The Tata Motors Aria is a type of car that can be used for many purposes, like carrying families or luggage. It's a mix between a big car and a van, designed to be practical.
MG is a car brand that originally came from Britain but is now owned by a Chinese company. They make various cars, including electric ones, that are often budget-friendly.
Car
MG 4
The MG 4 is an electric car made by the MG brand. It's designed to be fun to drive and has its back wheels powered, which can make it feel more responsive on the road.
Direct-to-consumer sales mean that companies sell their products straight to you, without using stores or dealerships. This is often seen with electric cars, where the company handles everything from sales to service.
Zero emission vehicles are cars that don't release any harmful gases into the air. This usually means electric cars or those that run on hydrogen, helping to keep the environment cleaner.
Rivian is a company that makes electric trucks and SUVs. They are known for their unique designs and selling their vehicles directly to customers instead of through traditional dealerships.
An EV, or electric vehicle, is a type of car that uses electricity to power its motor instead of traditional fuels like gasoline. This makes them more environmentally friendly.
The Citroen EC3 is an electric crossover car, which means it's designed to be versatile and family-friendly while running on electricity instead of gasoline. It's part of the trend toward more electric vehicles.
The Cupra Born is a new electric car that looks like a small hatchback. It's made to be fun to drive while also being good for the environment since it doesn't use gas.
The MEB platform is a special base that Volkswagen uses to build their electric cars. It helps them make different types of electric vehicles more easily.
The Hyundai Ioniq 9 is a new electric car that can fit a lot of people inside. It has a big battery that lets you drive for a long time before needing to recharge.
The Audi A6 is a high-end car that is comfortable and packed with technology. The 6th version of this model includes options for both hybrid and electric versions.
The Audi e-tron is a fancy electric SUV that offers a smooth ride and a lot of tech features. It's designed for people who want a stylish car that doesn't use gas.
The Neuerklasse platform is a new design framework from BMW that helps them build better electric cars. It makes the cars more efficient and packed with the latest technology.
800 volts refers to the electrical system in the car that helps it charge faster. It's like having a super-fast charger for your phone, but for the car's battery.
500 miles of range means the car can drive that distance before needing to recharge its battery. It's important for making sure you can travel long distances without running out of power.
Car
KGM Musso EV
The KGM Musso EV is a new electric truck that can carry and tow heavy loads. It's built differently than traditional trucks, using a special frame and layout for better performance.
The Torres EVX is another electric car from the same company as the Musso EV. It shows that the company is focusing more on electric vehicles instead of gas or diesel ones.
A 73 kilowatt hour battery is a big battery that stores energy for electric cars. The bigger the battery, the farther the car can go before needing to be recharged.
Payload is the total weight a truck can carry, including people and stuff. It's important for knowing how much you can load into the truck without overloading it.
The Maxus T90 EV is a type of electric truck that can be used for carrying things. It's part of a trend where more trucks are becoming electric to help the environment.
Car
Musso EV
The Musso EV is an electric version of a pickup truck made by Kia. It's designed to be useful for carrying loads while being environmentally friendly.
DC charging is a faster way to charge electric cars, usually found at charging stations. It helps you get back on the road quicker than regular home charging.
Car
Volvo EX60
The Volvo EX60 is a new electric car from Volvo that will be available soon. It's part of their effort to make more electric vehicles instead of gas-powered ones.
The Tesla Semi is a big electric truck made for transporting goods. It's important because it can save money on fuel and is better for the environment since it doesn't produce emissions.
The Volvo XC60 is a stylish SUV that is known for being safe and comfortable. It comes with different engine options, including a version that can be plugged in to charge its battery.
The Tesla Model Y is a type of electric car that looks like a small SUV. It's popular because it can go a long distance on a single charge and has a lot of room inside for passengers and cargo.
The BMW M5 is a fast and fancy car that is designed for people who love driving. It has a lot of power and is built to handle well on the road, making it exciting to drive.
The Dodge Charger is a big car that looks tough and can go really fast. It's popular among people who like powerful cars and has a lot of space inside for passengers.
LIVE
Welcome back to EV news daily today the MG for urban announced Rivian bets on Colorado and
Electric dominates the 2026 award ceremonies plus they tuned later in the show
I'll tell you why Nissan has dressed up its aria in solar panels and called it
shudder
Self-charging there's no such thing as oh doesn't matter on EV news China today
We're talking about Nio's on-vote new models BYD backs Vietnam and China's brutal price war hits profit
Let's get into it then so we knew this car was coming from some crash testing
That was public's polish last week
Which kind of gave the game away a little bit at least to the motoring press and that is MG China's SAIC
MG has a car over here called the MG for which is a very good car rear-wheel drive great chassis real drivers car
Actually kind of bests the competition in terms of being fun to drive in China
They've updated the MG for already totally different car front-wheel drive
Very much a value proposition
Not the fun driving car that it was
Reading some of the Chinese reviews and watching the Chinese youtubers
They have to be careful with any criticism so you read between the lines and they go well
This isn't a driver's car anymore, but it's really cheap
You know what that means in China, right?
They just can't go out and criticize the way the Western car journalist would well MG has announced the MG for
Urban today at least in the United Kingdom and the pricing is very very low. That's
23,495 pounds
List price and they've added it to the range. So that's a great thing. This is just more choice the new MG for urban
Now anchors the lineup so comfort standard range 23,495
That's a good price most people pay monthly for that vehicle and then they'll be offers
There's the comfort long range at 25,495
MG are very good at doing what the Koreans do small battery big battery and then there's the premium long range
Which is normally the one if your budget will stretch that you want because it has the little nicer tease in
MG wants the urban to be in that ranking of affordable family EVs while the rest of the
2026 range is improved as I mentioned last week. We knew it was coming
They're keeping what is the MG for but they're gonna restyle the interior particularly with more tech and some tweaked driving dynamics
Look at the outside of the vehicles. They're totally different. They're both called MG for on the MG website today
They've called it new MG for urban and all new
MG for or maybe the other way around either way
They haven't even got the websites ready. So that's it. It's there's you click on it and it says book a test drive
There's no specs. There's no pictures. You can't drill into it
So I haven't got a lot to work here with we know the price cuts matter because the original MG for has shown that
Affordable electric motoring works. It's launch was in 2022. We looked at buying one by the way for my wife
Really great. My neighbor has one the bright orange one with the bright orange brake calipers and honestly, I love I love it
They've sold 50,000 of them here
MG now
Has deeper price cuts the mainstream long-range model premium long range of
the existing MG fours are down to 29995
That's worth 3,000 pounds less. So there's some cutting deep cuts on their prices. They've taken 10% off
That's huge right above that. There's the premium extended range. That's 32,000 pounds
But it's
338 miles WLTP not a big family vehicle, but a decent family vehicle the boots good on this as well
And it's 32 33 grand before offers before monthly discounting
For almost 350 miles. That is the longest range EV at that price
Performance buyers are unaffected. You still get the old MG for X power dual motor also 34 grand less mileage
But loads of smiles 320 kilowatts of power
Yet the MG plan goes beyond simply adding three new MG models
It's about things like the warranty
Seven years 80,000 miles local dealerships a brand that many people think is still British has a lot going for it
By the way, so not getting rid of the old one. That's important. That's a great driver's car the new
softer front-wheel drive a bit more kind of floppy but you know
Most people don't even care about a chassis of a car, right? They want the low affordable price
My wife couldn't tell you how a car drives. It steers, right? Not being insulting. She just don't care and so
That's just over 20 grand. There's a whole bunch of cars around that price smaller ones Renault 5
Okay bags of personality and design with the Renault 5 but the Fiat Grande Panda all that kind of stuff around 20
That's really competitive. Well, man. All right, let's move on Rivian has put 4.6 million dollars behind a Colorado ballot measure
To protect direct-to-consumer sales an unusually blunt move in America's war over
How EVs get sold the cash backs a new
Amendments to the Constitution that would lock in the right of EV manufacturers to sell and service vehicles
Avoiding dealerships the firm gave the money on the 6th of January to a committee
That state record show is called the Coloradans for direct EV sales and service
The group wants voters to approve a change that would state in the Constitution
That manufacturers operating exclusively and zero emission vehicles can sell and provide warranty and service straight to customer
Colorado law already lets EV only brands sidestep franchise dealers
The fight is over whether the carve-out stays a matter of statute
Or becomes harder to unwind in the future Rivian backs the measure
Even though it's not actually named in the list of the text any EV only maker would actually qualify
The company's not commented on it. The ballot push shadows
Parallel effort in the legislation a draft bill seen by industry groups would allow more direct sales and service
Including by some established makers and would give independent repair repairers a
broader role trade bodies argue that any dealer friendly
Rewrites or repeal would hurt competition dealer groups and the very powerful lobby with the NADA
Long wary of the likes of Rivian and Tesla selling direct people have yet to show their hand
Now electrons dominate the 2026 awards ceremonies
There's the world car of the year European car of the year and now the UK car of the year shortlist is out
eight cars made the shortlist and
All of them have the ability to run on electrons
The list reflects a wider shift 59 eligible models and journalists totally independent
We're given their scoring and they just rank it according to different categories
Electric car pure EVs are five of the eight
Judges now pick the best car overall Renault 5 e-tech shows how mainstream it's become
100,000 units already built
Has EV grant here?
That's the small car of the year Kears EV for was the family car category
388 miles of range the small crossover award went to Citroen's
EC3
Aircross that's electric it took third of the European car of the year
Scott is L. Rock is all electric that won the medium crossover category and
Also cars in that category with the Cooper born the Ford Capri
They're all the VW MEB platform the L. Rock
VRS uses twin motors and
Is pretty rapid that was also singled out Hyundai's Arnick 9 got the award for large
crossover
Either the six or seven seat layout 110 kilowatt hour battery almost 400 miles WLTP range on that the performance award went to Alpine's
8 290 hot version of the Renault 5
Not every winner was pure electric
Audi's
6th generation a6
Which you can get in mild hybrid, but obviously and electric e-tron as well took the executive car
award
Beating out things like tycons and the BYD seal six touring
No estate has ever claimed the overall UK car of the year, so that would be interesting
26th of February the judges decide think it's fair to say whichever one wins. We know it'll be an EV
All right, let's move on the MW is going to start delivering the
IX3 ahead of launch not officially launching in European showrooms until the 7th of March
But there are a select few buyers in Munich that have been part of an early seed round
If you like BMWs begun the handing over the keys quietly of the first few IX3s to customers in its home city
The firm builds the car as its electric flagship for good reason too
the Neuerklasse platform is pretty spectacular and
800 volts massive battery 500 miles of range and loads of technology in it as well
So the 7th of March schedule for European wide delivery remains in place
This kind of soft launch if you like six seven weeks ahead of schedule just for Munich
The venue helps obviously it keeps it on BMWs home turf and buyers who know the brand as well
I imagine these are possibly members of staff or long-term brand advocates or
Somebody like that, but it's not a mass launch
But the cars are built and they're in customers hands real customers. They say now let's talk a little bit about a
Pickup in the UK. Well, Great Britain gets the KGM electric Musso
the Musso EV
it's out in Korea and
It will now join
other cars like the Torres EVX as the brand moves away from its sang Yong previous name
The KGM Musso EV is now after an audience a ladder frame chassis and double cab layout
Swapping out the diesel engine for a 73 kilowatt hour battery
250 miles of all-electric range not a 62 in under seven seconds
The truck will tow three and a half thousand kilograms and carry a thousand kilograms payload matching and beating diesel rivals
Britain's pickup market runs on diesel
It's fair to say that if you want to move stuff around you pretty much buy a big white van in this country
electric efforts like the Maxis T90 EV
Not very good pickup truck
But it sort of did a job a couple of years ago KGM plans to price the Musso EV from
45,000 pounds without VAT because that's the only time in this country that you're allowed to advertise pricing without that
Is if it's a business thing so you can advertise business vans
Without advertising the van you're advertising to retail. It's always an all-in price
And so well equipped versions maybe 50k add 20% to 60k vehicle
You've really want to go you've really want have to want a pickup truck that's electric to get it's not going to be cheap
But big instrument cluster 10.25 instrument cluster a massive central screen 12.3 in central screen apple carplay android auto
AC charging at 11 kilowatts dc charging at 120, but like I say big towing big payload
It's going to be a working vehicle
Probably not a lifestyle vehicle the way that trucks can be in america
They haven't got the scale of ford or Toyota the dealer network is
Thin yet if KGM can deliver on those figures and maybe bring the prices down a little bit
We might see a few more of those on the road. We'll take a break. We'll come back and talk volvo ex 60 profitability
And tesla's semi has done a big deal for charging stick around back in mo
All right, welcome back to the podcast volvos next big earner won't be a hybrid all the car makers say well
We want to carry on selling petrol cars because we make money from engines. We've developed them
No, it's going to be their full electric ex 60 reaching customers this summer from $60,000 upwards
They say the way they've designed it will deliver higher margins than the xc 60 plug-in hybrid
Which it replaces that's according to the chief financial officer
That matters because the ex 60 sits in the world's
Largest segment that model y segment that crossover segment lands as volvo pushes to become fully electric
To make the numbers work volvos reworked how it builds the car
Sell to body construction bringing down mass weight and costs mega casting the rear end as well
Taking 80 kilograms out of the vehicle, but it's more sustainable cheaper to make better handling
Third generation electric motors are all developed in-house
Cutting the costs by 18 percent these gains follow capital outlays on new structures and processes
The cfo arguing the volvo is now coming down the investment slope as they say
Leaving rivals at a disadvantage unless you match that initial spending now time to make the vehicles
They say they can make them cheaper than the plug-in hybrids, but there are
complications tariffs, obviously
The trump administration
Will knock tariffs on and off cars seemingly at a whim so we'll see where that goes
Tesla had done a big charging deal for the semi trucks. They're going to start plugging in their semis
at america's biggest truck stop chain from the summer
Pilot runs over 900 travel centers in 44 states and five canadian provinces and serves 1.2 million people a day
And they're going to host semi charges at sites on major highways
It's a huge tie-up actually and it matters because long haul charging not vehicle tech now sets the pace
Tesla wants 46 semi charging stations in place by next year
Focusing on busy stretches of the i5, i10 and key freight corridors that should make lorries more useful going electric
Pilots frames the move as an upgrade to its offer and as central to meeting the needs of
transport it already has
some form
in electrons
It's worked with volvo rolling out ev charging sites with ev go and gm hosting 1.2 megawatt
Chargers does raise the stakes a bit though those power levels from tesla
Demonstrated by the semi vital for long haul trucking and geography matters as well
Those first customers like pepsi co need corridors
That are based on where they need to work those vehicles now
Let's talk about grid serve here opening its first motorway e
hgv hub grid server switched on britain's first public
Charging station for heavy goods vehicles hgv's semis if you like at the a1 m extra services at bulldog
And moto exeter on the m5 exeter on the m5s has an amazing charging over the years coming first
and
They drove one of the electric trucks from daff between them to prove the point the two sites are the first ones built under
What they call the electric freightway part of our department of transport or department of for transport dft
Isn't it of their zero emission plan backed by 200 million pounds of public money across four projects electric freight work
Led by grid serve brings together 25 hauliers and truck makers running hgv's on the uk's roads
Hardware going into tamworth thorac leads chester
And strengham north this year grid serve frames the hubs as a steps step towards decarbonization
Rather than being a full answer to electric transport. It's the next step. They follow its
Super hub on the m40
Which couples the existing chargers which they inherited when they purchased the electric highway and their ultra rapid bays
Which are 400 kilowatt units now so 100 miles of range in you know 10 minutes depending on what evu drive
It can be more just brilliant now
The electric reno that did a thousand kilometers in a day
Is next in the news a swiss haulier has taken an electric lorry articulated lorry semi truck passed its
comfort zone
This swiss haulier took the reno trucks e-tech t which technically has a range of 300 kilometers
And in 24 hours they drove the thing over a thousand kilometers
Long-haul operators for it less about range on a single stint a single charge
Doesn't really matter to them because what they want working vehicles to do is reliably run
In a working day to the schedule
They set on the routes they set with real limits and duty cycles driving hours and charging stops are all factored in
The software is very sophisticated
and a four figure
daily distance
From a truck which technically does 300 kilometers and you might hear that and go well trucks need to go further than that
They drove a thousand kilometers in just 24 hours
It's a common assumption only huge packs and oversized ranges would make the move to commercial trucking viable
But that's not true
They said that it very doable if you plan your route the test doesn't settle arguments about everything cost that can be
More expensive at the moment
Then there's harsh weather and tough terrain ought to be worked out, but yeah, that's a fantastic achievements
Let's talk a little bit about ds automobiles the
swanky pants bit of citroen launching the second generation ds seven
Going to be on february the first rebadged as the number seven and claiming a wltp range of 740 kilometers
in pure electric form more than an oudie q6 e-tron or mssadis bends glc
Eq and about the same as its bigger stable mate the ds number eight
It's the stla solantis platform. You get shared with the persho
E3 008 and e5 008 so big batteries in these big range as well
But the way the ds do it
Is they undercut their german premium rivals the same kind of feel
with some modest compromises maybe
engineers that they've worked on efficiency rather than just kind of brute battery pack size
flush door handles
sloping roof lime little compact spoiler
And tidying up the bodywork and the car all part of raising that efficiency starts at 74 kilowatt hour pack
Long range version goes 97 kilowatt hour pack dual motor all-wheel drive version sits
At the very top of the tree if you fancy something a little bit nicer 160 kilowatt charging on that not the fastest in the world now finally
Nissan have dressed up the aria
In solar panels Nissan has built an aria that tries to
Self-charge there's no such thing as a self charge. Let me go on clean energy day in australia
Obviously, it's their summer right now. I'd kill you for a bit of sunshine
But they're having a heat wave and so they picked a good way a good day to do it
Nissan showed off a solar powered aria. Well, it's not they've covered the bonnet the roof and the tailgate
With solar panels 3.8 square meters of high efficiency solar panels and it feeds the dc battery directly topping it up
While it doesn't move nissan's test suggests the car would add 23 kilometers of range on the sunniest of days
in solar rich cities
You could get 17 kilometers london would add 10 kilometers
Which is not nothing and so I get the argument that if you're not if you're not parked in an underground car park or
Like my driveway is completely obscured. It's on the north side of my house. There is no sunshine my driveway
Uh, I'd have to move the car to get any kind of sun and those 10 kilometers could be replaced
instantly
overnight charging but still
There is probably a headline or two to be grabbed by covering a car in solar panels and saying hey
It's a it's a self charger. They actually leaned on a company called light year now. They
Specialized they wanted to get some cars on the road years and years ago that project didn't work out
but they've kept with their solar tech and it endured its bankruptcy
And it's still going
Working on solar panels for cars
Others in the past have added a little bit of solar to the roof adds a bit of range
Or at least just keeps the 12 volt battery topped up. It's not nothing
Is it but obviously if the weather plays ball and if you're in the Aussie summer right now
You may get a few more miles
for free
On the car, but that wasn't really the point of it was it was just to have a little play and get some headlines and do
Some experimenting and what on this and for doing that and that's your podcast for today
Thanks to our premium partners national car charging on the us mainland and the loha charge in hawaii and test ev
Avalu's trusted partner the independent ev battery health testing in australia and new zealand have a good and cinema
And remember there's no such thing as a self charging hybrid
About this episode
The latest episode dives into the arrival of the MG4 Urban in the UK, highlighting its affordability and updated features. Rivian's significant investment in Colorado aims to secure direct-to-consumer sales for EVs, while the 2026 awards showcase a shift towards electric vehicles dominating the automotive landscape. Discussions also cover Nissan's solar panel-equipped Ariya, the upcoming Volvo EX60, and the introduction of electric pickups like the KGM Musso EV. The episode wraps up with insights on Tesla's charging initiatives and the innovative use of solar technology in EVs.
