CHINA: BYD Passes Tesla Abroad, China’s Ultra Fast Charging Era and More 7-Year Finance Deals | 28 Feb 2026

I can't believe it! Max has asked me to move in with him!

I mean, you practically live with each other already, but that's great!

Did you hear that, Joe?

Yes! Thanks for letting us know!

I see you've updated your universal credit claim.

Now you're going to be living together.

If you're telling other people about a change in your circumstances,

tell us too to avoid a penalty.

The station itself doesn't exist on any of the old tel Casey safer cases like a

football one.

Ming a

Welcome back to EV News, China. Today, BYD passes Tesla abroad, China's ultra-fast charging

era and more seven-year finance deals. Plus, stay tuned because later in the show, I'll

tell you about some spy shots that show a new MG Sports sedan. We think it'll be called

the MG07. Stick around. Welcome to EV News, China, the podcast dedicated to the world's

largest EV market. Each 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 shape the global EV landscape. BYD rose to eighth in European Bev rankings last

month in January, overtaking Tesla and becoming the first Chinese brand to enter the Europe's

top 10 manufacturers. BYD delivered 8,700 pure electric vehicles, up 94% year on year, climbing

from 14th place to eighth. The dolphin surf sold in China as the seagull. It was more

than 30% of BYD's business. In France, it started 19,000 euros, just short of $20,000

against 21,500 euros for the Renault 5. BYD also found volume with the C-Line 7 and SEAL.

The shift matters because BYD pulled it off under an EU tariff of 27% extra on Chinese

made EVs. Tesla's retreat in Europe is now sustained and is partly attributed to the

chief executive's far right political promotion and some say an aging product lineup alongside

more competitive models from Europe and Chinese rivals.

Moving on, a couple of charging stories. First of all, China's highway EV charging hit an

all-time record during the first nine days or actually during the nine-day Spring Festival

holiday, not the period starts earlier and glows on later. A daily average highway charging

was up 52% year over year. According to the National Energy Administration, analysing data

from 53,000 highway charging piles, clustered on the familiar corridors, the NEA pointed

to capacity and also the limits of it. China's charging network spans more than 20 million

units with charging infrastructure installed at over 98% of all highway service areas. The

network is described as capable of serving more than 40 million EVs a day and even so,

the Spring holiday will keep finding any pinch points. And our second story on that today,

the Spring Festival travel rush began really on February the 7th, second. It'll be busy until

the middle of March. The Ministry of Transport projects that over the entire holiday, 380 million

EV trips will happen. The EV fleet in China is now 44 million vehicles on the road. After 13 million

were added last year, NEVs include pure BEVs, plug-in hybrids and EREVs. Long distance holiday

driving now tests the charging network. Fast and ultra fast charging zones use colour coding and

clear signage in China. Drivers there report full recharges in under 20 minutes. Beijing officials

say that China is now in the 600 kilowatts ultra fast charging era and charges that can replenish

some models in 15 minutes. Which is pretty analogous to filling up a fuel tank by the time

that you've got out, walked around, filled it with fuel, walked in, queued up and paid. 66

ultra fast charging units cover every service area in Beijing for instance. Last year,

42 ultra fast stations were built across 12 service areas on local routes. Authorities plan to use

real-time demand analysis to deploy mobile chargers where needed, optimise parking guidance and

pre-position support teams at the busiest nodes. Drivers report onboard navigation alerts are

now very good at telling them where and when they need to charge and that finding a charging

station en route is no longer a major headache. Well, a bunch of stories now about finance offers.

Tesla has extended its ultra low interest and even zero percent interest deals until the 31st

of March. A seven year ultra low car loan and five year interest free deals marked Tesla's

second extension in under two months. Well, Tesla kicked off the scheme on the 6th of January

as a workaround to China's new 5% EV purchase tax that kicked in this year. The offers were due

to end in January, then February, now the end of March. The extensions land as Tesla fights for

survival in China. Retail sales were down 5% year on year in 2025. Cars like the Xiaomi YU7

taking the top selling EV spot in China last month in January beating the Model Y.

IM Motors has launched a spring festival promotion running until the 15th of March,

targeting buyers of the LS6, LS9 and LS6. They too offer seven year zero down payment,

three year zero interest financing. Their Super EREV versions also get a $730 or 5,000 RMB trade

in subsidy as it's the spring festival. IM pitches that sweetener alongside their EREV

powertrain 66 kilowatt hour battery, typically 800 volt system. They claim that stellar super

EREV system, which if you're going to call it a bunch of names to make it sound good,

call it the stellar super mega mega brilliant EREV system with 932 miles of combined range on

electricity and by firing up the gas guzzler. It also claims the system can recover 193 miles of

range in 15 minutes of charging thanks to its high voltage architecture and IM drivers say that

that 15 minutes slash 310 kilometers of electric only figure cuts the Q times at charging stations

during the spring festival travel rush. SAIC Audi are also getting in on the action cutting almost

four and a half thousand US dollars equivalent that's 30,000 RMB off the new Audi E5. The move

drops the starting price to 30,000 US dollars equivalent to the end of March. The Audi E5

Sportback launched last September and logged over 10,000 orders in the first 30 minutes after

launch. It marked the first mass produced model under Audi's new brand called Audi. See Audi with

the five rings is not Audi without five rings but spelled AUDI in capital letters which isn't Audi.

It's a long story and buyers can take the discount as a direct price cut that bundles

purchase tax subsidies, cash rebates and any trade and incentives or they can pick finance deals

offering five years zero percent. BYD they're not going to get left out are they? They've rolled

out their seven year low interest financing program across the range with offers running until the end

of March. Buyers pick either three years zero percent or seven years low interest, 84 low

monthly installments. The pitch is all about reducing the monthly pain. BYD says daily repayments

are 29 RMB on their lower priced cars that's about four dollars and 24 cents a day. The finance

also stacks with trading subsidies of three thousand dollars or 21,000 RMB. Eligible models

include the Seal 06 and the 07 DMI the plug-in hybrids and also the Sealion 05 and 06 in BEV

and the Dolphin and the Seagull. BYD is pushing the same tactic for its performance sub-brand

Fang Cheng Bao as extended their seven year loan policy to the Leopard 5 and the Titanium 7 lineup

as well with interest rates of 1.5% and the move sits in a wider shift. More than 20 automakers

in China have now adopted some form of ultra long loan structure with very low interest rates or

sometimes 0% which is a very hard cost to their business by the way as interest rates are not

insignificant at the moment. Tesla really kicked off the trend in January regulators pushed back

against direct price cuts didn't want to see cars being sold at cost and in some cases below

cost to build scale so car makers have just found other ways to fight with finance. And finally

Ark Fox launched their subsidy campaign which is a little bit different this is all about

making up for the purchase tax incentives which halved at the beginning of the year.

So the Ark Fox deal is 25,000 yuan which is about 3,600 US dollars and it covers the tax

offsets any consumer vouchers they throw in lifetime free maintenance. Ark Fox plans to use

the post-lunar new year window to pull demand back after recent policy changes. The package

applies to the all new Alpha T5, Alpha S5 and Ark Fox T1. So the Alpha T5 is the family car,

the Alpha S5 is at young buyers and the Ark Fox T1 mainly aimed at they say at daily commuters.

Now all three come with CATL batteries and pretty good specifications as well.

Ark Fox saying it's 25,000 yuan ceiling should clear the new tax burden for virtually every buyer

in its lineup and we see more examples every day and frankly I won't go on about all of them.

Pretty much the major car makers if I'm painting with broad brush strokes would say

sometime middle of March or end of March they have they've running these two anywhere between

five and seven years anywhere between zero percent and maybe one or two percent very low interest

rates. These ultra long loans are becoming incredibly popular as a way to incentivize

people to go into an EV. Now that Beijing has strongly suggested and signaled its displeasure

at the crazy price war that we saw over the last couple of years.

We will take a small break and when we come back we'll talk about Denzer's

two-door electric sports coupe the Zed and CATL and Cherry forming a new battery

outfit. Stick around back in a moat.

I can't believe it. Max has asked me to move in with him.

I mean you practically live with each other already but that's great. Did you hear that Joe?

Yes thanks for letting us know. I see you've updated your universal credit claim now you're

going to be living together. If you're telling other people about a change in your circumstances

tell us too to avoid a penalty. Search tell DWP.

I can't believe it. Max has asked me to move in with him. I mean you practically live with

each other already but that's great. Did you hear that Joe? Yes thanks for letting us know.

I see you've updated your universal credit claim now you're going to be living together.

If you're telling other people about a change in your circumstances

tell us too to avoid a penalty. Search tell DWP.

Hey welcome back to EV News China. CATL and Cherry have set up a new battery joint adventure it's

called CATL Cherry Hefei New Energy Technology Company Limited. Catchy. It was established on

the 13th of February and they registered capital of two billion RMB that's approximately 275 million

US dollars. So the point of the joint venture between CATL and Cherry is battery manufacturing,

component production, sales, energy storage as well. Things like onboard storage, industrial and

commercial energy storage and zero carbon parks. That breadth makes it one of CATL's more significant

domestic joint ventures. Sounds like they are looking a little bit more maybe grid storage

and battery energy storage systems there. Now we've got some spy photos coming in of BYD's

Sporty Premium Denzer Z. So this is a really extreme looking sports car at least on the one

that has the massive wing strapped to the back of it. Looks like more like a track day weapon.

However, production spec photos of BYD's Denzer Z two-door electric sports coupe

surfaced online on the 19th of February showing the car without camouflage for the first time.

The automotive account Thinkacar shared the images. The photos point to two variants.

One of the cars was wearing red paint with a black roof and some contrast stripes

and a pretty clean look. The other one, which is the beast, was painted blue with some white

stripes running along the bonnet and looking very racy, large carbon fiber rear wing and some

larger wheels, yellow brake calipers and a front splitter. It also shows an air scoop on the bonnet

and extra aero intakes along the flanks behind the doors. The charge port is at the rear and side

decals run the length of the car between the wheel arches. This thing looks really special

and ready for action. BYD first revealed the Denzer Z at Shanghai, the auto show last April.

The concept debuted. Their new Dysus M suspension system, a foldable steering wheel and steer by

wire setup as well. And the Denzer Z sits in a BYD lineup that isn't short of having some

really special extreme cars. They also make the young one U9, a quad motor hypercar.

The U9 Xtreme sets a verified official top speed of 496.22 kilometers an hour. That's

308.3 miles an hour. More performance cars to add here to BYD's lineup.

Neo will start deliveries of the ES9 on the 1st of June. So we now know the company president

Qinli Hong said that the Neo Spring Festival that they'll reveal the flagship on April the 10th

and orders open in May. The ES9 will take the title, we think, of China's largest mass produced

BEV. And they'll take it from Neo's own ES8. The ES9 gets the full tech stack from the ET9,

that is their flagship sedan, including steer by wire, a 900 volt architecture,

a Neo's battery swapping system. The ES9 is a big boy. It's 5.365 meters long,

over two meters wide, almost 1.9 meters tall, and it has a 3.25 meter wheelbase. That makes it

such a smidge shorter than a Cadillac Escalade, just 17 millimeter shorter than a Cadillac Escalade,

but with an almost 20 centimeter or eight inch longer wheelbase. Inside, there'll be plenty

of room for passengers in six or seven seats layouts. This thing does look absolutely enormous.

I'm not sure it would sell too well over here with small European roads and small parking spaces

and car parks that have been around a few decades when cars were less tubby, let's say that. And

finally, spy shots suggesting the new MG from SAIC is the new electric saloon, sports saloon,

probably called the MG07. Now, if you're paying attention, there is a fuel powered MG7,

but this car sits entirely differently. An automotive blogger photo'd the prototype

parked by the look of it in an underground car park from these pictures, but they got a

good old look around, taking a picture of the steering wheel, which looks like a yoke,

but I could be wrong. The MG07 sits on a new architecture and shares no platform DNA with the

gas guzzling MG7. The blogger says the platform feels closer in spirit to the

Changi Z7 than the petrol powered MG7. The camouflage car, which is highly camouflaged

with just the lights showing really not all the kind of bulky foam and stuff. It is the

stick on camouflage. You can see the shape of the car shows a very fastback roofline,

sculpted bonnet lines and a sharply contoured front grille and headlamp cluster as well.

Semiconsealed door handles, probably a full width light bar at the back because that bit

is not covered in camouflage. Obviously, the lights aren't on. The car is often parked,

but that's probably a light bar. And pricing of this sports saloon sedan, well, certainly a

four door, but look at it. Could be a fastback shape actually, so it could be classed as a five

door vehicle. If it has got that hatchback shape, then the pricing could be between 20 and 27,000

US dollars equivalent, that's 150 to 200,000, which is competitive in the pure electric

sport sedan segment. And that's your podcast for today. Thanks for listening, see you on the next one.

I see you've updated your universal credit claim. Now you're going to be living together.

If you're telling other people about a change in your circumstances,

tell us too to avoid a penalty. Search, tell DWP.

CHINA: BYD Passes Tesla Abroad, China’s Ultra Fast Charging Era and More 7-Year Finance Deals | 28 Feb 2026

About this episode

Request an Explanation

Want to learn more?

Help improve this episode

More from EV News Daily - Technology and Business of EVs