The Seagull is a small, cheap electric car made for city driving in China. It’s easy to park and saves money on gas because it runs on electricity. People mention it because it’s helping BYD sell lots of cars.
The Renault 5 is a small, electric car that looks like an old popular model but has new technology inside. It’s affordable and good for city driving. People talk about it because it’s a fun and cheap way to drive electric.
The Sealion 7 seems to be a mix-up but probably means one of BYD’s electric cars that are popular in Europe. These cars are affordable and run on electricity. People talk about them because they’re helping BYD sell more cars outside China.
The BYD Seal is a stylish electric car that looks sporty and can drive a long way on a single charge. It’s made by a big company in China that is making more and more electric cars. People talk about it because it’s a step up from smaller electric cars.
An EU tariff is a kind of tax that the European Union charges on things brought in from other countries, like cars made in China. This makes those cars more expensive.
A plug-in hybrid is a car that uses both gas and electricity. You can charge it by plugging it in, so it can drive some distance using only electricity.
The Ti7 is a fancy electric car from China that comes with a long guarantee to make buyers feel safe. It has lots of new technology and is meant to be very comfortable. People talk about it because it shows how BYD wants to make high-quality electric cars.
Ark Fox is a company from China that makes electric cars. They have different types of cars for families, young people, and people who drive every day.
The Audi S5 is a fast and stylish car that is fun to drive but also comfortable for everyday use. It’s like a sportier version of a regular car with more power and cool features. People talk about it because it looks good and drives well.
The D9 is a big electric van made by a company from China and Germany. It’s fancy inside and good for families who want a lot of space. People talk about it because it’s part of a new group of electric cars that are big and comfortable.
Battery energy storage systems are big batteries that save electricity so it can be used later, like helping keep the power on or storing energy from the sun or wind.
A rear wing is like a big spoiler on the back of a car that helps it stick to the road better when going fast. It's made from a strong but light material called carbon fiber.
The Nio ES8 is a big electric SUV made in China that can change its battery quickly instead of waiting to charge. It’s comfortable and has lots of tech inside. People talk about it because it’s a new kind of electric car that’s easy to use.
The Chevrolet Volt is a car that can run on electricity for a while and then switch to gas when the battery runs low. This helps people drive farther without worrying about charging all the time. It was one of the first cars to do this and helped make electric cars popular.
The Cadillac Escalade is a big, fancy SUV that many people use for comfort and style. It's known for being roomy and having lots of cool features inside. People often talk about it when comparing big luxury cars.
The MG7 is a regular car that uses gas, but there might be a new version that uses electricity or something different. It looks like a normal car but has some new features. People talk about it because it’s trying to be different from other cars.
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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.
About this episode
BYD has overtaken Tesla to become the eighth largest BEV manufacturer in Europe, despite EU tariffs, highlighting China's growing influence in the EV market. China's ultra-fast charging infrastructure is advancing rapidly, with 600 kW chargers enabling full recharges in under 20 minutes, supporting a surge in EV travel during the Spring Festival. Several automakers, including Tesla, BYD, IM Motors, and Audi, are offering extended low-interest or zero-interest financing deals up to seven years to boost sales amid a competitive market. Additionally, CATL and Cherry have formed a new battery joint venture, and spy shots reveal BYD’s upcoming sporty Denzer Z coupe.
