The Alpine A290 is a small electric car made by Alpine, a company that focuses on sporty vehicles. This model is important for them as they are selling more cars since they started making electric vehicles.
The BMW M3 is a fast and sporty car made by BMW. The new electric version will be very powerful and exciting to drive, just like its gasoline-powered predecessors.
Term
Neue-class platform
The Neue-class platform is a new design for cars that helps make them better and more efficient, especially for electric vehicles. It allows for different types of engines and better handling.
A V8 engine has eight cylinders, which helps it produce a lot of power. It's popular in many fast cars and trucks because it can make them go really fast.
BYD is a company from China that makes electric cars and batteries. They are trying to set up fast charging stations in Great Britain.
Term
ultra rapid chargers
Ultra rapid chargers are special charging stations that can charge electric cars very quickly. This helps drivers get back on the road faster after charging.
Term
flash charges
Flash charges are a way to charge electric cars very quickly, so drivers don't have to wait long to get back on the road.
The Dodge Charger is a big car that looks sporty and can go really fast. It's popular because it has a lot of room inside and is fun to drive, making it a good choice for people who want a mix of family car and sports car.
A plug-in hybrid is a car that can use both electricity and gasoline. You can charge it like an electric car, but it also has a regular engine if you need to drive further without charging.
The Star Ray EMI is a car made by Geely that can use both electricity and gasoline. It’s designed for people who want the benefits of both types of fuel.
Volvo is a car company from Sweden that is famous for making safe and reliable cars. They are now focusing on making more electric cars.
Brand
VW
VW is a car company from Germany that makes many different types of cars, including popular models like the Golf and Jetta.
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It's EV News briefly for the weekend.
It is Saturday 24th of January.
I'm Martin Lee.
Let's get you up to speed.
If you are just surfing into this, I want to get your EV news nice and quickly.
Well, first up, the new Alpine A290 is now 75% of Alpine's business.
They're relatively, well, it is a very small car maker.
But since going electric, they have seen explosive sales growth.
The electric BMW M3 looks like it's going to be a bit of a monster.
Four motors, Neue-class of platform and just huge performance.
But they're also going to add to it lots of poppy, bangy exhaust noises,
which they do say you'll be able to turn off, but they are modeling V10s and V8s,
they say from BMW's heritage, so that you'll feel the experience of driving an EV.
I'm not sure I'd have that turned on after we tried it as a party trick and had a little play and then, yeah, they can all go.
Now, Tesla looks like it's shrinking Berlin, but they won't tell us why.
Official employment numbers have gone down from 12,400 to 10,700.
It's a 14% drop.
But Tesla said we aren't getting smaller, even though fewer people are working there.
So they haven't clarified why that could be temporary contracts that have gone in the last 12 months or voluntary redundancies or anything else.
But the plant manager there saying, nope, nothing to see here.
OK, well, we'll wait and see if they're winding down Berlin a little bit.
It's massively over capacity, has over capacity and Europe could easily be served by say, good Shanghai.
They ever wanted to sell Berlin to a different car maker, but that might be getting ahead of ourselves.
BYD wants to put in their ultra rapid charges to Great Britain.
They work at a thousand kilowatts.
They call them flash charges.
So you flash new motor on your flash charger, 300 off them.
Whoa, by the end of the year.
Wow, that is a huge investment.
And I must say I'm slightly skeptical because the grid connections alone and finding the land and I'm sure they can do the hardware.
That's the easy bit.
It's difficult to do, but they say they're working on it for the new Denzer Z9 GT,
which will make the most of those charges when they bring that car here in April.
Doug Ford wants Ontarians to boycott Canadian cars.
There's only one slight flaw in his plan.
There aren't any really Chinese cars in Canada to boycott.
However, he's still very upset that Chinese cars will be coming back onto Canadian soil.
49,000 a year is the limit.
Although I say Chinese cars, of course, that'll be Tesla's and Polestar's and Lotus's and things like that,
as well as the Chinese brands as Canada gets rid of their 100% tariff on Chinese EVs.
Geely say that the Russian doll look for their EVs doesn't work.
So they're restyling their plug-in hybrids, even though they use loads of the same parts as the all-electric EX5.
For instance, the Star Ray EMI plug-in hybrid from Geely.
When it arrives in Britain, we'll look different.
Volvo have backed away slightly from their 100% EV promise and said,
we think people might want long-range plug-in hybrids and I think they're probably right.
It'd be no good for me and I certainly wouldn't want to have any oily bits
and maintaining the battery and the aging engine in 15 years time.
But Volvo say that 100 miles of range for the next generation plug-in hybrids would be their benchmark.
And I do think that's kind of sensible because then, if you don't charge it every single night,
you can probably still do your mileage every day on electric power.
Which does beg the question, why have you got an engine?
So there we go.
So VW had a great year last year.
They made 6 billion euros in net cash.
They're 4 billion euros in a better off place than they predicted.
Things are going well for VW in Europe.
Now the biggest brand of EV sellers, Pure Bev's, Leapfrogging Tesla and NEO.
So they've reached 250,000 battery swaps in Europe.
But in context, they do that in two and a half days back home in China.
That's briefly.
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About this episode
Alpine's new A290 model is driving significant sales growth, now comprising 75% of their business. The electric BMW M3 promises impressive performance with four motors and customizable exhaust sounds that mimic classic BMW engines. Meanwhile, Tesla's Berlin factory is experiencing a workforce reduction, raising questions about its future capacity. BYD plans to introduce ultra-rapid chargers in the UK, while Volvo adjusts its EV strategy, considering long-range plug-in hybrids. VW reports strong financial results, and Pure Bev leads in battery swaps in Europe.
It's EV News Briefly for Saturday 24 January 2026, everything you need to know in less than 5 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 Daily Community. You can be like them by clicking here: https://www.patreon.com/EVNewsDaily
