Freelander Goes Electric?! AI's Power Problem & Megawatt Charging!

About this episode

The episode discusses the return of the Freelander as an EV, the energy demands of AI, and various trends in the electric vehicle market.

In this episode of the Everything Electric podcast, Robert is joined by fellow presenter Imogen Bhogal. What starts as a quick catch-up soon descends into a slightly unhinged conversation about the surprising return of the Freelander as an EV joint venture in China, the staggering energy demands of AI and data centres including battery systems measured in tens of gigawatt-hours that rival the power consumption of entire cities, and Robert's unexpected VW fandom...! Links to stories: https://electrek.co/2026/03/31/freelander-suv-reborn-sharp-off-road-ev-images/ https://electrek.co/2026/03/30/toyotas-new-luxury-ev-china-receives-3100-orders-in-1-hour/ https://electrek.co/2026/03/27/used-ev-sales-boom-new-ev-sales-drop-28-percent-q1-2026/ https://electrek.co/2026/03/26/byd-recruits-james-bond-launch-new-longe-range-luxury-ev/ https://www.utilitydive.com/news/worlds-largest-grid-battery-part-of-google-xcel-energy-agreement/813793/ 00:00 – Intro: A "First Best" Guest?! 01:35 – Freelander Returns?! JLR's China EV Strategy 13:55 – April Fools 17:40 – The Rise of Mega-Batteries 26:25 – Electric Trucks & 1.5MW Charging 31:40 – The US EV Market: What's Really Happening? 34:05 – Renewables…

People in this episode

Host: Robert

Guest: Imogen Bhogal

Topics covered

• Electric Vehicles
• AI Energy Demands
• Battery Technology
• EV Market Trends
• Renewable Energy
• Automotive News

Keywords

• Freelander
• Electric Vehicles
• AI Energy Consumption
• Battery Systems
• EV Market
• Renewable Energy
• VW
• BYD
• Toyota

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Freelander, JLR, VW, BYD, Toyota, Google, Xcel Energy

Places: China, US

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