EVwire newsletter #168: The EV industry roundup

The Global EV Driver Survey 2026 wants to hear from you, EV driver.

It's the third edition, run by the Global EV Alliance (GEVA), a non-profit network of national EV associations. It takes about 7 minutes, it's anonymous, and the results will be made public.

Last year, more than 27,500 EV drivers across 30 countries took part. 83% said policy measures are needed to grow EV sales in their country, 77% named myths as the biggest obstacle to EV adoption, and 88% weren't worried about their EV being a fire hazard. (2025 results)

Any country with at least 100 respondents gets its own country-level results, so if you’re tuning from a developing market, it’s worth helping yours over the line (and sharing), too:

The deadline is Tuesday, 13th of October!

And here’s a special shoutout to our reader Markus for working on this! 👋

Quick reminder: EVwire now puts out around 7 new EV articles every day over on our EVwire.com site, so if you want more than the weekly roundup, make a habit of dropping by. We've got over 50k monthly readers already, on the road to millions.

Every link in this newsletter leads to one of our own deeper articles, and you can help us grow by sharing them. And not all of the articles we’ve published are here, so do check out our site.

Citroën is bringing back one of its most iconic cars, with the French automaker unveiling the all-electric 2CV Concept at the 2026 Paris Motor Show. You’ll find my quick video walkaround of the car (as in my pic above) in our article (link).

The concept previews a production model that Citroën plans to unveil within the next two years. The company’s target is a starting price of around €15,000 (about $17,400) for the electric 2CV.

The production version of the electrified 2CV will be built in Europe and is set to join Citroën’s lineup by 2028, slotting between the Ami and the C3. It will also comply with the upcoming European E-Car regulations. The original 2CV debuted at the Paris Motor Show back in 1948, and more than five million units were built before production ended in 1990.

While I would assume Citroën will keep a very similar exterior look to the 2CV all the way to the production of it, I am quite sure the interior will look very different:

Li Auto has officially entered Europe, with the Chinese automaker premiering the European version of the Li 6 at the Paris Motor Show. (link) The all-electric SUV is Li Auto's first model for the region, with its launch and first deliveries in the Netherlands and Norway scheduled for the first quarter of 2027.

Li Auto will set up its own sales, delivery, aftersales and service systems in Europe and gradually expand into more EU countries. Its aftersales network will include a regional spare parts distribution center in the Netherlands, roadside assistance, and a customer call center, all of which are set to go live in December 2026.

As I mentioned, I have more to share with you, so look out for another email about Paris Motor Show, from me later this week. Now, however, to the other news I’ve gathered:

🇺🇸 The new all-electric BMW i3 undercuts its gas-powered 3 Series counterpart by $4,400 in the US. (link)

The i3 50 xDrive starts at $61,500, while the comparable M350 xDrive sedan starts at $65,900, both before destination charges. The two are close in power and styling and aimed at the same buyers, which makes the EV about 6.7% cheaper.

Like-for-like comparisons have been rare, because popular EVs like the Model 3 and Model Y don't have a direct gas twin. The 2027 BMW 3 Series does.

There is a cheaper gas 3 Series, though. The 330 starts at $49,900, and BMW doesn't offer an electric version at that level yet.

Going the other way in the US:

🇺🇸 GM's Kansas City-area factory is now expected to build only around 35,000 Chevrolet Bolts before the model wraps up in early 2027, roughly a quarter of the 150,000 originally planned. (link)

The figures come from Dontay Wilson, who leads the UAW local at the plant, in comments to Reuters. The union worked the number out from the factory's daily output, not from GM data.

GM wouldn't discuss Bolt volumes, saying only: "We continuously evaluate market dynamics and customer demand."

Plans for a second shift have been pushed back, and Wilson put the number of workers on indefinite layoff at close to 1,000. The plant gets the gas Chevrolet Equinox from Mexico next year, plus Buick Envision production moved over from China.

GM revived the Bolt early this year at $27,600, and sold 4,224 of them through August.

🇺🇸 Rivian delivered 19,248 vehicles in Q3, up 46% year over year and about 58% above Q2. (link)

It was the first full quarter with the R2 on the road, and Rivian reaffirmed its full-year guidance of 65,000 to 70,000 deliveries.

Through nine months it has delivered 41,807, so even the bottom of that range takes about 23,200 in Q4.

Over in Europe:

🇩🇪 Audi revealed the A2 e-tron, the most efficient car in the brand's history, from €38,200 (US$44,360) in Germany. (link) I’ll share some of my pics of it from Paris soon.

Energy consumption runs as low as 12.8 kWh per 100 km, on a drag coefficient of just 0.24.

Orders opened September 10, with first deliveries in December. It's built in Ingolstadt alongside the A3, on the Volkswagen Group's MEB+ platform.

The name is a revival. The original A2, built from 1999 to 2005, was a lightweight aluminum hatchback that was ahead of its time, commercially unsuccessful, and a cult classic.

🇬🇧 Bentley revealed the Torcal, its first fully electric model and the fourth model line in its history. (link)

It comes in two versions: 821 PS, or the S with up to 888 PS and 0-60 mph in 2.8 seconds. Both get up to 375 miles (600 km) of WLTP range, and both are built in Crewe.

Instead of a synthesized engine note, Bentley recorded real drums, viola and bass guitar for what it calls the Bentley Dynamic Symphony.

🇨🇦 Geely Auto is officially entering Canada, with its first vehicles arriving in 2027. (link)

It already has a Canadian team and is building a retail and service network with local partners. The lineup, pricing, and locations come closer to launch.

Canada opened its doors to Chinese-built EVs with an initial quota of 49,000 a year, and BYD is aiming for 20 dealerships there.

Gas cars made up less than half of global new-car sales in the first half of 2026, likely a first since cars went mainstream in the 1920s. (link)

Gas car sales fell 10% to 20.25 million units, a 49% share, per Mobility Global (formerly S&P Global Mobility). As recently as 2021, they held 73%.

Battery EVs rose 12% to 6.87 million, a 17% share, and hybrids grew 10% to 7.27 million, or 18%. Europe did the heavy lifting, with EV sales up 32% to 1.81 million. China's EV sales slipped 3%, and North America's fell 15%.

And inside the EU's own factories:

🇪🇺 Battery electric cars made up 19% of all passenger cars built in the EU in 2025, according to a new ICCT report. Nearly every fifth car off an EU assembly line is now fully electric. (link)

In 2019, it was 1%. The share jumped from 14% in both 2023 and 2024 to 19% in 2025, the largest single-year gain yet.

Germany built 30% BEVs across roughly 4.1 million cars, which made up 56% of the bloc's total EV production. France hit 22%, and Czechia 16%.

On the demand side, ACEA has BEVs at 20.7% of new EU car registrations in the first half of 2026.

🇪🇺 Plug-in hybrids emit six times more CO₂ in real-world driving than official EU lab tests suggest. (link)

Data from 220,000 vehicles with fuel monitors, collected by the European Environment Agency and analyzed by Transport & Environment, puts the average PHEV at 145 g/km on the road, against 24 g/km on paper.

That is virtually the same as a standard non-rechargeable hybrid (147 g/km), and not far off a pure gasoline car (169 g/km).

The gap has widened every year: 3.4 times in 2021, 4.2 in 2022, 4.9 in 2023, and six times in 2024.

A 2027 rule update would tighten the "utility factors" the EU uses to match real-world driving, and carmakers' association ACEA seems to be lobbying to kill it. The EU Council is expected to debate it on October 12, with a Parliament vote expected in November.

🇨🇳 Geely launched Smart Charging, a fifth-generation 2.25 MW charging station with AI-powered battery management. (link)

Geely says it took a car from 10% to 70% in 4 minutes 30 seconds, and from 10% to 97% in 8 minutes 40 seconds, on the 12C Shendun battery in the Lynk & Co 10 and Zeekr 001.

One note on the numbers: 2.25 MW is the station's peak rating. CATARC logged about 1,093 kW on the Lynk & Co 10.

The AI part: Geely says the system predicts battery temperature up to 30 seconds ahead, keeping the average below 55°C (131°F) while charging.

It liquid-cools the whole chain too, from the charger and cable to the car's charge port and battery.

The first cars getting it in China are the Galaxy E5, TT and Zhanjian 700, on a 6C pack. The E5's own window is 10-70% in 8 minutes 25 seconds.

Here's how the three Chinese megawatt systems now stack up: (link)

BYD, meanwhile, keeps building:

🇨🇳 BYD completed its 2,000th highway flash charging station in China, about three months ahead of schedule. (link)

They cover nearly a third of China's highway service areas, spaced about 100 km (62 miles) apart on average.

BYD's backdrop uses 座, the character for a whole location, so read it as 2,000 sites rather than 2,000 chargers.

As of September 24, BYD had 11,586 flash charging stations across 341 cities, toward 20,000 by the end of 2026, with 6,000 more planned overseas.

The network has served more than 1.83 million users, and nearly a third of them drove other brands.

And what does all that power do to a battery?

🇨🇳 BYD says a Yangwang U7 kept 98.7% of its battery capacity after 30,000 km (18,600 miles) in under nine days and more than 350 flash charges. (link)

A production car picked at random from a retail showroom drove continuously at 240 km/h (149 mph) in Nanning, where average temperatures topped 36°C (97°F).

Encouraging, though nine days is no substitute for long-term ownership data.

And the leap after this one:

🔋 Geely, BYD and CATL have each committed to small-scale solid-state battery production in 2027, the first time all three have pointed at the same timeline. (link)

Geely claims 500 Wh/kg, roughly double today's best lithium-ion cells. BYD published six patents on a dual-electrolyte cathode. CATL confirmed the same 2027 window to investors.

Even so, CATL chairman Robin Zeng said in June that its cells scored four out of nine on the Technology Readiness Level scale, and that mass-market adoption was "years away."