15 Mar 2025 | Mercedes-Benz Launches Very Efficient CLA, Porsche To Launch Electric Cayenne In California and BYD Launching A High-Power EV Platform/Chargers
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Manage your business from one dashboard and keep it growing with built-in marketing features. Get everything you need to turn your part-time passion into a full-time business. Go to Wix.com. Welcome back to EV News Daily. Coming up today, Mercedes-Benz launches a very efficient CLA. Porsche will launch an electric Cayenne in California.

And BYD launching a high-powered EV platform and charging system. Plus, stay tuned, because later in the show, I'll tell you how many Chinese automakers the chairman of Xiaopeng believes will be left standing in a few years' time. Well, good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, wherever you're listening around the world. Welcome to EV News Daily, your trusted source of EV information. For the weekend, it's Saturday, 15th of March. I'm Martin Lee, and I go through every EV story so you don't have to. Patreon supporters do get the show's ad free, so if you're listening to the ad-supported podcast,

free feed and you think, you know what, I'd like to skip out the ads and maybe more importantly, I'd like to support the work that this chap does, then you're more than welcome to check out the Patreon page. Okay, so let's kick off with Mercedes-Benz launching the new CLA, an updated version of its entry-level vehicle. It will be its most advanced EV, they say. This feels like the next generation of Mercedes-Benz as an EV producer.

The CLA will be a 2026 model year. It'll be built on a platform which is EV focused called MMA.

And they say it's EV first. Now, there will be a hybrid, non-plug-in, mild hybrid version of this in combustion form. So a little bit of hedging of bets, but they do say that this is an EV first platform. The electric model will arrive about nine months before the gasoline version. So EV is being given priority. Well, the CLA is being redesigned. It's a very popular car already for Mercedes-Benz.

And they say that the previous model's four-door coupe shape is going to be maintained, but with larger and sturdier shape and looks, the wheelbase actually gets bigger. Considerably, the wheelbase grows by 6.1 centimetres or 2.4 inches. The height goes up by almost three centimetres or over an inch.

And the overall length extends as well. The greenhouse area is larger, adding rear quarter windows and just feeling bigger inside. The CLA, let's get down to business, is an 800-volt architecture system. So, you know, much better thermal management overall.

on that and potentially much faster charging speeds as well. Mercedes-Benz say that this will have a charging speed that peaks at 320 kilowatts, which is great. It has an 85 kilowatt hour battery. Now that's pretty good actually. So a nice fast charging rate and we're not looking at a massive, massive battery. So I mean,

85 kilowatt hours is not small by any means, but it's also not just throwing cells at the vehicle to get decent range. You know, there's two ways of going a long way, isn't there? Like, you know that you can just add a massive battery and

Or you can make the vehicle more efficient. And Mercedes-Benz are really, really proud of how efficient their next generation vehicles are going to be. They say they've got new cells that mix silicon into the anode with traditional graphite. Power will come from a single rear motor, so 268 horsepower driving the rear wheels. And a bit like the Porsche and the Audi vehicles, a two-speed transmission system.

An optional front motor, which is pretty common to be a much smaller motor. A lot of EVs do it that way. 107 horsepower. Normally, it can disconnect when it's normally a rear-wheel drive vehicle. Normally, these smaller front motors only really engage either for some, I mean, a pretty hefty regen if they're needed for hefty regen.

bit like Formula E used to or these days you can now use the front motor in Formula E racing as of this season I think it was maybe last season I think you know you can now use that as a drive motor when traction is needed and again many cars behave that way as well it's a very efficient way of doing to stay decoupled which frankly the way that I drive is nearly all of the time

The dual motor setup will accelerate the CLA 0-60mph 4.8 seconds. So, that's not rip-your-face-off territory, but it's still very, very good territory. And that is for the dual motor. Single motor, I think I read 6.6 seconds. Mercedes estimates the CLA 250+, and to give it its full name, CLA 250+, with EQ technology, because they've binned off the EQ thing. No more EQCs, EQAs, but EQs.

A lot of companies can never admit that they totally screwed up or that they've just invested a lot. So they're naming all of their EVs normal. I'm doing air quotes. You can't see it. Normal names like CLA, but adding with EQ technology, which no one's going to say, and I think just helps somebody who heads a department save face for the next five years, and then they'll just quietly drop the EQ stuff. WLTP range. This is European, so maybe drop...

12% to 15% if you are trying to get the EPA version of this.

But WLTP range of 694 to 792 kilometers. That's a 420 mile vehicle. That's very, very good. The CLA 350 4MATIC with EQ technology will have a slightly lower range, but really not by much, maybe 10 or 15 miles. So really no penalty there for having the second motor, like I say, I suspect, because it's nearly always decoupled. The braking system is fully brake by wire.

And we'll adjust between regen and friction braking based on pedal input, but also conditions as well. One pedal driving, of course, 200 kilowatts of energy.

Energy regen is very, very good. Also, a multi-source heat pump they're proud of. A front trunk, which is, yes, you can lift up the hood. You can lift up the bonnet on this one. Like the EQS, you had to have a special tool and you had to take it to the dealer and you weren't allowed to look under there. Now you are because that was silly, frankly. And so, GON has the need to do that. Now you can just lift it up and put some stuff like the charging cables in the front, which is very good. Maybe a stinky takeaway or two or some, you know, water sports wearables.

stuff as you're heading home. But more importantly, I think it's just the charging cables because obviously we carry all of ours with us here in Europe. And so...

all of the level two charging is untethered over here, which I know is different to what some people might be used to in North America. So we always carry a type two cable with us. And so if it's in your boot and maybe it's buried and you got the kid's push chair on top, it's a, it's a faff. And so give us a frunk. We'll even a small one just for cables and, you know, bits and bobs and stuff like that. Uh, they say it's big enough for a roll on. Um,

like a wheelie bag that you would have to take on a on a flight that sort of standard size so pretty big actually pricing details not confirmed entry level um as the entry level model the cla has got to be below 60 000 us you would think maybe 50 000 us this is their entry level car and i think it sounds great now they're talking about a 10 to 80 in 21 minutes

So a couple of things they're talking about with this, 10% to 80% in 21 minutes, which is, you know, it's not 18 minutes of the South Korean 800-volt systems like the Arnix and the Kia EV6s and stuff. But that's really good, by the way. And because this vehicle is so efficient, they're confirming 5.1 miles per kilowatt hour. And yes, it does look slippery. It is a little bit slippery.

like a jelly bean. Not too much, I would say. I like the styling of this, but there'll be people who don't like how this is, again, a little bit... It looks slippery. And...

5.1 miles per kilowatt hour, adding 200 miles of real world range in a 10 minute stop. And that's the key because you can talk about charge peak charge rates. You can talk about charge curves. No one apart from you and I really do that. The average everyday buyer doesn't really need to know what a charge curve is. But if you tell them you can add 200 miles of range in a 10 minute stop,

that accounts for both the charge speed and also it accounts for the efficiency of the vehicle because there's no point stopping for 10 minutes if you've got lousy efficiency you won't get a big number and so I'm really impressed with that I was almost going to do a full standalone podcast about it but there we go I'm almost eight minutes in I'll stop talking about that I really like this vehicle and it's their entry level it's their

entry level and it's this good. Can't wait to see what Mercedes-Benz produce. All right, let's move on. And Porsche tends to be linked in the headlines with rethinking EVs, sticking with combustion, there's going to be a new combustion SUV. And all of that is true. Porsche has definitely been stung, I think, by certain bits of its parent group at Volkswagen, things like the software carry ad business, let them down. And

Certainly, I think the difference in EV demand in some countries has also surprised Porsche. So, yeah, they are doing a bit more combustion stuff than was the plan a couple of years ago. But they're not backing off. Take this story. The Cayenne Electric will debut in California this year. It will be using the PPE platform, premium platform electric, like a Macan EV and a Q6 from Audi, like the Q6 e-tron.

So it won't modify the current platform. Oliver Bloom, Dr. Oliver Bloom, I never say that bit, CEO of Porsche, announcing that the Cayenne will be the first model with three options, internal combustion, plug-in hybrid, or full electric.

In this respect, he said, I'm also very optimistic that we will be just as successful with the future electric Cayenne in North America, especially in California, where the world premiere will take place right there on the West Coast. He also highlighted Porsche's commitment to combustion technology, though, and again, because of what is often reported as a drop in demand of EVs, which isn't true because EV sales are going through the roof, but because of a drop in expected

And so...

They will go with mild hybrids. They will go with plug-ins. They will go full electric. That's not in doubt. Now, BYD are next in the news. The BYD, the Chinese electric vehicle maker, is going to hold a launch event in two days on March 17th, St. Patrick's Day, but nothing to do with that, for BYD's Super E platform. Now, what is the Super E platform? It's a 1,000-kilowatt DC fast charging system.

So it's a new platform for their vehicles and it's a fast charging technology. So they are going to put some megawatt chargers into the world. Now, that is incredible because that's, you know, the megawatt chargers are not for commercial vehicles. Their megawatt chargers are going to be for passenger cars, but allow vehicles to charge a 100 kilowatt hour battery in 10 minutes. Of course, if that was a megawatt at a constant battery.

charge curve, which it won't be. But still, most superchargers around Western markets are 200 to 400 kilowatts. There are some 400 stuff around, but then often you then share it. It's normally got two plugs on. With some in China, 500, 600 kilowatts. So megawatt charging from BYD is very impressive. They will also open up pre-sales for new vehicles, which will be able to use these systems, the Han L and the Tang L. Those are two new models.

They'll be built on a new platform and they will, in some guises, support charging speeds up to 1,000 kilowatts, which is incredible. Just amazing. These vehicles, not too much is known about them, but the Han and the Tang will have dual motors.

and a also single motor variants as well there was some filings because we often find the way that the chinese ministry does it they have to publish these things and so we get those sneak details uh the hand for instance would be a 0 to 60 miles an hour car in 2.7 seconds so you're getting a picture of high performance high end expensive but this technology always works its way down doesn't it down the price list and that is really exciting

So, BYD appears to have started selling its new flagship SUV in places. The Tang L is at dealerships across China, but there are leaked images online because of this, so it is out in the wild. Now, there is a plug-in hybrid version of it and a fully electric version. The fully electric version, like I say, comes with 500 kilowatts as a rear-wheel drive vehicle.

or 810 kilowatts of power in all-wheel drive. I haven't got the horsepower figures for that, but it must be through the roof. The e-motor reaches a peak RPM of 30,000, which is just amazing. BYD say they have 110,000 people now working across various R&D divisions, a massively vertically integrated company, and BYD is obviously huge.

no one else has any chance, does it? You know, you talk about the Western German car makers, the Detroit car makers, and, you know, they're putting up a good fight. But when BYD has 110,000 people, I mean, I can't imagine, you know, just like the office space.

I try and picture that in stadiums or something, all working in not the entirety of the company, in their research and development divisions. No wonder they're coming up with stuff like this. In terms of the platform that that vehicle will sit on, it's a thousand volt system. So, you know, we have most cars sit around 400 ish. Some cars sit around 800 ish, like the Hyundais, the Kias that I just told you about.

The Mercedes-Benz Lucid, a little higher around the 900s. And then this is going to be a 1,000-volt platform and just incredible. They described the Tang as having dual-gun fast charging. So I presume, without having anyone at BID to ask, that means you plug the car in twice? Twice.

It's not a vehicle I think I'll spend too long talking about because you and I can't buy it. But, you know, as a tech story, I think it's interesting. We'll take a break. When we come back, we'll talk BMW Neue Klasse. These are vehicles we will be able to buy. And Tesla, more details about the new, cheaper cars they're going to sell this year, which for as long as anyone's been listening, I've been saying that doesn't necessarily mean they're launching new models, does it? Does it? Does it?

Stick around, back in a moment. Oh yeah. This is the sound of my husband loving me enough to get a CPAP for his sleep apnea. So we can sleep together.

Good sleep is a turn-on with a ResMed CPAP. Simply air. It works overnight for that desirable, well-rested feeling. Learn more at loveisintheair.com. Results may vary. See website for details and important information. Oh, yeah. This is the sound of my husband loving me enough to get a CPAP for his sleep apnea so we can sleep together.

Good sleep is a turn-on with a ResMed CPAP. Simply air. It works overnight for that desirable, well-rested feeling. Learn more at loveisintheair.com. Results may vary. See website for details and important information. Oh, yeah. This is the sound of my husband loving me enough to get a CPAP for his sleep apnea so we can sleep together.

Good sleep is a turn-on with a ResMed CPAP. Simply air. It works overnight for that desirable, well-rested feeling. Learn more at loveisintheair.com. Results may vary. See website for details and important information. Oh, yeah. This is the sound of my husband loving me enough to get a CPAP for his sleep apnea. So we can...

Sleep together. Good sleep is a turn-on with the ResMed CPAP. Simply Air. It works overnight for that desirable, well-rested feeling. Learn more at loveisintheair.com. Results may vary. See website for details and important information.

All right, welcome back to the podcast. Thanks for listening and thank you for supporting on Patreon. Let's talk about BMW's Neue Klasse. BMW will launch the next generation of their vehicles, focusing on better range, better charging, and more advanced technology. And now we know more details, thanks to the financial results and the presentation that they were giving, that the iX3, we knew the iX3 was first, and the i3, which is

different to what was the i3 were going to be the first vehicles I think anyway we knew that but this seems to have been sort of some sort of official confirmation but I

I thought we had that information. Either way, we haven't got full specs, but we do know that the 800-volt platform with its four super brains and high level of computing power will charge 30% faster than the best out there. So I think the best BMW probably is the iX, isn't it? So anyway, 30% faster.

More range, 30% more range than they've been able to pack into cars so far. New dynamic appearance. And after the iX3, the i3 will be the second vehicle on that new platform, which I'm really excited about. Now, Tesla is introducing a new, cheaper version of the Model Y, according to this report coming out of China. So, you know, be careful with this. Now, for the longest of times...

Maybe over a year ago, the Tesla CEO Elon Musk cancelled the lower-priced program. So those programs were developing smaller, cheaper cars that would sit underneath the Model 3. These were vehicle programs. I think they were internally codenamed NV91 and NV92.

A new vehicle platform, which some of that work, I believe, has become the cyber cab, the steering wheel, this pedal, this two-seater thing, right, whenever we see that. Apparently in June, Texas gets a robo-taxi, if not the cyber cab, then some sort of robo-taxi service, but either way.

Now, a report from China says that Tesla will make a stripped down Model Y at Gigafactory Shanghai as a way of fighting back against BYD, actually fighting the declining sales that Tesla is having in China, which is frankly, you know, if they carry on this way, it becomes a very big problem for Tesla. And so it'll be a stripped down Model Y, says this Chinese report. So again, take with a pinch of salt. But if it's true,

It does fit with what I've said, which was...

At no point did the Tesla CEO say, we will launch a new car. He has said, we will launch cheaper models in 2025 and been consistent, may I add. For someone that lies so much and has never fulfilled his promises, he said, we will launch cheaper vehicles in 2026. And I have had Tesla fans absolutely rip me. Now, I don't put this show on YouTube, as you know. I probably should now. But

on the Batteries Included podcast today on a Friday. I've said this on the video version of the show. They've piled into me on the YouTube comments and been like, this Brit guy is an idiot. They're launching a new cheaper car called the Model 2 or whatever. Who does he think he is? I just remind people, what has Tesla said? We will launch cheaper vehicles. That could just be a cheaper 3 or Y. Because when has Tesla...

ever gone like you know how apple does like here's the new iphone and it's on sale now and then the website comes back after a period of being down right and so no they launch a roadster in 2017 and then 10 years later never ship it right that's just the way that tesla works that we would see this cheaper vehicle this model 2 and it would be available in 2030 or something or 2031

And so I've repeatedly said, look, when they say we're launching cheaper vehicles, it probably just means a cheaper Model 3. Well, I was wrong on that because this report says it's a stripped down Model Y. Not sure what stripped down means, but many people thought that the Mexico factory, which isn't being built, by the way, they're not doing that. They're adding tariffs to Mexico.

And work has stopped on that. Anyway, that was never happening because there's no demand. Tesla has way more capacity than the vehicles they can even make at the minute. They are massively over capacity wise. And so, of course, Mexico is never going to be built for a long time. And so they say, oh, come out of Shanghai, New Mexico. It would start at $35,000 and that would be

$4,000 to $5,000 cheaper than the current Model 3, obviously with a bigger form factor, the Model Y form, but stripped down. Again, I don't know what stripped down means, decontented. How can you get any less than they put inside a Tesla? I mean, they put a stalk back in?

And some ambient lighting. None of these things are particularly like the cheap cars you get now. I've got ambient lighting and adaptive cruise and stuff. How do you strip more out of a Model Y? Obviously, they have ways and means, material choice and things like that. But they say that the new vehicle will launch in the second half of this year.

on an updated version of the Model Y, whatever that may be, which makes a lot more sense to me because it'll just be the cheap, I don't know, whatever they call it. But let's move on. Tesla has stopped deliveries of Cybertruck. They have...

stopped short of calling this a recall because that gets a little more serious than recall is official. However, they have stopped deliveries of the Cybertruck because bits of trim keep detaching themselves from the vehicle at speed. This is apparently the bulletproof electric truck, the electric truck that could go to Mars or get you through the end of the world. But it also can't do highway speeds without a U-pieced

shape trim which kind of surrounds the glass detaching itself and boomeranging its way to the car that's following eight buyers have now reported on the delay on the cyber truck owners forum of we not getting our vehicle so eight people so far as the last time i checked have said that they've been told independently uh that it's a a pause on deliveries the stoppage is called a containment hold in the auto industry if you're interested the containment hold is on

It's when there's a defect, a bit like the pedal that was sliding up on the Cybertruck and would jam the pedal down before they put a rivet in it. And it actually avoids a recall as well, which would be a bit of another recall for the Cybertruck. So containment hold on Cybertruck right now as they try and work out why these bits of trim, the can trail trim, I believe is what it's called, which covers the roof ledge, keeps detaching at speed.

And I mean, I thought this was an exoskeleton design that was bulletproof and all these things, but obviously not. It's just bits of trim glued and stuck to something else. And these bits are coming off so far. Tesla recalled 11,000 Cybertrucks because of other bits of trim detaching while driving because of adhesive failures. And this is a new part, by the way. This is something unthinkable.

unrelated and could mean another complete recall the containment hold began last weekend counseling delivery appointments and as of i can see on the forums right now no one's being told when they will get their cyber trucks but not too many people are talking about like i say eight so far

They're not selling too many Cybertrucks. Now, there are price drops on the Model Y if you want one of the old ones, and that's not a bad deal because the old Model Y is still a cracking car, by the way. Tesla's main models are seeing price drops. Kelly Bluebook is easy for me to see. Kelly Bluebook reporting the average price of an EV vehicle is now £55,000. But many Model Y listings are $20,000 below this average because they're getting rid of the old one.

The older Model Y, the existing, the inventory Model Y, call it what you will, anything but not Juniper. MSRP for the new launch series is $59,900, not including federal incentives. On Tesla's website, there's a wide selection of Model Ys in inventory.

Already made, waiting for a home. A bit like, I don't know, a dog in a shelter. Will you take this one home for $33,890? I mean, long-range rear-wheel drive, $33,000 or $33,890? I think that's a killer deal because that Model Y was nothing wrong with it. I mean, the new one is better. But cracking deals.

if you don't mind driving one of those. And I'm just putting a Sunday's show together as I record Saturday's podcast. I wasn't making notes on Sundays. And it's been, so far, even through a bit of Saturday, another weekend of protests in the United States against Tesla and Trumpmobiles and graffiti and swastikas and all that kind of stuff. So I'm not sure...

If some of the people that were on the fence about buying a Tesla is maybe just holding off to see if some of this negative sentiment, you know, there's a couple of cases. I'll probably bring you this on tomorrow's podcast of cars being keyed and set on fire. I mean, it's all horrible stuff, by the way, but not sure I'd, if I was worried about,

They're buying a Tesla. Maybe I'll just hang on or someone's going to burn my car down. But again, all disgusting behavior. Now let's talk about Arrival. Remember Arrival? That was the British electric vehicle startup. And that was once valued at £9 billion.

Now, I mention this for two reasons. Because firstly, earlier this week on the podcast, I said to you that Northvolt, which I think threw about 16 billion down the toilet because they filed for bankruptcy this week, was Europe's biggest industrial failure in terms of a well-funded tech startup company.

I thought, I better check, because I know Arrival had some money. Yeah, Arrival was smaller, but not by much. Arrival managed to sink $9 billion. This is pounds, though. I'm not sure. $12, $13 billion, US dollars equivalent, and flush that down the toilet. Now, I thought they were all completely gone. It turns out, as I was checking my math for the Northvolt story, that there is an update on Arrival. They'd kept a few people employed. About 70 people were still employed.

to wind down the business through administration. It was founded back in 2015 by the Russian billionaire, Denny Sverdlov. And Arrival was also in 2019, Arrival Automotive UK, I think was first conceived. And the company was known for making, well, they were going to make electric vans and buses and taxis in micro factories around the world. So not just one big gigafactory, but tiny little factories

pop-up factories in many places.

In 2020, they gained attention when UPS ordered 10,000 vehicles. They went public on the US NASDAQ and valued at £9 billion. And since then, like I say, they've managed to flush all of that down the toilet. And sorry if you were an investor in arrival, they are no longer around. But as of this week, those last few employees were laid off. The administrators...

We'll focus on recovering. They think there's about £87 million owed to secured creditors. They can liquidate physical assets. They can liquidate digital assets and IP and stuff like that. But yeah, those last 70 people were laid off. The business is fully wound down. As of this week, arrival is no more. I thought it was long gone.

So there we go. The US is targeting a $3 billion withdrawal from the Postal Department. Two officials from the not actually a US department, but called Department of Government Efficiency or DOJ. Two officials are working on

an act which they are calling the Return to Sender Act. This bill would reclaim $3 billion, which has been set aside for electrifying the United States Postal Service and cleaning up the air around those areas in which the U.S. Postal Service delivers. Fox News reporting on the effort to revoke the funds meant for the shift to electric vehicles from the U.S. Postal Service. They want to stop that and stick with next generation of combustion cars. Of course, the incoming administration says

wants to cancel as many contracts and recoup as much money as possible if it's got anything to do with electric vehicles, whilst at the same time turning the White House into a

a sort of shonky car dealership this week to try and flog a few Teslas, which is odd. I mean, because you just don't know, well, what do they really believe? Do they want electrification? Do they not? Like Fox News is now fully, there's one of the chaps in there called Hannity or something. Like he said, I've bought a Tesla this week. They're great. You should go buy one, you know, try and get obviously the...

And the Fox fans and the hardcore Republicans, the MAGAs, to go buy Teslas because Tesla sales are really having an issue. And yet at the same time, they are still, we think, the new administration just hates everything to do with electric vehicles. And so, you know, what do they think? What do they stand for? Does anybody know? I don't know.

Now, let's talk about Italy, and new car registrations in Italy were down. But wait, but wait, you know where this story is going. Whilst the overall February car market was down, and the internal combustion car market in Italy was down by 26%, and petrols were down, and diesels were down...

Guess what wasn't? That would be pure electric cars in Italy in February. BEVs up by 38% in the month of February, the fastest growing powertrain for the month. So far this year, BEV deliveries up 71% in Italy to almost 14,000 registrations of

Pure BEVs, plug-in hybrids, also up 30% as well. Overall EV deliveries, including BEVs and FEVs, grew by 36% last month to reach an overall 13,000 units last month alone, and a market share of about 10%, which is pretty good because Italy's been lagging in comparison to its European neighbours. And so that is a very good bit of news. And finally...

Xpeng, or He Xiaopeng, the chairman of Xiaopeng, and deputy to the National People's Congress, of course, announced that during the two sessions, the Chinese new energy vehicle companies will face a three-year elimination period, followed by a three-year elimination period.

by three to five years of growth. And I think what they mean by an elimination period is that the way that China went about this, and you can agree or disagree, I'd love to know your thoughts, on how China went EV, you know, to get 50% of their market EV,

the dominating great vehicles, big industry, was they just opened the floodgates and waited to see the survival of the fittest. And so the chairman of Xiaobang saying the same thing, that over the next three years, they'll all be eliminated. The weaker ones will all be killed off. The number of surviving companies will drop to fewer than seven. He said probably five.

So of the hundreds and hundreds of EV companies that popped up in China, you know, Chinese citizens bought those cars in good faith, connected cars that need an internet connection. And these companies go bust, really leaving the customers out of pocket, which again, you might say that's a pretty, pretty terrible way to behave because people are left in the lurch and these cars from car companies and so many of them are not surviving. But the other way of looking at it is, well,

depending on how you feel about China, is that that was their method to their madness, which is they'll end up with five really strong international companies, the likes of the BYDs and Xpengs and Neos of the world, that are making cars way better than the West, and then they'll go sell them to Western countries and in Europe and stuff like that. So,

Very interesting. Five to seven Chinese companies will survive over the next three years is his prediction. We'll wait and see. But look, that process has started already, hasn't it? And that's your podcast for today. Thanks for listening to our premium partners. I say thank you as always. You guys actually rock and we couldn't do this without you. Our premium partners are Porsche of the Village in Cincinnati, Audi of Cincinnati East and Volvo Cars of Cincinnati East. National Car Charging on the US mainland and Aloha Charge in Hawaii and Australia.

Octopus Electroverse, global public charging made simple with one app and one map. And I'll see you tomorrow for Sunday's show, which I've already started half-writing anyway. Have a good one. See you tomorrow. And remember, there's no such thing as a self-charging hybrid.

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With QTPay from Quick Trip, you save 25 cents on every gallon at the pump and 5% in the store. And sure, that means you can save more dollars at QT. But more importantly, it means you can save for more little treats at QT. So go ahead, get that candy bar that's calling your name, make that coffee a latte, or tackle on another taquito. Because with QTPay, you can treat yourself every day. Just sign up before your next fill-up in the QT app. QTPay. It just makes QTPay.

Since.

TasteBuds yearning for a little slice of spice? Then turn up the heat with the all-new Hot Chicken Pizza Quick Trip, featuring layer upon layer of flavor. With tender grilled chicken, savory sweet onions, and a spicy sriracha drizzle, it's a fiery fusion that's bound to give your TasteBuds a wake-up call. So, think you can handle the heat? Then put your TasteBuds to the test. Try the spicy new Hot Chicken Pizza for a limited time, only at a Quick Trip near you. QT, more than a gas station.

With QTPay from Quick Trip, you save 25 cents on every gallon at the pump and 5% in the store. And sure, that means you can save more dollars at QT. But more importantly, it means you can save for more little treats at QT. So go ahead, get that candy bar that's calling your name, make that coffee a latte, or tack on another taquito. Because with QTPay, you can treat yourself every day. Just sign up before your next fill-up in the QT app.

It just makes sense.

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