ev.news Briefly: Tesla, US EV Share, Smart & more | 15 Oct 2026

TESLA HALTS MODEL 3 PREMIUM ORDERS WITH QUOTA UNUSED

Tesla has stopped taking Canadian orders for both versions of the Model 3 Premium, claiming its allocation is exhausted despite government figures showing 33,069 of 33,397 Chinese EV import quota places remain available. Canadian rules permit officials to reserve allocations, but no Tesla-specific limit has been disclosed, raising questions about how manufacturers are being granted access to the country's import quota.

US EV SALES REBOUND AS TOYOTA AND RIVIAN GAIN

US electric vehicle sales rose 7.7% quarter-on-quarter to 266,630 in Q3 2026, lifting market share to 6.5%, although volumes remained 38.6% below last year's incentive-driven peak. Rivian gained 45.7% and Subaru grew 31.5%, while Tesla retained approximately 54% market share despite a 19.7% decline in deliveries.

SMART OPENS #2 PRE-ORDERS FROM €19,990

Smart has opened European pre-orders for its new #2 two-seat electric city car, priced from €19,990 in Germany, with a 35.8 kWh LFP battery, 60 kW rear motor and provisional 290 km WLTP range ahead of wider availability in 2027. All four trims share the same battery and motor, with higher specifications adding equipment and faster AC charging rather than additional range, while every version supports 65 kW DC charging and vehicle-to-load functionality.

MERCEDES OFFERS GERMAN EV OWNERS PAID GRID SUPPORT

Mercedes-Benz is introducing bidirectional home charging in Germany, initially for the electric GLC and C-Class, allowing owners to earn an estimated €500 annually by making their batteries available for grid services. The system requires an 11 kW DC wallbox and compatible electricity tariff, with introductory wallbox pricing of €1,990 potentially allowing customers to recover their investment within four years, according to Mercedes' estimates.

SKODA PRICES EPIQ SPORTLINE AT £32,450

Skoda has priced its Epiq SportLine compact electric SUV at £32,450 in the UK, offering a 55 kWh battery, 155 kW motor, approximately 270 miles of provisional range and 10–80% charging in as little as 24 minutes. The sportier specification adds Matrix LED headlights, 19-inch wheels, electrically adjustable sports seats and vehicle-to-load capability, with first customer deliveries expected in early 2027.

RENAULT CUTS 4 E-TECH PRICE BY €1,810

Renault has reduced the German starting price of its 4 E-Tech electric SUV by €1,810 to €27,690, while improving aerodynamic efficiency and increasing WLTP range to 310 km for the 40 kWh version and 415 km for the 52 kWh model. Drivers also gain manually activated battery preconditioning for more convenient fast charging, making the lower purchase price the most significant improvement in the car's competitiveness against combustion alternatives.

RENAULT SETS €47,000 LAUNCH PRICE FOR NEW ELECTRIC TRAFIC

Renault's new electric Trafic van will initially launch in France at €47,000 before VAT with an 81 kWh battery, up to 470 km of provisional WLTP range and 800-volt charging capable of adding 280 km in 20 minutes, while a cheaper €41,500 version with a 60 kWh battery follows in early 2027. Built alongside diesel Trafics at Sandouville, the electric van offers up to 1.3 tonnes of payload, with Renault estimating total ownership costs up to 10% lower than a comparable diesel.

RENAULT DEMANDS MORE DISTINCT CARS FROM PARTNERS

Renault CEO François Provost wants future vehicles manufactured for Nissan, Ford and Mitsubishi to look and feel more distinctive, acknowledging that the Nissan Micra shares too much of its interior and exterior design with the Renault 5. The strategy aims to preserve the manufacturing savings of shared electric platforms while ensuring partner brands retain their own identities, although greater differentiation will increase production costs.

VALEO PLANS OPEN-SOURCE DRIVING AI

Valeo and research laboratory KE:SAI plan to release an open-source AI driving system, including its code, trained models and datasets, allowing manufacturers to develop and customise autonomous driving technology without relying entirely on proprietary software suppliers. The compact system is intended to work across different vehicles and sensor configurations, but remains a development project requiring extensive validation before any production deployment.

TOMTOM SAYS EV NAVIGATION SETUP NOW TAKES MINUTES

TomTom has launched a self-service platform that it claims reduces the time manufacturers need to configure EV-specific navigation services from months to minutes, using vehicle specifications and real-world driving data to calculate energy consumption and charging requirements. Its routing system incorporates more than 2.3 million charging connectors across 117 countries, potentially allowing manufacturers to introduce tailored EV navigation more quickly without establishing that range predictions are necessarily more accurate.

LUCID AIR US SALES FALL 80.0%, COX ESTIMATES

Lucid's Air electric saloon suffered an estimated 80% year-on-year collapse in US sales to just 506 vehicles during Q3 2026, according to Cox Automotive, while the Gravity SUV recorded 2,202 sales but could not prevent the company's combined US volume declining 14.9%. Alternative estimates differ on the model breakdown, although both suggest Gravity is becoming Lucid's main retail product, while official global deliveries fell 6.7% to 3,806 vehicles.

BMW PLANS OVER €100M FOR ELECTRIC DRIVE COMPONENTS

BMW will invest more than €100 million at its Steyr factory in Austria to manufacture inverter power modules for its next-generation electric drivetrains, with production scheduled to begin in summer 2029. Although the facility continues producing more than one million petrol and diesel engines annually, the investment strengthens BMW's internal control of critical EV technology and demonstrates how established combustion-engine factories are increasingly developing electric manufacturing capabilities.

VOLVO EX60 PRODUCTION PROBLEMS DELAY US DELIVERIES

Volvo's EX60 electric SUV is reportedly suffering battery installation and electric motor manufacturing bottlenecks at its Swedish factory, restricting production to approximately one-tenth of the planned 2,000 vehicles weekly and delaying substantial US deliveries until the first half of 2027. Volvo is prioritising European demand, leaving American customers with limited availability of the EX60 following the discontinuation of the EX30 and EX40 in the US, making manufacturing capacity rather than demand the immediate constraint on growth.