EV News China: Toyota bZ7 Impresses, New GWM Ora Cat and Xiaomi Now A Top 10 Brand | 15 Sep 2025

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Welcome back to EV News China.

Coming up today, the Toyota BZ7 impresses the new Great Wall Motor Aura Cat and Xiaomi, now a top 10 brand.

Plus, stay tuned.

Later in the show, I'll tell you about the latest premium six-seat SUV coming in E-Rove form that has yet another massive battery.

Welcome to EV News China, the podcast dedicated to the world's largest electric vehicle market.

Each day, each weekday, at least we bring you the latest headlines, expert insights and analysis

from the heart of China's booming EV industry and reveal how these developments are shaping the global landscape.

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Be like them by clicking on a link in the show notes.

We'll start with news of GAC Toyota publishing the official images of the pure electric BZ7.

This is a low-slung sedan, scheduled to debut later this year,

looking every bit as premium as a low-slung Audi or Mercedes sedan.

This is really impressive, and long-time listeners to my other podcast, EV News Daily,

will know that I've been quite critical over the years of Toyota's anti-EV marketing and their slow walking to EV.

But in China, this looks like a very compelling product. Will we get it? Doubtful.

The vehicle measures over 5.1 metres in length with a 3.20 metre wheelbase.

It uses Huawei's Harmony OS cockpit and an electric drive system.

It's expected to be the first car integrated in Xiaomi's smart ecosystem.

The BZ7 is part of a wider push by Japanese automakers into China's EV market, where they're really struggling.

GAC Toyota launched the BZ3X in March this year, starting price of $110,000 RMB, about $15,500 USD equivalent.

The company said the BZ3X received over 10,000 orders in the first hour on sale.

Peng Baolin, GAC Toyota's VP of sales, said on Weibo, the BZ3X delivered 7,324 units last month in August alone,

a new monthly record, deliveries rising month on month for four consecutive months.

The BZ7 will join Xiaomi's human car home ecosystem, allowing actions like remotely controlling your home,

for instance, from your car.

A LiDAR on the roof supports mementos, advanced driving assistance.

The side shows a very low fastback profile, long triangular quarter glass,

quite distinctive from side profile, looking every bit, like I say, Audi Mercedes-Benz BMW premium,

frameless doors and semi-hidden door handles.

That's smart, what with China wanting to have a look at the regulations around completely retractable door handles.

The electric motor, that comes from Huawei 207 kilowatt motor, top speed of 180 kph or 112 miles an hour.

The battery pack, lithium ion phosphate from CALB, but the battery and the range not yet announced by Toyota.

I would say the only bit of this car that looks Toyota-esque, and they've got quite distinctive family resemblance

and face across many of their models, is the front really.

And even then, not massively so, you can probably tell it's a Toyota, but it could look like some of the Chinese things as well.

But from any other angle, I don't think you'd know this is a Toyota. This is a really impressive vehicle.

I like this a lot. Come on, bring it elsewhere.

Toyota, you know that if you want to go EV and stop talking them down, you could do it really, really well.

Great Wall Motors Aura brand is the Chinese EV brand, launched in 2018, offering affordable, stylish, pure bevs,

primarily at younger and female drivers in China, expanding overseas.

They came to Europe, Southeast Asia and Australia.

Despite early success, sales then decreased sharply.

Aura declining to just 14,781 units in the first entire eight months of this year.

Newer competitors regularly outsold them at home.

Aura expanded into Europe, Southeast Asia and South Africa, Australia, Brazil and other markets with models like the Funky Cat,

otherwise known as the Aura03 and the Lightning Cat, the Aura07.

Sales figures were lackluster in Europe. Aura's cars often couldn't compete on key metrics against the other established players at those price points.

They weren't cheap cars. The BYDs, MGs, Tesla's even had much better performance and value

despite some of those Chinese cars also having much lower prices as well.

Now Great Wall Motor disclosed technical and design details for a new Aura branded SUV in a domestic filing by the MIIT.

The filing lists the model as the Aura Cat, with alternate names either Aura5 or Aurai5.

The vehicle appears intended for domestic sale because you couldn't sell the i5 outside of China

because I think BMW might like to have a conversation with the judge about that.

And it's the first Aura model introduced since 2022.

It'll sit between the Aura03 and the Aura07. That's the fastback.

Now according to new CPCA data, Xiaomi also delivered 36,396 vehicles last month in August.

That's a 19.5% month-over-month increase and a 178% year-over-year increase.

This is the second consecutive month with deliveries over 30,000 units.

Here's my regular reminder that Xiaomi has been in existence all of about five minutes in car terms.

At least their car business. The Xiaomi Su7 had 20,000 deliveries just under rather in August.

And the Xiaomi YU7, which has got 240,000 orders I think at my last...

No, it's got more than that. That was the first three days number, I think.

At the rate that they're delivering in August of the YU7, there's a 15 month waiting list.

Now, they'll obviously want to increase deliveries.

They'll obviously want to add production and they are adding facilities.

The YU7 delivered fewer than the Su7, about 20,000 for the Su7.

The YU7, 16,500 deliveries in August.

But combined, that now puts them solidly inside the top 10.

The top 10 August numbers on any of the ranking is BYD,

which is easily far and away ahead of everybody else.

Then GEELY, again, a bit of space between GEELY and everything else.

Then in third place, CHANGANG.

Then it's SGMW, Tesla, China, LeapMota, HIMA,

Ceres, Cherry and Xiaomi Auto in 10th place.

They have been in the top 10 before. Those numbers are solid.

Now, let's talk about Xiaopang.

Earlier today on September 15th, it was announced that they have now begun local vehicle production in Europe.

That's through a cooperation with Magnus Graz Ostria plant,

rolling the X-Pang G6 and the X-Pang G9.

They're both SUVs as the first two cars off the line.

X-Pang entered Europe in 2021, starting in Norway.

They are now in 46 countries and regions in the first six months of the year,

seven months of the year actually.

They sold 18,701 vehicles overseas.

In Europe, registrations alone were 8,000 units,

two-thirds of those were the G6 SUV.

Local production at Magna is intended to strengthen X-Pang's competitiveness in Europe

and reduce the impact of high tariffs, which was 20.7% on top of the existing 10%.

X-Pang's Graz line is its second overseas factory

after beginning production in Indonesia earlier in the summer.

The Graz operation uses existing Magna Stair production lines rather than a new plant build,

which is very sensible for small runs.

Magna is a contract manufacturer.

They make vehicles for Mercedes-Benz, BMW, JLR, Toyota.

They have flexible, low to medium volume, multi-model assembly lines.

The X-Pang plans will include expanded production at Magna with more models,

including sedans and dedicated EV platforms with more mid-size and compact SUVs.

They say the Munich R&D Center supports the expansion

as they learn about European portfolio needs and local buy preferences.

At the IAA show last week, X-Pang displayed the P7, the new G6 and G9,

their big MPV, the X9, and the P7 Plus.

We'll talk a little bit about the X9 in just a moment.

But first, let's talk about X-Pang's G7 EREV.

This has a battery-only driving range of 267 miles, that's 430 kilometres,

and it will be in the market in the first quarter of next year.

Regulatory filings with the MI-IT include images and specifications of the G7 EREV,

it's actually 26 millimetres longer than the Bev version, with the same wheelbase, though.

The front end keeps the X-Pang face with the continuous light strip

and the split headlamps.

New air vents sit beside the headlights

and the bonnet has sculpted creases.

The side is kind of coupe-like with a sloping roofline.

Sculpted doors, quite pronounced surfaces.

The G7 EREV adds a rear-facing camera, or a couple of them actually,

on the front fenders.

Flush door handles and floating-style door mirrors.

Powertrain details, you might be wondering, so what does this thing go like?

A 1.5-litre extended-range engine.

God, that's just such a common engine to put in these vehicles, isn't it?

Alongside, it says 110 kilowatts, paired with an electric motor,

which is 218 kilowatts,

because that does all of the heavy lifting in terms of driving the vehicle.

Energy storage of this EREV is a 55.8 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion phosphate

supplied by EVE Energy, that's the pack at least.

This thing looking, I don't know, every bit a Model Y competitor.

Really aggressive pricing on this.

The BEV trims start at 195,800 yuan.

The EREV version, you would think, I don't know,

you would think would be a little bit cheaper.

Not a vehicle that we can go and get yet.

This is a China vehicle of course, the G7.

And the EREV version, you would think,

again, probably going to be pretty popular.

Let's finish off talking about X-Pong today,

and that would be the G, sorry, the X9.

The X9 is a seven-seat MPV,

and they will reveal the EREV version in October,

the company announced on Weibo.

Hu Xiaoping, the chairman and CEO,

shared a poster showing the X9 EREV

with its 800 volts architecture, 5C charging.

The poster he shared online said 280 miles

or 450 kilometers of CLTC battery range,

and almost 1,000 miles or 1,700 kilometers

are fully fueled with liquids and electrons.

Now, X-Pong said that it has placed more than

1,000 test vehicles into the service

with 800 days of cumulative testing

in 20 countries and 330 cities.

For 20 million kilometers or 12.4 million

cumulative miles of testing,

sub-zero, high-heat and high-altitude.

Filing data shows that this is still a large vehicle.

Of course, it's a seven-seat MPV, 5.3 meters long

and 3.16 meters on the wheelbase.

Range extended version, again, really common,

1.5-liter engine at 110 kilowatts

or 150 horsepower or so.

Lithium ion phosphate from CELB.

This one's so big, though, 63.3 kilowatt-hour pack.

Wow, it's just such a huge pack for what is,

essentially, a plug-in hybrid vehicle

just with a new name, EREV.

Delivering that 280 miles of range,

the 800-volt system will deliver 5C charging,

peak charging rate of 316.5 kilowatts.

316.5 kilowatts is more than

nearly every other pure-bev

with a big battery can do.

This has still got to...

I mean, it's a chunky battery,

but it's not over 100 kilowatt-hours or something.

5C charging, massive peak rate on that.

And yet somewhere, they've put an engine

to recharge the battery if you want to fill it with liquids.

Again, we're entering a fascinating stage

of the China market,

and I know the Western carmakers are kind of looking

enviously because they want to use

their engine technology some way.

But the question that has to be asked

and that I don't get many good answers to

is when you own an EV that'll do,

well, well over this amount of miles,

almost 300 miles of electric range.

Why on earth are you adding combustion technology?

And all of the complicated things that will need service

in 5, 8, 10, 12 years' time

that will require...

If it's not in the home market,

if it's overseas, an extensive dealer servicing network,

because the oily bits will inevitably go more wrong

in time than the electrical bits.

And so, part service.

I mean, apart from just filling it up with liquids,

which is just a pain in the backside if you ask me,

but still, these extended range vehicles

have such long ranges

and such fast charging

that, so why would you buy the ERO version?

And yet, they are very, very popular in their home market.

OK, we'll take a quick break.

I have a slurp of this kwafi.

And then we'll come back and talk some yang lang.

Stick around, pick in a moment.

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what resistant gloves they need

at the start of their shift.

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Create a financial goal.

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you actually keep.

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If you're the purchasing manager

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Count on Granger for auto-reordering.

With on-time restocks,

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Alright, welcome back to the podcast.

BYD's Yang Wang brand,

which is that premium brand,

because I've been talking recently

about the Yang Wang record setter.

If you are a Patreon supporter,

by the way,

and you are signed up at any of the paid tiers,

you can be a free Patreon supporter

of the podcast, and that just gets you

access, I think, to leave the comments

and stuff like that. I'm going to rework that in a little bit.

But also, if you're a paid

supporter of the podcast,

well, then you can

get access to the special shows

that we make seven days in advance.

And one of the ones that I made over the weekend

was the top 10 fastest

EVs in the world

ranked. And the Yang Wang

U9 track edition

did pretty well in that list.

I won't give all the

speed details away, if you haven't listened to it yet.

No spoilers in the

podcast feed. The Patreon fans get those

shows seven days before

anybody else exclusive

access. And then that'll go onto the free feed.

So that'll be this weekend, Saturday

20th of September. That'll go live at

8pm on the ad supported

free feed as we count down the top

10 fastest by top speed

EVs in the world.

Needless to say,

Yang Wang's a bit special. But what about

the U8L? Well,

this one won't be winning speed records,

but you will get wherever you're going

in exceptional comfort.

This one is ridiculous because

and I mean ridiculous in a good way.

Of course, I'm not ridiculing it. Let me

be very clear about that.

The U8L

is the long wheelbase version

or the long version of its

full size SUV. This is called the Ding Shi

Edition. It starts at

1.28 million

RMB. That's 180,000

US dollars equivalent

Pre-sales were 1.3 million RMB.

So typical China

strategy at the minute we see very commonly

putting on a pre-sale number and then

trying to beat that to exceed

expectations. Always good delivery start

by the end of the month that we're in in September.

So, the long wheelbase version

5.4 meters long

vehicle,

3.25 meter long wheelbase.

This thing is

a tank. I mean it's not a tank, it's a brand

isn't it? But this thing is utterly

enormous. It looks

like just a huge escalade.

The 6 seat U8L

uses BYDZ

4 platform with

4 carat real gold emblems.

BYDZ's

Dialink 300 system. On a 3

nanometer chip technology

displays are the 12.8 inch

OLED curved central

screen. A 23.6 inch

infotainment panel

co-pilot multimedia screen.

It's got an augmented reality

head up display. A

21.4 inch ceiling

screen that falls down for the

second row. The

BYD E4 platform

means it can do 0 to 62 miles an hour

100 kph in 3.5 seconds

a minimum turning radius of

5.45 meters or just 17.8 feet.

It supports

things like tyre stability control

in a blowout. It'll do a tank turn

it'll do a crab walk. It'll float on water.

The vehicle has 13 driving modes

some snow, sand and flooding

modes. A 2 liter engine

on the ERO version of this.

So 55.5

kWh. Blade battery

it's obviously BYD.

And 4 electric motors. Over

1100. Almost 1200

horsepower in this

pure electric range of

124 miles. Total range

720 miles.

Loads of chassis

and top end systems control

from BYD. Godseye A smart

driving with the Dipilot

600 drive resistance system

and like I'd say

the luxury of this.

The second row particularly

zero gravity seats, headrest speakers

18 point massage

smart armrest screens

legrests, tables, wireless

charging for your devices

32 speakers, 1.7

square meter

panoramic sunroof

heating

or a heated

refrigerator. I think if it is a refrigerator

but the refrigerator will heat as well

and I suppose call it that. 13

USB ports so you're never

short of charging your devices

and 128 color ambient lighting

as well. This thing like it's far too

nice to put my kids in the back of it

but if you are traveling in the second or third

rows of this you will be traveling

in extreme luxury

and comfort as well. Those captain's

chairs look well just next

level. Okay let's move on

Arc Fox the EV division

of BAIC launched the T1

compact electric SUV

with a starting price of just

$62,000 RMB that's about

$8,800 US dollars equivalent

so we're going right to the other end of the market

compared to that Yang Wang

and although this is a very small

cheap city car

this thing looks I think

really impressive

and so look 8,500 US

equivalent they reported

over 26,500 firm orders

within the first 12 hours of launching

it goes up against the BYD

Dolphin front wheel drive

either 70 kilowatt or 95 kilowatt

two battery packs

33 or 42 kilowatt hours

we first saw this at the Shanghai Auto Show

earlier this year in April

and they're now starting

to roll off the production line

but for what is essentially

very very much a

budget friendly

EV very simple

small little drivers

display behind the

three spoke steering wheel

a decent sized landscape

tablet screen

a couple of buttons but otherwise

very very simple interior

but it looks nice

and from the outside

there's just nothing that even compares

to this outside of

China this is sitting right in a

segment of

if this car came to western markets

a double that price it would still be

easily

so much better than anything

it's looking kind of

chevy balty

even triple the price and it's still

very good value

in that it's the ARKVOX T1

and finally

Voya is Dongfeng Motors premium

brand releasing official images

of their new flagship SUV

called the Taishan the model uses

their smart hybrid system 6 seat layout

with a 65 kilowatt hour

battery

there's 230 miles of range

over 870 if you add some liquids

5C charging on this

battery a waterfall

style shield grill

on the front face here integrated LED

strip again this is very much

this this is like a mini escalate

to be honest with you but it's got a

kind of two tone

at least in the pictures I'm looking at right now

two tone body color that makes it look

very Rolls Roycey now it's

segment by the way the Yang Wang we talked about

just a moment ago was a Rolls Royce

competitor but this

with the star door handles

the two tone

body color the full width tail light

5.2 meters long 3.12 meter

wheelbase huge vehicle

four LiDAR sensors

using Huawei's

Shankun ADS4

and Harmony Space 5 cockpit

with air suspension rear wheel

steering it will

probably be listed as the Voyer 9L Taishan

the new flagship

is expected to be produced against

models like Ito's M9

or the Zika 9X car news China

reporting where I'm looking at this

story starting price of

450,000 Yuan

which is $62,000

US dollars

insane value for a car

that looks well again just like a

massive six seat

luxury hauler

but this one looks very very

very luxurious

not maybe as much as the car

we talked about a moment ago the Yang Wang but still

incredible but this is a third of the price

and that is your podcast for today

thank you for listening to EV news China

we did this as a trial back in the

early summer went down very well so it's back

as permanent as permanent is ever of anything

so I hope you enjoy this

series of EV news China

unpacking what's happening in the east

for my listeners in the west

thanks for listening and we'll catch you on the next one

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if you're the purchasing manager at a

manufacturing plant you know having a

trusted partner makes all the difference

that's why hands down you count on

Granger for auto reordering

with on time restocks

your team will have the cut resistant gloves

they need at the start of their shift

and you can end your day knowing

they've got safety well in hand

if you're the purchasing manager at a

manufacturing plant you know having a

trusted partner makes all the difference

that's why hands down you count on

Granger for auto reordering

with on time restocks

your team will have the cut resistant

gloves they need at the start of their shift

and you can end your day knowing

they've got safety well in hand

if you're the purchasing manager at

a manufacturing plant you know having

a trusted partner makes all the

difference that's why hands down you

count on Granger for auto reordering

with on time restocks

your team will have the cut resistant

gloves they need at the start of their

shift and you can end your day knowing

they've got safety well in hand

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manager at a manufacturing plant

you know having a trusted partner

makes all the difference

that's why hands down you count on

Granger for auto reordering

with on time restocks your team

will have the cut resistant gloves

they need at the start of their shift

and you can end your day knowing

they've got safety well in hand

call 1 800 Granger

click Granger dot com

or just stop by Granger

for the ones who get it done

EV News China: Toyota bZ7 Impresses, New GWM Ora Cat and Xiaomi Now A Top 10 Brand | 15 Sep 2025

Saturn Aura

Xiaomi SU7

XPeng P7 Plus

Tesla Model Y

X9 Xpong

Cadillac Escalade

M9 Itos M9

About this episode

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