CHINA: Pop-Out Door Handle Crackdown, Chinese PHEVs in Europe and Xiaomi YU7 GT | 24 Sep 2025

On eBay, every find has a story.

Like if you're looking for a vintage Bantie.

Not just a T, the Bantie.

You wore it everywhere, until your BFF stole it.

Now you're on eBay.

And there it is, same T from the same tour.

The things you love have a way of finding their way back to you,

especially on eBay.

Where else can you find that mint trading card

you searched everywhere for?

Or your first car, the one you wish

you never sold?

It has to be eBay.

Shop eBay for millions of finds, each with a story.

eBay, things people love.

SpinQuest social casino.

The presents are open, and you're over the in-laws.

It's a perfect time to grab your phone

and play spinquest.com with live dealer Blackjack.

Crafts and a ton of slots.

And here's a great deal for the holiday,

a $30 coin pack for $10.

And if you're hearing this ad,

you can play right now on spinquest.com.

SpinQuest is a free to play social casino.

Point where prohibited, visit spinquest.com

for more details.

On eBay, every find has a story.

Like if you're looking for a vintage Bantie.

Not just a T, the Bantie.

You wore it everywhere, until your BFF stole it.

Now you're on eBay.

And there it is, same T from the same tour.

The things you love have a way of finding

their way back to you, especially on eBay.

Where else can you find that mint trading card

you searched everywhere for?

Or your first car, the one you wish you never sold?

It has to be eBay.

Shop eBay for millions of fines, each with a story.

eBay, things people love.

SpinQuest social casino.

The presents are open, and you're over the in-laws.

It's a perfect time to grab your phone

and play spinquest.com with live dealer Blackjack.

Crafts and a ton of slots.

And here's a great deal for the holiday.

A $30 coin pack for $10.

And if you're hearing this ad,

you can play right now on spinquest.com.

SpinQuest is a free to play social casino.

Point where prohibited, visit spinquest.com

for more details.

Welcome back to the podcast.

Today, pop out door handle, crackdown is on,

Chinese plug-ins in Europe and the Xiaomi YU7 GT on track.

Plus, stay tuned.

Later in the show, I'll tell you about one solution

to a battery fire, which involves shooting the battery pack

out of the car.

Hey, welcome to EV News China,

the podcast dedicated to the world's largest EV market.

Each day, I bring you the latest headlines, insights,

and analysis from the hearts 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 September's numbers,

according to the CPCA, in the first three weeks of the year,

up to the 21st of September,

at least new energy vehicle retail sales

with 697,000 units.

In context, that's 10% more year-on-year,

11% more month-on-month.

Passenger electric, any of the whole sale numbers,

for the same time, we're slightly higher,

724,000, up 10% year-on-year, 19% month-on-month.

Year-to-date, year-to-date total EV sales,

9.67 million EVs in China,

that's up 31% year-on-year, not a bad business to be in,

if it's growing 31%.

EV retail penetration, in the first three weeks of the year,

58.5%.

So, it's 52% year-to-date,

but September could be on,

depending on the last week of the month.

September could be a 60% market share

for new passenger vehicles that are NEVs,

so plug socket on the side.

Absolutely incredible in a market

that's already sold 10 million EVs this year.

China's ministry also confirming a draft national standards

titled, technical requirements for automobile

door handle safety.

This was announced earlier today,

or rather they're ahead of me, so you get the idea.

Open them for public comment as well through to November.

The draft targets new EVs,

which have concealed door handle designs

and wants to set a baseline safety standard.

Key provisions, every door, apart from the boot,

the trunk must have an external handle

with a mechanical release.

In battery events, thermal runaway

or an accident condition,

even the 12-volt battery not being able to work.

Non-collision side doors must be openable

from the outside using external handles without a tool.

External handles must provide hand operation space

of, well, some certain dimensions,

I won't get into that now.

Every door must include an internal handle

with a mechanical release that can open the door

without tools.

If an electric internal handle is fitted,

there must be a mechanical handle as well.

Internal handles must be easily identified

and clearly visible, located within 30 centimeters

or 12 inches of the door edge

and placed in a defined zone.

Well, electronically controlled flush

or pop-out door handles became popular

with Tesla's Model S in 2012 relying on motors and software.

But as we found recently in the United States

with handles that require a motor,

if the 12-volt battery or 16-volt

whatever your car is running dips,

has a voltage sag, goes bad.

We found cases in America reported to the safety agency

there where people have put their kids in the car,

shut the door, gone round, gone to open a door

and the door handles don't work.

Now, obviously babies can't mechanically release

from the inside, same as having pets trapped in there as well.

So this is all being watched by China,

Tesla's chief designer who sometimes speaks on behalf of,

you know, it's a proxy for Elon Musk,

he's been there forever, he's one of the most senior people.

Frans von Halshausen saying this week

the company will redesign their door handle system

to make mechanical opening in emergencies

more direct and reliable.

Now a new car launched, the Ito M7 debuted yesterday.

Had the Harmony OS smart travel,

autumn event launch offered in pure electric

and E-Rove drivetrains, five or six seat layout in 12 variants.

It starts at 39,000 US equivalent, it's 280,000 U-wands.

This is a premium vehicle.

High end versions include the 192 line LiDAR

and the Huawei ADS4 driver system.

Comfort and convenience includes zero gravity

driver seat, rear entertainment screens

in vehicle refrigerator and warmer.

The M7 follows the Ito family design.

Resembling the M8, but it's smaller,

flatter headlights, LEDs.

Is this a Model Y competitor?

It looks, I mean, I didn't look at the dimensions

of this one, it looks bigger than a Model Y.

But a large vehicle, three screen layouts up front.

The passenger has a little display as well

with augmented reality for the driver head up display.

Three spoke steering wheel from the M8

and the center console design, you know,

all the same with the wireless phone charge

as the cup holders, pure electric powertrain,

single or dual motor options.

This just looks so premium.

This looks incredible for 38,000 US equivalent.

Really nice vehicle.

A bigger one than that though is the M9.

So that was the M7 I'm talking about.

This is the M9 and this is a whole different league.

The M9 is a big, it's a Range Rover competitor,

Kia Rivi 9, Ionic 9, Rivian R1S, that size vehicle.

They introduced the four seat version of that.

And if you think, hang on, it's a massive three row vehicle.

Why is it doing a four seat?

Well, this is for people who wanna be driven

because the rear seats, well, they're basically

first class airline seats.

The four seat line includes an extended range

and a battery one priced from 78,000 US equivalent.

So you get the idea, it's 560,000 RMB.

The four seat model has the same exterior design

as the existing five and six seat versions.

The four seat e-rev has a 1.5 liter engine,

which is a generator, never drives the wheels,

dual electric motors, 52 kilowatt hour pack,

will do 165 miles on battery power alone.

The four seat Bev version has a all wheel drive,

so 160 kilowatt motor, 230 kilowatt motor on the rear axle,

naughter 62, 4.7 seconds, 800 volt platform,

100 kilowatt hour pack, it'll add 100 miles in five minutes.

And like I say, this is the kind of car,

kind of special edition, the M9,

you are being driven at this stage

because you don't have seats in the back, this luxurious,

they call them captain seats,

but they're like first class airline recliners, beautiful.

If you're driving yourself, really special car.

But the one I talked about before the M7,

the more mainstream one, this is a,

okay, Audi e-tron is better,

because I said Tesla Model Y,

but some people think that's more of a stripped down,

high tech vehicle, this very plush,

I would say Audi Q8 e-tron territory,

but in China for only 38 grand, really nice.

Now, Chinese plug-in hybrids

are out selling some big names in Europe.

Chinese automakers sold more cars last month in August

than the likes of Renault and Audi,

driven by plug-in hybrids.

It's JTO Dynamics data showing

that models from BYD, JQ and MG were the top 10.

In the top 10, Tesla's Model Y was the number one though,

number one Bev, at least in Europe,

sales down 37% from the same month last year,

even as August's Bev sales across Europe were up.

Chinese makers increased exports of plug-in hybrids

to Europe to get their way around the increased tariffs

because that was only on Bev's.

Chinese made EVs still very popular,

even in plug-in hybrid form.

BYD's, SEAL, U, Cherry's, JQ, J7, SAIC's, MG, HS

were all top selling plug-in hybrids.

Bev sales in Europe up 27% in August.

Now, yesterday, FAW Volkswagen

held a roll-out ceremony at their Changchun base

to start vehicle exports there.

554 units will depart Shanghai later this week

and a schedule to go on sale in the Middle East.

FAW Volkswagen said that it's a strategic breakthrough

for their overseas business,

aligning China's push for high-level opening up

and international markets.

The company said that the export provides backing

for the global expansion of its shareholders,

FAW and Volkswagen.

To meet regional requirements,

they adapted multiple models for local climates

and conditions, sticking to the local regulations as well.

Now, the Huawei-backed SAIC SUV.

Well, this is called an SAIC H5.

Now, this used to be called, or maybe in some markets

or some bits of China it is,

so I've talked about the Changi before.

It seems that when they launched this,

they referred to it as the SAIC H5,

so maybe this vehicle isn't branded Changi.

I'll try and find out.

It has the Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance

kind of retail network, so it joins up

Aito, Luxe, Stilato and Maxtro.

SAIC is Huawei and SAIC coming together.

So they said it had 10,000 orders in one hour.

That's good, not stellar for China.

A lot of those orders are stacked up, so to speak.

So in the first hour,

they can just either process them or just count them.

The SAIC H5 starts at 22,000 US dollars.

So much more of a stripped-down vehicle,

but it still looks really nice inside.

Love the materials and choice of things like that.

Six-power train configurations,

the 15.6-inch floating touchscreen

kind of dominates the inside of the vehicle.

There's a stalk-mounted gear selector,

a D-shaped steering wheel,

minimal physical buttons, I would say.

High-end trims include the Huawei ADS-4 system,

192-line LiDAR, 4D millimeter-wave radars,

12 ultrasonics, 11 cameras as well,

and the system supports

Address-to-Address Navigation Assistance.

The Bev version, by the way, has two batteries,

65 or 80 kilowatt hours in that.

The Xiaomi YU7 is on the way in a moment

and news of Ford in China too.

We'll take a quick break, I'll be back in a sec.

On eBay, every find has a story,

like if you're looking for a vintage band tee,

not just a tee, the band tee,

from the last show your favorite band ever played.

You wore it everywhere, then your BFF started glaring it,

which was cute until they unfriended you

and took it with them, which was not so cute.

Anyway, now you're on eBay, and there it is,

same tee from the same tour,

still living in your memory, rent free forever.

See, the things you love have a way

of finding their way back to you.

But eBay isn't just forgetting

whatever your XBFF stole back,

it's also for that rare championship foul ball you caught,

then heroically gave to the kid next to you.

And where else are you going to find your first car?

The one you wish you never sold,

but now you finally get the chance to take back home,

for good this time.

Shop eBay for millions of fines, each with a story.

eBay, things people love.

SpinQuest social casino, the presents are open

and you're over the in-laws.

It's a perfect time to grab your phone

and play spinquest.com with live dealer Blackjack,

craps and a ton of slots.

And here's a great deal for the holiday,

a $30 coin pack for $10.

And if you're hearing this ad,

you can play right now on spinquest.com.

SpinQuest is a free to play social casino.

Point where prohibited, visit spinquest.com

for more details.

On eBay, every find has a story,

like if you're looking for a vintage band tee,

not just a tee, the band tee,

from the last show your favorite band ever played.

You wore it everywhere, then your BFF started glaring it,

which was cute until they unfriended you

and took it with them, which was not so cute.

Anyway, now you're on eBay.

And there it is, same tee from the same tour,

still living in your memory, rent free forever.

See, the things you love have a way

of finding their way back to you.

But eBay isn't just forgetting

whatever your XBFF stole back.

It's also for that rare championship foul ball you caught,

then heroically gave to the kid next to you.

And where else are you going to find your first car?

The one you wish you never sold,

but now you finally get the chance to take back home.

For good this time.

Shop eBay for millions of finds, each with a story.

eBay, things people love.

SpinQuest social casino, the presents are open

and you're over the in-laws.

It's a perfect time to grab your phone

and play SpinQuest.com with live dealer Blackjack,

craps and a ton of slots.

And here's a great deal for the holiday,

a $30 coin pack for $10.

And if you're hearing this ad,

you can play right now on SpinQuest.com.

SpinQuest is a free to play social casino.

Boydwear prohibited, visit SpinQuest.com

for more details.

All right, welcome back to the podcast.

Now let's talk about Xiaomi,

a company that's been around

in the automotive world all of five minutes.

Xiaomi will share updates,

we think during the annual speech of founder,

Lei Jun, tomorrow on September 25th.

Attention's turned to a possible high performance YU7.

So the YU7 is the SUV

and the high performance version of that

is gonna be called the GT.

Now the SU7 in its top fire breathing form

was called the Ultra,

but this one looks like it'll be called the GT.

And so spy photos show a camouflaged YU7

on Germany's Nürburgring Nordschleife.

The test car wore red and gray wrap

like the SU7 Ultra used to do.

Observers noticed wider front fenders,

a broader rear section, a wider track

compared to the standard YU7.

Could use a three motor, a tri-motor setup

like the SU7 Ultra.

That's over a thousand horsepower, by the way,

750 kilowatts of power.

Nothing confirmed yet from Xiaomi,

but we've only got a few hours to wait

and the founder will be on stage

and whatever he's gonna do in his presentation

and hopefully talk about this vehicle.

Unofficial renderings show

from what we've seen of the vehicle so far,

a big front splitter, black wheel arch extensions,

a big rear diffuser as well

and a fixed rear wing from a company

that's only been around just over a year

and has got months and months and months of backlog

for this vehicle in its standard form.

Ford is next in the news yesterday.

They set up Ford Sales and Service Shanghai Company Limited.

That's a subsidiary to manage marketing sales

and after sales in China.

They say that the vehicles and pickups they'll sell there.

This consolidates Ford Sales and Service

under one single legal structure.

The new structure will introduce more energy products,

new energy products, electric ones,

including the new Ford Bronco NEV

shown at the Chengdu Auto Show

and it will provide a one-stop sales and service experience.

They will also develop the Ford Zongheng Lifestyle Ecosystem

with experience centers, outdoor communities, customization

and adventurous lifestyle things.

And finally, the Chinese Vehicle Collision Repair Technical

and Research Center, that's a catchy one,

has demonstrated a system to save you from a battery fire.

Now battery fires and EVs are thankfully incredibly rare,

but they do have everything on board

that they need to combust.

And so when they have a so-called thermal runaway event,

the best thing that you can do is probably runaway,

which is why they call it that.

And the fire brigade tend to need to pick the thing up

and dunk it in.

Well, normally a big shipping container

that's had its top taken off and it's just full of water,

like a big swimming pool for your car.

At that point, it's a goner.

You need to dip the car in the water

for about three days.

And even when the fire appears to be out,

even putting it on a low loader, a flatbed

and taking it to the scrap yard,

even that movement can reignite things.

So thankfully battery fires and EVs, incredibly rare.

You only hear about them because, well, they're new

and they don't really happen,

compared to combustion cars generally setting themselves

on fire quite a lot, but never gets reported.

Now a new system has been proposed to save you from an EV fire.

Now the Chinese authorities are already putting

in very strict safety guidelines

for Chinese made batteries for 2026,

like zero thermal runaway moments.

So that works being done.

But in the meantime, how can you save yourself?

Well, this organization has been showing a prototype

of the battery fitted to the Cherry Ikaro 3.

This uses a gas generator system

to propel the entire battery pack away from the vehicle.

I imagine little explosions happen.

When triggered, the pack gets launched

somewhere between three and six meters away from the car.

Well, I'm not sure whether that's to the side or in front

or behind.

This is like a James Bond car.

When Bond is being chased by a baddie, he pulls a lever

and fires something at them or an oil slick or something.

Well, if you're driving this car

and your battery ends up on fire,

it ejects itself, presumably into the path

of oncoming traffic, but hey, not your problem anymore.

When triggered, the pack is launched away from the vehicle

to reduce the occupant risk by removing the fire source.

Well, look, whichever way you send it,

it's potentially in somebody else's way.

The ejection is very loud and quite visibly violent

because, well, I guess many little explosions are happening

to propel a several hundred pound projectile

into the path of, well, whoever was behind you.

The developers have not explained how the system would prevent

that from striking nearby people, other objects,

somebody out just walking their dog and, you know,

gets a battery pack for their pleasure.

Or if they were to commercialize the technology,

we love new ideas, we love innovation,

but some ideas, unlike the phrase

that I used to see on a poster in my corporate career,

no idea is a bad idea.

I think it's clear some ideas are bad ideas.

And that's your podcast for today.

Thanks so much for listening.

I'll catch you on the next one.

On eBay, every find has a story,

like if you're looking for a vintage band tee,

not just a tee, the band tee,

from the last show your favorite band ever played.

You wore it everywhere, then your BFF started glaring it,

which was cute until they unfriended you

and took it with them, which was not so cute.

Anyway, now you're on eBay.

And there it is, same tee from the same tour,

still living in your memory, rent free forever.

See, the things you love have a way

of finding their way back to you.

But eBay isn't just forgetting

whatever your XBFF stole back.

It's also for that rare championship foul ball you caught,

then heroically gave to the kid next to you.

And where else are you going to find your first car?

The one you wish you'd never sold,

but now you finally get the chance to take back home.

For good this time.

Shop eBay for millions of finds, each with a story.

eBay, things people love.

I'm here with SpinQuest, where you can play and win

from the comfort of your own home with hundreds of slot games

and all of the table games you love with real cash prizes.

Right now, $30 coin packs are on sale for $10.

For new users, it's all at spinquest.com.

That's S-P-I-N-Q-U-E-S-T dot com.

SpinQuest is a free to play social casino.

Boydwear prohibited.

Visit spinquest.com for more details.

On eBay, every find has a story.

Like if you're looking for a vintage band tee.

Not just a tee, the band tee.

You wore it everywhere.

Until your BFF stole it.

Now you're on eBay.

And there it is, same tee from the same tour.

The things you love have a way of finding their way back to you.

Especially on eBay.

Where else can you find that mint trading card

you searched everywhere for?

Or your first car, the one you wish you'd never sold.

It has to be eBay.

Shop eBay for millions of finds, each with a story.

eBay, things people love.

SpinQuest social casino.

The presents are open and you're over the in-laws.

It's a perfect time to grab your phone

and play spinquest.com with live dealer blackjack,

crafts, and a ton of slots.

And here's a great deal for the holiday.

A $30 coin pack for $10.

And if you're hearing this ad,

you can play right now on spinquest.com.

SpinQuest is a free to play social casino.

Boydwear prohibited.

Visit spinquest.com for more details.

This holiday season reached for the one butter

that never disappoints, Kerry Gold.

Made with milk from grass-fed cows on Irish family farms.

It's rich, creamy, and perfect for baking.

Whether browning butter for cookies

or crafting the flakiest pie crust,

Kerry Gold's high butterfat content

makes all the difference in flavor and texture.

Holiday treats will taste extraordinary.

Tesla Model Y

Land Rover Range Rover

Rivian R1S

Audi Etron

Audi Q8 Etron

Byd Seal

Ford Bronco

About this episode

Original notes