CHINA: Xiaomi Passes 500,000, BYD Ends 2025 On A Low and Hongqi Solid-State Battery

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Welcome back to the podcast today.

Xiaomi passes 500,000 BYD ends on a low and honky solid state battery plus they tuned

later in the show.

I'll tell you why.

XPang are trying to coax anxious EV drivers into EREVs with the promise of huge range.

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 our fast-moving developments in the East as shaping the

global EV landscape.

Congratulations to Xiaomi, Xiaomi Auto ended 2025 with a symbolic and a commercial milestone.

December deliveries exceeded 50,000 vehicles for the first time, a monthly record.

The deliveries since launch passed 500,000 units, showing that Xiaomi's car business has

moved from start-up ramp-up to large-scale mainstream production.

Growth has been brisk.

In 2024, its first full year of volume, Xiaomi Auto delivered 135,000 vehicles.

Management set a target last year for 300,000, then raised it to 350,000, and the latest

monthly performance suggests that even with the higher target, that now may be conservative.

The company's outlook for this year has improved again after deliveries quietly slipped past

500,000.

Xiaomi's challenge is to prove that such record volumes can now be routine and not

an end-of-year one-off for sales got brought forward as subsidies changed in China for

the new year.

On January 3rd, three days ago, the last day of China's New Year's holiday, Lei Xun

marked the occasion, not with a keynote, but with a spanner.

The Xiaomi founder spent the day on a live stream with his engineering team and a brand

new YU7 stripping the car down in public.

Panel by panel and module by module, they exposed its layouts, engineering and manufacturing

processes while explaining each step.

The spectacle went beyond a show of confidence in build quality.

Lei used the tear down to argue for what he called a more fact-based conversation.

He urged the industry to move away from breathless praise and sensational criticism

driven by traffic-chasing narratives.

I couldn't agree more.

Now luckily this podcast doesn't rely on clickbait headlines, but I pretty much

live in that universe of having to filter through the news every single day and the

quality of headline writing, of journalism, there's some good stuff out there.

But boy are there some bottom feeders as well and it's either this is amazing, this solid

state battery will kill combustion or it's, as you can imagine, a lot of criticism

around EVs is probably getting clicks right now or Xiaomi wants to talk about

numbers, structures and design choices.

An honourable ambition, I have the same thing, but I'm not sure if we're swimming

against a very strong tide there.

Well this stripped down event marked a shift in Xiaomi as well.

Early efforts leaned on stunts typical of mobile phone launches and also a very

high profile founder as well.

He has a huge presence in China.

However, hasn't been the easiest time.

There's been court cases over upgrade parts that didn't deliver what was

promised and a very high profile crash as well, which shot a spotlight on

Xiaomi that they wouldn't have wanted.

Public tear downs like this invite engineering conversations, informed

people to judge whether the product is any good or not.

For a better, for a firm better known for phones or software or ecosystems,

really what Xiaomi is, Lei was keen to show that Xiaomi can design

world-class hardware and cars during the live stream.

He said Xiaomi has delivered more than 410 vehicles in 2025, beating

their goal of 300,000, which got then got raised, like I said, to 350.

For this year, the company is aiming for 550,000 deliveries.

OK, let's move on.

China and the car dealers there expect a sharp expansion of the

country's old for new trading scheme this year with Lucid rules

forecast to bring more owners into the subsidy net and lift sales.

On December 31st, the China Automobile Dealers Association, the CADA,

said the 2026 policy would relax eligibility.

The key change is a tweak in regulatory drafting the cutoff date

for first registration of qualifying used vehicles in each category

will move a year later.

That calendar shift has big effects, cars that miss age limits

for support last year, because they were registered too early,

become eligible this year.

The state is lowering the bar on vehicle age for subsidy access.

The CADA argues this directly addresses replacement demand

amongst drivers of aging cars and should sustain incentives

over a longer period.

Its analysis suggests that more than 12 million passenger vehicles

and it could now qualify nationwide for subsidies under the updated rules,

giving Beijing a larger lever to speed fleet renewal and underpin

more domestic consumption, whether that's bonanza signals a durable

recovery or something that brings forward demand depends on this old for new scheme.

Let's talk BYD had an amazing year, but ended the year on a bit of a low.

BYD sold 4,602,000 new energy vehicles during 2025.

That's a growth of almost 8% on the previous year.

No longer eye-watering growth in China, but very good nonetheless.

And now clearly ahead of Tesla in terms of being the number one EV maker

in the world, growth slowed, but it didn't stall.

The final month, though, did underline the pressure that even the biggest

of the big are under December sales were down 18%.

That's 420,000.

Within that total, battery electric models were a bright spot,

though pure electric sales for 2025 with 2.256 million.

That is up 28% on the previous year.

Overseas markets did the heavy lifting for BYD.

Exports exceeded 1 million vehicles last year.

December was 133,000 exports.

That's up 145%.

The company logged breakthroughs in several countries in Britain.

Here it sold 35 and a half thousand vehicles.

I think that's the first nine months of 2025 we're talking about.

And that let BYD overtake some long established European and Japanese

rivals. Global expansion has also moved beyond vehicle exports.

BYD now exports what it calls industrial chains.

So new factories in Brazil, Thailand and Hungary

spooling up production, enabling local manufacturing.

The Brazilian facility itself builds both pure electric and plug-in hybrid

models being a base for South American expansion.

Here in Europe, BYD is investing in engineering and assembly

with R&D on the continent now and last May, choosing Hungary

for their European headquarters.

BYD's SEAL 0707 EV turned up on ministry filings.

The China Ministry of Industry and Information Technology filings

showing off some key technical figures ahead of its launch,

clarifying its place in the SEAL lineup.

The all electric midsize saloon will sit along the SEAL 0707

alongside the SEAL 0707 DMI plug-in hybrid.

It expands the lineup that is a pillar really for that bit of the segment.

According to Deauto, total sales of the SEAL series has now peaked

over 518,000 units.

Documents show the SEAL 0707 EV has a 70 kilowatt hour pack

range of 705 kilometers.

The paperwork confirming single motor powertrain.

So a straightforward battery electric version of the DMI hybrid version.

Visually the same.

The front keeps narrow headlamps and the familiar lighting flush door handles

as well and LiDAR sensor on the roof.

OK, let's talk about Hong Chi and let's talk about a solid state battery.

Lots being said about solid state batteries and you've got to be careful.

It's not semi solid state, but it's so much work going on,

particularly in China, that this is a really interesting development.

Hong Chi said it's now installed its first solid state battery inside a vehicle.

According to Y Auto, this was the Hong Chi Tiangong 06 prototype.

It's now completed trial production and has rolled off the production line,

moving the firm's all solid state battery project from the lab

into complete vehicles.

The company calls this a vehicle level integration milestone.

The pack was developed by Hong Chi's R&D Institute

and is, by their own account, their first full all solid state battery

fitted to a production intent model.

With the installation, Hong Chi says it's formally begun on vehicle testing,

focused on system integration, operating stability

and safety performance in real world use.

The Tiangong 06 is Hong Chi's electric SUV

for advanced powertrain and for battery trials as well.

Midsize SUV built on their own architecture, already on sale in China.

Obviously, not this solid state version.

That one comes with conventional lithium ion batteries.

Existing versions sit in the mid to high EV SUV bracket

and are available with rear wheel drive or all wheel drive layouts.

This range of configurations argues Hong Chi

makes the Tiangong 06 suited to exploring how different

drivetrains work with new battery systems and

really interesting 12 months ahead of us in 2026.

What's happening in China and obviously outside as well

with many others moving forward with solid state.

With there's been a lot of jam tomorrow with the likes of Toyota saying,

oh, we've been working on this and it's about to come.

It's about to come. It's about to come.

Well, thanks to others.

And maybe Toyota is going to be there this year as well.

We don't know.

There's there's has been always like, oh, it's here in five minutes.

Everybody else is genuinely getting stuff on the road now.

Validation prototypes from many solid state companies,

either with their automotive partners or in many cases,

the car makers themselves doing it.

Nothing that you can buy right now that changes the game completely.

Of course, you can get the MG for and the ancient edition.

You can get that already.

Semi solid state battery.

That's on the market right now.

But the real forward progress, the one that is going to unlock big range,

massive charging, eventually much lower costs and a lot higher safety.

Well, we're not far away from the likes of you and I,

but to be able to get those vehicles blink of an eye in automotive terms.

No, it's like a quick break.

I'll take a slap of coffee back with one more story.

Talking about expung on the podcast, stick around.

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Welcome back to the podcast.

Now, we'll finish off with this news of X-Pung

launching its updated versions of the P7 Plus.

That's the sedan and the extended range SUV, the G7,

in coming days, opening its offensive for 2026.

The Chinese EV maker says the refreshed P7 Plus

and G7 SUV in EREV form will debut in China

and then in Europe one day later,

signaling that this is going to be a global vehicles,

but particularly a global launch for the P7 Plus.

Now, right now, both the P7 Plus sedan and the G7

are sold as battery-only or battery-electric vehicles only.

I should say it makes sense, doesn't it?

This will soon gain EREV variants.

X-Pung is leaning into what it calls

the dual power train strategy.

And I remain to be convinced about whether this

EREV bubble can really last.

Don't get me wrong.

There's something, a lot of them in China have been.

It's softened a little bit, but let's wait and see.

Maybe they're here for the long term.

Maybe they were of their time.

Can't believe we're saying that

because battery technology is moving forward so quickly.

And of course, the Americans are only now being influenced

by the Chinese and America talking about,

well, we're gonna start launching EREVs

in the next couple of years, 2027 onwards,

things like that.

Could that be?

By that time, China's gone.

Right, well, we're done with that.

A little crutch.

And now we move forward with pure bears

that have got massive range anyway.

So we'll see.

X-Pung, for one, is saying, nope,

dual power train strategy is the right one for us.

It did launch its X-9, a multi-purpose vehicle

it's MPV last year with an EREV in it as well.

And that move puts the firm among the Chinese makers

using range extenders as a pragmatic answer

to range anxiety, which I don't have.

And we don't talk about petrol anxiety

or diesel anxiety, range anxiety,

if you can't find a filling station,

which is gonna happen one day

when fewer and fewer of those are around.

But for now, I think people play into this narrative.

Is it real?

I suppose for, yeah, for many people,

maybe not you and I, it probably is real.

And so they play into that fear.

X-Pung is betting that a petrol backup

widens the appeal, the updated cars,

P7 Plus and G7, and maybe more, by the way,

share an 800 volt architecture,

their super electric system,

which pairs a big traction battery

with a relatively large fuel tank

to tackle that range issue.

And on December 30th,

they disclosed more specs for the G7 EREV.

So battery only electric range of 430 kilometers,

which is huge.

So a massive battery,

adding 314 kilometers in 12 minutes

with a full tank and a full battery,

the G7 EREV, they claim 1700 kilometers,

which X-Pung described on social media, on Weibo,

as the world's longest range SUV.

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CHINA: Xiaomi Passes 500,000, BYD Ends 2025 On A Low and Hongqi Solid-State Battery

About this episode

BYD

new energy vehicles

battery electric models

plug-in hybrid

pure electric

BYD SEAL 0707 EV

solid state battery

Hong Chi

Hong Chi Tiangong 06

lithium ion batteries

rear wheel drive

all wheel drive

MG4

X-Pung P7 Plus

X-Pung G7

X-Peng P7 Plus

X-Peng G7

800 volt architecture

traction battery

EREV

Request an Explanation

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