DAILY: Scout Reservations, Rivian R2 Pricing and BEVs Beat Gas Guzzlers On Price | 09 Mar 2026

Welcome back to EV news daily today scout reservations Rivian R2 pricing and Bev's beat gas guzzlers on pricing plus stay tuned later in the show

I'll tell you why Ford boss Jim Farley says today's bev technology falls short over on our podcast today even use China

We are talking about flash charging versus swapping

the Zika 009 refresh and

Conflict slowing down delivery of Chinese EVs overseas as get into its scout motors volts Vagans

US off-road spin-off now counts more than a hundred and sixty thousand refundable

reservations a hundred dollars down for its ladder frame traveler SUV and its terror pickup

They also confirmed previous media reports which at the time were fiercely

Denied that the cars would be with customers later than hoped

According to Reuters on the 4th of March last week CEO Scott Keough was speaking at an automotive press

Association event in Detroit and confirmed to those present that he expects the products to be in customers hands-in

2028 well the total reservation number has grown by 30,000 since October

2025 that works out at

Roughly seven and a half thousand reservations a month

The catch sits in the small print the reservations are non-binding and fully refundable

The bigger shift sits in the powertrain mix

87% of reservation holders

That's about 139,000 people have chosen the gas assisted extended range hybrid

Over the pure bev battery electric vehicle version

They're calling it the harvester version the range extender with a gas engine

Not up front. I think they're gonna put that under the bed somewhere. Look the placing doesn't so much matter more as the data point

80% favoring 87% an era variant now last October it was 80%

So as time goes on and more people put reservations down that percentage is going up given

It was 80% split last October

You'd probably guess that nearly all of the reservations between then and now have been for the era version

Well that outcome lands well above what the CEO previously expected he'd penciled in a 6040 split in favor of e-rev

Scout also plans to launch the extended range hybrids first

So the resin reservation book now backs the program's opening move

Scouts will build the terror and the travel at a new plant in Blythewood, South Carolina

Mr. Keough now points to first customer deliveries in 2028 recent media reports

Attribute the delays to technical challenges and suggest the engineering effort for a rugged ladder frame platform with dual power trains is

Heavier and harder than scout first assumed and implied

Now if I may add a little bit of editorial opinion to this story myself

As an EV person as a huge advocate for pure bevs. I know I'll annoy some people by saying this

Why even make the bed version if 80 but 87 percent of your customers want the e-rev

Version just make that one and it wouldn't be for me and I'm sure many people listening

It wouldn't be for them

And there's also a portion of the audience because they email and tell me that don't want me talking about e-revs or plug-in hybrids anything that burns

gas I

Can't do that because I have to reflect the globally the industry and that does at the moment include things with a plug socket on the side

And so and I wouldn't want to totally ignore huge portions of what real people say they actually want

Maybe just do e-rev for now anyway moving on Rivian has removed the

$45,000 number from the website of the Rivian R2 product page

Well, we get pricing in three days time on the 12th of March

So we'll find out for once and for all the old layout put that line beside the reserve button and a coming

2026 tag well here we are in 2026 and the updated page now just has a countdown clock and 45,000 has been removed

That doesn't mean they're not gonna hit 45,000 at least for the base version of the truck

Well, the edit matches Rivian's launch plan the R2 compact SUV

Coming as its higher priced dual motor variant to begin with a launch spec edition won't be 45,000 pounds

Maybe it'll be 58 or $60,000. I don't know Rivian still plans the single motor base R2

After the first wave of deliveries that keeps their March 2024 promise alive, but no not for this week and not for launch

Maybe not for this year Rivian set the $45,000 starting price at the original R2

Reveal pitching it as a mass-market gateway at half the average transaction price of the R1 vehicles next comes the detail

In three days time at South by Southwest Rivian will update the R2 in terms of trims pricing colors and complete tech specs

That will be Rivian's most details are to update in the last two years

Avons a leasing company in Europe have published their

2026 car cost index finding the BEVs battery electric vehicles now undercut

The like-for-like same models in terms of gas goblers on total cost of ownership

Avons says BEVs have shifted from niche to mainstream

It bases the claim on monthly costs over a four-year lease rather than incentives

Avons calls Western and Northern European countries the cost leaders where they operate for electrification

Where leasing a BEV costs less than leasing a gas goblah

Southern Europe still trails, but Avon sees more markets where BEVs now match or beat

Total cost of ownership for the alternatives it sites Spain and Portugal as places where financial case for BEVs is hard to ignore

The picture varies by segment in the subcompact class BEVs count as cost competitive in 17 of the 30 countries that Avons tracks

Avons defines cost competitive as a BEV total cost of ownership within 5% of comparable ice models

In the compact segment bevs hold a TCO advantage of 19 out of the 30 markets

They survey broadly in line with last year in the D segment an SUV larger class

BEVs win 16 out of 30 times

Improving versus last year's index on specific models

Avon says the BMW i4 for instance delivers a lower total cost of ownership than leasing a BMW 3 series

In 20 of the 30 European countries

All right, let's talk global public EV charging infrastructure

It will reach 9 million public plugs worldwide by the end of the year up from 7.1 million

Public plugs at the end of last year

This a 33.2% year-on-year growth

The build-out doesn't move

Equally though the market splits into three trends China grows faster Europe grows more slowly

They predict that the US will lose some momentum as well. The result concentrates supply the top eight countries

Almost 90% of all global

Public charging China sets the pace. It has 4.759 million public charges

67% of the global total other leading countries South Korea United States Netherlands and Germany and inside Europe Germany and the Netherlands were

Separated by about 2,000 public plugs last year Germany want to add 40,000 new public charges a year

Putting it on track to overtake the Netherlands this year and take fourth place globally by installed base

Okay, moving on now electric vehicles and how we charge them are being impacted by the wider global affairs

Just because you might not live in a country that is directly involved in Trump's attacks on Iran doesn't mean you're not going to be affected

Here in the UK household energy supplies have either pulled or repriced the fixed tariffs that we have for our home domestic

Supply you can be on a variable tariff here which changes or you can be on a fixed tariff

And that could be maybe 12 months. So your electricity supply says we guarantee that we will provide you energy gas electricity

At this price and you can fix in

Many people do because they like that security imagine if the petrol pumps said oh, we will guarantee this price per liter or gallon

For the next 12 months. Do you want to opt in? I think many people will be like yes, please

So the great thing about driving an EV is you can fix your costs which you can't do if you drive a

combustion car

Well because of the Iran crisis wholesale gas markets are driving higher not gases in petrol gas

But the gas that we use to drive the turbines

That we generate electricity with on a national scale here fixed deals fell from 38 on the day of the attack starting at the end of February

To 17 fixed deals by last Wednesday and prices moved with them the cheapest typical dual fuel offer

And this is obviously

They they they pick an amount that the average person or family might use so we just we look at the kind of

Average house here. So you're you know your bill will not be this but they they pick out

1,509 pounds. That's $1920 a year. That's gone from 1,500 pounds to

1,640 pounds for the average UK household and those fixed tariffs are ending because UK wholesale gas prices have spiked

75% up in the last few days

Disrupting the previous consensus that costs would stay relatively calm this year suppliers now face two unknowns where gas prices head next and how many

Customers will rush into fixing for a deal a good energy scrap the launch of a new tariff

Which was meant to launch its chief executive describing as risk management EV tariffs haven't escaped the wobble EDF

Paws their EV tariff citing rapid swings in global energy pricing

Offering a reduced set of products for now

Eon froze their EV tariff and then later brought it back

The market shock traces back to the Middle East where disruption has to the Strait of Hormuz

almost made it impossible and damaged Qatar's gas infrastructure. This is reduced gas flows

Supply of LNG things like that through the straits

The UK buys a very small share by the way of its gas from the Middle East

But it does pay the global price because it competes on a global scale for liquefied natural gas cargo

Gas-fired plants generates just under a third of UK electricity

So it is significant for us even as renewables are going higher

As a share on the grid that pattern feels familiar the situation mirrors

2021's energy crunch when gas prices rose sharply after both lockdowns and

Russia launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine

Said this many times in the past that renewables get over the fact that some people might want renewables for green

I dollar ideological reasons and that's actually fine by the way

We should be having renewables on our grid

For national domestic energy security unless you are the Middle East or maybe listening in Texas or somewhere that has a

Supply of oil or maybe gas

Otherwise, I mean we're the windiest country in Europe. The fact that we are not completely surrounded by wind turbines

Continues to blow my mind because then that just wouldn't affect you that the world could go about its business

And you personally wouldn't be affected next time you want to go and run one of your errands

The reason why moving to EV can decoupled you to an extent from that. We're now coming into spring here in the Northern Hemisphere

Sun shines out today

Little bit and so

My solar panels and battery are just gonna start to become much more useful again any excess electricity

I don't send it back to the grid. I've got an export meter

It just goes into the car and I am completely at sovereign in terms of my energy generation and

Use for many months of the year. This isn't about saving the planet, but it can be if you want

It's about

Removing yourself from the whims of dictators and the next time Trump burps

Something to do with global affairs. You don't need to lose any sleep about how much it's gonna cost you

Let's take a break. We'll come back and talk Canadian cell production and Stellantis investing in EV van stick around

I'll be back in a moment

Welcome back to the podcast next star energy has switched on Canada's first commercial scale EV battery cell plant in Windsor, Ontario

The joint venture between Stellantis and LG built the site from scratch in three years

The plant covers four point two three million square feet production formerly

Started in November with kind of pre-production lines

So they've turned out about a million cells now

It's up to speed next star will sit our first feet Stellantis brands of North America next star also wants to sell beyond

Carmakers it aims to become a battery platform supplier across multiple energy sectors and has begun developing cells and battery packs for stationary energy

storage as well

Stellantis has a 50 million pound investment going into its Ellesmere port production assembly line here in the United Kingdom

From next year. They wants to build new Volvo Vauxhall vivaro's and mid-sized zero emission vans there

Ellesmere port makes 14 and a half thousand small EV vans a year employs almost a thousand people

Producing zero emission versions of the Vauxhall combo Citroën Balingo Peugeot partner and Fiat doublo the site previously built the Vauxhall

Astra Stellantis says the only plant in its global network that makes only

Electric vehicles all right the Metropolitan police in London just seized 52 illegal

Electric bikes over two days using checkpoints that intercept riders in areas where pedestrians are highly at risk

One checkpoint in Halston led to 14 electric moped and three others being seized

One rider ignored the police instructions to stop

And following a pursuit was charged officers also found people riding illegal e-bikes one with a combat knife and was arrested and

They detained a second suspect wanted on recall to prison linked to aggravated burglaries the next day the focus shifted to

The West End officers seized 38 illegal e-bikes in five hours

Met police say will keep pushing ahead in stopping unlawful e-bikes on London's roads and unlawful e-scooters as well

As people use them for phone snatches burglary and broader street crime as well

We do have strict laws here on the top speed of e-bikes, but many low-lifes have worked out that you can use them

To get through the traffic and you can still buy. I mean, it's very easy. It's very legal to buy

these kind of fat tire high-speed e-bikes it's just illegal to ride them and

You know, it's hard to justify putting police resources into cracking down on something that can be seen as kind of like a victimless crime

But met police are indeed doing that and finally Ford boss Jim Farley

Says today's bev technology falls short from mainstream pickup or ute buyers who want to tow and haul

he was talking in Australia because Ford have returned to formula one by sponsoring the Red Bull team and

Range and efficiency drop too sharply. He says to Australian media and of course in Australia a big ute culture

He calls a big battery bev ute a really bad tower and says customers who tow serious weight

Should not choose a pure bev Jim Farley points to energy density limits that make battery packs too heavy and too expensive

To deliver work capable towing and the range that ute buyers want in Australia

Mr. Farley says the long-term answer is a new wave of battery chemistry

But he does not expect near-term breakthroughs

He groups solid-state batteries and fuel cells as technology that remains part of the future

Ford's recent actions match his caution. It shelved the F-150 lightning and wrote down

19.5 billion dollars for their various EV programs cancelled or pushed back the firm has funneled more capital into hybrids

Mr. Farley signals battery electric utes will stay niche at Ford in the near term

Especially for hard-working fleets. He says until battery chemistry and the costs

Improve but the market doesn't necessarily agree with Ford BYD with the shark six new one coming out soon

by the way towing three and a half tons carrying a ton of payload all the specs that matter to ute buyers very

equivalent to the kind of

Market-leading gas guzzling utes and Great Wall motor Great Wall have launched a pickup in Australia as well

So is the South Korean KGM the Musso EV

That's more of a monocoque SUV

Platform rather than body-on-frame ute for now though

buyers want towing range and pricing

To be the most important things when you're buying a ute truck batteries are still effectively a compromise, but

The technology timetable in both the short and medium term shows that we won't have to wait long

Until that's relegated to the history books and that's your podcast for today

Thanks to our premium partners national car charging on the US mainland and a loha charge in Hawaii and test TV

Have a lose trusted partner for independent EV battery health testing in Australia in New Zealand have a good and see tomorrow

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

You

DAILY: Scout Reservations, Rivian R2 Pricing and BEVs Beat Gas Guzzlers On Price | 09 Mar 2026

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