The Audi S6 is a fast and comfortable car that looks like a regular family car but drives much better. It has a strong engine and lots of nice features inside. People like it because it’s both practical and fun to drive.
The Alpina B10 is a special version of a BMW car that is faster and more comfortable than usual. It’s made by a company that improves BMWs to make them unique. People talk about it because it’s rare and drives really well.
Polestar 5 is a new electric car made by a company called Polestar. It's designed to be fast and stylish, and it runs only on electricity instead of gas.
SIMI is a group in Ireland that keeps track of car sales and registrations. They tell us how many cars are sold and what types of cars people are buying.
An electric vehicle is a car that runs on electricity instead of gas. It uses batteries to store power and doesn't pollute the air like regular cars do.
The Tesla Model Y is a small electric car that looks like a family SUV. It runs on batteries instead of gas, so it doesn’t need fuel and is better for the environment. People talk about it because it’s popular and has lots of cool features.
The Kia EV5 is a new electric car that looks like a small SUV. It doesn’t use gas and is made to be easy to drive and good for families. People are interested in it because it’s one of the newer electric cars coming soon.
The Volkswagen ID.4 is a small electric SUV that doesn’t use gas and is good for everyday driving. It has enough space for people and stuff, and it’s made to be easy to use. People mention it because it’s one of the more affordable electric SUVs.
The Hyundai Kona is a small SUV that’s easy to drive and good for families or city use. It comes with regular gas engines or as an electric car, so you can choose what fits you best. People like it because it looks nice and has good features.
The Kia EV3 is a small electric car that’s good for driving around town. It doesn’t need gas and is easy to park and use. People talk about it because it’s a simple and affordable electric car.
The Chevrolet C10 is an old-style pickup truck from America that was made a long time ago. It’s famous because it was tough and could carry heavy loads. People like to fix them up and use them for shows or work.
The Audi S5 is a fast and fancy car that looks sporty and feels very comfortable inside. It has a strong engine that makes it quick and can drive well in all weather. People talk about it because it’s fun to drive and looks great.
The 5 E-Tech Electric is a new electric car that looks like an old Renault car from the past. It runs on electricity instead of gas, so it’s better for the environment. People like it because it’s a mix of old style and new technology.
The Renault 4 CV is a very old and small car from France that was made after the war. It was cheap and easy to drive, helping many people get cars for the first time. People talk about it because it’s an important part of car history.
The MG4 is a small electric car that has extra storage space under the hood, called a frunk. It doesn’t use gas and is made to be affordable and easy to use. People talk about it because it’s a good value electric car.
The Polestar 2 is a stylish electric car that looks modern and drives well. It doesn’t use gas and has lots of technology inside. People mention it because it’s a nice and powerful electric car.
The Polestar 4 is a new electric SUV that looks sporty and cool. It runs on electricity and is made to be fun to drive. People are excited about it because it’s a fresh new electric car coming soon.
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Welcome back to the Nevo EV news podcast. If it's Tuesday, it must be Nevo EV Newsday. It is episode 52.
Happy birthday. Happy anniversary. It is one year since we started the Nevo EV news podcast and delighted that we have done every single week in season one.
I think it might change to season two now that we're going into the second year. It's been interesting to output something every single week on news.
So we've had short episodes. We've had long episodes. We've had interviews. We've had a great variety. Hopefully you agree.
And if you've been listening to the podcast and you still haven't had a chance to leave a review, leave a comment, this is the week. This is the time we'd really like you to do it on the one year anniversary of the podcast.
52 episodes. Technically 53 because we did have a bonus episode back at the very beginning. But anyway, we've done an episode every single week at a minimum.
On this week's episode, we're going to be chatting about the SIMI February 2026 EV registrations. We had the launch of the MG S6 after our interview with Andrew Johnston, who is the sales manager for MG Ireland at the Zevi event last week.
We referenced that. I was the last couple of days driving the Leap Motor B10. Just put out a video on it. And the title of the video is It's Almost Perfect.
So we're going to be chatting about that. Polestar 5 Irish Launch happened when I was away. So a quick update on that and what their product offensive is going to be moving forward.
And also Verizon, which is the electric commercial vehicle brand have announced two new Irish dealers.
For those who don't know, my name is Derek Riley and on this podcast we chat about all things electric vehicles.
Nevo's Ireland's only dedicated EV platform and we'll be covering where we were this week, what we've been driving, what we've been doing between the podcasts.
If you haven't already subscribed or followed us wherever you are listening, please do so. And if you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating.
It really helps out and it doesn't cost you anything. So let's get stuck in.
You'll hear from guests just like you who wanted to start a business on the side.
If you can't run a side hustle, you can't run a business.
They share real tips.
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Real advice.
Procrastination is the easiest form of resistance.
And the actual strategies they use to turn their side hustle into their main hustle.
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Check out side hustle pro every week on your favorite podcast app and YouTube.
Actually, I also did the coast to coast range test in the Renault for video not out yet.
So I'll keep that in my back pocket as to how that went.
So stay tuned for that on the YouTube channel, but also here on the podcast.
Last but not least next Sunday, the 8th of March, we're going to be down in the Marina market in Cork.
I did a couple of radio interviews this week chatting about it.
So we'll wrap up the episode with that.
But kicking off, we have the SIMI, the Society for the Irish Motor Industry, February 2026 registration numbers.
So overall, the market is up about 5% to 50,442 vehicles in total.
But the breakdown of that we have in the electric side of the house.
The number one fuel type being petrol hybrid, then number two petrol and number three electric.
And for the month of February alone, which I'll break down into it now so that you can get the month on month rather than the overall year.
We are here.
You have a total registration of for the month of February 15th, just over 15,000 cars.
And within that, then we have electric coming in in second and third place, sorry, up 14% month on month and year on year.
We're still up nearly 40%.
So great growth in electric vehicles so far.
Top models and I'm putting my filters here as I'm chatting to you folks.
The number one selling electric vehicle for the month of February is the Volkswagen ID4, followed by the Tesla Model Y, the Kia EV5,
which is only after landing Hyundai Kona, like that car, fair play.
And I'm seeing more and more of them on the road. It's something we don't hear or talk about a lot.
It might be time to go back and do another video on it just to remind people how good it is.
And then the Kia EV3 in fifth position.
So for the month of February, there are top five electric vehicles that have been registered.
Manufacturers we have so far this year, Hyundai is leading the field with that as well.
And we have nearly every single county up on the previous February of last year.
So numbers up again.
I do my little roundup social post.
Some of you may see that and so that EVs up 14% versus February of last year, PH EVs up 6%.
Petrol down 3%, diesel down 9%.
Over 34% of cars sold and registered in February had a plug socket on it and one in five cars being fully electric.
Sorry, the fifth place vehicle is the Toyota BZ and in sixth place was the Kia EV3.
Let's just make sure we get it all right.
So another great month, EVs on the up and up and so far this year outselling pure petrol and pure diesel so far this year.
Very close but for petrol but diesel it's pulling away.
Some people say that because there aren't a lot of diesel options available,
not sure that's the case if you wanted diesel you could still go and buy a diesel.
It's just that more people are choosing to go electric and with the news of the Middle East,
what's happening there this weekend is petrol prices gone up, fuel prices gone up,
but you've locked in your home energy.
You are in for 12 month contract, 24 month contract, so you know what it's going to cost to charge your EV at home.
And currently out in the public domain on the public charging network whereas with fuel prices,
they're a bit more volatile, a bit more fluid.
So another good month for electric vehicles and registrations.
The Nevo driving experience is happening as I mentioned in this Sunday in Cork,
we have 14 brands attending and they are, let me run through them,
Paul Star, Mercedes-Benz, Smart, X-Pang, Toyota and Lexus, Ford, MG, BMW, Hyundai, Kia, Renault,
Alfa Romeo, Tesla, BYD, Jeep and Fiat.
And each of those brands then has either one or two models on test drive as well.
So if you're in the Munster area, make sure that you've put it in your diary
and if Marina Market and Cork is a great venue to go to anyway and we're just adding to that.
So it's on Sunday the 8th from 10 to 5, you just have to register over Nevo.ie.
It is free to register and also test drives as well.
Once you register, you get a link to go and book your test drives on the day.
So really looking forward to that.
We'll also have experts, local experts, and we'll also have a couple of stage talks,
thinking about going electric, busting mits, top tips for when you do go electric, et cetera, et cetera
and choosing the right EV for you.
So really looking forward to the Nevo driving experience happening this Sunday,
March the 8th in Cork in the Marina Market.
For the last two days, I've been driving the LeapMotor B10.
Just put a video out and talking about how I feel it's almost the perfect EV.
And when I drove it for the first time in the south of France last year,
it hadn't got the Android Auto and Apple CarPlay functionality phone mirroring.
And I picked it up outside Gowan Auto yesterday morning or Monday morning and jumped in
and it says there's an update available. Would you like to update?
I was like, yeah, why not?
And the update was a number of things, but as well as that,
it was that the Android Auto option is now available.
So I was able to use my phone and pop along to Android Auto,
which I'm obviously a big fan of, built on the LeapMotor 3.5 architecture.
So it's different to the T03 and the C10 prices, Irish prices starting at 32,984.
There's two battery sizes, a 56.2 or 67.1.
They're very close in size.
So I don't know how many people are going to be going for that smaller battery,
standard range battery, when you can get the bigger battery on the top trim for a price of 35.95.
So the walk isn't a lot to get the bigger battery and all the extra bits.
Blue, black, purple, silver, white and gray.
There is a frunk 25 litres.
It's about 4.5 metres long with a wheelbase that is 2.7 if I'm not mistaken.
Style trim comes in the standard and the long range battery and then design trim,
which is our top trim that gets the leather effect that gets the ambient light, etc.
Heat pump comes as standard.
It's a tall SUV.
LeapMotor is a weird thing where they have their numbers.
This is the B10, but really it's a mid-sized C-segment SUV.
Their C10 is a D-segment SUV.
So it would be great if they could align their naming with the size of the vehicle.
11 kilowatt on AC charging and up to 168 on DC if you go for the bigger battery.
30 to 80%.
Just give me 10 to 80%.
This 30 to 80% is a bit of a malarkey in 20 minutes.
30 to 80%.
Gray headroom, fully flat floor because it's a ground up EV.
Now it will be coming in a rev or EEV range extended electric vehicle,
which is a small little petrol motor.
If that range of WLTP 434 in my testing, I had a 18.2 was the consumption rate.
So that brings you around 375, 380.
It's 910 degrees.
I was doing a bit of motorway, so I was impressed with that.
Large panel sunroof, great size boot as well.
So overall nearly perfect.
Why I say nearly perfect?
First of all, you have to go over and watch the video to understand why I said it.
No rear wiper, ling-lang, ling-lang tires.
There's a couple of small little things now that you know hot-leap motor.
If you could just take a rear wiper on the back of it.
If you could just push Continentals or Michelins on the wheels,
it would make a big difference with regards to that confidence level.
Now that you've got Android Auto and Apple CarPlay,
it's so close to being a really, really good.
It is a really good EEV, don't get me wrong.
And for that price and that space and that size,
I've already sent it over to a couple of people who are in the market for it.
Great to have the competition, great to have more in that space,
but it's a tough space.
You've got the MGS5 and between the two of them now, it is between the two of them.
It is which one would you go for?
It'd be great head to head actually.
This one is rear wheel drive and 50-50 weight distribution as well.
Yeah, sorry, power 160 kilowatt electric motor,
giving you 218 horsepower, 240 Newton meters of torque,
0-108 seconds with a top speed of 170 kilometers an hour.
That is the Leap Motor B10 video over on the YouTube channel,
but also in the description if you're interested.
Moving from one Chinese manufacturer to the next is the MGS6 launch,
which we had last week in Sandyford in dynamic spaces.
If you're following me on my LinkedIn and Instagram, my personal page,
you'll see that I did a what behind the scenes day in the life,
following me as we go to an Irish launch.
MGS6 EV, which is, as you can imagine, bigger than the S5,
not always the case, Derek.
Renault 5 and Renault 4, the Renault 4 is bigger,
but an MG land they've gone with conventional numbering.
If it's a bigger number, it's a bigger car.
It is starting at 39,495.
MG are creeping up into that very tough space.
Your Skoda's, your Volkswagen's, your Kia's, your Hyundai's.
This is going to be a tough market for them,
but Fairplay, they're bringing their game offering up to 530 kilometers of range,
It's got that new updated interior that we would have seen on the S5.
We would have recently seen on the MG4 EV update, 2026.
It's the first MG with a frunk.
It also has a head-up display, wireless charging pads,
which is cooled in the center console, two cup holders,
large driver display and large center.
It's got that panoramic 1.92 square meters, panoramic sunroof,
two HD screens and the head-up display, as I mentioned.
They're calling it the 12.8 inch and a 10.25 inch.
It all works in harmony.
And then we mentioned the wireless charging pad.
It has built-in apps on the top trim for Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube and TikTok,
if you're interested in pulling in and when you're charging.
It's based on that multi-award-winning platform.
So it's a mid-size SUV, is what they're calling it.
The NSP modular scalable platform.
We would have seen this originally back in the MG4
that we are currently driving in this house on the long-term loan
and it's the latest model to benefit from it.
It's specifically engineered for electric vehicles.
So, yeah, really good.
And a great-looking car, a safe car, a five-car Euro NCAP.
It has the iSmart app, wireless Android Auto app with CarPlay standard.
Crystal clear 360 HD cameras, keyless entry, electric tailgate and buttons are back.
Unlike its version in China, which is a lot of it through the touchscreen in the European MGs,
now we would have seen it on the S5 and now on the S6,
we can see a row of buttons which are to do with volume, temperature, fan speed, hazard lights.
So good to see that.
Excite long range, exclusive long range and exclusive dual motor.
So the air-bringing and all-wheel-drive version too is 39, 495 for the excite long range.
So same size battery across all of them.
It's just the trim level.
The exclusive long range is 42, 495 and then for the dual motor, it is a 46, 495.
Obviously a shorter range on the upper level trims.
Seven-year warranty, etc., etc.
So video coming to the channel soon and I'm going to be doing a range test down to the Nevo Driving Experience in Cork this weekend in the MG S6.
So stay tuned for that.
I've got a first look of it.
I saw it originally at the Brussels Motor Show January.
And so if you want to have a look at that, pop over to the YouTube channel and see my initial thoughts on it.
Polestar are rocking along and we had the Polestar 5 Irish launch.
I unfortunately wasn't around for it.
And so what we have now is the pots coming from Polestar in over the next coming months.
And let me pull up the information.
So Polestar news, it's not just about the Polestar 5.
It's all about the upcoming, we saw actually some renders of the new Polestar 2.
And that's going to be what it's all about as well with regards to how it's going to be rolled out.
Which regards to the new models that are coming across that Polestar range.
It's largest model offensive.
So you would have seen a graphic.
It's in relation to the 5, the 4, the 2 and the 7.
And so the 5 is going to start deliveries this summer followed by a new variation of the Polestar 4, which we're seeing does have a rear windscreen.
And so potentially, hopefully more affordable.
It's also going to get the new Polestar 2 version in 2027, which is next year and a compact SUV, the Polestar 7 coming in 2028.
And so they're Michael the Luchschiller.
Apologies, Michael, if you're listening to the podcast.
CEO continues Polestar can use to challenge the automotive industry now by entering the fast growing and high value segments in record speed.
And so the four door grand tour with the Polestar 5, which was a Dublin for a week, the Polestar 4, the new variant of the Polestar is best selling model.
Same technology targeting a wider copter based by why they're offering more versatility to be launched later this year and deliveries expected and the fourth quarter of 2026.
The Polestar 2.
And if you see the renders, I'm not sure if they've been confirmed yet, but front of it very like the Polestar 4 with that pours hammer, what they're calling now the dual blade sedan.
New successor is coming early next year and then the Polestar 7 a compact premium SUV planned in 2028.
So a big offensive coming from Polestar great to see the Polestar space in Dublin, rock and rolling.
And in Ireland they have sold over, I think it's they broke the thousand mark, which is a big milestone and potentially more locations coming soon.
So that is Polestar and the five and all the other models that they are coming out.
Last but not least the story about Verizon.
If you're interested in the Verizon brand, it is a Geely company and they have the Supervan and I have a video up on the channel.
A slow burner to start with, but a lot of people interested in it now.
But Frank Keane Verizon Ireland have announced the appointment of their first authorized dealers with Frank Keane, Verizon and Ballymount in Dublin and the M 50 truck and van center located off exit five on the M 50 in Dublin now representing the band in the Irish market.
The appointments mark an important milestone in the continued roll out of Verizon Ireland ensuring business and fleet customers have access to dedicated commercial vehicle sales and after sales support.
Frank Keane Verizon will operate in its Ballymount premises offering customers a dedicated commercial sales and after sales environment backed by experienced teams supporting SME and larger fleet operators across Dublin and the surrounding regions.
The M 50 truck and van center brings a long established expertise in the commercial vehicle sector with industry experience taken back to 1946, recognized for their strong focus on commercial vehicles servicing fleet maintenance and customer support.
The first model in Ireland, the Verizon SV or Supervan and other markets has been designed from the ground up as pure electric commercial vehicle, not adapted from a commercial combustion platform, allowing you to maximize space, efficiency, practicality and everyday business use.
So it's going to come in multiple body sizes and battery configurations can deliver up to 397 kilometers range combined with a maximum payload of 1350 and a cargo capacity of up to 13 square meters helping businesses choose the right specification for their operations.
Andrew Johnson, who is also at MG Ireland, but is also with Verizon Ireland stated the appointment of our first authorized dealers is key step in establishing the presence in Ireland, both Frank Keane, Verizon and M 50 truck and van prove bring proven commercial vehicle expertise and strong after sales capability together with the Verizon SV will bring a compelling new option to the Irish fleet and commercial customers.
So looking forward to that they are also you can do a 1500 trading bonus or deposit contribution alongside a competitive 2.9% HP finance rate for the Verizon SV.
That is episode 52 of the Nevo EV news podcast, hopefully you've enjoyed it. And hopefully you've enjoyed the last year listening to my dulcet male tones. I have stopped saying bell motion the podcast actually I was kind of about through half the year but let's maybe bring that back into season two.
Thanks for all the messages for people who I meet out and about at the events they said you know what I listen to the podcast. I really enjoy it. Thanks to all the people who have agreed to be interviewed over the year and lots more of that to come from local to international guests are being lined up for season two year two of the Nevo EV news podcast.
And I look forward to chatting to you. Lots of traveling over the next couple of weeks. I can talk about some of it. I can talk about other bits of it. But as soon as I can talk about I will definitely bring it to you on the on the podcast. So thanks for talking. Thanks for talking. Thanks for listening and we'll chat to you next week.
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About this episode
Celebrating its one-year anniversary, the podcast dives into February 2026 EV registration stats in Ireland, highlighting strong growth with electric vehicles up 14% month-on-month and nearly 40% year-on-year. The Volkswagen ID4 leads EV sales, followed by Tesla Model Y and Kia models. The host shares firsthand impressions of the LeapMotor B10, praising its near-perfect features but noting minor drawbacks. Coverage also includes the Irish launch of the MG S6, Polestar 5 updates, and new Farizon commercial EV dealers. Upcoming events like the Nevo driving experience in Cork are also previewed, offering test drives and expert talks.
Welcome back to the Nevo EV News Podcast. If it's Tuesday it must be Nevo EV News Day. My name is Derek Reilly and on this podcast we chat all about EV. Nevo is Ireland's only dedicated EV platform and we'll be covering where we were this week, what we've been driving and what we've been doing between podcasts. If you haven't already subscribed or followed us wherever you are listening please do so and if you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and comment, it really helps us out and it doesn't cost you anything. Let's get stuck in.
