ISSUE 05
THIS WEEK IN EVS & ENERGY
You could drive past all of this and never notice. A dealership in London still has the same sign out front, but it is selling BYD Sealion 7s now instead of Volkswagens, and it cannot keep up with demand. In Colorado, a travel trailer rolled off a small production line with a solar roof, a 77 kWh battery, and a hitch that makes the truck forget it is towing anything. In Italy, 595 million euros in EV incentives vanished in a single day, and the market still barely moved. In Sweden, engineers pulled their desks to the assembly line and watched the first electric haulers in their class come to life. And in Normal, Illinois, old Rivian battery packs started a second career powering the same factory that built them. You could drive past all of this. But now you know.
THE WEEK'S BEST STORIES
CBS Sunday Morning visits a London dealership that sold Volkswagens for over 50 years. Customers are now trading in Lexuses for the BYD Sealion 7. The boss calls the product quality phenomenal and says he never expected to sell Chinese cars. BYD overtook Tesla last year as the world's top seller of fully electric vehicles. Tesla regained a lead on pure EV sales in early 2026, though BYD still leads when plug-in hybrids are included. BYD's edge comes from its origins as a battery manufacturer, controlling the entire supply chain before a car is assembled. A UK think tank estimates a roughly 25 percent cost advantage over Western competitors. In the US, 100 percent tariffs introduced in 2024 have effectively closed the door. Norway is at 97 percent EV adoption. China roughly 50 percent. The US sits under 10. One British owner, asked what his family in New Jersey thinks of his car, had a one-word answer: jealous.
Out of Spec Reviews takes delivery of the Lightship aero-electric travel trailer for real-world testing at their North Carolina track. Co-founder Ben walks Kyle through the setup: 77 kWh battery, solar-covered roof, and Trek Drive, a force-sensing system in the hitch coupler that measures drag and offsets it with an onboard motor. The trailer reportedly becomes effectively weightless to whatever is pulling it. This is VIN 6 off their Broomfield, Colorado line. The Atmos trim starts just over $180,000, the entry Panos around $150,000. Trek Drive works with any 2-5/16 ball hitch and any truck, gas or electric, with no communication to the tow vehicle required. It operates up to 70 mph. Two features are not yet live: DC fast charging and solar input to the high-voltage battery, both arriving via software updates later in 2026. Kyle plans to tow it with a Cybertruck, Silverado EV, gas Super Duty, and Tahoe over the coming week.
Andrew Till of Mr. EV goes to Rome to understand why Italy remains one of Europe's slowest EV adopters. The EU hit 17.4 percent EV market share in 2025. Italy sat at 6.2. Half of Italian dwellings are apartments, but that alone does not explain it. Spain has an even higher apartment share and is one of the fastest-growing EV markets in Europe, thanks to consistent incentives since 2019 and mandatory low-emission zones in every city over 50,000 residents. Italy has no equivalent. When the eco bonus portal opened in October 2025, the entire 595 million euro fund was gone within a day. Fewer than half of Italian motorway service areas have a rapid charger. In France, practically every stop does. The sales rankings tell the rest: the Fiat 500e, built in Turin, is losing the budget EV market in its own country to the Leapmotor T3, made in China, available for as little as 4,900 euros with the scrappage grant.
Doug DeMuro works through the 2026 Polestar 4, starting with the obvious: there is no rear window. Polestar removed it, replaced it with a permanent digital mirror, and used the space to stretch the interior rearward. Polestar calls it an SUV coupe. At 60 inches tall, it sits two inches above a Camry. Doug's verdict: tall sedan. The single-motor base starts around $58,000 with roughly 310 miles of range. The dual-motor starts around $64,000, makes 535 hp, and hits 60 in 3.5 seconds. As tested: just over $80,000. Interior highlights include lighting modes named after planets, a key fob with zero buttons, and rear seats with their own touchscreen. Shortcomings: climate controls beyond temperature live in the screen, no household power outlet in the car, and ride quality runs firm for the price. DougScore: 64.
Volvo Construction Equipment has started serial production of the A30 and A40 Electric, the first battery electric articulated haulers in their size class. Built to match their diesel counterparts, which Volvo frames not as a caveat but as a baseline. The development team pulled their desks to the assembly line during early builds. When the first machine was assembled, flashed, and turned on with a key, the engineers describe it as a moment they will not forget. Both models are now heading to first customers. It will never trend. But electrification does not only happen in driveways. Sometimes it happens in quarries and on construction sites, in places most people never see.
FRESH FROM THE SITE
Rivian and Redwood Materials are deploying more than 100 second-life battery packs at Rivian's Normal, Illinois plant to dispatch stored energy during peak demand. The packs go back into the same facility that built the vehicles they came from. Ten megawatt-hours is a modest start. The significance is not the size. It is that the loop now exists, and someone credible built it.
The week is yours. See you next Monday.
Jacob Hunka, Founder nexusEVnews
P.S. Thank you to everyone who opens this on a Monday morning. The list keeps growing. That is not lost on me.