Welcome back to EV News Daily. Coming up today, BMW enhances range and charging. The Zika-O7GT electric wagon is my new crush and the Moak electric beach buggies.

Plus stay tuned because later in the show I'll tell you how one charging operator is taking the fight to criminals who try to cut charging cables.

Well, good morning, good afternoon or good evening,

wherever you are in the world. Welcome to Evie News Daily. Your trusted source of EV information

for Wednesday, 16th of April, I'm Martin Lee, and I go through every EV story so you don't have

to. Patreon supporters get the shows ad-free, and you can be just like them by clicking on a link

in the show notes. We'll start with news of

BMW making their new model year vehicles even better, expanding a TV lineup for next year

with longer battery ranges and new features. Now, this is a US story, but I think this does

apply to their global vehicles. The company reports better efficiencies coming out of the new

I-5s and I-Xs. The I-5, of course, their Big 5-Series

sedan, the I-X, their big SUV. They are chalking it off to advancements in a more

efficient silicon carbide inverter. The 2026 model year BMW IX in the X-Drive 60 spec has an EPA range in the US of 364 miles, and that is 18%

up on the outgoing model. The single-motor BMW I-5, so in E-Drive 40 spec, not the all-wheel

drive one, that range is now up from 295 to 310 miles, a handy boost if you run it on the 19-inch wheels.

BMW also improving the charging efficiency for the plug-in hybrids. There are plug-in hybrid versions of the 5 series, the M5 and the X-5 as well.

They used to have the old 7.4 kilowatt charge rate, which I have

updated to 11, which is kind of the basic these days. I mean, I guess if you are driving a plug-in

hybrid in Europe, there's three phases a little bit more common in domestic premises, not here,

but in some parts of mainland Europe, France as well, loads of 22

kilowatt AC posts, so more important there, really. Okay, let's get into the Zika-O7 GT, electric

wagon, possibly my new crush for 2025. Please don't be offended, Kia EV3. I still love you long time, but this,

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