With the upcoming RallyX Americas series, electric RX is finally on the cusp of being done properly. We were joined by Andreas Eriksson, the ‘wizard’ helping shape it, to discuss the tech, the attitude and the hard work that are set to make a difference.

The FIA World Rallycross Championship didn’t have to die that way, did it? Despite a few last-minute attempts to get it back to where it was during its heyday, it was never going to work.

Not even a return to Freeview, or bringing back Andrew ‘the voice’ Coley to the commentary box, could repair the damage done behind the scenes. When the FIA brought the series back under its control (instead of keeping it outsourced) for the 2025 season, it was too little, too late.

When the final death knell came in October last year two-time World Rally Champion, Marcus Grönholm, lamented to EV Powered: “to blame the collapse of World RX completely on EVs? I don’t think that’s correct”.

The Big Finn knows a thing or two about rallycross. After retiring from the WRC, he went on to compete for the Swedish Olsbergs-MSE team run by Andreas Eriksson in Euro RX, and then in US rallycross’ various guises.

Grönholm’s son, Niclas, also enjoyed a successful nine-year World RX career, which started with Eriksson’s outfit back in 2016.

Eriksson, then, understands what makes rallycross work. He’s been involved as a driver and manager for more than 20 years, securing wins at the wheel, championships as a team leader, and helping introduce the sport to the United States via the Global Rallycross (GRC) in 2014.

He has, possibly better than anyone involved in the sport, grasped the formula behind what’s needed to make RX a success in everything from onboarding manufacturers to understanding what the fans want.

When the elder Grönholm referred to his friend and former employer as “some kind of rallycross wizard,” it’s hard to disagree.

‘EVs weren’t the problem’

“I completely agree with Marcus that the problem with World RX wasn’t the electric cars,” Eriksson told us from his workshop in Sweden. “It was just poor decision after poor decision, and to replace the Supercar class with a new car was not the right way to implement EVs into rallycross. Changes are hard enough to do as it is, without striking a balance of old and new understanding.

“We need a platform to create rallycross stars of the future, and the only way to make motorsport professional is to be part of the evolution of where car manufacturers and the car market is going,” he explains. “By forcing World RX to go fully electric was too early, a lot of hatred was created towards EVs.”

In his case for an electric rallycross series, Eriksson draws on his knowledge of co-founding the Red Bull GRC during the years in the build up to its inaugural 2011 season.

“When we started competing in the GRC with Marcus and Topi [Heikkinen] driving the Ford Fiesta, that was the perfect time for that car and the sport,” he says. “Up until that point, the US car industry had gone from V8, to V6, and it was then making the transition to in-line four turbos.

“With that small car, we were a perfect fit to show what you could do with a small, lively engine and up until politics got involved again, it worked, because it was a brilliant championship. We brought on names like Ken Block, Travis Pastrana, Scott Speed…

“Now in this world of electric cars, and there’s no escaping them because in Europe we now sell more EVs than ICEs, I originally thought that World RX was too late in going electric, but we were five years too early – it’s taken the battery tech and the infrastructure that long to catch up.”

‘It’s not about us, it’s about the future’

But with the tech now in the right place, for Eriksson, the key to successful electric rallycross lies very much in the future.

In a stark contrast to the FIA’s top-down order to make World RX electric-only “in a response to the Dieselgate scandal”, Eriksson’s approach is about working with the manufacturers and tech suppliers to give them a playground where they can showcase the capabilities of EV tech.

“Maybe I’m one of the crazy ones, but I’m always trying to think what will happen in five years time. That’s how I see the world,” he contemplates.

While the FIA is playing checkers with a possible, bio-fuelled return for World RX in 2028, Eriksson is playing 4D chess by using the current trends of the automotive industry as his yardstick.

“We need to tell a story that EVs are cool, and the only sport that can ever do justice to an electric powertrain is rallycross, because it’s about 100% performance in every corner and ultra-quick acceleration,” he says. “It’s up to us to understand what is relevant for the current generation of car buyers, then the next generation – I think we can see where they’re going, and that’s EVs.

“I think if we, those of us who are over 35, pursue our own interests and get stuck in our world where we think something is fantastic, that’s when you get a decline of interest. It’s not about us.”

Coming to America

As the FIA flip-flops, Eriksson is putting his plan into action under the ‘RallyX Americas’ banner. Oh, that’s another thing he’s achieved in his career – he founded the RallyX series as a platform to develop a roster of professional rallycross drivers.

With the likes of Niclas Grönholm, Timmy Hansen, and Ole-Christian Veiby, having all competed there at some point in their RX careers, RallyX is yet another success story the quietly-spoken Eriksson can add to his name.

As for the ‘Americas’ moniker, he explains, “that’s because they know how to put on a better show than we do in Europe – if it’s a success there, it’ll be successful in Europe. That’s what we saw with GRC, because that started a few years before World RX was even a thing, then it really blew up over here.”

The opening three rounds of RallyX Americas have been co-developed with assistance from USAC, America’s answer to the FIA. So the inaugural 2026 RallyX Americas season will begin with a two-race event over the weekend of June 20-21 at the Crandon International Raceway in Wisconsin.

Faster, more extreme, more fun

The car used to compete is the FC1, developed by FirstCorner. Having been around since 2022 and earned its stripes in Nitrocross and the Race of Champions, Eriksson is keen to stress that FC1 is a platform, rather than a car.

Right now, the FC1 visually echoes an SUV coupé. Yet given Eriksson’s goal of working alongside manufacturers, it can be adapted to accommodate any sort of bodystyle. The sky, then, is indeed the limit. The first cars that came to my mind were Subaru’s upcoming electric STi, or any of Ford’s promised ‘rally-focused’ EVs.

“Developing the FC1, I realised we need to make something much faster, and much more extreme than anyone has ever done before. At the end of the day, even your mum’s standard EV is quick,” Eriksson outlines. “It’s my vision of how an electric performance car should be, and it’s open to the manufacturers to put their body and maybe add some of their technologies into it in the future.”

The numbers surrounding the FC1 are mind-boggling. Its quad-motor, all-wheel-drive setup generates up to 1,500bhp and 663lb ft of torque. The 0-60mph run is dealt with in a mere 1.5 seconds, and subjects the driver to 3G under acceleration while doing so.

In line with Eriksson’s outlook on what a performance EV should be and do, Olsbergs-MSE has developed a three-speed manual gearbox. It’s not a synthetic unit, either. The transmission is a proper mechanical linkage connecting the FC1’s front and rear ends.

“When we did this, everyone laughed at us and said you don’t need that,” he explains. ”But we looked at the data and quickly understood that if we were limited in acceleration we had good top speed, but if we had no top speed, we didn’t have good acceleration.

“To achieve both, we added a gearbox and added a prop shaft, so we connected the front and rear mechanically.”

The ‘rallycross wizard’ has even looked so far ahead, that the issue of sound – one of the biggest criticisms levelled at the electric era in World Rallycross – has been dealt with. Yet again, Eriksson feels that the solution to RX’s noise debate isn’t rooted in the past.

“It’s not a noise made like the old four-cylinder turbos in World RX or GRC. I don’t think that’s the right thing to do,” he says candidly. “Instead, we’ve replicated the noise of the electric motors and the drivetrain heard by the driver. We know the FC1 platform is tremendously fast, but the fans can’t experience what the driver feels.

“We’ve worked with Kicker and Borla to develop a 120dB speaker system on the car, so they can hear and feel the same thing as the driver inside. It’s the sort of sound we’re hearing from performance road cars these days – it’s not a fake V8 noise, it’s its own thing authentic to EVs.”

Opening the door to teams and fans

The FC1 platform is priced from between €400,000 and €500,000 to buy outright, including batteries, and all charging infrastructure; a stark contrast to the almost €800k sum commanded by the final generation of World RX cars.

To keep costs sensible, teams can also rent a car and equipment on a race-by-race basis, meaning that the inaugural RallyX Americas championship can be done for €100,000.

To stop RallyX Americas from closing the door on curious teams, the organisers will handle teams’ transport, and the tracks are already built.

For the fans, the racing will be free-to-view on YouTube, and the paddock will be an open space where they can get up close to the cars and the latest EV tech surrounding them. It’ll be something like the Goodwood Festival of Speed’s ‘Electric Avenue’, albeit with more dust, noise, and fewer people wearing red corduroy trousers.

Eriksson’s vision and bloody-minded dedication to electric rallycross appear to have paid off. Already, there are between nine and 12 cars entered for Crandon in a couple of weeks, and RallyX Americas has already attracted a healthy roster of big Rallycross names.

While Timmy Hansen and Tommi Hallman are confirmed, Eriksson won’t confirm to us who the rest are. However, Grönholm, Timmy’s brother, Kevin, Lia Block, and Tanner Foust are just a handful mentioned. It’s a similar case for the interested manufacturers. However, Olsbergs-MSE, Hansen Motorsport, and S.E.T. Promotion are outfits locked in for 2026.

We’re promised we’ll find out everything soon enough, though.

Always moving forward

Before a wheel has even been turned at the season opener, Eriksson is once again looking into the future beyond RallyX Americas, and where the next ‘big things’ lie in terms of EV tech.

“First of all, we need to prove to the manufacturers and the fans that we are different, because we have an excellent platform with the FC1, we can keep costs down, and we want to be open in showing what EVs are capable of.

“We want to bring new fans in, and show them that electric cars aren’t something to dismiss or be scared of – in fact, they’re pretty exciting.

“We’re already looking at introducing solid-state batteries to the next-gen car, and we’re very close to doing that,” he says in closing. “SSBs will give us quicker charge times, better discharge rates, and a bigger range to put on longer races.

“Then there’s battery storage solutions and vehicle-to-grid. Why shouldn’t we be looking at using the FC1 to power, or at least partially power our teams’ set-ups?”

And just like that, the brilliant mind of the “rallycross wizard” stands on the cusp of making electric RX great again.

Read more:
Andreas Eriksson: ‘If we don’t do electric RX now, we’ve missed the window’

From the heart of Mid Wales, the gloriously bonkers ‘Moggy’ talks to EV Powered about how Electric Classic Cars is a hobby that got out of hand, why he doesn’t give a monkeys about classic car purists, and why innovation will remain at the very heart of ECC

“Come with me, and you’ll be in a world of pure imagination,” crooned Gene Wilder in the 1971 version of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. Closer to home and rooted firmly in the real world, Wilder’s romantic “world of pure imagination” can also be applied to the pub beer garden for all four days of the Great British Summer.

But given EV Powered is a motoring publication and the summer months are still some time off, today’s world of wonder is in Powys, mid Wales. It’s a spectacular place.

The drive into the country’s most sparsely populated region is little short of breathtaking; a bellicose symphony of unpronounceable names, rolling hills, and narrow roads. It is, very much, a playground for the keen motorist.

This makes it a fitting base, then, for Electric Classic Cars. Founded in 2015, ECC was the world’s first company to electrify classic cars and give them a new lease of life since 2015.

Sitting in the back of a converted Volkswagen Camper outside the Electric Classic Cars workshop, its founder, Richard Morgan – affectionately known as Moggy – is ready to dive into ECC’s journey from Beetle conversions, to retrofitting Ferrari Testarossas with Tesla powertrains and ruffling a few feathers within the classic car community along the way.

With sideburns that would shame a mid-90’s Gallagher brother and a frenetic energy befitting of any inventor – and rally man – worth their salt, he explains that the cogs started turning for ECC while competing in the British Historic Rally Championship.

“I’ve always loved classic cars, and I was driving in the BHRC with a classic Porsche,” Morgan recalls. “In the end I gave it up because it got too expensive, but when you stop racing, it’s like coming off heroin…at least that’s what I imagine,” he chuckles.

“You quickly get itchy fingers and need something to do, so I decided I wanted to build my own race engine, and put it in one of my VW Beetles to go drag racing. My favourite Group B rally car is the Lancia Delta S4, which had a supercharger and a turbocharger. I thought I’d fit the Beetle with something similar.

“I was designing it in my head, but I’d have had to have designed a set of different wastegates, then when the supercharger runs out of puff, then the turbo kicks in and you have to blend the boost. It’s a lot of effort and a lot of complexity for a motor that’ll barely pull a wheelie…”

Drivetrain agnostic

Around that same time, Morgan came across a “complete nutter” in the United States, who’d ditched their Beetle’s wheezy air-cooled motor, and replaced it with “an electric motor no bigger than a biscuit tin”.

He’s keen to stress that while he’s a classic car enthusiast at heart, he remains a self-described “drivetrain agnostic”. Like previous EV Powered guests, Jonny Smith, Marcus Grönholm, and Nir Kahn, Moggy doesn’t view the automotive landscape as a binary between internal combustion and electric. As long as it’s fun, that’s what matters.

“I realised quickly in my professional career how much power there is in electric motors and stuff, so I thought ‘I’ll give that a go’ and converted my ‘60s Beetle to EV,” he continues excitedly. “I went out of my driveway, turned onto the main road, put my foot down, and was like ‘whooooa, that’s brilliant!’ – petrol’s dead for me!”

“But all of this honestly started as an engineering exercise to keep me busy. As I’ve said many times, it’s a hobby that’s got out of control, and if you turn your hobby into your career, you’ll never work a day in your life. I’m very lucky that I enjoy going to work every morning.”

‘I can make it better’

While starting out, Morgan initially decided “if I’m going to turn classic cars into electric, then they have to be classics with rubbish engines, just like this Camper we’re sitting in now,” he says with a slap of the rear bench.

“I say this with a lot of love for classic VWs, but the engine was a bit pants, to be honest – it had about 40bhp and wouldn’t pull the skin off a rice pudding. The noise was a bit iconic, but that was it. We set out to change that.”

A particular car from the early years that sticks out in the ECC story is a Ferrari 308. Fed up with it breaking down, the owner contacted Morgan and asked him what he can do to improve it. “It’s easy,” he replied. “I can make it better.”

“I can’t think of anything more embarrassing than breaking down on the M1 in your Ferrari,” he says wide-eyed. “Imagine that, all the white van lads driving by and honking – no wonder the bloke had had enough and didn’t enjoy it! That was the first Ferrari we converted to electric, and since then we’ve done five Ferraris, including three Testarossas.”

The Teslarossa and doing the unthinkable

For classic car purists of a certain vintage, ripping the flat 12 from a Testarossa or the boxer engine from a Porsche 911 is an act of desecration. “You can’t do that”, they will puff and blow online. Moggy has a message for them.

“Yeah, I can – too late, I’ve done it now. Deal with it. I don’t give a monkeys,” he says pointedly. “With the Testarossa especially, people look at that car with rose-tinted glasses because it was in Miami Vice. The truth of the matter is, though, that it was a bit rubbish.

“All of the weight – the fuel tank, the engine, the gearbox – was in the back, as was the radiator, and the exhaust. The weight distribution is all off and it just oversteers horribly.

“By fitting the electric motor, it allowed us to keep the car’s weight in front of the rear driveshafts and move some of the weight up front. By the end of it, it was handling like a Lotus Elise and the Testarossa finally drove as good as it looked.

“We actually called that car the Teslarossa, because it had a Tesla Performance drivetrain with 600bhp.

“That was definitely one of my favourite cars we did, because it was so much better than when it was petrol. The amount of hate we got for that was really funny, because most of these people getting angry about it had probably never driven a Ferrari in their lifetime.

“It’s like these nutters who’ve never eaten a pineapple just because they look funny. Pineapples are delicious, right? What I’m saying is, there’s plenty of those types out there who try to convince you that electric cars aren’t the future, despite having never experienced one first-hand.”

The nonsense of nostalgia

Humorous fruit-based analogies aside, Morgan is keen to dispel the notion that a classic car is defined purely by its sound. If you’ve been hanging around these parts long enough, you’ll have noticed that EV skeptics often attribute an electric vehicle’s ‘lack of soul’ to the absence of an engine note.

“When you drive a classic electric car, there’s better weight distribution, better handling, and more power than there was when it first left the factory,” he explains animatedly, countering a light rant with a healthy portion of insight. “As for this idea of a car being nothing without the sound, that’s nonsense because there is one – it’s just this whooshing, Jetson’s kind of noise. It’s different.

“What about deaf people? Just because they can’t hear, are you telling me that they get less enjoyment from their classic car than we do? I don’t think that’s the case. I don’t look through rose-tinted glasses at some of my old Beetles and the racket they used to make.

“Don’t get me wrong, they sounded fantastic, especially those with the open-headed supercharger, but 10 minutes down the road, you’d be like ‘aaargh, where’s my ear muffs’?” At the end of the day, noise is great, but that’s just part of classic car ownership. The advantages of EV conversion definitely outweigh the noise aspect.”

Electric Classic Cars’ mission is also one of preserving classics for future generations. The demand for classic cars from the ’70s to the ’90s is up amongst millennial and Gen-X buyers. The problem is here for Morgan, is that “most of the younger generation don’t know what a Haynes manual is.

“If we make a classic car with a reliable, relatively maintenance-free drivetrain, then that takes the barriers to ownership away. I hope that we’re democratising classics not just for a new generation of car enthusiasts, but for older drivers who want a classic without all the hassle that comes with it.”

Tesla powertrains and an inconvenient truth

As to why ECC’s creations enjoy “hundreds of thousands of problem-free running”, Morgan points to its use of Tesla underpinnings. If you’re no fan of Elon Musk, you might want to brace yourself for an uncomfortable truth.

“There are other drivetrains we could use, but we don’t use them because they’re too expensive,” he says candidly. “Tesla spends tens, if not hundreds of millions on drive unit R&D, which is why they’re brilliant. I think it’s pretty simple why we piggyback off the back of this. They’re also pretty indestructible.”

Yet ECC’s operation isn’t just a case of plugging in the Tesla unit, and off you go. The oil seals and bearings are changed, and limited-slip differentials are added. “We completely recondition them, and address those little foibles,” Moggy explains. “We then test them to ensure they’re good to go.”

What’s next?

“I absolutely love innovating,” so that’s something we’re keen on here,” he says thoughtfully. Stepping away from his mad engineer persona for a second, setting new standards in the electric classic car world is something close to Morgan’s heart.

Since Electric Classic Cars was founded, other similar UK firms have sprung up in parallel – most notably Everrati and Lunaz. Nonetheless, ECC is the one that introduced CCS rapid charging, electric air-conditioning, and – if we listen to Morgan – helped establish a clear set of safety parameters for electric classics by working alongside legislators.

“We’ve worked with the DVLA to establish what you can and can’t do to modify a vehicle, and we’ve also set standards with the Historic Classic Vehicle Association (HCVA),” he explains. “They help ensure that a classic car is converted to certain standards. That means you can add things like isolation monitoring and crash detection systems.

“If you’re involved in an impact, these systems will switch all the high-voltage off, and they’re included in what we do. They’re part of the R100 regulations, which you have to follow when you’re part of the HCVA. Other companies out there might not work to the same standards as we do.”

As for the next chapter in the Electric Classic Cars story, Morgan insists that it’ll continue “pushing the envelope” and points to its new skateboard chassis for use in its off-road models.

For now, though? “I am saving the planet one burnout at a time,” he grins.

Read more:
Richard Morgan: ‘I’m saving the planet, one burnout at a time’

The man responsible for the Mk1 Nissan Leaf tells EV Powered about what Western carmakers can learn from China while outlining his plans for an affordable EV-driven future.

In the automotive world, there are an awful lot of voices making an awful lot of noise and fighting to be heard. Especially when it comes to the transition to electric vehicles. But some voices carry more authority than others, and when someone like Dr Andy Palmer speaks, it’s worth listening.

Responsible for overseeing the development of the groundbreaking Nissan Leaf, the now 62-year-old helped make EVs a mainstream proposition for the first time. He also reversed Aston Martin’s fortunes in just under six years. Under Palmer’s leadership, “the once perennially loss-making company” introduced four new core models, including the DBX, Aston Martin’s best-selling vehicle to date.

But Palmer isn’t here to talk about his past achievements. What’s done is done, and in the spirit of any visionary, the “Grey Cardinal of the EV world” – a term he is keen to downplay – has his eye firmly on what’s next on the EV landscape.

Looking East

Given BYD’s current status as a global best-seller, and closer to home, the Jaecoo 7’s achievement of becoming the UK’s best-selling car in March this year, his attention is fixed on the meteoric rise of the Chinese automotive industry.

“Look at China, you’ve got to admire what they’ve done – they’ve completely eaten our lunch,” he chuckles. “Back in 1992, when they came up with the idea of New Energy Vehicles (NEVs), basically electric cars, they asked themselves: ‘How do we catch up with Western carmakers, and then overtake them?’

“Well, first of all, we have to learn how to make cars, so let’s create joint-venture companies with Western manufacturers. That suited us, because if you wanted, broadly speaking, to sell cars in the Chinese market, you had to make them there.”

At the time of writing, the Sino-Western joint ventures are numerous. Stellantis and Leapmotor are happy bedfellows. Volkswagen has paired with Xpeng to pursue its ‘in China, for China’ strategy, while Audi has launched its confusingly named AUDI brand with the help of Chinese automotive giant SAIC for the domestic market.

“As the years passed, China learned how to make cars from their Western partners, then they started dominating in their own market,” Palmer continues. “They got to scale, meaning they got their costs down, and that allowed them to export.”

The result of that is the tide of low-priced Chinese-made EVs flooding UK and European forecourts and stealing sales from the “legacy” brands we’re all familiar with.

Pushing boundaries

It’s a bleak picture Palmer paints. While China was developing its car industry alongside becoming the world’s second-largest economy behind the United States, Western carmakers found themselves “really on the back foot”.

While a fine line exists between arrogance and complacency, Palmer doesn’t feel the former is why China has become “five to 10 years ahead of the West in terms of making electric vehicles”.

“Why would you kill the golden goose?” he asks rhetorically. “The European and American manufacturers have a 100-year history of making internal combustion engines and making them well. Why change that?

“Meanwhile, China has started from pretty much nothing, and they’ve been playing 3D checkers while we’ve been playing chess – they’ve totally leapfrogged us. In an industrial space, there’s always someone pushing the boundaries, so the next big thing isn’t today’s battery space, it’s tomorrow’s.

“For Western carmakers to survive, we have to think about what these boundaries are, and how we can push them to make the next generation of cars.”

Learn from the best

It’s at this point that I ask Palmer whether it’s a case of manufacturers listening to him.

Again, rather modestly, he downplays his importance as a leading EV advocate. Nonetheless, he addresses the elephant in the room for European and American carmakers.

“Just like the Chinese did with us 30 years ago or so, we’ve got to find that same leapfrog strategy, which may well be inclusive of collaborating with Chinese manufacturers,” he says pointedly.

“There is that necessity to learn now, and it sounds strange, to learn from the Chinese and accept that companies like CATL, a battery maker from China, are far ahead of the capabilities we currently have in Europe.”

Another example is in the charging sphere, where BYD is on the cusp of rolling out its megawatt-strong ‘Flash’ charging network across the UK. When it arrives, it’ll dwarf the Tesla Supercharger network’s fastest-charging speed by an enormous 1,250kW.

Yet it’s not just Western manufacturer complacency and China’s nous that have put the Chinese automotive industry in its current position. Since the mid-20th century, the UK has shifted from manufacturing towards a service-based industry.

As successive governments hollowed out UK manufacturing from the 1960s onwards, China went the other way. While the service sector now accounts for 81% of the UK’s output, China has become the world’s foremost manufacturing superpower.

In car terms, as Palmer explains, this has allowed China to develop new products and export them to the West. “You can’t just have a service economy, because you’ve got to make things to develop,” he stresses. “That way, you control software, batteries, and next-generation chemistries.”

“I don’t think Western carmakers are a lost cause, though,” he adds with a touch of optimism. “Volkswagen has said ‘yes, we know what we need to solve in this space’ and I think BMW is a good example of a company that has recognised the need to change.”

EVs need to be better and cheaper

For all his successes, Palmer is far from a diehard EV evangelist. While he drives a VW ID.7 as his daily, his garage, among others, comprises a Caterham 7 that runs on synthetic fuel, and an Aston Martin Valkyrie – one of the cars he oversaw during his tenure at Gaydon.

It comes as little surprise, then, that he adopts a pragmatic approach to converting UK motorists from internal combustion to electric daily drivers. Given rising fuel prices as a fallout of the Iran War, his rationale behind financial incentives is especially pertinent.

“Simply telling people that their car is green and it’ll save the planet simply won’t work,” Palmer outlines. “We’re selfish by nature as humans, and we want to take care of ourselves and our immediate loved ones. First and foremost, taking care means paying the bills and putting food on the table.”

What, then, is the secret to persuading more motorists to switch to electric?

“To move humanity towards decarbonisation, carmakers must make EVs the best technology possible for most of us, and you’ve got to make them cheaper,” he explains. “That means scaling up, which is what we can do via the joint ventures we touched on earlier.

“Most of all, though, an EV has to be much cheaper to run than an ICE, otherwise there’s no point. This is the biggest challenge.”

Pointing to his work at Palmer Energy, a firm specialising in the design and manufacture of battery energy storage systems, he envisions an ecosystem where EVs are on par with an internal combustion car to buy, but free to run.

“My North Star is to democratise electricity generation, and to do that, you’ve got to be able to trade energy with the grid, and you’ve got to create your own energy,” he continues. “Generally speaking, that means using solar to take electricity into a battery, which could be your car if it has vehicle-to-grid (V2G) functionality.

“You buy it during off-peak hours when it’s 7p, then sell it back to the grid at 70p. While you’re using your car’s battery for energy trading, you’re also generating at least 50 miles worth of electricity for free, and that’s more than most people need daily.

“Here is where I think OEMs have it wrong. Instead of creating affordable vehicles, they focus on low-carbon ones. When someone comes up with an EV that’s the same price as an ICE, you’ll see the volume come through, because at the end of the day, anyone buying that car will get cheap, if not free running costs.”

And there you have it. Dr Palmer has spoken. Perhaps the car industry should open its ears.

Read more:
Dr Andy Palmer exclusive: “Chinese EVs have completely eaten our lunch”

Cars are too big and too expensive. Our roads are too small, our pockets not deep enough. The all-electric Mika Mino is here to fix that.

Next time you step outside, take a look at the cars around you and ask yourself: “When did I last see a properly small car?” The answer to that question – unless you’re a member of a classic car club – is most likely to be “a while ago”.

Autobesity – it’s a growing problem

Cars have got bigger. Much bigger. In fact, autobesity is so endemic that 52% of all cars sold in the UK are now wider than the minimum-specified parking space of 1.8 metres.

And it’s not just a UK-specific problem, either. Should the European Union’s proposed M1e class of EV get the stamp of approval, cars within that category could still measure up to 4.2 metres long. While not exactly packing the heft of a BMW iX (below) or a Hyundai Ioniq 9, that’s still bigger than a Renault 5 or a Mini Electric.

A step in the right direction, sure, but M1e still won’t address the problems that inner-city mobility faces. Sure, L7 class electric quadricycles such as the Citroen Ami and the Microlino go some way to addressing the issue, but they’re not exactly… desirable. And they lack many of the safety features we take for granted in our cars.

If you are a masochist, public transport is another option for getting around, but it’s an often grim experience.

What, then, if there were another way of traversing some of Europe’s most congested cities without clogging up the roads, using public transport, or sacrificing the basic safety features of “proper” cars.

Cue the Mika Mino

Well, thanks to the Mika Mino, there is.

The brainchild of car designer/composites expert Nir Kahn – who you see below – and automotive engineer Robin Hall, the Mino – as Kahn describes it to EV Powered – is an “L7 car with the amount of safety you would normally get in a £25,000 Renault 5, but for around £10,000 less”.

Based on Kahn’s all-electric Urban Runabout concept, the Mika Mino is built on three fundamentals: Low weight, small footprint, and high driver engagement. With their decades of combined automotive expertise, both men feel they have the ingredients to cook up, well… the ultimate urban runabout.

In simple terms, the rear-wheel-drive Mika Mino car will be “a three seater, pretty much the same length, height, and width as the Smart Roadster from 20 odd years ago”. For reference, the Smart measured 3.3 metres long; slender by today’s portly dimensions.

To keep things cheap and simple, the Mino runs on 48V electric architecture, and comes with a choice of two battery options: a 20kWh unit fit for around 120 miles, or a 10kWh pack capable of 65 miles on a single charge.

Given the average European city car customer travels roughly 22 miles per day, the Mika Mino offers no more, and crucially, no less than what’s required in an urban environment. It also tips the scales at around a lithe 500 kilograms. There’ll be no autobesity here.

Oh, and Mika? Mika was founded by Robin Hall, who still owns and runs the company from its Warwickshire base. Like Kahn, Hall (pictured below) is another leading British automotive mind who honed his craft during the heady car years of the 1990s and 2000s, where budgets were bottomless, and the sky was the limit.

Embracing the original Mini’s ‘less is more’ philosophy

While working at Rover during the decade of Cool Britannia, Hall found himself in charge of developing the front axle system for the first of the ‘new’ Minis, the R50. Ahead of the car’s 2001 launch, it was at then-BMW-owned Longbridge that Hall mastered the dark arts of making front-wheel-drive fun.

In his own words, he was at the behest of “our paymasters in Munich, who said ‘this has to be the best-handling front-wheel-drive car in the world’. No pressure, then”.

The original Mini penned by Sir Alex Issigonis served as Hall’s muse. “I couldn’t think of anything better than an original Mini as inspiration,” he recalls. “They’re an absolute hoot to drive, because they’re light, and have a steering ratio of 15:1.”

If, like me, you’re far from scientifically minded, a ratio of 15:1 means that for every 15 degrees the steering wheel is turned, the front wheels turn by one degree. This ratio requires less input and returns a go-kartesque driving experience. Think ‘fast and fun’, and you won’t be wrong.

Hall continues: “Since the R50, whenever I’ve designed anything sporty, I’ve thought to myself, ‘well, let’s have a steer ratio of about 15:1’, so I’m certain the Mika Mino will feel a little bit like an original Mini in terms of its fun factor.”

The  steering ratio isn’t the only characteristic inspired by the Mini. The battery is positioned close to the rear axle, which houses an integrated drive system (IDS). When fitted to an EV, an IDS usually comprises electric motors and inverters to save space, improve efficiency, and reduce the number of components in vehicle production.

According to Hall, “this is the cheapest, lightest, possible setup, and like the original Mini, it proves that cheap and simple can work exceptionally well.

“I’m certain that the Mika Mino will handle extremely well and turn out to be enormously good fun.”

Turning the L7 concept on its head

While driver engagement is something L7 cars are desperately in need of, safety is just as vital. Drawing on decades of experience with composites, Kahn delves into the revolutionary approach behind ensuring that the Mika Mino becomes the safest car in its class.

“We’ve been working with a company that has some very interesting technology for cost-effective, lightweight composites,” he explains. “They normally use that technology to take the weight out of M1 cars [full passenger cars].

“What we’ve done here is use that same technology and turned it on its head. So rather than taking weight out of a heavier car, we’re putting the safety into a lighter car.”

The Mino will be structured around a multi-material composite safety cell, which absorbs all of the impact in the event of a collision. As for the actual materials used in the Mino’s construction, don’t ask.

“I can’t say the exact materials we’re using, but they’re not 100% carbon fibre, and they’re not 100% composite,” says the designer. “But having supermini levels of safety in a car that measures 3.3 metres long is something quite unique, I would say.”

What’s next for the Mika Mino?

Yet all of this begs one major question. An elephant in the room, even: How are Kahn and Hall so sure of their product, when a physical Mika Mino doesn’t exist yet?

“We’re working with a company that specialises in FEA, or finite element analysis, which is the dynamic simulation of composite materials in crash situations,” Kahn explains. “We’ve conducted a full feasibility study of the vehicle, which includes front impact and side impact simulations, showing that the vehicle will be able to achieve a five-star Euro NCAP rating.

“So far, the results are showing we are on target to achieve that. The next stage, absolutely, is building real prototypes and slamming them into walls and validating the simulation.”

Beyond crash testing, the next step is finding partners willing to assist with putting the car into production.

“We’ve had a lot of interest and positive feedback – in fact, 90% of the components are there, and we’ve had some healthy conversations with medium and large-scale car manufacturers,” Hall wraps up. “We’re now just waiting for the right investor to come along and enable us to get to the next stage.”

As to what’s beyond the prototype stage, it involves what Kahn describes as “turning the wick up”. There’s even talk of a Mika Mino-based Formula E support series. But that’s for the next time… and I say “next time” with certainty, because there will surely be a second chapter in this revolutionary little car’s story.

Read more:
Developed in Britain, designed for Europe: Meet the Mika Mino

Longbow is aiming to release its first driver-focused, featherweight electric vehicle by the end of 2026. By the end of this interview with its co-founder Mark Tapscott, you’d be daft to bet against them.

Read the news, and you’d think there’s not much to be positive about in Britain these days. It hasn’t stopped raining since January 1st, the cost of living is spiralling, and the less said about the political landscape the better.

Yet beyond the doom and gloom headlines, there lies a glimmer of positivity – especially for those of us in the EV world. Amongst others, Nissan has committed to building the new Leaf at its refurbished Sunderland factory; Chinese newcomer Changan has opened a dedicated R&D factory in Birmingham to refine its cars for local markets, and the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre continues to champion EV innovation.

In short, then, our rain-battered island is doing something right when it comes to electric vehicles, and one of its greatest champions is Mark Tapscott, one of the co-founders of EV newcomer, Longbow.

Given that neither Longbow’s Speedster nor Roadster has yet to enter production, a cynical type would already be keen to add the British firm to the list of EV manufacturers that didn’t quite make it. But as Tapscott makes clear, don’t do that.

Most recently, he spearheaded BYD’s entry into the Middle East. Beyond that, Tapscott’s CV is a roll-call of names involving the great and the good from the EV world: Formula E? Check. Involvement in developing the original Tesla Roadster? Check that, too.

Unsurprisingly, then, Tapscott is confident that upon arrival later this year, the hand-built, sub-1000kg Longbow Speedster and Roadster will redefine the traditional British sports as a “featherweight electric vehicle”. Think Lotus Elise with an electric motor, and you’ll not be too far wrong. Sound familiar?

As well as an advisory board comprising former CEOs from McLaren, Alpine, and Lotus, key to Longbow’s success is the EV manufacturing infrastructure and automotive heritage that the UK can offer.

“The UK is probably the best place to build an electric sports car,” Tapscott tells EV Powered. “Dating back to the 1940s and ‘50s, we have this tremendous tradition of building lightweight, engaging sports cars, which have always been a passion of mine.

‘We have a tradition of building engaging sports cars’

“We’re building and developing as much of the Longbow and the Speedster on these shores apart from the battery cells, because we don’t make them in volume here. However, the battery packs we use are British made, meaning we can use multiple suppliers for the cells.

“I think in the past, there were perhaps a few new EV makers who’re now in the graveyard because they became tied to a particular battery or cellmaker. By de-risking the centralisation of any particular supplier, this allows us to focus on building the best possible cars we can.”

Despite not disclosing the name of Longbow’s battery supplier, “focus” is something that often crops up during the conversation with Tapscott. It’s what he cites as the “secret sauce” behind getting the open-top Longbow Speedster down to a featherweight 895kg.

And the word “featherweight” isn’t just a marketing spiel. The Speedster is lighter than a Lotus Elise 220. While no porker, the Norfolk car still tips the scales at 924kg. As well as the original Tesla Roadster, the Elise serves as Tapscott’s muse for Longbow’s first cars.

“You’ll find a lot of influence from the Elise on our car, not least because a lot of our engineers were involved with that project to varying extents. I actually had one I used as a daily driver, and luggage space was really important in a car that size.

“I think with an EV, we have an opportunity to do something better than an ICE because of how it’s packaged. The Longbow Speedster and Roadster have a lot more luggage space than the Elise, and how we’ve maximised that is purely down to focus – there’s nothing in either car that’s some sort of unobtainable technology we’re waiting for someone to invent.”

When it comes to focus, Longbow adopts a two-pronged philosophy to carmaking. The first part is engineers removing one gram of weight each day from what they’re working on. The second is that all involved need to consider the idea that “some of the best design you can do is no design at all”.

“This allows us to strip things back and understand what a sports car should be,” Tapscott explains. “I think one of the best examples of this is consumer electronics. Over the years, mobile phones, laptops, etcetera have got smaller, lighter, and cheaper over time, despite doing a lot more.

‘Some of the best design is no design at all’

“When you look at automotive, what seems to have happened very clearly is that things have got larger, heavier, can do a lot more, but cost a lot more. An example of that is BYD’s Yangwang SUV, which for some reason can cross the Yangtze river in China – can you imagine the efforts that have gone into that, not to mention the weight it carries around and the costs involved?

“With us, we ask ourselves ‘what does this car need to do?’ and that’s simply to be an engaging driver’s car. Anything that’s added or doesn’t contribute to that experience is a waste of time, money, effort, and weight.

“With that in mind, we haven’t developed a new wheel nut for our cars. We’ve taken one that one of the big OEMs have used over millions and millions of miles that’s tested and reliable. This way we can make sure that we can bring our products to our customers by the end of this year.”

Oh, and as for those customers? The order books are already full. Given Longbow’s BS-free approach to purely “building cars, not building one dream or vision” it’s not difficult to understand the faith in the brand.

Ultimately, the end game – as Tapscott describes it – is to “put many, many sports cars on the road globally, not just in the UK”.

As a personality, Tapscott is much closer to Maté Rimac than Elon Musk. His description of making the Longbow Speedster and Roadster a reality by the end of 2026 is far from romantic.

He maintains that Longbow’s success will be determined by “a whole load of rather dull maths and spreadsheets that sit behind everything”. Adding a further layer of pragmatism to things, Tapscott immediately points out that his brand “won’t be able to compete against the Chinese for volume, and that’s not a place Longbow should be playing”.

UK success story

As the clock ticks down to arrival date, Tapscott returns to his original point of the UK being a global EV powerhouse.

“We need to say a huge thanks to the supply chain that exists here in terms of electric motors, transmissions, and battery pack manufacturers – the Government has been good in supporting much of that. These are the things the UK does really, really well.

“We’ve got all of the boring numbers in place,” he wraps up. “Now it’s a matter of just starting to assemble things and getting them to our customers.”

Read more:
Longbow boss: ‘The UK is probably the best place to build a lightweight electric sports car’

Defining a luxury car is no easy task. 

If, for example, you are of a Trumpian ilk, then a gold-plated Cadillac Escalade will tick your boxes. Should you grease your palms with tax-free silver in, say, Dubai, then possibly a Mercedes with a light-up front end that puts Blackpool Illuminations to shame would be more your thing.

Thankfully, Justin Lunny has a different outlook. He interprets a luxury car as something that people want to “mark them as something different to the likes of the Rolls-Royce Spectre or the Cadillac Celeste; a luxury car is about being quiet and high performance without being super quick, and a place where you can relax.”

Why the electrified classic car market is here to stay

Why this matters is because Lunny is the founder and CEO of Everrati, a UK-based firm specialising in restomodding – and electrifying – some of the automotive world’s most sacred cows.

If you were wondering, Everrati’s current range comprises four Porsche 911s (993, 964, and original 911 for the Stuttgart-minded), a Mercedes W113 SL Pagoda, the Mk2 Ford GT40, and two classic Land Rovers; the Series IIA and the Everrati-only Shoretender.

At this point, certain sections of the car community will get all pitchforky about Everrati “ripping out the souls” of these much sought-after classics. Yet why Oxfordshire-based Everrati chooses to reimagine these cars as small-batch, tailor-made EVs is simple: as Lunny tells EV Powered: “There’s a demand for it.”

In fact, Lunny reveals that at the end of 2025, Everrati’s order books were up almost 150% on the previous year.

“I think the appeal of our electrified classics is that we give people the opportunity to drive what was their halo car when they were younger, and the electric drivetrain removes some of the hassles that may or may not come with a combustion-engined car of a certain age,” he explains.

“With our cars, it’s key to remember that the powertrain isn’t really the thing here – it’s all about luxury, and it’s about being a quiet place where you can relax – EVs are very good for this.”

Early adopters 

While Lunny cites a “multi-million pound, high-end luxury car market” in 2026, he’s keen to stress that Everrati’s vehicles are aimed at a certain type of buyer.

“Generally speaking, 80% of our buyers are in the US right now, and they love tech,” the 54-year-old says. I think it’s fair to say they’re relatively early adopters,” he says. “We have clients who will spend $450,000 US Dollars on one of our cars, and use it every single day over whatever other cars they have in their collection.

“For us, that’s a brilliant proof point and shows just how much people love what we are doing.”

It would be easy to think that the Everrati magic lies solely in its largely unaltered designs and the effortlessly smooth driving experience that comes courtesy of an electric motor.

Justin Lunny on what makes an Everrati and Everrati

Alright, sure – the latter is part of this, but as Lunny is keen to bring to the fore, the skill of the engineering team at Everrati’s Bicester HQ is in retaining the character of the original donor car.

An Everrati machine, then, is not just a classic car with straight swap EV underpinnings borrowed from a Tesla Model S. Instead, its “millimetre perfect” powertrains are built with componentry sourced from “a motor provider who supplies Formula E, and Aston Martin with the hybrid motors for its Valkyrie”.

The first part of the Everrati recipe is its in-house developed software. As we discovered last year during our site visit to ZF’s UK headquarters, tuning software permits engineers to map the driving and performance characteristics of one car onto another. After all, “you wouldn’t just throw a V12 into whatever you’re driving at the time and expect it to work”.

The second is its approach to vehicle modelling. “We treat each of our cars as a new vehicle programme, almost in the same way that an OEM would,” Lunny explains. “We take everything back to the chassis, where everything is 3D scanned and then CAD engineered not only in terms of where we can fit things, but in terms of weight distribution.

“We’ll never make a vehicle that’s overweight, and thousands of hours go into building each of our cars.” To be precise, that’s five billion CAD points scanned, and 6,000 man-hours.

“We take lower rung cars, then give them a second life by turning them into something really rather beautiful” 

Asking Lunny to pick a favourite Everrati car would be like asking a parent to choose their favourite child. It’s a non-question. He does, though, harbour a soft spot for its Porsche 964 RSR and the Mercedes Pagoda.

While it may sound sacrilegious to some, dropping the RSR’s 3.8-litre, air-cooled flat six for a rear-mounted, 500bhp electric motor and a 62kWh battery makes sense from a vehicle dynamics perspective, especially when you’re driving this second-gen 911 as it should be driven.

Lunny is also keen to emphasise that the donor cars are far from concours-level. “With our 964s, they’re generally pretty tired and unloved vehicles,” he stresses. “We also use narrow-body cars as the source for our 911s. The Pagoda is a little different, as we start with the 230 SL instead of the more sought-after 280. Ultimately, we take lower-rung cars, then give them a second life by turning them into something really rather beautiful.

“With the Porsche, we’ve focused on balance and weight distribution because that’s what this car is about. Almost every panel is carbon fibre, meaning we’ve removed 25kg of weight. It’s also 60% more powerful than the original, so that makes for quite a fun equation.

“We’ve upgraded the brakes, the suspension, and various other items, and while you won’t hear the flat six, it has so much character and soul thanks to the work we’ve put in and how it drives. In fact, Jonny Lieberman from MotorTrend said it’s the best 964 he’s ever touched. That’s praise indeed for us, because at the end of the day, we’re car people.”

As for the Pagoda, Lunny creates an almost dreamlike visual guaranteed to tickle the fancy of any self-respecting car enthusiast, EV fan or not.

“Honestly, our Pagoda is a work of art. It’s actually recreated by the same team that restores vehicles for the Mercedes-Benz museum in Stuttgart. It’s beautifully finished and beautifully refined. Driving it on the right roads, well… it’s quite an enjoyable exercise.”

“We’re not out to ruin classic cars- we’re here to preserve them to ensure they can be enjoyed for the future”

Following a successful 2025, Lunny reveals that Everrati is working on a new restomod scheduled for release later this year. But he stops short of saying exactly what it is. He also urges naysayers to view electrified classics as future-proofed, instead of ruined.

“We’re looking at other front-engined, rear-wheel drive vehicles within the kind of Mercedes stable,” he admits. “If you think about it, that layout is pretty much perfect. There’s a reason Rolls-Royce, BMW, Bentley, and as I said, Mercedes, used this configuration from the 1960s up until as recently as the ’90s.

“When I founded Everrati, people questioned my sanity, but we’ve shown that people want these cars – we wouldn’t still be here otherwise. Sometimes, in their original form, classic cars are not that great to drive and become a case of never meet your heroes.

“We want to avoid that, and we’re not out to ruin them – we’re here to preserve them to ensure they can be enjoyed for the future.”

Read more:
Justin Lunny talks Everrati, luxury, and how electrified classic cars silence the critics

As e-bike adoption hots up across Europe, Zapp CEO, David McIntyre, explains why all-electric two-wheelers are the future of inner city mobility.

Beyond the usual headlines denoting thousands of horsepower and the Next Big Thing that will dethrone Tesla, a demand for inner-city electric vehicles is quietly bubbling away.

We’re not talking about the likes of all-electric buses or zero emissions trains, instead, the focus lands on ‘urban mobility solutions’; think e-bikes, electric scooters, and the likes of quadricycles such as the Citroën Ami and the Swiss-made Microlino.

In 2025, e-bike uptake increased significantly in Europe. E-bike experts estimate that over 10 million units will be sold across the continent by the time the year is out, and this growth rate is expected to continue during the coming years.

Quadricycles are also thriving. Since its 2020 debut, Citroën has shifted over 43,000 Amis and the European quadricycle market is expected to grow from $6.1bn in 2024 to $10bn by 2031.

As the battle for urban EV supremacy simmers away in the background, Zapp EV CEO, David McIntyre believes the future of inner-city personal mobility lies firmly in the two-wheel camp. To completely misparaphrase Animal Farm’s Napoleon: “four wheels good, two wheels better”.

Looking to the East

Zapp EV was founded in the UK in 2017, as what David describes as a “design-led, British-born EV brand on a mission to re-engineer urban mobility”.

A veteran of over 30 years in the automotive industry with the likes of Aston Martin, McLaren, Bentley, and Porsche, David has spent the last 20 years of his career in South East Asia — a part of the world, which has had untold influence on Zapp’s debut vehicle, the i300.

“In Asia, the dominant mode of transport is the two-wheeler,” he explains. “In Thailand, 84% of homes have at least one [two-wheeler], and in China, 80% of all [two-wheelers] sold are fully electric. If we look at Vietnam, over 3.2m are sold each year, and its government is implementing a strategy to ban all internal combustion engine two-wheelers from Zone One in Hanoi.

“Ho Chi Minh City has gone even further, and aims to remove all ICE two-wheelers from the road by mid-2027.”

The South East Asian model’s direct influence on Zapp is the focus on zipping in and out of urban traffic without any exhaust emissions.

As David explains, despite having a focus on modern design, the Zapp i300 remains — at its core — an e-scooter designed to make navigating the city as easy as possible.

Freedom without compromise

“Everything we do is built around a philosophy of ‘freedom without compromise,” he says. “We’ve adopted a design-led approach to things, and built the bike from the ground up. It’s aimed squarely at the urban dweller who typically goes short distances and wants to recharge quickly.”

Unlike a regular electric two-wheeler, the Zapp i300 eschews a large, single integrated battery pack in favour of two smaller removable 72 volt batteries weighing six kilograms each. Combined, and paired with the bike’s 14kW electric motor, they provide the i300 with a range of up to 37 miles.

The split battery strategy is designed to eliminate the fast-dying issue of range anxiety. According to David, Zapp EV’s solution is to “give people choice” about how they want to use the i300’s batteries. For reference, the daily commute for a Londoner is around 16 miles. The i300’s battery can be charged from 20-80% in 40 minutes, and from 0-100% in two hours.

“You can charge the battery with any wall socket, whether that be at home, in the office, or in Starbucks or something. Think of it like charging a smartphone, it’s really very easy,” says David.

A design for life

Alongside the £5,495 Zapp i300’s focus on ease-of-use, David believes that the design-led approach is what separates it from rivals and similarly-priced quadricycles.

“We’ve patented our exoskeleton structure, which allows us to get the centre of gravity low,” he says. “The batteries are placed more or less right under your feet at the heart of the bike, and that makes it fun to ride. The motor is placed low down, too.

“There are a lot of Chinese products on the market and they’ve just been modified from ICE to incorporate an electric motor. What we’ve done is designed something from the ground up to be inherently good looking, well-riding, and very easy to charge. Ultimately though, its design is what really stands out and draws people to the product.”

David also believes that the i300’s compact nature gives it an advantage over other “urban mobility solutions”.

“When it comes to cars like the Ami, which I like very much, it still doesn’t solve the parking or the charging issues,” he notes. “I think quadricycles are part of the urban mobility mix, but they’re still a small car at the end of the day. You can park and charge the i300 anywhere.”

In search of a power boost

Despite the positive trends in the European e-mobility segment, UK e-bike adoption is one of the lowest. In 2024, 2.1 e-bikes were sold per 1,000 people, leaving the country second from last ahead of Belarus in the e-bike sales table.

As with all things EV, David feels that the shift towards all-electric two-wheelers lies firmly at the foot of the UK Government.

After all, privately-owned e-scooter – such as one produced by Pure Electric – can only be used on private land. To use public roads and cycle lanes, the two-wheeler must be rented through an official electric scooter rental scheme.

Should local governments adopt a programme not dissimilar to that of Oxfordshire County Council, David sees a trickle-down effect taking place across the country, with other local councils potentially warming to larger e-two-wheeler adoption.

“I think the Government is doing a lot already, but we of course would welcome any additional policies that would get people onto two wheels, and more importantly into and onto electric vehicles.

“What we’re seeing at the moment are local governments such as Oxfordshire County Council taking the initiative. What I think will happen is that cities will then watch, learn, and potentially copy from these leading locations across the UK.”

Whether David’s prediction comes to light or not won’t deter Zapp from its growth plans. After all, there’s a big market outside of the confines of the UK, and the London-based firm is resolute in its quest to disrupt the e-mobility landscape.

Another branch of EVs to look forward to

As for what’s in the pipeline, the Zapp EV CEO confirms two new models. He does, though, stop short at revealing any battery tech, despite it yet again playing a significant role in the brand’s future.

“The i300 is our premium product, but we’re aiming to bring in an e-bike for customers who don’t want to get a motorcycle licence, wear a helmet, or even have the performance of the i300.

“Our third product will be another scooter, but with a more conventional — but still striking — design, plus possible different battery solutions.”

It’s not just Zapp EV pursuing the design-forward e-scooter route as the future of electrified urban mobility. The Nico Rosberg-backed Infinite Machine made its European debut at EICMA 2025, where it unveiled its Olto and P1 models.

Looking to 2026, it looks as if the EV world will treated to yet another exciting addition in the form of e-two-wheelers. What was that about electric vehicles being boring again?

Read more:
Four wheels good… two wheels better? Meet Zapp, the British EV firm electrifying the urban mobility landscape

… and how the West gets it wrong.

“Let China Sleep, for when she wakes, she will shake the world”, is a quote oft-attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte.

Whether or not the pint-sized dictator actually uttered these words is up for debate and of no particular concern here. Yet when it comes to the electric cars, it’s a line that hits a little too close to home for European legacy manufacturers.

It’s been happening gradually over the last three or-so years. In supermarket car parks, you began to notice inoffensively-designed EVs with mysterious names like Jaecoo and Omoda. Just last year, BYD replaced Volkswagen as one of the official sponsors of the Euro 2024 as the tournament’s official e-mobility partner.

Soon enough, motoring journalist types were raving about unknown brands such as Leapmotor and Geely offering unparalleled value. These same people were then praising Xiaomi – a company best known for producing smartphones – for the design and performance of its Tesla Model 3-rivalling SU7.

Remember that but a few years ago, none of these tech firms existed as car manufacturers in the Western world.

BYD’s watershed moment

Then, in May this year, the inevitable happened. BYD – the world’s largest EV maker which didn’t even operate in Europe until October 2022 – outsold Tesla, the most recognisable and successful electric car brand on the planet.

It wasn’t just Tesla people who were left scratching their heads. The likes of Audi, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Ford – all established names with skin in the EV game were left dumbfounded. How could BYD, a company that’s a battery maker first and a car manufacturer second, pull off such a mighty feat? And how are so many other nascent Chinese brands making such rapid inroads?

To answer the “million dollar question” beyond the headlines, EV Powered reached out to Mark Andrews. A photographer and motoring journalist who moved to China at the start of the 21st century, Mark spent from 2007 until recently testing Chinese cars at source. Without hesitation, he points to BYD as his starting point.

“BYD is the big boy on the block, because they have huge vertical integration,” he explains. “They don’t just produce the car’s batteries themselves, almost 80% of everything in the vehicle is produced by BYD themselves. It blows Tesla out of the water in this respect, and so with that, they control prices.”

How BYD became China’s foremost EV maker is open to interpretation. Founded in 1995 as a rechargeable battery maker by Wang Chenfu, it expanded into automotive in 2003 after acquiring the now-defunct Xi’an Qinchuan Automobile. It then used its battery expertise, in-house supply chains, and took advantage of Chinese government subsidies for manufacturers seeking to pivot to New Energy Vehicles – a catch-all term for EVs and hybrids.

Political connections, zombie brands, and a race to the bottom

As recently as 2024, BYD received £2.9 billion in government subsidies to help it dominate local – and international – EV markets. As to why BYD became the recipient of China’s largest-ever EV handout is unclear.

It’s been suggested in some circles that Chenfu’s membership of the ruling Chinese Communist Party may have played a role. Other suggestions include the brand’s alignment with Chinese national economic interests.

Chenfu – currently China’s richest man – isn’t single-handedly responsible for BYD’s success. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the brand’s fiery and outspoken CEO, Stella Li, oversaw the retooling of a BYD manufacturing line to produce N95 facemasks.

As the rest of the world slept, BYD added over $1 billion to its coffers, thanks to international PPE contracts with the State of California and Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp.

Hot on the heels of BYD’s success, the Chinese EV market began to resemble something of an electrified Wild West. Chinese automotive giant Geely Auto wanted in on the government-subsidised pie, as did newcomer Xiaomi. There are currently around 130 domestic car makers in China, many founded on the back of government support.

The result has been cut-throat competition that has stimulated innovation and a race to build high-tech cars even cheaper. For example, Xiaomi’s Tesla Model Y Performance-rivalling YU7 Max offers 681bhp and cutting-edge charging tech for less than £34,000 in its homeland.

Abroad, too, China’s EVs are typified by heavy specification levels and prices that undercut established local brands.

Mark says this competition helps drive down prices domestically and abroad, but typifies a destructive “involution” which allows the biggest players to dictate terms.

“If BYD cuts prices, then other companies have to follow,” he explains. “This creates a system called ‘involution’ where it’s a race to the bottom between companies to try and be as cheap as possible when it comes to cars.

“This creates a problem where ‘zombie manufacturers’ like Lifan who really should have died out years ago never really go bust.”

Unconstrained by history

Having established how ruthless the Chinese EV landscape is, Mark cites China’s lack of a long-term car industry as a possible reason why it isn’t afraid to take risks. In his latest book, Driving the Dragon, he notes that China’s first car – the Dongfeng CA71 – only arrived in 1958.

This absence of an established automotive industry is why Chinese brands – unconstrained by history and a sense of what their cars should be like – take what could be described as a sometimes unorthodox approach to in-car design and tech.

As Li herself told Fortune: “European companies have a legacy; they have a lot of traditions.” With zero risk of destroying any automotive history it may have, China has room to firmly establish its own unique EV culture.

Given 78% of the country’s population is connected to the internet – that’s around 1.1bn people – the foundations of Chinese EV culture centre largely on technology. If you log onto any motoring website or pick up a car magazine, this screen-heavy, tech-laden approach doesn’t always endear itself to those in Western automotive media circles.

Examples include BYD’s infamous rotating screen, Xpeng’s in-built karaoke (with six microphones, no less!) and the Xiaomi YU7’s choice of either an in-screen capybara or otter. At best, they’ve been laughed off as a bit of lighthearted fun or silly gimmicks that detract from a car’s perceived lack of polish. At worst, they’ve been slated as dangerous, over-complicated distractions that put novelty ahead of ease of use.

A tech-savvy approach to car design

As Mark explains, these features – for better or worse – represent a fundamental cultural difference between East and West.

“I think this is partly down to how connected people are online, and partly being down to a matter of taste,” he says. “China has become very tech-based, and when I’m there, my phone is everything: I use it to take the subway, to order a meal, get a shared bicycle, whatever.

“Don’t forget that China’s tech scene is quite recent, so people have become really quite tech savvy – far more so than in Western countries, I would say. I recently had the experience of trying to get my father who’s 82 to try and use a smartphone – I’ll be honest, it wasn’t great. But in China, you see old people using smartphones all the time.”

While embracing tech for good, Mark does admit that it can be a “big problem” for motorists.

“If you get in a DiDi car, China’s equivalent of Uber, the driver will have their screen, then two mobile phones mounted to the dashboard displaying all sorts of things. These things are a distraction, and the people who are playing short videos or whatever on them should really be concentrating on driving.”

Whether non-Chinese OEMs in the West can resist screenification en-masse remains to be seen. Yet given the new Renault Twingo’s use of physical buttons, plus promises from the likes of the Volkswagen Group, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Kia and Hyundai to slam the brakes on going 100% touchscreen, a tactile future looks promising – let alone safer.

What’s next?

With its ultra-rapid rate of development, trying to predict the future of China’s EV industry feels like a pointless exercise. Amidst the what if’s, though, Mark points to battery tech and the emergence of luxury car brands as two areas to watch.

BYD is said to be working on a solid state battery that can onboard 900 miles of range within 12 minutes of charging. A 150kWh semi-solid state unit developed by NIO is already being used in its ET7 saloon.

“China’s definitely pushing forward with the solid state batteries, and I think it’s a matter of who’ll get there first. Sodium batteries are also another big thing on the way. They’ll really come in as a replacement for lead acid batteries as starter motors in electric cars and motorbikes.”

The Western meaning of luxury is vastly different to the Chinese definition. Those who buy luxury EVs in the West seek refinement and quiet sophistication. On the contrary, their Chinese counterparts seek what Mark describes as “features”.

“One thing I mentioned in my book was that when I tested the second-generation Bentley Flying Spur, it didn’t have a heads-up display. That really surprised me, as this sort of thing was creeping into much cheaper Chinese cars. BYD’s premium brand, Yangwang, is really pushing hard in this area.”

Whether that’s enough to win over traditional luxury buyers remains to be seen but mainstream buyers appear to be falling for the low-cost, high-spec appeal of Chinese brands.

That’s perhaps just as well as reports indicate China’s domestic market is in turmoil – a turmoil created by the very fierce competition and cost-cutting which has helped these brands establish a foothold in Europe.

As Mark himself writes in Driving the Dragon, “the dragon may now drive an EV, but the destination is still far from clear”.

Driving the Dragon is available to purchase for £16.99 through its publisher’s site, www.veloce.co.uk.

Read more:
Driving the Dragon: Exploring the stratospheric rise of the Chinese EV industry…

EV Powered speaks to Russell Peterson, CEO and co-founder of Scottish start-up Munro EV to learn more about the brand’s ambition to develop a truly all-terrain electric vehicle.

Like all good automotive stories, the roots of Munro EV don’t begin in some stuffy boardroom with accountants tapping away on calculators. Instead, the seed of this Scottish EV start-up can be traced back to a friendly chat over a campfire somewhere in the Highlands.

It was there that off-road enthusiasts Russell Peterson and Ross Anderson decided that what the world needed was a truly capable off-roader powered by electricity.

Having driven their share of diesel-powered 4x4s, the pair recognised the potential of an electric powertrain in coping with tough terrain where torque and fine control are more important than speed and range.

Russell explains: “I grew up on a farm, so I was always into 4x4s. As I grew up, I moved into software, but I was missing the feeling of the outdoors adventure, so I started off-roading as a hobby.

“It started out as I was driving around in diesel and petrol 4x4s and thinking ‘it would be great if this was electric’. Then my friend Ross Anderson, who’s our co-founder, and I went on this camping trip up into the Highlands and we both had this epiphany of ’this definitely needs to be a thing’.

“This was back in 2018 and most electric vehicles were like the Renault, Zoe, Nissan Leaf and quite early Teslas. So we were thinking ‘what if it had this really rugged, mechanical off-road drivetrain and could navigate really extreme terrain, but had electric drive?’.”

Spark of inspiration

The idea of a “proper” off-roader with Land Rover-like ability but a zero-emissions powertrain started out as a one-off vehicle for their own amusement but, says Russell, as they considered it more the duo realised there was a wider demand.

“It started out as a very personal thing, but then we started thinking about it further, thinking maybe this thing has legs and could work in the market.”

That shift from hobby to business idea also brought a change in focus from a leisure activity vehicle for weekend bog-bashing to a workhorse designed for some of the toughest industries on earth.

Says Russell: “When we started thinking about commercialisation, we were getting a lot of outreach from commercial groups and fleet operators who said to us, look, we’ve electrified our cars, electrified our vans, but we’re really struggling to electrify our 4×4 fleet. And that really was the birth of Munro.”

That interest, says Russell, helped focus the company’s direction and determine its core mission. This was not to be a road vehicle that could be taken off-road but something designed to spend its life away from the Tarmac in hostile working environments – whether in the frozen mines of Scandinavia or the boggy hillsides of Scotland.

Ready for anything

To that end, the Munro M-Series uses a single electric motor of up to 280kW (375bhp) connected to a traditional four-wheel-drive system with a transfer box, high-low ratios and up to three locking differentials. There’s no complicated multi-motor arrangement or expensive in-wheel tech, just a tried-and-tested four-wheel-drive format with an electric motor in place of a diesel one.

Form follows function with a brutally boxy body constructed from simple-to-make and easy-to-replace panels, and with touches such as in-board lights and scratch-resistant finishes to minimise the risk of damage. That sits atop a high-riding chassis designed to cope with the roughest terrain and most challenging climbs and descents.

The utility body provides a spacious, if spartan, cab for five occupants while pick-up and chassis cab variants offer flexibility and scope for custom bodies. All three bring the benchmark 3.5-tonne towing and one-tonne carrying capacity of any self-respecting utility vehicle. Range is around 170 miles on-road or, more importantly, 16 hours of operation off-road.

Such stats are important when Munro’s target customers are forestry operators, blue-light services, mining companies and utility firms working in the most remote locations. These are the people for whom the current crop of heavily compromised electric pick-ups simply aren’t tough enough.

“We’re pretty much exclusively operating at the extremes of the market,” Russell tells EV Powered. “We’re working with mining, forestry, fire and rescue, and defence. We don’t even think about the vehicle as a car, we are treating this more like a piece of machinery.”

Customer focus

From the start, Russell says Munro’s focus has been on building the vehicle customers want and delivering the services they need.

Early on, the firm interviewed 120 fleet managers and users to understand how they use their vehicles, and early “validation” prototypes were provided to customers as part of a rolling test bed.

Feedback from those interviews and early customers has helped shape the M-Series’ development and features, with a focus on keeping things simple.

“If you’re building a product for a consumer market, you can sell the customer things that they didn’t know they needed,” notes Russell. “With the commercial vehicle space, it’s the complete opposite. They know what they need, they don’t need anything more or less than that.”

So the M-Series has hard-wearing touchpoints, a hose-down interior, heated seats and vehicle-to-load power. But it doesn’t have the multiple drive modes, massive touchscreen or fancy sound system of a modern SUV or pick-up.

It also, crucially, has fewer moving parts than an ICE equivalent and a simple, easy-access construction. That’s useful on a road car but on a vehicle that could be hundreds of miles from a service centre it’s a massive advantage.

Russell talks of visiting a mining site off the coast of Scotland. Every diesel pick-up at the facility had a dashboard lit up with warnings about clogged air filters, blocked DPFs and a host of other engine-related issues. Being located several hours and a ferry ride from the closest dealership meant manufacturer support was too expensive and complicated to arrange, leaving the trucks to succumb to problems that simply don’t affect an electric motor or battery.

From Scotland to the world

Munro’s name hints both at its rugged ambition and its Scottish roots – Munros are the country’s challenging mountains measuring more than 3,000 feet. And while it’s focused on serving customers worldwide, the small team at the heart of the organisation is proud of its Scottish origins.

The vehicle has been developed on off-road trails around the country, prototypes built in East Kilbride and early customer test models shipped to operators in the Highlands and Islands.

Russell says there’s a focus on using local suppliers and smaller enterprises wherever possible. Scottish firms provide everything from chassis metalwork to the seats, while components such as motors and suspension are sourced from as nearby as possible and integrated in-house.

“We try to prioritise local. So the first thing we’ll do is we’ll look at Scottish companies and UK companies, and if we can’t find anything in that region, we’ll look at Northern Europe. That is reflected in the bill of materials. You’re looking at about 80% through UK suppliers, which is pretty good, I think.”

Parts are sourced from experts in their respective fields – “There’s no need to reinvent the wheel here” – but Munro’s team also takes a very hands-on approach.

“There’s so many businesses that are founded on a great idea but can’t execute. They end up with this committee of people that have all these amazing ideas but can’t execute, can’t actually put spanner to machine,” reflects Russell.

“I think our secret was bringing people into the team from a very early stage who aren’t necessarily known names in the automotive industry, but they’re makers. They’re really good at just saying; ‘I get that. I can see how we can do that. I’m going to go in the workshop and machine that part, or weld that together’. Just going ahead and doing it.”

‘Hyperfocus is critical

That’s one attribute Russell believes will help Munro succeed where others have failed.

Recent years have seen the automotive sphere littered with EV start-ups which flounder. Look at Lunaz, Arrival, Canoo or Volta. Russell admits that it’s a tough landscape, and getting the M-Series to market hasn’t been easy. But he’s confident Munro is taking a sustainable approach.

“We have a team that’s so dedicated to just doing what we set out to. Not talking about all the things we possibly could do, but looking at what we can do today to move the business forward every day,” he says.

“Hyperfocus is critical. We just keep boiling it back to ‘what will it be doing on a day-to-day basis?’ and not getting distracted by all the things we could do with the platform.”

Russell says Munro is determined to avoid the overreach which he believes tripped up some EV start-ups.

“We’re not trying to create a compromise for the whole market, and we’re also not being greedy and thinking the global market for this is enormous.

“We know what we’re good at. We’re going to build this very specialist vehicle for a very specialist market. People will need one or they won’t. And that’s fine.”

That focus on a narrow market and dedication to delivering what customers ask for – whether it’s a better turning circle or an accessories fit-out service – will be vital, especially as the hands-on hand-built approach makes way for large-scale production. After five years of relatively low-key development, the firm recently revealed it has an order bank worth £17m that it plans to deliver upon in the next 18 months.

Scaling up

Up until now, Munro vehicles have been built at the firm’s HQ in East Kilbride. However, by mid-2026 operations will have moved to a new factory on the outskirts of Glasgow.

By the end of next year, Munro aims to have built between 100 and 200 customer vehicles, ultimately ramping up to around 500 units a year, each tailored to customer’s specific needs.

Even as it progresses from the hand-built to volume manufacturing, Russell says Munro remains focused on using customer feedback to fine-tune the vehicle.

“We’ve got customer vehicles out in the real world already supported by the factory and being continuously improved and developed and we’re going to keep doing that. It’s working really well for us and the customers.

“We’re at the tailend of our development now, so next year we’ll get to the point where we can put on more of a production line. But the vehicles will still be made to order and probably each one will be a little bit different from the last one because of customer specifications.”

There’s clearly still a lot of work ahead to get to that point but if any vehicle feels built to traverse such tough terrain, it’s the Munro M-Series.

Read more:
Munro EV: The Scots firm looking to scale new heights with its off-road EV

Volvo Construction Equipment’s head of brand and partnerships, Arvid Rinaldo, joins EV Powered to delve into why the future of construction is very much electric.

You don’t need to spend much time in Finland to grasp why it has ranked as the world’s happiest country for the last eight consecutive years.

Its sprawling forests are rich and verdant, while the abundant lakes and rivers are full of crystalline water. Education and healthcare is free, while national sports include rallying and ice hockey. Then, of course, there are two of the Finns’ age-old restorative practices – sauna and kalsarikännit.

Construction equipment and pollution

While on-site at the KymiRing to cover the Finnish round of the FIA World Rallycross (World RX) championship, it wasn’t a complete surprise to discover that part of the Finnish state’s duty of care towards its residents is to look after the environment in which they live and for the country to be carbon neutral by 2035.

Across the country, part of this social contract is working with municipalities, the environmental ministry, climate lobbies, and the construction industry to usher in fossil fuel-free worksites. Already, in the capital Helsinki, contracting firms are being offered bonuses via a ‘Green Deal’ to upscale the all-electric, zero emissions construction equipment they use on building projects.

It’s easy to understand the thinking behind such deals – the human impact of construction equipment, especially in urban areas, has been readily apparent for years.

In addition to the annoyance of the noise that comes with building work – let’s face it, we’ve all been woken up by a digger at 5am on a Monday – the European Union has found that exposure to environmental noise over long periods increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases and oxidative stress. In fact, an estimated 48,000 new cases of heart disease are related to noise exposure each year.

Moreover, the 5,000 or so diesel excavators operating in London each year have been found by Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) and the City of London to emit as much carbon monoxide or ‘black carbon’ pollutants as 100,000 diesel cars.

Volvo CE improving efficiency via electrification

So the low-noise, zero-emissions operation of electric diggers, dumpers and more makes perfect sense for local authorities and residents. But it also makes sense for operators, as Arvid Rinaldo – Volvo CE’s chief of brand and partnership – explained when we caught up with him at the KymiRing. At this point, it’s also probably worth noting that Volvo CE is responsible for the all-electric Volvo CE Dealer Team in World RX.

“We already know that you have zero carbon emissions as well as very little noise when you run electric construction equipment, so that’s beneficial in areas like town and city centres,” Rinaldo explains. “From a functionality and operational aspect, though, we’ve seen that electrification can speed up transportation periods, and provide better response times and controllability across our vehicles.

“Everything within our vehicles is electric, so the energy flow in the machine is more efficient and you can control it in a smoother, and more effective way,” he continues. “With a fully electric system, the instant torque means you can direct the energy exactly where you want it to go, making it easier to use. This leads to an overall lesser energy consumption rate than you’d get in a diesel vehicle. Overall, I’d say right now that electric vehicles are maybe unbeatable in the construction world.”

Volvo CE currently offers an entire range of all-electric construction equipment ranging from its smallest product, a 2.6-tonne compact excavator, to the enormous, 39-tonne A40 electric; the world’s first battery-powered articulated hauler. At all rounds of the 2025 World RX season, a fleet of Volvo CE’s EVs are responsible for track construction and maintenance.

How Volvo CE is powering the electric construction revolution

As with electric cars, electric construction equipment has come under fire for “virtue signalling”. It’s often assumed that the batteries powering all-electric telehandlers and the likes are charged via enormous diesel generators, rendering them pointless.

But no. Volvo CE offers “plug and play” power units, which operate in the same way as a mobile phone power bank. Within this range of transportable charging devices, the flagship product is the PU500 offering a massive 540kWh of stored energy.

It also packs 240kW DC charging capability, enabling the rapid charging of construction machinery, cars, and trucks. The PU500’s one- and three-phase outputs can also be used to charge power tools and other related equipment.

Despite the big numbers produced by Volvo Construction Equipment’s portable chargers, Rinaldo is aware of why construction operators may be hesitant – for now, at least – to make the switch to all-electric.

“I completely understand there are some concerns, because you need a working power source to make this work,” the Swede explains. “On the other hand, though, operators can really optimise their working process because while you may need to charge some of our vehicles during a break or something, others will run all day. We have to remember that our industry is very conservative, so this is also an educational exercise for us.”

Motorsport as a showcase

And it’s World Rallycross that serves as that educational tool. The sport introduced EVs in 2021, with the CE Dealer Team arriving in the championship the following year. It’s no secret that motorsport has long-served as a marketing exercise, and Rinaldo doesn’t shy away from the fact.

“I think one of the reasons we’re here in World RX is to showcase what we can do with EVs – our RX1e car has 680bhp and does 0-100 kilometers per hour in under two seconds,” he says. “We’ve also built this KymiRing rallycross track using our fully-electric L120 wheel loader. All of this is to showcase the power of electricity and to educate the market that you can very much work with electric vehicles in the construction sector.

“Sustainability is at the absolute top of everything we do, so our aim is to have the whole carbon footprint of the sport reduced to the bare minimum.”

Zero emission factories, and what’s next in the construction world

While far removed from the car-building world, where sustainability is the buzzword of the moment, Volvo CE is just as keen as Volvo Cars on environmental friendliness and being as green as possible. As well as the zero-emissions charging and operation of its heavy plant equipment, its articulated hauler plant in Braås, Sweden, is the world’s first construction equipment factory to be carbon neutral.

“I don’t know if I can dare to say it, but if you look around, I’m pretty sure that we’re the leaders in this field in our industry,” Rinaldo adds. “We also do environmental declarations for all of our products.”

As we conclude our talk, the CE Dealer Team garage once again becomes a hive of activity. The outfit’s two cars, driven by Niclas Grönholm and Klara Andersson, roll silently back from qualifying sessions, mechanics immediately clamour around them to top up their 52kWh batteries and wipe away any battle scars.

Now’s time to wrap things up with Rinaldo by asking him about the future of electrification in the construction world.

“The biggest things on the horizon – at the moment at least – are the speed of battery development, charging, power availability, the grid, and other green energy sources,” he concludes. “If some other solutions develop that might be even more sustainable, then we’ll explore those, as we’re always striving to look for the most sustainable way forward.

“At the moment, though, we see electric as being the most promising route to take.”

Read more:
Volvo CE: ‘Electric vehicles may be unbeatable in the construction world’