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I didn't even realize I was wasting $415 a month until I downloaded Rocket Money.
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I thought I had my finances under control until the app laid out all my spending and
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categorized it for me.
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Takeout, shopping, and unused subscriptions were quietly draining my account.
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And as a result, my savings took a backseat.
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But Rocky Money doesn't just tell you what you're wasting money on.
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It takes action to save you money.
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First, the app looks at your income and monthly expenses and calculates how much you can safely
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spend each day to stay under budget.
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01:59
Welcome back to EV News Daily.
02:01
Coming up today, EV is just over to petrol in Europe.
02:05
GM adds Electrify America and some Ionic 6n pricing.
02:10
Plus, stay tuned, because later in the show, I'll tell you why Audi thinks the future
02:14
of premium might not be big screens.
02:17
Hey, have you been listening to this podcast?
02:19
I've been banging that drum for a couple of years.
02:21
We'll see what Audi have to say.
02:22
On EV News China today, we're talking about the Xiaomi Su7 beating the Tesla Model 3.
02:29
Just took its crown.
02:30
The BYD targets on premium foreign brands' backs.
02:35
And Tesla dangling some new incentive to try and shore up demand in China.
02:39
OK, let's kick off.
02:40
This is an enormous story.
02:41
It's almost worth making a special bonus show about, but I can probably wrap this up
02:45
in three, four minutes.
02:46
Battery electric vehicles.
02:48
Pure BEVs just outsold petrol in the European Union last month in December, a first for
02:57
They also beat petrol across Europe as a whole, if you add in the EU, plus Britain and Norway
03:03
While total car sales logged a sixth straight month of year-on-year growth according to
03:08
the ACEA, that's the Car Makers Association.
03:12
BEVs, BEVs, pure electric cars, took 26.3% of registrations across the EU, EFTA and
03:20
Britain in December against just 21.7% for petrol-only cars.
03:27
BEVs and plug-in hybrids.
03:29
That can be a distinction.
03:30
You might say, well, actually, if it's got a plug socket on the side, even if you never
03:34
add petrol to that plug-in hybrid, we should have a look at those numbers.
03:37
All right, let's do that.
03:38
I'm not a huge fan of plug-in hybrids, but if it's got a plug socket on the side, that
03:42
was a third of December's registrations, the same share as petrol-mild hybrids.
03:50
In Britain, BEVs took a third of December's sales, I've told you that already, 33%.
03:56
That's our country's 2026 target hit already in December just gone.
04:01
Now, okay, January will probably be below, 33%.
04:04
And the car makers went, oh, yes, but we've had to reduce the prices, so we can't do it
04:10
Tesla missed the memo.
04:13
It's European sales down 37.2% in 2025.
04:18
That's the sharpest drop of any car maker in Europe, apart from, well, the really small
04:25
makers like Lancia, or the other one was Jaguar, and Jaguar didn't have any new cars to sell.
04:31
So what a record for Tesla.
04:33
Well, we were bigger than the company that weren't selling cars.
04:35
Wow, they have got a lot of work to do this week.
04:38
They'll have their earnings out, and their earnings call when their cheerleader in residence,
04:42
their chief executive, will no doubt try and drum up some more support from the faithful
04:47
who knows what he'll say, but the actual numbers of their car business do back up those claims
04:52
that we're not really a car maker so much, but we should think of them as robots and
04:56
AI, which doesn't interest me as much anymore.
04:59
But they've got some work to do, because the cars are good.
05:03
Now, the slide hurts more because Tesla sells only EVs in a market that was massively up
05:10
Petrol and diesel together, if you add them all, let's do that.
05:13
Let's do that game.
05:14
Petrol and diesel with no hybrids.
05:16
Well, that would be 35 share.
05:18
OK, 35%, let's call it a third of the market.
05:21
So a third of our cars, we sell a petrol and diesel combined combustion, no battery.
05:26
That's down from 45% a year earlier.
05:30
Along said, the death of diesel is going to be short and sharp.
05:35
It's people will just, the used market will obviously take a long time to change.
05:40
But new cars, people won't want to be exposed to it and range anxiety kicks in when all
05:45
those petrol stations start closing, because they're not charities, they're businesses,
05:49
and they will close the ones that aren't profitable and you can't fill up your car
05:53
Now that, my friend, is range anxiety and no one knows it's coming.
05:58
Well, you and I do because we talk about it every day, but that's coming and it's
06:02
coming really soon.
06:04
Now, let's talk a little bit about the Bev growth coming from four big markets, Germany,
06:09
up 43%, Netherlands up 18, Belgium up 12, France up 12 together, 62% of the European
06:15
unions, 1.88 million Bev registrations.
06:21
The markets turning electric as policy makers are brow beaten by car makers in December,
06:26
the European Union lawmakers proposed watering down the ban on emissions from 2035 under
06:34
pressure from the car makers that are struggling to make money in the face of cheaper Chinese
06:38
Chinese brands are tightening the screws registrations of BYD in Europe, Britain and the EFTA, the
06:44
Freed Trade Association, up 230% in December.
06:49
Volkswagen and Stellantis in the region also did well, Renault is pretty stable, it was
06:54
mainly only Tesla that has been falling.
06:57
Analyst Mathieu Schmidt, well worth following on social media, notes that part of the drop
07:01
in petrol sales could be because some of the cars were reclassified into being mild hybrids,
07:09
which does a little bit for the emissions, targets and stuff for the car makers.
07:13
He reckons it will take five years before pure electric cars overtake all combustion
07:20
in the region, the power sector is shifting to last year wind and solar made more electricity
07:24
than fossil fuels in Europe, including Germany, despite, and here, really modest sunshine.
07:32
I mean, we're a lot of winds, we're very windy, not too sunny.
07:36
As grids get cleaner and Bevshare climbs, the link between cars and carbon emissions grows
07:43
This is great news.
07:43
This next story, General Motors has now added Electrify America's network into its own apps,
07:49
giving Chevrolet, GMC and Cadillac owners direct access to the 5,000 fast charging stations
07:56
without leaving GM's ecosystem.
07:58
The chargers are 350 kilowatt units and sit inside the bit called public charging in their
08:06
General Motors wants to strip friction from public charging as it scales EV sales.
08:12
Yeah, that's kind of an obvious thing that really should have been happening for a lot
08:15
longer, but that's good news that it's happening.
08:17
Drivers can now find the available stations, set your car to route to them, start a session
08:23
and pay all from within the app, no longer needing to juggle multiple apps and credit
08:27
cards and login systems and things like that.
08:31
The tie-up fits a broader push to ease the friction.
08:36
GM now gives Chevy, GMC and Cadillac owners entry to 250,000 public charging stations
08:43
The network supports a growing EV lineup.
08:45
GM sold more electric vehicles in the US than anyone else, apart from Tesla last year, helped
08:50
by the Equinox and the expanding range.
08:53
The next volume test will be the bolts due at dealers, well I think now really, due with
08:58
customers certainly, GM says that the bolt will offer more range than any other electric
09:04
car in its price range, and there's only two.
09:06
I mean, it's the bolt and it's the leaf at 30K, a claim aimed at price-sensitive buyers.
09:12
GM is trying to do two things at once, make EVs cheaper and easier to live with and keep
09:18
their options open about how long to back each model and when to transition them over
09:25
Hyundai got some pricing out for the Arnick 6 in the UK, Hyundai Motor UK opening orders
09:30
for the new 6N, pricing the performance at £66,000.
09:35
First shown at Goodwood last summer in West Sussex, now arriving at their showrooms.
09:41
The Arnick 6 is all about Hyundai's technical prowess.
09:46
It builds on the Arnick 5, same platform obviously, or EGMP, with a more aerodynamic shell on
09:54
the 6, and new electronics.
09:57
Power comes from their dual-motor all-wheel-drive setup.
10:01
The N-grin boost mode, NGB mode, delivers 478 kilowatts of power, launch control will
10:10
do 0-62 in 3.2 seconds in the 6N, it's properly rapid.
10:16
Top speed 160 miles an hour, or 257 kilometres an hour.
10:21
Same battery pack, 84 kilowatt hour, 800 volts architecture, so turn up to a 350 kilowatt DC
10:28
fast charger, and actually 18 minutes, 10 to 80.
10:32
Hyundai adds some N stuff to the software, there's the fake gear shifts, they've shortened
10:39
the virtual gear ratios with some code, and the new active sound system is a bit different
10:48
OK, let's talk a little bit about Rivian, narrowing down when we'll get the R2.
10:53
We now think month is June.
10:57
Rivian says the first R2s will be in customers' hands sometime this June, and that's as specific
11:03
as they've ever been.
11:05
They confirm the timing to a local outlet, WGLT, during a local media tour of their plant in
11:13
Tightening guidance it had only previously said was the first half of 2026.
11:19
Well, I guess the last couple of days of June still would be the first half of 2026.
11:25
Rivian's take much of its future on the mid-size R2, they've got to move to volume as quick
11:31
as possible, the company needs to start building saleable units.
11:35
That would be what, March, April, maybe May, depending on how quickly you get those vehicles
11:41
out to people, that's a hard task for a young car maker.
11:45
There are signs of progress though, validation builds of the R2 have been rolling off the
11:49
line this month, maybe it was December, a key step between prototyping and customer units.
11:57
A blog post last Friday said that production begins in the spring.
12:05
It's all around then, the firm admits that the calendar, not the tooling, is going to
12:09
be the greatest strain.
12:11
Rivian's VP for production, Tony Sanger called maintaining team motivation and the pace of
12:17
execution, his biggest challenge in meeting the timetable, the comment points to the human
12:21
limits of running at launch pace for month after month after month.
12:27
We hope that they obviously get the vehicle out when they can and that it's as good as
12:33
we all think it's going to be.
12:35
Lots of people excited about R2.
12:37
Right, we'll come back, we'll talk about Amsterdam and used EVs, one of my favorite
12:42
topics, and Volkswagen, building EVs in America.
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15:00
Welcome back to the podcast.
15:02
Let's go to Amsterdam.
15:05
Amsterdam plans to scrub its streets of meat and fossil fuel adverts from this May.
15:11
The city claims a global first.
15:13
No other capital has banned advertising for things that cause emissions.
15:17
Amsterdam itself tried in 2020 to remove fossil fuel adverts, but settled for a somewhat
15:23
narrower deal on metro stations.
15:25
The new rules go further.
15:27
They target outdoor advertising for anything like a petrol car or a diesel car, anything
15:33
like a flight or cruises for EV makers.
15:37
It narrows the public platform for combustion technology and high carbon travel while leaving
15:44
space for electric mobility to be advertised.
15:46
Yet the immediate commercial impact is probably going to be modest because fossil fuels account
15:51
for 4.3% of outdoor advertising in the area.
15:55
Legal and practical snags are also on the horizon.
15:58
The deputy mayor has warned that the start date might be too early because of existing
16:02
contracts and advertising, and advertisers will probe any legal weak spots.
16:07
But how interesting that if you see a car advertised in Amsterdam from 1st of May, it's
16:12
Now, let's talk about more than 850,000 electric vehicles coming off lease this year.
16:18
That's according to CDK Global.
16:22
Most of those, almost million used EVs, will flow to franchised dealers, and they say they
16:29
still lack a completely settled way to value them at scale.
16:34
The volume shift is sharp, CDK says off lease EVs will go from 200,000 coming into the network,
16:41
the system, the market, in 2023, 600,000 last year, 850,000 this coming year.
16:51
And that surge will put pressure on used car pricing, on things like reconditioning bays
16:57
and dealer training.
16:59
CDK's analysis shows that many early EV leases assumed very high residual values, and falling
17:06
new EV prices and heavy discounting push down used values, leaving some leases underwater,
17:12
as they say, and some lenders now worry.
17:15
Dealers risk overpaying when they bring the cars in, stock has to sell, obviously they
17:22
got to turn over stock, that's the whole business.
17:25
Most of the returning EVs come from big brands, not startups, so high volume models, Tesla
17:31
Model 3s and Chevy Bolts and Mustang Mach-E's and things like that.
17:34
So they're all pretty rock solid, degradation is modest, buyers coming in still worry about
17:42
battery life, about charging, about software, and about price of course, CDK argues that
17:47
dealers who now build specific EV appraisal rules, information about charging, specialized
17:55
diagnostic bays with people who train to work on the high voltage stuff are going to be
18:00
I love this face, this is something that we've been talking about coming for years.
18:05
As more EVs were entering the new market, which we always talk about, they absolutely
18:10
are going to transform the cars that we drive, I nearly always buy, I think I bought one
18:18
Yes, one of our Renault Zoe's, I always bought used cars, and so that's the used markets
18:24
where all the juice is for me.
18:27
Volkswagen Group has scrapped plans to build an Audi factory in America.
18:31
Oliver Bloom, the carmaker's boss, says fresh US investment is not feasible, while 25% tariffs
18:37
on Europeans are in place, the numbers back him up.
18:40
The tariffs that hit Germany alone cost VW 2.1 billion euros, that's 2.5 billion US
18:47
In the first nine months of the year, last year, with that burden, large investment can't
18:52
If that wasn't there, they would have spent money building factories to employ Americans
18:57
on US soil, but maybe the tariffs are also a good thing for the country, I'm no economist.
19:02
The move follows a very muddled spell in Washington, where policy has at times whiplashed from
19:10
one direction to another.
19:12
Levies on auto parts and vehicles abroad then doubled, then completely dropped, applying
19:17
rates to various countries and individual countries that did or didn't back things
19:22
like a spat over Greenland, if you weren't following the news.
19:26
And frameworks on deals being announced and the tariffs being dropped, large companies
19:31
can't operate that way, let alone automotive companies that invest in the tens of billions
19:36
of euros and dollars and do it over decades, it's simply not sustainable.
19:42
OK, let's talk a little bit about Audi's design and something that I've been talking
19:48
The new design boss at Audi, Massimo Fracella, the designer behind the Land Rover Velar and
19:58
the Land Rover Range Rover, beautiful vehicles, new chief creative officer will restore the
20:05
visual identity that they say has made the Audi brand wobble over years.
20:10
Since arriving last year, he's boiled Audi's design language down to conveniently four
20:17
different pillars, clear, technical, intelligent and emotional, which is lucky because there
20:24
are four rings in the Audi logo.
20:26
And so that's convenient.
20:28
Concept C was a prototype of a vehicle.
20:33
And so that vehicle that had some fancy light shows was quite a cluttered vehicle.
20:41
Who really knew where Audi was going design wise?
20:44
They say that that now heads off into the Audi archives.
20:48
And if you look to Audi's history, the original TT, the 90s, A6, auto union racers, there's
20:57
timeless design in some of these vehicles.
21:00
They weren't photocopied the old hits and it won't be a greatest hit set, but they certainly
21:04
will be inspired by what's they what's come before where Audi's been really good at and
21:10
they won't redesign the current range.
21:12
They're not going to suddenly facelift everything.
21:14
That's a bit of a halfway house.
21:16
They say instead that as they move to electric, this is the time to get back to their Audi
21:22
They talk about display areas being much smaller.
21:26
He says that in his opinion, the new design boss at Audi, that giant screens are hopefully
21:34
a phase that he can't wait to be over.
21:37
Small display areas, tactile materials, precise metal parts, the things that you touch, the
21:44
famous Audi click, all these things have taken away from the feel of owning an Audi.
21:50
Now, that final point about touch screens.
21:52
Has he been listening to this podcast because I've been banging that drum for a little while
21:58
now. I've nothing against a big screen.
22:01
I've got a big screen in the Polestar and I quite like it actually.
22:04
But if I were to be buying a Rolls Royce or even something, not a roller, like a Bentley
22:09
or the new Jaguar, that's going to be 140 grand or maybe one of the more premium Teslas.
22:14
So spending money that I haven't got.
22:16
But so I'm spending money on a premium vehicle.
22:20
OK, here's a good example.
22:23
They had what's called a hyper screen, which covered the entire width of the dashboard
22:29
with glass and flashing lights and icons and look at me, look at me things.
22:34
Well, we hope I hope that phase, much like the new head of designer Audi and who knew
22:40
that my design sensibilities could have got me a job leading Audi's design.
22:48
I'm not a man of taste, if you can see what I wear most days, but this big screen era
22:54
on premium vehicles, I'd love it to be over.
22:57
Hey, on small vehicles, it means that you don't even have to have your own software.
23:02
You can just plug your phone into it.
23:03
And my phone has got, I can tell you, better software than some cheapest chip CV.
23:08
Just give me a big screen, a tablet, and I'll plug my phone in and an Apple Carplay.
23:12
But in a premium vehicle, I've long said, is the big screen thing not a little bit
23:19
downmarket, the sprawling touch screens that dominate modern EVs.
23:24
Let's say it's very premium.
23:26
I don't know if it is.
23:26
I think it rather lacks understated elegance that one would expect from premium motoring.
23:32
They feel more like a hasty subservience to the bros of Silicon Valley or Tesla, which
23:40
find early EVs or Chinese high tech rivals, rather than considered design, whilst manufacturers
23:46
presented them as futuristic, as minimalism, only essentially just cost cutting, dressed
23:53
up as sophistication, creating interiors that risk dating as quickly as last year's smartphone
23:59
feels outdated, whilst proving genuinely less safe and way more distracting than a nice,
24:08
well-machined tactile control, which they've been replacing.
24:13
Just just wondering what do I know, nothing at all.
24:17
That's your podcast for today.
24:18
Thanks to our premium partners, National Car Charging on the US mainland and the
24:21
low-high charge in Hawaii and Test EV, Avalos, Trusted Partner, the independent
24:26
EV battery health testing in Australia and New Zealand.
24:29
Have a good and cinema and remember, there's no such thing as a self-charging hybrid.
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