DAILY: Ford Updates Puma Gen-E, BYD To Export Flash Charging and Anti-EV Propaganda Hurting Buyers | 10 Mar 2026

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Welcome back to EV News Daily.

Today, Ford updates the Puma Gen E, BYD to export flash charging.

An anti-EV propaganda is hurting buyers.

Plus, stay tuned.

Later in the show, I'll tell you why battery recyclers are refusing to tear down old battery packs

because, well, honestly, the old packs are still too good.

On EV News China today, we're talking about BYD unlocking a battery future.

China's price war is cooling, and Lotus enters low tariff Canada.

Alright, let's get into the show.

Ford has updated the all-electric Puma Gen E with changes to range.

Blue Cruz, that's the hands-free driving.

Audio, connectivity, colors, and a new edition called Blue Cruz Edition.

What do we need to know for this podcast that we won't worry so much about the fancy stereo system

and the new color palette?

Ford said the Puma lineup makes it Europe's best-selling compact crossover last year.

While this year, so far, the Puma Gen E is the UK's most popular electric vehicle.

Alright, we're two months in, but we'll give them that.

The biggest technical change is on the Puma Gen E with the pack and the efficiency as well.

Now, when Ford launched its 2024 Puma Gen E, it claimed the official efficiency

of 13.1 kilowatt hours per 100 kilometers.

If you prefer your measurements this way, as I do, that's 4.74 miles per kilowatt hour.

So, 4.74 brings me back to the heavy days of driving my old Kona that I had for a year.

That was fabulously efficient without even trying hard.

But as many Puma Gen E owners listening to this podcast will tell you, without trying very hard,

you can in the real world, see 5 or 6, or if you're popping to the shops, 7 miles per kilowatt hour.

The Puma Gen E was brutally efficient.

I never gets talked about with this car. In fact, the car generally never gets talked about.

It's a small city car. It was too expensive when they launched it.

For the specs, you could just go get a two-year-old Tesla Model 3.

The wipe, the floor with it, and the car would still feel new to you.

And it would go further and you'd be in the Tesla Rico system.

And it's frankly a much bigger car. It was hands down, too expensive.

But now it gets the full UK grant, and the prices come down.

The monthly offers are very good. Puma Gen E now is genuinely a really good choice,

but they've made the pack bigger.

So, it used to do officially 376 kilometers, WLTP.

That is now lifted by 41, so it had us 417 kilometers or 260 miles.

Ford is adding blue crews to the Puma.

The system allows hands-off, eyes-on driving, on preset roads.

Ford says it will cut driver fatigue on long commutes and motorway journeys.

And that's where I love self-driving.

Launched in Europe in the Mustang marquee in 2023 is 135,000 kilometers of blue zones in 16 markets.

Buyers can add blue crews outright or subscribe monthly or annually,

and you get a three-month trial when you get it.

The Puma just got even better under the skin.

Now, let's talk a little bit about BYD, rolling out its ultra-fast flash charging.

Flash charging 2.0 was specifically blade battery 2.0.

I'm not sure they ever called it flash charging 2.

Flash charging network to international markets.

Now they're going to roll out at home in China.

First, this year, 20,000 of those posts by the end of this year.

18,000 are going to be partner-hosted and 2,000 will be on the major Chinese motorways.

In major cities, BYD wants everyone to be within 3.1 miles of a flash charger, 90% of the time.

As of now, they say they have 4,200 plus flash charges.

But that's not the new ones, right?

I've seen that reported a couple of times today that they have over 4,000 of them.

Yet, but not the new T-shaped teal colored ones that do 1,500 kilowatts.

I don't think so anyway.

No, because no, but what we saw last week launched in China was 1.5 megawatt,

1,500 kilowatt charging on your average passenger car.

When I say average, I mean, you're 20,000 something passenger car.

These are not just the high-end, you know, densers and young ones.

Although they'll start with those cars, of course.

Each flash charger runs 1,000 volts, 1,500 kilowatts.

Each charging pile works as an on-site battery pack.

So it stores up to 300 kilowatt hours of energy,

always sipping from a nice, small, cheap grid connection.

And then somebody turns up.

They say the average charging session is going to be 50 kilowatt hours of just a dump into your car.

And then you're off in five minutes time.

It's incredible.

Go check out our spin-off show, EV News China.

We did a whole thing about it.

And it's coming to international markets.

And then with a car leaves, if there is a period of time, there's not a queue,

before the next one turns up.

Of course, then it just starts refilling its onboard battery at the charger

from that nice, cheap, slow grid connection.

It says the second gen LFP blade batteries do 10 to 70 percent in five minutes.

We always talk in 10 to 80, don't we?

At least on this podcast, I like it as an industry.

We talk about 10 to 80, anyone who doesn't is fudging the numbers.

But they did it because it then they can say five minutes.

So we'll give them 10 to 70.

But 10 to 97, in other words, it's a full charge.

It batteries normally slow down after 80 percent ish, depending on the type of battery.

They give the 10 to 97.

In other words, it's just the last 3 percent where it tapers significantly.

And that is a nine minute charge.

But that's a full charge.

97 percent will give them that as well.

That's a full charge in nine minutes.

And these charges are going internationally.

The first ones will be in the ground internationally before the end of the year.

And so even at minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit, they say it takes 12 minutes, not nine minutes.

I mean, in Northern Europe, in some parts of North America, some parts of Northern China, that is a consideration.

Overseas rollout begins.

They've got plants in Thailand, a Brazilian hungry, which will make these incredible.

And we will have cars that can charge at that speed because they still say that the denser,

now denser is the BYD premium brand, that the denser, let me get this right, 7GT,

because I was going to confuse with the Zika 007, which is not called the 007 here.

It's called the 7, but the denser, 7GT, or correct myself in the show notes if I'm wrong.

If I'm wrong, that's coming with blade battery 2.0.

So that's going to be the international car that comes to Europe and the UK in right hand drive.

And you think if you're right hand drive, probably Australia or in other right hand drive market,

or the right hand drive markets as well, and that's going to be blade battery 2.

So LFP back 1500 kilowatts, that's by the end of the year.

All right, well, even if it takes another 12 months, I think we can wait, you know, for 1.5 megawatt fast charging to come overseas outside China.

And if you'd like to know the latest from what's happening in the east and how we decode that for the global EV landscape,

check out EV news China, which I thought would be a temporary thing and we're still doing it.

And I thought would be a spin off that no one listened to just it showed up in their feed and they deleted it.

I'd be like, happy people use EV news briefly. Some people love briefly and then some people go, I never listen to it.

Okay, it's fine. But I thought China would be the same.

EV news China almost the same audience figures as this main show now.

People are really interested in me too. I'm learning.

So I never present myself as an expert on that one.

Well, I'm not here either, but over on EV news China, the spin off show, then I'm just learning with you about what's happening in the east and how we decode that for the rest of us.

Let's move on. New polling for the energy and climate intelligence unit finds a wide knowledge gap on EVs with non EV drivers.

Well, thanks to myths and disinformation shaping the views on EVs. Non EV drivers were asked 10 true or false questions about EVs, a simple as it gets.

Over half scored two or fewer correct on a yes, no answer for the correct answer 84% scored five or less out of 10.

Fire risk was the biggest one. Petrol cars are statistically way more likely to catch fire.

But because petrol cars catch fire all the time and we've all driven past one on the road,

whether it's in scorch marks on the road or we've seen an incident, we've been stuck in traffic and you think, oh my goodness, I've never happened to me, that's awful.

EVs don't have that problem, but with current battery technology, we know there can be thermal runaway insignificant accidents, not in China because the new laws are coming in to do with battery safety.

But there is a perception out there that EVs catch fire and that's all because of the media coverage that when it happens, it's so rare.

Cost is the same. Two thirds of non EV drivers don't realize EVs are cheaper to own over total cost of ownership and run than petrol and diesel.

A Colin Walker from the ECIU said rising EV sales sitting alongside a wave of disinformation that distorts what non EV drivers think they know about EVs.

The UK has emerged a front run up in the move to EV and yet some of the legacy media, the established media that relies on clicks and declining newspaper businesses still rely on causing outrage.

And getting people to buy their shabby newspapers by lying about electric vehicles because much easier to make someone feel annoyed about something and outraged than tell the truth.

In fact, our parliament has confirmed this two years ago, our House of Lords warned the disinformation is a major barrier to EVs.

A 2024 Lords committee report went further describing, and I quote,

a concerted campaign of misinformation around EVs and suggesting anti-EV propaganda narratives are deliberate and not accidental in major newspapers.

I'll take a break, we'll come back, we'll talk about Mercedes and its new GLA and the MG4 Urban coming to somewhere else in the world stick around back in a bit.

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All right, welcome back to the podcast. Now, New Car Wow research found that 64% of people in the market for a new car don't know about the grants that exist among those who know about things like grants here in the UK.

73% said that, well, almost £4,000 discount on EVs would make them consider an EV more if they knew about it.

EVs are a quarter of our new car sales, and a third if you include plug-in hybrids.

46 models qualify for the grant, but 8 models qualify for the maximum, almost £4,000. That's $4,725.

Mercedes will launch the third generation GLA this year in fully electric form and entry point to the market line up.

The new GLA on the same platform as the CLA, the MMA platform, because it borrows all the same stuff.

800 volts, new supercomputer, software defined setup and a path to autonomy. 4 EV buyers, there'll be three power trains.

The GLA 250 Plus is an 85 kilowatt hour pack and a rear motor, WLTP at 420 miles. That's going to be the long range one. That's almost 700 kilometers.

GLA 350 has 350 horsepower, is all-wheel drive, and the GLA 250 without the Plus comes with a smaller pack, 58 kilowatt hours, and that's coming later.

The CLA, it's the donor car, if you like, where we get that tech right now, has an official range of 484 miles, almost 800 kilometers.

Real world, it's not that early CLA buyers are finding that it's not quite matching that in the real world, but it's a 500 mile EV.

I only got 420 miles out of it. I'd buy Yand off of that. Of course, it cuts through the air better than a boxy GLA.

Price will matter more than the range though. The GLA is going to be the entry point to Merck, and so it's going to be less than the CLA's £45,000. That's $57,000.

Inside, it'll mirror the CLA and the GLB, so a 10.25-inch driver display, 14.5-inch central touch screen, optional passenger screen.

All-round, the fully connected MBUX system interior space will improve over the market to car, EV versions adding a frunk under the bonnet.

Now, let's move on. MG will bring the MG4 Urban to Australia in April this year, as their new budget hatch.

And also the MG4, the existing one. I think it's technically here called the new MG4, but if you see one, you'd never know, because it looks the same.

Not true. It's got a different wheel design. The spoiler at the back is now a single unit, not a twin design, but you don't know to do get in it.

Inside, it's night and day different. The inside of the new MG4 is really nice, but we're talking about the MG4 Urban here.

And so that's coming to Australia, and I'll, by the way, the new MG4, which looks like the old one, is going to move to a single battery back.

So in Australia, because we've dropped the small battery pack on the MG4, now that there's the Urban, but we can still get the long range in the extended range.

Oh, and the X power, which is bonkers. But Australia just gets a single 64 kilowatt hour pack, whereas the new MG4 Urban gets either a 43 or 54 kilowatt hour pack.

It's a totally different platform. It's a whole different car. It's the E3 platform. It's rear wheel drive, lots of cost savings in terms of the chassis.

It's not as much fun to drive, but if you're buying an MG4 Urban and asking, you know, will it get down a back lane and put a smile on my face?

This car's not for you. If you're asking that question, this isn't the car for you. This is about coming in a cheap price.

They think, well, looking at the UK pricing, the MG4 Urban is £6,500 less to get into.

And so if you apply that math, it's about $12,500 less than getting in the current MG4, which starts at $38,000.

So, you know, that's an under 30k car. Well, hopefully, BID Dolphin is also under 30k in Australia.

Okay, let's move on. Octopus Energy will extend its dynamic plunge pricing at public charging model from the UK to France.

Plunge pricing links public charging prices to wholesale power prices when it's windy and sunny, then the charges get cheaper.

In France, they'll do 50% discounts on public charging when plunge pricing windows open, including 7,000 ultra-rapids across the country on the power.network.

Electroverse already connects via roaming to 97% of France's public charging points 172,000 of them.

And a single electroverse account and an app means you can find compatible charges, star sessions, and even put it on your home electricity bill, which is convenient to why I use electroverse.

Cheap charging now depends less on a loyalty card or a monthly subscription, and more on the weather.

Now, moving on, Porsche is exploring a plan to merge Tykon and Panamera, offering a unified range.

Today, the two cars are on separate platforms, obviously separate names. Tykon is a J1 platform like the Audi, E-Tron, and GT.

Panamera uses something different. The same as the Bentley Continental GT.

Porsche had planned to move a next generation Tykon to SSP Sport from the Volkswagen Group mothership, but thanks to reasons, I think software links it, carry it, that keeps getting pushed back.

Porsche has written down almost 2 billion euros. That's 1.6 billion pounds.

To delay platform development, the company's exploring common model identities for the pair.

Doesn't mean both versions have to sit on exactly the same platform. You could use the call at the same car, you could either call it the new Panamera electric or use the name Tykon.

Does it matter? I mean, I'm not a Porsche buyer, so whatever means the most to you, Porsche fans.

But a bit like the McCann and the KN. You can still get them in petrol and EV.

But they sit on its hardly different platforms, so they could do that with Tykon and Panamera, even maybe even saying goodbye to the Tykon name.

And just calling them Panameras. Okay, let's talk about SK, battery America, cutting 958 jobs in commerce, Georgia.

That's 37% of the workforce. The company said that WikiVee demand in the United States meant they had to lay off a thousand people,

reducing the workforce at the factory that makes sales for the Ford F-150 Lightning, the Volkswagen ID-4, Hyundai's and Kia's as well.

Georgia Senator John Ossoff said the job losses were battery manufacturing jobs gone because of the Trump administration's stance on hating electric vehicles.

Volvo's next in the news. Volvo has positioned the oil on electric EX60 as Europe's first truly software defined vehicle engineering chief Anders Bell.

Called it massively pivotal, and a new era for the brand. Volvo showed off the EX60 in January, and some early drives have come out this week.

Tells me an embargo was lifted with some of the media, giving some first impressions of the vehicle that goes up against the BMW YX3, Mercedes-Benz GLC.

Volvo Motors, Volvo batteries, Volvo software, Volvo platform SPA3, and all the major systems under their roof.

They're making a real point of it. I think maybe word got around, maybe with their early adopters. Let me be clear, the mainstream doesn't care.

I think early adopters realized that some of the Volvo stuff with the X30 and the X90 and the ES90, some of it has been compromised because of the GLE mothership Chinese ownership.

The poll stars are affected by that as well, like the poll star 3 and the poll star 4.

The ones that we get are probably a generation and a half behind what China gets on things like the Zika 001, which is now at 900 volts and charged at 1500 kilowatts like the BYDs.

And we get a 200 kilowatt charging poll star 4, like what Zika was doing years ago.

So, yes, Volvo making a big point of, no, this is Swedish and this is all Volvo. This is all domain based.

Used to have tons of ECUs running individual systems, lighting, steering, braking, on and on and on.

So if you wanted to add a feature, you added an ECU, more wiring, more cross wiring, more packaging, and then weight, cost and complexity goes up.

Now, Volvo say they have gone back to a blank piece of paper with the EX60 centralized software.

New functions will slot into existing software stacks rather than adding more hardware.

They save kilometers of wiring and loads of ECUs they say.

These early drives in the media don't tell us too much, but they say that it is, you know, spacious inside, very comparable to an E segment car at a D segment price.

And finally, Redwood materials, perhaps one of the more well known battery recycling names.

I think because it's set up by JB Straubel, co-founder of Tesla.

And, you know, very famous.

And so, they get a lot of attention.

Redwood have said that they are not tearing down the battery packs coming into the system and they told us why.

Claire McDonald is the VP of business development for Redwood said that up to 18 months ago, the incoming feedstock was the scrap from cell manufacturing.

But now the mix is shifting towards old EV battery packs as the car started to come off the road.

The problem is, they have too much capacity than they were expecting.

Old battery packs are still good for a lot. They don't need to be torn down.

Redwood say the problem they've got is all these old battery packs are coming in at much higher quality than they modeled and predicted.

Therefore, they've had to change their business.

Redwood now assesses battery packs for remaining capacity.

Don't waste time recycling and tearing them down.

And by the way, not a single bit of an old battery pack is wasted is too valuable.

But instead, it goes into stationary storage developments until they really do reach a true end of life and have to be recycled.

And who knows when that is?

They have their second life energy storage system.

They have a 12 megawatt or 63 megawatt our project in Texas using second life batteries.

The largest second life energy storage system in the world according to Redwood.

Comparable to anything that may exist elsewhere, perhaps in China that hasn't been publicly reported.

But Redwood say they want to target gigawatt our scale deployments for data centers, AI, processing, renewable energy products, utility scale, or using second life batteries because they're still too good to recycle.

Well, don't tell the never-bevers about that.

We'll destroy the whole narrative of EV's lasting five minutes like our mobile phone batteries.

Don't tell them. Whatever you do.

Keep it a secret because it'll destroy one of their arguments.

Natchy podcast for today. Thanks to our premium partners National Car Charging on the US mainland and the low-hard charge in Hawaii.

And Test EV, Avaloo's trusted partner for independent EV battery health testing in Australia and New Zealand.

Have a good and see it tomorrow and remember there's no such thing as a self-charging hybrid.

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