3 Million BMW EVs, New F-150 Lightning STX and Tesla’s Trillion Dollar CEO Gamble | 08 Sep 2025

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The legend is getting a new lease of life as an EV.

Well, good morning, good afternoon, or good evening.

Wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily,

your trusted source of EV information.

For Monday, September 8th, I'm Martin Lee,

and I go through every EV story, so you don't have to.

And welcome to a new podcast, Producer.

Executive Producer, may I add Urban Motor Bike?

Well, Patreon supporters fund the show,

get the episodes ad-free as soon as they're ready

and be part of the EV News Daily community.

You can be like Urban Motor Bike by clicking on a link in the show notes.

Now, congratulations to BMW Group reaching three million

electric sales with the delivery of a three-series plug-in hybrid.

They built it at the Munich plant.

More than one in four BMW Group vehicles sold so far this year

have been electrified with a plug on the side of it.

In the first half of the year,

BMW grew both BEVs and plug-in hybrids.

Europe was their largest market,

taking more than 60% of their global plug-ins

and electrified models over 40% of BMWs here.

Earlier in July, BMW delivered its 1.5 millionth fully electric vehicle.

That one was a mini countryman built at the Leipzig plant

delivered to a customer in Portugal.

They must keep count from day one.

Maybe that's someone's job.

Maybe it's Dave that sits at the end of the line.

And then don't lose count, Dave.

462,900.

What? Don't interrupt me.

Let's start again.

Obviously they're counting.

So BMW offers more than 15 fully electric models

across BMW Mini and Rolls-Royce

and more than 10 plug-in hybrids.

The updated BMW iX has that WLTP range

of more than 435 miles currently.

One of the best vehicles they make,

but I've told you recently about the new iX3

coming early next year.

That, a newer class is going to redefine

what BMW EVs are really all about.

Nobody interrupts, Dave.

He's counting.

Let me know when you get to 3 million.

Dave, we'll come back.

Keep count of what it was.

Now, let's move on.

Ford is topping the electric pickup sales

in the US once again,

according to Cox Automotives,

H1 report, first half of the year.

Tesla's model Y remained the top-selling EV

in the United States.

No surprise there.

The US market really is so heavily favored

towards Tesla.

They say 150,000 units

sold in the first half of the year.

As for electric pickups, well,

some of the Tesla hardcore would point out

that although the Cybertruck wasn't selling very well,

it was still America's most popular truck.

Well, that's all changed.

Ford is now back in front

with the F-150 Lightning,

according to this Cox data,

and considerably so as well.

About a third more vehicles than the Cybertruck sold.

Top five electric pickups in order,

F-150 Lightning, Cybertruck, Silverado,

Rivian R1T, and the GMC Sierra EV.

If you're wondering where the Hummer is in that,

it's because it's basically a truck,

so it doesn't appear in the SUV or truck list.

It's basically a commercial vehicle.

The Hummer is so heavy.

The Cybertruck and the Rivian

had the largest year-over-year declines on the list.

Both the nameplates are without internal combustion equivalents

and they're new to the market.

So work to do there for Rivian with their R2 series.

Never been more important at Rivian, has it?

Talking F-150 Lightning,

there's a new STX package for the F-150 Lightning.

After year-to-date sales,

have been a bit wobbly compared to last year.

They've got rid of the XLT trim and replaced it with STX,

boosting interest, they hope, in the battery-powered truck.

Dual motor, extended range pack,

so EPA at 290 miles, 536 horsepower,

775 pound-feet of torque,

standard with a rear e-locking differential.

Ford added parts from F-150 models

to increase its capability.

Off-road running boards from the Tremor version.

New wheels, all-terrain tyres.

The package also includes a new grille,

new blue accents, STX badging throughout.

Buyers' conoption, a black vinyl floor for protection.

Regular paint choices are still there,

but some new colours as well are gone blue and marsh grey.

Talking of the F-150 Lightning,

what's the battery like on that after you've run it for a while?

Well, my friends, Tom Malogany from State of Charge

and also from the Friday podcast

that we do together called Batteries Included,

has had his F-150 Lightning for three years,

a smidge over three years now.

And of course, Tom being Tom, he does 70 mile an hour range tests.

Well, he's done 38,000 miles in his 2022 Lariat.

And so, he did it at the range test

when he first bought his truck.

Three years later, he did exactly the same

constant speed range test.

Same roads, everything the same.

Look, range tests are not scientific

and you can't compare the two.

But people like Tom and Kyle at Outer Spec,

they get as close as possible to comparable range testing.

They just control all of the variables.

The truck has a net battery capacity of 131 kilowatt hours,

believed to have a total of around 145,

a buffer of about 14 kilowatt hours, about 10% of the pack.

EPA ratings for the 20 inch wheel model

were 320 miles combined and 283 on the highway.

Now, when new, Tom's truck did 270 miles

at a steady 70 miles an hour and he ended at 0%.

Typical use over the three years,

Tom said he's weekly charged it to around 80% on AC level two

and lots of DC fast charging sessions for his testing

and things like that.

So he did a repeat test, used the same route,

70 miles an hour, a little bit warmer

than when he ran it three years ago and the vehicle was new.

And a light tailwind early in the run,

the tires are more worn.

Rather than a reduced range,

his three-year-old truck actually went a little bit further.

6% more than the original run, actually,

and he ran it down to 0% once again.

He did 286 miles this time.

Now, he suggests one explanation could be the battery buffer

and that maybe three years ago,

Ford are being very conservative with that 10% reserved,

which you couldn't use.

The pack would start with less usable energy,

but maybe they're permitting the vehicle

to make more of that reserve,

as Ford has learned more about battery management

and keeping the energy in check, as it were,

for cell health and things like that.

Other manufacturers have used similar strategies.

Tom was saying that the 2011 Chevrolet Volt

is an early example of how they managed degradation.

So that's brilliant news, by the way.

So, you know, there is a general misperception out there

that EV batteries don't last

they do, all the degradation comes at the beginning,

which is not untrue,

but Tom's three-year-old truck

actually went further than when it was new.

Now, let's talk a little bit about

a big story that's been rumbling around for a couple of days.

A filing on September 5th says a Tesla committee

met with the CEO Elon Musk ten times,

hired six outside advisors

and delayed the annual meeting

before finalizing their $1 trillion pay package

for their CEO.

So, you know, having $100 million

would be a nice problem to have.

I suggest quite a big problem

if you want to make sure that you don't die

with too much in your bank account.

You can't take it with you after all.

Getting rid of that amount of money

would take some effort.

Getting rid of a thousand million,

aka a beer-billionaire

would be an unthinkable thing.

Having a thousand billion

would make my brain just melt.

Well, that's what Tesla have offered him to stay around.

They want to keep him for seven and a half years

as the head of Tesla.

They've linked it to milestones

during talks must threaten to quit

without assurances.

While directors sought to curb his political activity,

these negotiations were going on

when he was at the heart of the new administration

in America.

They wanted him to commit to Tesla.

Special pay committee chair, Robin Denome

and the director, Kathleen Wilson-Thompson

met Musk twice to assess his vision

and what number would motivate him.

They set milestones in areas

which are expanding the vehicle fleet,

full self-driving robot taxis and robots.

As talks moved on, according to this story,

Musk insisted on 25% voting rights of Tesla.

He also said he might pursue other interests

and leave if he didn't get the assurances.

The committee tested these positions

and concluded his sentiment was genuine

unlike his previous pay award in 2018.

The new proposal, it says, uses restricted shares.

These give Musk additional voting rights

as soon as he earns them,

rather than waiting until they vest,

advancing his target of 25% control of the business.

The committee anticipated scrutiny

over the $1 trillion payday

for Elon Musk.

Now, let's move on.

A new report from the website Electric

actually links that story to something else that happened.

Tesla has quietly rewritten

its definition of full self-driving in the background,

but Electric uncovered this.

Since 2016, Tesla has told customers

that bought their vehicles,

that their production cars would be capable

of unsupervised self-driving one day in the future.

The CEO has predicted unsupervised autonomy

by the end of the year every year

for the last seven years.

Tesla sold a software package

called Full Self-Driving Capability

for $15,000 at its peak,

and we were promised that the value of that

would just keep going up.

Well, when Tesla couldn't sell cars anymore,

they started to reduce that.

They have promised autonomy over the years.

That messaging has quietly changed now.

Tesla and their Full Self-Driving

supervised package.

The fine print in the contract was quietly changed,

and it does not make the vehicle autonomous anymore,

and Full Self-Driving does not promise

autonomy as a feature.

Buyers of Full Self-Driving

are not purchasing Full Self-Driving

that Tesla previously promised.

Tesla revised the formal definition

of Full Self-Driving as well.

Full Self-Driving means

simply an advanced driver assistance system.

Tesla say, regardless of the marketing name we give it,

as long as the system is capable of performing

transportation tasks that provide

autonomous or similar functionality

under specified driving conditions,

FSD is merely a driver assistance system

and not any form of autonomy.

The current FSD, which requires constant

supervising by the driver,

it's that description.

Electric go on to write their editorial bit,

the author's opinion.

It's a heavy tackle, I would say.

They've gone in for Elon Musk in the article somewhat,

saying that actually if you award him a trillion dollars

only based on milestones,

but then you change the rules to say,

well, you've got to hit 10 million people

having Full Self-Driving.

But then saying, well, all the cars have got

Full Self-Driving because now we define that

as being a simple level two ADAS system.

It's kind of what they call a bait and switch.

But yeah, the FSD that people buy from today onwards

if you purchase that,

you're not purchasing what previous people

had bought.

I still can't believe more people haven't taken

to Tesla to court over the years.

For a reasonable amount of money I would seek damages

and I think Tesla would just pay out all of those

instantly.

I mean, it would drag through the courts forever,

but if you had the will to do it,

or Tesla can't really fight it because they said

their cars would come with everything they needed,

the hardware, and it would do it.

And I think at some point you could make an argument

of what a good compensation, 10, 20, 30 grand,

or just the money that you spent on it.

I'd like it back, please.

That has happened in individual cases

and Tesla always just settles out of court.

I'm surprised more haven't done it,

but there we go.

Right, we'll take a break, we'll come back.

Would you like a supercharger in your back garden?

You can have one now, by the way,

and several, actually.

New Citroen, Aircross, C5,

and BW's division of two-wheel transport.

Those and more coming up.

Stick around.

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Welcome back to the podcast.

If you heard an advert or two,

you're listening to The Free Feed.

And thank you for that because it really helps pay my bills.

However, this show is funded by Patreon.

It's what I do for a living these days

since I gave up what I was going to say a job.

But let's face it, radio is not even really a job, is it?

So you can check out the Patreon page

at PATREON.com slash EVNews Daily.

Now, how do you fancy a supercharger in your back garden?

Tesla has now opened up the program

to let companies buy superchargers at their properties.

It's called Supercharger for Business.

Business purchases the hardware

and Tesla handles the operations.

The program is available in every country

where Tesla has superchargers.

Hosts must buy at least four superchargers per site.

So if you want your own supercharger,

you better get one for the neighbors as well.

Tesla guarantees 97% uptime.

It's exactly the same hardware

that Tesla put into their own supercharging stations.

So it's the hardware, the software,

the live monitoring, OTA updates,

integration into the Tesla network,

70,000 superchargers, yours could be one of them.

Each site will be integrated into the in-car nav as well.

Tesla provides a management portal

that lets hosts monitor if the charges are being used,

adjust the pricing, and view financial performance

in there as well.

Tesla says that if you get one of them,

it brings people to your business,

your community, whatever you're selling,

and it's a good thing.

Now, Citroën is next in the news,

opening up UK orders for the C5 Aircross plug-in hybrid,

starts at £38,000 on the road,

joining the Electric C5.

Battery capacity of the plug-in hybrid, 21 kilowatt hours.

That's almost double the previous version.

And Citroën quotes up to 53 miles,

or 85 kilometers, of all electric range on WLTP.

The plug-in is exclusively on the Max Trim 360 camera,

head-up display, heated front seats and steering wheel,

and the drive-resistance pack as well.

For context, the EC5 Aircross,

which is the all-electric version,

is £32,500, but it does get that new government grant money off.

Now, BMW at the IAA Mobility Show

showed off their concept for a new single-track mobility device.

You and I would call it a motorbike.

The Vision CE is their vision of how to get around urban environments,

and you don't need a helmet or protective clothing,

giving riders a more casual experience.

The Vision CE links back 25 years to the BMW C1,

which used safety bodywork to allow riding without a helmet.

The new concept follows the same.

The new core safety element is this metal tubing cage scaffolding

around the top of the motorbike,

compared with a dedicated seat structure and your own seat belt.

The cage is lower in overall height.

It feels open. It feels airy.

The vehicle has a balancing function,

so it will remain balanced when stationary.

Is it on sale?

Well, they're showing off.

This is their vision for urban mobility,

but BMW do a rich heritage in two-wheel transport.

Now, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

launched a new online portal giving firefighters

direct access to a standardized set of guidelines.

It's very important because EV fires are incredibly rare.

You wouldn't believe how common combustion car fires are.

So common, they never get reported anymore.

An EV fire is very rare,

and they always get reported,

so people think they set themselves on fire more than they do,

but it happens,

and first responders need to know how to deal with it.

It's a different circumstance for firefighters

turning up to an EV battery fire.

In some cases, you can think you put it out

and you put it on the back of a low loader

and take it to the scrapyard after a crash or something,

and it can reignite itself.

You often have to just dunk it in a big bathtub,

effectively, a shipping container full of water

for about three days,

and it puts itself out.

So, more to learn for firefighters about how to put out EV fires.

The manufacturers submitted the information

for electric passenger cars, for trucks and buses,

and all these materials give the first responders

guidance on safe handling of the cells, the batteries.

The guide contains detailed vehicle-specific information

on submersion, on towing storage, fire, things like that.

A rescue sheet is an abbreviated version intended

to give quick construction and system location information

for if you're a first responder on the scene of a crash.

The National Fire Protection Association

were previously looking after this.

They had an online platform kind of doing it all themselves,

but now this is the new portal for first responders,

and that's a great bit of news.

And finally,

Electrogenic have partnered with a company called Exedy

to deploy a new little motor, an axial flux motor.

These things are so compact and yet so powerful,

integrating it into Electrogenic's EV powertrain

and its software-defined vehicle platform.

The collaboration starts with a new kit.

They've designed a drop-in kit for classic minis,

a British legend, the classic mini.

The new mini, of course, has the same name,

but it's anything but mini.

But the classic mini, so loved and so legendary,

and now you can keep them on the road

even if the combustion bits are at the end of their life.

Electrogenic CEO Steve Drummond

announcing the partnership, calling the little motor

revolutionary for compactness and capability

and packaging and performance, pairing it,

he says, with the controlled units from

Electrogenic, the new Exergy motor

is able to go straight into a mini

with the inverter, the motor,

and everything integrated in a very compact form

all pre-assembled and pre-tested.

And you put it onto the front subframe

that substitutes the original subframe

and the petrol engine.

And it uses a water-cooled motor, about 60 horsepower,

20 kilowatt-hour OEM battery pack,

pre-mounted and pre-wired on the subframe.

They say the in-town range is 125 kilometers.

A Type 2 charge port is included,

and an extended range option is also available

if you don't mind losing the boot space.

How cool is that?

What a bright love stuff like this.

It's all around the edges, a VV.

But it just means that the market's maturing, doesn't it?

I mean, this kind of stuff is niche,

but it's brilliant that it's happening,

and it doesn't happen in the early days of an industry

that you and I are watching evolve in real-time.

And the fact that these projects are coming up

and things like this, it's just so exciting

to be living through this move to electric mobility.

What an honor it is to be watching it.

Thanks to our premium partners,

Porsche of the Village of Cincinnati,

Audi of Cincinnati East,

and Volvo cars of Cincinnati East.

National car charging on the US mainland

and the Loha Charge in Hawaii.

An octopus-electroverse global public charging made simple

with one app and one map.

Have a good one. See you tomorrow.

And remember, there's no such thing

as a self-charging hybrid.

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3 Million BMW EVs, New F-150 Lightning STX and Tesla’s Trillion Dollar CEO Gamble | 08 Sep 2025

Mini Countryman

Bmw Ix

iX3 (G08)

Tesla Cybertruck

Ford F-150 Lightning

Chevrolet Silverado

Rivian R1T

Gmc Sierra

Rivian R2

Chevrolet Volt

Chevrolet C5

C5 Aircross Plugin Hybrid

Mini Classic Minis

About this episode

Original notes