ev.news Daily: BEVs Become UK Favourite For First Time, Jeep/Ram EREVs Delayed & Hybrids Revealed As Hidden Polluters | 04 Sep 2026

0:00Welcome back to the podcast on EV News daily. Pure Beavis become the UK's favorite for the first time. Jeep and Ram e-rebs get delayed and hybrids have been revealed as hidden polluters. Plus, they tuned later in the show while telling why Xiaomi has declared themselves ready to take on the Germans on home soil. Let's get into it. Battery Electric Vehicles, BEVs, pure electric cars, if you like. Just took 30% of the UK's car market last month in August. That now makes pure bevs the largest individual powertrain category for the first time as the government consults on its own EV rules. The share is now above the pace necessary for the current target to be 80% EV by the end of 2030. BEVshare had risen from 23% in August of last year. The current year's end target is to get to 33% EV sales, although it's not that simple because manufacturers by the government

1:00have been given loads of leeway they can use additional credits to meet lower headline sales percentages. They can do trading of credits between them. They can defer them to future years. And so the new automotive organisation, there are UK EV advocacy group estimates that leaves the effective target for this year at 24.6% and if you've been paying attention, because I know that you are smarter than the average bear, 24.6% is lower than 30%. UK EV sales are now on course to meet or even exceed the targets this year which the car industry has repeatedly and ferociously campaigned against. They've been lobbying with vigor to say it's an impossible target. It's costing the industry billions. It can't possibly be achieved. And yet it will, if they carry on the way they're going. Conventional hybrids were 29% of the August market,

2:02petrol vehicles, 22% plug-in hybrids were 14%. So BEVs and plug-in hybrids together were 44% of the UK market, meaning plug-in vehicles. Now lots of people who listen to this podcast, I know very anti-plug-in hybrid vehicle, they want purebeth all the time. And I really respect that view by the way. But as a creator of this content, I don't ever call myself a journalist. But as a creator of EV news, I do have to be aware that lots of people do in the wider market need a plug-in hybrid as an emotional support dog if you're like, as a crutch, as a stepping stone to purebeth, or their life might need it. So I do have to talk about them from time to time. And so in the UK, almost half of all vehicle sold had a plug socket on the side. It's incredible. What a number! It's enormous. Shout it from the rooftops next time your crazy uncle on Facebook says that nobody wants to buy plug-in vehicles anymore. Almost half of all new passenger car sales in the UK last month had a plug socket on the side. The purebeth number,

3:0230% is huge. And yet our government just literally just bowed to the intense pressure from the Western car makers to launch an official consultation on whether to remain with the current EV targets, which are going to be hit. It has been described by the government as likely that they will reduce them. They've not tipped their hat too much, but I think everyone knows that they're going to soften things up a little bit and let the car makers carry on making plug-in hybrids and combustion cars with small batteries. The car makers, here's the thing. Here's the thing. I'm going to editorialize so early three minutes into the podcast and I'm giving you my opinion already. So I'm sorry about that, but here's my opinion if you want my analysis. I do this every day, sometimes more than five days a week. And I do this for more than the, well, I think I put out maybe 40 minutes of content a day, 45 minutes of content between EV news, David EV news China. Today we had a special in the feed, all about battery health in high mileage vehicles. This is going to be an over an hour of content I publish per day on the podcast. And yet I'm doing

4:05this 8, 10, 12 hours a day, researching, writing, fact checking, and learning. And the conclusion that I'm coming to in the second half of 2026, as I see the Western car makers not just in the UK, but in the United States and everywhere, want to carry on selling a mixture of combustion and hybrid vehicles because they make more money that way. This is an argument which will kill them. It will harm them much more than if they just invested in making pure bevs. You see, many people think that Chinese BEVs are the threat. Many people in Europe, especially the European regulators, put those massive tariffs up to 35% plus on top of the 10% duty already on Chinese BEVs. And they didn't touch plug-in hybrids because they were hoodwinked. And in the UK, a lot of the car makers are campaigning against the Chinese BEVs which are coming in competitively priced,

5:05very high spec for what you get. So they want the government to back off on the rules to allow them to make more hybrids. But here's the thing, whilst people think Chinese BEVs are the threat, Chinese BEVs are the Trojan Horse. And inside of the Trojan Horse are plug-in hybrids. Chinese manufacturers held 28% of the European plug-in hybrid segment, most recently. That's up 60% year on year, and it shows no sign of slowing down. Plug-in hybrids are 60% of BYD's European operations, for instance. And you look at the brands which have done really well in the UK, in the last year, Omoda, J-Koo, the T-Go 9, that big three row. They're all plug-in hybrids. Bevs aren't the threat. So if you argue to the UK government, I'm speaking to the car industry now, if you argue that you want it softened to carry on selling combustion for a little bit longer, all you're doing is

6:09giving your business to the Chinese, because the Chinese BEVs aren't the threat. It's the Chinese plug-in hybrids, which have quietly gone about their business of selling an absolute boatload. It's a market that is ahead of its targets, and is nevertheless being consulted, as though the target is impossible to hit, and yet it's hit it already. Relaxed rules would be irrelevant if people carried on buying EVs. Let's wait and see where it goes. Sorry for my opinion, so strongly on today's podcast. But I'm starting to see it a little more clearly than I have ever before when you look at the plug-in hybrid number from the Chinese, and then you look at the car makers through the lobby organizations they have in every country and territory, and they're all arguing for being allowed to sell more plug-in hybrids and not pure bevs, and you realize, oh hang on, you are absolutely shooting yourself in the foot here. I don't care what cars I come and take on. I'm going to be here every day, which, you know, if some of the car makers, I don't know, become smaller, go bust. I don't know, it's a little hyperbolic maybe, but people often

7:11predict the end of some of the big names. Sure, some of them will get small. I think, you know, the Japanese car makers are in for tough times ahead. No doubt, there will be some consolidation, joint ventures working together, stuff like that to try and survive. And I don't care who I talk about. I'm going to be here every day, no matter what. Let's move on. Stellantis is setting some new dates for their Jeep Synoram's, a supplier memo, which has been seen by automotive news, puts the electrified Jeep Grand Wagoneer production into November, six months later than previously planned should have started in May. The timing matters because the Grand Wagoneer and the Ram 1500 Rev, a high-profile e-revs intended to underpin the Stellantis turnaround. The memo also plans the Ram 1500 Rev production for April next year. The pickup had most recently been scheduled to arrive, and now there's been a nine-month delay. Originally scheduled to launch in 2025, it's called the Ram Charger, and I got binned off. Stellantis has not publicly provided new timing for these new e-revs since it reset its EV strategy,

8:14yet as the Lanter spokesperson telling automotive news as a comment dated 2nd of September. Two days ago, I quote, both Jeep and Ram are on track as planned, Jeep for this year and Ram for 2027. Stellantis will build the e-rev Grand Wagoneer in Warren Michigan alongside the SUV's standard gas guzzler. The Ram 1500 Rev were launched at the nearby Sterling Heights, assembly plant, two supplier executives with businesses connected with the programs, told automotive news that these delays are intended to support a smooth launch. Now, Plug-in hybrids registered in 2023 actually emit almost five times their official CO2 emissions in real-world use, according to new research by the International Council on Clean Transportation. For Plug-in hybrids registered back in 2021, it was three and a half times. The ICCT study looked at 920,000 Plug-in hybrids and linked the widening gap to

9:15lower real-world electric driving. It runs against the official test cycles assumptions that people use them for the maximum battery. The ICCT attributed the discrepancy to the European Union's formula, which is called the Utility Factor. All it means is it's the link between the official CO2 ratings and the assumed amount of electric driving, which the European Union presumed to be 80%. Study data puts real-world electric driving at 21%. That was at least 2022 data. Now, Jan Dornoff, the research lead and the study's author for the ICCT, said, and I quote, plug-in hybrids registered in 2023 emit almost five times more CO2 on the road than official values and the discrepancy has grown over the years. This matters for how these vehicles count towards CO2 targets, because the low emission values credited to plug-in hybrids are rarely actually achieved on the road. These vehicles receive an unjustified advantage over combustion

10:19vehicles. End quote. Alright, let's talk about Ford. They have set an internal goal of selling 100,000 of their new electric truck, the Fathom, in its very first year. That's according to the Wall Street Journal, who cited people familiar with the matter. That would make the Fathom easily the best-selling non-testular EV. No watermaker other than Tesla sells more than 100,000 units of a single vehicle model in one year in the United States. If other manufacturers sales volumes stayed the same, the Fathom would rank third in the United States. Now, they could do it. Ford will begin production in Q1 next year, and it'll start under $30,000, I believe, according to what I read. That includes the $1,500 delivery as well. So that is out the door, depending on taxes. And so, interesting. No take a break. We'll come back. We'll talk about another big bear record this time down under. And battery electric truck speeding diesel costs. All the details coming up. Alright, welcome back to the podcast. Now, let's get into this story. It's fascinating.

11:25Battery electric vehicles outsold petrol and diesel in Australia in August, reaching just over 27,000 units and 25% of the new passenger car market. Petrol cars were 25,800. Diesel was 23,600. So, August is a milestone because pure bev, beat pure petrol and pure diesel. Bev sales are up 171% year over year in Australia, according to VFACTS and the electric vehicle council data. While the overall new vehicle market is also up as well, but only by 5%. So, bev's are punching above their weight. Bev's plug in hybrids and unfortunately non-plug in hybrids together. If you put that number together, it's 52% of Australia's market, but we should strip out non-plug in hybrids, shouldn't we? So, the point is that combustion only cars without any form of battery are now in the minority. So, if you buy a car, it hasn't got a battery, then well, I'm going to call you a bit of a weirdo, but you're not doing what everyone else is doing. I'm only checking, of course, you know me, we're friends.

12:28However, let's only count plug in vehicles. At least we can add clean green Aussie sunshine to the battery. All eight of Australia's best selling EVs in August were made in China. Only moly. Including the Tesla Model Y, the Model 3, BYDC-Lion 7, GLEX5, all night. Not far away in China. Okay, if you want to hear a beautiful Aussie accent from my friend Nathan in Brisbane, then you can check out today's special show. It's called EV News Tech, and it's well-known that it's spinoff brands, which will do when we can on the podcast. EV News daily, EV news China, the main things we do, and EV news briefly. So, that's all the news in four minutes, like a headlines show. I know lots of people like that, because it means they don't get to miss out on the news if they get behind by a few podcasts. But occasionally we'll do EV News Tech, and that's one of them today. Of course, Nathan from Test EV is a premium partner of the podcast, but it's not a paid promotion. So we saw a fascinating battery story, called him and said, can you jump on today please?

13:32It was very late at night. Where is? He said, yeah, sure, give me a call right now. We did a really interesting, maybe 10, 15 minutes on battery health at high mileage. That's in your feed right now. Would love your feedback. All right, let's move on. Battery electric trucks will have a lower total cost of ownership than diesel trucks on 70 to 90 percent of routes traveled in Germany on heavy duty road freight transport by 2030. That's using baseline assumptions about costs and technology. The advantage narrows once a truck must complete the job. When maximum daily ranges and limited charging opportunities are included, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research puts a medium scenario at lower bound at 21 to 25 percent of economically feasible road freight by 2030. The team's study, the team's nature study, called cost competitiveness of alternative heavy duty truck technologies under real world utilization profiles. That is indeed the title of this study. Deep breath. Combines total cost forecasts with real world

14:38vehicle use and some micro data covering 4 million trucks across Europe. Earlier work has examined average payload ranges or long haul transport rather than the sectors varied operating patterns. Whether we fall somewhere between those two, we'll see by 2030. But of course, we do have some stricter driver rules over here in Europe with maximum daily ranges and driver hours. Also, charging opportunities need improving for heavy duty trucking. So whether it is the Potsdam data, which is 25 percent up to of economically feasible road freight going pure EV or the higher number of 90 percent of kilometers travels if they get the charging in place, then those are still both great numbers. Obviously, 90 percent would be incredible. But hey, if we can electrify a quarter of heavy duty freight in the next couple of years, that's incredible. In the medium scenario, small battery trucks are total cost of ownership competitive

15:43on 91 percent of road freight against 69 percent for large battery variants. So here, it might not be vehicles that are delivering things cross country, but not necessarily last mile to the doorstep. So maybe this is taking things from depots and large warehouses and bringing it maybe to the big box store or the industrial park where you go and pick up your sofas and new widescreen TVs and things like that. So in that scenario, small battery electric trucks then become cost competitive on 91 percent of road transport. This is a German study, of course, in 2030, which would be again incredible. Couple of actually a couple of stories which I just put together. So this is M.A.N., which make electric trucks. M.A.N. dealers, partners and importers are going to invest 400 million euros, about $464 million US dollars. In service locations across Europe, that's spending sits alongside the existing spending of 300 million euros, investing in M.A.N.'s own service network.

16:45Friedrich Bauman, a member of their board of sales for customer solutions, described the scale of the combined investment as unprecedented in its history, investing heavily in things like electrification, including high voltage training for service staff, battery repair centers and publicly accessible charging points. M.A.N. is expanding its charging network with EON, they're an energy provider, announced in 2024. That project continues, putting 400 charging points in 170 locations across Europe and 125 of them intended initially for Germany. Now I'm going to take a ride in a Ford Mustang, Mackey in London. You can do now autonomously WAVE and Uber, and now offering autonomous rides through the Uber app in London. It's the first service in London to get the official go ahead, but every vehicle still has to have a trained driver licensed by Transport for London at the beginning. The company's called the service, supervised autonomy, not fully driverless. Passengers can

17:50use the Uber app to book Uber X, Uber Electric and Uber Comfort, and what may turn up at your outside your house or your workplace is an autonomous Ford Mustang, Mackey. The service covers London's entire urban area, but not the airports. They use WAVE's AI driver, cameras and environmental sensors. The onboard driver is there to monitor the journey and intervene in an emergency. London is the first market in a wider WAVE-slash Uber collaboration. Deploying the WAVE technology in 12th market, a Tokyo service using Nissan Leafs and WAVE's system based on the Nvidia Drive Hyperion system will launch later this year. Barcelona is introducing electric bike purchase subsidies, worth 4 million euros over the next four years. The first subsidy will be published in early 2027. Assistance up to 400 euros, that's about 465 pounds. Sorry, dollars will be available for pedal-assisted electric bikes up to a cost of 800 euros

18:57for freight bikes as well. Subsides can cover a maximum of 40% of the bike. It's not a free bike, not even half a free bike, but it's almost. Anyone registered as a resident of Barcelona is eligible, along with companies that have premises in the city. Electric bikes are great, even pedalax. Pedal electric bikes where your feet have got to be turning to get the assistance. You do longer journeys, you get to your destination, you're not all hot and sweaty, sloped areas make it easy as well, though early purchases will have to wait for official approval of these subsidy rules. And finally, Xiaomi says it's now ready to take on the Germans on home soil. There is no doubt that those Xiaomi Chinese electric cars, which have been tested by some of the Western YouTubers, the likes of Marcus Brownling, MKBHD, very famous YouTube tech content creator, he has had Xiaomi's on his channel before and get millions of views, but you can't buy one unless you're in China,

20:00but you can soon, they're incredibly highly rated and they will enter Europe, including Germany next year. They've signed agreements or letters of intent with now eight dealership groups in Germany and the move brings the Chinese tech company into the German market. Some people compare the styling of at least the sedan, the Su7 Su7, to a mini Porsche Tycon. You could say they're taking the battle right to Porsche's doorstep, Emil Frey, Penske, Automotive and the Lug group amongst those involved. The arrangements are intended to give Xiaomi a route through established German retail networks rather than building their own dealer networks. Xiaomi is using the IFA consumer show, which is on now to launch the announcement, starts today till September the 8th and Xiaomi is displaying, get this 380 products across all its business divisions. The company launched their first cars only two years ago, they've sold

21:03700,000 of them in China and the figure covers the Su7 sedan and the U7, YU7, the SUV. They will both be offered in Europe, although Xiaomi has not specified which ones come first and what the prices could be, but their ecosystem is called human car home. The Xiaomi ecosystem if you are intending to get into it includes smartphones, smartphone, sorry, smart home products, electric vehicles and everything that integrates with more than a thousand Xiaomi devices alongside your car. We'll be very, very interesting when Xiaomi turn up here. That's your podcast for today. Thanks for listening, thanks to our premium partners, National Car Charging on the US mainland and the LoHard Charging Hawaii and Test EV, Avaloo's trusted partner, the independent EV battery health testing in Australia and New Zealand have a good and see you tomorrow. And remember there's no such thing as a self-charging hybrid.