ev.news Briefly: Kia, Tesla, Ford, GM & more | 05 Oct 2026
It's ev.news Briefly for Monday 05 October 2026, only todays headlines and nothing else, in just 4 minutes if you haven't got time for the full show. Patreon supporters fund this show, get the episodes ad free, as soon as they're ready and are part of the ev.news Community. You can be like them by clicking here: https://www.patreon.com/evnews KIA EXPANDS GT RANGE WITH EV3 GT, EV4 GT AND EV5 GT Kia is expanding its electric GT range with higher-powered, all-wheel-drive EV3, EV4 and EV5 variants priced from £48,695 to £54,295, adding adaptive chassis upgrades, performance tyres and, on the EV3 and EV4, simulated gears and synthetic engine sounds. The emphasis is entertainment rather than outright speed: rivals are quicker and sometimes cheaper, while Kia is using GT to make its mainstream EVs feel more engaging rather than simply chasing acceleration figures. TESLA BEATS FORECASTS AS SALES STILL FALL Tesla delivered 486,532 EVs in Q3 2026, comfortably beating analyst forecasts but still down 2.1% year on year, with Model 3 and Model Y deliveries slipping slightly and sales of its other vehicles falling 48%. Production rose while deliveries fell, although energy storage deployments grew 9.6% to 13.7 GWh, leaving Tesla’s 21 October results to answer the bigger question of whether its core automotive business can return to growth. FORD AND GM EV SALES SLIDE AGAIN Ford’s US EV sales fell 80.2% year on year in Q3 to 6,047 vehicles and GM’s dropped 61.7% to 25,473, partly reflecting last year’s rush to claim the expiring $7,500 tax credit but also representing declines from Q2 2026. Cadillac and the returning Chevrolet Bolt provided some bright spots, but EVs represented only 1.2% of Ford and 3.8% of GM sales, putting greater pressure on their coming generation of cheaper electric models to rebuild demand. RENAULT MAKES ITS €10BN FRENCH EV BET CONDITIONAL Renault says it could invest more than €10 billion in France over the next five years to continue expanding EV production and affordability, but CEO Francois Provost has explicitly made that spending dependent on political and social stability. The warning comes ahead of a highly uncertain French election despite EVs reaching a record 42% of registrations in September, making Renault’s concern about the investment environment rather than underlying electric-car demand. BMW’S ELECTRIC i3 UNDERCUTS THE M350 BMW has priced the 2027 electric i3 50 xDrive at $61,500 before destination, $4,400 below the gasoline M350 xDrive, while claiming 468 miles of range and the ability to add 208 miles in 10 minutes on a sufficiently powerful charger. Although the comparison is not perfectly like-for-like and refuelling remains faster, an EV matching its combustion counterpart’s range while costing less upfront weakens one of the longest-standing arguments against electric cars. ROADCHEF TAKES OVER 12 BP FORECOURTS AS EV CHARGING EXPANDS Roadchef will directly operate 12 BP-branded petrol forecourts at its motorway service areas while BP Pulse prepares rapid-charging hubs at more than 30 Roadchef sites from 2027, supporting Roadchef’s target of more than 1,000 charging bays by 2030. Petrol remains commercially important, but the arrangement shows motorway operators increasingly preparing their sites for a future in which far more customers arrive seeking chargers rather than fuel pumps. UK EV PURCHASE INTENT JUMPS AMONG NEW-CAR BUYERS UK EV purchase intent has risen to just under 47% among all buyers, but the more significant change is among people planning to buy a new car, where interest jumped almost 18% to 64%. That suggests EV consideration is strengthening most among consumers actually approaching a purchase, while 2026 is expected to bring further growth in electric and hybrid sales as petrol and diesel continue declining. UK POWER GENERATION PER PERSON FALLS BELOW 1968 UK domestic electricity generation has fallen to around 4,200 kWh per person, below its 1968 level and far beneath the roughly 6,700 kWh peak reached in 2003, with increased imports explaining only part of the decline. Britain is therefore attempting to electrify transport, heating and industry from a system currently generating less electricity per person at home than almost six decades ago, implying that future electricity supply will need to expand substantially. G7 RELEASES 100M BARRELS AS DIESEL SUPPLY TIGHTENS The G7 will release 100 million barrels of emergency crude and fuel reserves as wars in the Middle East and Ukraine disrupt regions responsible for almost a third of global diesel exports, sending diesel prices to record levels in the US and sharply higher in Europe. The resulting fuel shock strengthens the operating-cost case for electric vans and trucks, while the G7’s commitment not to impose oil-export restrictions reduces the immediate risk of a US diesel export ban hitting Europe and Latin America.
