CHINA: BYD Takes Global Crown, Xiaomi’s SU7 Bonnet Saga and Zeekr’s Hardware Retrofit | 26 Nov 2025

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Hear that? That's me with a lemonade in a rocker on my front porch. How did I get here?

I invested to make my dream home, home. Get where you're going with MDY, the original

mid-cap ETF from State Street Investment Management. Getting there starts here.

Before investing, consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses.

Visit statestreet.com slash im for a prospectus containing this and other information. Read it

carefully.

MDY is subject to risk similar to those of stocks. All ETFs are subject to risk, including possible

loss of principal alps distributors and distributors.

Nebraska, get ready to feel the pride. Love Nebraska volleyball is back January 2026,

representing the entire state, featuring some of the best players in the world,

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Welcome back to the podcast today. BYD takes the global crown. Xiaomi's Su7 Bonnet Saga

and Zika's hardware retrofit. Plus, stay tuned because later in the show I'll tell

you why used batteries are powering the future energy economy. Welcome to EV News

China, the podcast dedicated to the world's largest electric vehicle 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 are shaping the global EV landscape.

We'll start with news of BYD. New figures show the global EV race is tightening. BYD

has kept its position as the world's biggest seller of battery electric cars in the

third quarter, with 15.4% of the global market. Tesla followed on 13.4%, but was growing over

the quarter, according to Trend Force, a market research firm. The report released today confirms

the dominance of BYD and Tesla in pure electric cars. BYD sold 582,000 bevs in the third

quarter, based on data compiled by CNEVPost. That was 31% more than a year earlier, but

4% fewer than the second quarter. Tesla, which makes only battery electric cars, delivered

497,000 vehicles worldwide in the same period. Its deliveries rose by 7% year on year and

30% on the quarter. In plug-in hybrids BYD remained the clear global leader, with a 28%

share of the market. The numbers point to a narrow gap in global pure electric volumes.

BYD leads on 15.4%. Tesla's 13.4% comes with a stronger momentum, though. Trend Force attributes

Tesla's acceleration mainly to stimulus driven by US market subsidy deadlines and achieving

quarterly growth in the Chinese market. How about in Europe, though? Well, in October

last month BYD overtook Tesla in new electric car registrations across Europe, registering

more than twice Tesla's volume, and over three times its own figure from a year earlier,

fresh data from Europe's car lobby. Mark a sharp turn in the region's EV story.

The European Automobile Manufacturers Association tracks the European Union plus Iceland, Liechtenstein,

Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. In the wider region, BYD recorded 17,470

new registrations last month in October, up 207% from just over 5,500 a year earlier. Tesla

logged 6,964 registrations down 49% from October last year. Inside the European Union alone,

BYD reached 13,350 registrations, up 195%, while Tesla fell 48%. From a year before.

Its figures show the gap between Chinese and American EV brands in Europe, and it's narrowing.

In October BYD outregistered Tesla by about two and a half to one in the wider region. Tesla's

50% drop reflects weaker deliveries during the model refresh cycles and fierce competition.

The company also faces sustained price pressure in its core segments.

Now let's talk about China downgrading electric cars, but only in name. China has quietly

removed new energy vehicles from its list of strategic emerging industries in draft plans

for 2030. For the world's biggest market for electric cars, this marks a new phase

in policy that many say could change subsidies, sharpen competition and redirect the next

wave of industrial support. Recommendations for the 15th five-year plan were adopted

on October 23rd at the Communist Party's 4th Plenum, with the full text published on

October 28th. Unlike the previous three plans, new energy vehicles are no longer picked out

as a standalone strategic industry. Instead, the document urges the creation of industrial

clusters in broader fields, such as new energy, new materials, aerospace and low-altitude

economy. Many Chinese analysts see this not as a downgrade, but a graduation.

Jishu Hong, director of the Auto Industry Innovation Research Center at North China

University of Technology, argues that the sector has reached a more mature stage and

built strong international competitiveness. He calls it one of China's leading industries.

He expects policy support to tilt towards newer frontiers still in need of nurturing,

including the low-altitude economy, new materials and embodied intelligence. Progress in those

areas, he reckons, will in time help makers of electric cars.

The upshot is that Beijing now treats electric vehicles as a core, established pillar rather

than an experimental bet. Investors and carmakers will watch how focused incentives, spillovers

from new technologies and fiercer competition play out in the 15th five-year plan when

it's finalised and put in place through 2030.

Now let's talk Xiaomi. Their flagship SU-7 Ultra is at the centre of its first civil

lawsuit in mainland China. A court in Nanjing is examining whether the car's performance

features the accessories, the perforated carbon-fibre hood or bonnet, was accurately described as

a performance part or promoted in a way that eventually misled buyers.

On November 20th, 2025, the People's Court in Nanjing held a key evidentiary hearing,

dispute concerns an optional SU-7 Ultra bonnet which was 42,000 yuan, about US$5,900 equivalent.

Xiaomi marketed it as a functional aerodynamic component that channels air to the wheel hubs

for cooling and better efficiency. More than 100 owners have now filed lawsuits and several

hundred more have joined wider efforts to defend what they see as their rights as

consumers. The court issued no ruling after the hearing. Xiaomi submitted winds tunnel

reports and other technical documents in its defence. Its lawyers say that early social

media remarks by the company's founder, Lei Zhun, were corrected soon after they appeared

online and there was no intention to mislead. They also stressed that the bonnet is an

optional extra, not a standard feature. The plaintiff's site owners' tests

and independent teardowns. These have reported little measurable air flow from the production

bonnet or hood and an internal structure much like a conventional design in fact with only

modest savings in weight and these findings appear to differ from the original marketing

materials which talked about active air flow, high impact performance, advanced materials.

Lawyers and legal commentators say the court will now weigh whether Xiaomi's technical

evidence supports the specific real-world effect cited in its advertising and whether

rapid corrections online were enough once the initial message had spread widely.

Let's talk about Zika and their crowdfunding a retrofit for driver assistance. Zika is

trying a new way to upgrade its drive resistance technology at scale in China. The firm is

using crowdfunding to pay for a retrofit on more than 70,000 Zika 001 and 009 cars. Owners

can move from the mobile i-based hardware to Zika's own in-house Nvidia-powered G-Pilot

H7 system. According to Auto Home, the campaign will run from November 24th to December 24th

aimed at the 2024 Zika 001 and 009 models that have lidar but lack the H7 system. These

cars can now use mobile i's chip which provides 48 trillion operations per second but the upgrade

would move them to the G-Pilot H7 system built on Nvidia's DriveThor U architecture

and goes from 48 to 700 trillion operations a second. Crowdfunding prices are set at

$13,500 yuan, about $1,900 dollars equivalent for the 001 with a minimum of 3,000 cars

signing up. For the 009, Zika wants $18,500 yuan, around $2,600 US equivalent with a target

of 1,500 vehicles. Zika describes the project as a deep hardware and software retrofit rather

than a simple switch of the electronic control unit. Each 001 will need 60 parts replacing

including core chips and wiring harnesses. The firm reckons each car would require more than 20 hours

of labor. It says the hardware alone is worth $30,000 per car. Zika say they will take on the

early development costs and part of the hardware bill for those who join the scheme. Internal

estimates suggest 001 owners will end up paying no more than $15,000, about $2,100,

owners of the 009, about $2,800 after using the ADAS benefit vouchers. Zika has reported to have

invested nearly $28 million US dollars equivalent in upfront engineering to support a wider push

and standardize its fleet on H7 Drive Resistance chips. If enough owners sign up by the end of

December, Zika will then start large-scale installations. The response will show how much

EV drivers' value paid high-end ADAS retrofits. It may also show how other car makers go around

upgrading the existing fleet of vehicles. X-Peng is sharply increasing output of its new

X9 eREV, the extended range MPV, multi-purpose vehicle in China. The company has asked suppliers

to support an additional 5,000 units by the end of the year, suggesting strong

than expected demand in China. The local outlet, Wall Street CN, reports that X-Peng has issued a

memo asking for materials for 5,000 extra eREV vehicles on top of existing plans for delivery

before 31 December. The X9 extended range model, X-Peng's first, was launched on November 20.

It starts at 309,800 yuan, about $43,500 US dollars equivalent, and that's 50,000 yuan less

than the pure BEV version of the X9. X-Peng is echoing its domestic rival NEO by promising to

cover any loss of the vehicle purchase tax benefits for the X9, the eREV version, if you

complete your purchase before the end of the year. Under China's current policy,

new energy vehicles are exempt from purchase tax up to the end of this year,

up to $30,000 yuan per vehicle. Next year, they will pay half the standard 10% rate

with a maximum tax reduction of 15,000 yuan. We'll take a break, we'll come back, we'll talk IM,

Huawei, CATL and more. Stick around, back in the mo.

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Hear that? That's me with a lemonade in a rocker on my front porch.

How did I get here? I invested to make my dream home, home.

Get where you're going with MDY, the original mid cap ETF from State Street Investment Management.

Getting there starts here. Before investing, consider the fund's investment objectives,

risks, charges and expenses. Visit statestreet.com slash IM for a prospectus,

containing this and other information. Read it carefully. MDY is subject to risks similar

to those of stocks. All ETFs are subject to risk, including possible loss of principal,

Alps Distributors Inc. Distributor. This isn't just a game, it's a once in a

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Bring the whole family and be part of the legacy. This game is once in a century.

Be there at MotorCenter on January 24th. Go to HarlemGlobetrotters.com for your tickets

to the 100-year tour. Welcome back to the podcast. Now, a new Chinese electric SUV

is entering New Zealand's small but growing premium market with performance figures usually

reserved for high-end brands. IM Motors, the upmarket mark of China's SAIC motor,

is selling its LS6 in New Zealand, rebadged as we get it, the IM6 of right-hand deliveries

due in December. IM Motors, the EV division of SAIC, has now officially launched the IM6

in New Zealand after an earlier debut in Australia, and like I say, we get it as well,

getting some really good reviews. Three versions will be offered in right-hand drive,

premium, platinum, and a performance-focused all-wheel drive model.

Prices start at $66,900, New Zealand dollars, about $37,000 US dollars equivalent,

and that puts the IM6 below many European premium SUVs on price,

while promising comparable technology and equipment.

Deliveries from December as part of IM Motors' wider push, two battery sizes, 75 or 100 kilowatt

hours. On the WLTP test cycle, they claim a range of up to 555 kilometres,

underlying the usual trade-off between maximum performance and maximum range,

the lower-range figure there for the all-wheel drive performance version.

Now, let's talk Huawei. Stepping up its move into smart vehicles,

launching two new car brands with big Chinese makers. The brands, Shijing and Yijing, are being

developed with Guangzhou Automobile Group and Dongfeng Motor Group. Their debut just before the

Guangzhou Auto Show on November 20th underlines how central cars have been to Huawei recently.

Shijing and Yijing sit within Huawei's Harmony Intelligent Mobility

and Huawei's Chengkun Systems. That means partner-built cars will run on Huawei software,

connectivity tools and drive-resistant systems. Shijing is tied to Guangzhou Automobile

and Yijing to Dongfeng. Huawei still says it doesn't make cars itself, yet it does get very

close to those that do and helps to define what they say is the core systems and in-car

services with several close partners. Now, CATL is to open Hong Kong's first battery-swapping station

and launch a new electric taxi built to use it. The right-hand drive Hong Chi EQM5 can change its

battery in minutes instead of waiting around to fast charge in dense traffic-clog-tidy

centres like Hong Kong. The scheme is a test of whether EVs can be run at high intensity.

On November 24th, CATL and their service arm, Contemporary Amperex Energy Service Technology,

signed a new agreement in Hong Kong. Its partners include DragonRise New Energy,

FAW's import-export arm and CATL's joint venture with DD. DragonRise's new showrooms for its

battery-swapping ecosystem unveil the Hong Chi EQM5 taxi with its removable battery.

CATL's first battery-swapping station in the territory will open shortly,

with plans to expand the network to six by the end of next year.

The right-hand drive car is built on its Chocoseb or swapping electric block platform.

CATL says a full battery change is 99 seconds. The taxi itself, a 56 kilowatt hour Chocoseb pack,

claims a CLTC range of 310 miles or 500 kilometres. For Hong Kong's hard-working taxi fleet,

that mix of quick swaps and long ranges meant to cut queues at charges and reduce idle time.

Strategically, it pushes CATL beyond battery cells into infrastructure and services in one of Asia's

most space-constrained cities. The right-hand drive layout also hints at expansion into other

right-hand drive markets with dense taxi or ride-hailing traffic.

And finally, China's EV Boom is entering a critical next phase. More than 40 million

new energy vehicles now run on its roads, and their first-generation battery packs are nearing

the end of their lives. Beijing is trying to turn this mounting pile of used batteries

into a strategic urban mine of critical minerals. In recent years, China's issued

22 national standards for power battery recycling or reuse. Together, they're meant to build a

sustainable, traceable system that treats retired packs as a resource rather than any kind of waste.

Officials see this as essential for environmental protection, public safety,

and the long-term growth of both the new energy vehicle and the battery industries.

According to Xu Guangxian, a professor at the School of Public Administration and Policy

at Renmin University of China, there are two main recycling paths. There's regenerative,

and that's where it's dismantled, crushed, sorted, and smelted, or their materials are

repaired to recover lithium, cobalt, and nickel. These metals then re-enter production,

cutting reliance on raw material mining. That's the regen path. The second path,

they call cascade path. That is where batteries cascade through the energy chain. Retired

packs are tested, taken apart, and then rebuilt into secondary use products that meet specific

performance standards. These repurpose systems are used for grid-scale energy storage and emergency

backup, extending battery life and smoothing electricity demand. That's your podcast for today,

more EV News China weekdays. A little spin-off show that we do not every day,

but one we can to look at the global EV industry being affected by what's happening in China.

See you tomorrow.

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CHINA: BYD Takes Global Crown, Xiaomi’s SU7 Bonnet Saga and Zeekr’s Hardware Retrofit | 26 Nov 2025

About this episode

BYD

battery electric cars

Tesla

plug-in hybrids

Xiaomi SU-7 Ultra

carbon-fibre hood

performance part

Zika 009

Zika 001

lidar

operations per second

G-Pilot H7 system

Nvidia's DriveThor U architecture

deep hardware and software retrofit

X-Peng X9 eREV

BEV

new energy vehicles

Buick Century

premium market

SAIC Motor

IM Motors LS6

IM Motors IM6

EV

all-wheel drive

CATL

Hongqi EQM5

battery-swapping ecosystem

Hong Chi EQM5

kilowatt hour

CLTC range

Mercedes-Benz

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