This version of Hot Rod depicts him with a dark red body, an orange hood, and a splash of yellow-green around his Autobot Insignia.

Nope. In the IDW comic continuity of 2005, of his own free will, Megatron placed an Autobot insignia upon his chest and declared himself to no longer be a Decepticon.

Optimus Prime and Megatron are absent here and there is no overdose of fan service meant to stoke the nostalgia of 1980s fans (beyond that Autobot insignia, of course).

Hot Rod first appeared in 1986’s Transformers: The Movie, where he quickly goes from “turbo-revving young punk,” to Autobot commander after opening the Matrix of Leadership.

Spin the chair around and you’ll be greeted by the familiar insignia of the Autobots. X1000 Transformers Decepticons Edition Transform and rise up with the Decepticons Edition.

Source: Paul Nicholasi The first Transformers TV series, aired in 1984, was set in the latter part of the Autobot-Decepticon war as it spread to modern-day—or at least 1980's—Earth. But fans of the ...