The XPeng P7 is a new electric car from China that runs on batteries instead of gas. It's designed to be smart and has features that help it drive itself, which makes it exciting for people who like new technology.
EVs stands for electric vehicles, which are cars that run on electricity instead of gas. They are better for the environment because they produce no exhaust fumes.
Tariffs are extra fees that countries charge on products brought in from other countries. They can make things more expensive, like electric cars from China.
Software-defined vehicles are cars that use a lot of computer software to control how they work, including things like self-driving features and internet connectivity.
The Ford Edge is a larger car that can fit more people and stuff inside, making it great for families. It's known for being comfortable and having cool technology, which is why people often mention it.
A five-star crash rating means that a car is very safe and has passed important safety tests. It shows that the car can protect people well in an accident.
A prototype is an early version of a car that is made to test how it works and looks before the final version is built. It helps designers see what changes are needed.
The Volkswagen Golf is a small car that many people like because it's easy to drive and has a lot of space inside. It's not just a pretty car; it's built to be safe and reliable, which is why it gets talked about a lot.
An LFP battery is a type of rechargeable battery that is safe and lasts a long time. It's often used in electric cars because it can charge quickly and is very stable.
C-rate tells you how fast a battery can be charged or used. A higher number means it can fill up or run out of power more quickly, which is important for electric cars.
All-wheel drive means that all four wheels of the car get power from the engine, which helps it grip the road better, especially in rain or snow.
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Welcome back to EV News Daily. Ford turns to China. Leno drives a slate and X-Pungs P7 Plus for Europe.
Plus, stay tuned. Later in the show, I'll tell you about the British EV motorcycle manufacturer raising money to go global.
Ford has sent a delegation to China to deepen talks with Geely over a manufacturing and technology tie-up as western carmakers scramble to share rising costs of EVs and software.
The meetings in China follow sessions last week in Michigan between senior Geely executives and Ford leaders.
According to several people with knowledge of the discussions, the most advanced strand of talks would see Geely using Ford factory space in Europe to build vehicles for Europe.
Three people have said. Ford's plant in Valencia in Spain is the most likely site, one person added.
Producing in Europe would help Geely dodge the European Union tariffs of up to 37.6% for China-made electric vehicles on top of the existing 10% imposed in 2024.
A second track covers shared vehicle technologies, including automated driving and connected services, two people said.
That could help Ford close the gap with the likes of Tesla and Chinese rivals in software-defined vehicles.
Jim Farley, Ford's boss, has called China's edge in EVs and connected vehicles, I quote, the most humbling thing I have ever seen.
Talks, turns out, have been going on for months. Five sources said that the full scope remains unclear at this stage and may not yield a deal, including for the United States.
Any arrangement that brought advanced Chinese vehicle technology into the American market would certainly run into rules drafted under the Biden administration
that bans Chinese technologies and communications tech in connected cars and would certainly draw scrutiny from the new administration and Congress.
Those rules still stand, by the way, those Biden-era ones. There's no signal they would change either.
Geely, which bought Volvo from Ford back in 2010 in a deal that at the time raised many eyebrows. They paid just $1.8 billion for it.
Well, Geely sold over 3 million vehicles in 2025 through things like Geely Auto, its own badge, Zika and Lincoln Co.
That's a 39% rise over the previous year, including affiliates like Volvo Cars and Lotus.
It ranks as China's second largest automaker after BYD when everything's taken into account.
Not bad for a company that a couple of decades ago was making spare parts for washing machines.
Now, Jay Leno, obviously the famous Jay Leno, and massive car enthusiast as well, has an incredibly popular YouTube channel.
And he's driven the Slate Mini truck, prototype truck for his YouTube channel, months before the Model E then enters production.
Now, this isn't rare for him. He often gets extremely expensive, rare collectors cars on his channel.
He is, after all, a collector. He's got things like very old electric vehicles, kind of 100-year-old EVs in his collection.
He's a huge EV fan as well, but he's a huge petrolhead.
So many people really appreciate Jay Leno for just being into automobiles and not really caring having a take on powertrain.
He just loves cars, and so he's one of the few figures that really kind of crosses over.
He's not divisive in any way, so when he puts a video out, it's very important.
The firm pitched it as a five-star crash-rated vehicle built from the outset to meet full safety tests,
rather than try and dodge them with low-volume loop holes, and that sets it apart from a swarm of low-speed electric runabouts.
This is a small vehicle, this little Slate truck, this little double cab that they're going to make.
The prototype showed the usual rough edges of an early build.
That's not why they put it in Jay's hands. It shows the bones of a serious car rather than, you know, a fancy golf cart.
Engineers design the structure around crash performance first, then packaging the battery,
then the motors and the cabin, choosing proper crumple zones, reinforcing the passenger's cell,
doing all the things that you would do for a much larger vehicle.
Now, Leno's early access matters. It's not a celebrity endorsement,
but it is proof that Slate now feels ready to leave the lab.
His garage has housed most kinds of metal, so any half-baked toy wouldn't be entertained, frankly,
when you contact his team to say, do you want it on your YouTube channel,
and also he wouldn't really pull any punches. It's not really the long game that he's playing.
So instead, they got the car on for him to treat it as a work in progress,
and he was impressed. Designers also aimed at mainstream use, they say.
This isn't going to be just a pure working vehicle, things like last mile delivery, campuses,
or off-road use. When I say off-road, I mean, you know, certain communities,
maybe in Florida that are famous for golf carts.
The way they spoke about the crash scores make clear this Slate truck will be sold into markets
where regulators and insurers as well demand the highest of standards.
Now, that does raise costs, but it also opens the door to larger volumes down the line.
If Slate can carry its intent through to full certification,
it will land in a really interesting gap. Cheaper and simpler than premium electric cars.
People have made much of the wind down door handles and lack of car radio,
but in the same sentence, people also say, yeah, but I plug my phone in
and my phone updates itself way more often than my car, so that feels like car feels more current
because my phone is the interface and the dash.
Although this, of course, will have a display to meet things like the current
U.S. regulations around reversing cameras.
However, this will be usable, not a flimsy neighborhood EV.
For now, the prototype has been in Jay Leno's hands.
A long video, this extensive one, go check it out.
Link in the show notes if you're interested.
Now, let's talk about the X-Pung P7 Plus.
This is a very important vehicle because it's incredibly high spec
and it's an iterative vehicle.
This isn't something that's come out of nowhere
from an unknown Chinese company with high-tech specs.
This is X-Pung, so still classed as one of the Chinese start-ups, so to speak,
not a state-owned established combustion car maker,
but also the P7 is a vehicle that's had some experience
and now they're iterating on it.
It's a different way of China kind of maturing, if you like, in the market there.
X-Pung has now begun deliveries of its P7 Plus saloon.
It's a global car for them, so not just the China launch.
2026 model year, 36 countries is the market.
Much of Europe, obviously.
Germany orders will open or have opened rather,
starting at about 46,000 euros or 55,000 US dollars.
And the move matters less for adding yet another Chinese car into the market
and more for the way that X-Pung has sliced up its supply chains.
The new generation of the P7 Plus packs two distinct models under the name.
The sporty P7 and the family-focused P7 Plus.
That trades some flair for practicality.
Europe will receive three battery electric variants
while China gets an e-rev version as well.
A reminder that X-Pung still builds for its home market, sometimes exclusively.
The P7 Plus has sold in China for a year and now makes its European debut.
We saw at the Brussels Motor Show in January.
European-brown bound models, importantly, are made here as well.
They're made in Austria, in Graz.
The lines at Magna, contract manufacturer, will be making them.
Test production began before the Brussels premiere.
X-Pung not confirming full-series production yet in Austria,
so European buyers have no exact timeline.
At the first overseas, shipments at a port appear to be China-built cars for non-European markets.
Under the skin, the P7 Plus follows the industry's new kind of way of doing pure bevs.
A more modest battery size, but incredibly fast-charging.
An LFP pack, so lithium-ion phosphate, with 5C charging.
So 5C's C-rate is a way of expressing charge and discharge rates of the battery in relation to its size.
And so in real-world language, that means that you'll get 80% charge in 12 minutes.
Even with a maximum capacity of just 75 kilowatt hours,
the car will do 330 miles of range.
75 kilowatt hours is less than my Polestar 2,
which does, if I'm lucky, 200 miles.
Officially, and maybe in summer, I'll e-cat a little bit more,
and also the Polestar 2 is five years old now, and my one's really inefficient,
because it's the all-wheel-drive one.
But still, that shows how far the technology's come now.
Smaller battery, another 110, 130 miles on top of a car like mine,
which is still a pretty half-decent car at the end of the day.
330 miles with low consumption, high efficiency,
but if I plug in and get 150 kilowatts on my Chinese-made Polestar,
I'm pretty happy I don't do many long journeys these days,
and if I do, I've probably got the kids with me,
and if not, I still don't mind a cup of tea or coffee for 20 minutes.
This is a 12-minute stop, and a 5C charge rate on an LFP pack
that's very durable and likes to be charged,
wants to be charged to 100%, so no nannying the battery.
If X-Pan can scale the output in gruts,
this is going to be a very important vehicle to watch.
Now, let's talk a little bit about Opel and Vauxhall,
the new Astra, updated Astra.
Opel's opened the order books for the updated Astra
and the estate version, which I really like the estate version,
by the way, the Astra Sports Tourer.
Vauxhall, as we would call it here in the UK,
Opel on the European continent, fresh from there,
went world premiere in Brussels,
and the headline figure is a new EV range of 454 km,
which, very reasonable, okay, still less than the X-Pong
that we were just talking about, by about 100 km, actually,
but that still puts the Astra in the thick of Europe's
mass market EV contest.
You've got the standard range and the Sports Tourer,
and the Opel signalling that they expect most demand
in its core European markets.
So, the new Astra, with its 454 km of range
between charges, perfect for everyday use,
but also keeping the car in a price band
that is the mass market.
The Sports Tourer version, which does look very practical.
I'm glad to see the estate car moving to the EV era,
by the way, adding more boot space and practicality.
For drivers who perhaps do have families or pets
and want to put things in the back,
for now, Opel gives a little away
beyond its initial range figure,
apart from the fact that both versions will be
up for order at once.
More pricing details coming.
BMW is lifting the I-X3 price.
That's got to be a good sign, right?
I'm going to talk about the new Neuer-class of cars
and also California unveiling some more details
of its new $200 million incentive package.
Stick around, those details coming up after a break.
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BMW has raised the price
of its new iX3
before most buyers have even seen one.
And that's got to be a good sign, right?
Because we know the iX3 is the real deal.
They've raised the price
by 2,000 euros of the iX3 XDrive 50.
It's now 71,000 euros,
even though the official dealer launch
isn't until early March.
Demand is really high.
It's sold out for this year, by the way.
At its IAA premiere,
last autumn, BMW promised
a base price of 69,000 euros
for the European-only SUV.
Many expected the figure to fall,
as cheaper Chinese variants flood the markets,
also rear-wheel drive versions
and smaller battery versions coming.
Instead, the first change you get from BMW
is a price hike.
And whilst that's probably not good news
if you're in the market for buying one,
it's very good news if you think
about the supply and demand of this vehicle
and people want this new BMW
and they're impressed by it
with its new all-wheel drive setup.
108 kilowatt-hour pack,
800-volt architecture.
AC charging at 22 kilowatt,
I think is optional on that.
To double the AC power from 11 to 22,
it has a vehicle to load.
You can pull 3.7 kilowatts
out of it to run external devices,
as well.
They're making it in Hungary,
at Debrecen,
and it's already delivered the first unit.
It's the head of schedule.
I suspect to employees,
family members,
BMW enthusiasts,
because this is ahead of the official dealer launch.
But they are actually customer real,
customer deliveries, they say.
Well, I don't think BMW hasn't said,
but the press have picked up on
there are some being delivered a month early.
And so this is amazing.
These are blind orders.
There's no showroom cars.
No one's been taking these for test drives.
And yet they've sold out for 2026.
Americans get Neuerklasse
from the middle of this year.
Also from Hungary, by the way.
The Mexican output,
I think is due to start middle of next year.
Also, I'll double check on that.
Now, California will spend $200 million
on a new EV incentive scheme.
The latest in a long line of state efforts
to push drivers from petrol to plugs.
Gavin Newsom, the governor,
has sketched out more of the plan.
The program aims to narrow the gap
between list prices and what buyers pay at the dealer.
Officials say the money will support sales of bevs
and in time bolster the state's ban on petrol-only cars.
The fund will also seek to steady a market
that has grown incredibly quickly,
but at times nervously.
The state has not yet set out the full details
of the grants and rebates,
nor which groups of things like incomes
or regions or vehicle types.
It's also not said how long
that the $200 million will last
or how the money sits alongside existing incentives.
But the signal matters.
California shapes American car policy.
It's such a huge market.
There's a couple of options for car makers.
You either make a car to suit California
and all the states that follow it,
or you just don't bother with America.
The rules spread to other states
and push the car makers to shift their line-ups
for basically the whole of America.
A new pot of subsidy cash,
even one of the $200 million variety,
which is rather on the small side,
should feed through to the sales room floors.
The test, of course, will be in the details.
We don't know any of them yet,
apart from the fact that it's likely
to require the car makers themselves
to chip in a little bit of
matching, if you like.
So California is saying,
hey, we'll give $3,000 off your brand new car
if you do the same.
So I like that in principle.
We'll see how it's implemented.
As long as car makers don't just jack up the price
directly, it could happen.
It has happened many times
over the years with EV incentives.
Pricing can be
a little bit opaque.
However, we'll see how it's implemented
and where it's put in,
and also things like,
if you've had an EV before, do you get one?
Because arguably, the more rules
that you put in place, the less fair it is
if you had income rules and things like that.
But then it equally has good arguments
that if this is public money,
people earning
200, 300, 400,000 pounds a year,
not uncommon in California,
compared to those that earn less
or should we discriminate.
So it's contentious.
But we'll see how California do it.
I don't think everybody will be happy.
There's probably going to be a less than perfect solution.
But let's not
let's perfect be the enemy,
et cetera, et cetera.
Now let's finish off by talking
about maving.
Which motorcycle maker has raised
11 million dollars?
That's about, sorry, 11 million pounds.
It was 14 million dollars equivalent
to turn the quiet
British niche manufacturer into
something larger. The Coventry-based electric
motorcycle maker now has a bit more cash
to move beyond its home patch with plans
to scale production and push into Europe and North America.
Now, this round includes
about half a million
pounds from the West Midlands Co-investment Fund.
If you don't know what maving is, there's a really good
fully charged video.
You know, fully charged may have made
so everything electric may have made
a couple of videos over the years
about them. These little
motorcycles, depending on which one you buy
you can get them on different
so we have a really complex system of
licenses. It's probably not that complex.
I'm just a simpleton in terms of
if you can drive a motorcycle without
doing extra tests and if you can
and depending on when you pass your test
I pass mine in the 90s and so
I can ride them
on L-plates, which is the learner plate
up to a certain speed
and then if you want to unlock more speed
sometimes it's a one-day test
to get a bit of access for some people
and then otherwise you got to have a full motorbike license
it's not that complex.
I'm making it sound more complicated than it is
but maving make the bikes that you could, someone like me
could just get on and ride
with L-plates and
just have the lower powered version which would be
fine because
they're really stylish. They look so cool.
They look classic. They've got like
the rounded fuel tank
and the leather seat
and they just look so
good. Not that I'm allowed
to buy one. I can afford to have a bike
in the garage for Sundays
but man it would
be very, very cool and so
the founders of the company have built
I think a really loyal following.
They're not chasing big power figures
and bloated software. There's the RM1
and the RM1S
sitting in a power band that's a bit
like a 125. So
a 125 cc
petrol bike, a rear hub motor with that 11
horsepower and a top speed of around 70 miles
an hour. More
than enough for urban use. The key to this
is if you are using it for fun
at the weekends or urban use in the week
maybe to commute is
to get away from the lights quickly
and to ride safely around big cities
and maybe have some fun at the weekends as well.
It's not about top speed. It's about ease of use.
Removal belt battery system
the pack weighs 33 pounds
the battery pack is about 4.4
kilowatts, hours, about 80 miles
of range depending on how
you, you know, hard you twist the throttle
riders lift the batteries
out and plug them into a standard wall socket
no special charging kit. The rest
of the package is pretty sparse on purpose
a steel frame, conventional suspension
upright ergonomics is a bit of a
sit-up bike as well. Very unfussy
design but classic and stylish
with another 14 million
behind it the firm can now spend that on
manufacturing, sales, service
networks, things like that.
I've been checking them out on AutoTrader
as part of the research for this
story and spent far
far too long window shopping
for things that I can't have. That's great news
and congratulations to
the team there. Global domination
I'm sure is five minutes away.
That's your podcast for today. Thanks to our premium partners
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About this episode
Ford is deepening its ties with Geely in China, exploring a manufacturing partnership that could see Geely produce vehicles in Europe, potentially avoiding hefty tariffs. Meanwhile, Jay Leno showcases the Slate Mini truck, emphasizing its safety features and mainstream appeal. The episode also covers the Xpeng P7 Plus, a high-spec electric vehicle making its European debut, boasting impressive charging capabilities and efficiency. Insights into the evolving landscape of EVs and the strategies of both established and emerging manufacturers make for an engaging discussion.
