ev.news Daily: Audi A2 Efficiency King, EVs Cost Third Less & Young Drivers Liken Petrol Cars To Landline Telephones | 08 Sep 2026

0:00Welcome back to the podcast on EV News. Daily, the Audi A2 is an efficiency king. EVs now cost a third less, and Europe's young car buyers like in petrol cars to landline telephones. Plus, they tuned because later in the show, I'll tell you why your next long-range EV might come on two wheels and you'll need to stop before it does. Over on EV News China today, our spin-off podcast, we're talking about shammy's moves into e-reth extended range electric vehicles. With the Skymo, Nomad series starting from $31,000. Let's get into it. The Audi E2 E-Tron is due to launch at the end of this year. It was revealed yesterday with German orders opening in the autumn and deliveries scheduled for December. Audi's newest and cheapest electric model will start at 38,000 euros. That's about 44,500 dollars in Germany. And that is, well above, the 34,000 euros, about $40,000. The Avauxwagen ID3 Neo will cost you, and that's interesting because they're

1:03basically sharing the same underpinnings. If you want the four rings, it'll cost you four grand. Audi's claim, though, is on efficiency. Audi quotes a maximum WLTP range of 401 miles. That is 646 kilometers, depending on the motor, the battery, and the equipment. So that's the one we want to know about, isn't it? It's the long range one. It's 188 horsepower with the efficiency package, which adds some arrow tweaks and helps you really e-count the last mile. The WLTP efficiency range is 4.85 miles per kilowatt hour. That's good. I mean, you're approaching five miles per kilowatt hour. Small car, admittedly. But that's on the WLTP cycle. Audi say it's the most efficient Audi they've ever made. And the efficiency package is only available on that version. The compact A2 e-tron uses Volkswagen Group's new MEP Plus architecture, also shared with the ID3 Neo, which is not the ID3 Golf alike. They're using the Neo word because they're not ready to

2:08make an electric golf, but it's looking good, that Neo, much more like golf styling. And the Coupre Born also use the same underpinnings as the Audi A2. All launch versions have rear wheel drive. Audi considered Quattro, all wheel drive. Of course, that's what they're famous for, but said that the projected compact segment demand just didn't justify it. So there's a couple of motor versions, the 125 and the 140 kilowatt versions use LFP packs. Lithium-Mine phosphate, nearly all Chinese cars now, well over 70% of new Chinese cars using LFP. So this is good technology. It's a bunch of cheaper. You can charge it to 100% with fewer concerns, not no concerns, but they like to be fully charged at 52 kilowatt hours or 61 kilowatt hours. So there's a nine kilowatt hours between the two pack sizes. It's not night and day. I always say if you can swing for more storage, you should swing for more storage. If you can justify the cost, there's some higher power versions, the 170 or the 240 kilowatt models use NMC technology. And that comes with an 84 kilowatt hour pack. And that's how

3:14they've done the big, the big range because it's a really big battery. 84 kilowatt hours in a small Audi A2. Charges pretty quickly, 133 kilowatts on a DC peak is 29 minutes 10 to 80. You're not going to be knocking any one socks off with that speed, but it'll do. Audi pairs the compact body with the larger Q4 e-trons wheelbase. That is a layout that they said provides more interior space with a smaller body. The car supports bidirectional charging, which is included in entry-level standard equipment, because why wouldn't it be? And when they say that, I presume it needs vehicle to load, and then it's ready to do vehicle to home and vehicle to grid at some point. The A2 name returns with a very similar rounded silhouette. That was what many of the reviewers yesterday, when all the YouTube shows could hit because the embargo got lifted. We're talking about really, the old Audi A2. But in much more, I think, generous terms, when Ford launched the Capri, which is

4:16not a Capri, they're just reusing the name because they had the Explorer and the Capri, which is the VW ID4 and the ID5, but Ford would tell me off the saying that. Then all the reviewers got really upset because the Capri was a pretty special car. And well, the Capri is a goody-feet, by the way. But the A2 was quirky, and I think it was fondly remembered. And this thing does have some quirkiness to it, rounded silhouette, short overtangs, overtangs, oh hangs. It's not obviously the original aluminium body. That was costly to make, and economically lost making for Audi. Efficiency in space now have to justify the premium though over the ID3 Neo, if you want four rings on the front of your small car. Now, electric cars are next in the news, costing one third less to operate in Europe in 2025 than conventional gasoline or diesel-powered cars, that is according to new data today from the International Council on Clean Transportation. In a new report, the finding

5:16arrives as political leaders in Europe are facing increasing pressure from the car making lobbies to reverse environmental measures and to return to more higher pollution vehicles. It makes the car makers more money. I don't care that it makes us all sick, but they get to make some more money. They say that if we don't, they won't be around much longer. So I guess you have to make that trade off, don't you? Keep the shareholders happy or be healthy and not poison our kids. Give masks to asthma. So it's 50-50 in my mind. The ICCT said drivers who regularly use public charging, DC charging, which is more expensive, of course, than charging at home, could still cost 28% below that of conventional cars. At the start of this year, energy costs increased for combustion cars by up to 36% while EV costs were largely unchanged. That was because of the US-Iran Hamuz oil crisis. Purchase prices have also moved. The ICCT said electric cars reached price parity with gasoline cars in three large vehicle segments in Germany last year, based on

6:20looking at 100,000 vehicles. Marie Rahon Bernard, the ICCT's lead researcher and reports lead author expects BEV adoption across Europe to scale up in the coming years if current policies are maintained. The cost case may be ever strengthening. Make sure you tell that to your local politician, that forecast still rests on those policies remaining in place. And how's this for a story that we move on to next? Young drivers say petrol cars are like using a landline telephone. It's something only your parents have, your grandparents. More than half of drivers aged 17-20 in the EON Next Commissioned Research, said they wanted their next car to be electric and in many cases for 17-20 year olds, it would be their first car. It would be all electric, even as BEVs, only 26% of UK new car registrations, for instance, in the first eight months of this year. It's interesting to look at the next generation. These are people getting their first car, maybe their second

7:23car, if Mum and Dad bought them a little banger to get going with. These are the car buyers that in a blink of an eye are going to be in their mid-20s, 30s, reaching the peak of their income earnings as they have young families and go through their careers. In 10 years time, 2035, we get to that switch off of petrol. It's not going to be the cultural change that, I don't know how old you are, but certainly some people of a certain age that have been through a certain circumstances with their car buying history find it a bit of a struggle to find in their head a picture of a day when petrol and diesel aren't around. But we are going to get there. It just depends what speed, and I'm not really bothered about the speed to be in us with it because we know the direction of travel and we know we'll all be driving electric vehicles in the future. We know now that young people think their next cars should just be electric. The research involved 1,500 young drivers, lower operating costs with a major reason that young people wanted to go electric 56% said that saves the money. Day-to-day affordability was cited as

8:26a key advantage by 20% of the respondents, 19% of the convenience of charging at home. So they never want to visit a petrol forecourt again. For some, petrol has acquired the status of old technology, a bit like dialing up the internet with the bings and the bongs. They said 23% of people in the survey, young people in the survey, 23% said that owning a petrol or diesel car is like using a landline telephone. Ouch! And yet there are still car makers, I'm betting yeah, I'm going to go on a limb here. Probably with a board of directors. I would say 90% of them are probably old white men. All right, you can hit me with a stick for saying that, but it's probably the truth. You've got any major car maker and you look at the our executives page. How many women are on there? Hopefully an increasing amount. And some are better than others. How many people of color are on there? How many young people are there? Oh, it's the board. So we all need to be very experienced. There's an argument for that of course, but they're

9:28making the ultimate decisions on who signs the check at the end of the day. I hope they're looking at the data from their kids or their grandkids. And this data points out that if you do not cater, you don't have a pipeline of cars coming through of electric cars that young people are going to want to buy. You are going to have no customers in the blink of an eye. 21% of young people in the survey said they could never imagine owning a petrol or diesel car. The survey found that 63% of young people believe petrol and diesel would disappear in their lifetimes. It's one of the things I'm most excited about with my children who are four and eight right now. And they my boy, who's kind of getting into cars now that he's eight. He knows that I love Formula One. And sometimes, if the windows are down in the summer, there's a stinky old van next to a sawer bus goes past. And he's like, oh, dad, that really smells that diesel. Because inevitably we're in an electric car. And he knows what I do for a living. And so he is of that mindset already. My little girl who

10:30starts school today, by the way, which is cool. And so start a new era for her and for all of us. And so she's going to grow up into a world where she's never drives a petrol or diesel car, unless she wants to for a reason. But they'll have to be a reason. It'll have to be, I don't know. She's a guess she gets into classic cars or there is a purpose or something. I mean, there's still like 20 petrol cars get sold in Norway now and again. And so the odd diesel, there's got to be a reason for that. And so that's okay. We're right with that. You can just carry on buying them if you can find a petrol station to fill up in. Man, they're going to grow up into a world that is just unrecognizable from today. And I cannot wait for the future. 53% of people in the survey believe they would be the final generation to be around internal combustion. Man, let's stick that on a poster. Right. Let's take a break. We'll come back and we'll talk about Europe's EV fleet holding the keys to storage back in a moment. Welcome back to the podcast. Europe's EV fleet

11:36contains 600 gigawatt hours of battery capacity. That's 10 times Europe's grid connected storage according to Brugel. The figure points to a large store of energy that remains separate from the grid systems that feed it. Brugel said that if all EV capacity were connected to the grid, it would theoretically provide continuous power to the European grid for two hours. That would depend on many things. Firstly, it's a theoretical assumption, which is obviously we can't do because not everyone's going to plug the car in at the same time. And you might want to use it. I don't know, no, for some vehicle to grid and vehicle to home. Kinks need ironing out. I think quite a lot of need ironing out because you can't go out today and just get vehicle to grid as easily as it should be. And the caveat is substantial, of course, but it's an interesting thought experiment that I thought I'd bring you because it points out that on the road right now, we have this fabulous, enormous energy store. And we need to use it more. Stationery storage has continued to grow,

12:40though. Solar Power Europe reported that cumulative European battery storage capacity exceeded 100 gigawatt hours by the end of last year. After Europe added 36 gigawatt hours of storage in the entire year. And what about home batteries? How sold batteries increased sharply following the energy crisis caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Solar Power Europe has called for Europe's stationary battery fleets to increase 10 fold by 2030. And I'm sure it will, by the way, the larger battery store, of course, lies in all of our vehicles, but its role on the grid rests on technology, which is still frustratingly just out of reach. Leoto, a Chinese car maker, plans a European debut for its i6. That's a big electric SUV at the Paris Motor Show in October. With a UK launch afterwards, Britain has become an important right-hand drive export market for Chinese EVs like Australia increasingly is, because we haven't got the European Union additional tariffs. Leoto has not, however, named the UK as a launch market with a firm date. Founder and CEO, Chiang Li, said i6 sales in

13:46European markets would start in the fourth quarter of this year in left-hand drive markets. Mr. Leoto said sales in right-hand drive markets would start by the end of the year, but didn't stop to name the UK. At five metres long, the i6 is the mid-size premium SUV, up against things like BMW's iX3, the MercGLC, or the Volvo EX60, that kind of territory. We talked Avaloo batteries on the podcast recently. Avaloo has extended its battery warranty to 14 more European markets. It's now at 24 as the EV buyer confidence has not kept pace with not only the market growth, but the reality of how good batteries are, which is why they've got the confidence to warranty them. The warranty is now available in Czech Republic, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, Iceland, Cyprus, Greece, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Luxembourg, Hungary, Poland, Lichtenstein, Avaloo, who do a battery health test in just three minutes by plugging their dongle into your car, says consumers may not know a used EV's battery condition.

14:50When buying it, you can't simply look at mileage anymore or age because you can have two high mileage EVs. One of the batteries isn't fantastic condition, all to do with how it's been treated over its lifetime. The one-year warranty is set up by Avaloo's independent battery, certificate, dealers, fleet operators, and remarketing platforms manage it through the Avaloo Connect, the digital dashboard. Avaloo's calculations on individual state of health, threshold for each vehicle uses their own proprietary diagnostics database. The battery must retain that threshold at 20,000 kilometers during the one-year warranty period. They say, and yes, if you've been paying attention, add the back of the class. You'll know that one of the premium partners of this podcast is Test EV. That's Avaloo's partner in Australia and New Zealand. We heard from Nathan Gore-Brown, who runs Test EV on the podcast recently. Last weekend, actually, Saturday special. Saturday specials are back a bonus show. All about high mileage EVs. Now, plugging in your EV should be as simple as

15:55this charging network in the UK. One of my favourite ones, by the way, brilliant technology, very reliable, good pricing, Osprey has introduced Osprey Go. That's their new automatic charging function that begins a session when you plug the thing in, nothing else to do. Obviously, the first time you do it, you have to set it up in the app. So, it's now live. It's a one-time set up the first time and then every time after that, you pull into an Osprey station. One's I use, tend to use Ken Power. It's on one of my favourite hardware, one of my favourite networks. You just plug it in and it just works. Then you get your receipts, your life prices, your charger availability, all on Osprey Go. The company said it chose the auto-charge technology because it was accessible to the widest possible range of drivers. Osprey also says the launch makes it the country's largest charging network now doing auto-charge, which is not plug-and-charge. That's separate. That's a hold it from beast, but this works very well. Now, new passenger EV sales and plug-in hybrid sales in Russia have doubled in the month of June to August. According to

17:02also stat, that is a 100% increase on the same three months of 2025. Why? Well, the rise came as fuel shortages pushed some consumers to EV. As alternatives to combustion, some also considered converting their vehicles to natural gas. Ukraine's response to Russian attacks has recently been to target Russian oil refineries and petrol refineries, which caused some to suspend operations and have caused fuel shortages. By the end of August, Russia's gasoline production had dropped by to about 70% of domestic consumption levels. There's enormous queues. People are getting up at two, three o'clock in the morning just to go and put fuel in their car and I'm not surprised more and more people are saying, you know what, I'm sick of this. I'm going to get an EV. For some motorists, hours in a queue is not just a waste of time. It's humiliating as well. And what cars are they buying? Well, most of the vehicle sold in Russia are indeed Chinese EVs. The poor authority of New York and New Jersey launched a new $45 million program for zero emission, dry-arge trucks and

18:08terminal tractors at the port of New York and New Jersey. Described as the busiest seaport on the east coast of the United States, the clean transport organization CalStar, designs an administers the program and the green dry-arge accelerator. The CTI will make available $39 million in vouchers for vehicles and charging infrastructure. Hubs must be within 10 miles of the port authorities, marine, terminal facilities. And finally, an EV that you'll need to stop before it does. Trek, the maker of very nice bikes, by the way. Trek has launched the new 2027 Alant Plus in Europe, pitching its full suspension electric bike against the equivalent from the likes of specialised with their Turbo Vado 3X. Both use Bosch's performance line. It's a mid-drive motor. So this is real high-end stuff from Trek. The mid-drive motors are really nice. As a nominal output of 250 watts, peak output of 750 watts, 120 Newton meters of torque.

19:13Motor assistance ends at 25 KPH or 15 miles an hour. A Bosch power tube 800 battery supplies the range, which for this bicycle is 180 kilometers. It's 112 miles. Most people's weekly mileage in their car isn't 112 miles in this country. That can mute a few miles down the road. This is a bicycle that if you genuinely run out of range, then you have a more resilient bottom than I do. I cannot ride a bicycle for 180 kilometers down the road without wanting to get off and have a bit of a stretch. The prices though are equivalent to basically buying a used car. The R11 costs 6,000 euros, that's $7,000. And the R10, it's just some differences on suspension. I think the motors are all the same. It's $5,000. A $5,000 euros, which is $5,800. It's an image of Italy.

20:16Sorry about that. Colorful language to finish off the podcast. Thank you 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 and say tomorrow and remember there's no such thing as a self-charging hybrid.