DS No.4 E-Tense, Ford Launches Fast Charging Network and Hacker Recovers Crash Data Tesla Claimed Missing | 02 Sep 2025

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Welcome back to EV News Daily.

Coming up today, the DS number four E-tense,

Ford's open fast charging network,

and a hacker recovers Tesla crash data.

Plus, stay tuned.

Later in the show, I'll tell you which video game

just got a special Polestar edition

that could send the winner to the automaker's HQ in Sweden.

Well, good morning, good afternoon, good evening,

wherever you're listening around the world.

Welcome to EV News Daily.

This is your trusted source of EV information.

It's Tuesday, 2nd of September.

I'm Martin Lee, and I go through every EV story,

so you don't have to.

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Be like them by clicking on a link in the show notes.

We'll start with news of a vehicle that we get,

but my US listeners won't.

And you might want this one,

because I think it's kind of handy,

actually, a DS number four E-tense.

DS unveiled the all-electric number four E-tense,

a successor to the DS number four.

It sits between a compact car and an SUV.

Think Hyundai Ioniq 5.

Think Qiri V6, not a full-size SUV.

But a reasonable battery size,

a smidge under 60 kilowatt hours, 280 miles WLTP.

Engineers say they adopted a new cell chemistry,

and 18 modules reduces packaging

and increases energy density.

DS offers just one configuration,

a front-mounted motor.

It's 160 kilowatts,

and it's 0 to 62 miles per hour in 7.1.

Seconds, DC fast charging.

Again, all very much respectable, but not outstanding.

120 kilowatt DC fast charging, not 10 to 80, 20 to 80.

They give on this one is 30 minutes.

The number four E-tense is a bit longer

than a Kona electric.

Cargo volume, 390 liters,

or 1260 with the rear seats folded down.

Available features include a head-up display,

infrared night driving camera,

and the proprietary Iris system with chat GPT integration.

It adds new digital instrument clusters

and a 10-inch central touchscreen and vehicle to load.

It starts at 37,000 pounds, well, five pounds under.

So it's eligible for the UK government grant.

It comes out in Q4.

This looks like a really attractive vehicle.

I guess my US listeners get Cadillacs and we don't.

But this is the kind of posh bit of Citroën.

So, yeah, that's maybe a good line to draw

across the Atlantic.

Vehicles that we would get for a very reasonable price.

Good choice of materials, not gonna be spectacular,

but a really nice upgrade on just buying a Citroën.

Okay, let's talk about Ford launching their Ford Charge,

open fast charging network.

It's a public DC fast charging network

with 1,200 charges across the US and Canada.

The network is open to all EVs, not just Ford.

More than 324 dealerships will host the new charges,

placed alongside major highways

to support long distance travel.

Ford Charge integrates with the Blue Oval Charge network,

described as the largest public charging network

in North America with 200,000 stations.

One of those, I kind of call them virtual networks

because they're not charging networks,

but the car makers always insist,

like, hey, we've put together a big charging network.

What they mean is they haven't built 200,000 charges.

They just give you access to others

and you know what, that's absolutely fine,

but so many of them are a bit fudgy

around the language in the press release.

Sometimes implying that they've done a bit more work

than simply call up the charging network

and being like, you know, can our drivers use you?

Well, of course we want to make money,

all charging networks do.

And so they wrap them together,

give them a name, all the car companies do it,

and then say, hey, we've got our own charging network.

And well, yeah, I suppose it's true.

Drivers can find and access Ford Charge

through the Ford Pass plug jet or shell apps

which show real-time availability,

pricing and route planning,

site support plug-in charge for automatic payment,

and work with Tesla superchargers

and electrify America locations.

All drivers can use Ford Charge

and receive 24-7 live customer support.

They say 804 dealerships already offer public charging

at more than 3000 DC fast charges

in a separate bit of news.

Now, at the beginning of last month,

so beginning of August,

Tesla was found partly liable in a wrongful death case

involving a pedestrian killed in Florida in 2019.

Tesla said that they did not have the crash data

from the fatal incident.

However, the Washington Post revealing today

that the data was there

and it was found by a hacker.

Attorneys for the family

saw the collision snapshot data from the cameras

and other sensors capturing the final moments before

and after the impact.

Once the collision snapshot was uploaded to Tesla's servers,

the car's local copy gets flagged for deletion.

Someone at Tesla probably took,

the Washington Post says affirmative action to delete

the copy of the data

on the company's central database.

Tesla acknowledged receiving the data

only after the police brought the vehicle's damaged

infotainment system with autopilot control unit

to a Tesla technician for diagnosis

at which point the local collision snapshot

was considered unrecoverable.

Now, the hacker's very well known.

He goes by the name or cheat.

No, I think it's he.

I think they've mentioned that before on Twitter.

Green the only telling the Washington Post

that for any reasonable person, the data was there.

During the trial,

Tesla said it did not hide the data,

but rather that it lost the crash data.

The company's lawyer told the Washington Post

that data handling was simply clumsy

and that a subsequent search did locate the data

after acknowledging that Green the only

had retrieved the snapshot

from the local copy stored on the car.

Now, let's move on.

Tesla moved in federal court in Miami and Florida

to overturn the verdict linked to the crash

in Friday's filing.

Tesla asked the judge to rule

that the verdict was legally unjustified.

It was a $243 million settlement,

not a settlement, but an award.

One person was killed in the incident.

The lawsuit alleged effective design

and that Tesla misled customers

about how much autopilot would or wouldn't do.

Tesla, as always argue, the driver is at fault.

Tesla now arguing that the case should be thrown out

and that they shouldn't have to pay it.

That one clearly will drag on through the courts.

Now, rumours say Hyundai's next entry-level EV

could either be an Ioniq 2 or an Ioniq 3.

Prototypes have been seen in testing.

Hyundai's released the first official images,

so that hints at imminent launch.

The Teasers show a rear spoiler

similar in shape and size to the updated Ioniq 6

and likely full-width LED light bar.

The car is expected to use Hyundai's EGMP platform

like other Ioniq and Kia EV models.

It will sit between the Insta EV and the Kona in the lineup.

Inside, it'll debut the new entertainment system

running Plios OS, designed to work more like a smartphone.

Pricing range and specs are not announced with the Kia,

with the Kona electric rather starting at 35,000 pounds here.

You think, what, maybe 10 grand less?

Kia EV2 pricing 25,000 pounds or euros or so.

We haven't got long to wait.

The global debut will be at the IAA show,

Munich Motor Show in Germany that kicks off September 9th.

Now, Skoda is reviving the Felicia Fun as an EV concept.

Skoda is marking its 130th anniversary

by reviving historic model names as EVs.

So far, it's revived the favorite as the VW ID.3

sized hatchback and the Slavia B motorcycle

as all in the brand's new modern solid aesthetic

is how they describe it.

And the latest is the Felicia Fun EV.

The original Felicia Fun was a compact pickup

based on the Felicia hatchback built from 1998 to 2000.

The beach vibe inspired model was known

for daisy style alloy wheels,

a second row of pop-up seats and bright yellow paint.

Body clutting came in matching yellow, green or orange.

Now, designed by the interior lead, Julien Pettisigno,

the Felicia Fun EV is based on a more modern

Skoda Vision 7S, the concept widely expected

to reflect the upcoming all-electric version

of the Skoda Kodiak.

To recreate the open bed,

they removed the Vision 7S's second and third row seats.

So a Skoda pickup truck,

maybe we'll see more at the IAA show.

Now, following up some more news on EV sales

in the European Union that I mentioned yesterday,

some more to add to that.

Overall, new car registrations were up like I mentioned.

This is July data,

even though we've just tipped into September.

Takes a little while to pull these things together

sometimes.

We've now got the full bevshare for July here in the EU

and it's unchanged from the first half of the year.

It's holding steady at 15.6%.

Cumulative new EV sales were 1.01 million

through to the end of July.

142,000 pure bevs were sold in July in the EU.

Three of the EU's four largest markets

which together represent more than 60%

of the registrations increased.

Germany, Belgium, Netherlands,

all up significantly in bev sales.

France was down by 4%, but up year on year.

Plug-in hybrid vehicle sales totals 561,000

in the first half of the year.

Well, from January to the end of July,

that's 8.6% of total sales

which is up a little bit on last year,

but all the real moves I think are happening

in terms of BEVs.

Internal combustion engines, you won't be surprised to hear,

continues to lose share in the EU.

The combined market share of petrol and diesel cars

fell to 37.8% down from 48% in July last year.

All right, we'll take a break.

We'll come back.

We've got lots to talk about.

Do we need more incentives over here to sell EVs?

What about Chinese ex-pungs and Ford super trucks?

All to discuss on the podcast soon.

Stick around.

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All right, welcome back to the podcast.

Now, associations representing the European automakers

and suppliers, companies like Mercedes-Benz,

ask the European Commission for more subsidies,

more tax reductions, and lower energy costs

if they want to demand a boost demand

for electric vehicles.

In a joint letter to Ursula von De Leyen,

which I talked about recently when they said

that the 2035 target was unthinkable now,

this letter also said the EU regulates manufacturers

on the supply of low-emission vehicles,

but does not provide the conditions needed

for the transition.

Talking about tariffs, competition from China,

and dependence on Chinese imports,

the association called for more ambitious,

long-term and consistent demand-side incentives.

That's a fancy pants way of saying,

we need a bit more help, please,

from the regulators and the officials

that set the rules.

The organization's asked for the European Commission

and the strategic dialogue meeting

coming up on September 12th

to discuss a bit more help for the car industry.

All right, let's move on.

Now, the Ford F-150 Lightning Super Truck.

That was the Pikes Peak Hill Climb winner.

It's now the fastest Ford ever around the Nürburgring.

Do these lap records really matter to the rest of us?

No, but they're kind of interesting

for the car makers to do themselves,

not any one in a minute.

The all-electric demonstrator vehicle

is not an F-150 Lightning

that you can pop down your local dealership,

or maybe even a slightly spruced-up version.

Now, this is a purpose-built track car.

It runs on slicks through electric motors.

1,200 horsepower, that's 900 kilowatts,

and a very aerodynamic body

in terms of the amount of downforce produced

at 150 miles an hour,

producing 6,000 pounds or 2,700 kilograms of downforce.

Now, who drove it?

Very famous racing driver for,

not only the Pikes Peak Hill Climb,

but driving quick electric cars

to the VW IDR back in the day.

Romain Dumas drove it on August the 5th.

That's the same day

he also took a transit-style super van

around the ring as well,

doing it quicker than a Chevrolet Corvette.

He clocked in the super truck,

six minutes 43.482,

around the 12.9-mile circuit.

The time ranks fifth

in the Prototypes and Pre-Production Vehicles class,

and sixth overall on the official list,

about 40 seconds from the finish.

In-car video shows 163 miles an hour

on the long final straight

before the truck begins to slow,

presumably as the battery was just eking out

the very last that it could do

as he slaps the steering wheel

and it finished 10 seconds ahead

of a Mustang GTD, by the way.

So why do the car makers do this?

Is it for bragging rights?

Well, partly I guess it's for headlines

and enthusiasts to do,

but there is obviously a lot of work

that goes in at the very top end of high performance

and every data point,

of which there will be millions of pieces of data,

I'm guessing,

from something like a one lap of the Nurburgring

in a high-tech version of a vehicle,

just sensors everywhere.

There's a huge amount that they can learn

from running vehicles at the ragged edge.

Now, yes, of course,

you do get the headlines of a super truck,

a Ford F-150 going around the Nurburgring.

It's styled to look like an F-150 lightning

and they have to,

but running these high-tech prototype vehicles,

demonstrators as they're called,

does have quite a lot of use for learning.

Now, the electric car grant,

the UK's government funded subsidy,

launching a few weeks ago

and reducing the prices of new vehicles.

I told you last week how the Ford Puma Gen E,

and now the Ford Puma is our favorite car here

and it's important that it goes electric,

but it was also quite an expensive choice

for not a stellar set of specifications

in its original pricing.

One of only two cars to qualify for the full amount,

3,750 pounds.

Now it makes the fully electric Puma cheaper

than the petrol hybrid.

And today I can see the least prices

have now been adjusted.

Carwow Leasey,

having a look at this one,

lists the Puma Gen E at 132 pounds a month.

It was 168 before.

There is a down payment.

It's 1800 pounds down.

Over two years, annual mileage, 5,000 miles.

The car offered is the base select trim.

One of two Puma Gen E trims.

Equipment includes 17-inch alloys,

LED lights, 12-inch touchscreen

with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto,

a charging pad.

The powertrain is rated at 125 kilowatts

or 167 horsepower.

Official range on it, 233 miles WLTP.

Like I say, the specs on the Puma Gen E,

nothing special, and that's okay

because the Puma is really not a special car.

I'd say it's our most popular car here.

It's an everyday car,

but it wasn't joined with an everyday price

for the electric version.

I mean, you could just go and make

a little Tesla stretch and get a Model 3,

which is, I mean, ridiculously superior

in every possible way.

You could get a one or two year old Model 3

for probably less money,

which is a really compelling choice

because it's not a fantastic EV,

even though the Puma's very popular here.

However, taking almost four grand off the price

suddenly makes it make a lot more sense

and that lease pricing, not that lease vehicles,

seems pretty good to me.

And finally, Polestar has released

the Polestar Edition Geo Guesser,

a branded version of the geography game

where players identified their location

from street level visuals.

It adds a new digital rear view mirror

modeled on the new Polestar 4.

The top of the screen, the scene,

the shows the scene in reverse to increase difficulty.

To mark the launch of the game,

the integration with the game,

Polestar's running a Europe wide competition,

timed with the world championship finals

in Copenhagen for this, like I say, Geo based game.

The grand prize will be an all expenses paid trip

to Polestar's headquarters in Gothenburg in Sweden

and a full day at a test track

with a professional racing driver as well.

The game is open to all

and runs on mobile phones and desktop computers.

Polestar owners can also play via

the built in web browser in your vehicles.

I must confess, I'm until now not very up to speed

on Geo Guesser, if that's indeed how I say it,

but if you are and you're a Polestar fan as well

or you just like to, I don't know,

play a geography game as you journey around the world

to challenge your surroundings

from a street level, different identification.

Looks like a fun little game.

Then maybe you wanna have a go at that

and win a cool prize as well.

Oh, thanks to Polestar.

And that's your podcast for today.

Thanks to our premium partners, Porsche,

the village of Cincinnati,

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and Volvo cars of Cincinnati East,

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made simple with one app and one map.

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as a self-charging hybrid.

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Twilio empowers the builders who shape tomorrow.

Whether you're scaling a startup

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you need a customer engagement platform that keeps up.

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test and scale with confidence.

Connecting data, AI and customer communication

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Learn more at twilio.com.

DS No.4 E-Tense, Ford Launches Fast Charging Network and Hacker Recovers Crash Data Tesla Claimed Missing | 02 Sep 2025

Hyundai Ioniq

Hyundai Kona

Hyundai Ioniq 6

Kia EV2

Skoda Felicia

Volkswagen Id3

Skoda Slavia

Ford Super

Ford F-150 Lightning

Chevrolet Corvette

Ford Mustang GTD

Golf Gtd

Ford Edge

Ford Puma

Tesla Model 3

Polestar 4

About this episode

Original notes