DAILY: Largest Ever Study Into Hybrid Fuel Use, Small VW EVs and Updates IONIQ5 Spotted | 20 Feb 2026

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Later in the show, I'll tell you why used EV batteries are holding up better than ever.

Over on EV News China today, our spin-off podcast, last one of the week.

We do it weekdays.

It should come out about 2 a.m. U.K. time.

Certainly, if you are listening to us in Europe, that'll be there for when you wake up

because China's ahead of us.

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and how it affects the global EV market.

Today, we're talking about BMW CEO urging engagement with Chinese companies.

Geely, eyeing possible U.K. production.

And Great Wall Motors, chairman, saying they still have more to learn from overseas companies.

Okay, let's get into it.

Germany's Institute, the Fraunhofer Institute, has completed the most comprehensive real-world study

in history into plug-in hybrids.

It analyzed telematics from 1 million plug-in hybrids that were built from 2021 to 2023.

Fraunhofer used wirelessly transmitted vehicle data

and it measured on-road fuel consumption, not the European Union's certification numbers

and official testing procedures.

Those official figures often claim 1 to 2 litres per 100 kilometres driven.

That is, if you speak my language, between 140 and 280 MPG.

Fraunhofer found a real-world average, once they worked out how people use plug-in hybrids,

of 6 litres per 100 kilometres.

That's 47 MPG, not horrific, by, you know, V8 standards.

But three times the stated figures.

There's a huge disparity in what the official testing procedures do

thanks to lobbying from the car industry and those that want to make

any form of combustion seem more palatable.

And the real world, Fraunhofer traced the gap to how plug-in hybrids are actually used.

The combustion engine operates way more than the official testing procedures assume,

including when the car nominally runs on electric power.

The data set split the brands out as well.

German-built plug-in hybrids were amongst the worst performers.

Porsche ranked highest at 7 litres of fuel per 100 kilometres driven.

That's 40 MPG.

That figure, the report said, looks way worse than rival plug-in hybrids that

sometimes drive in electric mode, and frankly worse than a conventional

efficient petrol car, except you're carrying around more complications

with software, more complications with hybrid powertrains,

and more complications with a small battery.

Kia, Toyota, Ford and Renault posted the lowest real-world figures,

often under 1 litre per 100 kilometres driven.

Fraunhofer described that as roughly 85% less fuel than a comparable Porsche.

Porsche said, different usage patterns explain the gap,

and that its figures comply with the legally-measuremented procedures.

Sure, if you design the rules a certain way,

and then you don't break the rules, you can put out a statement saying

we never broke the rules.

But when it came to dieselgate, we didn't have many rules to break

because no one thought the car companies would do something so awful.

Now, America did have enough rules to be broken that,

actually people went to prison very quickly after due process

and it cost Volkswagen billions and billions,

whereas many countries over here, this side of the Atlantic,

actually have specific rules, laws written,

that presume these companies would do anything so bad.

So they're able to say, hey, we didn't do anything wrong.

We didn't actually break this set of specific rules or laws,

and that would be correct.

Legally, it's correct that they did nothing wrong.

Only when you involve moral arguments and you start to get digging deeper,

there's still class action equivalent lawsuits going through the courts

over here in Europe,

VW called back into Paris,

courts for a criminal trial next year.

This is still rumbling on.

So for car companies to still be lurking at plug-in hybrid technology,

e-rev technologies,

and see this as some sort of future,

I'll leave that up to you to have your final conclusion on that.

You can probably guess my opinions.

But Germany's automotive industry and the association there

said existing measures for determining fuel consumption

are reliable.

The EU Commission declined to comment.

Fraunhofer researcher Patrick Plotz

urged the EU regulations to tie fleet CO2 limits

to how plug-in hybrids are actually driven.

People get them through company schemes

because the tax advantages are there,

and then they never plug them in.

This means they would penalize makers whose cars break those limits

on the road if they're tied to real-world data,

which can be gathered from telematics these days.

Until then, the headline numbers will keep doing what they do best.

Flattering the lab,

not reflecting the road.

Let's move on. Big story.

Big story. Actually, huge.

OK, let's move on.

The European Commission has introduced a new vehicle class

for small battery electric cars.

The move has pushed Volkswagen Group

to dust off some old plans.

Audi and Scotta reportedly want their own models

based on the new electric urban family car.

Scotta's car would sit alongside

the already-confirmed Epic.

Audi wants to use its model to enter a new market segment.

These projects didn't start yesterday.

Audi and Scotta considered them back in 2021,

but put them on a shelf.

Recent legislative changes now revive those ideas.

The new EU class aims to make electric cars

more affordable for low-income consumers.

The Commission's automotive package includes

a slight relaxation of things like CO2 targets

and promoting small electric vehicles

and super credits for each one you sell.

It can be technically 1.3 credits worth.

So you can still sell some more combustion stuff.

That's the carrot that the carmakers need

to make these cars.

The focus of the proposal is on vehicles

4.2 metres long or shorter.

That's still that pretty decent urban vehicle, by the way.

Only battery electric small cars built within

the European Union would be included

as part of the European First Industrial Policy,

Renault and Stellantis are behind the idea.

Volkswagen Group has confirmed models

in the small family car segment.

Cupra, Reval, VWID Polo,

VWID Cross, Scotta Epic.

Reval orders should open soon, actually, I think.

If the revised plans stick,

add an Audi A1 Neutron.

I don't know how many are guessing.

Maybe a Scotta E-Fabia?

Possibly.

By the turn of the decade.

You never know.

We'll have to wait and see.

Now, spy pictures today of the Ioniq 5 seem to have surfaced.

This isn't official, by the way.

This is via a website that's usually very, very reliable

for things like this called TheKoreanCarBlog.com.

And so, I'm tempted to believe what they say,

which is that this is a camouflaged Ioniq 5 refresh.

And the inside is very different

from the existing Ioniq 5.

In fact, from the way that Hyundai and Kia

have traditionally gone around their business,

which is to have driver display

and infotainment display

across the vehicle,

from behind the steering wheel to the middle,

often the same height,

often two similar size screens

or one continuous screen.

This moves the theory towards,

well, maybe like a Tesla style,

but it does have a small screen

behind the steering wheel for the driver display,

but then a much bigger floating tablet style.

That would be 17 to 18 inches,

by the look of it, it's enormous.

And so, that layout follows a similar script,

things like Teslas and Fords

have done that with the small screen,

Tesla Model S and X, of course.

Hyundai seemed to drop the traditional instrument cluster,

shifting the vehicle data to the central display,

maybe an advanced head-up display,

not in these pictures.

And so, Hyundai also removes the physical HVAC controls,

which is odd,

because there's now new safety testing,

things like Euro NCAP coming in,

which will reward vehicles for having

physical controls for those common functions,

heating and vent controls and things like that.

And so, it's odd that they would move

to a complete Tesla system,

which would lose them star ratings,

like the idea of a new Hyundai coming out,

to me seems very safe, but it would be,

I don't know, I'm guessing, a three-star,

like a four-star car,

like not to have a five-star Euro NCAP,

I think would be an extremely bloody nose.

And that's the risk when you get rid of all the buttons.

Okay.

Otherwise, ultra-minimalist,

the sliding center console disappears,

looks like a fixed center island,

door handles give way to electronic push buttons.

So, I think Genesis G90,

talking about the steering wheel,

pairs, controls back to a central rotary scroller,

and one button on each side.

Again, need to zoom in and have a look at these.

This doesn't seem like it's an early,

possibly test vehicle to see what it would be like.

This looks really finished.

Fit and finish looks good.

Material quality looks production intent.

This looks almost ready,

but very much matching,

you would think Hyundai's new operating system

called PlayOS Connect OS,

rolling out some of the updated Kia and Arnick vehicles.

What comes next is, you know, unknown.

One possibility points to a

tech-focused premium facelift.

So, think right up against a Tesla,

or a Model 3, Model Y,

when it would come maybe next year.

Either way, the Arnick 5 has drifted from its

pixelated retro future charm

towards something a bit more homogenous

like every other Chinese car that's got a big screen.

And I think that's a bit of a shame, if you ask me.

We'll take a break. We'll come back.

We're going to talk Cybertruck

and also Stagecoach. Stick around back in a moment.

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Welcome back to the podcast.

Tesla has launched a new base model

of the all-wheel drive Cybertruck at $60,000.

And it's cut the top-end cyber beast by $15,000,

reversing a recent increase by that.

It's down to $100,000 now.

The chief executive, Elon Musk,

said that this new $60,000 price

for the all-wheel drive trim

is available for 10 days only.

The move lands as Cybertruck sales

have fallen flat.

We think around 5,000 units per quarter.

Tesla have built a facility

to make 250,000 of them a year.

Tesla's opened Cybertruck sales in the Middle East

and managing to root tens of millions

of dollars of Cybertruck stock

which is sitting going nowhere

into SpaceX, even floating the idea

of using them as autonomous delivery vehicles.

So they introduced a rear-wheel drive variant

last year for $70,000

and then removed it straight away

because nobody bought it.

This new version is all-wheel drive

and it costs less.

They've also put some kit back in that they stripped out

so it retains power share,

vehicle 2x capability.

It includes the bed outlets.

It includes the powered tonneau cover.

The earlier rear-wheel drive version removed

outlets and covers and things.

The cheaper all-wheel drive trim

trades down on hardware and range.

No adaptive air suspension but adaptive damping.

All-wheel drive model uses two motors

and 325 miles of range

or 523 kilometers

which is down 25 miles from the single motor.

At the top end, CyberBeast reverses

the 15k price increase from last August

and now it's down to 100 again.

But Tesla's wider context

stops people buying the vehicle.

So the chief executive immediately retweeted

the head of the project at Tesla

who posted, hey, 60k trim

and we've re-engineered the vehicle.

Go get it.

And I think many people would look at that

and if they aren't put off by the look of the vehicle

it becomes affordable.

And immediately the chief executive retweeted that

and said, yeah, but only for 10 days.

Now there was no other clarification

on what that means.

Does it mean that Cybertruck

will go up in price in 10 days

which is a really

kind of grubby feeling

of, hey, if you want it, you've got 10 days

sun on the dotted line.

This is a massive purchase for a lot of people.

I give them time to get their finances in order

or does it mean that something else changes

in 10 days? There's no clarification

and I'll report on that when we do get more news.

Okay, EVs scoring

fewer serious faults

are next in the news.

Click Mechanic has done an analysis

of 240,000 vehicle inspections

including 7,400 EVs.

And their data shows EVs are well ahead

on any kind of serious conditions.

1.5% of EVs

inspected

had the poor rating.

7.5% of combustion cars, petrol and diesel

had the poor rating.

7 EVs got the perfect rating.

BMW i4, iX, iX3

the existing one, not the new Neuer-class one

IKEA's EV9, MG's 5

Polestar's 2

and Volkswagen's ID3.

Not every EV was spotless though.

When you drill down to individual model level

the Tesla Model 3 logged a 7% poor rating.

The worst poor rates

were reserved for

combustion cars.

Click Mechanics CEO Andrew Gervis

linked the split to age and complexity.

Neuer EV models performed more strongly

older, sometimes complex combustion vehicles

have high rates of fault

and that matters more as the used market shifts.

SMMT is the lobby organisation

of the car industry here.

Their data shows second-hand EV sales

searching 45% in 2025

while total used car transactions

were now 7.8 million

here at least.

Stagecoach will spend 30 million pounds

or 40 million dollars to put more than

100 battery electric buses

on the road in the south west

in the county of Devon.

The UK government's zero-emission

bus regional areas scheme.

Zebra.

Yeah, ZDBR8. Construction of the charging hubs

is already underway.

I love stories like that. Electric buses.

I know it's just a single part of Great Britain

but I love stuff like that

and I love stuff like this.

The UK government's first plug-in

electric fast ferry

has cleared sea trials and enter services

on the Auckland to Devonport commuter route.

I know it's no great shakes.

I know that only a select few people

will ever get to use stuff like this

but man, I love all these little edge cases

and public transport going

electric or even plug-in hybrid

during the trials, the 34.6 metre

aluminium catamaran

hit 36 knots,

that's 41 miles an hour

on all electric power

and the propulsion system

they say are exceeded

and surpassed expectations.

In-Cat

Crauver designed the vessel

with Q-West boat builders

building it and Hamilton jet

integrating it. It's the first of two

vessels operating on behalf of Auckland

Transport. 300 people

and 20 bicycles will fit on the thing.

That is really impressive to see.

So much more marine

activity in terms

of electrification

even if this one

using its water jets

with its 2,000 kilowatt hour

2 megawatt hour

battery pack

ultimately powered sometimes by

range extended

generators.

Now finally, generational

is a London based EV battery

diagnostics firm.

They've analysed more than 8,000

battery tests in 36 auto brands.

The data set

spans passenger cars and light commercial vehicles

from brand new

to up to 12 years old

and up to 160,000 miles on the clock.

Across the whole data set, the average battery

state of health, this is all 8,000 tests

and those 15 year old EVs

those ones that are done

in a quarter of a million kilometres

are obviously going to pull those results down.

The average

state of health of the fleet

was 95.15%

of original capacity.

4 to 5 year old EVs

had a median

state of health of 93.5

and 8 to 9 year old

EVs were still 85%

state of health.

I love you to find me

a 9 year old combustion car

that still has 85%

of its oomph

from when it rolled off the factory floor

simply not the way that

engines age.

85% state of health, that's fantastic!

High mileage

didn't automatically

result in a tired battery pack.

Vehicles beyond 100,000 miles

or 160,000

k's showed

88 to 95% state of health

even the worst performers

didn't get anywhere near 70% capacity

and that's just for individual

outliers if you like.

The spread matters

much as the midpoint I think.

Among 4 to 5 year old EVs

the bottom quartile

was 91.6% state of health

and the top quartile

96.5%

Going older, up to 12 years old

the lowest quartile

was 82% state of health

and I've mentioned before on this show

we're looking for another

small run around

for the family

something we can take to the beach

maybe we'll get a van

we haven't decided.

One of those cars I'm looking at

is an old Nissan Leaf

huge boot

we haven't found one we liked yet

but really a few thousand pounds

for a vehicle that's maybe lost

one or two bars of its battery

that's never gonna do more than 30 miles

on a good day for us

we just need that kind of vehicle

not to trash our nicer cars

and you know

on a really old Nissan Leaf

that's considered a big win

I have seen some with some pretty awful battery

degradation as well

so Generational says a 3 year old

EV coming off a fleet

with 90,000 miles

outperforms a 6 year old

combustion car

that had 30,000 miles on

Generational urges degradation itself

does less damage to used EVs

than the buyers inability

to even verify how good the battery is

the chair of the Vehicle Remarketing Association

Phillip Nothard

says transparency is going to be crucial

in terms of building consumer confidence

and addressing misconceptions

about battery longevity

automakers can use it to support

residual claims as well

insurers and warranty providers can use battery performance data

to price in risk

and fleet operators can use battery health data

to refine rotation strategies

and total cost of ownership

and as you may know

this podcast is Test EV

they are Avalu's trusted partner

for independent EV battery health testing

in Australia and New Zealand

so I've been talking about battery health testing

a little bit more anyway in the sponsor credits

and now the stories, the news cycle

is reflecting the importance of that as well

thanks to them as our premium partner

also national car charging on the US mainland

and the Loaha Charge in Hawaii

as you show us here tomorrow

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

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DAILY: Largest Ever Study Into Hybrid Fuel Use, Small VW EVs and Updates IONIQ5 Spotted | 20 Feb 2026

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