DAILY: BMW i3 Debut, EV Prices Fall As Rules Tighten and Tesla Wins Power Licence | 16 Mar 2026

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Capital ones tech team isn't just talking about multi-agentic AI.

They already deployed one.

It's called chat concierge, and it's simplifying car shopping

using self-reflection and layered reasoning

with live API checks.

It doesn't just help buyers find a car they love.

It helps schedule a test drive, get pre-approved for financing,

and estimate trading value.

Advanced, intuitive, and deployed.

That's how they stack.

So that's technology at Capital One.

Capital ones tech team isn't just talking

about multi-agentic AI.

They already deployed one.

It's called chat concierge, and it's simplifying car shopping

using self-reflection and layered reasoning

with live API checks.

It doesn't just help buyers find a car they love.

It helps schedule a test drive, get pre-approved

for financing, and estimate trading value.

Advanced, intuitive, and deployed.

That's how they stack.

That's technology at Capital One.

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Welcome back to EV News Daily.

Today, BMW's I3 debut.

EV prices fall as rules.

Titan and Tesla wins a power license.

Plus, stay tuned.

Later in the podcast, I'll tell you where

old Nissan Leaf batteries are showing up.

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

Studying a Canadian plant.

Mercedes weighing up a jelly tie-up.

And VW's ID Unix 0-8 production beginning.

Let's get into it.

BMW will unveil the fully electric I3 sedan

on the 18th of March.

The car extends the newer class of platform from SUVs

into the sedan segment.

BMW started running assembly lines

for the I3 already in Munich.

Series production should begin in the autumn.

Sales will begin before the end of the year.

The launch follows early demand for the IX3

newer class version.

Holder books are full now for the rest of the year.

Production in their Hungarian plant, Deborah Sen,

has effectively sold out.

They've added an extra shift.

That matters because the I3 shares the architecture

with the IX3, using BMW's 6th gen tech, 800 volts,

400 kilowatt peak charging.

BMW says the I3 took far more work to develop

than the IX3.

Engineers had to keep the sedan's footprint

comparable to the outgoing model,

whilst using an all-new platform.

The first version will reach customers

in X-Drive 50 form.

So all-wheel drive, kind of middle of the road.

Pricing, BMW says the I3 would beat the IX3's 500 miles

or 800 kilometers of range because it's, well, more slippery.

More details today about the story

that I've previously mentioned.

Let me add some more details.

As rules tighten, prices go down.

What that's doing is making the cars cheaper for you and I.

Let me add some details to what I've already mentioned.

EV prices fell by an average of 1,800 euros.

That's $1,950 last year according to transport

and environments.

That cut prices by 4% took the average EV price

of 42,700 euros.

That's $46,300, ending five consecutive years

of rising EV prices.

The biggest drop came unsurprisingly in small EVs.

Prices in that segment fell 13%.

Think 15,000 to 25,000.

Things like the Renault 5, Renault 4, Citroen, EC3,

and, well, many, many more.

Transport and environment said tighter emissions rules

pushed the car makers to sell more cars.

You can sell more cars by selling smaller, cheaper cars.

And then you can do some emissions trading stuff

and that means you can sell more big, profitable gas guzzlers.

At the timing of the affordable EV launches was unmistakable.

It was no coincidence.

It literally happened to the day when the year ticked over.

Now they started selling small EVs

because they wanted to wait as long as they could.

A cynical move, you make your mind up.

The average EV transaction price in the United States

is $52,000.

That was a January last year.

That's way above the European average EV price now.

The US market is much smaller.

Car makers sit ahead of schedule already

on the European emissions compliance targets.

The 2025 to 27 targets.

Half the market's hit it already two years early.

Only Renault and Volkswagen are a bit behind on compliance.

But both are going to meet their targets by the end of this year,

at least end of next year.

Because both Renault and Volkswagen

have more through their brands and their sub brands

a lot more small cars coming.

The target's call for a 55% CO2 reduction

for cars versus 2019 levels.

And the T&E organization expects

those targets to drive further competitive EV pricing

by next year's sales of affordable and mass market EVs

will overtake large and premium vehicles.

Marking the first time this has happened since 2021.

T&E predicts EVs will reach price parity overall

with combustion in all segments.

Large and premium EVs have already hit price parity.

Now, Tesla has won an electricity supply contract

or license, I should say, not a contractor license

with off-gem.

That's our regulator for the energy market.

It now means Tesla Energy Ventures,

a licensed to sell electricity to retail and businesses

in England, Scotland and Wales as of now.

The approval ends a six-year push by Tesla

to become a full-service energy provider.

In other words, they'll send you the bill

and you'll pay your money to Mr. Musk.

Because we're a small island.

We have one national grid here in the UK

and at least in Great Britain, we're a small island.

And so you can sell electricity

by sitting on top of our one grid.

It's not quite so simple, but it's kind of like that.

So, Tesla have wanted to become an energy retailer,

much like any other company that sells you energy,

like mine, which is octopus.

Now, 8,400 people actually objected to the license

based on the public comments and the political gestures,

things like the Nazi salute and things that Elon Musk

has done, his political activities.

However, there's no real rules to stop Tesla energy

having a license based on the political affiliations

of its CEO.

You might not like his politics

and many people don't like far-right politics.

However, that's not a reason to not give them

an energy supply contract.

Well, I mean, you might think it is,

but it's simply not written in the rules.

In Texas, power owners earn credits

by exporting their energy back to the grid.

Every 15 minutes that updates,

any of the owners on the platform can charge off-peak

for a flat monthly fee.

If you link up enough battery energy storage at home,

you can even form a virtual power plant

and then you can use some funky stuff with energy trading.

No doubt, that's the big prize that Tesla has its eye on.

Now, UK car makers are beating their ZEV target,

the mandate.

We have a mandate over here.

I know that American politicians,

well, one in particular, your president likes to talk about,

wow, we're getting rid of the mandates.

America's never had a mandate.

No state has ever had a mandate for electricity,

even in California, which is about the harshest it gets

saying we want to go all EV.

And yet, we do have a mandate.

And so all the car makers are lobbying really hard

through their lobby organization, of course,

to keep a level of, you know, playing nicely,

and let the lobby organization take a few punches.

They're lobbying, say, it's too hard.

We can't do it, it's too hard, we can't do it.

It's too expensive, we can't do it, it's too hard.

The UK government came back,

I mentioned this yesterday, I got more data on it,

and said, well, you've done it already.

They released all of the 2024 data,

which we'd never previously had.

The first year of our mandate,

the department for transport, published the data,

and against a target of 22%.

The auto industry hit it at 24.1.

It's technically called the vehicle emissions trading scheme,

vets, and yeah, they were going for 22.

They hit 24.1.

So the industry's 2.1 percentage points above the target.

It's all about letting manufacturers bank EV credits

for future compliance years.

You can also trade with other car makers

that only sell EVs, they've got excess credits,

and that's a little earner for them,

the likes of poll stars,

and some of the Chinese makers that only sell EVs,

they'll have an excess of credits.

You can pool with them, you can trade with them,

and therefore nobody paid the 12,000 pounds per car fine

for non-compliance.

The government says that the average trading price

of credits was 4,000 pounds.

So that absolutely puts a big line

through the car industry's argument,

which is we're having to discount cars

because it's cheaper to discount a car by 11,000 pounds

than pay the 12,000 pounds government fine

for missing our targets.

So we're having to knock 11 grand off every car,

and that's not fair.

Not to say they didn't have to put money out of the pocket,

but it ain't 11.

It's 4,000 pounds, and it's not a government fine.

It's trading that they're doing between the car makers,

and you know what, if you want other car makers

to pay you that 4,000 pounds, sell more EVs

and have excess credits.

So then you can make some money.

And so some manufacturers are forward borrowed

the equivalent of their registration.

Registration to avoid any fines as well.

They've got a bit of catch up to do.

But that's amazing news.

I'm sure that this story will rumble on and on.

Interesting how the UK government's getting a bit punchy

with the car industry.

Stellantis and Ford, some of the most outspoken themselves,

not through the lobby organization,

saying, you must do what we say or else,

or else or else or else.

We have lots of employees, we'll pull investment.

That's interesting, making those direct threats.

UK government at the moment is not backing down.

If anything, I think getting a bit more punchy

by pushing back and saying, no, look, you're doing it.

You're hitting the targets that we set you.

So it's interesting we'll see where it goes.

Let's take a break or come back or talk charging

and battery strength and Australia.

Stick around, back in the mode.

Capital One's tech team isn't just talking

about multi-agentic AI.

They already deployed one.

It's called chat concierge and it's simplifying car shopping

using self-reflection and layered reasoning

with live API checks.

It doesn't just help buyers find a car they love.

It helps schedule a test drive,

get pre-approved for financing and estimate trading value,

advanced, intuitive and deployed.

That's how they stack.

That's technology at Capital One.

Capital One's tech team isn't just talking

about multi-agentic AI.

They already deployed one.

It's called chat concierge and it's simplifying car shopping

using self-reflection and layered reasoning

with live API checks.

It doesn't just help buyers find a car they love.

It helps schedule a test drive,

get pre-approved for financing and estimate trading value,

advanced, intuitive and deployed.

That's how they stack.

That's technology at Capital One.

Welcome back to the podcast.

Now, GreenNCAP and the Charging Interface Initiative

Charin will work together on EV Charging Interoperability

and Performance Transparency.

The deal could bring charons.

That's the charging organization

that puts together the CCS standard.

They're testing programs and roll into GreenNCAP's

vehicle assessment to give consumers data,

independent data on how well an individual EV

would work with the charging infrastructure.

That matters because testing checks whether EVs

and charging equipment all talk nicely to each other.

It also confirms that vehicles and chargers perform

as intended across brands, networks and countries

testing whether a car and charger can basically dance well.

Under the agreement, the Charon Label would be referenced

in GreenNCAP's driving experience assessment for EVs.

Now, let's talk leasing.

Aval, a big leasing company.

I've been looking at data on battery health

and they say that battery health falls by 1% per year

in their fleet after an initial drop,

falls by 1% per 25,000 kilometers.

The fleet management company based its finding

on looking at 24,000 battery health certificates

in 11 European countries.

Of the vehicles analyzed, 66% pure bev,

the remainder, plug-in hybrids.

They found that EVs and plug-in hybrids

that reached 160,000 kilometers or six years of service

had a battery health above 90%

and that after an initial drop that the battery degradation

was 1% per 25,000 kilometers.

In fact, newer generation EVs skewing the average

because they're too good.

And so newer EVs doing a way better job than older models

in terms of battery health.

As car makers and battery manufacturers learn,

this industry's five minutes old, you know,

in the grand scheme of things.

And so the tech is improving rapidly.

Fuel prices are rising across the world

and they're rising in Australia.

Just as EV advocates are pushing the federal government

to keep tax breaks for EVs,

the incentive is the electric vehicle discount,

letting workers cut their tax bill if you buy an EV.

Through salary sacrifice, the scheme can cut the cost

of a new EV by thousands of Aussie dollars.

The electric vehicle discount is sitting under review now,

reports suggest the upcoming federal budget could remove it.

But energy advocates oppose the move.

They argue that removing it comes at a bad time.

With a global fuel crisis,

thanks to Middle East conflict pushing costs up now.

It's not the time to move people back towards gas guzzlers.

Couple of good stories.

First of all, Schgoda posted record financial results

for 2025, with higher volume, more profit, more cash flow,

and a sharp rise in deliveries.

Deliveries of EVs are what did the work.

Last year, they doubled their electric car sales

to almost 220,000 units at Schgoda,

plug-in models, including bevs and plug-in hybrids,

were 26% of their sales,

the L-Rock and NEAC driving their growth,

with the L-Rock little crossover,

the second best selling bev in Europe last year.

Sayat also, very happy.

Sayat expects profitability.

We'll recover this year.

After the European Union dropped the tariffs on their Tava scan.

They've done a deal to make the Tava scan in China

and sell it in Europe without an added levy.

It was costing them until they did the deal.

Costing sayat,

250 million euros,

that's $288 million in 2025,

after the rate went from a 10% in poor duty

for making it in China,

to a 30.7%.

The EU made the move after a nine-month investigation

into subsidies for EVs.

Sayat didn't actually raise the price of the vehicle.

They took the 7,000 euro hit on every Tava scan sold,

and they sold 35,500 Tava scans last year,

according to data force.

The extra duty ended in February last month,

after the EU accepted an application from Volkswagen

to sell the vehicle at or above a minimum import price

and therefore the levy went back down to 10%.

And that Tava scan charged last year,

wiped out Sayat's profit.

Sayat said EV margins still trail those

of a comparable combustion car in Sayat at the moment.

They said that the revow is also only weeks away

from series production.

And finally, where do Nissan leaf batteries go to die?

I'll give you a clue.

They don't.

They just get used again.

Nissan has partnered with the Spanish Energy Storage Specialist

Little Electric Energy to deploy a second-life battery charging

set up.

This one's at the port of Vigo in Spain.

The system has repurposed 12 old battery packs.

They're 30 kilowatt hours each from the Nissan leaf.

And our battery backup at a charger.

The unit powers four charging points.

22 kilowatt ACs and some DC ultra-fast charging

at 240 kilowatts as well.

They got CCS2 and Shadowmo connectors.

Green charge targets sites where the grid capacity is tight.

And this is such a good use of second-life batteries.

OK, so you can't pull absolute maximum juice from the battery

if you want to floor it any more in a car.

That's OK, because four charging and EV,

you don't need that much current.

And so put the batteries together, find a grid connection.

That's got like a little teeny-weeny grid connection.

A connection constantly be charging up that battery.

A car turns up, plugs in, big dump of energy.

Off they go.

Meanwhile, the battery is just constantly sipping up the grid

and refilling the storage unit charges slowly

and delivers that stored energy quickly,

avoiding a costly grid upgrade and giving a very happy retirement year

to the Nissan leaf batteries.

Hello, 30 kilowatt hour packs.

They're not the oldest that they've made,

but they are some of the older packs in Nissan Leafs.

Nissan launched the original 24 kilowatt hour pack 16 years ago

and then introduced the 30 kilowatt hour pack 11 years ago.

And they're not done yet.

I'm afraid you can't enjoy your retirement years

and go off in place and golf battery packs.

No, you've got a bit more work to do.

And that is now you've finished helping EVs propel themselves down the road.

Now it's time to help charge some more EVs.

I love that story.

I know it's just one site in Spain.

It's just a single example, but stuff like that gives me huge hope.

It's in a microcosm exactly where our energy industry is going.

And my kids are growing up.

This is the world they're growing up into, and I'm here for it.

And that's your podcast for today.

Thanks to our premium partners,

National Car Charging on the US mainland,

and the low-hard charging Hawaii,

and Test EV.

Avaloo's trusted partner for independent EV battery health testing

in Australia and New Zealand.

Have a good in Sunimara.

And remember, there's no such thing as a self-charging hybrid.