The Mercedes-Benz GLB is a small, fancy SUV that can fit more people than most cars its size because it has extra seats in the back. It's a good choice if you want a comfortable and nice-looking car that can carry your family or friends.
Volkswagen is a big car company from Germany that makes many kinds of cars, from small ones to fancy ones. Lots of people around the world buy Volkswagen cars.
A solid-state battery is a new kind of battery that uses solid materials inside instead of liquids. This makes it safer and helps electric cars go farther on a single charge.
Watt-hours per kilogram tells us how much energy a battery holds for its weight. More means the battery is lighter but still powerful, helping cars go farther.
Connected vehicles are cars that can talk to the internet and other devices. This helps with things like maps and checking if the car is working well, but it can also cause safety and privacy problems.
The blower motor is a part that blows air inside your car to keep you warm or cool. If it makes strange noises like clanking, it might be broken and need fixing.
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Welcome back to EV News, China.
Today, BYD and Julie fight over a factory.
China cuts tariffs and solid-state batteries,
standards, plus they tuned later in the show.
I'll tell you why Poland has banned Chinese-made vehicles
from entering military bases.
Welcome to EV News, China, the podcast dedicated
to the world's biggest EV market.
Every day, I bring you the latest headlines, insights,
and analysis from the heart of China's booming EV industry
and decode how fast-moving developments in the East
shaped the global EV landscape.
We'll start with news of BYD and Julie
battling over the same Mexican plant.
Nissan and Mercedes have decided to sell up
their joint venture factory in Agua Calientes, Mexico.
BYD and Julie have now surfaced as the top bidders
for the plant.
It's known as the Compass Plant, the cooperative manufacturing
plant Agua Calientes.
Compass launched in 2017 alongside existing Nissan facilities.
It has a capacity of 230,000 vehicles a year.
They built it to make the Mercedes GLB and Nissan's
an Infinity QX-50 and the QX-55.
But that product plan has now thinned out somewhat.
Mercedes pulled the GLB, Nissan's not
announced a model year refresh for those cars.
The sale lands as Nissan winds down elsewhere in Mexico.
Its plant, which produced the Versa, is shutting down.
And for BYD or Julie, the Compass Plant
offers more than just spare capacity that's
kind of floating around.
Chinese brands have captured 20% of Mexico's new car market
and owning the plant would add localized production
capacity to Mexico.
Reuters reported that Great Wall Motor, Cherry, and Vinfast
are also interested.
The bidders bring different baggage.
BYD sells only vehicles with plug sockets on the side.
Julie does make some vehicles with engines,
but is obviously pushing hard into electrification.
Either way, local output would seed regional supply chain
to extend Chinese automakers' reach into Latin America
as well.
But trade politics could decide how far that reach goes.
Canada's favorable trade relations with Mexico
could open a route for vehicles, for instance,
from Mexico north.
BYD sits among the companies with lawsuits pending
as the US Supreme Court prepares to rule
on whether a president can impose tariffs
without going via Congress, making up numbers at his whim
rather than following the Constitution.
And then what follows will be very interesting how,
because he's got other levers that he can pull, obviously.
And the US can do tariffs in a different way.
How that will affect the automotive industry,
where vehicles are made, what parts and cars,
and what tariffs they get.
It's just massively complex, especially when
you start to think about EVs and where they're made.
We'll keep an eye on it for you.
China has cut tariffs on EU dairy imports
worth over $500 million equivalent after an 18-month
anti-dumping campaign tied to electric vehicles.
The new rates run from either 7.4% to 11.7%.
That's down from up to 42% tariffs on dairy.
China's Ministry of Commerce said the adjustment
will last five years from now.
Brussels had called the earlier duties unwarranted
and unjustified.
The cut ends months of friction between the two blocks.
Brussels has exempted Volkswagen from tariffs
with its Cupra Taverscan, more to come.
But EU dairy farms will struggle.
Industry leaders say that even the lower tariffs in China
leave them at a disadvantage.
BYD has become Manchester City's official automotive partner.
Manchester City are a football club,
or as some may say, soccer.
But that would be wrong, because it's called football.
BYD has become the Manchester City partner.
In a multi-year deal covering men's and women's first teams,
BYD will supply BYD and denser vehicles for club use.
Obviously came with the obligatory photograph
of football players standing around BYDs.
I suppose if any of them do drive a car,
it would be a denser brand one rather than a BYD.
Nothing against those cars, but these men and women
have paid large sums of money and usually have,
I don't know, something very swanky.
But many densers are very swanky.
So possibly BYD will put charging infrastructure
into Manchester City and actually provide energy storage
at their football academy on home matchdays.
BYDs will lead the men's first team bus into the Etihad.
The Etihad is the stadium, by the way.
The BYD logo now shows up on the training kits
and the women's team from next season at the Etihad.
The BYD also takes LED advertising space
and logo placement in the dugouts.
The executive VP, Stella Lee,
talked about excellence, innovation and sustainability.
The Manchester City partnership extends an existing pattern.
BYD partners with Inter Milan
and with the official partner of Euro 2024 with UEFA
and returns as the under-21s European championship partner
as well.
Now, China plans to introduce its first solid-state battery
standard this July in 2026,
as the country expects mass production to start next year.
The draft was finalised in December 2025
and it carries the title,
Solid-State Batteries for Electric Vehicles Part 1.
Public commentary runs until February 28th.
The China Automotive Technology and Research Centre
has scheduled verification tests for this month
to refine the testing methodology
and confirm the evaluation criteria.
The complete review and approval should land
in April this year.
The focus sits on language and words
rather than the hardware.
The standard wants to clarify terminology
for liquid electrolytes, solid liquid electrolytes,
sometimes called semi-solid.
All solid-state batteries.
Future parts will add guidelines for the electrolytes
and components.
China car makers and battery firms are pushing the tech
higher energy density and better safety.
Solid-state batteries are exceeding
about 300 watt-hours per kilogram at the moment.
A Dongfeng-developed battery is 350.
They're rolling out in one of their vehicles.
The lab work keeps pace.
We have seen some semi-solid state
hitting higher numbers, 400, 500, 600 watt-hours
per kilogram in some cases.
Not all of that in vehicles on the road right now.
BYD, Geely, Cherry, GAC, Dongfeng, FAW,
all doing trials of all solid-state batteries
within the next 12 months.
This July puts a date on the paperwork
the hard part starts when the cars
have to actually match the claims.
And that's a good thing,
because I've seen some talk of solid-state batteries
arriving and then you read into it.
It's a semi-solid-state battery.
It's a partly liquid electrolyte.
And you know what?
That's fine.
Let's just make sure that we're all talking
about the same thing.
Okay, let's talk about lithium carbonate prices.
China's non-ferrous metals industry association,
Lithium Branch, said prices are surging last month in January
as policy expectations shifted
and supply and demand are aligned.
Trading picked up throughout last month.
The spread between futures and spot prices widened.
Supply stayed broadly steady,
but some cathode material producers
idled for maintenance ahead of the Lunar New Year.
That tightened near-term availability,
just as policy signals pushed buyers into the market.
Demand came with a government label,
an extension of China's national NEV subsidy program,
lifted confidence across the supply chain.
Then on the 9th of January,
China's ministry confirmed export tax rebates
on lithium batteries would drop from 9% to 6% this year
and then entirely go next year.
That policy targets low-end manufacturing capacity
and price competition in export markets
and it sparked a rush of front-loaded overseas orders.
Prices followed.
Battery grade lithium carbonate spot prices rose
from $17,000 US dollars equivalent
to $22,000 US dollars equivalent within the month.
That's almost a 30% increase within a month.
Industrial grade lithium carbonate rose as well by 27%.
The most active contracts,
sitting at around $21,500 US dollars equivalent,
the price gap between the suppliers widened as well,
suggesting buyers paid up for quality and supply security.
All right, let's take a quick break.
And when we come back,
we'll talk about this Polish story,
which you might be interested in.
Not the first time we've heard these kind of accusations
flying around about Chinese cars.
Stick around, back in a moment.
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Welcome back to the podcast.
We'll finish off with this.
Poland has banned Chinese-made vehicles
from entering military facilities.
The Polish general staff announced the decision
earlier today.
Warsaw tied the move to the growing integration
of digital systems in cars
and the risk of uncontrolled data acquisition.
It based the ban on a risk analysis
of Chinese connected vehicles
and framed it as an infrastructure security measure.
The ban lands in a market where Chinese brands
are actually starting to make inroads.
MG, owned by SAIC,
Cherry and its subsidiaries,
and BYD are leading some of the sales
of Chinese car makers in Poland.
Poland also sits within NATO
and it has trading ties with China,
despite Beijing's alignment with Russia
since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
And that tension runs not through the battlefield
only but also the car parks.
Canada offers a counterpoint.
It struck a deal with 49,000 Chinese EVs
coming in at a much lower reduced tariff rate
of 6%, not 100%,
and no word about banning them
from Canadian military facilities.
The Ontario Premier Doug Ford, though,
and national security experts
did pipe up and warn
that connected Chinese vehicles
serve as surveillance tools on Canadian soil.
Canadian officials and industry leaders
now push for updated cybersecurity regulations
and stronger data protection laws
to address risks posed by connected vehicles.
And has chosen a simpler fix.
Simply keep them out.
No talking within them
about national security issues.
No using your mobile phone
where the screen could be seen
by any kind of cameras inside the car
if you work for the military
and certainly no driving your cars anywhere near.
You'd be parking your car a long way away
and getting the bus
or walking or cycling
the last bit of the distance
from the gates of the military facility.
We've seen the same in China, though.
They did exactly the same to Tesla vehicles
back in the day many years ago as well.
So it's not just picking on China.
It's a genuine concern
that many countries have
over national security.
I guess one way around it would be
simply remove the SIM card.
But I suppose security experts
that are far wiser than me
say well it could be recording
any information, some kind of
memory card, hard drive kind of thing
and if they ever got connectivity again
would upload all of that
to China.
Is that a little bit tin foil hat?
Conspiracy theory?
Or is there some truth in that?
That's your podcast for today.
Thanks for listening. I'll see you on the next one.
I'll see you on the next one.
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About this episode
Chinese automakers BYD and Geely are competing to acquire a major manufacturing plant in Mexico, signaling China's expanding influence in Latin America's EV market amid complex trade and tariff dynamics. China has also reduced tariffs on EU dairy imports after a long dispute, easing tensions. BYD has secured a high-profile partnership with Manchester City football club, boosting its brand visibility. Meanwhile, China is set to introduce its first solid-state battery standards this year, aiming to clarify technology definitions and support mass production. Lithium carbonate prices surged sharply in January due to policy shifts and supply-demand changes. Additionally, Poland has banned Chinese-made vehicles from military bases, highlighting geopolitical concerns.
