DAILY: Volvo EX60 Revealed, Tesla Puts Basic Safety Behind Paywall and VW Goes Top In Europe | 23 Jan 2026

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Welcome back to EV News Daily.

Today, the new Volvo EX60.

Tesla puts basic safety behind its paywall

and VW goes top in Europe.

Plus, stay tuned.

Later in the show, I'll tell you why another big name

gives up on a hydrogen project.

On EV News China today, we're talking about G. Lee

wanting more overseas clout.

The Luxeade R7 and X-Pung's cheap credit.

Well, let's talk about the Volvo EX60 big launch today.

A full bonus show in your feed, depending on whether you're

a Patreon or ad supported feed member.

But let's get into just the headline details on EX60

and we'll do a 20 minute show on it a little bit later.

The EX60 lands in what Volvo claims is the world's largest

EV segment.

This is the Tesla Model Y segment, the BMW IX3 segment.

On paper, it over delivers.

The all wheel drive variant, they've called it the P12,

offers 503 miles officially on WLTP.

That beats IX3 and honestly, it beats anything

you could possibly want to do with that vehicle

on a daily basis if you're an average person.

There's always road warriors out there on there,

but over 500 miles on a single charge,

800 volts system, adding 210 miles in just 10 minutes.

But you'll have to find yourself a charger

that is 400 kilowatts plus to do that.

Volvo drops the traditional battery pack design.

It's cell to body.

They insert the cell straight into the next generation

architecture, which is their new SPA3, designed by Volvo.

This is not going to be shared amongst a Brazilian

Geely Zika Polestar brand.

Volvo say, we've designed it for us.

The integrated battery casing stiffens the shell

and trims mass, though curb weight still runs

from 2,115 kilograms.

The range is in three core models.

Rear wheel drive, which is 370 horsepower,

83 kilowatt hour battery, 385 miles of range,

six seconds, 0 to 60, that's the one I'd have.

All, I don't need four wheel drive, perfect.

It's obviously a Volvo.

There will be a twin motor P10 version, 95 kilowatt hour pack.

That's over 500 horsepower, over 410 miles of range

and well, 4.6 seconds, 0 to 60.

Then there's the big P12 version.

Almost 700 horsepower, 117 kilowatt hour battery.

It's huge for that full 503 miles WLTP.

Over 400 on the EPA and 3.2 seconds, 0 to 60.

Now they all get limited to 112 miles an hour

because Volvo and honestly, why would you want to go quicker?

And it's either got semi-active suspension or passive

depending on which one you buy.

They also unveiled the cross country version,

20 millimeters, two centimeters higher,

wheel arch cladding, black moldings,

a wider track, all of that kind of stuff.

400 miles of range, by the way.

Inside, they call it the super set tech stack,

running the new operating system, NVIDIA

and Qualcomm's latest, greatest hardware.

Google's Gemini allows natural speech.

I've been talking about this a lot lately.

I think when you can talk to your car in a natural way,

in a conversational way, not fixed commands,

it will change the game.

I still won't do it when the kids are in the car

because they've learned they can do it too.

And it listens to their voices.

This is my son in the Polestar,

keeps asking for kids' music.

Hi, hi, hi, hi.

But luckily, you can press a button on the steering wheel

and it turns off voice assistant.

He hasn't worked that out yet, by the way.

And so, he thinks it's just offline.

And so, that's a huge deal.

And of course, that's coming to all Volvos and Polstars as well.

And so, the design, if you know what an XC60 looks like,

well, it's not a million miles away.

If you know what the front of an EX30, EX90 look like,

it's not a million miles away.

Boxy silhouette, panoramic roof.

Very roomy cabin.

Very scandy design.

Look, if you like Volvos, and clearly I do,

because it's just taste and everything subjective.

The materials, the design, everything about the car.

I would like a few more buttons on this

because I'm old fashioned.

A lot is to be done with voice in this.

But it really appeals to me.

High end audio system with speakers in the headrests.

All round, all four headrests as well.

And the returning boss, Hacken Samuelson, says the EX60

removes the last obstacle of going electric.

If you wanted really big range,

now you can get cars like this and the BMW iX3.

Which one would you have, by the way?

Either of those or maybe the Rivian R2.

I'd love to know.

This is huge today for Volvo.

And I won't talk any more than five minutes about this.

We'll do a full bonus show in your feed, all about it.

And dig in a lot, lot deeper.

Now, Tesla has done something today,

which has angered much of the EV community.

And I've noticed that all the Tesla websites

have either been very quiet on this

or put their own spin on it,

but I'm not sure how you can spin it.

Obviously we know that the boss, the chief exec,

Elon Musk has a target of hitting so many subscriptions

to their ADAS, their driving system,

to hit his targets to become a trillionaire.

So, in order to make you subscribe $99 a month,

they've taken out Autostear from the Model 3s

and the Model Ys and put basic lane centering

behind the FSD paywall.

The standard autopilot bundle,

which was once adaptive cruise control and steering assist,

now only offers adaptive cruise control.

That is a feature on the cheapest of cheap cars.

If you want absolute basic lane centering,

which is these days, just a basic safety device.

If you are doing a lot of hours on driving

to have a car with lane centering,

and by the way, cheap Camry's

and just your basic combustion car,

all come with lane centering now.

It's a basic safety thing.

It helps drive a fatigue.

If Tesla claimed to be a safety-led company,

you wouldn't take this out.

You would only do it unless you were forcing people

to pay $99 a month to get the very basic of features,

which is what you have to do now.

If you want lane centering, it's $100 a month,

but then that's for full FSD.

So, next month on the same date as California

put rules in about selling autopilot

because it's not.

And they've said, you just can't call stuff

that it doesn't do.

Then Tesla are not gonna sell it anymore.

So, you can no longer buy FSD

and you have to subscribe to it.

We've all got subscription fatigue

and this is yet one more thing.

So, this isn't existing vehicles.

By the way, they're not taking it away

from cars that are sold already.

This leaves Tesla's mass market cars less equipped

than a Toyota, a base.

A completely base Toyota Corolla.

That's $22,000 US dollars.

It gets adaptive cruise control and lane centering

and it's all standard.

Tesla buyers now pay more for less,

plus an ongoing fee to then restore

what you used to get included in the price.

The move deepens Tesla's shift from selling stuff

to selling subscriptions.

Their chief executive Elon Musk

has said FSD subscription prices will go up.

He said that in the past and they went down again.

So, he's said a lot of stuff which is not true.

He says that the price will go up from $99.

So, if you are stretching to get into a Tesla

and it's a really big moment

if you are maybe paying $500 a month at the minute

on your car finance and you're gonna stretch to $600

because you wanna get that Tesla.

A new car's really special

and it's a lovely moment when you get that brand new car.

Whatever model it is.

When you get yourself a brand new Tesla

and you've made that stretch to maybe $600 a month

and it's such a, you know, you work hard for it.

It's a big moment.

It's effectively now a $700 a month.

And you know, and obviously the numbers will change for you

but add a hundred bucks to your monthly payment

just to get a basic feature.

And all the buyers, you're gonna be forced to pay for FSD

or be left with a really, really second rate product.

It will just do adaptive cruise control.

And that's it.

It's got all the hardware to do everything

but they will completely lock it down

unless you open your checkbook every single month

that you own that car.

The core promise of full autonomy is still unfulfilled

but that's not a conversation for this segment.

Tesla has turned a former safety standard,

a very basic piece of safety

into a recurring revenue business model

that hits targets for its CEO

to get his massive payout somewhere down the line

which was a target for him to hit FSD subscriptions.

It has not gone down well today.

And I think many people

who really, really love the Tesla brand

for doing the right thing over the years

by its customers multiple times

and being known for safety

just keeps kicking people in the you know what

and at some point people are gonna say,

I've had enough, no more, just no more.

It's such a shame.

They've got so much right in the past.

I know people think I'm really hard on Tesla

but I'm so disappointed in them in the last maybe two,

two, three years.

Nothing to do with the extra curricular stuff

from their boss, just untapped potential,

my friends, untapped potential.

Let's move on.

We'll take a break, we'll come back

and lots to talk about on the podcast, stick around.

I didn't even realize I was wasting $415 a month

until I downloaded Rocket Money.

I thought I had my finances under control

until the app laid out all my spending

and categorized it for me.

Takeout, shopping and unused subscriptions

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and as a result, my savings took a backseat.

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what you're wasting money on.

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and calculates how much you can safely spend

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when using all the app's premium features.

Users love the app with over 186,000 five-star ratings.

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Hey, welcome back to the show.

Now, Volkswagen has pushed Tesla off the European perch.

Last year, the Volkswagen brand

became the biggest battery electric seller.

I'd hinted at this when the early numbers were coming in.

Volvo, Volkswagen were clearly ahead of Tesla in Europe

but I said, be careful, that's Volkswagen Group.

Lots of cars to sell you.

Well, now the numbers are in.

It's Volkswagen brand, just the VWs,

which are now bigger than Tesla here in Europe.

BV deliveries up 56%.

Tesla's volume down 27%.

Europeans are voting with their wallets at the moment

and they're not buying Teslas as awkward as that may be

for the really big fans of the brand that might go,

why not, why wouldn't you buy one?

Well, the switch comes in a very fast growing market.

Europe's Bev sales were up 30% last year

to 2.6 million Bevs across all of Europe.

Again, this is not absolutely final.

This is data force figures covering 98% of EU, UK,

and EFTA markets.

Volkswagen gains were not confined to pure EVs.

They're doing pretty well everywhere.

Mercedes were third with their plug-in hybrids

doing pretty well and BMW also selling well

over here.

So conventional engines lost ground.

You'll be pleased to hear petrol sales fell 7%

and diesel plunged 19% to 1.5 million vehicles.

And yes, if you were wondering and thinking,

does that mean that EVs are more popular

than diesel cars in Europe?

Yes, by a long, long way.

European Bev sales, pure Bevs, 2.5,

well, 2.6 million units last year.

Diesel sales 1.5.

So yes, I don't update you on these numbers too much,

but diesel is very much a thing of the past over here.

European buyers are shifting towards electric SUVs.

VW leads in BEVs, plug-in hybrids,

and the key SUV segments.

But its absence in full hybrids and the rise

of the Chinese competitors like MG,

show the race has only just begun.

Now, if you want to get some cheaper insurance

with a Tesla, a small insurer is making a big call on safety.

Lemonade is a U.S. firm.

And they say they will cut your premium by 50%.

That's enormous for Tesla owners.

If you let FSD drive, the chain singles signals more

than just cheap cover.

Regulators are probing Tesla's FSD right now.

Yet the insurer says the numbers back up.

The arguments underwriters are struggling

to price different levels of automation

as car makers are deploying them.

Tesla will feed Lemonade all the detailed telemetry

from your vehicle, splitting out miles driven on FSD

from those driven by humans.

Lemonade will apply the 50% discount

on its pay per mile product,

which draws on the millions of signals

Tesla's emit, well, every second, frankly.

Lemonade will launch the new autonomous car insurance

as well in Arizona and in Oregon in February

and plans further rate cuts as Tesla rolls out

safety enhancements, they say.

A welcome bit of news to reduce your insurance bill,

but you do obviously have to share all of your data

and they know everything about you and pay per mile,

but you might want the saving.

Now, one in every 55 cars sold in Europe last year,

it's an interesting stat I know, was a Dacia Sandero.

The brand that built its name on CHIPA's chip,

Simple Transport, is having to deal with the move to EV.

Dacia became Europe's second biggest brand

by private car sales last year,

taking 8% of that segment.

The Romanian brand, the cheaper bit of Renault,

which was launched 2004,

past 10 million vehicles sold worldwide

with 700,000 cars registered last year worldwide,

global volumes up 3%.

And their Dacia Sandero's doing really, really well,

but they don't have many models.

The Sandero is Europe's best selling car for a second year.

The Duster was Europe's second best selling SUV

behind VW's T-Rock and their Jogger,

I know if you're not used to the Dacia brand,

interesting names, fell a bit.

Electric models are now what drive the growth

at Dacia the spring became Europe's top car

in the A segment with 35,000 sales last year.

Look, it comes with a one-star Euro NCAP.

You can't get away from that,

but the car also doesn't go very far,

so just don't try to get hit by anything

or drive yourself into a tree.

Weak markets in Italy, France, and weirdly, Romania

are dragging on its performance.

There is an electric C segment model coming as well,

and I've mentioned it previously,

the new A segment EV based on the Renault Twingo,

but a Dacia version, which will obviously be much cheaper

and yeah, a little bit kind of feel a lot cheaper,

but it gets the price down.

That'll be here by the end of the year.

Now, Colorado VW dealers are suing to block Scout.

10 Colorado dealerships for Volkswagen Audi and Porsche

have taken their own parent group to court.

On January 20th, they sued the state

after Colorado's Motor Vehicle Dealer Board

voted 6-2 in favor of granting Scout a license.

The case turns on a narrow point of order.

In terms of the law, Colorado doesn't allow manufacturers,

it bars them from owning, operating,

and controlling dealerships

if they already have franchise dealers.

Over the same line make in the state of Colorado,

the dealers argue that Scout,

given it's backing by Volkswagen

and plans to source engines from, you know, Volkswagen,

is actually Volkswagen.

Regulators treated Scout as an independent entity,

saying it's an electric only vehicle maker

entitled to carve out,

so you can sell direct in Colorado,

like Rivian and Lucid.

The dealers say no, it's gonna be an e-rev,

they harvest a range extender.

An extended range electric vehicle,

although with the plug socket on the side,

you can charge the thing, also burns fuel.

So it's not an EV, so it shouldn't be a carve out.

That one will go through the courts.

Now, drivers of Britain's best selling plug-in hybrids

are paying way more for fuel

than the glossy brochures suggest.

New research today by Transport and Environment

finds that plug-in hybrids burn 490% as much fuel

as the manufacturers claim they do.

It pushes the real world cost of fueling plug-in hybrids

to 985 pounds a year.

The manufacturers say, no, it's more like 530 pounds a year

if you plug for things in overnight

and fully charge them on cheap rate electricity.

Of course, over the course of you owning a plug-in hybrid

for a long time, the gap matters

to very tight household budgets.

Policy now risks locking drivers into higher costs

as manufacturers are arguing with the governments

to allow plug-in hybrids and e-revs to count towards

things like zero emission vehicle mandates,

adding flexibilities that let them meet the targets

but also carrying on selling combustion vehicles

as long as they have a plug socket on the side of them.

Yeah, obviously I don't agree with that.

And a zero emission vehicle mandate

or whatever you want to call it,

like the EU's CO2 reduction to 100%,

which is now going to be 90% by 2035,

that doesn't include an engine.

But it's very inconvenient for the car makers

who have got lots of engines and the technology

and all the R&D costs that went into them

that they would rather like to sell you.

Sorry, they're not EVs.

Renault will fold its Ampere electric vehicle arm

and software arm as well.

Back into the group, ditching a standalone strategy

that never lived up to its billing.

The chief executive, Francois Provoist,

will brief labor unions today on a reorganization effort

and Renault says it will simplify its structure.

The move closes the former boss, Luca D'Ameo's plan,

that was to float Ampere.

Once pitched at a valuation of 10 billion euros

or 12 billion US dollars,

he scrapped the listing two years ago

as Europe's demand for battery electric vehicles

became more uncertain.

The rethink puts Renault in line

with other European makers,

retreating from some of their purie V investments

and being a little more cautious.

Now, let's talk about Mitsubishi.

This is interesting.

Mitsubishi will launch a performance electric hatchback

in Australia in the second half of this year,

built in partnership with Foxconn.

Yeah, they assemble iPhones.

It'll be based on the Foxtron Brea platform.

Must confess, not massively familiar.

That sells in Taiwan from about 40,000 US dollars,

but it'll have a Mitsubishi badge on,

Mitsubishi badge in Australia,

and it's aimed at drivers.

So a dual-motor all-wheel drive,

300 kilowatts of power, four seconds 0-60,

super all-wheel drive system being a Mitsubishi

with lots of performance,

like leaning into their rally drift mode kind of heritage,

either being an ASX VRE or ASX GTE.

Again, doesn't mean a huge amount to me,

but I think Australian engineers

that are carrying out the kind of local fine-tuning,

like hardware changers and market-specific software,

will probably be having a bit of fun with that.

Now, Ford say they will return to Formula One this year,

after two decades away.

They have put their logo really tiny

on the side of the Red Bull cars,

and they're meant to be Ford engines,

but that Red Bull powertrain effort

has been going for many, many, many years,

and while it's handy to have some of Ford's money,

I think Ford would quite like you to know

that they've built the engines.

They've talked a lot about,

oh, we're going back to Formula One.

There's a lot of Red Bull in there.

Jim Farley, Ford's boss, frames the tie-up

with Red Bull racing as a way to catch up

with the Chinese car makers

that now lead in software and digital

and over-the-air updates.

So, Ford's answer is to turn F1

into a software and data laboratory,

where they say with Red Bull,

it will co-develop a 350 kilowatts EV motor

and a combustion engine that runs on sustainable fuels

built for their new hybrid-heavy wheels.

Farley calls the power unit one of the hardest projects

in Ford's history,

thanks to complex demands and real-time data in Formula One.

The Red Bull powertrain's efforts,

of course, spaced in Milton Keynes.

Every time I've driven past it,

it just gets bigger, that place.

And it's been a thing many, many years in the building.

Ford have come on, and like I say,

I've sure written a very healthy check

to join the Red Bull team,

wanting to get lots of, what's the phrase, mind-share.

And wanting you to know that,

oh, we're back in Formula One now.

They're all going to filter through to their road cars.

Maybe you will.

Honda finish us off today.

They will stop making fuel cell systems

at their joint venture plant with General Motors this year.

It will close the partnership that began in 2017.

The move matters less for what it ends than what it starts.

Honda say they will shift any of its hydrogen fuel cell

technology development to its own projects.

It was meant to blend Honda's strengths

and GM's strengths together.

The partners set out to cut the cost of hydrogen

and improve performance and say the joint work

did make systems that were more durable

with low temperature resistance and more cost efficiencies.

Talks between the companies have now led to an agreement

to knock it on the head though.

And that's understandable.

Honda can fall back on what they say

is 30 years of work in hydrogen and fuel cell research,

treating it as a key energy carrier.

I didn't realize they've been doing it for 30 years.

They mentioned that as a bit of a badge of honor, don't they?

30 years of hydrogen R&D.

Let me just spin that around a little bit.

You've been working on this for 30 years

and you've got nothing to show for it.

I wouldn't be boasting about that if I were you.

Of course, hydrogen cars at one point

were trumpeted as key competition to electric vehicles.

And I certainly believe hydrogen

as a simple storage of energy has to have a place.

I know nothing about how it would work on aviation,

safety or shipping or anything like rail, right?

It feels like it's gonna have a place.

But for day-to-day road transport,

the cars that you and I drive,

it's the most ridiculous idea.

And that's your podcast for today.

Thank you to our premium partners,

National Car Charging on the US mainland

and the low-hard charge in Hawaii.

And Test EV, Avalu's trusted partner

for independent EV battery health testing

in Australia and New Zealand.

Have a good and see you tomorrow.

And remember, there's no such thing

as a self-charging hybrid.

I didn't realize I was wasting $415 a month

until I downloaded Rocket Money.

I thought I had my finances under control

until the app laid out all my spending

and categorized it for me.

Takeout, shopping and unused subscriptions

were quietly draining my account.

And as a result, my savings took a backseat.

But Rocket Money doesn't just tell you

what you're wasting money on.

It takes action to save you money.

First, the app looks at your income and monthly expenses

and calculates how much you can safely spend each day

to stay under budget.

Rocket Money also finds and cancels

unwanted subscriptions for you

and even negotiates better rates on your bills.

So you have more money in your pocket.

On average, Rocket Money members

can save up to $740 a year

when using all the app's premium features.

Users love the app with over 186,000 five-star ratings.

It's time to simplify your finances

and take control of your money.

Go to rocketmoney.com slash cancel to get started.

That's rocketmoney.com slash cancel.

Rocketmoney.com slash cancel.

DAILY: Volvo EX60 Revealed, Tesla Puts Basic Safety Behind Paywall and VW Goes Top In Europe | 23 Jan 2026

About this episode

Volvo EX60

800 volts system

cell to body design

limited to 112 miles an hour

Polestar

autonomous car insurance

move to EV

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