The Xiaomi Su7 is an electric car made by Xiaomi, a brand that usually makes phones and gadgets. This car is part of their effort to create new products in the electric vehicle market.
A battery pack is like a big container of batteries that stores electricity for electric cars. The bigger it is, the further the car can go before needing to be charged.
The BYD Song Ultra EV is a small electric SUV made by the Chinese company BYD. It's part of a line of cars designed to be more affordable and environmentally friendly compared to traditional gasoline vehicles.
The Mercedes-Benz B-Class is a small car that has a lot of room inside, making it great for city driving and carrying things. It's a fancy car that people like because it looks good and is comfortable to drive.
Supply chain control is how a company manages everything needed to make and sell their products. For car companies, this means making sure they have the right parts and materials to build cars efficiently.
Semiconductors are special materials used in electronics that help control electrical signals. In cars, they are important for things like engines and entertainment systems.
The Ford Explorer is a big family car that can carry a lot of people and their stuff. It's great for road trips and everyday driving, which is why many people like to talk about it.
An electric vehicle is a type of car that runs on electricity instead of gas. This means it doesn't produce exhaust fumes and is better for the environment.
The Qualcomm 8155 chip is a computer part that helps cars run smart features, like navigation and touch screens. It makes the car's technology work better.
The Ford Falcon is a car that many people in Australia loved for many years. It's known for being strong and stylish, and it has a special place in the hearts of car fans.
Autopilot is a system that helps the car drive itself in some situations, like on the highway. It can steer and control speed, but the driver still needs to pay attention.
Full scenario parking assistance is a feature that helps you park your car automatically. It can steer, speed up, and slow down the car for you, making parking easier in different situations.
Lithium-ion phosphate technology is a kind of battery used in electric cars. It's safe and lasts a long time, making it a good choice for powering vehicles.
A kilowatt is a way to measure how much power something uses or produces. In cars, it tells you how strong an electric motor is; more kilowatts mean more power.
Premium crossovers are fancy cars that mix the size and space of SUVs with the comfort of regular cars. They usually have a lot of nice features and are popular with buyers.
Battery fire risk is the chance that a battery can catch fire, which is a concern for electric cars. Car makers work hard to make sure this doesn't happen.
Hey, let's stay with BYD and BYD has secured a place
on Transport Canada's Appendix G registry
before Ottawa paused new foreign applications,
giving it direct import access,
while Chinese rivals face a case-by-case approval process.
This timing aligns with Canada's traffic quota system
for 2026, so as a quick recap,
that allows 49,000 electric vehicles,
which were assembled, made in China, every single year,
and the duty is not 100%, but 6.1% tariffs.
So that's a surcharge, a surtax,
if you like, that was first imposed in August 2024.
In exchange for reduced tariffs
on Canadian canola and various products,
Transport Canada cleared BYD to import passenger cars
from its Shenzhen headquarters
and its Xi'an plant.
Approved models include the Seagull, Dolphin, Seal,
and Atto 3, while sister firm BYD Auto Industries
handles things like buses and truck imports separately.
SAIC's MG, very, very popular in the UK
and the European Union.
NEO, X-Pung, and Lyoto,
all lack passenger car approvals in Canada.
GILI may use its Volvo and Polestar channels,
but GILI branded vehicles itself
would need another independent clearance.
BYD's global expansion is showing momentum overseas.
Sales grew from 8% of its 3.05 million vehicles
in just 2023 to 23% of its 4.6 million vehicles last year.
That was over one million vehicles overseas.
The company project 1.3 million overseas sales this year,
a 24% increase again, supported by its new European plant,
opening early this year
with an annual capacity of 150,000 vehicles.
BYD can ship vehicles on its own,
fleet of row-rows, roll-on, roll-off, car carriers,
I've talked about like the Explorer number one,
the Shenzhen and the FAA and more.
The challenge now is building things like dealer networks
and of course, building brand,
convincing Canadian buyers to switch
from conventional vehicles and established names.
Okay, let's talk about Cherry.
Cherry is reviving China's iconic QQ brand
with an all-electric QQ3.
This will launch in a couple of days time on February the 6th.
The original QQ car sold over 1.4 million units since 2003.
So that established itself as a nameplate
as many Chinese buyers first ever car.
The new electric QQ3 is 4.2 meters long,
1.8 meters wide and 1.57 meters high
with a 2.7 meter wheelbase.
So it's a compact electric vehicle
but being a compact DV still offers substantially more space
than its combustion predecessors
and it has very city-friendly dimensions.
Technology naturally leads the reboot.
Smart cabin features with a 15.6 inch, 2.5K screen
powered by Qualcomm's 8155 chip
while Cherry's own Falcon 500 system
provides things like highway navigation on autopilot
and what they call full scenario parking assistance.
The powertrain prioritizes urban efficiency
over outright performance, you won't be surprised to hear.
The battery pack is lithium-ion phosphate technology.
It has a motor of just 58 kilowatts
and a 125 kilometer per hour top speed
but that's ideal for city use, even ring road driving.
You won't be packing the family into this
to do a couple of thousand miles on a road trip
over Chinese New Year but nor is it designed to do that.
By transforming a budget icon
into a modern, smart, affordable EV,
Cherry positions the QQ3 as a modern people's car
for China's competitive small EV segment.
Now, the next things to watch will be
the success dependent on things like pricing
and final specifications
and that will be announced near a launch.
One more story until we take a break.
This is interesting, Chinese EV makers now occupy
all five top global sales positions
displacing Tesla from its long held leadership.
BYD, Zika and Geely lead the shift
as buyers favor more affordable
but well equipped models and built at scale.
This transformation follows years of state back investment,
rapid product cycles and aggressive pricing.
Chinese manufacturers now offer extensive model ranges
spanning city cars to premium crossovers,
undercutting Tesla on price but matching its range
and often beating its range and performance.
Tesla maintains strong sales volumes though
and of course it has brand recognition
but it's aging lineup.
Faces competition from newer Chinese models
flooding global markets.
The implications extend beyond rankings,
Tesla's diminished position weakens its influence
over things like the ability to play around
with profit margins pricing.
Software standards even, even charging infrastructure
or Chinese producers leverage their volume advantages
to control everything from the battery to the motor
and power electronics and supply chains as well.
They're expanding operations overseas
of forcing the established manufacturers
in Europe and America to either accept this competition
or match its aggressive pricing.
Whether this represents a temporary challenge
for the likes of Tesla or a new permanent world order
the made in China era for electric vehicles.
Well, this remains to be seen.
It is after all the reason that we launched
a spin off EV news China podcast,
a crucial point in the China story.
Around the middle of 2025,
we started playing around with this format
and it just kind of stuck really
because you and I will have been talking about this
maybe half a decade or a decade
before it impacts the average person
walking in to go and buy a car.
But we can see that that shift has already started to happen.
We'll take a break and a couple more stories
when we come back.
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Okay, welcome back to the podcast.
S-Vault has developed a battery pack design
that directs thermal runaway flames downward
and away from the passenger compartment.
The Chinese battery maker S-Vault calls this
its fire and electricity separation
positioning it as an industry first
that manages battery failures
rather than claiming that they will never ever occur.
When a cell may fail,
the pack channels heat, gas and flames
in the opposite direction of the cabin
while keeping the high voltage system intact
long enough to prevent arcing or secondary failures,
this approach addresses a critical concern
in China's crowded cities
where tight parking and dense urban charging networks
can amplify the risk of a very rare
but not 0% battery fire risk.
Chinese regulators require car makers to demonstrate
that battery packs can contain thermal runaway events
long enough for safe passenger evacuation.
Car makers pressure their suppliers
to prove battery fires won't ever spread to the cabin
which is what makes S-Vault's new design
commercially attractive.
The technology offers Chinese manufacturers
a compelling message.
The battery in extreme circumstances
in a massive accident may burn
but occupants are protected.
It also provides a technical defense
against critics who question high energy battery packs.
However, S-Vault's claims currently rest
on their demonstrations
rather than any kind of real world validation,
crash data, fleet experience and even
when it's deployed in the field and passenger cars
even down to insurance records
will ultimately determine whether
this controlled failure approach delivers
on its promise beyond its test environment.
And finally, on the same topic of safety
much has been written about this
but China has now written its national standards
for something car makers that wanted to be quite vague
and that is door handles, some would say
a solved problem over the last 100 years
but the move to electric vehicles
and chasing every fraction of a percent of aeroganes
led to door handles being more flush with the vehicle
and when you make a door handle flush
or perhaps disappear inside the vehicle
that tiny aerogane comes with some challenges
one of those challenges can be fixed
by making the door handles electronic you are
after all sitting on a massive battery pack
that's not a concern having electronically powered door handles
until the doors don't get powered
and China's noticed and now written its standard
I'll tell you what it's called GB48001-2026
and it's now been approved
by the State Administration for Market Regulation
and the Standardization Administration of China.
So this takes effect on January 1st, 2027
which means design and redesign of existing components
is a priority.
The rule covers passenger and multi-purpose vehicles
what they call M1 and N1 category vehicles
just as the rapid electrification reshapes door design.
Electronic releases and flush hidden handles
have proliferated incredibly quickly
in the world of electric vehicles.
Regulators now want them to work
as predictably as a door handle has always worked.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology
led the drafting process for nearly a year
and drew more than 40 domestic automakers,
suppliers and test houses in with a hundred experts
through technical review.
The text sets its scope, technical specifications
and test methods.
Every door tailgates aside by the way
must carry an exterior mechanical release
that lets occupants or rescuers open the door
from inside or outside after a crash.
Obviously if the side of the vehicle is affected in a crash
hopefully the other side of the vehicle would not be
and in any event they want all four doors
to have mechanical releases just as cars
will have always had.
Car makers must follow defined zones
and minimum hand operating space.
Cars that use electronic door locks are fine.
You can still use the fancy electronic technology
but you have to add a mechanical handle
that works without tools.
Exterior handles must endure at least 500 newtons
of pulling force without breaking or coming off.
Insterior handles face their own list
each door must have at least one
independent mechanical release in clear view,
free of obstructions within a set distance of reaching.
Symbols and text and operating instructions
must be permanent and meet minimum size rules
to be legible.
Non-electronic inner handles must withstand
no less than 200 newtons of force
and rollout will be staged.
New models from January the first next year
that want type approval must meet all the rules
and then everything else that is existing at the minute
must meet full compliance on the 1st of January, 2028.
So anything that's got existing type approval
has a bit more time as well.
And obviously if you are designing a car for China
you design it for globally these days
which does rather suggest that we have seen
the world has seen the end of these
electronic only door handles that have been seen
to pose a significant risk of getting
trapped people out of a car that's in a bad situation
and just generally passenger egress.
When people don't know how to get out of a car
is probably not a great idea in an emergency situation.
So China once again setting the rules
that the rest of the world will inevitably follow.
Again, we come back to what we're talking about.
I think we're at a crossroads,
a turning point in the automotive landscape history
if you like where China is no longer copying,
no longer fast following but innovating
and now leading not just in technology
but in rulemaking and that is a whole different kettle
to fish because everybody else follows
then the rules that China will be setting
is now interesting.
That's your podcast for today.
Thanks for listening.
I'll see you on the next one.
Let's do the 60 second savings challenge.
Step one, download rocket money.
Step two, link your accounts
and see every subscription you're paying for.
Tap one you don't use and cancel it.
That's money back every month.
Step three, create a financial goal.
$50 every paycheck or let the app automatically move
small amounts of cash when you can afford it.
In a week, you'll forget you set it up.
In a month, you'll see real dollars piling up.
In a year, you'll be shocked
at how much money you've saved.
Bonus challenge, upload an internet or phone bill
and let rocket money try to lower it.
You only pay if they find you savings.
On average, rocket money members can save up to $740 a year
when using all of the app's premium features.
Users love the app with over 186,000 five-star ratings.
Make saving money the resolution you actually keep.
Start the 60 second savings challenge
at rocketmoney.com slash cancel.
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If you're the purchasing manager
at a manufacturing plant,
you know having a trusted partner makes all the difference.
That's why hands down,
you count on Granger for auto-reordering.
With on-time restocks,
your team will have the cut resistant gloves
they need at the start of their shift.
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they've got safety well in hand.
Call 1-800-GRANGER, click Granger.com or just stop by.
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About this episode
Ford and Geely are exploring a partnership to share technology and reduce manufacturing costs, allowing Ford access to advanced battery tech in China. Xiaomi is set to launch a refreshed version of its SU7 with impressive range, while BYD introduces the Song Ultra, a new B-class electric SUV aimed at the competitive Chinese market. The episode also covers Cherry's revival of the QQ brand with a new electric model and highlights the shift in global EV sales, with Chinese manufacturers now dominating the top five positions, challenging Tesla's longstanding leadership.
