The Audi A2 e-tron is a new electric car from Audi. They are testing it in cold places to make sure it works well, and it will be available to buy later.
The BYD Shark 6 is a new electric car made in China that looks modern and has a strong battery. It’s part of a growing number of electric cars people can buy. People talk about it when discussing new electric cars from different countries.
The Citroën C3 is a small car that’s easy to drive in cities and has a unique look. It’s not expensive and is good for everyday use. People talk about it when looking for simple and affordable cars.
The Volkswagen ID.3 is a small electric car that doesn’t use gas and is good for city and everyday driving. It helps more people switch to electric cars. People mention it when talking about affordable electric vehicles.
The Volkswagen ID.4 is a small electric SUV, which means it runs on batteries instead of gas. It’s popular because it’s roomy and good for everyday driving without pollution. People talk about it when thinking about buying electric cars for work or families.
The Audi A2 is a small car that was made a long time ago and was very good at saving fuel. Audi is making a new version of this car that will be electric.
The Mercedes-Benz A-Class is a small, fancy car that’s comfortable and has lots of tech inside. It’s a bit more expensive because it’s made with high-quality parts. People talk about it when comparing prices and features with other small cars.
The BMW i3 is a small electric car made by BMW that was one of the first of its kind. BMW is making a new version that is bigger and based on a new design.
Raval is a kind of design plan that car makers use to build small cars. It helps make cars that are easy to drive and build. People talk about it when new small cars are being made.
The Volkswagen Tiguan is a popular small SUV that many people use for family trips and daily driving. It’s comfortable and has lots of space inside. It’s often talked about when new versions or electric models come out.
A cab chassis is a type of vehicle that comes with just the front part where the driver sits, but no back part for carrying stuff. People can add different kinds of backs to it depending on what they need.
The Ford Ranger XLT is a type of pickup truck that many people like because it has good features and is not too expensive. It's used for work and everyday driving.
A head-up display is a feature that shows important information like speed right in front of you on the windshield, so you don't have to look away while driving.
The Ram 3500 is a big truck used to pull heavy loads and carry lots of stuff. The new version can pull even more and is a bit lighter to drive better. People talk about it when they need strong trucks for work.
The Dacia Spring Electric Cargo is a tiny electric van used for carrying goods around cities. It’s cheap to buy and run, making it good for small businesses. People mention it when talking about easy and affordable electric work vehicles.
The Citroën AMI is a very small electric vehicle that looks like a tiny car but isn’t really a full car. It’s cheap and good for short trips in the city. People talk about it when thinking about easy ways to get around town.
EV impairments mean that a company lost money on their electric car projects or had to lower the value of those projects because things didn't go as planned.
EV battery health testing means checking how good an electric car's battery is. It tells you if the battery can still hold a charge or if it might need to be replaced.
The Porsche 356 is an old sports car made by Porsche a long time ago. It helped make Porsche famous for making fun and fast cars. People talk about it because it’s a classic and important car in history.
A self-charging hybrid is a type of car that can recharge its battery while you drive, but you still need to put gas in it.
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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
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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
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About this episode
Audi is testing the upcoming A2 e-tron in cold weather, aiming to revive the iconic A2 nameplate with a model based on VW's MEB platform, expected to replace the A1 and Q2. BYD's Shark 6 cab chassis variant launches in Australia with a lower price and simplified features, targeting private and fleet buyers. Citroën's EC3 Urban hits a competitive low price in the UK, benefiting from the electric car grant but facing stiff competition from models like the Dacia Spring and BYD Dolphin. The episode also touches on GM's supplier strategy balancing China relations and global supply chain concerns.
