DAILY: Volvo Offers Free Home Charging, GM Affordable EVs and Fast Charging Growth In U.S. | 21 Oct 2025

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for more information. Welcome back to the podcast. Today Volvo offers free home charging,

GM's affordable EVs and fast charging growth in the US. Plus stay tuned because later in the show

I'll tell you why we need to go EV as soon as possible to clean up the air in schools.

On EV News China today we're talking about the Buick Electra L7. Very impressive sedan.

If only they'd sell those Buicks outside of China. The Fang Cheng Bao off-roaders and Zika's 7X.

And join me later for a bonus show called the Top 10 Forgotten EVs from current manufacturers.

It'll be live tonight for patrons and all Patreon exclusives go into the free feed after

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going ad free on the podcast feed and joining the Patreon exclusive members chat called Killer

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evnews daily five or $10 a month to be an exec producer. It's how I earn a living these days.

Patrons are really important part of my income. So that's why apologies. I have to ask for support

now and again. Now Volvo cars will provide buyers of new fully electric Volvo models in Sweden

a year of free home charging and that starts in February next year. The scheme covers up to 5,150

kilowatt hours per year. That's on a big EX90 on the WLTP cycle would be about 25,000 kilometers

and it's available to private customers who buy or lease fully electric Volvo's in Sweden subject

to an active electricity retail contract with Vattenfall. Now participants must enable smart

charging in the Volvo cars app and that charging then shifts to lower cost lower carbon periods.

The app records energy usage and battery status while Vattenfall credits the electricity cost on

your monthly bill and Volvo will treat the Swedish program as a pilot to inform a wider European

rollout with local energy supplies and intends next year to add vehicle to everything vehicle to

home vehicle to grid vehicle to load capability so that bidirectionality is a key part of future

Volvo's. I think it's really interesting so offering free home charging if you go through

the Volvo app with a certain provider like Vattenfall and it records it in the app. I think we are

heading towards by the way energy metering for EVs because we pay 5% VAT on home electricity

and also the 20% VAT on public charging and so we get a cheap rate to charge our car at home.

Now I'm not saying that they're going to charge more for EV charging but I think

over the long term actually in the medium term so five to ten years I suspect more and more

things like this will happen that will nudge you because there's a benefit for you from Volvo and

Vattenfall. You get your free charging for a year but I think there is a general movement

towards metering EVs. Now if they put a meter on the side of your EV charger or as a display coming

up and you see it ticking over I think people would just plug in the old three kilowatt granny

charges or whatever and plug from a three pin socket and that's dangerous and you shouldn't

do that at home if you can possibly avoid it. So I think we're being nudged towards metering

EV and then we can build get build separately octopus do it with the octopus intelligent go

tariff they changed it in 2025 and so now you get your cheap home electricity not for the whole

house you only get the cheap one if you plug in on your EV and so little things like that happening

yeah I think we're moving towards some sort of metering but not so obvious that it makes

people push back and go I don't want you to know how much energy I'm putting in my car it's like

the government knowing when I go to the petrol station so all right let's move on let's talk

about US public fast charger additions continuing in Q3 slowing slightly uh Paran reports 699

oh just one shy of 700 uh new fast charging stations came online in the United States

between July and September actually that's down a little bit from Q2 uh Paran's count differs from

the US Department of Energy's count because Paran track stations that have been switched on the DOE

looks at installed stalls that may not be energized just yet deployment favoured large

sites and high power equipment Q3 added 4,061 ports in the United States of which Tesla supplied

1,820 of them that's more than the next nine networks all combined the supercharger network

is growing at such a rip it brings the US total to 34,328 stalls um Tesla's share of DC fast charging

though uh was 53 53.2 percent uh I think a year ago now it's 44 percent so as a share of the US

Tesla is getting smaller uh but last quarter Tesla installed like I say more supercharges than

the next nine all added together which is it's just like one of the best bits the Tesla business

isn't it the supercharging is just incredible not just because of how many they're building

and because generally they're good enough okay they're not 400 kilowatt beasts uh or the 1.3

megawatt charges that we see the likes of you know or megawatt charging from BYD in China

but it's it's like a lot of Teslas it does a job right it's probably a cost but they're

putting in a lot of them and I'd rather have more charges that charge at maybe 200 kilowatts

than fewer charging at crazy speeds more non-Tesla drivers are now using supercharges and that's

of course another revenue stream for Tesla now let's move on Mustangs Mac E gets a California

package Ford is reviving the old California special on the 2026 model year Mac E echoing

the 1968 option that honored the brand's Californian dealers this package adds new

exterior accents in rave blue and navy pier upholstery it's not exactly like for like the

60s Californian edition it's a two and a half grand option and order start tomorrow the GT

you have to get the GT by the way the Mustang Mac E GT and then you can put California package on

top of it 480 horsepower dual motor all-wheel drive and the EPA estimates GT's driving range at 280

miles now thanks to a fellow listener Rajiv who sent this one in from car and driver General Motors

is planning to expand the Chevy Bolt into a low-cost family of compact EVs that's GM president Mark

Reus saying on the inside EVs plugged in podcast there were a bit of a roll right now they had

RJ Scarridge from Rivian on recently and now from GM he turns up the president's talk about

their new family of cheaper EVs the revived Bolt returns next year and he said it's the first of

a family of bolts now they first used that phrase at an investor event a little while ago and said

it again on that inside EVs podcast what is a family of bolts I wonder well a series of we

know compact EVs I don't think it will it won't be like the Bolt and the Bolt EUV or maybe it will

maybe there'll be a crossover maybe there'll be a sedan Bolt I don't know as long as they're all

around $30,000 and allow more people to get into electric mobility gets a big thumbs up from me

Porsche has opened its ninth brand exclusive charging lounge this one is in lower Saxony

in Evendorf beside the Evendorf Autobahn exit on the a7 which links northern and southern Germany

it's the second Porsche lounge on the a7 alongside Estenfeld the site provides six DC fast charges

no it's only six but it is only it's also Porsche exclusive right up to 400 kilowatts

so Porsche says full power is available when all six are in simultaneous use which is a really nice

thing no load balancing going on there when all of a sudden a bunch of tycons turn up

current generation tycon will do 10 to 80 in 18 minutes while a McCann takes 21 minutes

access and lounge use require a Porsche ID you can link your license plate inside the Porsche app

and that triggers the barrier to open as you drive up to it now customer amenities include

covered seating a nice little speaker system some lounge chair soft drink snacks a coffee machine

soft drinks and sorry water two indoor washrooms and free wi-fi so if you have a Porsche and you

want to go along to this exclusive I'm not personally I love this it's no skin off my nose

I don't drive a Porsche I don't care but like Tesla supercharging used to be back in the day

charging is a really interesting thing as an incentive as a moat if you like the other

charging lounges are in bingen am rhein hamburg englishtat leonberg and ring shine probably

moored all of those names apologies to my German listeners plus they have one in kurblak in austria

and neon in switzerland now nissan has joined up with byd here in the european union nissan's

applied to join the emissions pool with byd now that's because there's co2 fleet rules in place

and so if you join with other oems that might have excess credits you can avoid avoid paying

fines other japanese oems that have plans to pool with tesla the likes of toto susuki master and

Subaru according to automotive analyst matthew schmitt the EU raised the targets by 15% versus

the previous five-year period setting a weight-based average fleet target of co2 grams per kilometer

through to 2029 with adjustment mechanisms and a three-year average assessment over the first

three years now we see nissan and byd pooling their credits nissan historically pooled with reno of

course part of the alliance so it's moved to byd suggests reno either lacks sufficient credits

to offset the nissan fleet maybe nissan's leaf rollout is happening slower than they thought

and they need some more zero emission credits kba data for the first nine months of the year

show nissan's average german co2 fleet was 133 grams per kilometer a reminder the limit is 93

so nissan has worked through byd of course selling mostly zero emission vehicles some plug-in hybrids

as well 7.5 grams per kilometer so plenty spare there as well nice revenue stream for byd 2 for

not doing too much extra but like tesla have been used to in many places around the world for

a very long time rivian has delayed their new features the kick turn and the rad tuner software

features that were announced in june and we're going to be with the new rivians r1s is i1t's

by the end of checks my watch last month the company has said both will now arrive as a free

update sometime before the end of the year rivian confirming this to the drive website

saying the features are unlike anything on the roads today and they're going to fine tune their

performance the kick turn will only come to the quad motor versions of r1s r1t not for the first

generation quads either that use the bosh motors or the original electrical architecture all right

let's talk some more rivian right now rv tech is actually the name of the joint venture company

between rivian and volkswagen so they're seeking new headquarters and they want to put them in palo

alto and that's really interesting the company is targeting uh according to this article three

floors totaling 75 000 square feet according to the san francisco business times new headquarters

supporting rapid growth of rv tech uh the joint venture between rivian and volkswagen rivian treats

palo alto as its second home after the ervine headquarters big autonomy ai software hardware

work is all based there for rivian and mechanical engineering finance software sales legal teams

also have offices there according to the linkedin post uh by rv tech locations of the new rivian

volkswagen joint venture include ervine palo alto vancouver in canada and belgrade at serbia most

open roles are for infotainment apps while in europe rv tech is recruiting in berlin volkswagen

was founded there of course before moving their headquarters to volksberg and now that's where

they're setting up a new office for this this joint venture uh rivian opened their first european

r&d center back in 2022 now let's talk sodium batteries and a research by the frownhofer

research production battery cell and the university of munster finds sodium ion batteries are close

to industrial mass production and viable today for applications that don't need high energy density

the researchers say targeted material improvements will enable broader use like evs over the medium

term sodium ion cells tend to be less damaging to the environment but currently store less energy

than lithium ion cells but they particularly pronounced volumetric deficit versus lithium

ion phosphate not gravimetric which is weight uh the authors report that optimizing the active

materials and cell chemistries will narrow the volumetric and overall energy gaps and get closer

to lfp replacing the synthetic graphite with hard carbon lowers environmental impact because

synthetic graphite production is very energy intensive while hard carbon can be produced

in a very climate friendly way overall the study positions sodium ion technology as

near market options for lower density and for mainstream ev use very close hey

let's take a break and when we come back we'll talk about evs on the water germany's plan for

commercial vehicle charging and a hardcore panamera plug-in hybrid stick around back in the mo

all right welcome back to the podcast now let's talk a little bit about going electric on the

water let's go to italy and lake garter i've been on holiday i'd love to be back in italy's

lake garter right now aqua superpower unveiled its first marine fast charger called the aqua 75 dc

you won't be surprised to hear it can supply 75 kilowatts of dc power they use the ccs2 standard

a second station is being installed on the lake's opposite bank to enable zero emission voyages

for boaters on lake garter which is absolutely stunning and if they that if that can go zero

emission one day and take combustion off the water it just fits in perfectly with such a picturesque

place nautica feltranelli is based on lake garter's western shore and was founded in 1919

by the feltranelli family whose boat building history goes back to the 17th century the shipyard

shipyard acts as an exclusive italian importer as well for austrian luxury boats and now adding

marine fast chargers that's such a cool little story isn't it now let's talk a little bit about

a plan in germany i'll call it the master plan because well that's what germans have called

this master plan i'm taking this from electrive.com which is in itself a german website so i'm going

with the german federal ministry of transport and the master plan charging infrastructure

2030 germany's master plan was weird saying it so it says that explicitly they will target

heavy duty vehicles this is in consultation phase at the moment presented by the federal

transport minister it builds on the earlier frameworks and defines 40 measures grouped into

five action areas boosting demand and investment simplifying how ev charging gets rolled out

enhancing competition and pricing transparency improving integration with the grid and user

friendliness and so the plan prioritizes what they say is market driven growth over individual

subsidies for the commercial sector using faster approval processes that's a really

important thing sometimes stuff gets tied up in paperwork and red tape not just in germany but

sometimes especially in germany for a really long time from next year new funding will support

charging in multifamily buildings and upgrades to electrical systems where similar programs for

vehicle and bus depots remaining subject to budget approval the government reconfirms a

nationwide fast charging network for electric trucks along motorways and for seas equipping

about 350 german rest areas with high-powered charges for electric truckers regulatory simplification

grid integration bi-directional charging also in focus and the plan proposes extending the

electric mobility act so that we also pay attention to different abilities and needs now the Porsche

panamera is a vehicle that i'm not sure i've mentioned in the the last couple of years it's

there it's out there it's a plug-in hybrid hasn't got a particularly big battery and has been around

for what seems like an absolute age it's got better batteries over the time but anyway there

seems to be like there's a new panamera that takes inspiration from the Porsche Taycan which

is all electric and going really hardcore with it in a plug-in hybrid form so at the minute they

make a turbo se hybrid one which is like 760 horsepower and they think that also auto car

magazine says that spy shots show this could be the turbo gt version so big vents and front wings

a big fixed wrist spoiler a big diffuser round tail pipes and we think this could be the equivalent

of Taycan's visac package plug-in hybrids versions of the panamera get the active ride

control lift the car up and down the new model will be more powerful than the top one at the

moment the most powerful Porsche you can buy is the Taycan turbo gt so the best car they make at

Porsche is an electric car this will be the second best one they make and it'll be a plug-in hybrid

interior images show a roll cage behind the front seats so two seats like i say visac package

like a 911 gt3 or a Taycan turbo gt future panameras would have been on the ssp platform

sorry ssp sport platform for the third gen panamera but i think development on that has been halted

now this is a great story to finish with but it's an entirely frustrating one for me

you may agree or disagree london will install new air quality filters in more than 200 schools a new

2.7 million pound program is being rolled out by the london mayor sir sadeek khan which cuts classroom

p.m 2.5 this is a good story right we're spending a ton of money on filtering out p.m 2.5 but you

can see where i'm going with this the rollout will prioritize schools in areas with the highest

deprivation which is normally a line with the areas of highest air pollution we have areas where

people can live that have the least affordability around often major routes major roads and the

air quality for the poorest people in society is the worst and it's the same in california it's the

same in london now one particular school that was highlighted in this bbc article says that they've

done other things like they're having to build big barriers between them and the main road that

goes past this school in the middle of an area of deprivation uh which to try and deflect some of

the co2 they are trying to get their parents to not idle and turn off the cars outside school which

is really difficult because it's now approaching that time of year when your car gets all messed

it up and you get cold inside it and so mums and dads often just sit idling cars going nowhere for

minutes on end and they're putting air quality monitors around the school city hall conservatives

in london called the measure welcome news for air quality but warned it would offset the removal of

congestion charge exemption uh so yeah london next year is going to start charging evs to go

until now we've enjoyed some benefits of driving an ev in london conservative assembly member

thomas turrell saying the filters are good news for classrooms but aren't going to reduce pollution

across london city across the capital i should say because the city of london's a small bit of it

they're now going to dissuade evs from going into there big by charging evs a lot of money to drive

into london uh they accuse the mayor of pulling the rug out from under ev drivers

you mean you beat me to the punchline here haven't you why are we driving around in disgusting dirty

diesel and polluting cars and there are still car makers out there that are fighting ev Toyota is so

anti ev in their online ads we choose not to plug in the future is hybrid evs are dirty and

so much anti ev marketing and it just seems so obvious to me why are we letting the car makers

do what they want which is make hybrid vehicles because it suits them suits the car makers to

make more money from hybrids rather than going full electric we let them do this and they pull

up the wool over the eyes of politicians to say well we'll take the jobs out of your country etc

etc they blackmail them it's not Toyota thing it's all car makers not picking on Toyota they'll often

do sometimes but it's it's all of them it's about oh you'll lose votes and we'll pull jobs from

your country and they pressure them into these concessions and negotiations and compromises

and then because we treat our children so badly with disgusting air quality in their classrooms

then we have to go and retrofit pm 2.5 filters at the cost of millions of pounds or we could not

encourage shabby hybrids which still have massive engines or plug-in hybrids or e revs which still

are big polluters because we have a technology that's not just new but it's starting to mature now

in pure electric vehicles and it makes absolute sense to clear up the air and instead we make

the air dirty and then we spend a ton of money once our kids get sick putting a little filter

in the side of their classroom and we pat ourselves on our back and that's your podcast for today

thanks to our premium partners Porsche of the Village and Cincinnati Audi of Cincinnati East and

Volvo cars of Cincinnati East national car charging on the US mainland and the loha charge in Hawaii

and octopus electroverse global public charging makes simple with one app and one map have a good

and say tomorrow and remember there's no such thing as a self-charging hybrid

DAILY: Volvo Offers Free Home Charging, GM Affordable EVs and Fast Charging Growth In U.S. | 21 Oct 2025

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