DAILY: Sodium-Ion Batteries Improving, Zeekr Advertise In Europe and New MG4 For Australia | 28 Sep 2025

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Welcome back to the podcast today, sodium ion batteries, Zika's new ad campaign and the MG for EV Urban. Plus they tune because later in the podcast today, I'll tell you about China's role in the rare earth supply.

Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. You're listening around the world. EV news daily at the weekend, so no EV news China back tomorrow for the start of a brand new week.

Right, we'll start off with news of sodium ion batteries. There's the 2025 sodium ion battery industry chain and standard development forum going on. Catchy name.

It's where industry experts have been talking about the technology of sodium ion batteries, SIBs. Sibs, they're moving from demonstration projects towards large scale commercialization.

The next two or three years are going to determine whether we all end up driving EVs with sodium ion batteries in the future. Let me tell you a little bit more.

Sibs offer higher ionic conductivity, faster charge and discharge and better low temperature performance than LFP, which is the dominant chemistry China 80% of new EVs have LFP lithium ion phosphate.

So these new sodium ion batteries are going to be suitable for high power, high current sectors.

So commercial vehicles, mining machinery, construction equipment, agricultural machinery, even hybrid battery engine systems. These are all areas where perhaps not being ideally served at the moment or could be served better.

C-A-T-L, the world's biggest EV battery maker, Chinese company, has added sodium ion batteries to their roadmap. In April this year, they launched what it described as the world's first large scale mass produced sodium battery covering passenger car power systems and heavy truck starter batteries.

The NACstra battery product line is kind of in two categories, actually. There's the EV battery, which offers a, well they say 500 kilometer range, 10,000 charge discharge cycles. And then there's the NACstra 24 volt sodium ion battery.

That would be used for start stop batteries, heavy duty truck, kind of integrated batteries. Both versions are very, very durable at temperatures down to minus 40 degrees, which I think is minus 40 in both Celsius and Fahrenheit.

C-A-T-L sodium ion battery has also a higher energy density than we've seen so far from this technology, 175 watt hours per kilogram. And it's important because it's incredibly safe. So China has this new certification coming next summer, but all the battery makers are going to hit it early.

And it's their safety requirements for power batteries of EVs announced recently that announced this year at least.

It's the first sodium ion battery worldwide to be compliant with this new Chinese standard coming in next year. And it'll just mean that batteries have to be very firmly safe. No thermal runaway and things like that.

Industry analysts widely regard next year as the crucial year for sodium ion batteries to establish a present presence in niche markets where business value comes becomes more evident as the industry shifts from a price disruption model to more of a value model.

The real world implementation has begun. JAC motors, they have a brand and I'll probably get this wrong. Year way or year way, they actually have a sodium ion battery on the road. They have had for over a year now.

They use 32 140s. So you know, Tesla has the 4680s. It's just a way of describing the dimensions of the battery. They have cells already, each one being 12 amp hours, about 140 watt hours per kilogram. So some way off now, the best new cells coming out, but that's been on the road for ages. I think the battery packs about 23 kilowatt hour.

In their hybrid. So sodium ion batteries have advantages over lithium ion technology, recycling is a big one, environmental impact, a really big one as well. And what they're made of that being sodium and abundance carbon based compounds much less environmentally taxing to mine and process compared to lithium compared to cobalt sodium batteries are compatible with existing recycling infrastructure, streamlining that process and what's important as well as all the factories that we built around the world.

To make lithium based battery technologies can be repurposed or you can run things on at least similar lines. That's a really important part of it as well. Nice little investigation this weekend. I was doing into sodium ion batteries. All right. Let's move on. Now one of the big Chinese names that they want to do well in Europe overseas is Zika. Zika has been on a European focused brand campaign entitled seek more, which I guess if you say it really quickly, seek more.

Sounds a bit like Zika seek more Zika. Anyway, they're going to introduce the Zika seven X the Zika 001 and the Zika X presenting their concept of what they call new luxury. The campaign uses three films that follow a family, a couple and a young woman as they leave the pace of city life for quieter times in nature, framing the vehicles as the kind of freedom, calming connection beyond the urban environment.

The launch markets of the ad campaign are going to be Netherlands Sweden and Norway Denmark and Belgium. So big Nordic presence Zika is running a full funnel paid campaign. They say, I think it just means you're going to see these adverts on digital out of home places like that social media to try and raise the awareness of Zika.

Well, since deliveries began in October 2021, Zika has delivered more than 520,000 vehicles. There's the 001 the 001 F are the 009. That's a big MPV. There's the Zika X the 007 the 7 X the mix and the 7 GT Zika's announced plans for a global market expansion over the next five years.

Of course, the EU has tariffs on Chinese made cars up to 38.3% imposed a year ago actually was October 2024. Wow, time flies when you're having fun. Zika's technical advantage centers on the 800 volt platforms ultra fast charging.

They have developed their own golden battery system as they brand it 800 volts. I think it's 900 volts.

Capable by the end of the year that platform in Europe the Zika 7 X charges at 480 kilowatts not that you can find too many charges that'll give you that much juice.

But it's nice to know that you can do it. The performance model would do 10 to 80 in 13 minutes. Wow.

That's not bad. And that's if you're using a slower charger by the way their infrastructure is called Zika power and they operate 860 ultra fast charging stations.

But of course that's in China not overseas now the MG4 big vehicle here MG's a big brand here. Of course it's a thought of as a British brand even though it's Chinese now and the MG4 has had rave reviews.

So I'm talking about the motoring press because I have subscriptions to all the magazines because I like a magazine because I'm old and so I like to sit and flick through glossy pictures. I know the iPad will do it but it's just different when it's you sit down with auto express or auto car or top gear or car magazine.

We still do have fortunately. I guess it's smaller than it used to be but a print part of the automotive journalistic business and I think universally they rave about the MG4's chassis saying it's surprising it's Chinese it's rear wheel drive yes it's not it's not a golf r or something but it's a really good base vehicle it's a great vehicle to drive.

Which is interesting because then MG completely changed it in China. MG in China have released a new MG4 and a prototype was filmed charging a Tesla supercharger in Sydney last month I think it was now documents posted to Evie for Australia's Facebook group by one of the enthusiasts username will K said that the model has been approved now for sale in Australia eight variants.

The car is called the MG4 EV Urban in this particular paperwork the paperwork in Australia has two battery sizes 43 and 54 kilowatt hours both LFP lithium ion phosphate technology two motor powers it moves to the front axle so it's a front mount mounted electric motor 110 kilowatts or 118 kilowatts really close in power both motor variants will both tow 500 kilograms break.

Towing limit unlike the current MG4 which has its charging inlet at the rear this one has it at the front in August MG said the next MG4 will switch from being rear wheel drive to front wheel drive for the new one MG motor Australia CEO who has the best name Peter Chao said the new for 2026 front wheel drive will be a completely different vehicle.

Balancing driver usage needs and production cost considerations of rear wheel drive we saw the opportunity for an affordable front wheel drive vehicle okay so that sounds to me like they're saying it might not be as good but it'll be cheaper hey do MG4 buyers really care I come back to where I started this story which was the motoring press rave about the chassis when was the last time anyone ever got safe reliable transport to take the kids to school and when you know what when you push it really hard on a bend.

It's really well balanced like they go no it was the monthly payments of this and so as long as it's not a terrible car to drive it just yeah it's a shame because the MG4 is really loved by the way the old one since it's arrival in 2023 in Australia at least it's all more than 11000 units and is the market's best selling electric hatchback they recently launched the S5 the MG S5 EV and that comes with a 10 year warranty at a 70 year warranty on my MG ZS.

I went back twice for a warranty claim they did not quibble in the slightest one was a sensor the the auto headlights sensor and the other one was the wiring loom where you open and close the boot lid.

It had just worn like that shouldn't happen in three or four years and they went yet completely right we'll get that wiring sorted and they did no questions ask.

The Chinese market MG4 came out a couple of months ago and they have their semi solid state battery called the Ang Ching edition the world's first affordable mass market EV with semi solid state batteries supplied by not one of the ones we normally talk about it's a sun show Qing Tao power.

They're semi solid state manganese based lithium ion battery with a 5% liquid electrolyte very high energy density 180 kilo 180 watt hours per kilogram excuse me.

70 kilowatt hour capacity. The semi solid state version they say does 334 miles but that's CLTC which is wildly optimistic.

But it has really good low temperature performance compared to LFP technology.

So again if you're in cold climates northern Europe and the cold bits of China this is but it's a vehicle that costs 14 grand by the 14,000 US dollars equivalent

and that's for the semi solid state version. All right let's take a break we'll come back will talk B.Y.D. and octopus octopus octopus electroverse.

Oh my gosh they're a sponsor of this podcast I can't even say the word octopus charge trip are integrating them. I'll tell you more stick around back in a moment.

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All right welcome back to the podcast now let's talk a little bit about general motors donating the bright drop vans to the red cross 59 of them the American Red Cross and its community adaption.

Program extending the two decade commitment to disaster response this donation is intended to improve disaster preparedness and speed relief delivery each van has a range of almost 300 miles per charge and a big payload of 3,700 pounds.

The spec same to enable a red cross teams and local nonprofits to deliver things like food shelter and medical aid where it's needed the most.

BYD is next in the news they expect exports to be around 20% of their global sales this year.

So what does that mean in numbers if you've not been following this podcast for a while or you knew what does it mean when B.Y.D. say 20% of our business is going to be global overseas.

That means 800,000 to a million EVs delivered outside of mainland China.

The company's GM of branding and PR said this week last year sales outside of mainland under 10% of their business and B.Y.D. last year was 4.26 million EVs.

And so doubling their overseas business that's absolutely huge part of that has got to be the investment we've seen in B.Y.D building their own car carrier fleet roll on roll off ferries.

The company operates now 8 of them as of this week.

The biggest one carries almost 10,000 B.Y.D.s out of China, not just to Europe but to Southeast Asia as well.

Now charge trip has partnered with Octopus Electroverse Europe's largest consumer EV public charging network and full disclosure sponsor of this podcast to put their EV route planning into the Electroverse app.

The agreement lets the Electroverse partners like Nissan and Ford also licensing the Electroverse app and getting access to charge trips routing technology to plan your route and to get nearby compatible charges on the way.

Electroverse provides discounted charging when the grid is greenest and cleanest.

One card, one app, one map, you know the deal. You hear me brave about it every day.

There you go. 1.1 million charge points across Europe now.

And I use it all the time. It's the only thing I use now. I'm not a Tesla driver, so I'm not inside the Tesla app.

I'm just inside the Electroverse app. It'll be filters work brilliantly. You can filter the type of charger.

I'm normally just looking for one that I can just start. It's a quick charge on the app itself, but there'll, you know, there's all the different types of charges in there.

Finally, Bloomberg writes today about rare earth magnets in EV motors. Executives from Europe's electric vehicle industry are trekking to the continent's sparsely populated northeastern parts to queue up for something that they can't find outside of China.

Rare earth magnets that go inside EV motors.

The Estonian industrial town of Nava. It sits across the river from Russia.

There's a Canadian company called Neo Performance Materials. They built a $75 million plant to process the magnets opened two days ago on Friday.

Neo's initial output will supply components for one million EVs every single year.

Neo said China should keep a central role, though, in the global rare earth supply chain, just because Estonia is getting a look in.

China has the technical know-how and the cost structure to be competitive says Neo.

China accounts for more than 90% of rare earth magnet production. Neo last week opened Europe's first magnet plant in Estonia, making the broad range of critical materials that are needed to make electric vehicles and executives.

And aspiring magnet producers also that replacing China easily or even quickly is going to be exceptionally difficult, but many regulators want a more distributed model where China isn't completely in charge of everything.

And that's your podcast for today. Thanks to our premium partners, Porsche, of the village in Cincinnati, Audi, of Cincinnati East and Volvo cars.

Of Cincinnati East National car charging on the U.S. mainland and the low-hot charging in Hawaii and Octopus Electroverse Global Public Charging made simple with one map and one app.

Have a good in cinema and remember there's no such thing as a self-charging hybrid.

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Hey, it's Mike Chase here with Brad Preble from Car Subaru in Vereton. It's time for the 2025 Subaru share the love event.

I started thinking about all the stuff we've done this year. We did the Subaru loves to learn. We washed the cars for the Beaver Acres Elementary staff.

Thank you so much. We so appreciate all the love from Subaru. We're so excited you guys are here.

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DAILY: Sodium-Ion Batteries Improving, Zeekr Advertise In Europe and New MG4 For Australia | 28 Sep 2025

Chevrolet Volt

Mg4 Ev

Audi S5

Buick Century

Zevo Bright Drop

Dodge Charger

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