It's EV News Briefly for Thursday 16 April 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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DOUG FIELD TO LEAVE FORD
Doug Field, who joined Ford in 2021 from Apple and previously helped launch the Tesla Model 3, will depart next month on a voluntary basis, with CEO Jim Farley praising him as an "invaluable partner" in Ford's electrification journey. Ford is simultaneously restructuring, creating a new "Product Creation and Industrialization" organisation under COO Kumar Galhotra that unifies EV, petrol, and hybrid programmes, with the first vehicle on Ford's new Universal EV architecture — a midsize electric pickup — due next year.
DACIA READIES SUB-£16,000 ELECTRIC CITY CAR
Dacia has revealed spy shots of a new electric city car priced from under €18,000 (£15,600), designed in just 16 months with help from its China team, featuring a design closer to its SUV range than the related Renault Twingo. Expected to use a 27.5kWh battery with around 160 miles of range, the car will make its public debut at the Paris Motor Show in October 2026, with Dacia also planning three further EVs before 2030.
MERCEDES-BENZ LAUNCHES VLE RANGE FROM €82,260
Mercedes-Benz has launched the VLE range starting at €82,260, built on an 800-volt architecture capable of charging at up to 300 kW, enabling 355 km of WLTP range to be added in just 15 minutes. The range spans from the entry-level VLE 250 with an LFP battery to the VLE 400 4MATIC with a 305 kW all-wheel-drive system, with seating configurations from five to eight seats and pricing up to €113,000 depending on specification.
KIA EV2 FIRST EDITION JOINS UK ECG
The Kia EV2 First Edition now qualifies for the UK government's £1,500 Electric Car Grant, bringing its net on-the-road price to £26,995. The EV2 had its world premiere in January 2026, entered series production in March at Kia's Slovakia plant, and sits as the entry point to Kia's dedicated BEV line-up designed and built in Europe.
FREE ELECTRICITY ON GERMAN V2G TARIFF
Munich-based The Mobility House plans to launch a V2G electricity tariff in Germany, initially paired with the Renault 5, that could allow EV owners to drive for free by charging when renewable energy is cheap and selling power back to the grid at peak times. A 2024 French pilot with Renault showed that connecting a car for an average of 14 hours per day can reduce charging costs for 10,000 km of driving to effectively zero, with the Mercedes-Benz CLA and GLC also set to join the programme later in 2026.
BYD GAINS GROUND IN GERMANY
BYD is surging in Germany, with Carwow recording a 135% jump in purchase queries for the brand in Q1 2026, driven by rising fuel prices linked to the Middle East conflict and increasing new car costs making Chinese EVs more attractive. Interest centred on BYD's electric SUVs and the Dolphin hatchback, with Chinese-owned MG also seeing increased demand on the platform.
BYD'S JINAN HEADS FOR GERMANY
BYD's car carrier Jinan, one of the world's largest at 9,200-vehicle capacity, departed Shanghai on 17 March carrying fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles bound for Germany, arriving around 33 days later. The shipment highlights BYD's continued reliance on Chinese exports while European local production ramps up, with trial assembly underway in Szeged, Hungary since January and series production targeted for Q2 2026.
BYD PRICES SEAL 6 PHEVS IN AUSTRALIA
BYD Australia has confirmed pricing for the Seal 6 Sedan and Seal 6 Touring PHEVs, with the Sedan Essential starting at A$34,990 (around £18,380) — undercutting the Toyota Camry Hybrid — and first deliveries expected around June 2026. Both models use BYD's DM 5.0 plug-in hybrid system with Blade battery technology, offering 55 km electric range on the Sedan and around 100 km on the Touring Premium.
POLESTAR AUSTRALIA BOSS ATTACKS PHEVS
Polestar Australia's managing director Scott Maynard has publicly called PHEVs "the worst of both worlds," arguing they combine electric drivetrain complexity with petrol engine weight, rarely get charged by owners, and can actually be less efficient than a pure petrol car due to the added battery mass. He also claimed PHEVs are "fast becoming irrelevant" as EV range improves — a notable stance given that Polestar's parent company Geely continues to sell PHEVs across Volvo, Lotus, and Lynk & Co.
TESLA ADDS SUNWODA AS FIFTH BATTERY SUPPLIER
Tesla has signed Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery as its fifth battery supplier, with Sunwoda set to provide third-generation LFP cells capable of charging at up to 3C — cutting charge time to around 20 minutes, compared to Tesla's current 2C LFP packs. The cells are destined for export vehicles built at Giga Shanghai, with Tesla buying raw prismatic cells from Sunwoda and assembling the modules and packs in-house.
HONDA DROPS E:NY1 FROM UK LINE-UP
Honda has removed the e:Ny1 from its UK configurator, leaving it with no fully electric models on sale in Britain after the car sold just 7,122 units in three years, hampered by a high price and limited range requiring heavy dealer discounts. This creates a serious ZEV mandate problem for Honda, which must hit 22% BEV sales this year rising to 80% by 2030, with fines of up to £15,000 per non-compliant vehicle — relief is expected from mid-2026 when a retro-inspired compact EV on the new Super-N platform arrives priced under £20,000.
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