Open the front door of an Acura ZDX and, according to Ever's review, you find a small plaque crediting GM's plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee. The host plays it for a laugh. It is also the most honest label in today's five stories. Two are cars built on someone else's car, one is a group selling its models under four names, one is the company that built one of those cars, and the fifth is an Audi whose main selling point, in the view of Auto Focus, is that it feels like any other A6. How an electric car works is largely settled. What is still being fought over is whose name goes on it, what it costs, and what you pay for after you drive away.
Nissan's Pixo is the clearest case. Electrifying reports it shares its battery, motor and key interior parts with Renault's Twingo and will be built beside it in Slovenia. Nissan's changes are the parts a buyer sees and touches: its own lights, colours, door panels and a roof liner no longer borrowed from Renault, plus Gemini and face recognition the Twingo does not yet offer. The channel's verdict is that Nissan did enough this time, after a Micra that a colleague at the channel felt was too Renault. Chery goes further. EVs & Beyond counted six electric models on one Sydney stand, sold under four brand names, some of them on a shared platform. Here the badge is a way of reaching different buyers, not a claim about different engineering.
The ZDX shows how that approach can fail new and pay off used. Ever says it rode on GM's platform, used the same 102 kWh battery as the Cadillac Lyriq, and lasted one model year before Honda ended the partnership. It started at $65,850. The channel now finds A-Spec models in the low $30,000s. Nothing about the hardware got worse; only the price moved. Meanwhile GM's chief executive told Fortune that software on top of the car, naming Super Cruise and OnStar, gives GM a way to grow at better margins than hardware. Ever notes that a ZDX Type S owner eventually pays for Super Cruise by the month. The same GM hardware earns once when it is sold and again through the subscription.
Three things to watch. Whether Nissan prices the Pixo close to the Twingo, which Electrifying expects but Nissan has not confirmed. How many of Chery's six actually reach New Zealand within the year the host expects. And whether the eyes-off Super Cruise that Barra promises for the Escalade IQ in 2028 becomes the thing that separates two otherwise similar cars. If the hardware keeps converging, the next fight is over the software and the monthly fee.
Audi's Electric A6 Is Ordinary, and That Is the Point
Auto Focus opens its review of the A6 Sportback e-tron by admitting the car stirs no strong feelings, then argues that is progress. The host says the electric A6 starts only about $2,000 above the gas version, and that the quattro model he drove adds all-wheel drive and roughly 80 more horsepower for about $2,000 more again, a box he says he would always tick. Per the video, a 0.23 drag coefficient helps it past 300 miles of range, CCS fast charging peaks around 270 kW for a 10 to 80 percent stop of about 20 minutes, and 0 to 60 mph comes in the low four-second range despite a weight he puts near 5,000 lb. Unlike the gas A6 it is a hatchback, with fold-flat rear seats and a small front trunk. The cabin adds a passenger screen, ventilated seats, Bang & Olufsen audio and a built-in dash cam that records to a microSD card. The weak spots he names are rear legroom, below a Tesla Model S, and fingerprint-prone piano black trim. He estimates his well-optioned test car at close to $80,000. Even this most ordinary Audi is shared underneath: the A6 e-tron sits on the Premium Platform Electric that Audi developed with Porsche, which also underpins the electric Macan.
Mary Barra Still Calls EVs the End Game, Just Not by 2035
In an hour-long Fortune interview, GM chair and CEO Mary Barra says the company still sees electric vehicles as the end game, while accepting the US switch will take longer than planned. She names shifting regulation and a slow charger rollout, held back by permitting, as the main brakes, and contrasts that with Europe and China, where she says regulation drove adoption. Fortune's narration notes that GM's old goal of an all-electric light-duty lineup by 2035 may no longer hold. Barra says GM sells more than a dozen EVs alongside gas and hybrid models, and that it sold over 700,000 vehicles under $35,000 last year. On autonomy she says she is done making predictions, then repeats the plan for eyes-off highway driving on the Escalade IQ in 2028. With what GM knew at the time, she says, she would probably make the Cruise decision again, but personal autonomy rather than robotaxis is where GM's strengths lie. She also describes software as a separate growth path, with Super Cruise and OnStar subscriptions which Fortune, citing GM, describes as high-margin revenue. The value is hearing GM's CEO explain, in her own words, why it is keeping both drivetrains rather than choosing. The Acura in story four shows what the earlier plan produced: Ever says GM built it for Honda.
Nissan's Pixo Is a Twingo That Finally Looks Like a Nissan
Electrifying got an early look at the Pixo in a garage beneath Nissan's Paris headquarters. The channel reports it is built on Renault's Twingo, sharing the battery, motor and key interior parts, and will be made alongside it in Slovenia. The styling draws on 1980s video game pixels and on Nissan's Pike cars such as the Figaro, with its own lights front and rear, and a 2 and a 3 on the wheels, a nod to the Japanese reading of the company's name. Per the video, it has 82 hp from a single front motor, 50 kW DC and 11 kW AC charging, a 356-litre boot and a 9.9 m turning circle, and it borrows the rear axle from the Renault Captur for a softer ride. Nissan adds built-in Gemini, face recognition that loads each driver's settings, heated seats on both trims and optional vehicle-to-load through dealers. There is no price yet. Electrifying expects it to track the Twingo and says Nissan hopes it will qualify for the UK's electric car grant, which reportedly depends on where and how a car is built. The 50 kW DC ceiling is the buyer consideration: fine for a town car charged at home, slow for anyone planning regular motorway trips. The name returns from a 2009 Pixo that the channel says was a rebadged Suzuki Alto priced from £5,995.
The Acura ZDX Lasted One Year New. Used, It Costs Half as Much
Ever makes the case for a car Acura has already dropped. The channel explains that the 2024 ZDX came out of Honda's 2020 deal with GM: GM supplied the platform and built it in Spring Hill, Tennessee, Acura styled it, and it shares its 102 kWh battery with the Cadillac Lyriq. It lasted one model year before the partnership ended. New prices, per the video, were $65,850 for the rear-drive A-Spec (358 hp, 313 miles), $69,850 for the all-wheel-drive A-Spec (490 hp, 304 miles) and $74,850 for the Type S (499 hp, 278 miles). Ever now finds A-Specs in the low $30,000s and Type S models around $40,000. Two-year-old cars keep about six years of the 8-year, 100,000-mile battery warranty. Standard kit includes ventilated front seats, a heated wheel, Bang & Olufsen audio, and wireless CarPlay and Android Auto. The downsides the channel lists are a 190 kW charging peak with a 47-minute 10 to 80 percent time measured on the related Blazer EV SS, no front trunk, weight from 5,400 lb, and no lane centering on the A-Spec. Super Cruise comes only on the Type S and, after its trial, costs about $30 to $40 a month through OnStar. A buyer's open question is long-term support for a one-year Acura, so it is worth asking a dealer about parts before buying.
Chery Brought Six EVs to Sydney Under Four Names
At the Everything Electric show in Sydney, EVs & Beyond walked the Chery stand and counted six electric models across four brands, most of them confirmed or expected for New Zealand. The J5 EV is already on sale there. Lepas, whose name the host says blends leopard and passion, adds the L6 and the smaller L4, both with a 65 kWh battery per the video, the L6 rated at 400-plus km; he expects the L6 by the end of the year, with the L4 also on its way. The Omoda E5 is being facelifted and rebadged as a Chery E5, with about 60 kWh and 150 kW, and he expects it to stay under NZ$40,000. The iCaur off-roader, boxy and four-wheel drive, comes as an EV and as a range extender. The Omoda C4, close to the 2025 concept, uses what the host calls Chery's T1X platform and a 65 kWh pack, and he compares its look to the original MG4. The C4 on display was a pre-production car, so its materials and final specs may change. For buyers, four badges from one group can mean four sets of warranty terms and dealer arrangements, and a shared platform does not guarantee shared service.
Bottom line: Stop shopping for the badge and start shopping for the parts list and the price. The used ZDX is today's best buy by a distance: a Lyriq-sized battery and a full kit list for about half its sticker, provided you can live with slow charging. The Pixo will live or die on whether Nissan matches Twingo pricing, because a Twingo with nicer lights is not worth a premium. Chery's four-brand stand is smart marketing and a headache for anyone comparing warranties. And the Audi proves the dull middle of the market is finally electric.
Commentary on third-party videos. Figures and claims are as presented in the sources and have not been independently verified. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will correct it.