The EV industry is all about making and selling electric cars. It's growing quickly because more people want to drive cars that are better for the environment.
Subsidy deadlines are the last dates when you can get financial help from the government when buying an electric car. These deadlines can affect how many people buy these cars.
The Nio ES8 is a fancy electric SUV from China that can drive without needing gas. It's special because it has cool features like being able to swap its battery quickly, which means you can get a new battery in just a few minutes instead of waiting to charge.
EU tariffs are extra fees that the European Union charges on products brought in from other countries. Making cars in Europe helps companies save money by not having to pay these fees.
The BYD Atto-2 is a small SUV that can run on electricity or a combination of electricity and gasoline, making it flexible for different driving needs.
CATL is a company that makes batteries for electric cars. They are the biggest battery maker in the world and supply batteries to many car manufacturers.
C-rate tells you how quickly a battery can be charged or used. For example, if a battery has a C-rate of 5C, it can be charged or used much faster than one with a lower C-rate.
Ultra-fast charging means you can charge an electric car's battery very quickly, often in just a few minutes, instead of waiting for a long time. This makes it easier to use electric cars on long trips.
Thermal runaway happens when a battery gets too hot and continues to heat up uncontrollably. This can be dangerous because it might cause the battery to catch fire or explode.
A battery management system is like a computer that helps keep a battery safe and working well. It checks the battery's health and makes sure it doesn't get too hot or too charged.
EV charging facilities are places where you can plug in and charge your electric car. Just like gas stations for regular cars, these stations help keep electric cars powered up.
The Tesla Model 3 is an electric car made by Tesla. It's popular for being affordable and has a good range, meaning it can travel far on a single charge.
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With the SU-7 Ultra, 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 shape the global landscape.
We'll start with news of China's EVs starting the New Year with a bit of a slump.
Chinese car showrooms emptied out in January again, sharp month-on-month slumps.
Each new year have now become routine as year-end promotions fade,
policies roll over and subsidy deadlines pull demand forward.
The signal lies in the year-on-year figures, and they mostly show growth, if a little patchy.
Let's go around the grounds, so to speak.
NEO's story captured the contrast. NEO delivered 27,000 vehicles in January,
down 44% from December, but up 96% on January last year.
The all-new ES8 did the work, with 17,500 units delivered, or 65% of their volume.
Since its September launch last year, it's now sold 60,000 deliveries of the all-new ES8
in just 134 days, and tops December's SUV chart with 22,000 sales.
NEO also passed 1 million cumulative deliveries, so reasons to be cheerful.
Others stumbled, X-PENG's 20,000 units were down,
47% month-on-month and 34% year-on-year,
despite January updates to the P7+, the G6, G7 and G9,
and, of course, the X9, big MPV with its e-rev.
Policy shifts and the purchase tax rollback hurt everyone's demand.
Lee Auto's 27,500 deliveries dropped 37% month-on-month, 8% year-on-year.
The market now waits for an L-series facelift that swaps the steering interaction screen
for physical buttons and a smaller three-spoke wheel.
Most makers grew year-on-year, though.
Leap Motor is one of the success stories of last year, delivering 32,000 vehicles down from December,
but up 27% year-on-year.
It now needs to average about 88,000 units a month to hit its annual target of 1 million this year.
Zika sold 53,000 vehicles, 18% down on December,
but the Zika brand doubled its deliveries year-on-year.
Link and Co slipped a little.
Xiaomi delivered 39,000 vehicles, that's 22% fewer than December,
but 95% more than the same time last year as production shifted
from the now-closed Su7 order book, as they wait to refresh that, to the YU7, that's the SUV.
It offers seven-year low-interest finance across the YU7 line
until the 28th of February, with down payments of about 7,000 US dollars equivalent
and monthly payments of $360 delivery times, now 17 weeks for the YU7 standard
and the Pro, and 31 weeks for the Max.
So what about the elephant in the room, BYD?
BYD, the big one, began the year with a jolt.
The firm sold 210,000 new energy vehicles last month in January,
down 30% year-on-year and 50% down from December,
as China's car market hit the regular soft patch.
The drop matters because BYD is both China's largest NEV maker
and its second largest power battery producer.
Its slowdown shows how the end of generous support
exposes a fragile domestic market, even as Chinese brands push hard abroad.
The passenger new energy vehicles fell to 205,000,
that's 31% lower than a year earlier and 50% down on December.
Commercial EVs offered some scant relief, they were up, but only at 4,500.
Battery electric vehicle sales slid to 83,000 units,
that's 33% down on the year and 56% on the month.
Plug-in hybrids were down 30% on the year, down 45% from December.
10th straight month of annual decline for plug-in hybrids at BYD.
Policy shifts probably did the damage, as I mentioned,
buyers who once enjoyed a full waiver now face a 5% purchase tax.
Instead of exemption from the 10% rate,
trade-in subsidies in many cities expired at the end of the year
and fatigue was visible probably from November.
Beijing has since extended trade-in support with some tweaked terms,
leaving the market in a transitional phase rather than a freefall.
One of the few outright bright spots was abroad.
BYD exported over 100,000 NEVs in January, up 51% year-on-year.
Power battery and energy storage installations reached 20.1 gigawatt hours,
a 30% annual rise.
BYD still aims for 1.3 million overseas vehicles in 2026,
a growth rate of 24%.
BYD, of course, will start their production in Hungary,
very important to be building the vehicles in Europe.
Trial production will start at their new plant in Hungary
in the first quarter of this year,
with mass output to follow in the second quarter.
The 4 billion euro, or 4.4 billion dollar,
site is its first European passenger car factory,
separate from the EV bus plant they opened 10 years ago.
At full tilt, the factory can build 300,000 vehicles a year,
though BYD plans to start at only 150,000.
That's still a huge number.
Hungary's become a manufacturing hub
for both European and Chinese car makers.
BYD will use the factory as an assembly and export base
for the wider EU market.
Local production lets the firm dodge EU tariffs,
as Chinese built electric vehicles but made in the EU
mean that they can sharpen their prices without tariffs.
Early output will focus on the small cheap models.
The first cars will be the Dolphin Surf.
In China, that's the Seagull and the Atto-2,
the small SUV, in both EV and plug-in form.
As volumes build, the plant will add the Atto-3,
the Dolphin, the Seal and the Seal-U,
giving BYD a broad lineup to take on the likes of VW
and Stellantis on home soil.
This is a huge story next.
CATL, the world's biggest EV battery maker,
says that its latest 5C,
C-rate is a multiplier,
a measure of how fast a battery can charge or discharge.
2.5C is very good.
5C is largely exceptional.
There are faster.
Ultra-fast charging.
This story, though, is about longevity.
It will keep 80% of its battery
after 3,000 full charge-discharge cycles
in a video published on January 29th.
CATL said, under conditions,
ideal conditions equating to a theoretical driving distance
of 1.8 million kilometres,
or 1.1 million miles,
their 5C ultra-fast charging battery
has still got 80% left.
This is about six times the current industry average
for commercial lithium-ion cells after a million miles
and may exceed the lifespan of,
well, frankly, the vehicles that they're in.
It also lifts performance well beyond most cells
now on sale in China.
The cell sits in the ultra-fast segment.
5C is a 12-minute 80% charge.
CATL says the gains are not limited to the lab
at 60 degrees Celsius.
So that would be maybe a car exported
to somewhere like Dubai
in the summer temperatures.
And not far from what packs can face
in parts of Western China, to be honest.
Or even on congested urban roads when it's hot.
The battery holds 80% of its charge
and 80% of its capacity in extreme heat
after 1,400 cycles.
That's still 522,000 miles,
or almost a million kilometres.
The company credits the tweaks they've made.
A denser, more uniform cathode coating,
which slows structural degradation
and cuts metal ion loss
during the ultra-high charge speeds.
A proprietary repair additive in the electrolyte
seeks out and then seals any microcracks
while reducing irreversible lithium loss.
And a temperature-responsive coating
on the separator surface slows ion migration
when local temperatures rise,
which gives a self-regulating break
on thermal runaway.
An upgraded battery management system
rounds out the whole approach,
steering coolant to the hot spots where it needs to.
OK, let's talk about China's
next wave of EV charging.
China ended last year with 20 million
EV charging facilities, the largest network in the world,
and up 50% on 2024.
And yet their build-out has really only just begun.
The National Energy Administration
wants roughly 8 million more charging facilities
by the end of 2027,
taking the total to 28 million.
The plan would lift public charging capacity
to over 300 million kilowatts
meant to serve for more than 80 million electric vehicles.
Urban areas are due.
1.6 million extra DC connectors,
including 100,000 high-powered units.
Highway service areas and rest stops
will get 40,000 new
and upgraded ultra-fast connectors.
The push tries to keep pace with a market
that has flipped in five years.
New Energy Vehicle Penetration in China's
car industry jumped from 5.4%
before the pandemic to 54%
last year, and towards the end of the year
on the monthly figures,
EVs were over 60%
Output surged from 1.3 million units
in the same time frame to 16 million
over the same period.
Petrol-powered passenger cars have been sliding
in China and the supply
has had to match the surge,
frankly, with public charging infrastructure
now standing at 4.7 million facilities
in public charging.
Private charging is 15 million,
and that gets you to your 20 million charge points.
The state also leans into grid integration,
which is going to be huge.
Now, let's talk about China's petrol cars.
In a structural retreat,
China's petrol market has shed
7 million units in six years.
Internal combustion engine sales fell
from almost 18 million units a year
in 2020 to 10.85 million last year.
That is a 39% contraction
that would count as a crisis in any other car market.
The slump does not signal a weak market,
but a flip-in demand.
By December last year,
New Energy Vehicle Penetration
59-60% on the monthly figures
turning what was once a growth engine
for global car makers into a shrinking niche.
Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of petrol cars
you can still buy in China.
You'll just be on the wrong side of the adoption curve
as EVs push deeper into every price band,
high and low, frankly, in every segment in China.
They're redrawing the economics of joint ventures,
supply chains and product planning.
The damage has not only fallen
across the Chinese car industry,
but it hasn't really landed evenly.
Joint venture brands with western car makers
are really where it's hit the worst.
The remaining leaders came from the big domestic names
which held onto volume as they've pivoted to EV quicker.
Now, we've got this big story about Ford
and Xiaomi working together,
or maybe not, we'll take a break back in a sec.
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The discussions included a joint venture
to make EVs on US soil.
This is a very delicate issue
as Ford wants to build batteries on US soil
but licensing CATL's technology for LFP.
Many Republican American lawmakers
are really pushing back on using Chinese IP.
So very delicate situation.
Not sure when these negotiations happened
what's inferred it was some time ago.
It would mark a sharp turn
in car ties between China and America.
Since 2024, Washington imposed
100% tariffs on Chinese cars
and in effect shutting them out.
A Ford, Xiaomi joint venture
would be a workaround.
Chinese software, Chinese supply chains,
Chinese cost discipline
but ultimately, Ford's built in a factory
owned by America with Ford workers.
So is it a Ford or a Xiaomi?
It would also inflame the politics.
The Republicans on the House China committee
already warning Ford
that it's turning its back on America
if it does a deal to license Chinese IP
to make LFP packs.
Ford has not only spoken to Xiaomi
according to the Financial Times,
it's held talks with BYD
and others about a possible US deal.
Yet Xiaomi's the one that stands out to me
at the car market in 2021
and then he launched their SU-7
less than two years ago.
I mean, it's five minutes, a blink of an eye
in the car world
and yet they've taken market share
from Tesla, in fact the SU-7
now bigger than Tesla in China
and bigger than the Model 3
delivering 135,000 vehicles in its first year
and then 411,000 last year
this year, 550,000 is the target.
The two firms immediately
and flatly have denied
the Financial Times report.
Xiaomi called the claim
with negotiations with Ford false
and said it had not held discussions,
the Chinese tech group also stressed
that it doesn't currently sell its products
or services in America.
An important point at a time when
Washington circles Chinese car makers
with tariffs. Ford didn't mince their words
describing the story as
quote, completely untrue
and without factual basis.
According to this Reuters report
the rebuff matters because
the FD had cited four people
very familiar with the negotiations
who said Ford had had preliminary talks
about a possible cooperation.
That'll rumble on.
Now, NIO has joined China's
latest car financing drive
with seven years low interest
as the EV market slips and its usual
year end slash new year
lull the offer targets
price sensitive buyers
without cutting the list of prices
which would inflame Beijing somewhat.
Keep the prices high
find other ways to get buyers buying
and that seven years at zero
or low interest rate.
The scheme covers the
double five, double six models.
So in other words, 85
85 touring
ES6, EC6
so double five, double six
and some cheaper envos as well
like the L-60 and L-90
buyers of these NIOs and envos
must put down at least 20%
and then pay 0.49%
that's a tiny amount.
Now the E-T5 and E-T5 touring
are the cheapest cars from NIO
starting at $41,600
US equivalent including
buying the battery.
ES6 starts at
$47,000, EC6
50 but of course NIO
leans into its battery as a service
rental scheme so you can get 15 grand off
if you lease the battery
back to sweeten the deal
customers who buy any of the four NIO models
by the end of February get five years
of free navigation on autopilot
and 48 complimentary
battery swaps that would do me
for pretty much the life of owning the vehicle
unless you really do travel a lot
now let's finish
off by talking about Xiaomi once again
and this time a problem that they can't
seem to fix. Xiaomi sold
3,100
of their Su7 Ultras
back in March last year
and yet by December
it had gone down to 45
it was a halo model meant to crown the firm's
move into EVs
not so much a slowdown
a total stall
the Su7 Ultra was launched almost a year ago
actually 27th of February last year
at $75,000
Xiaomi pitched it as
its flagship, high-tech, triple-motor
1500 horsepower
less than two seconds, 0-60
it's a beast. In China's
crowded premium EV
market that turned heads
at first the strategy worked from March
to August monthly volumes
between 2,000 and 3,000 cumulative sales
went up past 10,000
enough for the boss, Lei Jun
to claim that he had met his target on the vehicle
about 7,000 of the cars
that went in the first six months
and then it started to slow down
the numbers buckled, sales slid
488 in September
130 October, 18 November
and then 45 in December
for a fresh
high-performance variant less than a year old
that's harsh
the car picked up a lot of baggage
critics accused Xiaomi of false advertising
buyers complained about
having to pay up in advance
reports emerged of doors that didn't open
accidents of upgrades
that were meant to improve the aero flow
and then when they looked at the bonnet
it was exactly the same as the cheaper version
in a market where rivals launched
new models at high speed and social media
can kill products
in days
these stories inflicted
pain on paper the su7
ultra met its early volume
goal in practice
a halo EV that can hit
350 kilometers an hour
now struggles to get past 45
units a month
that's your podcast for today thanks for listening
I'll see you when I'm better tomorrow
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About this episode
China's electric vehicle market faces a challenging start to the year with significant month-on-month declines in sales, particularly for major players like BYD and NEO. Despite this slump, year-on-year figures show some growth, with NEO achieving notable delivery milestones. The episode also highlights BYD's new factory in Hungary aimed at boosting European production and CATL's groundbreaking 5C battery technology, which promises exceptional longevity and fast charging capabilities. Insights into China's expanding EV charging infrastructure and the ongoing decline of petrol vehicle sales add depth to the discussion.