BRIEFLY: Kia, BYD, Oil Shocks & more | 27 Apr 2026

0:00It's even used briefly for Monday 27th April, kicking off a new week with everything you need to know in less than five minutes if you haven't got time for the full-on podcast today. Kia's CEO announced a deliberate price-cutting strategy that the company's invested day, narrowing the price gap with Chinese rivals like BYD from around 20 to 25% to 15 to 20%. Despite reporting a quarterly profit decline due to higher European sales incentives, Kia says it's a solid profit base for sustaining the strategy of fighting the Chinese in Europe on pricing. Talking about one of those, BYD unveiling anything but a cheap EV. The production version of their Denzer Z of the Basing, Beijing also show an all-electric supercar with a 1,000 horsepower and 0-60 times less than two seconds. Three variants, including a coupé and a convertible, it's going to cost around $65,000 in China. Their targets, of course, the Tesla roads to two and is prioritized for European sales. Typically, Chinese cars, when they arrive in Europe, are two to three times the China price.

1:04That's very much a broad brushstroke, though. They're going to show it off at Goodwood's Festival of Speed. Rising oil prices, following the US-Israeli strikes on Iran and closure of the straight of Hamuz, shifting the economies of scale towards EVs as the war continues. It accelerates the consumer demand tipping points already supported by the technology improvements like better batteries and longer range. Also a large EV fleet could do more to shift the world away from being dependent on oil. And also fossil fuels. For instance, the UK gets a lot of its electricity by generating burning gas for turbines. The move to EV means there'll be more potential grid storage available if those EVs become grid connected, which is a self-reinforcing technology loop, which means fewer and fewer fossil fuels will eventually be needed. The ECIU data out today shows eight of the UK's best-selling plug-in hybrids are more expensive

2:05on sticker price than their comparably V. There's an average gap of £4,150, that's 10%, even as the average new EV price has fallen below the average price of a new petrol car for the first time. The sticker price of an equivalent plug-in hybrid is a lot more than going pure EV. Omoda and J-Q reached one million global sales this month in April, just three years after their international debut, recording monthly sales of over 60,000 units last month in March. They're in 69 markets with almost 1,400 dealers, Europe, Drove, 42% of total global sales. It's not all plain sailing for the Chinese. If you think they had it easy going in Europe. Some of them have tried, and have failed, Great Wall Motor, GWM, have pulled the Funky Cat or 0-3 as they later rebranded it. From the UK market, only 542 units were registered last year, 26 so far this year.

3:06It's a four year run they had, it was a very expensive car, a nice car, but they couldn't make it work. In the case you think the Chinese are arriving in Europe is just a slam dunk for all of them. Some are struggling. Leap Motor are doing well, though, with Estilantis investment and their joint venture. The B-05 is a compact hatchback. That is launching in Europe with a starting price of 26,900 euros in Italy, and it easily undercuts every major rival. It's not a hot hatch, they're doing a warm version of it, but it still beats the equivalent of the WI-D3, the WI-D Dolphin, even MG4. US EV makers like Tesla, Rivian, and Lucid are continuing their efforts to bypass the dealer franchise model, which controls 96% of new vehicle deliveries, new legal strategies and even ballot initiative threats that are continuing in the US. MG Motor is eyeing up Spain to make their vehicles in Europe to avoid some of those Chinese

4:10tariffs.