DAILY: Duracell Launches UK Charging Network, Polestar Sales Rise and Cybertruck Sales Reported | 14 Oct 2025

Welcome back to the podcast.

Today, Duracell launches a charging network,

Polestar sales are on the increase,

and Cybertruck sales are reported.

Plus, stay tuned.

Later in the show, I'll tell you which EV

has suffered the very worst depreciation.

We'll kick us off with Duracell's news,

launching their eCharge network.

They're gonna start in the UK,

and the ultra-fast DC fast charging stations.

When I first saw the picture of this,

it's a charging station looking like

that little Duracell battery.

You know, you can picture it in your mind's eye right now

with the gold top on,

and I honestly had to look at my watch and check the date,

because if I didn't believe it, looking at these pictures,

that look, well, not Photoshopped,

but you know, the charges look like

a little Duracell battery.

I thought it was April the first,

but definitely not an April Fools.

They are launching their own charging network.

The initial stations are due this year,

and the first six nationwide sites

are gonna be live by the end of the year.

Duracell will invest more than 200 million pounds

over the next decade,

and expect rapid expansion throughout 2026 and beyond.

Duracell has licensed the ElectraCharge,

a newly founded CPO charge point operator

to run the network,

while a company called the EV Network EVN

is funding and developing

the actual charging hubs themselves.

EVN operates 43 locations

and 300 charging stations already,

including what it describes

as the largest charging hub in the UK at the NEC,

the National Exhibition Center.

Reported peak charging capability for the hardware

that they're using will be 1,000 kilowatt,

that's megawatt charging,

enabling fast charging and broader access

to public charging across the UK.

Duracell's model they're using

is some funding from the Duracell brand,

the ElectraCharge CPO, but licensed to Duracell,

and delivery by EVN.

They say bringing those things together

means that public charging can be quickly

and reliably scaled.

Fascinating, just didn't expect to see the news today,

like little Duracell battery charges

popping up everywhere with a little gold top on,

but these look really cool and just fantastic news

that another new name is entering,

such a famous name as well.

My obvious first thought,

and your first thought as well,

might be cool.

So these are battery enabled chargers,

like whether they have the integrated battery

to absorb the grid and use a lower powered connection

and then dump all the juice into the EV.

No, no, no, it's just a Duracell charger,

just rebranding some existing hardware,

but hey, I'm not complaining,

this is a great story, right?

Well, launching it here in the UK as well,

I'm sure they have big plans, right?

We'll move on until Polestar next,

reporting retail deliveries of 14,192 Polstars in Q3 2025.

They're up 13% on the year,

and in the first nine months of the year,

they've sold almost 45,000 vehicles.

At the same time, this week,

they closed their last retail store,

not a dealership really, in China

and dissolved their joint venture,

Polestar Times Technology in China.

The CEOs stepped down of that business

and the Polestar China CEO recently changed,

but they still remain the production bases in China,

and there was some more investment back in June,

controlled by Li Shufu,

now the $200 million coming into Polestar,

so as a direct stake of 60% now in the business,

Polestar still sells even the closed down China,

but they're made in China.

28 markets, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific,

models available in France now,

they weren't before, they went on sale this year,

and they use the Volvo dealer network,

and the Polestar 4 launched in the United States now.

Production will expand in Europe with the Polestar 7,

if we missed that news recently,

that's gonna be made in Slovakia,

that's a Euro built vehicle, Polestar 7.

Polestar 3 and 4 just starting to see

some action on the used car market,

which is why I get a little bit excited,

and we're seeing some half decent prices,

I reckon low 30s now for the Polestar 4,

that's the cheaper one, even though it's a higher number,

that's the one without the rear screen,

but a lot of action happening now

after sort of those cars being out for maybe a year or so,

and starting to get a bit more competitive,

still a very expensive vehicle,

but if you are out cross shopping,

something like, what else is low 30s

that's nearly new, that's a year old, oh, I know,

a Cupra Taviscan, that's also about low 30s

for a nearly new vehicle, maybe a couple of thousand miles,

X Demonstrator, that kind of thing,

big battery, interesting styling,

I think you've gotta be a certain type of person,

if you're driving a Cupra or a Polestar,

but either way, yeah, Polestar 3 is the expensive one,

that's not seeing so much action at the minute

in the used market over here,

prices are starting to come down a little bit though,

now let's talk Cybertruck,

Tesla's Cybertruck saw US sales fall in Q3,

as strengthening competition in the EV pickup segment

is harming the Cybertruck,

Cox Automotive reporting the data,

this isn't Tesla data, of course,

reporting only 5,385 Cybertruck sold

in the three months July to September,

that would be down 63% on the same time last year

and year to date sales, first nine months of the year,

compared to the same time last year, that's down 38%,

so for the first nine months of the year,

they sold 16,000 Cybertrucks,

well, Tesla introduced the lower price Cybertruck trim

in the United States and Canada,

but then promptly discontinued it,

and despite recent incentives,

Cybertruck deliveries are well below expectations,

of course, I've mentioned a few times over the years,

Elon Musk projecting the production rate

would be 250,000 units annually,

so an annual production rate of 250K,

sometime in 2025, and that prediction was made in 2023,

well, clearly, selling 5,000 Cybertrucks in three months

and maybe 15,000 of them year to date,

16,000 year to date, is some way off his prediction,

probably of a bigger issue,

is that they built the facility in Austin

to make a lot of Cybertrucks,

and that is probably the bit of it

that's never talked about, really,

and that's massively capital intensive,

and one of the reasons, I imagine,

that probably guided their thinking,

I mean, who am I, nobody really,

but I imagine that guided their thinking on that

when they came to launch the new cheaper models,

which we know he got rid of a couple of years ago

in favor of just cheaper versions of the three and Y,

which we had recently, there's the standard range ones,

they can be made on the same production line

as the three and the Y,

so hence the glass roof of the Y,

which they then cover up,

because it's cheaper to use exactly the same suppliers

and production lines and processes

and tooling and machinery than they've got for the Model Y,

stick the glass roof on,

and then cover it over on the inside with a headliner,

because that's not a premium option,

then actually retool and re-engineer for a metal roof,

which would probably be long-term cheaper to do

if they thought they were gonna sell

a ton of the standard editions,

but again, if they think it's gonna be a bit like

the Cybertruck low-priced one,

like when we might bring it off sale,

if no one buys that, or it's there to do a job,

to push you into the higher-priced ones,

that's why the Model Y has a glass roof, for instance,

but yeah, Cybertruck having a lot more production capacity

than is being used is kind of killer for a car company.

In Q3, the Cybertruck was 1% of the US market,

the Ford F-150 Lightning was 2.2,

Ford F-150 Lightning's 10,000 of those registered in Q3,

so some deals on that at the moment.

General Motors reporting 4,000 Silverado EVs in the quarter,

nearly double the year ago figure,

and the GMC Sierra launched a year ago,

3,500 units in Q3.

Rivian up 13% to 2,500 R1T pickup,

so the pickup market in EV is interesting,

but obviously not driving huge numbers.

Ooh, by the way, as an aside,

I saw a Denali on sale, for sale over here.

What was it on?

110,000 pounds if you want a Sierra Denali edition EV.

Left-hand drive, obviously, has been imported to the UK.

What's 110K, 130,000 US dollars equivalent?

Anyway, it's, have a look at Auto Trader,

if you fancy buying one of those.

Now, Tesla and Sweden have had a difficult couple of years.

Tesla and the unions, not best friends,

but they worked out their differences recently,

and we thought it was all behind us,

and now Tesla is once again facing escalating labor action

in Sweden as another protracted conflict

with the workers union's approaches their second anniversary.

The IF Metall Union said action begins today

and will stop all duties for Tesla, including off-side work.

Now, there's a major Swedish truck company,

Linda, L-I-N-D-E, Linda provides servicing

and deliveries for Tesla Sweden.

IF Metall contract secretary, Simon Peterson Peterson

said the move stops everything that Linda does for Tesla

and described Tesla as a small player in their portfolio

and not really a big deal for them.

The stoppage remains until Tesla signs a collective agreement

and October the seventh next week,

week after, we'll mark two years since the first strike

against Tesla in Sweden.

A long bit of industrial action.

We thought we'd seen it resolved recently.

There were sympathy strikes in the Nordic countries as well.

Talks with Tesla and Sweden's mediation office

didn't really resolve everything.

Tesla's been importing vehicles in bulk via German ferries

to work around disruptions as well.

Sweden, a very unionized country,

it's part of their culture.

And Tesla, obviously, they don't want to back down

to those union demands there in the fights.

The fight looks like it continues.

We thought that was resolved.

Now, China is tightening their rules on getting subsidies.

China will apply stricter technical benchmarks for EV or NEV,

as they are described there, new energy vehicle,

tax incentives from the first of January next year.

Narrowing which models qualify

and encouraging higher efficiency?

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology,

the Ministry of Finance, and the tax authorities

publishing a new catalog, the Titans eligibility

for the subsidies and tax benefits for buying an EV

or for EREVs.

Now, for plug-in hybrids and the electric only range

rises from 43Ks to 100Ks, that's a big deal.

There's a fuel consumption that must not exceed 70%

of the conventional vehicle standard.

And electricity consumption may exceed the pure

bev value by no more than 40 to 45% on the plug-in version.

Battery electric vehicles face new efficiency standards,

11% stricter than the previous ones.

You are accessed to the tax incentives and subsidies,

so manufacturers must improve drive train efficiency

to retain their incentives.

Prior exemptions for vehicles over 3.5 tons

have been removed, meaning the largest vehicles

will also be subject to the new rules from 2026,

accelerating efficiency improvements.

What's happening in China is fascinating

because they just keep tweaking things around the edges

and this new set of rules from January next year

alongside things like the battery rules,

which come in next summer,

so the batteries must be non-combustible.

They wanna put an end to any talk around EV battery fires

which are very, very rare, but when they happen they're bad.

So new battery rules from next year

in terms of zero thermal runaway

and now bringing forward these efficiency rules

to ensure that E-Revs and plug-in hybrids

are properly decent range

and China seems to be able to do this

with a degree of urgency which other places don't.

I remember the UK quite famously under our old government

before Labour got in said they were bringing forward

the combustion ban to 2030, then they pushed it back,

trying to win voters at the last,

the last throes of our old government

and they were desperately just trying to grab votes wherever.

They became very anti-EV at the end,

but before that was a very green,

well they talked very green.

Had a couple of prime ministers,

there was Cameron and Boris Johnson

and then some others afterwards, this is sort of pitted out

and then they were quite green,

at least talking about very green things

and they talked about banning EVs in 2030

if a car could do a decent amount of EV range

and that was great.

And so that allowed plug-in hybrids

and we all said back in this post pandemic, I guess, great.

So what's the threshold?

So we know what it is.

I asked the press office

and obviously the car industry have much deeper connections

and we're like, great.

So what's that?

Well, we don't know, we'll get back to you.

And at the time I suggested 100 miles

because I thought by 2030,

it would be utterly reasonable

to have 100 miles of EV range

on a plug-in hybrid or an E-rev.

That was eight years runway maybe.

That just seemed utterly reasonable

but they never decided on an actual number.

And I think that would have been, I think very fine

because they weren't actually banning engines.

They just had to have everything,

had to have a degree of battery power that you could plug in

and you know, I think by then anyway,

most people would have gone EV

but then it's not a combustion van.

No one's taken away my diesel car

as I'm sure the front pages of certain newspapers

would have gone with.

Now we'll take a quick break,

we'll come back, we'll talk about

high power charging in Ireland

and the Hyundai Ioniq 3.

Stick around, back in a mow.

All right, welcome back to the podcast.

Now let's talk about Ireland.

Now the Department of Transport there

has confirmed sites for 90 high-powered recharging hubs

and allocating 10 million euros to support them.

The hubs will add 192 high-powered charges

to the network, 250 kilowatts each,

along more than 3000 kilometers of national primary

and secondary roads in Ireland

to ensure drivers are always within 30 kilometers

of a DC fast charger.

Opening by the end of Q1, 2026, these sites complete.

The initiative run by the Zero Emission Vehicles Ireland,

ZEVI and the Light Duty Vehicle Initiative

delivered by the Transport Infrastructure Ireland.

Following the three phases that installed 149 high-powered

points at 19 motorway and dual carriageway sites

and 175 fast and ultra fast chargers

at 53 other locations,

funding was awarded through a grant process

open to fuel retailers, car park operators,

hotels, supermarkets, even other businesses

at a publicly accessible site.

This fills remaining gaps in Ireland's

national charging network to support EV adoption.

Spy shots of the new Hyundai Ioniq 3

revealing some really interesting unique headlights.

Spy photos revealed the distinctive pixel style

LED headlight signature that pulses

when the car is at rest,

previewing Hyundai's design language for the new Ioniq 3.

Now, the car was entirely covered in camouflage,

but the concept version that we saw of that

was a very interesting and bold style.

We've seen some really bold styling from Hyundai Kia

and even Genesis, that group,

and then they've tended to deliver on those actually

when the cars finally arrive.

So, Ioniq 3, two battery sizes, 58 or 81 kilowatt hours,

lots of connectivity, drive resistance systems,

global launch will be early 2026,

starting in Europe and then reaching markets like the US

and that would be a $30,000 vehicle, for instance.

If confirmed, the Ioniq 3 would deliver loads of range

and some advanced features at very mainstream pricing,

which I'm all here for,

because I think that the US needs a shot

in the arm around 30K.

I think the US needs a shot in the arm around 25,

but never mind.

But at 30, by next year, you'll have vehicles like

new Chevy Bolt, new Nissan Leaf, new Hyundai Ioniq 3,

and all of a sudden, hopefully,

a bit more competition around there,

working some decent monthly offers

and you're talking about some very decently cheap EVs.

Now, Vinfast, remember them.

Vinfast, Vinfast are still trying,

backed by a huge amount of money.

So there is definitely, you know,

where there's a will, there's a way

and where there is a check, Vinfast can certainly afford

to keep bankrolling the operation.

Now though, they're pivoting to commercial vehicles

at Bus World Europe last week, Vinfast unveiled

two BEV buses.

The full-size EB-12 is a three-door, low-floor vehicle,

12.1 meters long, 19,000 kilograms,

gross vehicle weight, 90 passengers on board,

and that has two 125 kilowatt in-wheel,

so hub motors, with a 422 kilowatt hour battery.

It'll do 400 kilometers of range

and charge at 140 kilowatts using CCS-2.

Then there's a smaller EV-8.

That is 8.6 meters long, seat 60,

200 kilowatt motor on that,

and a smaller 359 kilowatt hour battery,

available next year.

Vietnam's largest domestic automaker,

positioning these models to expand

their global bus business.

They keep trying different models and countries

to try and sell their cars as well,

which I haven't gone down massively well,

but we continue to wish them the best.

And let's talk, let's go to France, actually,

and battery swapping in Paris.

And Ceylon's opened 14 battery swap stations there,

letting users exchange a depleted battery

in about 30 seconds,

offering a monthly battery subscription

that lowers the vehicle up front.

The company wants to expand along the French Riviera.

Now, these are interesting little

battery swap stations as well.

And the rollout follows the Spanish network

for Ceylon's, more than 160 stations,

and a June announcement that the parent company,

including Nissan, will do battery swap trials in France.

The system supports two and four-wheeled electric vehicles,

so either, well, as you can imagine,

with various e-mobility forms of two and four wheels

with a removable trolley-style battery pack.

Now, most power stations are installed at ESO service stations.

Additional sites in car parks and Ceylon's dealerships

to simplify access, the monthly subscription,

available in Spain already.

Now, in France, let's buyers purchase a Ceylon's vehicle

without the batteries, taking the price down by 30%,

and you can get one for the little NanoCar S4.

And I think that subscription also gives you

a certain amount of miles or battery cycles

per year, so like 1,500 kilometers of range

before you pay any more.

Lyoto, unveiling their new Lyoto L9 Extended Range EV,

and then thought, how far can we drive on it

to get some headlines?

Can we do like a million-mile drive?

Let's go for a drive and see what stops on the car.

See if we can make it a million miles,

and how long it'll take,

and that'll be a good set of headlines.

Well, it's an E-rev to start with,

and I'm often saying that the E-rev's in China,

50, 60, next year, 70 kilowatt hour batteries.

At that stage, if you live somewhere

with half-decent recharging,

or you charge at home overnight,

why are you carrying around the oily bits?

And that's exactly what just blew up.

So the Lyoto L9 went for a big old drive,

and after 190,000 miles of driving,

or 307,000 kilometers,

it was the oily bits that went bang.

Russian dealership and car content creator,

Faker Auto Group bought it,

and started to do the world record attempt

of a million kilometers, or 600,000 miles,

to log it, to log their record attempt.

Inspectors reported that was the timing chain tensioner,

which failed.

Yeah, that sounds pretty terminal.

If a timing chain tensioner fails,

there would be piston to cylinder head contact.

Valve cover and cylinder head gets filled

with little bits of metal and camshaft fragments,

and the whole thing just kind of implodes, really.

The engine was replaced and the vehicle returned to service,

adding about 24,000 miles after the repair.

By North American plug-in standards,

reaching 190,000 miles before a nice failure,

well, it's not unusual,

but how interesting that they drove this car until failure,

but it was the mechanical bits,

and nothing to do with the EV that went pop first.

Another reminder that why on earth,

if you've got a massive battery in an E-rev,

and you're buying a car,

that you will have to do timing belts

and catalytic converters,

and I get that it's attractive today

when you see them advertised.

In China, they are quite,

the E-rev thing's pretty popular,

and you've got a 2,000 kilometers headline,

I get it, totally get it, I totally understand it,

but if you're leasing the vehicle for two, three years,

you're giving it back whatever,

but if you are having that vehicle down the road,

remember, these are just combustion vehicles

with the big battery, they will go wrong,

and they will need service.

Just get a full bev.

Couple more stories.

JQ confirmed the JQ-8, that's a family SUV,

arriving in the UK next year,

online dealers have been posting online about it,

so there's the JQ-5 and 7 already,

the 8 is a full combustion or a plug-in hybrid model

with two or four-wheel drive,

with adaptive suspension, high-tech, big screens,

loads of infotainment stuff,

the same Qualcomm processors,

the latest Volvo and Polestar,

so head-up display, massaging seats, all the toys,

the JQ-8 should arrive next year.

No pricing, but we just see some of the UK dealers

posting about it.

And finally, the Jaguar I-PACE is one of the best used EVs

that you can go and buy.

I'm not saying that they haven't had their technical issues

and please don't send me a build if you go and buy one now

and they have had some recalls

and they have had some tech issues,

maybe get a warranty or something.

Jaguar's I-PACE posts a five-year depreciation rate

of 72.2%.

That's the largest amongst EVs

in the US's IC cars study

and well above the EV average of 58%.

And the overall industry of 45%.

No other model exceeded 70%.

The next one down in the late 60s was the BMW 7 series

in terms of depreciation.

Kelly Blue Book lists the 2019 I-PACE EV400 first edition

for a purchase price of about 21,000 US dollars.

MSRP on that five years ago, six years ago,

was $87,000.

The I-PACE has faced some recalls around battery overheating,

recall for NHTSA back in May 2023.

There's been I think about five more.

Jaguar's paused vehicle production

while it repositions to be an all-electric automaker

famously made by Magna

who are a very good contract manufacturer.

They know what they're doing.

They can put vehicles together.

I had an HSE on a 19, 69 plate, I think it was,

or yeah, it was for a little bit of a small amount of time.

We were sent one for a month or two as a review vehicle

and fabulous, absolutely wonderful vehicle.

I can't imagine.

I think it was maybe an 80,000 pound car.

I came straight from the factory,

came off the boat and came to my house.

Absolutely beautiful.

And I would happily have one now.

But probably if you're making a saving on the purchase price,

make sure you get a really good comprehensive EV warranty

just in case the worst happens.

But boy was that a quick car, apparently.

And that's your podcast for today.

Thanks to our premium partners, Portia of the Village

in Cincinnati, Audi of Cincinnati East,

Volvo cars of Cincinnati East,

National Car Charging on the US mainland,

Andaloha Charging Hawaii and Octopus Electroverse.

Global public charging made simple with one app and one map.

Have a good and see you tomorrow.

And remember, there's no such thing as a self-charging hybrid.

DAILY: Duracell Launches UK Charging Network, Polestar Sales Rise and Cybertruck Sales Reported | 14 Oct 2025

About this episode

Tesla Cybertruck

Q3 2025

Polestar 4

Polestar 7

Polestar 3

Cupra Tavascan

Tesla Model Y

Ford F150 Lightning

Chevrolet Silverado Evs

Gmc Sierra

Rivian R1T

EV

battery electric vehicles

thermal runaway

plug-in hybrids

EV range

E-rev

Hyundai Ioniq

Hyundai Ioniq 3

kilowatt

Hyundai Genesis

Nissan Leaf

VinFast

EB-12

in-wheel motors

battery swapping

Ceylon

monthly battery subscription

e-mobility

Ceylon's NanoCar S4

Lyoto L9 Extended Range EV

timing belts

Jaguar Ipace

Bmw 7

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