CHINA: Xpeng Aims Upmarket, Xiaomi Faces Backlash and Leapmotor Sets Sights On A Million | 05 Feb 2026

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Welcome back to EV News, China today.

X-Pong aims upmarket.

Xiaomi faces a backlash and Leap Motor sets its sights on a million.

Plus, stay tuned.

Later in the show, I'll tell you why BYD says overseas growth is crucial to its future.

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 heart of China's booming EV industry

and decode how fast-moving developments in the East shape the global landscape.

X-Pong's newest model abandons the pure electric orthodoxy

that it built its reputation upon.

The new GX is a six-seat SUV measuring 5.26 meters long.

That's 17.3 feet.

It arrives in China this year with both PureBev and E-Rev powertrains.

It's a pragmatic concession to buyers who want to go electric

and still have some anxiety of long-distance trips.

The extended range version, they say, runs 452 kilometers.

That's 281 miles on electric alone under the China cycle.

Combined range over 1,000 miles or 1,600 kms.

That's of course using the petrol generator to recharge the battery.

It's built on an 800-volt architecture with 5C charging, so it's ultra-fast.

Dual motor, all-wheel drive system, 62 miles an hour in four seconds.

Okay, elephant in the room on this.

High-tech, big six-seater, an SUV shape.

The styling borrows liberally from Range Rover.

Now, I've long said multiple times we are light years past the accusations

that the Chinese names are just copying Western stuff,

which you can't deny has happened, used to happen, probably still happens in some sectors.

Automotive, though, I think we've seen so much innovation coming out of China

that we can learn in the West a lot from the East.

However, this is one of those cases where I'm not falling back on a lazy stereotype or cliche.

This is a Range Rover.

This is a Range Rover Velar.

From the front, it's a Range Rover Velar.

From the side, it's a Range Rover.

From the rear, it's got a full-width light bar,

because, you know, it's an EV and all EVs seem to have this light bar thing.

But, yeah, this is pretty much one where they've got the tracing paper out and just done a copy.

I'm sure under the skin, it's obviously very different.

And inside, I've not got pictures of the inside.

It could be wildly different.

And Range Rovers, of course, 120, 150,000,

depending on how you spec them, are going to feel incredibly special inside.

This one sits on its SPA3 platform.

So rear-wheel steering, steer-by-wire technology,

loaded with the high-tech Turing chips.

There's four of those for 3,000 tops of power, level four autonomy ready.

But get this, the pricing starts at $400,000 RMB.

That's $55,000 US dollars equivalent.

So if you want a Range Rover with its upright profile,

all-wheel drive, pronounced shoulder lines, that premium feel,

then the X-Pong GX is arriving this year.

Now we obviously have EVs already from the P7 Plus and the G7 SUV in China, at least.

The calculation they're making must be simple.

Chinese buyers want electric efficiency for daily use.

Let's make it an EV as well if people want it.

And let's give them a Range Rover for half or a third of the price.

That's the new X-Pong GX, and it's coming this year.

Now Xiaomi's Su7 is facing another backlash.

An Su7 sedan caught fire in Liaoning province on the 1st of February,

sparking more viral videos that show dramatic fireworks bursting as flames engulfed the vehicle.

The company, which entered the EV market two years ago,

really, at least with cars on sale, they've been around a bit longer.

But otherwise known as a consumer electronics company,

quickly acknowledged the incident and opened up their own investigation.

Now Xiaomi's official response on the 4th of February, three days later, clarified things.

It was a residual ignition source left inside the vehicle, whatever that could be.

But that's what ignited the cabin materials.

The company emphasised that the battery and the vehicle's systems

were all functioning normally throughout the event.

What people could see, which they claim were fireworks on social media,

were actually airbags deploying under the intense high temperature.

The incident highlights, though, challenges facing new EV manufacturers in China's competitive

market, where tech credibility and safety perceptions are mattering.

Without initial technical details, online speculation for the first three days

filled the void, as you can imagine, with rivals amplifying the footage.

Xiaomi's transparent response I think is a good thing.

It demonstrates improved safety communication standards,

not trying to brush it under the carpet,

explaining what happened here. It was an isolated case.

It was a rental vehicle, no injuries, of course.

But for manufacturers in this space, it's incredibly difficult

to fight that online spread of misinformation,

disinformation as well, if it is intentionally being spread.

Now, Leap Motors COO, Chief Operating Officer Xu Zhen,

has set a target of a million vehicles worldwide this year,

and that's significant because it is a 76% jump from the units delivered in 2025,

and many Chinese makers would like the glory days of growing at 76% annually.

But Leap Motor want to do that.

The Chinese EV maker relies on Stellantis' partnership for some capital,

access to technology, and distribution overseas.

China's electric vehicle market has evolved from rapid expansion

into intense competition, centered on pricing and dev technology.

Leap Motor competes alongside the kind of cars that BYD and Xiaomi make in a segment

where scale equals survival.

Often, Stellantis invested $1.7 billion, that's 1.5 billion euros,

for 20% of Leap Motor, and established Leap Motor International,

a joint venture 51% owned by Stellantis to market and even produce vehicles overseas.

This arrangement gives Stellantis access to affordable electric models.

Leap Motor gains the dealer network.

But reaching a million vehicles this year would elevate Leap Motor from its

second tier existence at the moment to a global mass manufacturer within a decade.

The company achieved profitability last year and more than doubled their annual deliveries.

Success requires good software, good design, good pricing in multiple regions,

all at the same time.

The ambitious target establishes a clear benchmark, though Leap Motor

either emerges as one of the global competitors going forward in the next few years,

up to the end of the decade, or will probably face some consolidation pressure

in China and overseas as well.

China's Nevo A06 is a turning point in the EV industry,

and certainly the beginning of 2026 is a time we'll look back and remember.

This is the world's first mass-produced passenger car with sodium ion batteries,

now rolling off Chinese assembly lines.

So Chang'an's Nevo A06 uses the NAXTRA cells from CATL.

It's a relatively small battery pack.

It's 45 kilowatt hours.

It'll deliver 250 miles or 400 kilometers on the China cycle,

so not a lot in real-world terms.

But it pulls sodium ion chemistry out of the lab bench,

and actually there's been some motorbikes with sodium ion in,

and into the mainstream car market.

Sodium ion batteries contain a better mix of ingredients,

if you like, that overcomes some problems we have at the moment.

The big one is cost.

So sodium ion batteries cost less.

They also tolerate the cold way better than their lithium alternatives,

operating quite happily down to minus 30 degrees Celsius,

that's minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit.

Those temperatures are unheard of in most parts of the world,

but if you do live somewhere in Northern China, Northern Europe,

places where the temperature gets down to that,

then you will certainly appreciate a battery

that is still fully operational.

The compromise is lower energy density.

But I will add a caveat if I may editorialize just briefly.

Yeah, the lower energy density is 175 watt-hours per kilogram,

but that's where we were with things like lithium ion phosphate,

maybe five years ago, and lithium ion technology, maybe 10 years ago.

And so those timelines, by the way, not exact.

What I'm illustrating there, though, is this is the beginning

of the journey for sodium ion in mainstream car transport.

And so when you're at the beginning of a development curve,

you can iterate and improve much quicker

than when you're working with a technology

that has had maturation over decades.

And so that, yes, is lower.

And of course, with more modern batteries,

we're talking about solid state.

We're looking at 400, 500 watt-hours per kilogram and upwards.

But it matches lithium ion phosphate from not so long ago, actually.

Chang'an placed the A06 in China's high volume segment.

So there's a reason for that.

Price sensitivity drives purchases.

And lithium carbonate costs bite hard.

The placement signals a strategic split.

Sodium ion for affordable urban mobility,

maybe for ride hailing or cars that recharge often

with a small battery pack.

And then lithium ion or LFP for other vehicles,

maybe longer range, maybe export.

For CATL, which has poured $1.4 billion

into developing sodium ion batteries,

the A06 is their commercial proof they needed.

For Chang'an, the differentiation

offers a competitive edge against those

that perhaps have had some headlines recently

for their own battery technology.

Rightly so, BYD, Geely, the emerging startups as well.

While the Western regulators are still mid-debate

about how to move away from lithium, nickel, and cobalt,

China not only pioneered using LFP,

firstly in commercial vehicles, then road transport,

and now a new technology, sodium ion in the Nevo A06.

We're going to see lots more of this technology.

And it's only the beginning of you and I talking about it

really on this spin-off show.

We'll take a quick break, we'll come back, we'll talk Neo

and IM Motors.

Stick around, back in a bit.

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Hey, welcome back to the show.

Now, Shanghai-based IM Motors are expanding overseas.

The IM5 and IM6, which other overseas markets have had for a while,

now expanding to the UAE and Tunisia,

moving into the Gulf and North Africa.

The UAE serves as their primary regional beachhead,

following a flagship showroom opening in Dubai last year.

New flagship coming for Abu Dhabi.

Customer deliveries begin March and April,

joining the IM LS7.

From its UAE base,

IM aims to establish a regional hub

and expand into the Middle East.

Tunisia extends the brand's North African presence.

After an entry into Egypt,

the combined Gulf and Maghreb operations

create a north-south axis across the region.

The IM5 and IM6 function as their kind of global spearheads.

They're very good vehicles, not the cheapest,

but they emphasize things like intelligent systems.

And at its core sits their drive-resistance system.

That's the one that was developed with Momenta.

It has automated parking,

handling more than 30 challenging situations.

It says from tight streets to underground garages,

recognizing hundreds of parking space configurations.

We'll see how they sell in those markets.

NEO had some really big news for us.

NEO expects to deliver their first ever quarterly profit

under both non-gap and gap accounting standards,

marking significant achievement in China's EV sector

and a loss-making company.

They've provided investors with specific profit guidance,

showing non-gap adjusted operating profit

between 700 million and 1.2 billion yuan,

while gap operating profit should range from 200 to 700 million yuan.

This milestone stems from delivery growth,

better product mix they say,

and cost cutting.

Well, let's call it cost optimization.

Reaching profitability strengthens NEO's position

with global investors who typically scrutinize

these Chinese names that are expanding overseas

and struggling for profit sometimes.

And that allows them to fund new models to access new capital

to match the aggressive product cycles by their competitors.

In China's crowded market,

where dozens of brands compete amid falling prices

and state-backed rivals,

it demonstrates a financial viability

that's long been missing from NEO.

Owner confidence, of course,

holds a lot of weight in China,

where concerns, rightly so by the way,

about brand survival directly impact purchase decisions

and residual values, servicing and software support.

NEO's profit guidance positions the company

among the credible long-term players in the industry,

while one profitable quarter

does not fix everything at NEO.

Cash is still strapped.

They provided at least stakeholders

and drivers of the vehicles with some tangible evidence.

The company delivered 326,000 vehicles last year,

up 40% year over year,

demonstrating the scale necessary to get profitability.

Now Brazil has ended tariff breaks for BYD

after domestic and foreign car makers pushed back

against preferential treatment for the Chinese EV maker.

The government restored full 35% duties

on imported electric and hybrid vehicle kits,

accelerating a tariff increase scheduled for mid-2028 to today.

With immediate effect, BYD has secured temporary relief

while converting Ford's old plant

into its largest production facility outside of China.

It's a 4 million square meter site

and it's a huge investment

of about 1.1 billion US dollars equivalent.

They began producing vehicles with kits in October 2025,

made about 25,000 out of the factory so far.

They're racing to localize their supply chain

as well, targeting 50% Brazilian content

by the end of this year.

Current capacity is for 150,000 units annually

by the end of this year.

Brazil already ranks as BYD's largest overseas market,

more than 130,000 sold since 2021.

Sales jumped 328% in 2024

and the first quarter of last year

saw deliveries exceeding 20,000 vehicles

for the very first time.

They sell the DMI there,

which is their plug-in hybrid technology.

They run it on Brazil's ethanol

petrol infrastructure, by the way.

BYD, we'll finish off with them today,

have been talking and giving an interview

that I found on EuroNews, actually,

and EuroNews profiling BYD

with their boss, Stella Lee,

talking about why fast charging

and European factories are the key

to continued growth.

As a reminder, BYD sold 2.26 million

BEVs last year, Tesla did 1.63 million.

BYD now easily the world's biggest pure EV maker.

Once the chief executive of Tesla scoffed

and laughed at waving away competition

a few years ago,

the idea that BYD could ever grow.

The Chinese company started as a battery maker

but moved into building cars

and the executive vice president, Stella Lee,

who's been giving this interview,

she was named the world car person

of the year in 2025,

leading the company that employs

110,000 engineers in their R&D department.

And I've said this fact before,

this has come again out of the EuroNews interview with her.

I had somebody push back on that previously,

a listener to the podcast going,

you've actually got that stat wrong.

It would be impossible to have an R&D department

of 110,000 engineers.

Well, I had not been there

and I've not knocked on the door

and counted them all personally.

But that's the official data that I've mentioned before.

Somebody said it's kind of incredulous

that a company could have that many people

working just in a R&D.

And once again,

this has been talked about in this article.

So I don't know what to say.

I'm just reporting what the company themselves say

and you wonder how BYD is able

to be so vertically integrated,

making every nut bolt and washer

is how I put it in terms of the batteries,

the EVs, the software, the sensors, the components.

It's all them.

That's why they need so many people.

It's why they need scale

and they'll get that scale from going overseas.

BYD manufactures parts for a third of the world's smartphones as well.

The automaker offers 13 models

across Europe and the Gulf,

ranging from urban vehicles to the hypercar

that's the Unine Xtreme that'll do 308 miles per hour.

That's almost 500 kilometers per hour.

And then there's the Dolphin Mini.

That's the little car

that is the world urban car of the year last year.

Still Euro NCAP five-star rated.

BYD developed megawatt charging back home in China

that adds 250 miles of range or 400 kilometers

in just five minutes.

And I told you recently about some spice shots

and photos coming out of some units,

1.5 megawatts BYD charges

that they're now testing for their Gen 2 stuff.

They've got 3,000 fast charging stations

going in the ground in Europe.

That's the plan.

Trade tariffs on Chinese EVs are obviously a concern,

but Lee views them as a temporary obstacle

that hurts consumers.

She emphasizes that local production matters more.

BYD's 4.7 billion dollar investment in southern Hungary

begins production in the second quarter of this year.

Beyond Europe, the company sees the Gulf region

as an opportunity for growth,

signing a national battery storage energy partnership

with the UAE government

and targeting the Middle East as well.

And that's your podcast for today.

Thanks for listening. See you on the next one.

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CHINA: Xpeng Aims Upmarket, Xiaomi Faces Backlash and Leapmotor Sets Sights On A Million | 05 Feb 2026

About this episode

E-Rev powertrain

5C charging

800-volt architecture

dual motor all-wheel drive system

Land Rover Range Rover

Range Rover Velar

SPA3 platform

level four autonomy

X-Peng GX

XPeng P7 Plus

Xiaomi Su7

Xiaomi

Leap Motor

BYD

Stellantis

joint venture

sodium ion batteries

Chang'an Nevo A06

NAXTRA cells

kilowatt hours

solid state batteries

Chang'an A06

Ford

plug-in hybrid technology

ethanol

BEVs

Tesla

world car person of the year

Dolphin Mini

Request an Explanation

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