priority security interest in the assets, and the consistency with Morningstar DBRS' Legal Criteria for U.S. Structured Finance.

Morningstar DBRS' credit rating on the securities referenced herein addresses the credit risk associated with the identified financial obligations in accordance with the relevant transaction documents. The associated financial obligations for each of the rated notes are the related Noteholders' Monthly Accrued Interest and Note Balance.

Morningstar DBRS' credit rating does not address nonpayment risk associated with contractual payment obligations contemplated in the applicable transaction document(s) that are not financial obligations. The associated contractual payment obligations that are not financial obligations are the related interest on unpaid Noteholders' Interest Carryover Shortfall for each of the rated notes.

Morningstar DBRS' long-term credit ratings provide opinions on risk of default. Morningstar DBRS considers risk of default to be the risk that an issuer will fail to satisfy the financial obligations in accordance with the terms under which a long-term obligation has been issued. The Morningstar DBRS short-term debt rating scale provides an opinion on the risk that an issuer will not meet its short-term financial obligations in a timely manner.

ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL, AND GOVERNANCE CONSIDERATIONS

There were no Environmental/Social/Governance factor(s) that had a significant or relevant effect on the credit analysis.

A description of how Morningstar DBRS considers ESG factors within the Morningstar DBRS analytical framework can be found in the Morningstar DBRS Criteria: Approach to Environmental, Social, and Governance Factors in Credit Ratings (May 16, 2025) https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/454196.

Notes:
All figures are in US dollars unless otherwise noted.

The principal methodology applicable to the credit ratings is Rating U.S. Retail Auto Loan Securitizations (May 15, 2025) https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/454100.

Other methodologies referenced in this transaction are listed at the end of this press release.

The credit rating was initiated at the request of the rated entity.

The rated entity or its related entities did participate in the credit rating process for this credit rating action.

Morningstar DBRS had access to the accounts, management and other relevant internal documents of the rated entity or its related entities in connection with this credit rating action.

This is a solicited credit rating.

For more information on Morningstar DBRS' policy regarding the solicitation status of credit ratings, please refer to the Credit Ratings Global Policy, which can be found in the Morningstar DBRS Understanding Ratings section of the website: https://dbrs.morningstar.com/understanding-ratings.

Please see the related appendix for additional information regarding the sensitivity of assumptions used in the credit rating process.

DBRS, Inc.
140 Broadway, 43rd Floor
New York, NY 10005 USA
Tel. +1 212 806-3277

The credit rating methodologies used in the analysis of this transaction can be found at: https://dbrs.morningstar.com/about/methodologies.

Rating U.S. Structured Finance Transactions (March 10, 2025)
https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/449616

Operational Risk Assessment for U.S. ABS Originators and Servicers (March 26, 2025)
https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/450709

Legal Criteria for U.S. Structured Finance (December 3, 2024)
https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/444064

A description of how Morningstar DBRS analyses structured finance transactions and how the methodologies are collectively applied can be found at: https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/417279.

For more information on this credit or on this industry, visit dbrs.morningstar.com or contact us at info-DBRS@morningstar.com.