DAILY: VW Cell Making, Mercedes S-Class Gets A Plug and Volvo Bets On America | 01 Feb 2026

Welcome back to the podcast, today VW's cell making, Mercedes S-Class gets a plug and Volvo

bets on America, plus stay tuned, later in the show I'll tell you why for many drivers

their first taste of electric motoring now comes not from a showroom, but from a rental

counter.

No EV news China today as it's the weekend, it's back tomorrow morning.

Let's get into it, Volkswagen's battery arm, Powerco, has started serious production at

its 2 billion euro gigafactory in Salt Skitter, a 69,000 square meter plant that broke ground

in July of 2022 and switched on in December 2025.

At full tilt, it'll turn out 40 gigawatt hours of cells a year, output will ramp through

this year to 20 gigawatt hours, that's enough cells for 250,000 of their EVs.

The VW Group now designs, develops and manufactures its own cells entirely in Europe.

Cells will go first into packs for the Group brands, then into its new Urban EV family vehicles

from VW Skoda and Seat, like the ID Polo, ID Cross SUV, Skoda Epic, Cooper Reval and

more, the MEB Plus platform.

Powerco aims to cover about 50% of their demand for its standardised, unified cell, with external

suppliers doing the rest.

The prismatic cell format stays the same across its brands and its regions, it's the chemistries

inside, ranging from LFP, Lithium Iron Phosphate to NMC, Nickel, Manganese Cobalt and later,

Solid State.

Initial Salt Skitter outputs focuses on NMC cells, about 10% more energy dense than the

previous cells they were using, the cells feed VW's cell-to-pack system, which many

of the western car makers have been trying to catch up with on China.

Now Volkswagen doing it, cell-to-pack accepts all chemistries, including Sodium Ion cells,

now under close review.

Modules disappear, as cells literally stack straight into a giga-cast battery casing surrounding

that replaces about 100 separate parts that cuts complexity and cost, while lifting energy

density and helping charging times and even increasing range as well.

Great news there, VW's cell production ramping up through this year for those new small vehicles

we're excited about.

Now if you'd like to waft along in luxury, Mercedes-Benz has added a plug socket to an

S-Class, but kept the fuel tank.

The latest flagship saloon comes as a plug-in hybrid, the S450E and S580E four-wheel drive,

offering an electric range of 62 miles or 100 kilometers.

Both versions have a 3.0-litre straight-six petrol and an electric motor and a battery.

Mercedes-Benz has for now declined to reveal the size of the battery, or indeed how fast

it'll charge.

Inside, the firm has gone all in, though, on computing power and onboard supercomputer.

Marshals, all the sensors required for ADAS, drive-resistance systems, performance, infotainment,

AI-powered virtual assistant, yet for all the silicon, the powertrain strategy is cautious.

The new S-Class offers petrol and diesel engines and a plug-in hybrid version as well, but

no fully electric S-Class.

Buyers who want zero emissions must still buy the EQS, that's a different platform.

The EQS has been on sale since 2021, had a facelift in 2024, and Mercedes-Benz pitching

it as the S-Class experience, but without the combustion engine.

Thanks for bearing with me, by the way, on the podcast.

I have been knocked down by whatever bug has run through the family and wasn't able to

record the podcast.

I'm going to write it.

Hey, quick question.

If I write the podcast, because I can do that in whatever state I'm in, would you like me

to post that onto Patreon and even the website, evnewsdaily.com, even without the audio, because

I just couldn't record a show for a couple of days?

Would that be okay?

I did it a couple of times recently and the Patreon fans went, oh, you've forgotten the

audio.

I didn't obviously say, like, oh, yeah, I'm just about to record that.

I put the text out first.

I can do that, by the way.

I always put the show together most days, even if I don't have a chance to record it

every single night at the weekends.

And so I can do that if you want.

Just let me know.

Now, BYD has begun trial production at its first European passenger car plant in Hungary.

Even as building work continues and the schedule has slipped, the site gives the Chinese group

a manufacturing base inside the European Union, just as the bloc's tariffs on imported Chinese

EVs imposed on October 24 now, I think it was, start to bite now.

For Brussels, the factory sits at the junction of two fights over Chinese industrial policy

and Europe's grip on investment.

By building their bevs in Hungary, BYD sidesteps the new duties and shows how global car makers

are re-rooting their supply chains rather than quitting the market.

Full production is now due in the second quarter of 2026, later than the 2025 target, and the

three-year timetable first touted when we were told about this in 2023.

Stella Lee, the group's executive vice president, has since confirmed a Q2 start this year,

with construction to finalise by the end of the year.

BYD has hired 960 staff, 70% of them Hungarian, and most from the local area.

The firm set up its European-based headquarters in R&D in Budapest last year, promising 2,000

jobs on top of their EV bus plant that opened in 2016.

If BYD reaches 200,000 vehicles a year, it will certainly have a tariff-proof European

hub.

Just as the trade row over Chinese EV seems to have peaked, Europe will then have to judge

how much it dislikes Chinese money when it arrives on European soil, with plants, jobs,

and engineering talent.

Now, Volvo's boss thinks America should be electric car heaven.

Hacken Samuelson, the old boss, new boss at Volvo, points to suburban sprawl in America,

and things like three-car garages as the ideal backdrop for home-charging electric vehicles.

Most Americans live in single-family dwellings.

Well, big suburban homes, in other words.

In the European Union, 46% of people live in apartments, 19% live in some shared building.

Those flats' apartments shape the charging over here in Europe, many Europeans park on

curbside.

Certainly, this was the first house we ever bought with a driveway, and many people face

hurdles to plug in.

That pushes governments to electrify public parking at speed, and to keep pouring money

into fast-charging networks, climate change remains uncontroversial over here in European

politics at least.

So, stricter emissions is fine to talk about.

That's not blasphemy over here, by the way, and it's moving ahead at a pace.

Even after softening its most ambitious 100% reduction on emissions by 2035 down to 90%

of the levels seen earlier this decade, the EU still keeps a target that will basically

mean everyone's driving zero-emission vehicles in 2035.

America has drifted the other way.

Regulators have shredded the emissions standards, scrapped policies that once pushed clean air,

car makers have then duly shifted resources back towards things that make them more money,

because why wouldn't you if you're a CEO delivering value and, of course, securing

your pension for when you've got your feet up?

And that is to sell petrol cars, which pollute more, yet Mr Samuelson shrugs off these worries.

He argues that consumers in America, not subsidies, will be the ones that decide on

whether they go electric.

His wager rests on domestic behavior.

Drivers who switch to electric never go back to petrol.

I saw an article recently, I didn't even open it.

It was like 50% of EV drivers say they're going to go back to petrol.

Didn't even open it.

I know it's been funded by the oil industry, it was on legacy media, it was like a newspaper

website, newspaper circulations in terminal decline, only a certain type of person buys

a newspaper these days, and I didn't even read it, I didn't even want to see the fake

data they'd made up, because seriously, you and I know a lot about EVs, 50% of people

are going back to petrol.

Nobody's going back to petrol.

I've never met someone who drove an EV and then went, I really want to go back to a diesel

car now.

Zero.

I've seen data that's like two, three, four percent, zero in my experience.

People learn that range anxiety looms larger in the headlines and the influences the content

creators funded by the oil industry than reality.

Daily use is far simpler.

Home charging is the automatic top up that you and I know that it is.

Mr. Hacken Samuelson from Volvo says that when people realize this, they'll go EV.

Don't worry about subsidies, don't worry about the politics of the green transition.

Just tell people it's easy and you save money and every morning you get into a car that's

been magically filled up overnight and people will drive EV.

And I think I agree with the boss of Volvo, one of the best things about driving an electric

car if you ask me, hey, can I ask an enormous favor?

Can you share this podcast with anyone ready, your friends, partner, someone who's learning

about EVs, someone who's super into EVs, forums, social media, anything like that?

And you might not want to because you might think it's terrible.

But if you don't think this podcast is terrible and you don't mind sharing it, I'd really

appreciate it because I could promote it on social media, Tumblr and the face.

But coming from you with people that you know, it would mean a huge amount to me.

If you can, that'd be super cool.

And we'll build the show together back in a moment.

All right, welcome back to the podcast.

Now, EU battery storage capacity grew by 45 percent last year.

Battery storage over here in the European Union is now 27.1 gigawatt hours.

According to the website PV Europe, grid storage, once a niche thing now starts

to matter for renewables and EVs.

The jump signals to linked shifts, intermittent renewables work perfectly

with battery storage because it cuts curtailment and price swings.

At the same time, the lithium ion supplied chain that feeds into electric

vehicles increasingly serves stationary projects.

Tying power markets to EV making directly.

When Europe adds 45 percent more storage in a single year, it tightens the race

for cells, materials, factories, that 27 gigawatt hour figure.

Still small next to the continent's EV demand, still gives system operators

more room to do things like smoothing out demand peaks, soaking up the cheaper

power that might be at midday when everyone's at work and support capacity

during calm dark spells.

That helps contain wholesale volatility, which in turn shapes charging

economics and time of use tariffs for EV owners and even your neighbors

that don't have an EV.

They'll pay less for electricity in the long run because the rest of us

going EV with battery storage on the grid as well makes sense for everybody.

Even if they're a never beaver, that's OK.

It's cheaper for all of us.

OK, let's go down under, which frankly I'd love to because it's their summertime.

Kia has opened orders for the EV for in Australia.

So my Aussie listeners can now get the Keer EV for.

It's the battery twin to the petrol K for down under.

And as one of the country's cheaper dedicated EV saloons, the EV for

standard range in air trim starts at 50,000 Aussie dollars.

That's about 35,000 US equivalent undercutting many rivals.

The bigger change sits under the skin, the EV for on their lower voltage

EGMP architecture rather than the more expensive 800 volt set up cuts cost

as it rains in peak charging performance.

That's OK for most buyers of those cars.

Three trims arrive in Australia, air, earth and GT line.

The EV for air standard range, single front motor, 150 kilowatts,

58.3 kilowatt hour battery, WLTP at 456 K's.

That's 283 miles.

Then the earth and the GT line get the bigger pack.

That's 81.4 kilowatt hour with WLTP range of up to 612 kilometers or 380

miles. You're knocking on 400 miles there, WLTP.

That's a win on the big battery prices.

Begin from 60,000 Aussie dollars, like I say, for the earth.

And it goes all the way up to 65,000 Aussies for the GT line.

It's about 45,000 US inside.

They all have the unified panoramic display

with that 12.3 inch digital instrument cluster,

the little five inch climate and the 12.3 inch multimedia unit.

It's got wireless Apple CarPlay, wireless Android Auto,

all standard vehicle to load as standard.

I pedal three, smart regen, all the toys.

So EV4 is a good car.

Now let's talk megawatt charging in September this year.

Magna Park in Lutterworth, UK will bolt an electric heavy goods

vehicle charging hub into the ground on its 13 million square foot logistics real

estate. The site spread across 50 buildings sold on things like sustainability

credentials at Magna Park will now gain megawatt charging.

The first phase is 32 megawatt charges, each delivering 400 kilowatts for HTVs.

They're putting 179 bays in, but only 32 kilowatt charges, megawatt charges.

Sorry. So that layout is all about vehicles being able to charge and then move.

The pull in layout fits articulated vehicles.

These are big, heavy goods, trucks, driver, welfare,

often an afterthought in the industry.

Sits well in the brief.

They'll supply hospitality for drivers at the hub,

folding in rest and refreshment into the charging stop.

But this is really important.

These are men and women who without them,

you've got nothing on your supermarket shelves and this is an industry

that I wouldn't want to do and I'm so grateful that people do.

It's a tough job as well, away from friends and family for long periods of time.

We have to make the industry better for those people, not just driving

better vehicles, but making their quality of life better, making it a job that

people, you know, an honest job that AI is not not going to kill and that people

want to get into. And the project will not only electrify Britain's fleet,

but high capacity MCS ready hubs rolling out in more places is a really good thing.

Now, I mentioned this yesterday,

X-Peng will hold its UK prices this year, completely stable.

They're releasing the new G6, which is the second gen G6 SUV.

China's onto its third one, third gen already.

They say that the new one is completely redesigned, 20,000 changes,

chassis, suspension, steering, battery, all noise, vibration, all better.

The cabin has better materials, better finishes, better tuning for European roads.

The new G6 dual motor all wheel drive performance black edition joins the range

this year as its flagship twin motors, 358 kilowatts.

Good for four seconds, not a 62 puts the car in the electric performance SUV territory.

List prices don't change, even with all the improvements, rear wheel drive standard.

That's what I would go for.

$39,990 because under a 40 K luxury tax.

That's being hopefully is that soon that goes to 50,000.

Was that definite policy?

I need to look into that when that starts, whether that was just a mooted thing.

And the long range version, 45 grand all wheel drive performance, 50 grand.

The firm still wants to threaten premium rivals on technology and pace, even without the badge.

And finally, in Britain's car hire lots, the change is happening quietly.

Petrol and diesel, which once filled almost every bay.

Now rental firms are adding an increasing amount of electric vehicles

at speed pushed by customers who want low emission travel.

Rising fuel costs and expanding cleaner zones and congestion zones

like we have in London and other big cities, more to come.

Electricity works out much cheaper on short term hires, even medium term hires.

Exemptions or lower fees for these models sweeten the deal.

What began as a green gesture by many higher companies is now a core part of their offering.

Improved charging networks ease the way as well above all on motorways in urban areas.

The automatic nature of EVs suits city driving, which is stop start.

Renters can get a quiet, smooth performance car, which is less tiring.

Demand comes on several fronts.

Enterprise research finds that Gen Z drivers in Britain want to rent EVs

when they come to rent a car, not a petrol or diesel.

Younger motorists using rental as a low risk way of doing electric motoring.

Business travellers need to do things like lower their carbon footprint

and pick battery power.

More often they say urban visitors who want to dodge congestion charges

or emissions charges pick the electric option.

Rental companies are seeing long term gains to EVs have lower maintenance costs over time.

Meet the firm's sustainability targets as well.

And according to self drive vehicle hire here in the UK,

a market once dominated by petrol and diesel is fast shifting here to low emission electric hire.

The shift in Britain's car hire bays doesn't really make the headlines.

There was a lot made of Teslas move into the Hertz rental fleet many years ago.

And then they reversed out of that very quickly when they didn't quite appreciate what they were buying.

And yes, Tesla service can be a beast of its own.

But outside of America, Germany, in the EU, here in Britain,

rental fleets are quietly going electric.

For many drivers, their first real taste of EV motoring now comes not from a showroom,

but from the rental counter.

And that's your podcast for today.

Thanks to our premium partners, National Car Charging on the US mainland

and the low-high 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 cinema and remember, there's no such thing as a self charging hybrid.

DAILY: VW Cell Making, Mercedes S-Class Gets A Plug and Volvo Bets On America | 01 Feb 2026

About this episode

Mercedes-Benz Sclass

Volkswagen

Volvo

gigafactory

Powerco

Volkswagen ID. Polo

Volkswagen ID. Cross SUV

MEB Plus platform

prismatic cell

Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP)

Nickel Manganese Cobalt (NMC)

cell-to-pack system

giga-cast battery casing

ADAS

Mercedes-Benz EQS

BYD

BEVs

Kia EV6

EGMP architecture

WLTP

kilowatt hour

Apple CarPlay

Android Auto

megawatt charging

heavy goods vehicle (HGV)

electric vehicle

X-Peng G6

electric motoring

Tesla

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