Daily news about the technology and business driving electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids and sustainable e-mobility. Daily 20-minute episodes, concise updates, and expert commentary.
ev.news Briefly: Ioniq 3, Citroen 2CV, Electrify America & more | 06 Oct 2026
Oct 07, 2026
Show notes
HYUNDAI IONIQ 3 UNDERCUTS RENAULT 5 AT £18,495 Hyundai has opened UK orders for the Ioniq 3 from £18,495 after the full £3,750 Electric Car Grant, with the entry 213-mile model undercutting the Renault 5 and Citroën ë-C3, while a 61 kWh version offers 308 miles for £21,995. Every version qualifies for the grant, and the significance is that Hyundai is bringing a 300-mile-plus EV into the low-£20,000s, increasing pressure on rivals to cut prices. EV SALES SURGE 62% ACROSS 12 EUROPEAN MARKETS Battery-electric sales across 12 major European markets rose 62% in September to a record 33% share, with France reaching 41.7%, Germany 34.5%, the Netherlands 53%, Belgium 51% and Sweden 49%, while year-to-date BEV sales climbed 42% to 2.3 million. The acceleration is unusually broad and appears to reflect several factors including cheaper EVs, higher fuel prices, LFP batteries, finance offers and incentives, although weaker markets such as Italy show Europe has not yet reached a uniform or irreversible tipping point. CITROËN SHOWS ITS SUB-€15,000 ELECTRIC 2CV Citroën has released the first images of its new electric 2CV ahead of an 11 October reveal, with the retro-inspired model expected to sit below the C3 and target a price under €15,000. More important than its nostalgic design is Citroën’s attempt to exploit proposed EU rules supporting small European-built EVs, making the car a test of whether Europe can produce genuinely affordable electric vehicles at scale. ELECTRIFY AMERICA GIVES RETAILERS CONTROL OF FAST-CHARGING BRAND Electrify America is expanding its Powered by Electrify America model, allowing retailers such as Wawa and Costco to control charging branding, prices and loyalty programmes while Electrify America operates the underlying infrastructure. The approach, already covering more than 100 stations and nearly 600 chargers, could accelerate US fast-charging growth by giving retailers the customer relationship without requiring them to build charging expertise themselves. VOLKSWAGEN PUSHES “MADE IN EUROPE” EV POLICY Volkswagen will use the Paris Motor Show to argue that European EV policy should focus not only on electrification but on where cars, batteries and technologies are produced, with CEO Oliver Blume linking “Made in Europe” to CO₂ regulation and trade with China. Its new €25,000-class EV family built in Spain gives that argument commercial weight, as Volkswagen effectively says European factories can deliver cheaper EVs if industrial, regulatory and trade policy support domestic production. LUCID COSMOS PROTOTYPE SPOTTED OUTSIDE ARIZONA A camouflaged Lucid Cosmos prototype has been photographed testing in Morgan Hill, California, offering another indication that development of Lucid’s first midsize Atlas-platform EV is progressing beyond its Arizona base. The 800V model is intended to take Lucid into a lower-priced segment below the Air and Gravity, with production currently expected in the second half of 2027. T&E MODELS THREE-QUARTERS DROP IN LOW-COST EV SALES UNDER 2035 PROPOSAL Transport & Environment says proposals to weaken the EU’s 2035 combustion-car rules could leave battery-electric vehicles at only 22% of new-car sales in 2030 and 39% in 2035, compared with European Commission modelling of 47% and 85% respectively. T&E argues that reducing the regulatory signal would particularly undermine investment in Europe’s emerging sub-€25,000 EV market while allowing Chinese manufacturers to keep scaling faster than European rivals. SIX FLAGS INSTALLS 12.37MW SOLAR CARPORT AT MAGIC MOUNTAIN Six Flags Magic Mountain has installed a 12.37 MW solar carport across more than 4,000 parking spaces, combining 22,908 bifacial panels with a 2 MW/8 MWh battery and 109 EV charging connectors. The system is expected to generate around 20.8 million kWh annually, enough to offset the yearly electricity consumption of Magic Mountain and Hurricane Harbor while showing how parking areas can simultaneously provide shade, renewable generation, storage and EV charging.
ev.news Briefly: Kia, Tesla, Ford, GM & more | 05 Oct 2026
Oct 05, 2026
Show notes
It's ev.news Briefly for Monday 05 October 2026, only todays headlines and nothing else, in just 4 minutes if you haven't got time for the full show.
Patreon supporters fund this show, get the episodes ad free, as soon as they're ready and are part of the ev.news Community. You can be like them by clicking here: https://www.patreon.com/evnews
KIA EXPANDS GT RANGE WITH EV3 GT, EV4 GT AND EV5 GT Kia is expanding its electric GT range with higher-powered, all-wheel-drive EV3, EV4 and EV5 variants priced from £48,695 to £54,295, adding adaptive chassis upgrades, performance tyres and, on the EV3 and EV4, simulated gears and synthetic engine sounds. The emphasis is entertainment rather than outright speed: rivals are quicker and sometimes cheaper, while Kia is using GT to make its mainstream EVs feel more engaging rather than simply chasing acceleration figures. TESLA BEATS FORECASTS AS SALES STILL FALL Tesla delivered 486,532 EVs in Q3 2026, comfortably beating analyst forecasts but still down 2.1% year on year, with Model 3 and Model Y deliveries slipping slightly and sales of its other vehicles falling 48%. Production rose while deliveries fell, although energy storage deployments grew 9.6% to 13.7 GWh, leaving Tesla’s 21 October results to answer the bigger question of whether its core automotive business can return to growth. FORD AND GM EV SALES SLIDE AGAIN Ford’s US EV sales fell 80.2% year on year in Q3 to 6,047 vehicles and GM’s dropped 61.7% to 25,473, partly reflecting last year’s rush to claim the expiring $7,500 tax credit but also representing declines from Q2 2026. Cadillac and the returning Chevrolet Bolt provided some bright spots, but EVs represented only 1.2% of Ford and 3.8% of GM sales, putting greater pressure on their coming generation of cheaper electric models to rebuild demand. RENAULT MAKES ITS €10BN FRENCH EV BET CONDITIONAL Renault says it could invest more than €10 billion in France over the next five years to continue expanding EV production and affordability, but CEO Francois Provost has explicitly made that spending dependent on political and social stability. The warning comes ahead of a highly uncertain French election despite EVs reaching a record 42% of registrations in September, making Renault’s concern about the investment environment rather than underlying electric-car demand. BMW’S ELECTRIC i3 UNDERCUTS THE M350 BMW has priced the 2027 electric i3 50 xDrive at $61,500 before destination, $4,400 below the gasoline M350 xDrive, while claiming 468 miles of range and the ability to add 208 miles in 10 minutes on a sufficiently powerful charger. Although the comparison is not perfectly like-for-like and refuelling remains faster, an EV matching its combustion counterpart’s range while costing less upfront weakens one of the longest-standing arguments against electric cars. ROADCHEF TAKES OVER 12 BP FORECOURTS AS EV CHARGING EXPANDS Roadchef will directly operate 12 BP-branded petrol forecourts at its motorway service areas while BP Pulse prepares rapid-charging hubs at more than 30 Roadchef sites from 2027, supporting Roadchef’s target of more than 1,000 charging bays by 2030. Petrol remains commercially important, but the arrangement shows motorway operators increasingly preparing their sites for a future in which far more customers arrive seeking chargers rather than fuel pumps. UK EV PURCHASE INTENT JUMPS AMONG NEW-CAR BUYERS UK EV purchase intent has risen to just under 47% among all buyers, but the more significant change is among people planning to buy a new car, where interest jumped almost 18% to 64%. That suggests EV consideration is strengthening most among consumers actually approaching a purchase, while 2026 is expected to bring further growth in electric and hybrid sales as petrol and diesel continue declining. UK POWER GENERATION PER PERSON FALLS BELOW 1968 UK domestic electricity generation has fallen to around 4,200 kWh per person, below its 1968 level and far beneath the roughly 6,700 kWh peak reached in 2003, with increased imports explaining only part of the decline. Britain is therefore attempting to electrify transport, heating and industry from a system currently generating less electricity per person at home than almost six decades ago, implying that future electricity supply will need to expand substantially. G7 RELEASES 100M BARRELS AS DIESEL SUPPLY TIGHTENS The G7 will release 100 million barrels of emergency crude and fuel reserves as wars in the Middle East and Ukraine disrupt regions responsible for almost a third of global diesel exports, sending diesel prices to record levels in the US and sharply higher in Europe. The resulting fuel shock strengthens the operating-cost case for electric vans and trucks, while the G7’s commitment not to impose oil-export restrictions reduces the immediate risk of a US diesel export ban hitting Europe and Latin America.
ev.news Briefly: IONNA, UK BEVs, Tesla & more | 04 Oct 2026
Oct 05, 2026
Show notes
It's ev.news Briefly for Sunday 04 October 2026, only todays headlines and nothing else, in just 4 minutes if you haven't got time for the full show.
Patreon supporters fund this show, get the episodes ad free, as soon as they're ready and are part of the ev.news Community. You can be like them by clicking here: https://www.patreon.com/evnews
IONNA SAYS 10–20 MINUTE CHARGING IS ENOUGH Ionna is building its US charging network around reliable 10–20 minute stops with 400 kW chargers, arguing that drivers already spend that long using bathrooms, buying food or taking a break and therefore do not need EV charging to match a five-minute petrol stop. Backed by major automakers but aiming to become commercially self-sustaining, Ionna plans to triple its 80-site network during 2026 through partners including Circle K, Wawa, Sheetz and Casey’s, betting that reliability, useful amenities and viable economics matter more in America than pursuing China-style megawatt charging. UK BEVS SET A NEW MONTHLY RECORD Britain registered a record 99,199 battery-electric cars in September, up 36.3% year on year and representing 28.3% of all new cars, while first-nine-month BEV registrations reached 454,945 and market share climbed from 20.2% to 26.2%. Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y led September’s BEV rankings, while plug-in hybrids also hit a record 17% share with 55.7% growth, although their environmental benefit depends much more heavily on owners actually charging them. TESLA REGISTRATIONS RISE ACROSS FIVE EUROPEAN MARKETS Tesla registrations rose in September across France, Sweden, Spain, Norway and Denmark, with France up 61.9%, while the Model Y became Ireland’s best-selling car for the month and Tesla’s January-August registrations across Europe had already risen 43.3%, slightly faster than the overall BEV market. The recovery now looks broader after two weak years, but comparisons against a poor 2025, Tesla’s reliance on the Model 3 and Model Y, stronger Chinese and European competition and increasingly saturated EV markets mean it is too early to declare a complete comeback. GERMANY CLEARS EV BATTERIES FOR HOME AND GRID POWER Germany’s new MiSpeL rules remove a major regulatory barrier to bidirectional charging by allowing an EV battery to store both subsidised solar electricity and grid electricity without automatically jeopardising renewable-energy support. Using 15-minute metering to account for the different energy sources, the framework could let owners charge cheaply or from solar, power their homes and eventually export electricity to the grid, although grid and metering operator approval will remain necessary during a transition period lasting until September 2027. EV CHARGING ENQUIRIES RISE 630% AS FUEL PRICES CLIMB ScottishPower says enquiries about its EV charging offers have risen about 630% in a year and customers using dedicated charging products are up 430%, as petrol and diesel prices make the economics of overnight home charging increasingly attractive. Its comparison puts a typical petrol fill at roughly £96 versus about £10 of home electricity for an equivalent distance, although the 630% figure measures interest rather than EV sales and the very low electricity cost does not apply to expensive public rapid charging. BUICK TAKES ITS CHINA-BUILT E7 TO SOUTH KOREA Buick will launch the China-developed and China-built Electra E7 plug-in hybrid in South Korea in November, marking the brand’s entry into the market and showing GM using its SAIC-GM Chinese operation as an export product-development base. The E7 combines a 31.7 kWh LFP battery with up to 126 km of quoted electric range, around 20-minute 30–80% charging and more than 1,000 km total range, with its Chinese engineering and manufacturing helping Buick position it competitively on price. AUDI PATENT MAKES EVS IDLE, SHIFT AND SPARK Audi has patented technology that could make an EV simulate idling, gear changes, turbo lag, rev matching, misfires, sparks, flashes and even engine-related smells, including spinning a disconnected electric motor while stationary to create artificial vibration and sound. There is no indication that Audi plans to put the system into production, but the filing shows manufacturers exploring increasingly elaborate ways of deliberately restoring the noise, vibration and mechanical theatre that electric drivetrains naturally remove.
[ARCHIVE] ev.news Briefly: Rivian, GM, Electric Trucks & more | 15 Sep 2026
Oct 05, 2026
Show notes
RIVIAN DEMO DRIVES PASS 150,000 AFTER R2 LAUNCH Rivian completed more than 150,000 demo drives through August, with activity accelerating sharply after R2 drives began on 9 June, while CEO RJ Scaringe says Launch Edition orders converted from reservations better than expected and the company is preparing a second production shift in Illinois. However, Rivian’s figures cover its entire range and marketing events, and without disclosed R2 production, deliveries or test-drive conversion rates, demo drives remain evidence of interest rather than confirmed sales demand. MARY BARRA SAYS EVS REMAIN GM'S END GAME GM CEO Mary Barra says EVs remain the company’s “end game” and “north star” despite cancelled electric-truck plans and weaker US EV sales, with electric vehicles still projected to represent roughly 40–50% of GM sales by 2030. GM is continuing to invest in batteries, software and charging while using combustion-vehicle profits to fund a transition Barra now expects to take decades rather than follow a fixed near-term deadline. ELECTRIC TRUCKS LEAD IAA TRANSPORTATION 2026 IAA Transportation 2026 shows battery-electric trucks moving from demonstration projects towards mainstream freight, with new Volvo models, MAN trucks claiming up to 720 km of range and Mercedes eActros 600 customer vehicles already accumulating more than 160 million kilometres. The wider focus on megawatt charging, depot infrastructure and energy management shows that grid capacity and charging operations are increasingly as important to electric trucking as the vehicles themselves. GEELY GALAXY CRUISER 700 COULD BE BUILT AT FORD'S VALENCIA PLANT Geely is considering building its new Galaxy Cruiser 700 SUV at Ford’s Valencia factory from 2028 through their 66%-Ford, 34%-Geely joint venture, potentially reducing tariffs, logistics costs and reliance on importing complete vehicles from China. With Geely’s EX5 also expected to be produced there and the plant potentially capable of 500,000 vehicles annually, Valencia could become a major European manufacturing base for the Chinese carmaker. MG5 IS AUGUST'S FASTEST-SELLING USED CAR Electric cars occupied nine of the UK’s 10 fastest-selling used-car positions in August, led by the MG5 at just 20.6 days on dealer forecourts, ahead of models including the Mercedes EQA, Polestar 2, Tesla Model 3 and Volkswagen ID.4. The figures show strong demand and rapid turnover for particular used EVs, although combustion cars still dominate overall used-car sales volumes, with the Vauxhall Corsa remaining Britain’s best-selling used model. RENAULT LAUNCHES REMANUFACTURED EV MOTORS AT AROUND 30% LESS Renault is offering remanufactured 6AM electric traction motors in Europe for the Megane E-Tech, Scenic E-Tech and Master E-Tech at around 30% less than equivalent new motors, with The Remakers claiming equivalent performance, reliability and an “as good as new” guarantee. Lower-cost replacement motors could materially improve the economics of keeping older EVs on the road after warranty expiry, although Renault has not yet confirmed the programme for the UK. VOLVO LAUNCHES ELECTRIC TRUCK FOR UP TO 80 TONNES Volvo Trucks has developed a new battery-electric truck for combinations weighing up to 80 tonnes, using 640 kWh of usable battery capacity and offering quoted ranges of 450 km at 64 tonnes and 420 km at 76 tonnes. Megawatt charging can take the battery from 20–80% in around 36 minutes, pushing battery-electric trucks into demanding applications such as long-haul freight, timber transport and refrigerated operations when European sales begin in early 2027. U.S. BUYERS AND DEALERS DIVIDE OVER CHINESE CARS Around half of surveyed US car buyers say they would consider a Chinese vehicle, attracted partly by prices substantially below America’s roughly $50,000 average new-car transaction price, while many US dealers remain opposed to Chinese manufacturers entering the market. High tariffs and forthcoming restrictions on Chinese vehicle software and hardware currently leave those brands without a viable US sales route, despite evidence that both consumers and some dealer groups could ultimately be willing to sell them.
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
Stay Connected
