An e-rev is a car that mainly runs on electricity but has a gas engine that helps charge the battery when needed, allowing you to drive farther without running out of power.
The CMP platform is a type of base that car manufacturers use to build different models of cars. It helps them save money and time by using the same parts for different vehicles.
S-Volt is a company that makes batteries, especially for electric cars. They are working on new technologies to make charging these cars faster and more efficient.
Fast charging means you can charge an electric car's battery much quicker than normal. This is helpful for people who want to spend less time waiting for their car to charge.
6C charging means the battery can be charged very quickly, six times faster than its normal capacity. This allows the car to get a lot of power in just a few minutes.
The BMW M5 is a fast and fancy car that looks like a regular sedan but is built for speed and performance. It has a powerful engine and is designed to be fun to drive while still being comfortable for everyday use. People talk about it because it’s one of the best cars in its class for those who love driving.
A flagship car is the best and most advanced model a car company makes, often with the most features and highest price.
Car
M7
The M7 is an SUV made by Ito that can run on electricity and has a gas engine to help it go farther. It's designed to be a modern vehicle that fits the needs of drivers who want to use less gas.
A kilowatt hour is a way to measure how much energy a battery can store. The bigger the number, the more energy it can hold, which usually means the car can drive further before needing to be recharged.
CATL is a company that makes batteries, especially for electric cars. They are one of the biggest battery makers in the world and supply many car manufacturers.
Car
P7 Plus
The P7 Plus is a new electric car from XPeng, a company that makes electric vehicles. This version has improvements that make it better than the previous model.
Buick is a car brand from America that makes different types of vehicles, including SUVs. They are popular in China and are launching new models there.
The Buick Electra E7 is an electric SUV made by Buick, which is a brand under General Motors. It's designed to be spacious and suitable for long trips.
The Dodge Journey is a type of vehicle called an SUV, which is bigger than a regular car and has more room inside for passengers and luggage. It’s great for families because it can fit a lot of people and stuff, making it good for long trips. People mention it because it’s affordable and practical for everyday use.
LiDAR is a technology that helps cars see their surroundings by using lasers. It creates a 3D map of the area, which is useful for self-driving cars to navigate safely.
Level three driving means the car can drive itself most of the time, but you still need to be ready to take control if needed. It can help with things like parking and navigating.
Dual chamber air suspension is a system that uses air to make the ride in a car smoother. It can change how high or low the car sits, which helps with comfort and handling.
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Welcome back to EV News China.
Today, VW's grip loosens on China S-Volt targets 10-minute charging and Ito hits $1 million.
And stay tuned because later in the show I'll tell you about a mega MPV, the Luxeade V9.
Welcome back 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 heart of China's
booming EV industry and decode how fast moving developments in the east are shaping the global
EV landscape.
OK, let's kick off.
Volkswagen's China grip is loosening as the EV race intensifies.
Volkswagen still sells more cars in China than any other foreign brand.
Last year, the numbers are in for 2025.
VW delivered 2.7 million vehicles, even as it was down by 8 percent.
It's still the leader of the Western names, but that decline matters.
And I'll tell you why.
China is both the world's largest car market and the sharpest test of foreign car makers ability
to shift to electrification.
Local rivals now set the pace and frankly set the standard.
In many cases, in electric vehicles, in connectivity, assisted driving and AI integration.
Foreign firms that lean on their old strengths risk a slow slide.
Volkswagen's current strength in China is very much petrol.
You know, I told you they delivered 2.7 million vehicles in China last year.
2.57 million were gasoline powered cars.
Had a market share of over 22 percent.
If you still want to buy a petrol car in China, VW is still a great option.
That base still yields cash and scale, but it also exposes a gap with Chinese competitors
in the BEV, battery electric vehicle and plug-in hybrid or e-rev space.
The group now plans to close the gap, though.
This year, 2026, VW will aim to launch more than 20 all-electric or plug-in hybrid or
e-rev extended range electric vehicles where the engine's a little generated to charge the battery
in China.
All will come with intelligent connectivity and advanced drive resistance systems as standard.
Some of the new cars will sit on the CMP compact main platform, previously China main platform,
developed inside China and on the CEA, China Electronic Architecture.
A local electronic backbone designed for rapid software upgrades and tighter integration
of the digital functions wanted in China.
Volkswagen remains the foreign firm with the deepest roots in China's mass market,
but 8 percent down in 2025 shows that if you stick with gasoline in China,
it guarantees you won't be growing.
Now, we've been talking about these new rules between the EU and China in terms of setting
price flaws to avoid a race to the bottom and discounting what we saw in China happening again
here in Europe by the Chinese makers.
The Secretary General of the China Passenger Car Association
reckons Chinese EV exports to the European Union will now grow by 20 percent a year,
on average, from this year to the end of 2028.
He allows for short-term bumps, but argues that a recent deal between Brussels and Beijing
has protected core market access for the Chinese newcomers.
On Monday, China's Ministry of Commerce said both sides have now agreed
common guidance for price undertakings is how they call it, like a price flaw.
For exports of BEVs to the European Union, these pledges will replace the EU's earlier
anti-subsidy duties.
Quidong Xu called the outcome a pragmatic breakthrough that swaps a tariff war for
managed prices to the mutual benefit of both sides.
Chinese brands have already taken more than 10 percent of Europe's EV market in 2025,
with domestic car makers growing fast across the block.
Mr. Qu says the new framework should cement that momentum.
The deal will also change how Chinese firms operate and compete.
Price constraints will push them away from low-price tactics and towards higher margin models,
towards having a stronger brand, and even local production in Europe as well.
Something that many of the big Chinese names have already undertaken and many are now undertaking.
Okay, let's move on to S-Volt stories today, a couple of battery stories.
First of all, Chinese battery maker S-Volt has unveiled its Fortress 2 battery pack,
a fast charging system for family cars.
Their sixth battery day in Changzhou, in the Jiangsu Province.
The pack's cells support peak charging at 6C, that would be a 10-80 charge in 10 minutes.
That matters in a Chinese market where charging speed now rivals range and price as a really
big selling point.
Fortress 2 uses a highly integrated system design that S-Volt says limits volume,
utilization, and system energy density, or sorry, lifts it by 6 percent.
The cells use ultra-fast charging graphite technology to hit 6C, that's a...
C-rate is a measure, a multiplier of charge and discharge rate.
So anything 2C or 3C is a good charging EV.
6C is just off the charts, but it's kind of becoming normal in China.
S-Volt's push on fast charging comes as it edges towards the black.
The firm achieved its first quarterly profit in the first quarter,
first quarter of the fourth quarter of 2025,
and will realize full-year profitability they say this year.
High margin packs like Fortress 2 will help.
China's battery industry already sets the pace on cost and deployment and innovation.
S-Volt is betting that gains in pack integration and charging speed
carves out room in a charging field.
S-Volt also says it's cut fast charging times by 25 percent through new battery
chemistries.
The Great Wall Motor Affiliate unveiled the 3.5 generation, bear with me on this,
ion oscillation pulse charging technique, claiming a similar cut in full charge times,
but with no extra battery system cost.
The firm announced that the upgrade will happen.
They announced it at their battery day in China, that I previously mentioned.
It says the technology will enter mass production in the third quarter of this year.
Rather than a new cell design, they presented this improvement
as an iteration of existing charging to be built into customers' new platforms
from the end of 2026.
S-Volt traces the evolution of traction battery charging
from what they say is constant current constant voltage through to step charging
and multi-factor integrated charging and now to terminal pulse charging.
I must admit, I might need to go and educate myself a bit more about that.
The new 3.5 generation ion oscillation pulse technique further refines control and,
like I say, speeds up charging of their batteries by 25 percent without making
chemistry changes.
Their new packs are 270 watt hours per kilogram, already in some cars,
but that's with the liquid or semi-solid electrolyte will be made in 2026.
Now, Ito's one millionth vehicle, the M9, a sport utility rolled off the line yesterday.
The firm took five years to reach that mark of a million vehicles
and wants its second million in less than half that time.
The milestone matters because Ito sits at the sharp end of China's push
into the premium segment, long dominated by the foreign brands and badges.
The brand is jointly developed by Huawei and Ceres, listed in Hong Kong.
It is also the first brand under Huawei's Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance,
H-I-M-A or HEMA, the firm's broader effort to turn software into their edge in cars.
Ito launched in December 2021, sells four SUVs, the M5, M7, M8 and M9,
and the one millionth vehicle was an M9, the flagship.
So that is a $67,000 vehicle, one of the most expensive models from a Chinese domestic brand.
That is right up against premium German rivals.
Since the market debut a couple of years ago in December 2023,
the M9 has sold more than 260,000 deliveries, very popular vehicle in two years,
setting a domestic delivery record for vehicles priced around 500,000 RMB.
Again, a large, one of those ones is sort of big 22 inch wheels, a big SUV,
real flagship, a very special looking vehicle, if you ask me, very, very premium.
All right, let's move on and let's stay with Ito and talk about the M7 EREV,
Extended Range Electric Vehicle.
They've pushed the range of their sport utility M7 as Chinese makers race to
cram more battery into their EREVs.
It's the current selling tool, marketing tool, EREV versions of the M7
now claim 327 kilometers, electric only 1700 kilometers with some fuel in there as well.
The move is all part of a shift happening in China over the last year.
Range extended models now adopt larger packs with more pure electric driving.
They promise long haul flexibility, but daily driving on electric.
Ito's added two M7 EREV variants, a five-seater and a six-seater,
starting at $42,000, $43,000 equivalent.
They have a 53.4 kilowatt hour back.
Look, plenty of EVs get by on that battery size anyway outside of China.
It is a five meter long vehicle, two meters wide, 1.8 meters high.
So a large, the M7 is still a large vehicle, launched about three years ago,
and they just launched the 2026 model year.
Lowering the entry price, CATL is still the battery provider of that.
There's a bed variant with a 100 kilowatt hour pack and 710 kilometers of range as well.
Let's take a break, we'll come back to X-Pung and Buick.
In a second, stick around.
I didn't realize I was wasting $415 a month until I downloaded RocketMoney.
I thought I had my finances under control until the app laid out all my spending
and categorized it for me.
Takeout, shopping, and unused subscriptions were quietly draining my account.
And as a result, my savings took a backseat.
But RocketMoney doesn't just tell you what you're wasting money on,
it takes action to save you money.
First, the app looks at your income and monthly expenses,
and calculates how much you can safely spend each day to stay under budget.
RocketMoney also finds and cancels unwanted subscriptions for you,
and even negotiates better rates on your bills, so you have more money in your pocket.
On average, RocketMoney members can save up to $740 a year when using all the app's premium features.
Users love the app with over 186,000 five-star ratings.
It's time to simplify your finances and take control of your money.
Go to RocketMoney.com slash cancel to get started.
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All right, welcome back to the podcast.
XPung wants half its sales to come from overseas within the next 10 years.
It's now building the plumbing to make that goal realistic.
The Chinese EV maker plans to set up independently run local supply chain teams in Europe
and the Asian region.
These teams will sit on top of local production that XPung aims to start in Europe and Southeast Asia
for this year.
The aim is to deepen its overseas supply base, speed up the response to any local demand changes
and production.
That plan has sped up over the past two years.
XPung delivered 45,000 vehicles overseas last year in 2025, up 92% on the previous year.
To that end, it's begun to put together a modest global manufacturing footprint.
It signed an agreement for local assembly in Malaysia last year.
Last week, it had trial production as well of its updated P7 Plus,
making that one in Austria in Graz with the contract manufacturer Magna,
edging closer to European markets with that new vehicle to the updated vehicle.
Okay, here's a card that my American listeners can't get but a name you'll recognize.
Buick are launching a plug-in hybrid version of their SUV in China that claims a petrol and
battery range that will, even the most hardened range anxiety skeptic,
will have to admit this is a real bladder buster.
If you particularly want to go on a road trip in the Electra E7, it's a five-seater,
it's a mid-size SUV, the Electra, about 4.8 meters long, then it'll do 1600 kilometers
on a single journey.
The model matters for General Motors' attempt to be relevant in China.
Buick, one of GM's strong Chinese badges, will debut the Electra E7 in the first quarter of this
year.
As part of its wider strategy in China, built on the Xiaoyao Superarchitecture unveiled last year,
it is, let's say, a mid-size SUV that I think would go down actually pretty well in some parts
of the world if you could buy the vehicle there.
With its lithium-ion battery offering 210 kilometers of electric range only.
And finally, China's industry ministry cleared a new entrance into the country's
premium MPV race, the Luxe Seed V9.
The first MPV under the Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance I previously mentioned
is going to be a 500,000 yuan large luxury MPV.
Goes on sale this spring, right up against the Li Auto Mega, Dongfeng's Voya Dreamer.
They're the big high-end family haulers.
There's more as well in China in the range-extended market.
And Huawei-linked alliances now want to push beyond saloons and SUVs.
Inside, I mean, very flexible, pretty flashy.
But I'd say more about flexibility than flashiness inside this.
Second and third rows do fold down.
Second row adds swiveling 180-degree rotations.
You can face the third row, a little party in the back,
a lot of social use, executive shuttles like that layout, for instance.
Again, there's not much you can do with the shape of an MPV.
So imagine in your mind's eye what this looks like.
And yeah, it's a big people carrier.
Still looks pretty slick.
It's got the closed off front, very smooth front with no grille,
because not much cooling is needed for this.
It's a 1.5-litre range extender.
And so they never drive the wheels.
Dual motors on front and rear axle.
And so a couple different battery packs that you can get for this,
either LFP or a ternary pack.
And the roof-mounted LiDAR is rated at 520 lines
with seven-millimeter wave radars, full-surround perception.
They say level three, assisted driving, parking to parking navigation,
and a full set of safety suite stuff as well.
Dual chamber, air suspension, rear wheel steering.
It's got the locks.
And it looks pretty special inside.
That is the Luxe V9 coming soon.
Another entrance to that big, that kind of big hauler space.
Oh, and by the way, not disappearing door handles
in preparation of the new China regulations.
That's your podcast for today.
Thanks for listening.
See you on the next one.
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About this episode
Volkswagen faces declining sales in China, with a notable 8% drop in 2025, as local competitors excel in electrification and technology. Meanwhile, S-Volt introduces its Fortress 2 battery pack, promising a remarkable 10-minute charge time, while AITO celebrates its one millionth vehicle, the M9, marking a significant milestone in the premium EV segment. The episode also covers XPung's expansion plans and Buick's new plug-in hybrid SUV, the Electra E7, designed for long-range travel. Insights into the evolving Chinese EV market and its impact on global trends are also discussed.
