+++ Chinese-car giant BYD will not let its foot off the gas, despite a 2-year product offensive that has seen the firm launch no fewer than 8 brand-new models. Stella Li, BYD’s executive vice president, told me in an exclusive interview that she is aiming for the “top tier” of the annual sales charts, with a keen eye on the likes of Volkswagen and Kia. Key to this will be further new products, including a 7-seat flagship SUV and 2 extra DM-i plug-in hybrids; the latter of which Li said will be on sale “in the next 6 months”. The boss confirmed BYD’s strategy to have EVs and PHEVs in “every sector”, adding: “This will keep us busy in the next year”. Pushing Li on the bigger model and possible rival to cars such as the electric Kia EV9 and petrol and hybrid-powered Skoda Kodiaq, Li said: “You will see a 7-seat SUV coming; it’s in our road map”. We know it will be offered as an EV; referencing the BYD Tang, which is currently sold in China and Europe, Li smiled and said: “It’s the new Tang. I disclosed the secret”. Expect 500 km of range, plus dual motors producing more than 500 hp. She confirmed that the new SUV will be the first model in Europe (aside from the premium-badged Denza Z9 GT, due early next year) to get the firm’s ground-breaking “flash charging” technology, which is capable of speeds up to 1.360 kW; enough to replenish 400 km of range in about 5 minutes. Li’s desire for more PHEVs (DM-i in BYD-speak) and her comments about having multi-fuel options in every segment, may mean we see a take on the Tang also fitted with the firm’s latest plug-in tech. That’d mean a zero-emissions range of 100 km or more, plus the option of DC fast-charging. The last point of consideration for Li and her team in their attempt to build the fast-growing brand in Europe is a focus on customer service that the vice president suggests will elevate BYD above the mainstream elite. “You need to give 6-star service. Not 5-star but 6-star. You need to deliver something beyond the customer expectation”, Li told me. “If you have any trouble, then we solve the issue quickly. If there is a fundamental technical issue, we have a flying doctor; within 24 hours we fly in to solve the issue”. Li sees opportunity here, especially for fleets such as taxi or private-hire drivers, who depend on their cars day in, day out. “It’s not easy, but if they trust you, it means you already passed the very extreme exam”, she said. +++
+++ LEAPMOTOR has unveiled plans to develop a performance brand called Ultra, with the newly unveiled B05 hatchback the first car to get the hot-hatch treatment. Although detail is scarce following Leapmotor founder and CEO Zhu Jiangming dropping the surprise mention into the end of the brand’s Munich Motor Show press conference, he later confirmed that modifications will take in both performance and styling. The image flashed up on the motor show screen showed a close-up of a chunky rear wing for the newly unveiled B05, known as the Lafa 5 in China, and Jiangming said the interior will also also get a “more luxurious” upgrade, although the brand is yet to even reveal the cabin of the regular B05. As yet, no Chinese carmaker has tapped into the performance market as part of its brand-building attempts, with most new companies trading on the technology fitted to their cars. With electric cars, the hot hatch activity among electric vehicles has been left to the likes of Hyundai’s N branding, Alpine and Abarth. Ultra will launch in China next year and is yet to be confirmed for Europe, but the B05 Ultra would likely follow on at least a year behind the base car’s 2026 arrival. Coming next year, the B05 hatchback is Leapmotor’s 4th new model, joining the baby T03 city car and C10 larger SUV that the brand launched last year, with the B10 SUV arriving a few months ago. +++
+++ MERCEDES will kill the popular A-Class hatchback at the end of 2026, with no immediate plan in the works for a successor. The board member for R&D, Markus Schafer, said: “For now we have extended the life-cycle for the A-Class. And then we will just watch the market”. When questioned about how long it’ll be extended, Markus continued: “End of next year, for now”. This puts a firm deadline on the A-Class, which will have been in production for 8 years by the end of 2026. To complicate matters, Mercedes has already put the effective replacement of the A-Class into full production. The new Mercedes CLA, which runs on the company’s powertrain-flexible MMA platform, has been designed as electric-first, but will also be offered with a range of hybrid powertrains. This is in contrast to Merc’s larger models, which split its ICE and EV models into two distinct platforms, but Markus explained why this wasn’t required for models in these smaller segments saying: “We can do it because of the transverse engine, so the packaging doesn’t require so much compromise”. This leaves the forthcoming Mercedes GLA with the job of appealing to Merc’s entry-level customers, but if a new A-Class was to be put on the agenda, it wouldn’t be particularly difficult to adapt the MMA platform to fit thanks to its packaging flexibility. +++
+++ A MERCEDES-BENZ EQS fitted with a prototype solid-state battery has been driven 1.200 kmwithout stopping to recharge, marking a milestone in the development of the technology. Mercedes engineers drove the modified saloon from the firm’s home town of Stuttgart, Germany, to Malmö, Sweden. It claims to have finished the trip with 135 km of range left in reserve. Although the route between the 2 cities would typically measure around 1.030 km in length, the engineers plotted an alternate course accounting for the landscape and traffic conditions, while avoiding ferry crossings. That extended the drive by more than 160 km. The car’s solid-state battery uses cells from US firm Factorial Energy while the pack was designed in collaboration with Mercedes’ F1 base in Brixworth, Northamptonshire. Its weight and footprint are said to be “comparable” to a standard EQS’s lithium-ion pack, which yields up to 770 km of range, but its energy capacity is said to be improved by 25%. The battery pack uses a floating cell case with pneumatic actuators that help to manage the expansion and contraction of the cells in operation, to improve their stability and longevity. Mercedes had previously expected the new pack to improve the car’s range to around 1.000 km. Chief technology officer Markus Schäfer hailed the technology as a “gamechanger”, saying the successful test drive shows how it can deliver “a new level of range and comfort”. Schäfer added that Mercedes is aiming to bring solid-state batteries (which have long been considered a major breakthrough for electric cars, but which have faced decades of delays) to market this decade. That matches the timeline quoted by the rival Volkswagen Group, which has unveiled its solid-state prototype at the Munich motor show. Rather than testing the technology in cars, however, it has opted to use a motorbike built by Audi-owned brand Ducati. +++
+++ POLESTAR has urged the European Commission (EC) not to roll back on its commitment to ban the sale of non-electric cars by 2035 ahead of crunch talks this Friday. Automotive industry leaders will meet EC president Ursula von der Leyen on Friday to try to secure a relaxation of the CO2 rules, and only Polestar and sibling Volvo have taken the opposite view to keep the status quo. Polestar CEO Michael Lohscheller said discussions on going all-electric had been completed and the decision already made, and reversing that was now “completely the wrong way” to go about things, particularly so given that even those looking to have the ban relaxed agreed “the future of mobility is without emissions”. +++
+++ RENAULT is exploring the viability of new performance models and it will show “first proposals” within the next year, its CEO has said. Its last true dedicated sporting model was the fourth-generation Mégane RS hot hatch, which went out of production in 2023 with the 300 hp Ultime run-out special. Renault has been experimenting again with sportier models recently, bringing to market the highly limited 5 Turbo 3E; a 542 hp hyper hatch that was created as a statement of intent for what a Renault performance EV is capable of. Asked if the brand would consider launching anything more volume-focused and affordable in the sporting segment, boss Fabrice Cambolive told at the Munich motor show: “Yes, we are exploring some others. We will come to you with some proposals in the next 12 months”. On the viability of such a car or series of cars, Cambolive said that “we have to find the right balance” between cost and demand before approval will be given. To that end, Renault Clio product line manager Emmanuel de Jesus Pequeno recently told that a hot version of the new 6th edition hatchback is not currently on the cards. This is because of the “compromise” between the level of investment required to transform it into a hot hatch and the level of demand anticipated. Renault would most likely be required to redevelop the previous Clio RS’s 1.6-litre turbo 4-cylinder engine or the Alpine A110’s punchier 1.8 to meet future emissions regulations, which could prove prohibitvely costly. Although the new “proposals” could resurrect the Renaultsport moniker, Cambolive hinted that the Renault Group could decide to continue using the Alpine brand exclusively for dedicated sports cars. In February, then CEO Luca de Meo described Renaultsport to Autocar as being “in the fridge” and said that while “everything sporty would be building on Alpine”, that “doesn’t mean that sometimes this thing wouldn’t be revived”. Furthering his point, de Meo said: “I’ve been asked why the new 3E Turbo is not an Alpine, and I said ‘sorry, because the 5 Turbo was never an Alpine, it was a Renault, and if you want to do something authentic, you gotta respect the history of the thing’ ”. +++
+++ The VOLKSWAGEN ID.4 will be so thoroughly updated next year that it’ll warrant a completely new identity, Autointernationaal.nl can confirm. The changes will be so significant, it’ll be reincarnated as the Volkswagen ID.Tiguan, despite having only been on sale for 4 years. “ID.4 is our major-selling vehicle; it has to be in that space”, CEO of Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Thomas Schäfer, told me. He said the car “has to be updated to the new design language, the interior: it’s a fantastic car. The ID.4 will get the MEB+ platform, with the new battery, the cells; LFP technology and all that is coming in. It’s going to be a huge step up from today’s car”, Schäfer said. When pressed on whether or not these changes would see the ID.4 reborn as the ID.Tiguan (following in the footsteps of the ID.2, which will reach the showrooms as the ID.Polo) Schäfer smiled, shrugged and said: “That hasn’t been confirmed. That would be speculation”. The total number of changes for the new ID.4 “will be like the change from Mk5 to Mk6 Golf”. Those 2 models used the same underpinnings, but the later edition was referred to as a new generation by Volkswagen. The ID.4 is currently offered with 52 kWh and 77 kWh batteries, and either a single-motor rear-wheel-drive layout or dual-motor all-wheel-drive set-up. The move to LFP technology may see capacities change and range improve, but Volkswagen has so far stopped short of detailing any specifics. Schäfer confirmed that while the smaller ID.3 will also get an extensive range of updates, the styling upgrades will be less substantial, focusing mainly on the interior. The hatchback is therefore unlikely to inherit the ID.Golf name at this time, with chief designer Andreas Mindt admitting anything with a Golf badge on the boot brings “the highest pressure. We are not allowed to make any mistakes”, he told me. +++
+++ VOLKSWAGEN will only give its ID electric cars classic model names if they fit the characters of the originals, according to boss Thomas Schäfer, explaining why the heavily updated ID 3, due next year, won’t be badged a Golf. The firm is working on heavy updates for both the ID.3 and ID.4, with both EVs moving onto the upgraded ‘MEB Plus’ platform. But the ID.4 is already being referred to internally at Wolfsburg as the ID.Tiguan, the ID.3 will not adopt the ID Golf name, even though the Golf is its closest equivalent in Volkswagen’s ICE line-up. Still, Schäfer said “don’t underestimate the changes” being made to the ID.3. Speaking at the Munich motor show, he added: “It’s a fantastic car to drive, and we’ve got phenomenal feedback on that. The changes are in the interior: the criticism was usually around the first version, with the hard plastic finish and so on. That has been fixed already with a good first-step facelift, but now it’s going to get a whole new interior. Then the exterior is a phenomenal package. It wouldn’t be necessary to make a whole new car. You will see how that car will change when you see this amazing car”. With the new ID.Polo and ID.Cross, Volkswagen will return to using classic model names, and Schäfer promised that “we’re going to roll this out whenever there’s a new model or a major product change; it’s going to be names from here on”. However, he added that the application of those names would depend on the models: “When you have this side by side ICE and EV line-ups that we have at the moment in the transitional phase, you have to have clarity in your portfolio, clarity in the model lines and familiar topics like the GTI, and the name has to be true to the DNA of that product. “From my point of view, it’s the biggest mistake to call something something that it’s not. There’s some examples in the industry at the moment that you look at and say ‘okay, well, I don’t know why you call it that, because it’s not that’. For us, the ID.Polo now, it’s a true Polo in proportions, looks, feel, drivability, and it deserves the name. As we go forward, if the name doesn’t fit, we don’t call it that. We’ll give it some other name. We have enough names in the portfolio, old and new”. +++