DAILY: Tesla Kills Off S & X, Ford Adds LFP In Europe and More Miles From Mini | 29 Jan 2026

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Plus, stay tuned because later in the show I’ll tell you how many nations on the planet have now confirmed they have a solid plan to go EV.

On EV News China today we’re talking about: NIO Pushes Updated ADAS, Xpeng X9 and VW’s China Platform

TESLA DUMPS FLAGSHIP CARS TO BUILD ROBOTS

Tesla will stop building its longest-lived cars. Elon Musk told investors on 28th January, during the firm’s Q4 2025 earnings call, that production of the Model S and Model X will end by the close of the second quarter of 2026.

The move ends a run that helped turn Tesla from niche start-up into global carmaker. It also marks a shift in where the firm sees growth: away from high-end flagships and towards higher-volume models and new projects.

The firm will turn the Fremont, California plant that makes them into a factory for Optimus, its humanoid robot. It marks a shift from carmaking to what Tesla now calls a “physical AI company”, with capital moving from vehicles to robots and software just as its core car business sours.

2025 still brought Tesla’s first year-on-year revenue decline, down 3%. Total automotive revenues fell 11% year-on-year. Vehicle deliveries in the quarter dropped 16% as European demand slumped.

Musk did not frame the move away from S & X as a retreat. He cast it as part of a broader effort to streamline the range, push down costs and shift capital to products that can sell in far larger numbers. The Model S and Model X, once central to Tesla’s brand and technology story, now sit at the edge of a portfolio dominated by cheaper and newer designs.

https://bit.ly/3MewAzl

TESLA’S ROBOTAXI CLAIMS COLLIDE WITH CALIFORNIA LAW

Tesla says robotaxis already work in the San Francisco Bay Area. California says they do not, and cannot, because Tesla lacks the licence to run them.

Tesla has staked much of its future value on autonomous vehicles, and investors track each hint of progress. A claim that it already runs robotaxis in a major American city signals technical maturity, regulatory acceptance and commercial readiness. If the claim runs ahead of the law, it runs ahead of reality.

California’s rules on autonomous vehicles are clear. Companies need specific approvals to operate self-driving cars on public roads, especially for paid services. Tesla does not hold such permission for robotaxis in the state.

In their financial report yesterday, they intermixed the words Roxotaxi with a capital R to signify those in the small trial, and robotaxi with a small ‘r’ which are Tesla’s used for ride-hailing by humans.

Investors once shrugged off the gaps between promise and permission.

https://bit.ly/3ZF16FC

TESLA FSD USER COUNT RISES, BUT QUESTIONS MULTIPLY

Tesla now says 1.1m people worldwide use Full Self-Driving (Supervised). Yet this first public figure blurs almost as much as it clarifies: the tally folds together up-front FSD buyers and active monthly subscribers, and the firm does not split the two. Apart from using the word ‘Subscribers’ to describe both subscribers and buyers.

In its Q4 2025 shareholder deck Tesla reported 1.1m active FSD subscriptions in 2025, up from 800,000 in 2024, 600,000 in 2023, 500,000 in 2022.

However in early 2023 Tesla said there had been roughly 400,000 FSD purchases in North America. The new figure is global and mixes those legacy one-time buyers with paying subscribers.

After the initial release, Tesla added a crucial detail: around 70% of the 1.1m “subscribers” bought FSD outright. Only about 30% pay monthly. That mix points to a large base of committed buyers willing to pay a high one-off price for software Tesla still brands as “Full Self-Driving”, even as it keeps the human in charge.

The disclosure also puts Tesla’s talk of a future robotaxi network in context. If just over one in ten cars sold to date carries FSD, Tesla must either lift take-up sharply or squeeze more revenue from existing users to match its earlier bullish talk. Yet the absolute figure—1.1m paying users—remains large by the standards of any advanced driver-assistance system.

From February 14th Tesla will end one-time FSD purchases and move to a subscription-only model, “a move which lines up with Elon Musk’s latest performance-based pay package, which includes a long-term milestone of 10m active FSD subscriptions.

Will his future stock reward be granted on defining people who bought a product as a subscriber.

https://bit.ly/4rkWosw

MUSK FLOATS IDEA TO USE UNWANTED CYBERTRUCKS

Tesla has a Cybertruck problem. On its fourth-quarter earnings call, Mr Musk floated a new use for unsold units: intra-city autonomous deliveries.

The idea sounds neat. It runs into the same basic issue that has dogged the Cybertruck from launch: the shape. Tesla pitched the model as a “hyper-utility” workhorse. Yet its sharp-angled stainless-steel shell and tapering bed make it ill-suited to the task that defines urban logistics: packing standard boxes into a standard space.

Urban cargo lives by rectangles and right angles. Vans and box trucks use near-vertical walls and flat roofs to maximise cubic capacity and keep loading simple. Pallets, roll cages and parcel totes slot in, stack and strap down. By contrast, the Cybertruck’s profile trades usable volume for show. Odd corners waste space. Sloping panels constrain both height and width at the points where fleet operators most value predictability.

Musk’s answer hints at soft demand for a model once hyped as the ultimate utility pickup. Tesla can write new software. It cannot, without starting again, rewrite the shape.

https://bit.ly/4kacliS

MUSK ADMITS TESLA ROBOT NOT YET DOING USEFUL WORK

Elon Musk told investors on Tesla’s Q4 2025 earnings call that not a single Optimus robot is doing useful work in the company’s factories. That jars with two years of his own claims that Tesla’s humanoid machines had started taking on real tasks on the production line.

The climbdown matters less for today’s margins than for tomorrow’s story. Musk has cast Optimus as Tesla’s next act, talking up a future in which fleets of general-purpose robots out-earn the firm’s car business. If, in early 2026, none of them yet performs “useful work” inside Tesla’s own plants, the commercial timeline looks hazier than the pitch suggests.

The gap between claim and reality is not new in Silicon Valley, nor in Musk’s back catalogue. But robots pose a tougher test than over-the-air updates or new trim levels. Factory work offers the easiest setting: controlled layouts, repeatable tasks, a captive customer and patient engineers. If Optimus has yet to prove itself there, large-scale use in homes, warehouses or city streets sits further off than recent presentations implied.

Musk describes Optimus as the “biggest product of all time” and says robots and autonomous vehicles will yield “a world where there is no poverty”. For now neither exists at scale, earns money or works as promised.

Mr Musk promised 12 months ago that he would have 1,000 of his robots replacing human within Tesla factories, yesterday he admitted that number was zero but promised they’d be rolled out by the end of this year.

Investors already juggle Tesla’s twin identities as carmaker and tech bet. The admission on the earnings call nudges the balance back, for now, towards the firm’s more prosaic role: designing, building and selling electric vehicles, while its most ambitious robot still stands idle in its own maker’s factories.

https://bit.ly/4a4knVI

POLESTAR 2 GAINS BIGGER BATTERY AND REAR-DRIVE FOCUS FOR 2026

Polestar has reworked the 2 again for 2026, and even the cheapest version now gets a better battery. For a car that only reached British roads in 2020, the rate of change has been brisk.

The 2 launched as Polestar’s second production model in dual-motor, long-range, high-spec form. The range soon broadened: first a shorter-range car, then a single-motor version, and finally the BST Edition 270, a limited-run, performance-tuned flagship. Most petrol cars change less over several generations than this one has in a single model cycle.

The 2023 mid-life update brought the biggest shift. A new battery pack lifted capacity and range, while revised motor hardware improved both performance and efficiency. More striking, single-motor versions switched from front- to rear-wheel drive midway through their life, with Polestar claiming notable gains in range and day-to-day efficiency as a result.

The line-up now looks simple on paper. Buyers choose Standard Range or Long Range, with the latter also offered as a four-wheel-drive Dual Motor. Power steps from 268bhp in the Polestar 2 Standard Range Single Motor to 295bhp in the Polestar 2 Long Range Single Motor. The Polestar 2 Long Range Dual Motor makes 416bhp, while the Polestar 2 Long Range Dual Motor Performance Pack lifts that to 469bhp.

Options follow a clear ladder. Pilot adds assisted-driving tech. Plus layers on kit. Dual Motor cars can then take a Performance package, with extra power, lowered suspension, manually adjustable Öhlins dampers and uprated brakes.

On paper, the changes turn a worthy pioneer into a sharper, more efficient rear-driven EV, even at the entry level. The proof now lies not in a spec sheet, but in the way the 2026 car covers everyday miles.

https://bit.ly/49QlE48

FORD GIVES CHEAPEST EVS MORE RANGE FOR SAME PRICE

Ford’s two cheapest electric models now go further and accelerate faster, with no price rise – for now. Entry-level versions of the Ford Capri and Ford Explorer gain new lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries and a stronger motor, lifting both range and performance.

The Standard Range pack swaps nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) chemistry for LFP. On paper the change looks modest but useful. The Capri Standard Range’s official range climbs by 45 miles, from 243 to 288 miles. The Explorer Standard Range gains 43 miles, from 233 to 276 miles.

Ford also fits a new drive unit. Power rises from 168bhp to 187bhp. The 0-62mph time for both cars drops from 8.7sec to 8.0sec. That moves the pair closer to brisk family transport and away from mere compliance cars.

The shift to LFP brings side-benefits that matter to fleet buyers and used-car markets. The cells run more thermally stable than NMC, so they are less likely to catch fire if punctured. They also promise a longer service life. Ford says owners can charge to 100% on a regular basis with less risk of battery degradation than before.

LFP has a cost in weight. Its lower energy density means a like-for-like pack weighs more than an NMC one. Ford has not said whether the Capri and Explorer have gained much mass as a result.

Nor has it said whether it will pass on any savings. LFP cells cost significantly less to make than NMC ones and already power many small EVs, including the forthcoming Renault Twingo. Jon Williams, who runs Ford’s Model E EV division in Europe, says the aim is to increase range and durability “while keeping it affordable”. How much of the LFP saving Ford shares will decide how much these upgrades move the sales needle.

https://bit.ly/4q4op6w

MINI SQUEEZES MORE MILES FROM COUNTRYMAN E

Mini has found 25 extra miles in the Countryman E without touching the battery pack.

The electric crossover’s official range rises from 286 miles to 311 miles. The gain looks modest until you scan the class. Skoda’s Elroq now claims up to 355 miles; Ford’s Explorer stretches that to 374 miles. In that company, every extra mile counts.

Mini leans on hardware rather than capacity. A new silicon-carbide inverter cuts losses when it turns DC from the 66.5kWh pack into AC for the motor and on-board systems. Low-friction wheel bearings on the front axle trim a little more waste. The battery keeps its gross capacity at 66.5kWh, but usable capacity edges up from 64.6kWh to 65.2kWh.

The tweaks reach across the range. The four-wheel-drive Countryman E All4 now manages 290 miles per charge, up from 267. It still trails the longest-range competitors, but the gap closes enough to keep the car in the hunt among family EVs rather than stuck in the second tier.

That support props up one of Mini’s core products. The Countryman made up almost a third of the brand’s sales last year, with 93,305 registered globally. Mini has not reinvented the car to keep it competitive as an EV. With a sharper powertrain and a keener entry price, it has instead extended the life of a model that now goes further while costing less than its petrol sibling.

https://bit.ly/3NMeiG3

USED BOLT EUV UNDERCUTS COROLLA ON OWNERSHIP COST

A used Chevrolet Bolt EUV now undercuts a Toyota Corolla on cost. That, at least, is the claim of new research from the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability, which finds that used battery‑electric cars and plug‑in hybrids now have the lowest lifetime cost of ownership in the American market, even before federal tax credits and state subsidies.

The work compares 14 model‑year 2024 vehicles—spanning internal combustion, hybrid, plug‑in hybrid and battery‑electric—across three years of ownership and two mileage profiles: 9,000 miles a year for typical users and 15,000 miles for heavy users. Researchers tally purchase price, depreciation, financing, fuel, maintenance, repairs, insurance and taxes, then subtract expected resale value.

The headline results come from mainstream models. For typical drivers, a used Chevrolet Bolt EUV delivers the lowest three‑year cost, followed by a used Hyundai Ioniq 5 and a used Toyota Prius Prime plug‑in hybrid. For heavier users, the order shifts slightly but used EVs still dominate. New EVs also fare well, though higher upfront prices narrow their edge over petrol cars on three‑year sums.

Fuel and maintenance swing the numbers. Across the sample, battery‑electric models cut energy costs by 60% to 70% versus petrol cars, and maintenance by around 40%. Depreciation, once the bane of early EV buyers, now favours second‑hand purchasers who pick up vehicles after the steepest drop in value.

https://bit.ly/4qUz84Y

JAECOO EXTENDS CUT-PRICE J5 EV LAUNCH DEAL

Jaecoo has found 1,000 more buyers for its sharp-priced electric SUV. The Chinese brand has extended its launch offer for the J5 EV, holding the $36,990 drive-away price and free premium paint for another 1,000 customers after the initial allocation sold out following order books opening in late December.

Roy Munoz, chief commercial officer at Omoda Jaecoo Australia, says dealers and buyers have “quickly filled” the order books and that the firm wants to keep the entry deal alive a little longer. Jaecoo has also added a new black interior option for the first 2,000 J5 EV customers.

The price matters more than the paint. At $36,990 drive-away with premium paint included, the J5 EV ranks among the cheapest electric SUVs in Australia. It lines up against the BYD Atto 2 and Atto 3, MG’s small electric SUVs including the S5 EV, the Geely EX5, the GAC Aion V and a wave of other compact Chinese high-riders aimed at budget-conscious buyers.

Jaecoo pitches the J5 as the entry point to its range, below the mid-size J7 and larger J8 SUVs. Petrol and hybrid versions of the J5 will follow later this year, but for now the focus stays on the battery-electric variant. The J5 EV claims a 402km driving range and can charge from 30% to 80% in 28 minutes on a DC fast charger.

https://bit.ly/4t734fy

UK WEALTH FUND PUMPS CASH INTO EV CHARGERS AND BATTERIES

Britain’s National Wealth Fund will channel more public money into electric‑vehicle charging and domestic battery plants, betting that manufacturing and grid hardware still need state help to scale. Ministers have ordered the fund to step up backing for both sectors, binding industrial policy more tightly to the shift away from internal‑combustion fleets.

Private capital has cooled on capital‑intensive EV infrastructure just as fleets face tighter emissions rules and looming diesel bans. Without faster build‑out of high‑speed chargers and cell plants, operators face higher running costs, weaker residual values and fresh doubts over supply security.

The fund will target public rapid and ultra‑rapid charge points along key trunk roads and in urban hubs, where utilisation rates still look too uncertain for debt markets alone. Officials see commercial‑vehicle depots and workplace charging as the next wave, with co‑investment meant to unlock projects stalled by grid‑connection delays and thin margins.

On batteries, the strategy tilts towards large‑scale domestic cell and pack production tied to UK assembly lines. The aim is to anchor supply chains for vans, company cars and last‑mile delivery fleets, and to retain some control over critical‑minerals processing. Backers argue that higher upfront public stakes will cut perceived risk for pension funds and insurers, and so lower the cost of capital for later rounds.

Yet the fund will not fill every gap. Local planning, grid reinforcement and clear long‑term rules on CO2 standards, tariffs and fleet incentives sit outside its remit. More public money will speed some projects; without those other fixes, Britain’s EV rollout will lag the ambition of its targets.

https://bit.ly/49W3r5f

EV PLEDGES GO GLOBAL BUT TARGETS STAY UNEVEN

A total of 104 countries now tell the UN they plan to expand electric mobility. Putting EVs into national climate contributions marks a shift from pilot schemes to policy.

The numbers matter more than the rhetoric. Of those 104 countries, 66 have set concrete expansion targets. Never before have so many states moved from vague support for “clean transport” to explicit goals for EV roll-out.

This breadth gives electric mobility a new kind of political backing. Climate diplomacy once centred on smokestacks and power plants; traffic now holds a firmer place in national plans. When countries codify EV ambitions in their UN filings, they give investors, carmakers and grid operators a clear yardstick.

The split between intent and detail still stands out. Some 38 countries talk about expanding electric mobility but offer no firm numbers or timelines. They add to the sense of global momentum, but they give industry less to work with than the 66 that have hard targets.

Yet even this mix of firm and loose pledges shifts the baseline. As more national climate contributions come up for revision, EVs will need more than a token mention. Governments that have already set numbers will face pressure to raise them. Those that have not will find it harder to sit out the shift.

The UN process will not install a single charger. But it now acts as a scoreboard for electric mobility, and 104 entries turn EV policy from a niche concern into a test of climate seriousness.

https://bit.ly/4alWXMU

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