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BRIEFLY: BMW, EV Prices, Tesla Energy & more | 16 Mar 2026

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It's EV News Briefly for Monday 16 March 2026, everything you need to know in less than 5 minutes if you haven't got time for the full show.

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BMW SETS 18 MARCH FOR I3 DEBUT
BMW will unveil the fully electric i3 sedan on 18 March, extending its Neue Klasse platform into the compact sedan segment, with assembly already underway at its Munich plant and series production expected to begin in late autumn. The i3 50 xDrive will be the first version to reach customers, featuring an 800V platform with up to 400kW peak charging and an expected range exceeding the iX3's 805km rating.

EU EV PRICES FALL AS RULES BITE
EU EV prices fell by an average of €1,800 in 2025, a 4% drop that ended five consecutive years of rising prices, taking the average to €42,700, driven by tighter CO2 emissions targets forcing carmakers to compete on price. T&E expects further price falls as more budget EVs launch, with affordable and mass-market EVs projected to outsell large and premium vehicles by 2027, alongside full price parity with ICE vehicles across all segments.

TESLA WINS UK POWER SUPPLY LICENCE
Tesla has been granted an electricity supply licence by Ofgem, allowing Tesla Energy Ventures to sell power directly to homes and businesses across England, Wales and Scotland from 11 March 2026, completing a six-year effort to become a full-service energy provider in Britain. Ofgem approved the licence despite over 8,400 objections citing Elon Musk's political activities, ruling that Tesla met all statutory requirements, and Tesla must now comply with standard UK consumer protection and billing obligations.

UK MAKERS BEAT 2024 ZEV TARGET
UK car makers met their 2024 ZEV mandate obligations despite a raw EV sales mix of 19.8% falling short of the 22% headline target, by using CO2 credits under the Vehicle Emissions Trading Scheme to reach an effective 24.1%. The result gave manufacturers surplus credits to carry into future compliance years, with the government set to begin a ZEV mandate review later in 2026 and findings due in the first half of 2027.

GREEN NCAP LINKS WITH CHARIN ON CHARGING TESTS
Green NCAP and the Charging Interface Initiative (CharIN) have agreed to collaborate on EV charging interoperability and performance transparency, with the goal of giving consumers independent, verified data on how well EVs work with charging infrastructure. The CharIN Label will be referenced within Green NCAP's Driving Experience assessment for electric vehicles, with testing following CharIN's own processes or recognised partner organisations.

ARVAL DATA SHOWS STRONG EV BATTERY LIFE
Arval's analysis of 24,000 battery health certificates across 11 European countries found that EV and PHEV batteries decline by just 1% per 25,000km after an initial drop, with vehicles reaching 160,000km or six years of service still retaining battery health above 90%. Newer-generation models outperformed older ones by two to three percentage points, and the entire fleet comfortably exceeds the incoming Euro 7 requirement of 72% battery capacity retention at eight years or 100,000 miles.

AUSTRALIA EV TAX BREAK FACES BUDGET THREAT
Australia's Electric Vehicle Discount, which allows workers to reduce their tax bill by purchasing a new EV through salary sacrificing, is under review with reports suggesting the upcoming federal budget could remove it. Renewable energy advocates are opposing any scrapping of the scheme, arguing the timing is particularly poor given rising global fuel prices.

ŠKODA POSTS RECORD 2025 RESULTS
Škoda posted record 2025 results with revenue up 8.3% to €30.1 billion, operating profit up 8.6% to €2.5 billion, and net cash flow reaching €2.3 billion. Electrified vehicle deliveries more than doubled to 218,700 units, with the Elroq ranking as the second best-selling BEV in Europe and plugged-in models accounting for 25.7% of European sales.

SEAT SEES 2026 PROFIT LIFT AFTER TARIFF CUT
Seat expects profitability to recover in 2026 after the EU dropped an additional tariff on the China-built Cupra Tavascan, which had cost the company an estimated €250 million in 2025 and forced it to absorb around €7,000 per vehicle rather than pass costs to buyers. EV margins still trail combustion-engine equivalents, but Seat expects improvement with the launch of the Cupra Raval small EV on April 9, priced comparably to combustion-engine cars and weeks away from series production.

NISSAN LEAF BATTERIES RETURN AS VIGO CHARGERS
Nissan has partnered with Spanish firm Little Electric Energy to deploy a second-life battery charging system at the Port of Vigo, using 12 decommissioned 30 kWh Nissan Leaf packs to power four charging points supporting both 22 kW AC and 240 kW DC ultra-fast charging. The Green Charge Flex system targets sites with limited grid capacity by charging slowly from the available connection and delivering stored energy rapidly to EVs, avoiding costly grid upgrades.

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BRIEFLY: BMW, EV Prices, Tesla Energy & more | 16 Mar 2026

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EV News Daily - Technology and Business of EVsBRIEFLY: BMW, EV Prices, Tesla Energy & more | 16 Mar 2026. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.

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.

Assembly is underway now. It is Munich plant. Series production, though, happens in autumn. They'll come with the I-3 X-Drive 50, the first version to reach customers. That's the All-Wheel Drive version, 800 volts platform, 400 kilowatts of charge speed, and the I-X-3 has 500 miles on WLTP of range. So this being a more slippery shape should go further. European Union EV prices are falling. It's a drop that I've mentioned last week. I've got some more details now because they're selling more small cars. So it's the Rules Titan on CO2 emissions. It's one of the ways that you can sell more big profitable gas guzzlers, big SUVs, is to sell more cheaper city cars. It kind of gives you some wiggle room in the credits. So as the rules have got tighter in the EU, so the car makers have sold a lot more cheaper EVs. And that has brought down the average selling price of an EV, which means you and I are winners. And so that segment 15 to 25 grand, I'd say, getting really

crowded and is going to get really busy in 2026 as well. Tesla has been granted a license by our regulator off-gem to sell energy to businesses and retail customers in England, Wales and Scotland, completing a six-year effort to become a full-service energy provider. It'll literally be Tesla that sends you the bill. It'll be their name at the top. The way it works here is, we're a small island with one national grid. But energy companies can sit on top of it and resell the energy. It's quite as simple as I'm making out, but it kind of is. It means that maybe Tesla can do some funky stuff with the power walls and maybe even car batteries in time, like they've done in Texas to create micro grids and do a bit of trading. UK car makers met their mandate obligations in 2024. I mentioned this briefly on the podcast. Cosmo data coming in today on this, the UK government releasing information about the mandate we have, technically the vehicle emissions trading scheme and every UK car maker, every car maker that trades in the UK at least, not based here,

met their obligations in 2024. The car lobby itself says they can't do it and it's too difficult anyway. The government says, well, you did it in 2024. The target was 22 percent. Effectively, they hit 24.1 percent. There's nothing you can do with surplus credits and carry forwards and whatnot. And so we'll see what 2025 brings the car makers continue to say through their lobby organization. We can't possibly do it. It's far too difficult even though we've done it. Green NCAP and Charin, the charging interface initiative, will collaborate on EV charging into operability and performance transparency with the goal of giving consumers independent verified data on how well EVs work with different charges. Aval, the leasing company, have analyzed 24,000 battery health certificates and found that batteries decline by, on average, 1 percent per 25,000 kilometers driven after an initial drop. Australia's EV discount,

which allows workers to reduce their tax bill by buying a new EV through salary sacrifice, is under review. Energy advocates are opposing any scrapping of the scheme. Scotta posted record 2025 results, crediting their EV deliveries. They're more than doubled to almost 220,000 units last year. Say it, also hitting more profitability, thanks to the China deal that they've done to waive the tariffs on the China-built Cooper-Taviscan and Old Nissan Leafs using their old batteries to have a second life in battery charging systems in Spain as a battery backup at EV charges. And that's briefly. 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.

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