CHINA: February Sales Report, BYD Tests Flash Charging 2.0 and Denza Z9 Range Claims | 02 Mar 2026

Welcome back to EV News, China today, the February sales report, BYD tests flash charging

2.0 and Denzer's Z9 range claims. Plus stay tuned, later in the show I'll tell you why

Chinese EVs in the UK can draw insurance premiums three times higher than a European rival.

Welcome to EV News, China, the podcast dedicated to the world's largest electric vehicle market

every day. I bring you headlines, insights and analysis from the heart of China's booming

EV industry and try and decode how fast moving developments in the East shape the global landscape.

I'm by no means an expert but I'm learning and if you listen to this podcast maybe every day,

maybe regularly, maybe this is your first time, hopefully you enjoy learning along with me as

well. If you're an expert in China then drop me a line and I'd love to hear from you because

this podcast was started last summer as a even just like a temporary spinoff thing and I'm still

doing it. Mainly just to teach myself and then passing it on to you anything that I learned that

I think is kind of interesting about what's happening in China because the last thing you want

is somebody who is doing an EV podcast and not fully up to speed on China. I wouldn't say I'm

there yet but I'm enjoying learning. Now February's delivery numbers told two stories, volumes

swung hard after January's push and more brands are reaching for sales tools to sell metal.

NEO's three brands delivered almost 21,000 vehicles down over 23% month on month but up

year on year by almost 60%. The NEO brand delivered over 15,000 vehicles. It was the all new ES8

that is two-thirds of their business last month under Envo NEO also pushing a seven-year low

interest plan tied to battery as a service. As for X-Pung they delivered about the same as NEO's

brands actually a bit less 15 just over 15,000 vehicles that was not a great month in February

for X-Pung down 50% year on year down almost 24% month on month from January. Now in January they

launched the P7 Plus and the G7 that one offering a super extended range system and again leaning

into seven year low interest plans to sell cars in February. March brings the next generation

all electric MPV the X9. I'm looking forward to that because potentially right hand drive

markets maybe the UK could be on the radar. A flagship SUV so far codenamed GX looking very

by the way above 300,000 RMB that's 41,000 US dollars is coming as well for now the M03

is the only proven part of X-Pung's big hit strategy. Let's talk a little bit about Lee Auto

they'll be relieved at Lee Auto because it looked steadier they delivered just over 26,000 vehicles

down almost 5% month on month but up 0.6% year on year so basically flat but in the world of Lee

Auto flat is good because they've not been doing overly well they've been in some decline over

recent months and I think they want to steady the ship a little bit and so battery electric line

up there is led by the i6. Next gen L9 will include a premium variant called the Livis

version what the founder Lee Xiang calls an embodied intelligent robot we get their

full year earnings in the next couple of weeks or so but it's been a bit of a rough ride for Lee

Auto. Leap motor delivered almost 30,000 vehicles down from January but up 11% on the same time last

year they haven't gone down the route yet of this seven-year low interest finance deal to attract

more people in their core price brand at Lee Auto still around 20,000 US dollars about 150,000 RMB

they've got an entry level 100,000 RMB A10 coming that'll debut around the Beijing Auto

show that will probably replace the T03. Leap motor is still talking about an annual target of a

million vehicles Zika very much in that ballpark of almost 25,000 vehicles delivered in the month

flat from January to February but significantly up on February last year not disclosing the

model level detail for February yet but those data will come in looks like the sales anchored at

Zika by the 9x let's talk about Xiaomi they delivered over 20,000 vehicles that was down

on January remember though the su7 has halted production now they're only selling the yu7

the model y competitor su7 ultra volumes would be negligible at Xiaomi the refreshed su7 comes

in April probably the earliest in April actually and so last month February was was down from

January and then this month we're starting now March is going to be what they call a consolidation

period they have started to do the seven-year low interest thing on the yu7 Xiaomi unveiled a vision

GT concept at Mobile World Congress and a potential yu9 we'll talk a little bit more

about those cars soon via February numbers I couldn't find I'll carry on the hunt for those

I am motor also skipped specifics on just February it reported a 70% year on rise

year on year rise for January and February combined implying more 7,000 units in February

one of us to do with the holiday season they don't want to declare a February that's obviously

going to be very bad because car purges are down during that spring holiday but I am motor

had did have strong 2025 results because of they say their super extended range system

driving interest what else did well Geely Galaxy actually Geely Galaxy had a struggling February

they were down month on month and year on year it has the galaxy M7 a five-seat family SUV

around 150k that's 20,000 US dollars equivalent Geely Galaxy plans to streamline the line-ups

naming structure they're exports though doing really really well at Geely BYD will finish this

off in case you're wondering hang on you've not mentioned the big one BYD sold just under 190,000

passenger vehicles by far and away more than anyone I've told you about so far and yet that

was still down almost 9% on January and down 41% year on year yeah there are some I would say

panicked articles being written about BYD what's happening why is BYD in decline for several months

in a row overseas exports still doing very well though over 100,000 EVs exported once again

another month they've been over 100,000 it was domestic monthly EV sales which are slowing

down in China for BYD they do have a couple of high-end models coming there's a forthcoming

technology day to showcase next-gen tech which I think they will want to use to shift the conversation

around BYD struggling a bit let's get into it should we BYD has been spotted running internal

testing of its megawatt flash charging in Shenzhen near the headquarters a leaked name plate

points to peak output of 1500 kilowatts on a single cable I should say on a single gun which is

more kind of Chinese parlance actually and a current capability of 1500 amps so this will be

1000 volt architecture 1500 amps of juice therefore 1500 kilowatts of charging power

that's single cable single gun and I think we don't know this until we get all the details on BYD

tech day in a few days time but by the look of the initial social media coverage if you use the

dual gun technique that would be 2100 kilowatts yes that would be 2.1 megawatts this is not for

trucks this is for passenger cars this is you stopping plugging in and saying oh should we go

and get a coffee no the car's charged I'm exaggerating for effect obviously but yeah that's just

like death to the argument but it's quicker to fill up with petrol or diesel I mean even if you're

paying at the pump even if you're you're not walking to the little kiosk and joining the queue

and and paying at the cash register even if you're doing the swipe your card or tap your card at the

pump depending on what you have in your country where you're listening to me then that's becoming

more common over here and lots of people you know save a couple of minutes of schlepping up to the

till and even then it's going to be quicker to drive an EV which is just crazy isn't it and so

we'll find out more details then so the Tang 9 the Song Ultra the CL-07 denser Z9 GT we're on that

in a minute we'll reportedly be able to take that much power we'll see now BYD is released official

images of the CL-07 ahead of its debut in March it sits on BYD's E platform 3.0 EVO and mirrors the

CL-07 DMI the plug-in hybrid and so closed off front face narrow headlights hidden door handles

nice sunroof nice roof line that slopes from the B pillar rearward lidar on the roof matters because

BYD ships the CL-07 DMI with Godzai B that's type pilot 300 the CL-07 EV variant could debut an upgraded

Godzai 5.0 system again that's probably going to be unveiled at tech day on the 5th of March

charging is the story though because the CL-07 EV is identified as one of those models testing 1500

kilowatt DC fast charging on flash charge 2.0 it carries the flash charge badging and so look even

if it's a thousand kilowatts even if it's just a paltry megawatt of charging i'd still take it and

then denser the premium one of the premium brands of BYD will also unveil their updated Z9 GT that's

going to be on the 5th of March again at their tech day and it will do so again we think with a

headline number of that claimed not only fast charging but maximum range which i've talked about

before on the podcast now the denser z9 z9 i guess my us listeners a z9 GT is looks like

such a classy grand Torah and you know sometimes you don't always have to build an SUV which is

nice so again for me you know i'm a huge fan of wagons fastbacks estates call them what you will

this is more of a slippery grand Torah version of that fastback shape rather than a you know

big boxy Volvo of years gone past but i'm still a sucker for that that form factor and i'd be a

sucker for the range as well because the range is one thousand three hundred sorry one thousand and

thirty six kilometers pure electric range now this is on cltc the china cycle which is not real

world and that is still over a thousand kilometers on that so even by the time we get this car and

we see real world testing and we see what it's like at different temperatures it's still massive

range they say the longest range for any mass produced bev in china so again high-performance

luxury market think zika 001 think Porsche tycon owners that might be tempted by this

and the z9 again 1500 kilowatt flash charger capable the battery packs are biggy 122.5 kilowatt

hour blade battery pack and a higher voltage system between thousand volt architecture not

800 volt architecture so that thousand and thirty six kilometers is this one the one with the big

battery pack there's a smaller battery pack as well 850 kilowatts of power that's 1140 horsepower

tri-motor this thing's really special i'll take a break we'll come back we'll talk leap motor

and vault smargens id era in china back in a bit

or welcome back to ev news china our spin-off podcast where i'm trying to learn and pass anything on

that's um interesting to to you and thank you for listening if you do i'd love to hear from you by

the way we think of what was meant to be a one month trial spin-off thing that we did and then six

months later eight months later i'm still doing it and for me it's some of the most interesting

learning that i do because i'm not a china expert um and i'm not in china and i'm not

driving these vehicles day in day out and we're trying to interpret what's happening in the east

for the global ev landscape um and for the rest of us to kind of work it out and put the pieces

together so i appreciate you going on this journey with me now leap motor has used its

stilantis partnership to scale its dealer network and widen its product range in the european union

and the united kingdom european deliveries rose from 1300 units in q4 of 2024

toba 17 000 in q4 last year it's more than two percent of the passenger bev market in the quarter

ending 2025 for the e u 29 countries um three models strove the push t zero which is the little

city car the c 10 the bigger suv and the b 10 um the one that sits between the two really not too

hot not too cold uh kind of goldilocks car the b 10 is a c segment suv um the d so the the b 10

that is um the c 10 comes in fully electric and hybrid the b 10 is fully electric only um

leap motor enter 10 new euro markets last year bulgaria crecia hungary check republic

danmark island ireland slavakia slovenia and sweden at 800 sales and service locations

now double the previous year sa ic vault svargen has been showing off the interior of their id era

nine x so this is the nine series of vehicles many chinese companies use nine to signify the

top end of their ranges it's the first e rev extended range electric vehicle suv launching

officially this month in march when it reaches showrooms it'll be the largest model of volkswagen

sell um the company pitches at their flagships like zika nine x leoto l nine im ls nine yes

emphasis is mine obviously just pointing out the way that some of the naming works unless you're

talking about the ito m eight yeah not not called a nine series but still um this is going to be

around 40 000 us dollars equivalent um and so inside uh the layout puts a 15.6 inch central

screen uh with the rear passengers getting a 21.4 inch foldable ceiling mounted entertainment

screen flat bottom steering wheel big sunroof and a big ambient lighting setup inside as well

it's a six seater by the way three row six seater spy shots on chinese social media showing two new

xiaomis and these are suvs by the way so the xiaomi yu7 gt that's the performance variant

and some spy shots showing showing a large extended range model internally named kunlan

maybe badge does it as a yu9 there is again nine because this would be a large vehicle yu7

is already sitting in the ministry catalog and so that is 186 miles an hour 300 kilometers an hour

top speed dual motor almost a thousand horsepower the most current uh the current most powerful

yu7 is like almost 700 horsepower so the gt variant adding more power and two seconds north of 60

they say the other car plays in a different segment the yu9 pictured and this does look

again very stylish you see the xiaomi badging on it as a full-size suv an e-rev an extended range

family wagon and finally chinese evs in the united kingdom can draw insurance premiums up to three

times higher than european rivals and some insurers refusing to quote at all turning a cheap sticker

price into an expensive car i have a personal anecdote on this by the well i'll tell you that

the end of the actual news one example from the article um is the skywell b e 11 only one sureer

insurer of the 10 or so asked would even give a quote and that was at 2200 pounds a year or

2700 dollars equivalent a per show e308 would be not 2200 but 838 pounds the xpang g6 was

quoted at 1102 pounds uh the kia ev3 would be 827 and not every chinese badge gets punished by the

way the hybrid plug-in hybrid the clu dmi is 645 pounds a year now the gap matters because chinese

brands lean on low pricing if the premium eats the discount you've got to pay more for insurance

than well you've lost out on the whole deal before you even charge it for the first time insurers

price in risk in the uk at least from any different things certainly here when we come to get our car

insurance they want to know a lot about us not only our age and our home address but where the car

is parked overnight whether it's garaged or just in your driveway or on the streets your marital

status uh your job what you do for a living not only job description but also your job title your

inside leg measurement okay i'm joking on the last bit but this might be a surprise to many

people listening around the world on this your insurers may ask you you know fewer or perhaps

more details i don't know but certainly here our insurance industry operates in a way that they

want to know a lot of personal data now they don't track apart from young drivers to get the the

premium down there's no black boxes in our boot tracking every single uh mile that we drive but

that is becoming more common to get the premiums down and so insurers price in a lot of things

but they also price in historical data and if they haven't got it on a manufacturer they can't

price it in repair costs and parts most chinese nameplates like record in the uk parts supply

can stretch as well one example puts bumper components on a slow boat from shenzhen not some

nice new you know rapid air transport um but it would take months to arrive when repairs take months

and your car is off the road insurers are paying for you to have a hire car during that period

and that wipes out the profit on a policy body shops add more unknowns if they haven't got

special tools or even the technical knowledge for a new model the insurers just assume higher

costs than they charge for that guess as a brand builds uk repair network and more claims history

insurers can have more confidence similar patterns happen with chinese and korean cars when they first

entered the market now my personal anecdote from this and feel free to stop the podcast now

because then the news is over i had this with my mg so my mg zs e v was about 900 pounds a year

so i will tell you my personal circumstances not that anybody cares um 47 years old married

i live in a semi-detached house in the central south of the uk um i have two children and i

don't commute to work anymore because the commute is the bottom of my garden and so

that was 900 pounds a year which i think is extortionate when we came to change our car a

couple of years ago we went shopping for a tesla model three my insurance quotes are all all around

a thousand which i think i think is a huge amount of money for someone who is you know um perhaps a

little bit older than and i've been driving summer 17 i've never had a never had a crash touch would

been very lucky and so when i went to get the Polestar i pay 450 445 455 pounds a year for the

Polestar too and that is a car that is all-wheel drive has was it 300 kilowatts of power it's

ridiculously fast faster than i need and yet it was half the price of my mg zs e v on a 69 plate

and the mg was you know with the best one in the world not a very fancy car i think the Polestar

is quite a high performance car and they've got all of the details and i've double checked it and

triple checked it and all the quotes were much lower for Polestar is that because it's all

Volvo bits i don't know i had two problems with my mg um a sensor when it was the auto lights

sensor went so i had to manually turn the lights on and off not a problem first world problem um

but that took months to arrive from china there were none in the uk and also the wiring loom

um where the boot was opening and closing just that action of opening closing the boot

the cables wore through and you know 70 warranty on the mg um that is not normal wear and tear that

is just i opened the boot and closed it and then over a period of a couple of years the cables broke

it was just a bad piece of design and mg fixed that with no quibble but again it was a long time

to get that sorted so maybe that's what insurers are factoring in maybe mg has some part stuff that

i don't know about i don't want to make claims or anything that is my personal opinion i've not

reached out to mg for comment on this um and it i might be a complete one off mg might have a great

part supply now i've been two years that was two years ago and so they might have a nice big uk

factory now with everything on the shelf but we're you know a warehouse so others interesting

because those low prices are attractive for chinese EVs um and when i came to to change our car we

thought we're getting a tesla model three and then a Polestar being half the price we're gonna

have that car for three years probably that's 1500 pounds over the time of the the cars kind of adds

up doesn't it maybe maybe we should do a whole special podcast on it who knows i'll stop now

thanks for listening see you on the next one

CHINA: February Sales Report, BYD Tests Flash Charging 2.0 and Denza Z9 Range Claims | 02 Mar 2026

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