CHINA: Yangwang U9 Xtreme Track Record, BYD Kei Car and China Average NEV Price Drops | 22 Oct 2025

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Welcome back to the podcast today, the Yangwang Unite Extreme Track Record, BYD's K-Car,

and China's average NEV price drops.

Plus, stay tuned because later in the show I'll tell you about a war blowing up between

China and the Netherlands about chips.

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 hearts of China's booming

EV industry and decode how fast moving developments in the east are shaping the global EV landscape.

Let's start with news of BYD's Yangwang brand and the Unite Extreme recorded a nirbegring

Nordschleife lap record of 6 minutes and 59.157 seconds, the first production electric vehicle

lap under 7 minutes, just, and the fastest production EV time at the entire circuit.

The certification on the production car leaderboard confirms the model's dual first status for

lap time and top speed, the latter measured at 496.22kmh making it the fastest global production

supercar and exceeding the previous production EV Nordschleife benchmark by 5 seconds.

Yangwang executive He Xiaoqing said that the official listing follows a private track

session.

Now this happened on October 10th when there was some really bad weather and that constrained

the high speed window.

The team managed just one hot lap, one flying lap, the drivers hadn't used the Unite Extreme

for almost a month since September 18th, it was their first track session in 22 days,

they jumped in it and set a brand new record, this thing is a weapon.

Staying with BYD, at the other end of the scale from the world's fastest car is one

of the world's smallest cars, Japan has a category of car called K-Car and BYD posted

a preview on its Japanese website of its first K-Car confirming it will appear at the Japan

Mobility Show 2025 October 30th, the site included a side view image with proportions

and styling.

K-Cars in Japan are small cars, it's a category for narrow roads, under 3.4m long, less than

1.48m wide and limited to 64hp, they get incentives like lower purchase taxes and are often chosen

as second cars by urban families.

The European Union are looking at doing something similar to incentivise a small EV category

here.

Now, local media reported that BYD's K-Car, which they were stylising as K-Cars, whereas

it's K-E-I-Car.

Either way, they may use a 20kWh battery pack and look, that's the size of my first Renault

Zoe almost like 10 years ago, so that's absolutely fine, 180km on the WLTC cycle at least and

so we'll find out more about that soon.

China's NEV average price dropped to just over $20,000, $158,000 RMB is now the average

price of a new energy vehicle in China in September.

Dipping below $160,000 for the first time, this continues a downward trend of the average

price of a new energy vehicle, NEV in China, so it's got a plug socket on, of $171,000

last year, $184,000 the year before in 2023.

More people are buying, more, smaller, micro-cars in China, sub-compact cars as well, bringing

the average price down.

China's NEV production and sales hit records, China's EV production hit a high in September,

1.62 million units produced, 1.60 million units sold.

September production rose 23.7% year on year and sales rose 24.6% year on year.

For the first nine months of the year, they made 11.24 million EVs in China, up 35% year

on year and they've sold 11.23% about the same, it's 11 million they've sold so far.

The exports are a huge story in China, so many of the big names in China know they have

to keep growing at a break next speed and the best way to do that is overseas, EV exports

in September 100% up compared to the same month last year.

And from January to September, first nine months of the year, exports from China have

been 1.76 million EVs.

China's EV charging network also growing, EV charging network in China reached 18.06 million

units able to dispense electricity in the end of September, that's up 54% from the same

time last year.

Public charging was 4.48 million units up 40%, private charges also counted in this

up 60%, so people are installing more charges at home than they are putting public charges

in, that's up 60% to 14 million units.

In the first nine months of the year, we also saw big infrastructure growth in China and

China's EV battery output, we got a bunch of September data coming in today, you can

tell, and China's power battery production reached 1,122 gigawatt hours in the first

nine months of the year, 44% up on the same time last year.

Honestly, we thought we were seeing China start to slow down in 2025, we thought we were seeing

China mature and those massive growth figures come back at least into double digits.

These are huge growth numbers, again, September production of power batteries was 151 gigawatt

hours, that's 50% up on September last year, through nine months, 44% of total battery

output was installed into vehicles and ternary 39% LFP, 46% in September, which is the highest

monthly installation proportion to date.

China is also going to push investment into advanced manufacturing of things like electric

vehicles and connected vehicles in its next Communist Party plan.

Leaders of the party will shape their 15th five-year plan, they're still a fan of their

five-year plans in China, amid technology and trade frictions, the Party Central Committee

will begin outlining the 15th plan during the four-day fourth plenum and is likely to

stress boosting domestic consumption of electric vehicles under the current 14th five-year

plan, which ends this year.

Industrial policies and subsidies have been driving advances in electric vehicles, challenging

the established industries in Europe and the US, Beijing signals it will repeat the state-led

approach for plan 15 due to be published next March, with government investment in cutting-edge

technologies, as President Xi Jinping seeks industrial and technological self-reliance

away from any kind of US-led economies.

Great Wall Motor, GWM, has opened pre-sales for a refreshed tank 400.

The tank is a hybrid SUV offered as the existing Hi-4T, the new Hi-4Z, being priced from 310,000

RMB.

This is quite premium vehicles, introduced a couple of years ago.

September 2023, the tank 400 launched as a hardcore off-road vehicle.

That was the Hi-4T.

The Hi-4Z targets urban buyers, so not as much off-road capability while introducing

Great Wall Motor's new powertrain, which increases, they say, more off-road ability

than a typical urban SUV without using a mechanical four-wheel drive.

The Hi-4T uses a single electric motor and a peak output of 130 kilowatts.

The Hi-4Z, the new one, is almost 3,000 kilograms curb weight, but it uses dual electric motors,

635 kilowatts.

Both variants, though, use battery packs, the range extenders, via the 37 or 59 kilowatt

hours for up to 200 kilometers of electric only range.

Now, the MG4 is a very popular vehicle outside of China, very popular here in the UK for

instance.

The MG4 has had incredible reviews from the motoring press for what is an incredible chassis,

a great rear-wheel drive, driver's car, makes you smile, the MG4 holds its own against particularly

the hot versions.

They do an X-Power version, just ridiculously good for the money, until China decided to

completely redesign the MG4.

The new MG4 in China, which will eventually get Australia and right-hand drive markets

like the UK and Europe as well, is entirely different.

But it's also going to be a lot cheaper, but there's many more compromises.

They've gone front-wheel drive, they've not tuned it for handling.

All the decisions seem to be based around cutting the cost rather than what it had a

great reputation for already.

So we'll see how that goes down when it arrives here, but a while to go yet until that happens.

For now, it's only in China.

MG started deliveries of the MG4 Smart Edition in China, but it now comes with a CATL battery.

They say this enabled them to get the deliveries out on time.

MG's general manager Chen Chui said the switch from the originally planned batteries to CATL

was made to meet delivery targets in October.

All Smart Edition MG4s will now come with CATL packs, targeting a sub-100,000 yuan

price segment.

That's $14,000 US dollars for a car with a CLT range of 530 kilometers.

Very advanced driving assistance, by the way, and the interior of the new MG, I think looks

fantastic.

Not that the old one looked bad, by the way, but I think the inside looks very nice, quite

sleek and simple.

Clearly, they've cut some costs somewhere, but it's not an evolution of the existing

car.

When the MG4 arrives overseas, it's going to be a very different car, I think, for a lot

of people.

It was introduced in August in China.

It had rapid sales growth there because they're aiming for lower price points.

Most people don't drive their cars on windy B roads and spirited driving.

Most people just want safe, reliable, comfortable transport to go from A to B, so you kind of

understand the decision that's been made there.

Had 12,000 deliveries in September in China, it was launched at the Chengdu Auto Show a

couple of months ago, built on SAIC's E3 pure electric platform.

The vehicle actually starts, not the one we were just talking about, we talked about

the first edition a minute ago with the CATL pack.

You can get that down to 9,000 US dollars.

Let's talk a motor, and the E-Moda 4, a compact SUV with electric powertrains to compete with

cars outside of China like the Kia EV3, Renault 4, and Volvo EX30, debuting at what is the

Cherry User Summit, which would otherwise seem as a pretty dry event, maybe, but unveiling

the car there.

And they had a mix of sci-fi characters on hand, cocktail mixologists, body art.

It was a curious event, and they didn't even unveil the full specs, but observers will

expect a B-segment SUV to use the T1X platform that's shared with the O-Moda 5.

Now the O-Moda 5, not the O-Moda 4, which we're talking about, the 5 is a front axle

motor, 61 kilowatt hour pack, 267 miles of range.

The O-Moda 4, I think, is a cracking looking vehicle.

Very Toyota at the front, almost like they've designed it with only a ruler at hand.

They called it a cyber mecca design philosophy.

So geometric surfaces, robotics-inspired details, a blocky exterior.

Oh, think a bit, Lotus Electra, or, if in your mind's eye, Lamborghini Urus.

So big Snapdragon 2.5K center display, slim digital instrument cluster.

They even put an engine stop-start button under a red cage, like a pilot-style cage,

or like you get on a supercar, so lift up the little flap and then press the start.

OK, O-Moda says the 4 will go on sale overseas.

For example, in the United Kingdom in 2026.

Pricing not known, but it'll be around £25,000.

That's about £8,000 less than the O-Moda 5.

And it's sort of, it's JQ cousin, if you like.

That would put it in line with that.

We'll take a break, we'll come back and a couple more stories on AV News China.

Stick around.

Welcome back to the podcast.

Right, a couple of stories to finish us off.

On October the 20th, two days ago, Dongfeng Motor said on its official WeChat account,

it is advancing solid-state battery R&D and industrial deployment, reporting a series

of breakthroughs and a fully self-controlled supply chain.

Dongfeng said it has mastered its core technologies, the electrolytes, the separators, and in-situ

solidification and develop solid-state battery cells up to 350 watt hours per kilogram.

They say that unlocks a thousand kilometers of range, 600 miles.

The company adds that these cells meet top safety standards and have passed the national

benchmark.

Puncture testing, 50% compression deformation testing and a 150 degrees Celsius thermal

chamber testing.

Next year, we have some really strict rules coming in in China over battery safety and

a lot of these announcements that are being made about batteries this year.

Whether it's a new car being launched or a new technology being talked about, many

of the companies are wisely getting ahead of the game and saying, oh, we already meet

all of the future regulations around battery safety and getting ahead of those things.

And finally, this is a fascinating story about a war breaking out between the Chinese and

overseas owners, if you want to call it that, over chips.

Now, the company is called Nexperia.

Nexperia is based in both China and the Netherlands.

Nexperia's China unit has told staff in Europe to completely ignore any direction that comes

from the Netherlands headquarters, and instead, you must follow all domestic management instructions,

saying it will, and I quote, operate and make decisions independently as a Chinese enterprise,

end quote.

This move follows the Dutch government taking management control of the chip maker earlier

this month.

The seizure came after US warnings that Nexperia would remain on the export control lists if

its Chinese CEO were to stay in charge.

Beijing blocked most of the chip maker's final products from leaving China.

Nexperia, the Netherlands-based producer of basic integrated circuits used in automotive

electronic systems, lighting, airbags, door locks, window mechanisms, the rest, was sold

to a Chinese consortium back in 2017 and later acquired by Wingtec.

On the ground, the situation is described by sources, not named sources, but one person

says the situation is currently chaotic.

We are in great internal disorder right now, and the situation is very unclear, said one

employee, not wanting to be named, Chinese Commerce Ministry restrictions on outbound

shipments are now affecting the automotive supply chain outside of China, and some European

automakers are said to be revisiting and dusting off the old Covid era playbook.

What did we do when supply chains were messed up, as they are now preparing for a potential

chip shortage for electric vehicles, at least in the short term?

CHINA: Yangwang U9 Xtreme Track Record, BYD Kei Car and China Average NEV Price Drops | 22 Oct 2025

About this episode

NEV

BYD K-Car

BYD Unite Extreme

Nordschleife lap record

production electric vehicle

supercar

K-Car

BYD

20kWh battery pack

Great Wall Motor

Tank 400

hybrid SUV

Great Wall Motor Hi-4T

Great Wall Motor Hi-4Z

kilowatt

electric motor

curb weight

MG4

rear-wheel drive

CATL

CLT range

pure electric platform

SAIC

O-Moda 4

electric powertrains

Renault 4

Kia EV3

Eagle Summit

O-Moda 5

Toyota

Lamborghini Urus

Lotus Electra

automotive supply chain

chip shortage

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