BYD is a big company from China that makes electric cars and batteries. They want to build a factory in Canada and own it all by themselves, not share it with others.
A joint venture is when two companies work together and share ownership of a project or factory. This helps companies enter new countries by teaming up with local businesses.
Mercedes-Benz is a famous German car company that makes luxury cars. They are talking with a Chinese company called Geely to work together and make cars faster and cheaper in China.
A plug-in hybrid car can run on both gas and electricity. You can charge its battery by plugging it in, so it can drive some distance using only electricity before using gas.
LiDAR is a special sensor on some cars that uses lasers to see around the car. It helps the car understand what's nearby to drive safely or help the driver.
Some electric cars use an 800-volt system, which means they can charge their batteries faster and work more efficiently than cars with lower voltage systems.
Megawatt level flash charging means charging an electric car very, very fast—much faster than usual—so you spend less time waiting for the battery to fill up.
The BYD Dolphin is an electric car made by a Chinese company called BYD. It uses special sensors called LiDAR to help the car drive itself more safely.
ADAS means smart systems in cars that help drivers stay safe by warning them about dangers or even helping control the car a little bit. LiDAR is one of the tools these systems use to see around the car.
Vision-only autonomous driving means the car uses just cameras to see the road and drive itself, without extra sensors like lasers. Tesla uses this method, but some people think it might not work in every situation.
Car
Envo L60
The Envo L60 is a medium-sized SUV car sold in China. It now includes special sensors called LiDAR to help it drive more safely by itself.
Car
Envo L90
The Envo L90 is a bigger SUV car that will get new sensors called LiDAR to help it drive more safely by itself.
Camera-only means the car uses just cameras to see around it, instead of lasers or other sensors. Tesla uses this method for its self-driving features.
China makes plans every five years to decide how it will grow and change. These plans include goals to help the environment and affect things like cars and energy.
Cherry is a car company from China that sells cars in the Middle East, especially in Iran.
LIVE
Welcome back to EV News China. Today, BYD studies Canada plant, Mercedes weighs GD tie-up,
and VW's ID UNIX 8 begins production. Plus stay tuned, later in the show I'll tell you
how Chinese EV makers are affected by the US-Israeli War on Iran. Welcome to EV News China, the
podcast dedicated to the world's largest EV market. Every day I bring you headlines,
insights, and analysis from the hearts of China's booming EV industry and decode how
fast-moving developments in the east shade the global landscape.
Let's kick off with news. From last Friday, actually, BYD is studying the Canadian market
for a possible manufacturing plant. Who said it? Well, someone at the top of the company.
Stella Lee is BYD's executive vice president, confirming, in a Bloomberg interview, the company
has not made a statement, though, or nor a decision. One point looks settled. BYD wants
full ownership and control of any plant that it builds in Canada. Lee ruled out a joint venture
model and said the approach does not fit with BYD. And that puts BYD at odds with Ottawa,
the Canadian government, wants Chinese car makers to use joint ventures with local partners
as a condition of the investment. Exactly what China did a couple of decades ago.
The timing matters. Canada changes policy on Chinese EVs in January, exempting 49,000 Chinese
built EVs a year from 100% tariffs down to 6.1%. BYD not only looking at Greenfield investment,
Lee said the company is also reviewing legacy automaker assets and acquisition
targets. Well, BYD is not messing around. Mercedes-Benz are next in the news today,
holding talks about deepening cooperation with China's Geely as it tries to strengthen vehicle
development in China. The discussions remain at an early stage. They focus on possible
cooperation for models that come after the current generation of Mercedes-Benz vehicles.
People familiar with the matter said greater reliance on Geely would help Mercedes cut
development times in China and lower costs. That matters because domestic brands in China
are pulling ahead on speed and pricing. Mercedes have not commented on the talks.
A company spokesperson said Mercedes is, I quote, continually reviewing ways to make
research and development faster, better and more efficient, both in China and globally.
A spokesperson for Geely declined to make a comment on the record.
The logic fits a wider pattern where Volkswagen Group partnered with X-Pung to improve its
competitiveness in China. Renault and Chinese engineering partners work together in Stalant
as invested in LeapMotor to bring some of that Chinese speed to develop two developments and
also get access to LeapMotors when they sell them outside of China. Volkswagen and Nui,
talking of VW and joint venture in China, confirming four model launches this year
across all four quarters, and the schedule starts with the ID UNIX 08. That rolled off the
production line three days ago. The very first ID UNIX 08 rolled off the line on the 13th of March
in China. Cars are now reaching dealers ahead of a market launch before the first half of 2026 is
over. And the ID UNIX 08 matters for a simple reason. It's the first co-developed Volkswagen
with X-Pung, the production version of the ID EVO concept seen in April at the Shanghai Auto Show
last year. Volkswagen and Nui began life in 2017 as a 50-50 joint venture with JAC,
the former Neo manufacturer. The move now looks rather different, this time signing the
joint development technology agreement to start the mass production. In 24 months,
to give you a sense of the pace, the speed that China works at, with X-Pung on an 800 volts
platform using silicon carbide components, supporting ultra-fast charging and high efficiency
as well with high levels of efficiency and driver technology, the carship standard with X-Pung's
VLA. Full scenario, intelligent driving and level two driver assistance, 1500 tops of computing
power. That's right up there, by the way, with some of the best of the best in China right now.
The China Electronic Architecture is the platform jointly developed by VW X-Pung
and Cariad China. That is Volkswagen software division. Inside, the cabin closely resembles
the X-Pung G9's cockpit layout funnily enough. A 10.25 inch fully digital instrument cluster
and dual 14.96 inch 2.4K central displays. Nice place to be, the inside of this, by the way,
a large five seat crossover SUV. And Volkswagen has packed in all the usual high end premium
features. So that would be a 20 speaker audio system, huge auto dimming panoramic sunroof.
And so the entry level, by the way, of this one is 230 kilowatts of power. The top all-wheel drive
version using two motors and 370 kilowatts of power. And the LFP packs come from CATL,
either 82.4 or 95 kilowatt hours. And so the rest of the plan for the year fills up pretty quickly.
We've got a car, a quarter coming refreshed as Unix 06, Unix 07, the brand's first pure electric
sedan. And another joint venture car with X-Pung. That fills in the blanks very, very quickly.
Now let's get into some of the cars announced with the filings because we've got some new
regulatory filings cropping up at the end of last week, which does tip off the cars that are coming.
All right, let's whip through them then. You're going to see a pattern here because a lot of
them are BYDs and they were waiting to tell us more about their Blade Battery 2.0 and their
new flash charging at 1500 kilowatts. And so now they can file for all the details without giving
the game away. Right, first of all, BYD's Fang Cheng Bao sub-brand launching the TI3 in two variants,
either 21,000 or 23,300 US dollars equivalent, either a rear wheel drive or four wheel drive
using BYD's new Blade Battery 2.0 and flash charging. So that's 70% in five minutes, 97%
in nine minutes, and then 12 minutes if you're charging this at temperatures down to minus 30
degrees Celsius. Using BYD's Evo Plus platform, a double wishbone McPherson setup with a five
rear five link suspension arrangement. So this is a four wheel drive vehicle looking
very off-roady, very boxy, looks like it could handle some utility. If you throw with that, kind
of rear door mounted storage box, not a spare tire, but that would be where on and off-roader,
you've normally have the spare tire on there, but they got a big storage box on the, it looks
like a top opening boot, not a side opening tailgate, which again, pretty common in off-road
vehicles, but intelligent all-terrain recognition, intelligent torque control,
electronic four wheel drive for off-roading, and things like that. Staying with BYD, I told you
there's going to be a bit of a pattern emerging. Let's talk the BYD Seal 06. This is a plug-in
hybrid DMI wagon. Oh, this is interesting. This looks like, let me think for my Western buyers,
an MG5 actually, so like the estate MG that you can get. This is not, I'll be honest, not the
sexiest wagon, and I'm a sucker for a wagon by the way. I love an estate car. Not the most aggressively
tapering rear roofline that we've seen in some of the sports oriented ones, but new paperwork
filed today or at the end of last week for the BYD Seal 06 DMI plug-in hybrid estate body version,
and so it's a 34 kilowatt hour battery pack over 200 kilometers of pure electric range
on the China cycle, which is optimistic. Optional LiDAR package as well. Up until the, well almost
to the C pillar really, certainly past the B pillar, it's otherwise exactly the same as the BYD
Seal 06 sedan, but then further back, they've given it an estate form factor. This car starts at
$15,000, by the way, $110,000 RMB, so that's the segment it sits in. Wow, can you hear that flying
overhead? Something, something just flew very low over. We do have an exceptionally long runway
here in Bournemouth. It's an old military runway actually, which is why we get some big planes
taking off from it, and occasionally the Army do their some trials out at sea, and that if you
picked, if the mics picked it up, that was very loud and the whole, the whole house shook.
That was very low flying. Anyway, I could have edited it out, but I thought I'd leave it in.
Wow, the timing matters for this vehicle. The model enters a segment that's gained momentum
recently. Rivals include the Zika 007 GT estate, the Neo ET5 Touring, and Huawei's backed wagon
projects have appeared in winter testing as well. Staying with BYD, the Seal 08 filed as well. Now,
that's a step up in terms of vehicle. In fact, it's many steps up in terms of the Chinese segments.
The BYD Seal 08 will serve as the flagship sedan in the ocean lineup. So mid to large,
fastback sedan above the Seal 07 and Song L. So this looks like they're pushing more premium
to me. 800 volts architecture, their latest DMI plug-in hybrid system with the blade battery,
lithium manganese, iron phosphate, LMFP, a dual format design. BYD says it combines
short blade design for 8C fast charging and long blade design, delivering higher energy density.
I didn't think that was in the same battery pack, but that's a job for me to go away and research,
that maybe they are combining that in the same battery. Kind of a hybrid battery. I will wait
and see. But yeah, megawatt level flash charging on this. So that is how they haven't given us the
top speed. When they say megawatt level, is it 1,000? Is it 1,500 kilowatts? I mean, either would
either would be very, very good on a plug-in hybrid, on a plug-in hybrid. Expected pricing from
33,000 pounds, that's $42,000 or 300,000 RMB in local currency. So this, think Tesla Model S,
NEO 87, what else? Think, oh, X-Pung P7, premium electric sedan. Really nice looking car, if you
want a plug-in hybrid. That coming with the new blade battery, very, very fast charging. Talking
of blade batteries, more filings. BYD will launch the all-new Song Ultra, and they're going to launch
it on the 26th of March. This is the Dynasty lineup, and the sales chief is confirming on
social media that this SUV, this crossover goes on sale in just 10 days time. The model went on
pre-sale on the 5th of March on the day that BYD unveiled their blade battery 2.0. And the Song
Ultra EV, one of the first models to get the new battery, when they launched this, they did
specifically mention 1,500 kilowatts and 9 minutes 97% charge. Second generation blade battery
supports two CLTC range variants. They'll either be 620 or 710 kilometers. The vehicle
starts at $22,500 USD. BYD are going to keep both the existing blade battery and blade battery 2.0
in production. They say that gives you pricing flexibility and broadening customer choice. I
wonder if customers will look at this Song Ultra and say, right, which one, which battery's inside
it? Like, I want the latest, greatest technology, which trim level, which spec, if they are going
to mix and match the existing and the new blade battery technology. Otherwise, pretty regular
looking 5C SUV with a LiDAR hump on the top for pretty mid-sized price, low $20,000
equivalents in China. All right, let's take a break. We'll come back. We'll talk LeapMoto and
Envo stick around. Hey, welcome back to the podcast. Now some more filings. LeapMoto filed
regulatory submissions for the A05. The A05 is a compact, pure electric car in the budget segment.
The filing shows the A05 will offer front binocular cameras and optional roof-mounted LiDAR.
Interesting, and that matters because LiDAR has until recently mostly stayed in premium vehicles,
but that shift is no longer rare. BYD added LiDAR to its Seagull back in January. The Seagull is
their cheapest model and sells for $10,000. A January filing showed the BYD dolphin with LiDAR,
and the pattern is clear. LiDAR is moving as it becomes more affordable technology
into affordable EVs. Chinese automakers now treat ADAR systems as one of the competitive
tools of which to sell a vehicle. People are looking at spec sheets and asking, does it have LiDAR?
Not asking, what does the LiDAR do? If you talk to some experts in autonomy, many of them will tell
you that you can do many scenarios with vision only. Some would say nearly all. Tesla says all
scenarios with vision only. Some doubt that. But the LiDAR, the ultra-wide band sensors,
they are described by some as more belt and braces, more validation, if you like, of the
camera knowledge, just to make sure. And of course, in dark conditions, low light conditions,
and also poor visibility, LiDAR comes into its own, of course, because it can see what your eyes
and cameras can't see, but still. It fits Leap Motors' plan as they go into a very low segment
here. Not quite the little T03, which is the tiny urban city car, but the A05, certainly a much
smaller budget car. Stellantis backs the firm. Leap Motor won a million vehicle sales this year.
Premium sensor technology in a very budget model sits at the heart of that strategy,
of attracting more buyers by adding more things to the spec sheet. And NEO's sub-brand, as I'm
staying down at that part, down at that part of the market, it's a snobby, doesn't it? But as I'm in
the mainstream affordable model range, NEO's affordable range, that would be Envo, is going to
add LiDAR to its L60 mid-size SUV. We know because, again, we've got the regulatory filings here.
It's a busy day whenever these get published. The version appeared in the filing published
last Friday. That marks a change for the L60, which had no LiDAR option since Envo launched
the L60 in September 2024, pitched up against Tesla's Model Y in China, and they plan LiDAR upgrade
for the larger L90 as well. Together, the L60 and larger L90 changes suggest the brand wants to
spread autonomous driving sensor hardware across the range. The move brings Envo closer to NEO's,
as in the mother brand's, wide approach. The main brand NEO models currently include
roof-mounted LiDAR as standard, and NEO treats LiDAR as essential to its ADAS. The timing looks
deliberate as well. Envo is seeking to stimulate demand in a tough market, and LiDAR support will
help it stand out, with buyers always wanting more capable driver assistance. It would also
fit the Chinese market very well, where LiDAR remains the dominant sensor choice amongst
TV makers. Tesla, of course, rejects it, and is camera-only. X-Pung, one of China's early LiDAR
adopters, recently followed Tesla by going vision-only, so it doesn't look like its one-size
fits all. Now, China unveiled a new five-year plan last week with approval due from the National
Legislature. Climate climate observers, how I think given it a mixed response, I would describe that
as the targets are modest on the surface. China certainly had some more bold climate claims in
the past. Beijing has committed to cutting carbon intensity by 17% by 2030, measured as CO2
emitted per unit of GDP. That's a smaller decline target than previous five-year plans,
which China missed. The plan also avoids a hard pledge to cut coal consumption over the next
five years, instead referring to coal control and reduction efforts. The wording falls short
of the previous plan. In 2021, Xi Jinping pledged to phase down coal use. That does not mean climate
policy has slipped the agenda. The plan points to a strategy built on flexibility, they say.
It also sets out tools to pursue emissions goals for 2035, which Mr. Xi
did announce last September with some firm emissions reductions, up to 7% to 10% below
peak levels by 2035. That is a commitment to an absolute target, if you like, an absolute
emissions reduction. These tools include expanded national carbon markets and tighter industrial
emissions standards. Transport didn't get so much of a mention in this plan, by the way.
I don't think they view EVs as a done deal and job done, but certainly China is now able,
now that it has a very dominant EV market, I think is now able to do things like look at
regulations over door handles and safety and solid state batteries and battery safety,
rather than simply saying, we want to build EVs. Chinese automakers are next in the news.
They've made the Middle East a key export market, as you know, sales of EVs at home,
domestically retail, have gone off to a soft start to this year because some buyers pulled
forward their purchase decisions to make the most of financial benefits, but they've leaned
into exports to hold up their sales numbers, and the Middle East has been a key part of that.
Now the region, which has given them profit and growth, is looking like it's struggling.
Geopolitical conflict escalated suddenly. The Strait of Hormuz was effectively shut down when
the Israeli-U.S. attack on Iran happened. That closure cut off the Persian Gulf shipping,
and car-carrying vessels, so-called row-rows, roll on, roll off. The Strait of Hormuz matters
beyond one trade route. It's a critical global energy and trade choke point.
Gasku Automotive Research Institute singled out Cherry, BYD, SAIC, Changan, and Geely as the main
Chinese exporters to the Middle East. Cherry led Chinese passenger exports to the region from
January to November last year, and the largest business scale of any Chinese brand in the Middle
East. Cherry looks most exposed. Its Middle East operations are heavily concentrated in Iran.
Its Iranian business model depends on supplying semi-knockdown kits to local assembly partners.
Wartime conditions will tighten things like the central bank and foreign exchange,
which will reduce Cherry's business volume, and the blockade of the Hormuz Strait also
disrupts Cherry's kit shipments and even its complete vehicle exports to the UAE.
The picture looks at the moment, in the short term at least, less bleak for those that are
centered on maybe somewhere like Saudi Arabia, Changan, SAIC, and Geely can reroute shipments
through the Jeddah port on Saudi Arabia's west coast. Jeddah port handles two-thirds
of Saudi Arabia's auto imports. This route lets those brands bypass the Red Sea entirely.
Higher inland transport costs only partly offset that benefit. Not every brand can shift so easily.
SAIC's MG brand runs the entirely integrated port-to-store logistics chain and depends heavily
on hub ports like Dubai's Jabel Ali, and that leaves MG highly exposed to any breakdown
and regional logistics. And that's your podcast for today. Thank you for listening.
We're off and up and underway for a brand new week of EV News China. I'll see you on the next one.
About this episode
The episode covers major developments in China's EV industry, including BYD's exploration of a Canadian factory with full ownership ambitions, Mercedes-Benz's early talks on deeper cooperation with Geely to speed up vehicle development, and Volkswagen's launch of the ID UNIX 08, a premium electric SUV co-developed with X-Pung. BYD's new Blade Battery 2.0 technology and ultra-fast charging capabilities feature prominently, alongside new model filings like the off-road TI3, Seal 06 plug-in hybrid wagon, and premium Seal 08 sedan. The episode also highlights the growing adoption of LiDAR in affordable EVs, signaling a shift in advanced driver assistance tech becoming mainstream in China.
