DAILY: Hyundai Unveil Staria, Tesla Adds Bare-Bones Model Y and Toyota Tops EVs In Japan

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Welcome back to the podcast today.

Hyundai unveils Staria.

Tesla adds a bare-boned Model Y and Toyota top CVs in Japan.

Plus, stay tuned.

Later in the show, I'll tell you how Zika plans to shake up the European fast wagon sector

with one of their Chinese success stories.

No EV News China today.

It's the weekend.

Our spin-off podcast happens weekdays.

And no bonus shows this weekend.

But next weekend, we'll have our later sponsor on Nathan Gore-Brown from Test EV

talking about why used EV markets need battery health testing.

Now let's kick off with Hyundai.

They picked the Brussels Motor Show this week to launch its largest electric vehicle yet.

A battery-powered version of the Staria multi-purpose van.

The firm wants a slice of the niche that's fast turning mainstream.

Battery-powered MPVs, people carriers.

Sales of the Staria electric will start in South Korea and Europe in the first half of

this year.

Other regions will follow.

The model extends Hyundai's EV push beyond crossovers and into people carriers.

The Staria targets growing demand for electric family haulers,

where buyers care less about headline acceleration

and more about usable space and range.

It offers a roomy interior with an emphasis on comfort and versatility for things like

families and groups.

A layout that would suit a school run, an airport transfer or a ride-hailing fleet,

just as much as any other private owner.

So it's big.

5.25 meters long, 1.99 meters wide and 1.99 meters high.

The Staria electric is the brand's biggest EV.

It will come as a seven-seat luxury version.

There won't be, as far as I know, initially the six-seat layout,

which is very common in China, by the way, with six big armchairs.

But it will come with a nine-seat wagon format.

There's an 84 kilowatt hour battery.

This is going to be the 800 volts version of EGMP, by the way.

So DC fast charging to 80% in 20 minutes, if everything's nicely toasty.

Hyundai says WLTP range 400 kilometers.

So 249 miles.

For some, that won't be enough.

For me, this would shuttle our family and our growing amount of stuff

that comes with two kids around really, really well.

249 miles, I wouldn't want to go much further without a toilet break.

But people do want more range in these larger vehicles.

We see that in China with the explosion of E-Raves.

So in big MPVs, talking about 1,500 kilometers of range between the engine and the battery.

Here, though, vehicle to load is added.

It's got high-powered USB ports everywhere, digital keys,

what they call the smart sense drive resistance.

Hyundai's inside-out design theme is on offer here, they say,

with a futuristic cabin within the exterior built around it.

That sounds like a very nice way to say, don't look at the outside.

It's all about being on the inside.

Production will take place at Hyundai's Alson plant.

That's their largest manufacturing hub.

Hyundai, who also used the show to trail their next mass market EV,

talks about the Hyundai Ioniq 3.

That's the car that will compete alongside Kia's new smaller EV2.

So that'll fit between somewhere between a Hyundai Insta and a Hyundai Kona,

which is still around and still a pretty good car for the price.

The firm's not yet disclosed much more about the Ioniq 3,

but it'll be developed in Europe for Europe,

with a full reveal coming in the next coming months.

Now, Tesla is next up.

I've been talking about them adding some cheaper

bare-bones versions to the UK and to Canada as well in recent days.

Now, the new Model Y has shown up in the European lineup as well.

So it's Model Y standard, long-range rear-wheel drive.

So it's 657 kilometers, WLTP, so big-range single motor,

which is all a lot of people need, but in standard trim,

and starting at around 40,000 euros.

So big, big range, and also the most efficient Model Y they've made.

So 12.7 kilowatt hours per 100 kilometers.

But it is in no way plush because this is the standard trim,

which Tesla's increasingly doing.

It sits above the Model Y standard,

which you can get a bit of a discount to this.

That's 534 kilometers, WLTP.

And the new variant keeps the focus on range and value,

not the experience.

To hold the price down, they take out premium touches.

There's no panoramic glass roof.

Well, you still get the glass roof on some of the standard Tesla's.

But it's not tinted or coated.

It's so they argue it would cost more for them to re-engineer,

to put just a tin top on.

So they say, well, we still put a bit of glass in,

but you just can't look through it.

So they cover it over with a headliner,

which still kind of blows my mind that it's cheaper to put a glass roof in

and not let you have it kind of like dangling the carrot.

Oh, you could have this, but you can't afford it.

Okay, but it's not the same piece of glass, they say.

Anyway, manually adjustable steering wheel.

Honestly, that's not really the end of the world.

I still remember most cars.

I just, you know, you flick the little thing down underneath it

and you move the steering wheel around.

You know, yes, it is.

I must admit, nice to have everything electric.

Ventilated seats go here.

Heated rear seats go.

The passenger touchscreen at the back goes.

Events become manual.

None of it's a deal breaker, really, for me.

It's all about the range with this car.

So big range and loads of practicality.

Cargo space of 2,118 litres at its maximum.

So Tesla is tuning its global catalogue.

The Model Y standard first appeared in America.

Then it went to Europe and Canada recently.

Gets the new Model Y standard rear wheel drive from Giga Berlin.

However, Europe gets this Model Y standard long range rear wheel drive.

I think I'm keeping up with my notes here.

And so big, big range.

Like I say, 657 kilometres is a long way to go.

Hey, congratulations to Tesla team Shanghai.

They just built its 5 millionth electric drive system

on January the 8th, the 3-in-1 unit.

So motor, gearbox and inverter sits in every Tesla

and cuts weight in its latest version

and lifts efficiency.

They keep improving it.

The milestone shows how central Shanghai is to Tesla.

The factory is the firm's largest and most productive.

It began being built in January 2019

as China's first ever wholly foreign-owned car plant,

although Tesla built it with Chinese money on loan.

So it's still in China, built by China, technically owned by Tesla, I suppose.

In December 2025, it turned out about 800 and, sorry, 851,000 vehicles,

more than half Tesla's global deliveries for the year.

That month alone delivered 97,000 cars in the month of December alone.

So it's a huge, huge deal.

Shanghai's tally feeds into a broader run of records,

actually, that Tesla's had in July last year.

They made their 10 millionth drive system worldwide,

the first component in the company's history to reach eight figures.

Shanghai led the push, becoming the first Tesla factory to reach

massive volumes for a single part.

In parallel, Giga Nevada lifted its own drive unit output

and they made, I think, their six millionth a few weeks ago, if I remember.

Not sure we put it on the podcast, but vehicle output has climbed in step with it.

By the end of December last year, Giga Shanghai had made its four millionth vehicle.

The one that they said was a six-seat Model Y L,

the long wheelbase version of the Model Y that is in China,

that many people would prefer to have compared to the

so-called three-row Model Y that America gets, which

is fine if you want to use the back seats for people without legs.

Okay, let's talk about this incredible statistic,

but I had to read a couple of times to make sure I understood it correctly.

Volkswagen just overtook Tesla in EV sales,

and to kind of comprehend how much of a big deal that is,

as a caveat I haven't mentioned, you only have to go back a few years

when the old boss, Volkswagen, Herbert Deese and Elon Musk were having their bromance,

and Volkswagen, this is all pre-lockdown here, I guess,

were really looking up to Tesla and saying, you know,

one day, one day we think we'll be bigger than you,

and of course all Tesla fans laughed.

Well, hey, look at that, the date today, 11th of January, 2026,

they did it, Volkswagen is bigger than Tesla.

There's a big caveat here outside of China,

because Tesla does pretty well in China,

but if you don't include that, that kind of stuns me,

so I have to go over the numbers a couple of times,

make sure I'm making sense of it.

Between January and, these are the figures to the end of November last year,

not a lot will have changed.

Volkswagen had sold 1.133 million EVs, according to SNE Research, outside of China.

The shift shows how quickly the balance of power has changed,

as legacy car makers have scaled up.

They've all been having huge problems in China,

as the new domestic startups have really captured the attention there,

with their high-tech, AI-integrated digital vehicles.

But outside of China, VW's got its acts together.

It's undercut the idea that Tesla's early lead would always be unassailable to everybody else.

Volkswagen's surge came from a mix of mass market and premium,

stronger sales of Volkswagen's ID4 and 7.

The Skoda ENIAC continues to sell really well at the volumen,

full-scale rollout of the Audi A6, Audi Q6,

Citroen and the Porsche McCann helped as well.

Tesla moved the other way.

Its sales outside have China slipped to just 927,000.

That's down over 8% year-on-year.

Second straight year of negative movement for Tesla outside of China,

and actually globally, because they're doing really badly in China too.

The core models, YN3, have both been falling.

SNX fared worse, but really they are,

you know, cars for maybe a more discerning buyer who wants a certain something.

Hyundai held third place with 566,000.

They're a long way behind the 900 and something thousand of Tesla.

So Tesla's not slipping to third place anytime soon outside of China,

but that's an amazing statistic, isn't it, the Volkswagen?

Okay, and so detractors, if you, you know, on the other hand this would say,

yeah, but how much money did Volkswagen have to spend on all of their brands,

are their Audi's and Porsches and Scottas,

to beat Tesla who have effectively one car?

You know, the Model Y and then the Model 3 backing it up.

So that's also a really good point.

Now, how efficient, how efficient are you spending your money and making your money?

Okay, let's talk a little bit about Toyota in a moment,

and Portugal dangling carrots back in a mo.

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Welcome back to the podcast.

Let's talk about Toyota and the BZ4X,

Japan's top-selling electric vehicle in the last quarter of the year.

It's the first time Toyota has been EV number one at home in Japan

for a firm long scene as anti-EV spending untold amounts of money on anti-EV advertising.

All those adverts, they used to run back in the day of we choose not to plug in,

of just berating EV owners for making the wrong decision in their advertising and marketing,

whilst also having to try and sell EVs.

Yeah, I've never fully understood Toyota.

The result's kind of interesting.

Toyota's large home market will buy fully EVs if it's the right car.

They recently updated the BZ4X from being largely terrible to not so terrible

and Japanese buyers went for it.

The strong sales reflect a bundle of incentives as well.

Above all, a one-year free membership to vehicle charging.

The offer lowers the risk for first-time buyers in Japan.

Where EVs aren't really a thing, it's 1.82% market penetration.

Rivals kept up the pressure as well.

Honda have a little mini vehicle called the N1E that was just behind the Toyota BZ4X

and the Sakura electric mini vehicle as well.

Both models play to Japan's taste for small city cars,

yet the league table does put the larger BZ4X just about in the number one position.

Now, Portugal will pay drivers 4,000 euros to go EV next year,

but only if they scrap a dirty old car.

From December, I don't know why I emphasized dirty quite so much.

From December, 29th last year through to February this year,

buyers in Portugal can tap a new incentive scheme called the Environmental Fund.

The offer is narrow.

Private individuals can claim 4,000 euros per battery electric vehicle.

Social organisations, transport operators and even municipalities are in on the deal too.

For 5,000 euros, the purchase price must not be more than 38,500 euros

or 55,000 if you have more than five seats.

In every case, you must scrap a dirty, dirty old car that's more than 10 years old.

The state wants to cut emissions from transport,

a large source of Portugal's carbon output while nudging households and fleets towards EV.

It also caps commercial uptake as well.

Firms can receive support for no more than four vehicles per company.

Two-wheelers and light EVs get a push as well.

The scheme covers 50% of the price of a cargo bike up to 1,500 euros.

1,000 euros for non-electric and 750 for pedilex, which is our rules over here.

We don't have twist grip or thumb grip.

You have to at least move your feet a little bit for the e-bikes to kick in.

You can buy them from Aliexpress and Chinese makers as well,

but they're not allowed over here.

I think the police are probably a little bit busy.

Although saying that, I did mention on the podcast,

before Christmas, I was dropping my son off at his school and I saw the police had pulled over

somebody on one of these Chinese fat tire black things with mass two big batteries

that will do serious speed.

We're taking it off him, sticking it in the back of their police van.

That is confiscated, my friend.

That's interesting.

Let's move on and Zika are going to bring their own brand to Europe and the UK,

or the EU and the UK, I should say.

So obviously Zika and by Geely, a lot of the platforms,

the underpinnings you'll find in some Volvo's, in some Polestar's.

Zika has done a better job at updating their vehicles to the updated versions of those platforms.

So although some Zika's and Polestar's and some Zika's and Volvo's sit on the same platform,

the modern Zika's have iterated on them.

Those platforms, you know, they've gone to 800 or 900 volts and the software isn't a lot improved.

Well, the 7GT will be its official name over here.

Now, in China, it's the 007 and as I long speculated,

I think it's Amazon owns the right.

I think Amazon bought all the James Bond rights from whoever owned the Broccoli family,

or whoever owned all the James Bond rights.

I think Amazon bought them recently.

So I think Amazon would have an issue with you calling it the 007 James Bond car,

so they haven't called it that.

They've called it the Zika 7GT and it's a proper GTE wagon.

You know, sport back, fast back, call it what you it's not a full estate.

It's not like a big Volvo boxy thing, but there's definitely more room in the rear.

But Zika as a brand will bring it under their own badge

to Europe and the UK in the first half of this year.

Up against Tesla Model 3 performance,

Kear EV6 GT, Volkswagen ID7, the high performance version of that, Hyundai Ioniq 6N.

It's a familiar recipe, big range, rapid charging, strong performance and a wagon shape

delivered under an unfamiliar Chinese badge.

Pricing will soften the pain though.

The 7GT starts at 45,990 euros.

That's about 53,000 US dollars equivalent.

That's for the core trim and it'll go up to about 57,000 euros.

That's 67,000 US.

That's for the privileged trim but with all-wheel drive.

For UK buyers, it starts at 39,990 to come under the 40,000 threshold we have luxury car tax.

Underneath is Geely's platform, the PMA2 Plus platform.

So this is 800 volts.

This will charge 10 to 80 in, are you sitting down?

13 minutes.

Or if you can find a 450 kilowatt DC fast charger, that is.

Because that's what it peaks at.

It will raise the conversation stakes, let's say that.

The old top Trump's game of who's got the bigger one.

This one charges very quickly.

Two battery sizes, 75 kilowatt hours and 100 kilowatt hours,

with a maximum range of 413 miles or 665 kilometers.

This thing will move a family and their luggage across a continent

doing 400 miles plus range of 665 kilometers of range.

It will charge in less time than it takes to run in and grab a coffee.

But that range figure will need to be verified on the UK's A1 or the German Autobahn when it's

cold and wet.

The range topper is the all-wheel drive, 637 horsepower, 0-62, 3.3 seconds.

That is going to top at 130 miles an hour.

It's the same as a Model 3 performance, but for a lot less money, a fraction of the money.

Inside the kit chases European specs rather than the AI novelty that we see in China.

Upgraded European spec audio system, headrest speakers, twin wireless phone heaters,

sorry, phone chargers, pet mode, camping mode, big rear legroom, massive boot space,

smaller a bit than a Kiri V6, but still the high riding hatchback shape will help.

In the UK, the 7GT effectively becomes Zeke's opening act, filling the space that the 001

might have owned.

If the real-world range and 13-minute charging actually happens in the real world,

then that car will win every argument in car parks and comment sections.

The question is whether Zeke can build service coverage and build trust, more importantly,

fast enough.

And that's your podcast for today.

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DAILY: Hyundai Unveil Staria, Tesla Adds Bare-Bones Model Y and Toyota Tops EVs In Japan

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