Friday, 16 October 2026

Eskom has opened public electric vehicle charging stations at the Gateway Theatre of Shopping and The Pavilion shopping centre in Durban, according to Business Explainer. The utility is offering motorists a 20% discount at its charging facilities for the first six months.

In a separate development in South Africa's energy sector, Onshore Petroleum Association of South Africa chairperson Nick Mitchell argued that the country cannot meet its gas demand purely with indigenous gas, according to Engineering News. Mitchell made the remarks at the Wits Business School Gas Symposium.

Fastned's adjusted charging revenue rose 47% year on year in the third quarter, reaching EUR 46.3 million, according to electrive.

The company opened 17 new stations during the quarter and signed agreements for 26 additional high-traffic locations, electrive reported.

Fastned currently has 65 stations under construction, almost double the number from a year earlier, according to the company.

BYD has launched the Da Han EV, also known as the Great Han, in China as its new electric flagship sedan, according to electrive.

The battery-electric saloon uses a 1,000-volt architecture and offers up to 1,008 km of range under the Chinese test cycle, electrive reported.

Pricing starts at 235,900 yuan, equivalent to around EUR 31,300, according to electrive.

All variants carry a 102.3-kWh battery drawn from BYD's portfolio, electrive reported.

US electric vehicle sales stalled in 2026 because too few EVs were available to buy, not because buyers lost interest, according to The Conversation Energy. Hybrids remained widely available as an alternative over the same stretch.

From March through May 2026, hybrid electric vehicle sales ran 18% higher year over year, while fully electric vehicle sales were 16% lower than the same months a year earlier, according to The Conversation Energy.

Inventory data points the same way. New EV supply fell from about 130 days in the first quarter of 2026 to 78 days by August, according to The Conversation Energy, leaving the stock just two days above the level for gas-burning cars.

Discounts narrowed as supply tightened. The Conversation Energy's analysis of online listings from marketcheck.com found the median new EV listed 9.8% below sticker price in February, then 6.6% in April and 4.7% in June. Shrinking discounts signal dealers responding to rising demand rather than clearing excess inventory, according to The Conversation Energy.

Belgian logistics company H.Essers is expanding its fleet with 20 new electric trucks, according to electrive. MAN and Mercedes-Benz Trucks each delivered ten units.

The arrivals bring H.Essers' battery-electric truck fleet to 31 vehicles, electrive reported. The newly delivered trucks will primarily operate from the company's locations in Belgium.

Volkswagen is preparing a recall of several electric series in Germany and other European markets over potential defects in high-voltage battery cells, according to electrive.

The affected cells could overheat in rare cases, and in extreme instances there may be a fire risk, electrive reported.

As an immediate safety measure, Volkswagen plans to cap the maximum charge level of affected vehicles at 80% through an over-the-air update, according to electrive.

Some Canadian EV customers are putting off purchase decisions while they wait for more Chinese EVs to reach the market, according to a survey commissioned by Clean Energy Canada.

The survey found that 48% of Canadians said they were likely to buy an EV as their next vehicle, according to Electrek.

Of that group, 42% said they wanted to wait for more Chinese EVs to become available, Electrek reported.

Plug-in hybrids registered in 2024 emitted about six times more CO2 in real-world conditions than official figures indicated, according to T&E data reported by electrive. That gap widened from a factor of around five for vehicles registered in 2023.

The real-world shortfall carries a direct cost for drivers. T&E calculated that a PHEV sold in 2024 incurs average additional fuel costs of EUR 680 per year compared with official consumption figures.

Actual emissions from plug-in hybrids were only 14% lower than those of conventional combustion vehicles and non-plug-in hybrids, T&E found, while official tests suggested an 83% reduction.

T&E attributed part of the gap to internal combustion engines running regularly during supposedly electric operation.