DAILY: Audi Tests A2 E-Tron, BYD Shark 6 Makeover and Citroën E-C3 Urban Hits Low Price | 12 Feb 2026

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Welcome back to EV News Daily.

Audi tests the A2 e-tron.

BYD Sharks 6 gets a makeover and the Citroën EC3 Urban hits a low price.

Plus stay tuned.

Later in the show, I'll tell you why Great Britain got one step further towards

EV Battery Sovereignty with a new Gigafactory.

On EV News China Today, our spin-off podcast where we look at what's happening in the

east and how it affects the global EV landscape, we'll talk about the Audi E7X.

That's not the Audi that we get.

That's the Audi without four rings and AUDI, capitalized long story.

Listen to that.

BYD's update adds range and Canada opens a window of opportunity for China.

Let's get into it.

Right, Audi has taken the upcoming A2 e-tron to Sweden for final cold weather testing near

the Arctic Circle.

Production will begin later this year.

The A2 e-tron amounts to a rebadged ID3 in the same way that the Q4 e-tron can draw

a line back to the VW ID4.

It sits on VW's existing MEB platform after the next generation SSP platform slipped

back in time.

Audi will revive the A2 badge from the early noughties MPV-styled Super Mini.

That car once claimed the title of the world's most aerodynamic production car.

Fun fact, with a claimed fuel consumption of 3 litres per 100km or 78.4mpg.

It has a devoted following in the forums and those that like old Audis, though it

faltered because of high production costs pushing its price above the rivals like the Mercedes-Benz

A-Class.

Prototypes have now been seen testing, showing what is still an egg-shaped silhouette, hopefully

echoing the old A2.

The new model will replace both the A1 and the Q2 in Audi's lineup and Audi wants

to fill the gap, left by the BMW i3.

Old i3, not new i3, because there is a new BMW i3 on Neuerklasse, it's a 3-series, a big

vehicle.

Audi should mirror Volkswagen's battery options because, why not, a 58kWh pack could be offered

on the low end, 269 miles or 433km, WLTP of course.

I think more popular if they can squeeze it in would be the big pack, 79kWh, so that's

373 miles or 600km in the top mileage trim.

It remains unclear whether Audi will stick with the standard rear-wheel-drive MEB or go MEB+,

which is the platform for the new Super Minis like the Coupre Reval and the ID Polo.

That goes front-wheel-drive and frees up more cabin space, I can see arguments for

both.

We'll debut this year with the ID Cross and the ID Tiguan.

Audi expects to unveil the A2 in the second half of this year, customer deliveries could

even begin by the end of this year if you look at the testing schedule.

The badge is returning.

The platform though, which it was meant to be on, is very, very late and so they've

had to readjust.

Now, let's talk about a vehicle I've talked a little bit about recently.

A cab chassis, BYD Shark has surfaced on the industry price guide in Australia ahead of an

official launch.

Red Book badges it as the Dynamic Trim Shark 6 and lists it at $56,000, that is $35,500

US equivalent before on-road costs.

And why am I so excited about the Shark 6, I'll get into that in a minute.

This price undercuts the existing ute by $2,000.

The gap mirrors the playbook of diesel favourites like the Ford Ranger XLT, the cab chassis is

a couple of thousand less than its ute equivalent and the Toyota Hilux SR5's about $1,500

below what it would otherwise be.

The discount comes with a trim that's a little more blunt.

The infotainment screen shrinks from 15.6 to 12.6 inches.

The head-up display, that's gone.

No heated nor ventilated front seats, rear privacy glass, that goes.

Rain-sensing wipers, nope, NFC, key card entry, power lumbar.

All absent.

DC fast charging drops as well, from 55 to 40 kilowatts, of course this is an e-rev.

It's a plug-in hybrid because it technically can drive itself on the motor at motorway

speeds.

BYD swaps a leather steering wheel for leatherette.

The cab chassis keeps the core numbers though.

So the Shark 6 uses a 1.5-litre turbocharged plug-in hybrid system, so about 321 kilowatts

of power.

The existing one tows, 2,500 kilograms, braked.

The new one will tow 3,500 kilograms.

Curb weight falls, 110 kilograms on the cab chassis, linked to the steel tray and

some equipment departing.

That makes the listing read less like a new model, more like a simplified version, actually.

The timing matters because the Shark 6 is mostly bought by private buyers, in Australia 86%

of sales of the Shark 6 last year went to private buyers for the Ford Ranger and Total

Hilux private buyers and more like 20-25% BYD finished last year as the 18th best-selling

vehicle with the Shark 6.

So even a small price nudge downwards could be really interesting.

This of course targets fleet buyers with a cab chassis and also pricing is something that

will change with fleets.

The Shark 6 cab chassis already sells in New Zealand, with the red book listing now going

live Australian deliveries could begin within weeks and that's different to what I have

talked about recently, which is the new 2-litre, more powerful version with a tonne

of payload, 3,500 kilograms towed brake to towing as well, quite a part from this.

I'm excited about the Shark 6 because it seems to do loads of things exceptionally well

and Aussie buyers really like it.

Let's move on.

Citroën has pushed the EC3 Urban to £18,495 because it gets the UK's electric car

grant which runs in two bands, either the small band or the larger band.

This Citroën doesn't qualify for band 1 which is the full almost £4,000 off, it gets the

£1,500 off.

For the money, the EC3 Urban brings a 30 kilowatt hour battery, WLTP 130 miles, the

plus trim adds a 10-inch touchscreen, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, head-up display

style, it says, digital dial, it's not sure how it works in practice, but yeah, parking

sensors and nice alloys, rivals makes the maths awkward though because the Dacia Spring

which is the extreme trim, there's nothing extreme about that by the way, does 140 miles

a little more and costs, well officially, 1,500 less but you go hunting for deals

and when I saw some for £12,500 for a pre-reg Dacia Spring, that doesn't get the electric

car grant.

The BYD Dolphin Surf does 7 miles more than the Citroën, starts at the same price but

Citroën has an angle, if you like the EC3 offers more rear seat room than a Dacia

and obviously better build quality in some people's eyes as well, they like the Citroën

feel, but rapid DC charging, still 30 kilowatts, you can also add an option on that as well

for, I think, £440 for faster charging, Dacia Spring comes with 30 kilowatt charging, Dolphin

Surf 65 kilowatt charging, so you know, it's an interesting one in terms of very low

end specs, Citroën's wider range plays better with the scheme, Citroën says the entire

review line up qualifies for the electric car grant except the AMI, that's the little

car, that's not even a car by the way, I should be very careful with how I frame it, it's

a quadro cycle, the grants, trims, the sticker price, but again it's very competitive down

at that price range, why don't you look at pre-reg vehicles or even nearly new, my

wife asked me if we should change her car this year, so I had a little flick around

last night and the Funky Cat as it was in launch edition, it's changed now, but the

Great Wall Motor Funky Cat as was on an 18 month fold car that's done 7,000 miles, so

it's nearly new, it'd be new to her and it would still feel new, £9,000, that's

depreciation that even my eyes water about, that is a stellar deal, I'm not

guessing the car could be in rough Nick, but after 7,000 miles will it be and that

comes, that Funky Cat comes with the downside of being a badge and brand no one

knows, the upside of just all the toys and all the equipment and 360 cameras and

what not and so it's competitive down at that lower end, that's where the

Citroën plays, now General Motors used a statement yesterday to push back on

any hint, it might shut out suppliers according to their passport, it said

it comments, it commits rather to fair non-discriminatory practices and does

not exclude GM suppliers based on country of origin, GM framed its supplier

choices as a calculation, will make the best deal for the company, not the

flag you fly, it said selection turns on things like cost, technical service

capabilities, stability of the supply chain, product quality and regulatory

compliance, there is obviously a wider thing at play, GM has China as part of its

key global strategy for selling electric vehicles and it needs China for bits

to make electric vehicles, electrification sits at the centre of this

pitch, GM said that it's new energy vehicle sales in China, almost a

million as part of their joint ventures and it both sales volume and the

rates in the market are hitting highs in China, so they want to be careful not to

upset China, talk about disconnecting from China and all those things, so GM

has a really difficult path to tread, both there and back in America as well,

Daimler buses next in the news, buses, Daimler buses are next in the

news, they will act as a charge point operator, they make the vehicles and

they'll operate the charge point starting with high-frequency tourist

hubs across Europe, Munich's central bus terminal now sits on the map, the firm

has signed a deal with Wealthcap acting as the owner's representative to

install four public charging sites at the central bus terminal in Munich, each

site delivers or each charge delivers 600 kilowatts to the electric buses,

they'll go live and soon and there'll be two more added in the

later phase all for what they say we're on green electricity. Munich

follows a pilot announced in October 2025 in Cologne, which Daimler buses

called its first move into public e-bus charging infrastructure, they cast

Mer Cologne and Munich as the first steps in a broader European rollout but

has declined to publish targets like where else they will put bus

charges in, but interesting that Daimler becomes a charge point

operator for buses isn't it, we'll talk about Honda next and Canada's

green freight in a second, stick around and I'll be back in a

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all right welcome back to the podcast Honda's car business swung to quarterly

operating losses of 602 million us dollars equivalent

reversing a profit of the same quarter last year Honda blamed EV impairments

tariffs cost them 802 million dollars and EV related provisioning 280 million dollars

it doesn't that sound like tariffs are actually to blame not electric vehicles

of course the US has recently imposed a different set of tariffs

that is easy to lose track of but those EV write downs didn't start in the quarter

over nine months they totaled 1.7 billion us dollars driven by provisions for losses

on us sold EVs and write downs on their EV development assets after the lineup changes

Honda said the impairments forced a review of its EV plans in major markets

including the united states now canada is funding more green freight the federal

government has put 5.7 million canadian into the green freight program it's run inside

natural resources canada the program aims to cut fuel costs and emissions across commercial

fleets the funding sits inside the wider strategy that i told you about recently a

funding 8 000 EV charges nationwide and a public education program energy and natural

resources minister tom Hodgson framed range anxiety as the reason why canadians don't go

EV and i have some sympathy to those that perhaps don't drive EV perhaps mr Hodgson

is or is not an EV driver but i don't tend to find too many EV drivers even if you drive a low range

EV ever using that phrase and if he is an EV driver perhaps that gentleman um is using those

kind of words to connect with people who aren't EV drivers or just to sound like

he's saying the things that everybody else says but i you'll never hear me say that phrase

personally on this podcast i'll say it because other people have used that phrase but i think

that phrase doesn't really exist because if you have a combustion car and there's no petrol stations

nearby well then you have range anxiety don't you and i think in a few years time as there's

data that i've reported on this podcast recently about the increasing number of fuel

stations closing down the independence the small ones the ones that are less busy fuel

stations are going to end up being in hubs either at major supermarkets you know a kind of our

Tesco's and Sainsbury's American Walmart things like that or on the highway network the little

fuel station that's at the end of your road is not going to be there anymore now that's range

anxiety when you can't fill up your car because you have to go far out of your way just to

refill that's range anxiety so i don't fully buy into that but that's what he says is the

reason Canadians aren't going evie but hey if it means that he puts 8 000 more charges in the

ground for using that phrase then it's okay by me stilantis is considering withdrawing from its

u.s battery partnership with samsung according to bloomberg the car makers held talks about

selling its stake in the joint venture the move would fit their new tighter cash position at

stilantis they want to conserve cash after announcing 26 billion dollars of write downs sources

say any exit from the samsung venture could take time and be expensive stilantis could look for a

third party buy the CEO antonio fallosa is trying to curb their losses tied to electric vehicles

and battery initiatives that have been forecast to be unprofitable policy shifts under the new

presidency in the united states took away the incentives and have added to the pressure

in the u.s to embrace pollution and combustion hey sponsor of this podcast by the way you've

heard me talk about test evie you may have heard nathan gall brown on the podcast a couple of

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the avalue battery health certificate so i think it gives more confidence in the used car market

okay let's finish off by talking about how great britain becomes one step closer to battery

sovereignty even if it's not owned by the british agritas has finished now the building

for the battery gigafactory in somerset in bridgewater actually uh the biggest development

of its kind in the country uh the frame is 525 meters long by 167 meters wide and it's 34 meters at

its peak it covers the full footprint of building one on the former royal ordinance factory uh the

build uses 23 000 tons of steel across the frame and buildings matching the amount used to construct

wembley stadium agritas says a hundred percent of the steel came from the united kingdom

and 500 people put the steel frame up work began in 2020 2020 uh 2024 with the steel work now done

the project moves on to fit out and they plan around 40 gigawatt hours of battery cell output

a year at fill tilt which it says would power roughly 500 000 cars being made here in great

britain and expects battery cell production to start in 2027 that is good for the southwest

of england obviously more jobs and and things like that even uh further afield as more specialists

might move to the uk to work at that and you'll be living in somewhere called somerset which is

the next county down for me i'm in a county called doorset and then somerset further down to the

southwest but generally very beautiful down this part of the world and uh and that could attract

more people in more specialists into the country of course they'll provide all of the cells

needed for tata owned jaguar land rover and that is your podcast for today thanks to our premium

partners national car charging on the u.s mainland and a low-high charge in hawaii and test tv avaloos

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DAILY: Audi Tests A2 E-Tron, BYD Shark 6 Makeover and Citroën E-C3 Urban Hits Low Price | 12 Feb 2026

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