Matt Damon sets the tone for this episode while I throw on another hoodie and warm up my third cup of coffee. First up, essential cold-weather EV survival strategies, from preconditioning your battery while plugged in to prioritizing seat heaters over cabin blasting and making sure your tires are *inflated* to combat that dreaded 20-40% range loss in sub-zero temps. Have you heard? Tesla's groundbreaking launch of unsupervised Robotaxi rides in Austin as of January 22, 2026, where passengers are now hopping into fully autonomous Model Ys with no safety driver. Also, 2026 is shaping up as the ultimate year to snag a used EV, thanks to a massive wave of low-mileage lease returns flooding the market from 2023's tax-credit boom, driving prices down and making electric ownership more accessible than ever. And now, please enjoy the Rocky IV tune as I trudge through 13 inches of snow and ice.

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Merch is here!

Honest, stylish and perfect for all your "off duty" occasions.

Shop Men, Women and Kids Collections: https://evs4everyone-shop.fourthwall.com/

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Official EV4E merch has dropped! (more deets at the 5:05 mark). In other news, Hyundai is finally waving goodbye to its ICE i10 hatchback after 18 years and 3.3 million units sold. In its place? The IONIQ 3, an affordable entry-level EV dropping in April 2026 with zero plans to grace U.S. shores just yet. Meanwhile, Ford's playing geopolitical chess by flirting with China's BYD for hybrid batteries destined for non-U.S. factories. The talks are non-binding for now, but the controversy's already brewing. Ford's CEO Jim Farley is also insisting the USMCA North American supply chain is non-negotiable for staying competitive. Ditch it, and car prices skyrocket while the industry takes a nosedive. (Trump's calling the whole deal “irrelevant,”) Up north, Canada's just dropped tariffs on Chinese EVs with a starter quota of 49,000 units. If sub-$26K EVs prove irresistible, will those limits quietly vanish?

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Merch is here!

Use code ELENA for 15% off your order from now until Friday, January 23, 2026.

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Don't miss me at NADA for Cox Automotive's The EV Inflection: Sourcing Strategy Meets Retail Reality - West Hall

Thursday, Feb. 5 | 2:30 pm–2:50 pm

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Mike Murphy, veteran Republican strategist and founder of EVs for America, proves you can love Detroit muscle, GOP grit, and EVs without short circuiting your identity. On today's episode, he shares eye opening polling showing Republicans' old "EVs are for tree-huggers" vibe has flipped from a +18 net agree to a -2 in just three years, a 20-point thaw. Yet Elon Musk remains the ultimate party-poisoner. Adored by 67% of Republicans as an EV ambassador, but overall trashed so badly that Tesla now lurks near the bottom among serious EV shoppers. Meanwhile, China's playing 4D chess by subsidizing EVs to oblivion, aiming to hollow out American and allied auto industries like a geopolitical termite.

**NOTE: Canada has just struck a major trade deal with China on January 16, 2026, slashing the previous 100% tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles down to a 6.1% most-favored-nation rate, allowing up to 49,000 Chinese EVs (like affordable models from BYD) into the market annually with the quota set to rise to about 70,000 in five years in exchange for China cutting steep duties on key Canadian exports like canola. This marks a sharp break from the U.S.'s protectionist stance and aims to boost Canada's lagging EV sales (which tanked in 2025), spur potential Chinese investment in local auto production, though it's sparking backlash from figures like Ontario Premier Doug Ford over risks to domestic jobs and industry.

Meanwhile, Mike says it's time for defensive subsidies to keep our factories humming, and rightly so. California, where one in three U.S. EVs finds a home, emerges as the critical battleground, with Mike lobbying hard for a fresh $2,000–$4,000 credit (for first-timer EV buyers) and multifamily overnight charging to unlock the apartment-dweller market. He dismisses the "EV winter" doomscrolling as overblown and notes solid products like the bargain Nissan Leaf, Ford's cost-slaying next-gen platform, and GM's new battery tech will keep the momentum rolling. California listeners: consider this your bat signal and email your assembly members to back those credits and charging incentives, then swing by the American EV Jobs Alliance site to arm yourself with their advocacy tools and maybe even chip in? Mike and his team are out here doing great work, throw him a few shekels if you can!

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Check out: Fixing America’s Partisan Divide Over EVs: Tracking Three Years of Slow Progress

Connect with Mike Murphy on X, LinkedIn and listen to his podcast "Hacks on Tap"

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The internet was in a tizzy yesterday over Tesla's latest "love you but gotta pay monthly" move, so of course we gotta talk about it. Starting February 14th (Happy Valentine's Day!), Tesla is axing the one time $8,000 Full Self Driving (FSD) purchase. New buyers (and existing owners) now face the monthly glow-up: $99/month or $999/year. Existing owners who already purchased FSD outright? You're grandfathered in and can transfer it when you sell your car like a fancy heirloom. Tesla gets predictable recurring revenue to fuel those magical OTA updates, while the rest of us ponder if our cars are about to start charging us rent. At the same time, Bloomberg says "EV Winter Is Coming," and predicts 2026 EV sales growth to drop to a sleepy 12% (after 23% last year), with ~24.3 million passenger EVs expected worldwide. China's slashing subsidies, halving tax breaks, and telling everyone to chill on the price war. And the US? It's full-on "EV winter" mode, so you better go ahead and grab your puffer jacket.

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Rideable Suitcases by Chris Fleming

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Bear wants you to know the crossing guard hooked him up with two treats today. Good boy status is now confirmed. Also, Stellantis is discontinuing all plug-in hybrid models in North America starting with the 2026 model year. That means the Jeep Wrangler 4xe, Grand Cherokee 4xe, and Chrysler Pacifica PHEV are officially fading into the sunset, cue the sad violins. Meanwhile, Ford is pushing hard toward Level 3 "eyes-off" autonomous driving by 2028, teasing a roughly $30,000 midsize electric pickup called the UEV Ride for 2027, and rolling out an AI assistant in its phone app in 2026 that uses your vehicle's VIN (and photos) to give towing and cargo advice. Scout Motors, VW's rugged revival brand, just got the green light for direct-to-consumer sales in Colorado, igniting a classic dealer-OEM family feud that's bound to get messier. CES felt like a full-on Chinese automaker glow-up, with brands like Zeekr (and others) showing off luxurious, rocket-fast EVs that make you wonder if Western buyers are being catfished by all these promises of affordable performance. These cars aren't even available in the U.S. for goodness sake (yet??) And finally, possibly the highlight, Fiat's tiny Topolino microcar arrives with a blistering top speed of 28 mph, 47-mile range, and just 8 horsepower. Bear could probably outrun it in a straight line. So, is this for resort cruising, retirement communities, or the world's most polite getaway car? What do we think?

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The EVs for Everyone Shop is revving up and about to drop!

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Subscribe to the show right now so you don’t miss the official launch announcement this month.

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Buckle up for round two of our CES 2026 auto highlights series! Cormac Martin, General Manager of MOVE America and MOVE London, joins the show to dive deep into autonomous vehicles (AVs) and of course the unstoppable robot takeover. We start with the Lucid-Uber-Nuro robotaxi partnership, unveiled in all its glory at CES, where "collaboration" means turning competitors into a blurry trio of frenemies plotting world (or at least ride-hailing) domination. Next, Waymo says "oh-hi" with their sleek new Ojai van (built by China's Zeekr and rebranded for the U.S.), reminding us that building a purpose-made robo-ride is way harder than acing a blizzard parallel park. Next up is a quick spotlight on Wayve, a UK-based autonomous driving tech company that's ditching manual data labeling for pure end-to-end AI magic without breaking the bank. Haven't you heard? 2026 is officially the Year of the Robot. Get ready to picture epic imaginary cage fights between Tesla's Optimus, Boston Dynamics' Atlas, and LG's (really slow) CLOiD, the tortoise of the humanoid pack. Hit play for exclusive auto scoops from CES that you won't hear anywhere else!

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Connect with Cormac on LinkedIn and check out MOVE London June 17-18 2026

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Here's the CES 2026 recap you didn't ask for but definitely need, straight from the neon-soaked chaos of Las Vegas! Edward Wilford, Senior Research Director at Omdia Automotive, joins the show today to spill the latest insights from his week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). We kick off with Nvidia doubling down on automotive as the crown jewel of its "physical AI" empire, dishing out a full-stack, ultra-secure platform that seamlessly connects cars, robotics, and industry into one massive, interconnected powerhouse. Then comes the polite shade: Nvidia's sensor-packed ecosystem goes head-to-head with Tesla's cameras-only FSD bet, as Edward insists true Level 5 autonomy needs to outdrive even the flawless human, not just the distracted TikTok scroller. Edward also dropped a pro tip for the industry: Stop trying to turn every car into a rolling data center overnight, decouple SDVs from EVs, and instead drop “bite-sized” software upgrades. We also talked about Chinese powerhouse Geely teasing its big U.S. EV market splash (think Zeekr and Lynk & Co) in the next 2-3 years (?), unpack the key differences between rigid robots and friendly cobots teaming up with humans, and Zoox's awkward robotaxi stall-out moment right on the bustling Vegas Strip. Buckle up for this high-speed tour of CES's buzziest auto highlights!

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🎉 It's a new year and a new season! Eat your leftovers before they go bad and let's get into it. Global sales of EVs continue to surge thanks to affordable Chinese brands like BYD, which just dethroned Tesla as the world's top BEV seller with 2.26 million units in 2025 versus Tesla's declining 1.64 million. In the U.S., the end of federal tax credits triggered a sharp Q4 sales drop, leaving EV market share stuck around 9-10% while hybrids steal the show as pragmatic, profitable heroes appealing to everyday buyers. Major automakers like Ford are pivoting hard, scrapping pure-electric plans for extended-range hybrid pickups while Toyota and Honda double down on hybrids until at least 2030. Hybrids are booming, already pushing electrified vehicles over 22% of U.S. sales in some quarters and acting as a gateway drug, with one-third of owners later switching to full EVs. Despite Detroit's gloom and a "Great EV Reset" slowdown, cheaper new models under $42,000 and a flood of affordable used EVs are poised to fuel the next growth wave. Pure BEVs aren't dead, they're just taking a breather while hybrids and used deals bridge the gap to a fully electric future. Tesla and Rivian's rough year underscores the shift, but with CES announcements looming, more news is on the way. Bottom line: 2026 is the year of pragmatic progress, not panic.

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