DAILY: VW ID.Golf, Price Parity For EV Vans and 400-Stall Tesla Supercharger | 07 Mar 2026

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.