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Plus, stay tuned because later in the show I’ll tell you how battery swapping is going outside of China, here in Europe.
No EV News China because it’s the weekend. Our deep dive into how the East is shaping the global EV landscape is back on Monday.
ALPINE TURNS ELECTRIC GAMBLE INTO SALES SURGE
Alpine sold 10,970 cars in 2025, up 139.2% on 2024’s 4,587. For the first time the French marque crossed the 10,000-unit mark, driven by its first volume electric model and a wider retail network.
The figures show how a niche sports-car badge can turn electrification from threat into growth. While larger carmakers complain about soft EV demand, Alpine’s surge rests on batteries, not petrol.
The real shift came from the Alpine A290, the firm’s first fully electric hot hatch. Launched in 2025, it accounted for 8,198 units, or 75% of total sales. The A290 won the 2025 Car of the Year award and several other prizes, giving Alpine standing with both EV sceptics and early adopters.
Alpine also pushed its sales network. It opened 15 new points of sale in 2025, taking the total to 169 across 25 countries, with a target of more than 200 by the end of 2026. Next comes the A390, an electric sport fastback due in late 2025, aimed at new buyers and further global expansion.
ELECTRIC BMW M3 TO PIPE V10 NOISE INTO CABIN
BMW’s first all-electric M3 will shout about it. The M3 ZA0, the first battery-powered M car, will play recorded combustion noise in the cabin, using sounds from some of BMW M’s loudest ancestors.
Engineers recorded three engines in an anechoic chamber: the 4.4-litre V8 from the M3 GTS, the 5.0-litre V10 from the M6 and the twin-turbo 3.0-litre inline-six from the M4 GTS. Microphones sat so close that a few revs partly melted the windscreen. The roar of the S85 V10 will mix with the whir of the electric drive to form what BMW calls a “soundscape” for the M3 ZA0. Yet the firm hints that drivers will be able to switch the feature off, a nod to purists who dismiss synthesised noise as a gimmick.
The hardware matters more than the soundtrack. The M3 ZA0 will use four electric motors, one per wheel, and can decouple the front pair for rear-wheel-drive running. BMW has developed a new battery pack for M electric models with more than 100 kilowatt-hours of usable energy. In the related Neue Klasse iX3, the sixth-generation round-cell pack delivers 108.7kWh net, setting a benchmark for the saloon to match.
Engineers plan to bolt the M3’s battery to the front axle so it doubles as a structural member, stiffening the car as well as feeding it. Prototypes in BMW’s recent video still relied on early technology; the firm says it has made “substantial progress” since filming, as it readies the car for production next year.
The M3 ZA0 will follow the standard i3 NA0 saloon to market. When it does, it will bring four motors, a 108.7kWh target and a V10 in the speakers.
https://evne.ws/4q7nT84
TESLA SHRINKS BERLIN AS EUROPEAN DEMAND SOFTENS
Tesla’s German bet is getting smaller. Over the past year the firm has cut around 1,700 jobs at Gigafactory Berlin, reducing the workforce from 12,415 to 10,703 employees. That near 14% drop since the last works council election in 2024 jars with earlier claims from plant manager André Thierig, who had denied any staff cuts.
Berlin was meant to anchor Tesla’s European growth and prove its claim of “unlimited demand” in the region. Instead, the factory now has more production capacity than it can use, a mismatch that raises questions about the site’s financial sustainability and long-term role in Tesla’s network.
The job losses in Grünheide fit a broader pattern. In 2024 Tesla trimmed about 10% of its global workforce, reacting to softening demand and fiercer competition. In Europe, sales have slipped as Chinese EV makers and established carmakers push out cheaper or better-equipped rivals, squeezing Tesla’s volumes and margins.
How Tesla executed the cuts in Berlin remains unclear. The drop in headcount could stem from direct layoffs, voluntary buyouts, or non-renewal of temporary contracts. Whatever the mix, the scale signals that management does not expect a swift rebound in local demand.
BYD PLANS 300 ULTRA-RAPID EV CHARGERS IN BRITAIN
BYD will install 300 ultra-rapid 1000kW “flash” chargers in Britain within a year. Bono Ge, the firm’s UK country manager, set out the plan at the media launch of the BYD Sealion 5 SUV.
The roll-out marks a new push by the Chinese group to deepen its presence in Britain as it brings in its premium sub-brand, Denza. It shows that BYD wants to shape not only what Britons drive, but how fast they charge.
The first car to use the 1000kW flash system will be the Denza Z9GT, due in the UK in April. BYD says the technology can add 250 miles of range in five minutes, which Ge put at roughly 1.2 miles of range per second. If it works in real use, that rate would reset expectations for public charging and close one of the last practical gaps between battery cars and petrol.
Ge said BYD will expand the flash-charging network beyond the initial 300 sites, but only after it studies how drivers use the new units and the existing public network. The firm wants to avoid building underused hardware while still making ultra-rapid top-ups widely available.
Price will be part of the pitch. BYD plans to keep charging costs “reasonable” as it grows the network, an implicit nod to concern over high ultra-rapid tariffs elsewhere in Europe.
More details on both the Denza Z9GT and the 1000kW network are due before the April launch. BYD’s promise of 1.2 miles of range per second makes clear that, in Britain, the fight for EV buyers now runs through the charge bay as much as the forecourt.
FORD CALLS FOR CHINA EV BOYCOTT AS OTTAWA STALLS
Doug Ford wants Ontarians to shun cheap Chinese electric cars before they arrive. The province’s premier has urged drivers not to buy battery-powered vehicles imported from China, as Ottawa weighs its own response to a wave of low-cost models hitting Europe and threatening American makers.
The appeal matters less for today’s sales than for tomorrow’s market design. Ontario anchors Canada’s car industry, hosts most of its assembly plants and is spending billions to lure battery investment. Mr Ford argues that a flood of low-priced Chinese EVs would undercut those bets and shift jobs to Asia just as legacy firms retool.
His stance lines up with Washington, which has slapped tariffs of up to 100% on Chinese EVs, and with Brussels, which has launched anti-subsidy probes. Yet Canada has so far held back. No federal tariffs match America’s. No clear industrial policy protects the local market. Mr Ford’s boycott call tries to fill that gap with politics while Ottawa hesitates on policy.
The economics are plain enough. Chinese brands have cut costs across the supply chain, from cells to software. Their cars land in Europe at prices that undercut Western rivals with similar range and equipment. If those same models enter Canada at scale, they would test both consumer loyalty and the resilience of new plants in Ontario, many still years from volume output.
For now, Mr Ford’s boycott remains symbolic: Chinese EVs are bit players in Canada. But symbols can move ahead of trade law. If Ottawa follows America and Europe with its own curbs, today’s plea to drivers will read as the opening move in a fight over who builds the EVs Canadians buy.
GEELY DUMPS THE RUSSIAN DOLL LOOK FOR ITS PHEV
Geely has shaped the Starray EM-i, a plug-in hybrid built for Britain, to look nothing like its all-electric EX5 sibling, despite sharing much of its innards. The firm wants clear visual boundaries between its BEV, ICE and PHEV lines, and rejects the “Russian doll” family look that still dominates many line-ups.
That split now sits at the heart of how carmakers sell electrified ranges. The Starray EM-i shares around 60% of its interior with the EX5, yet its front end is new. Geely’s designers finished the project in three and a half months, pushing full-scale clay models and rapid digital iterations through continuous engineering checks.
The car’s nose does most of the work. Geely has closed the grille to cut drag, claiming a coefficient of 0.288Cd after extensive wind tunnel testing. A split headlamp layout aims to sharpen the face while lowering glare for oncoming traffic, a small but useful safety gain. The firm insists this is design with a job to do, not decoration.
Inside, the brief was to balance digital convenience with familiar controls. The cockpit centres on a 15.4-inch screen, a 10.2-inch LCD cluster and a 13.8-inch head-up display, arranged for clear sightlines rather than spectacle. Colour, material and finish choices target a premium feel in a class still prone to hard, shiny plastics.
The Starray EM-i began as a Chinese-market car, but its neutral base allows only minor tweaks for export. Geely frames the whole exercise as functional design: extend range, raise safety, tame complex technology and, above all, lower driver anxiety.
VOLVO BETS ON LONG‑RANGE PLUG‑IN HYBRIDS AS EV BRIDGE
Volvo will not drag its buyers into a battery‑only future. Many still want the back‑up of a fuel tank, so the firm is rolling out next‑generation plug‑in hybrids as a bridge to full electrification.
The company pitches these cars as a practical answer to range anxiety and patchy charging. Michael Fleiss, Volvo’s chief strategy and product officer, says the new plug‑in hybrids will offer an electric‑only range of about 100 miles per charge. That would take them far beyond today’s typical PHEVs and make most daily driving electric for many owners.
Yet Volvo still wants long‑distance flexibility. It targets a combined driving range of between 800 and 1,000 km, or roughly 500 to 620 miles. When the battery runs low, the combustion engine can engage and disengage to drive the wheels directly, especially on motorways. In stop‑go traffic, by contrast, the system leans on the electric motor, where it works best.
This layout sets Volvo’s plug‑in hybrids apart from traditional extended‑range electric vehicles, which never link the engine to the wheels and use it only as a generator. Volvo’s set‑up keeps the feel of an engine on longer trips while shifting most urban miles to electricity.
VW CASH SURPRISE BUYS TIME, NOT COMFORT
Volkswagen’s automotive arm generated in €6bn of net cash flow in 2025, having earlier told investors to expect none. The surprise sent its shares up more than 5% on Thursday morning.
The cash haul matters more than most line items in VW’s accounts. Net liquidity in the automotive division hit €34bn at year-end, €4bn above the carmaker’s own forecast. Investors treat that balance as a live read-out on whether VW must wield the axe harder, or can afford to slow the pace of cuts as it refits itself for the electric age.
The improvement came from tighter working-capital management and lower than expected capital expenditure and research spending. Yet the automotive division, which still anchors VW’s business across ten brands plus battery and engineering operations, sits in a harsher world. The group wants to strip out €6bn in costs by the end of the decade as it wrestles with collapsing sales in China, expensive European factories and rising American tariffs.
VW has already agreed to slash output at German plants and cut 35,000 jobs in the country by 2030 under a plan struck at the end of 2024. It has also trimmed its rolling five-year investment budget to €160bn from a previous €180bn.
WARM HOMES PLAN IS ALSO AN EV POLICY
The government’s new £15 billion Warm Homes Plan looks like a housing scheme. It also amounts to an electric-vehicle policy by stealth.
The plan funds solar panels, battery storage, heat pumps and insulation. On paper, the aim is warmer homes and lower bills. In practice, it could change how Britons power their cars as much as their radiators.
Home charging already underpins EV economics because it stays far cheaper than most public options. Cost and convenience of charging still block many buyers, despite the £1,500 / £3,750 Electric Car Grant and a public campaign urging drivers to go electric. Last year nearly 25% of new car registrations were fully electric, but the leap to mass adoption still needs cheaper, more predictable energy.
Letting households generate and store their own clean power makes EV ownership more attractive. Millions could charge overnight from low-cost, off-peak or self-generated energy, cutting running costs and easing range anxiety. Low and zero-interest loans for solar and battery systems tie the Warm Homes Plan directly into the EV energy ecosystem rather than leaving it as a stand-alone climate scheme.
Heat pumps and rooftop solar also push households towards smart energy management. Once installed, these systems can control when cars charge, shifting demand away from peak prices and smoothing grid load.
The UK already sells more EVs than ever. Add a subsidised build-out of home generation and storage to existing grants and campaigning, and the shift to electric driving may speed up without a single new motoring incentive.
NIO’S EUROPE BATTERY SWAPS GAIN SPEED, HIT CEILING
Nio has clocked 250,000 battery swaps in Europe, four years after opening its first station in Norway, in January 2022. The Chinese electric-car maker still treats the continent as a test bed, yet its swap data now show both momentum and limits.
At home Nio runs more than 3,700 swap stations and is closing in on its 100 millionth domestic swap, with about 100,000 exchanges a day. Europe looks tiny by comparison. Drivers there swap an average of 9,564 times a month, roughly 315 a day.
Nio has also begun to retrench. It shut its first and only Danish station, the first closure in Europe since launch. Whether swapping reaches new European markets now lies with Nio’s local distributors, which also handle the cheaper Firefly sub-brand. Nio doubled its European market presence last year, but sales remain modest: 1,321 vehicles across seven of ten markets in 2025, including first registrations in Belgium and Portugal.
https://evne.ws/45Yq6v2
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