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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
on the market.
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 EV News Daily. Coming up today, workers get a first look at the VW
ID Golf, price parity for EV vans, and a 400-stall Tesla Supercharger site. Plus, they've
tuned because later in the show, I'll tell you why Australia is taking electric mobility
seriously following injuries to children riding illegal, high-power scooters and e-bikes.
No EV news China at the weekend. On Saturday, we're going to do the weekdays, but plenty
in the feed. If you haven't called up with some China news lately, then check it out. It's
a little spin-off show that we do highlighting what happens in the east and how fast moving
developments in the world's biggest EV market affect the global EV landscape. It's some
fascinating to learn. I'm both no means an expert on China, but I'm learning, I guess,
as you do as well, and I certainly enjoy that little spin-off series that we do. I think
we'll keep it going for a little while longer, yet there's plenty to talk about. It frees
up room as well on the main show for us to maybe do some stories that wouldn't always have
time for, because we want to keep this around 20 minutes to respect your time. Volkswagen
has given workers at their headquarters a first look at the 9th generation Golf this
week. The move comes with a clear factory plan. From summer 2027, Volkswagen will shift
production of the current combustion Golf to Mexico. That frees up the plant in Germany
to retool for the battery electric version of the Golf. Volkswagen will build these electric
models on VW groups, scalable systems, platform SSP, the 9th generation Golf, fully expected
to be called ID Golf. We'll sit at the center of the shift. Volkswagen plans to build the
car in Vulseburg alongside the electric successor to the VWT Rock. Mexico gets stuck with the
old combustion stuff, but either way, going electric with the Golf nameplate on is one of
the most defining things that's going to happen in the move to EV this decade really.
Maybe you want to criticize the move for Volkswagen going ID number. I certainly have many times.
I'll stick to the argument as well, but I have every sympathy for why Volkswagen did it,
but they have spent so much money and years building up names like Polo, Golf, Fassat, Tiguan,
etc. etc. ID 3 means nothing to nobody, but there we go. I'm delighted to see them using
the names they have in their locker because it moves EV. I don't care about Volkswagen,
by the way, so let me make clear. I'm delighted for the consumers. I'm delighted for the move
to EV. I'm delighted for the everyday person who in three or four years time thinks, oh,
maybe it's time to go and have a look at one of those electric cars, the mainstream buyer,
and there's an electric Golf just sitting there next to a plug-in hybrid Golf. So that's
why I love the naming of these new cars. Now, let's move on, Stellantis Pro has launched
a campaign in Europe that matches the purchase price of its Beves battery electric vehicle
vans to their diesel equivalents in those markets. The campaign runs until the end of June,
covering eight models into segments, the Citroën Bullingo, Fiat Professional Dobleau,
Opelvoxel Combo, Perjeo Partner in the compact van, and the mid-size vans, the Citroën
Jumpy, the Fiat Professional Scoodo, Opelvoxel Vivaro, and Perjeo Expert. Stellantis says
fleets still look at upfront price, even though any fleet manager worth their salt is looking
at total cost of ownership and things like installing charging and hardware and infrastructure
and how it all shakes out. According to Stellantis, many still look at the upfront list price
where the obvious move is to go B-E-V, where it saves you money if you can. In Germany,
the Opel, I'd call it the voxel, but in mainland Europe it's Opel, Combo, cargo electric is 31.5
thousand euros, and for the diesel version it's 24.5, and so that's 7,000 euros gap,
which Stellantis are going to eliminate. On the larger side, take, for instance, the Citroën
Jumpy, with its 49 kilowatt hour battery, that lists 38,000 euros, and it's 31,000 for the
diesel version, so the difference of, again, 7,000 euros, Stellantis are going to make you good on
that. The Citroën E-Jumpy with the 75 kilowatt hour pack lists of 43,000 euros. The offer
testing, the idea that if price tag does match to fleet owners, and I'm not as convinced
from all the fleet experts that I've spoken to and interviewed over the years, Stellantis,
just trying that out. Okay, well, now, price parity. People have long said, I'll buy an E-V
when it's price parity. Okay, well, Stellantis said, there you go, Philly Boats, price parity now,
so what stops you buying an E-V? So, we'll wait and see. We'll wait and see. Now, this is
amazing news. Next, Tesla is building a 400 wants to build, a 400 stall, supercharger site,
in California. It's at least in the planning stage. On Interstate 15, the main route between
LA and Vegas, if it lands, it would drop the current, it would top the current record holder,
which is the Oasis supercharger, which is 164 stalls. The sites, plans, which were found on X,
linked to a wider commercial scheme in the area with retail, hub, restaurants, convenient
services and parking. Tesla would build it in six different phases, the first 172 stations,
but they're all V4s, by the way, true V4s, according to the planning. V4 brings higher charging
power and not only broader vehicle compatibility, but the longer cables, so the third-party vehicles
can use the J3400 connectors, the plans, point to a new kind of roadside stop, less a charging stop,
and more a charging town or village. This thing's going to be absolutely enormous. I'll tell you
what, outside of China, because there are some enormous charging sites in China, and the local
competitors do it better than Tesla. Outside of China, no one does it like Tesla. This is just one
of the things that they are so famous for, and it must be so expensive for them to do, but they
have got their costs down lower, according to all the reports, than their competitors in terms
of the hardware cost, and they're just really, really good at putting charging hardware in the ground.
They had to be in the early days to survive, and they're still good at it, and where would we be?
Without the Supercharger network, at least in North America, I know, so it's so, so impressive. Uber
has partnered with Energy Tech Firm Pod Points to offer UK drivers, a home charging subscription,
with no one upfront cost. The scheme is called Pod Drive, and you pay 25 pounds a month,
over three years. That includes installation of charging at home and a lifetime warranty,
plus some cash rewards and more money saving as well. Upfront costs can be a barrier to an Uber
driver going EV, and so 25 pounds a month, great innovative finance schemes. I know it's not
necessarily the sexiest topic in the world, because I'd rather be talking about 400 store super
charges, but if we are going to have an honest conversation about how to get more EVs and
home charging into more places, we are going to need to get some out with finance and have some
interesting schemes like this one, where somebody else fronts the cost, and you're paying back
over three years. That goes alongside Uber's plan to roll out to eight new cities, including Birmingham,
Manchester Leeds, and more as well. Passengers can select an EV for no extra costs.
BYD are doing well in Europe, surging in Germany and the UK, BYD registrations jumping
1500% year over year in Germany, last month in February, but that's perhaps unfair,
because they didn't sell many vehicles a year ago, but now they sold over 3,000 vehicles, in fact,
in the first two months of this year, more than Tesla in Germany. And that's a car company that
built a factory in the country. And yes, so last year BYD sold 185 vehicles in February. So that's
why the percentage is so high. It's BYD's fifth strongest month ever in Germany. The wider
bev market was up as well. Germany registered over 46,000 bevs in February. That's a 22% share of
the entire German car market pure bev. Add anything with a plug on the side, and you get to
40% in Germany. It's a really big number in February. BYD's registrations also rising in the UK,
rising up 83% year over year, over 2,150 BYD's now sold in the UK. And there's loads of choice.
There's tons of BYD's you can buy here now. And I've gone down this podcast cul-de-sac
of probably wanting to list out the BYD's that I can get in this country. And I haven't put them
in my notes. So let's try and do let's try and do this from memory. There are nine BYD's that they
sell in the UK. If you hadn't realized or looked at the lineup in a while, there's now nine you can
get starting with a little ato three at the cheaper end. You can get those for maybe 20 grand, I think.
And that is a nice alternative to a Kia EV3 or an ID3 for instance, a half decent family car.
The ato three, despite being a bigger number than that, is I think probably the same size vehicle.
That's a pure bear for the 60 kilowatt hour battery. Been out a little longer here in the UK,
and actually even though it's only three years older than the more modern BYD's,
I think they've made really big strides on their interior, not massively keen on the ato three
interior. It just looks kind of almost dated already. Then there's the dolphin with its 45 kilowatt
battery, smaller car and again a little bit older now coming up to date on the new 2025 plates.
So only been out a few months is the dolphin surf. Now the dolphin surf is a small car by the way,
but it's a small car with a 30 kilowatt hour pack and it's like 12 grand. Now if you get one that's
got delivery mileage or maybe a pre-region or something. So 12,000 pounds for 30 kilowatt hour brand
new or almost new BYD dolphin surf, loaded with technology, much more established brand than perhaps
you might think leap motor if you don't know that slant as is behind it, but also BYD is the
world's biggest EV maker. And also just the car feels a lot more together than a dacia spring
or a leap motor and it's the same price. That's the dolphin surf. Then you've got the seal. That's
all electric 82 and a half kilowatt hour pack again been out a long time here. So prices are coming
down, not crazy cheap here. You can get them from maybe 25,000 pounds. I really like the seal
as a pole star to competitor or as a Tesla Model 3 competitor, but even then I think the
earliest ones on a 74 plate. So still feeling very, very new and not really cheap. Then you get into
the plug in hybrids like the BYD seal six and the estate version of that car as well, which looks
like an MG five estate, but it's a plug and hybrid with a small 10 kilowatt hour battery pack.
Then there's the C lion five. That's a family mid size SUV. That's got a bigger battery 12.913
13 kilowatt hour pack in that. It's a much more of a reasonable sized family order like an MG ZS
vehicle is the C lion five. Then there's the C lion seven, which is the all electric kind of
equivalent, but newer and again, even as any newer by a couple of years, I think the interior of
the C lion seven big battery as well 82 and a half kilowatt hour pack on that just the interior
feels less cluttered more grown up in a way more premium. And that's just the kind of what I
would call the first gen BYDs that we had on the second gen BYDs. They feel like they're
a really big step in terms of being feeling a lot more German inside. That's the that's the
C lion seven. And then finally, we've got the seal U DMI, which is almost 20 kilowatt hour pack
in a mid size SUV. And so not surprised UK sales are rising here because there's just tons of
choice. The pricing isn't bargain basement. It hasn't been hit by the massive depreciation that
like a great war motor funky cat has, which is, you know, again, for, you know, just over 10 grand.
Now nearly new like a third of the price they were asking. So BYD are holding their value a
little more, but still really, really big choice on offer. Okay, let's go to Spain where BYD also
had a bright spot as well with triple the year ago figures. So BYD having some success in Europe
will take a break will come back. How is there Chinese competitor Neo doing? I'll tell you. And
we'll talk about megawatt truck charging as well. Stick around back in a bit.
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.
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.
All right, welcome back to the podcast. Neo is going to overhaul its European operations.
I think it's fair to say Neo will be very disappointed in their lack of success in Europe so far.
They're going to move from direct sales to distributor led approach. They arrived in October 2021,
starting with Norway, Germany, Netherlands, and Sweden. They've added Neo houses,
they've added battery swapping, and just no one's really buying Neo's in the numbers that they
would want an internal memo, which was circulating before Chinese New Year, shows that Neo scrapped
its country led structure for a function led structure they say. So splitting out the car business
and the battery business and battery swapping and things like that, just trying to shake up the
management, the people doing it to try and get some success in Europe because it really hasn't,
despite being an excellent brand with great products on offer cut through here. Yeah.
Mylons has opened its fourth Belgian charging hub for heavy goods vehicles at the Volvo
Trucks plant in Ghent. The joint venture counts Volvo, Daimler and Trayton amongst the backers
of Mylons. It's on the R4 Ring Road, puts it within reach of the Volvo Trucks plant and the Volvo
factory, which makes the EX-30, and the trucks can use one of four CCS charging points, which
are 400 kilowatt units reserved for Trucks. I've been seeing more and more on, do you watch the
YouTuber Björn Newland, the Tesla Björn or Neo Björn or whatever it goes on itself,
being on what Gary's driving. More of his videos, he's been talking about the truck charging in Norway,
and obviously Norway is more mature, more advanced. They do things before others. Truck
charges in Norway are now being ring-fenced, just four trucks. You can't just pull in and charge
a passenger car on one. I think they have separate terminals and need activating only by truck
drivers, which is interesting. I've not seen that here in the UK. The Mylons in Belgium
site, though, will then move to MCS MegaWatt charging system for 30-minute charges on massive
truck batteries. Again, we have pretty strict driver-time laws in Europe, so you're going to have
to stop any way for 45 minutes to avoid tiredness and things like that. It makes perfect sense.
The UK has been added to the European plans for this new subsidy plan. The Guardian UK newspaper
wrote on Thursday this week that Nissan has said it would close its plant in the UK. That's huge,
because it's one of two places that makes the new leaf. That would be a massive threat.
That it would be forced to close its Nissan leaf factory. If the new made in Europe,
manufacturing rules didn't also include the United Kingdom. Now we're out of Brexit. The EU
wants to have some links to access to subsidy money, as it were, and part of that is building
the cars in Europe. Under the EU plans, public subsidies to speed up the development of EVs would
only be available to EVs made in EU plans. Well, a couple of days later, the lobbying work,
the European Commission unveiled the new act to open up EU manufacturing subsidies to the UK
and Japan as well. Even electric vehicles made in UK or Japanese plants, there are going to
be some rules around it, but I think that's a really big deal. It would still be able to access
things like subsidies in Europe. Of course, the EU, European Union, is a collection of countries
and different politics. It's not like the US, although you have all your states in the United States.
There is at least a fellow government. So over here, you're pulling together lots of countries
under the EU and to access country-level subsidies. You do have to sometimes ask permission
of the EU, so it's not unfair, you know, prioritising some countries just by France can't say,
oh, we're just going to give away a ton of money to a company that wants to build a battery factory
here. You have to get some things signed off to make sure that it's a level playing field.
And so it's a massively complex thing to do and there'll be different countries lobbying for
different things, but it does look like that moves forward as well. It's very harmful to United
States companies. They'll miss out because American public procurement restrictions on European firms
mean US partners won't qualify. So we wouldn't get cheaper American EVs in Europe. And the UK,
as well, welcoming the output outcome today, after we lobbied to Brussels to include British-made
EVs to get access to money off cars and subsidies and things like that. It's all to do with local
content in terms of the amount of bits in an EV coming from Europe. Okay, moving on, Ethiopia banned
the import of gas guzzlers two years ago and also cut the import duties on EVs. Well, two years
later, EVs have risen from 1% to 6% of all vehicles being imported. And the shift matters because
Ethiopia doesn't build cars, domestic vehicle manufacturing is minimal. So you have to import
vehicles. Car ownership is low, 13 vehicles per 1000 against the African average of 73 vehicles per
1000. The government is also targeting fuel. Ethiopia is a fuel importer and cutting gasoline and
diesel use shields the economy from currency shortages and global price swings. And so they're going
EV. Another reason why electric vehicles are just better. And so power prices help as well.
Ethiopian customers pay very, very low rates for electricity. And so roughly half their neighbors
and a fraction of what we would pay here, for instance. And so again, it makes sense. You want
an EV electric car electric bike. You can run it very cheaply. And so Ethiopia setting a clear
course forward. We don't talk a lot about African EVs on this podcast. It's always on my radar
because we also talk about things that won't get reported anywhere else because that might be why
you tune into this show. I'm not sure. But anyway, I can tell you about what's happening with
politics and electric vehicles. So Victor Orban in Hungary pushed really big into EV battery
manufacturing. Got a bunch of investment into Hungary. But those battery factories, after 16
years in power and a big pivot to EV, haven't been built and come online at the speed which was
promised. In some cases, there's been issues such as the Samsung factory that had to be investigated
into health and safety violations that made national news. Hungary's pulled in about 26 billion
euros or 28 billion dollars in foreign investment for EV batteries from South Korean and Chinese
firms. But they haven't really exploded in the way that he kind of pinned his hopes. And so now
with long term demand for EV batteries in no doubt, but the short term demand in a little bit of
flux with a political campaign to fight an elections around the corner. Hungarians could voice
their displeasure at the polls. And finally, a Queensland parliamentary inquiry into Emobility
Safety. There's table recommendations including a ban on under 16s riding these high-powered
imported Chinese e-bikes and e-scooters. The package would set a new national standard for managing
Emobility. It began in May a year ago after a rise of crashes, injuries, and even fatalities.
And we've seen children in Australia whose parents buy these illegal devices from Chinese
marketplaces. They ride them. There's no rules around them. Well, there are actually many places
that there are rules, but the police are too busy to stop a kid on a bike, not wearing a helmet,
because how do you check how powerful the motor is? It's obvious to my eyes sometimes. These big fat
tire bikes with the massive hub motors and stuff. Well, of course, they're not going to be a low-powered
pedal-eck e-bike. And of course, they've got a twist-thrip grip or a throttle grip. And you know,
they go faster than the cars are traveling in Russia. And so it's been a spate of injuries
and sadly worse as well with young people in Australia. So the headline recommendation would
require riders to hold a Queensland Class C learner license gained through a learning program.
The requirement would not only apply to e-bikes, but e-scooters as well. The report
comes from the case of an eight-year-old boy who was cycling home last October. He wasn't on an
e-bike, by the way. But this eight-year-old was cycling home on the Sunshine Coast in October
last year, when one of these high-powered e-bikes or e-bicycles that looks like a motorcycle,
frankly, because they never pedal. Now they hit him as he rode home from school. And since then,
his mother's been campaigning for either age limits on these high-powered ones or a ban on
the import of them as well. So an e-mobility topic that I've been touching on a little bit more
lately, I think is really interesting to talk about because there's no doubt a place for these.
A lot of people use them for higher schemes, for food delivery and all those kind of things,
but an age limit wouldn't hurt any of those things and also licensing and training and things
like that. All seem like sensible, pragmatic solutions rather than trying to hold back the technology,
which history shows doesn't particularly work very well. And that's your podcast for today.
Thanks to our premium partners, National Car Charging on the U.S.
mainland and Ohio Car Charging Hawaii, and Test TV, Avaloo's trusted partner for independent
EV battery health testing in Australia and New Zealand, have a good and sit-amara, and remember
there's no such thing as a self-charging hybrid.
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.

EV News Daily - Technology and Business of EVs

EV News Daily - Technology and Business of EVs

EV News Daily - Technology and Business of EVs