China EVs & More

Tu & Lei spend most of this episode unpacking all of the launches and news that came out of the Guangzhou auto show.  They discuss the new EV brand from Great Wall Motors - Salon and its concept, the Mecha Dragon. They also spend time discussing the: - XPeng G9 - BYD Destroyer - Voyah EMPV (Dream) - Maxus MIFA 9 - Buick GL8 Concept - Cadillac Lyriq - Ford EVOS - Lincoln Zephyr - BMW iX - Audi...

Lei starts out the pod with how his trip to LA went along with his visit to the Rivian retails store in LA, he then moves onto the brands and product launches from the LA Auto show including the Chinese presence there. Tu and Lei discuss their 2,000th episode and their launch of China EVs & More MAX series with Henrik Fisker.  Tu and Lei take a few moments to talk Foxconn’s MIH platform then T...

Lei sits down with Henrik Fisker to discuss his thoughts on charging, LiDAR, solid-state batteries, AV, China, and more...

Lei starts out the show with a number of announcements from the week including Rivian's IPO and his EQS test drive. Lei & Tu talk about what they're looking ahead to at the LA & Guangzhou Auto shows. They then take a few moments to explain AVATR, Changan's new premium EV brand that both Huawei & CATL has invested in.  Tu & Lei take a few minutes to review the automot...

Lei declares that this is the 'Week of Big Bets!' Tu and Lei unpack various automakers' September sales numbers and the overall outlook of the China EV market. They take a close look at Tesla reconciling sales vs. capacity and where they go next. They then move onto NIO's move into Norway and how asset-heavy it seems to be. Tu and Lei close out the pod with a chat about Geely i...

Tu & Lei take the first few moments of the show to talk about VW's battery systems factory investment in Anhui Province and move on from there to also talk about NIO's announcement about their Iron Lithium hybrid battery. They then discuss the highs and (current) lows of China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle group and what they expect may result from the parent's debt struggles. T...

This episode starts out with a brief detour with Tu describing his trip to the newly opened Universal Studios. Tu & Lei then move on to unpacking how the XPeng P5 introduction will affect the mass-market (<300K RMB), smart EV segment.  The discussion then transitions to electric vehicle consolidation that although hopeful, isn't likely to happen in any significant way for quite a while...

Tu & Lei spend the first part of this episode briefly touching on August sales numbers and spend a bit more time on their thoughts on Tesla's sales and their export strategy - is Tesla crazy like a fox? They then spend time discussing the products the re-branded Frankfurt Auto Show which was moved to Munich and is now called  Internationale Automobil Ausstellung (IAA) Mobility because it...

Tu & Lei start the show off with a recap of XPeng Q2'21 earnings and the effect of NIO's accident on He Xiaopeng's discussion about their ADAS solution during the call. They also go into how the launch of the XPeng P5 should affect XPeng's strategy and sales volume. Tu & Lei briefly discuss the launch of Volkswagen's subscription services and then move on to a deep...

Lei & Tu go through the week's major announcements about investments in the EV/AV space including with Cruise, Waymo, and Hesai.  Tu also goes through the announced investments into EVs from the legacies and the implications from those announcements.  Tu & Lei get into details about the struggles that Polestar and VW are having selling their EVs in China.  ***We apologize for the tech...

Lei and Tu go over August sales numbers for China's current Big 5 of NIO, Li Auto, XPeng, Neta, and Leap Motor.  Tu & Lei then move over to Li Auto's Q2 earnings and how the EV makers are starting to broaden their product portfolios with some moving up-market and some down covering the 150K-500K RMB band or what's the 'meat' of China's passenger vehicle segment. ...

In Episode 27, Tu & Lei take a few minutes to unpack the July sales numbers from the CPCA & CAAM and the roots of the NEV sales surge. Tu & Lei also spend a few minutes to discuss Tesla's surprising numbers for July.  Lei summarizes the most significant news coming out of NIO's earnings calls including the confirmation of a mass-market brand as well as 3 new products schedule...

In this episode, Tu & Lei unpack all of the announcements that came out of the Baidu AI World Conference.  They also discuss NIO's recent ES8 accident that involved NIO's version of an autonomous driving system - Navigation on Pilot (NOP). Are the names for these L2 ADAS features misleading - they have an important debate about that.  They finally have a discussion on Tesla's NH...

July sales numbers have been released so Tu & Lei go over them and discuss the standpoints and the headscratchers. There is word that BYD & Tesla have been talking about working together and BYD supplying their blade battery to the US EV maker. Finally, the US is finally making its pivot to EVs and is bringing it's ambitions to match with a 50% of total sales by 2030 goal. How will un...

Lei & Tu spend the first part of this episode talking about Stellantis, NIO, and VW Group's electrification strategies and how China will play a major role. They also try to make sense of all of the aggressive 2025 sales targets being announced by some of the major OEMs. They spend the last part of this episode deep diving on Leap Motor and discussing what's happening at WM Motor, an...

Tu & Lei get busy this week with XPeng finally launching specific pricing for it's recently announced P5 sedan and there is a lot for them to debate. Mercedes closely follows VW last week with their electrification plans and when they plan to be ALL-electric. Tu & Lei also take some time to talk about the drama that has historically followed founder of Faraday Future, Jia Yueting, til...

Tu & Lei talk about the media outlet that crashed a BYD Han which caught fire after 48 hours and BYD's reaction to the news hitting Chinese social media. They also debate whether the Huawei exec that made a controversial statement about Tesla should be fired or not.  Finally, they unpack the sodium-ion battery that CATL made an announcement about this week. Will this ultimately help them...

In this episode, Tu & Lei talk about how the Tesla recall may actually have benefited them in China. They also unpack the monster ambitions that Great Wall Motors has laid out via their 2025 sales forecasts. Finally, Tu and Lei break down what to expect from the Didi US IPO and all the excitement that's been built up because of it.

In this episode, Tu and Lei break down what's really happening with the Didi situation and what this could mean to other ride-hailing firms as well as smart EV companies.  Lei goes over June sales numbers and the expected sales growth for the rest of this year and finally, Tu talks about attending AutoX's Gen 5 launch in Shanghai.

In this episode, Tu & Lei debate VW brand's current sales struggles in China and Audi's Bold 2033 EV announcement that excludes China.  They also bring in Will Sundin from China Driven to discuss Tu & Will's visits to Baidu's Apollo robotaxi depot in Yizhuang - What they did, saw, and overall thoughts of the technology.   Finally, Will and Tu take us through their time...

In this episode, Lei and Tu talk autonomous vehicles. They discuss Pony.ai, Didi, and break down the current partnership landscape between the AV startups, manufacturers, and ride-hailing companies and talk through how these partnerships are going to work.  Lei highlights how the local chip startups could compete and ultimately dominate the local China market. Finally, Tu takes a few minutes to di...

In this week's episode, Lei discusses the surprise shuffle and newbies entering the top 5 in sales, Tu & Lei give an update on Jidu Auto (the Baidu & Geely partnership), and the Three Child policy and how that may affect the automotive sector.

In this episode, Tu and Lei talk about what to takeaway from the rumored Apple meeting with Chinese battery suppliers BYD & CATL. Tu also discusses his time participating in a live Mobility panel in Shanghai with over 40 people in attendance.  Finally, Tu and Lei also take a few minutes to discuss some China EV CEO's comments during an automotive conference and prospects for the Didi (Chi...

Lei & Tu get into more detail about the upgraded Li One and Li selecting Horizon Robotics as their future chip partner. They also discuss the announcement by Tesla to open their own data centers in Shanghai and the lack of a data strategy from other foreign OEMs. Finally, Tu & Lei add commentary on the Ford (+) strategy and how their China strategy was left out of the announcement and much...

In this week's episode, Tu & Lei go over April's EV sales numbers for the China market, one that has historically been a slow month.  They also discuss Tesla's continuing sales struggles, the recent data security standards administration, the Qihoo 360 & JD.com partnership, and finally XPeng March earnings.