DAILY: Hyundai’s First China EV, Honda’s Full-Size Electric Bike & Citroën Stop-Drive | 20 Sep 2025

Welcome back to the podcast, Hyundai's first China EV, Honda's first full-size electric

bike and Citroen say stop driving, I'll tell you more, plus stay tuned later in the

show, I'll tell you which Chinese automaker saw its EVs literally crash and burn, no one

was hurt, no EV news China today, it's the weekend and join me today, later on for a

bonus show, it's the second part of what I've called Dieselgate 10, from Lies to Lithium,

it's the 10th anniversary of Dieselgate this week and if you're looking for a start date

of Dieselgate, it was probably when the EPA quietly issued a document which started the whole

thing, how the discovery of emissions cheating hastened the move to electric vehicles, on the

second part of the podcast, on the Patreon feed, we get into where that led us today in the world

of electric vehicles, live tonight for patrons, all Patreon exclusives go into the free feed

after seven days, if you want to support the podcast and get something extra, well you get

all of our bonus content seven days exclusively first, I think that's better than being you know

maybe a month lockdown or even never even making its way to the free feed and of course if you

don't want to support the show financially, well you could listen to the ads, you could do that

and that helps me enormously and also you can just wait seven days and you get the shows for free,

Hyundai Motor is trying to recover in China after its market share, fell into the 1% range

because of competition from Chinese EV makers, the company's introducing its first China-only EV

called the Elec CEO, Jose Munoz the president said at the CEO investor day, we have struggled in

recent years but in China it's a land of opportunity and we have established a stronger strategy for

the Chinese market, he added that with sufficient courage and determination we will leverage local

technology, expense and partners and we will also launch products tailors to the local market,

after launching the Palisade hybrid last month, Hyundai will begin the Elec CEO, pre-orders as

early as this month, the Elec CEO or the Elec SEO, if you work in that industry, it spills in China

and it's now accepting reservations, Hyundai plans to roll out six only

China EV exclusive models by 2027, the Elec SEO is positioned as the initial model,

local reports say that the final pricing could be from 14,000 up to 21,000 US dollars equivalent,

they sold 15,000 vehicles, Hyundai did in China in August, so 15% up on the same month a year ago

in June, also those sales were up, cumulative sales from January through August, however

are not looking very strong which is why they are launching something that is entirely different

from everything else that Hyundai are doing with their Ioniq cars, now Honda will introduce its

first full electric electric motorcycle in Europe, it's called the WN7, delivery start November,

UK pricing 12999, reservations open now, WN7, Honda's first fixed battery electric motorcycle,

evolving from the fun concept we'd previously seen, the production bike offers a range of

more than 80 miles or 130 kilometers, DC fast charging 2280 in less than 30 minutes says Honda,

AC charging of course accepted as well, two power options to match licensed categories,

the battery sizes as well, 18 kilowatt hour version would suit the A2 licensed holders,

an 11 kilowatt hour version for A1 licensed holders, maximum output for the big battery spec

is 50 kilowatts, that's just under 70 horsepower if you are used to riding combustion bikes,

the WN7 top speed of over 68 miles an hour, 110 kph, model name WN7 is derived from the concept

and the type, W from concept which stands for wind, N for naked, 7 for the output class,

so alright, alright Honda, I love Honda because they do weird stuff sometimes whether that is the

vehicle design or just because it's like they're just quirky, so the WN7 is wind naked 7, fair

enough, standard features include a 5 inch TFT display with connectivity to the Honda

road sync smartphone app, LED lighting with the DRLs and a curb weight of 217 kilograms,

Stellantis is next by the way, this is kind of urgent if you drive one or know somebody that

drives one, their electric cars, the EC3 and EC3 Aircross, they have given a stop drive order,

this isn't a stop sale or a recall, this is a stop drive order immediately, potential break

failure, the Vauxhall frontera electric also affected but customer deliveries seem to have been

stopped and that problem seems to have been sorted out so perhaps it's more of a recent issue,

Stellantis said the problem involves the pedal box and the pedal box assembly and

not meeting their specification, that's serious, if this were to happen it says the

automatic emergency braking and the electronic parking brake would remain fully operational

even if you put your foot on the brake and it doesn't work I'm guessing, the company has

issued a stop drive now and all owners will be contacted or you should contact your dealer

at your earliest convenience, you'll be provided a replacement car while your vehicle is inspected,

for frontera owners they'll be contacted and impacted cars rectified prior to delivery so

maybe that's a more recent thing for fronteras that have not been delivered, all of the implicated

models use the Stellantis smart car platform, Fiat confirmed that the related Fiat Grande

Panda and Grande Panda electric not effective, Volkswagen and Rivian software could be getting

bumpy, look just a warning this is a single source report, it is manager magazine in Germany,

so the source is named but it's not a as far as I know from coming from duty from sources,

I mean I do try and maintain modest journalistic integrity on this podcast, I try and so be

aware German outlet says that the Volkswagen and Rivian are not playing nicely together and the

Rivian is having problems with the partnership with Rivian, the model is meant to use the Rivian

software already being delayed, Audi's SUV the Q8 e-tron and the electric A4, the next versions

are those reportedly delayed by one year moving to mid 2028, Porsche's electric

Giga SUV K1, okay scheduled for 2027 is being postponed indefinitely, right, Volkswagen and

Rivian form their joint venture, both companies plan to use the joint venture software for future

models either based on Rivian's zonal electronic architecture or an enhanced version developed

by the joint venture, it had co CEOs, one of them was the previous CTO of Rivian and still is,

we're seeing Ben Said and also I forget the equivalent, the co CEO that came from from

Volkswagen, co CEOs can work sometimes as well, too many chefs if you know what I mean,

manager magazine reports the issue stems from Volkswagen though reintroducing more internal

combustion across the group than had previously been planned on, Rivian software wasn't designed

for combustion, okay I understand now, so you know liters of fuel consumed per minute,

you know things like that, I understand, the US company reportedly has little interest as well

in rewriting all their software to start working with combustion engines, the report says that

interim solutions will be needed, Cariad, the famed software bit of Volkswagen that

some people still say is what cost the previous Volkswagen CEO, his job was the failure of Cariad,

the enormous amount of money that went into that and the relative slow output of it,

this triggers a new multi-billion euro delay across the group in some cases by several years,

the dispute over how much the software can be modified is underway, says manager magazine,

Audi and Porsche reportedly seek extensive customization of Rivian software, Rivian wants

some simple implementations, I see this both ways, I see the VW need to carry on making money

because the cash cow is combustion, that's funding the move to EV, it's keeping the ship

right way up while they do this really difficult transition between it being pure combustion

company and a pure electric company and the bit in between they're making money from combustion,

so I get it the VW want to have irons in the fire, also I get it that Rivian has fought the

hard fight for 10 years, I mean if you don't know the history of Rivian been around a long time,

finally they are flying now with amazing vehicles, this huge new deal with Volkswagen

and I kind of get it that they're all in on EV and if at some point VW have to say

well we need some more combustion cars to keep a few more euros flowing in the front door,

understand why Rivian would be like well this is not what we signed up for, we're an EV company,

we write EV software, why would we go back, also it seems against the ethos of what Rivian's all

about, so wow I wonder if Volkswagen's own software division Cariad who I imagine a few

people at Cariad their nose would have been a little bit out of join, I mean that Volkswagen

said look Cariad's not going anywhere, can't do it's too big and when the Rivian deal came around

that might feel maybe a little bit vindicated of saying right well here we are now we know how

to do combustion software, fascinating single source report on that so or single source on

that report I should say so maybe take the pinch assault or not, Nissan is pausing production

of the model year 2026 Aria for the United States and reallocating resources to support the launch

of the LEAF which will have the lowest starting MSRP of any new EV on sale at least until the

bolt arrives because we don't have an MSRP on that new bolt of course, until then the Aria

is on sale but only through existing inventory Nissan will continue to support Aria customers with

service parts and warranty coverage, the decision was a result of the market environment and also

the 15% import tariff the Aria is made in Japan and so no longer eligible for federal tax credits

and more expensive to sell so shifting resources to the LEAF which does look really good now let's

talk Scania also China tariffs and a new head of America's regulator who's previously gone head to

with Tesla I'll tell you all the details soon stick around

welcome back to the podcast now Scania is bringing in a plug-in hybrid powertrain for buses with

their Scania super unit previously offered on the trucks it's a 13 liter combustion engine

with various power outputs but also with a plug-in hybrid powertrain with a six speed

power shift transmission and for electric modes either pure electric or hybrid or charge mode

and with an electric range of 50 miles or 80 kilometers on these buses it would then switch

into plug-in hybrid mode or pure bev mode if you like when it enters zero emission zones within

city centers and then when it leaves them maybe to either go back to the depot or just further

out into more uh suburban areas then it would go back to being able to be a plug-in hybrid

China is urging the European Union to drop EV tariffs surprise surprise Beijing just told

Brussels to stop weaponizing tariffs which is surprising because the all of the public talk

has all been very friendly and we're working to it towards a solution together and now this

seems a little bit spiky again Beijing saying it wants Brussels to provide a level playing

field for Chinese EV makers China's Ministry of Commerce said that while also saying it welcomes

European automakers into China the China's EV industry has been a driving force behind the

transformation of the automotive sector and that the EU has groundlessly labeled Chinese

automakers as subsidized now as you know i'm a really big fan of the chinese cars i'm even doing a

spinoff podcast called EV news china because i'm so fascinated by what's happened over the last

well since china in 2005 all their abouts said this is part of our economic plan part of china

2025 and they've spent 20 years making it happen like i'm fully behind a country that's that behind

EVs there's issues around how the vehicles are made and labor and i'm not immune to those arguments

however however as much as i like the cars coming out of china i find it hard to get on board

with china saying that they're upset that the EU has labeled Chinese car makers as

subsidized i mean that has been publicly china's plan is to create an industry that is highly

subsidized at national level through central government at local and regional and provincial

level at every with cheap money cheap loans with chinese companies being you know strongly suggested

that they should buy local brands i mean there's lots of levers to pull in china and pulled all of

them and so that's a fascinating one um obviously there's something happening in the background

and they have kind of come above the parapet a little bit and firing some shots european

manufacturers now have every capability to not just adapt to market competition but to be

part and parcel of the industry said china beijing repeated that it welcomes EVs from european

companies that it wants to collaborate in the sector earlier this year brussels raised tariffs

on chinese cars to as much as 45.3 percent i was actually at the end of last year because that was

some additional tariffs on top of the existing 10 percent import duty so yeah i mean okay fine

now the u.s senate has confirmed the new boss for their regulator there the national highway

traffic safety administration so in a very very tight vote by the way the senate did confirm

jonathan morrison and morrison is a former apple lawyer he was also the n h tsa chief council

during the first term of the president and the n h tsa oversees things like safety investigations

they're currently opening an official investigation or did this week gone into model wise because the

door handles don't work if the 12 volt goes so they've had cases of people putting their baby in

the back of cars shut the door there is a an issue with the 12 volt or low voltage volt system because

tesla's low voltage system is higher than 12 but um either a voltage sag or an issue door handles

don't work no problem if it's adult in the car because you can just pull the mechanical emergency

release but you can't get in the car any other way and so people have been smashing windows to get

their babies out n h a n h tsa takes it very seriously and tesla responded exceptionally

quickly this week sometimes they go you know real head to head they just butt heads with regulators

this week it wasn't a CEO comment but sometimes the chief designer speaks i mean france von

electric and mechanical stuff is in the right place and so we will very quickly re-engineer

the hand the door handles that it can be when you pull the handle either an electronic release or

a mechanical that could just need to be on one door doesn't it if you ask me or either the door

or the boot or something or you know the tailgate or something that is a mechanical release from the

outside a bit like all keys if you take the key apart you know you're you know you're an electronic

key fob when you take them apart in there is a physical key to get in your car and it's

sometimes it's just one door on the entire car you lever off a little bit of plastic somewhere

and you can get in in an emergency it just needs to be that i think tesla would like to head it off

at the pass rather than being told you have to recall 174 000 to model wise and put new door

handles in and so the new head of the agency has actually butted heads with tesla before

they've also been investigating or are investigating the full self-driving technology

after reported collisions and fatal crashes as well i gather although not in this the the

source that i was picking from here but from talking to people in the industry i gather

that that was part of when mr musk was close to the administration um you know obviously there

was the fallout there but um he was less keen on the uh his name is jonathan morrison being

appointed uh to that role but again i don't know how true that is but certainly the story itself

i just gave you is true now the new jersey department of environmental protection the njdp

announcing 20 million dollars in grant funding to support electric school buses and public

charging stations eligible applicants include school districts that own their own buses

and school bus contractors funding levels are up to 350 000 per school bus and charging station

for products for projects serving overburdened districts panasonic confirmed it will deliver

sample solid state batteries in the year to march 2027 this is initially for industrial

robots and equipment made for high temperatures panasonic's cto saying that after that the

focus moves to electric vehicles to commercialize the technology and mass production of solid

state batteries will be a key milestone that could in some cases um enable things like lower

cost evs longer range evs and lighter weight uh batteries in evs which could have a disproportionately

positive effect on small car on small evs so in terms of small evs that have a you know small

chassis small footprint small area to physically put a battery if you are maximizing the energy

density in there and solid state could provide that it gives you the option of having a really

long range small car now you can argue do urban cars need to do 500 miles but some people say

that that would be the final range anxiety barrier if you like um for some smaller cars

and of course on larger cars you're then unlocking just ridiculous you know 600 mile

thousand kilometer ranges uh with some very reasonably small battery packs now tesla's

new software update 2025.32 is updating summons standby after listening to feedback from owners

about battery drain it now turns off automatically during low use times the update adds rules which

switch off summons standby in off peak hours and after extended parking sessions as well to make

your phantom drain disappear and finally two flying cars in china came a little bit too close

to each other we're all you know we're being told that you know one of the future industries could

be evtol electric vertical takeoff and landing so evs take to the skies uh particularly useful

to begin with probably for high net worth clients who want to get in built up urban areas from one

place to another and uh or or just to get to the airport where your private jet can then take you

halfway around the world and so with electric power lifting off vertically flying fast in a

direction and then landing um two flying cars from xpong reportedly collided in flight whilst

during rehearsals for a new air show in china the vehicles of their evtols a startup from them from

2020 after the midair contact one of them caught fire on landing the other touchdown safely nobody

was hurt by the way but video showed black smoke rising from one of the evtols the accident could

affect the plans the unit had been preparing to begin deliveries of their first conventional

electric vehicle that was sold with an evtol module the land aircraft carrier kind of a bonkers idea

china's been promoting development of low altitude evtols questions persist about the safety and

reliability this won't help the argument and that's your podcast for today thanks to our premium

partners pausher of the village in sincernati howdy of sincernati east and volvo cars also of

sincernati east national car charging on the us mainland and the loha charge in hawai and octopus

electroverse global public charging made simple with one app and one map have a good and sit

and remember there's no such thing as a self-charging hybrid

DAILY: Hyundai’s First China EV, Honda’s Full-Size Electric Bike & Citroën Stop-Drive | 20 Sep 2025

Hyundai Palisade

Hyundai Ioniq

Citroën ë-C3

Audi Q8 Etron

Nissan Not Nissan

Nissan Leaf

Rolls-Royce Phantom

X9 Xpong

About this episode

Original notes