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