The Rivian R2 is a new electric car that is smaller and cheaper than some of Rivian's other trucks. It's important because it could help more people buy electric cars that are good for work and everyday use. People talk about it because it might be easier to afford than other electric trucks.
The Zeekr 009 is a fancy electric van that can travel a long way on a single charge. It can charge very quickly or even swap its battery to save time. People talk about it because it shows new ways to make electric cars easier to use.
An extended range hybrid is a car that mostly runs on battery power but has a gas engine to make more electricity when the battery runs low, so you can drive farther.
Public EV charging infrastructure means places where anyone can plug in their electric car to charge the battery. More of these spots make it easier to own an electric car.
It's a factory that makes the small battery parts that go inside electric cars to give them power. These parts are put together to make the car's big battery.
Stationary energy storage means keeping electricity in big batteries that stay in one place, like in a house or a power station, to use later when needed.
The Vivaro is a type of van used to carry goods or people. Stellantis is putting money into a factory in the UK to make new versions of this van, including electric ones. This helps make jobs and cleaner vehicles for businesses.
The Opel Astra is a small car that many people in Europe like because it is easy to drive and saves fuel. It is made in a factory in the UK that is important for Stellantis, the company that owns Opel. The Astra is a common car for everyday use.
Scientists are working on better batteries that can hold more power, weigh less, and cost less, which will help electric trucks do more work in the future.
The Ford F-150 Lightning is an electric version of a very popular big truck in the US. Ford had some problems making enough of them and had to slow down, which cost the company a lot of money. It's important because it shows how trucks are changing to use electricity instead of gas.
The BYD Shark 6 is a new electric car from China that can go far on a charge and pull heavy loads. It's designed to be fast and useful for everyday driving. People are interested because it shows how electric cars can be powerful and practical.
The Ssangyong Musso is a truck from South Korea that can carry things and people comfortably. Soon, there will be an electric version that looks more like a big car. This is interesting because it mixes the usefulness of a truck with the smooth ride of a car.
Body-on-frame means the truck has a strong frame with the body sitting on top, which helps it carry heavy loads and tow trailers.
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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
About this episode
Scout Motors has amassed over 160,000 refundable reservations for its off-road EVs, with 87% favoring the extended-range hybrid version, delaying deliveries until 2028 due to engineering challenges. Rivian is set to reveal pricing and specs for its R2 compact SUV soon, with the anticipated $45,000 base price now uncertain. European leasing data shows BEVs beating gas cars on total cost of ownership in many markets. Global public EV charging infrastructure is growing rapidly, led by China. Energy market disruptions linked to Middle East conflicts are impacting electricity prices, highlighting the benefits of EVs and renewable energy for energy independence. Meanwhile, Canada’s first commercial EV battery cell plant has started production, signaling growth in North American EV supply chains.
