Driving with Dunne

What can we say for sure about China? Many of us can rattle off some incredible statistics.  It is a manufacturing and technology powerhouse. China ran up an astonishing $1 trillion dollar surplus in 2024. China builds more EVs than all other countries combined. And China has enough capacity to supply total global demand for batteries. We know these facts. But what we know much less well is how to engage with Chinese business people in a productive way that leads to successful outcomes. That's been a giant black hole for many Western business people. Fortunately, a giant dose of help is on the way in the form of a tremendous new book by Ken Wilcox called The Chinese Business Conundrum: Ensuring Win-Win Doesn't Mean Western Companies Twice. Mr Wilcox, the former CEO of Silicon Valley Bank, also ran SVB's joint venture bank in China. He shares extremely valuable inside views of realities on the ground.

Europe's aim is to become a global leader in adopting next generation clean technologies. In the first phase, beginning in 2020, the focus was on meeting ambitious emission reductions goals. Four years later, the European Commission is making an important adjustment to its strategy. The new goal is to have Europe be a global leader in adopting and producing those technologies.  They call it the Clean Industrial Deal. Some background: Up until very recently, Europe's climate goals were met by sourcing many advanced clean energy technologies from China, including solar panels and electric vehicles. European leaders quickly understood that it would be far better for companies within Europe to produce the clean technologies than to import them from China or other countries. Joining us today to walk us through the new era is Barbara Glowacka of the EU Commission. She advises leaders at the highest levels of power in the European Commission on energy and law. 

Europe wants to go green in a hurry. China has EVs to help Europe achieve their goal faster. What's the problem? The problem is that too many Chinese cars are flooding into France, Germany and Italy And that is putting enormous pressure on Europe's auto industry. Making things worse, European brands' sales are skidding in China, which used to be their forever profit machines.  VW is now talking about closing three plants and laying off tens of thousands. And we are not even in a recession. Joining me to make sense of the pressure - he calls it a schism - is Roger Atkins, founder of Electric Vehicles Outlook. How will Europe see things through from here? Roger will also share what he loves and what he loves much less about driving his all-electric  ID Buzz, the retro bus from VW. Along the way, we will also learn how to say sh-t-show in Chinese. Yes, I promise you there is such a word. 

One of the most significant limiters to EV adoption in America is the dreaded charging experience. Where do I find the nearest station? Wil, the chargers work? Do I need an app? Will I be safe sitting alone in my car for thirty minutes? Who can I call if things go wrong? In this episode, we learn from Christopher Balcom of Schneider Electric that improvements are on the way. Specifically,  the mission  is to simplify the charging experience by bringing several separate parts - the hardware, the software, the installer and the carmakers – together to form a seamless experience. 

Dr. Daniel Sperling is one of the world's leading experts on electric vehicles. His knowledge runs very deep. Dr. Sperling founded the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis. He has written 13 books, including Two Billion Cars, and published 250 papers. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed him to the powerful California Air Resources Board, a position he held for 13 years.  Dr Sperling has also built a deep understanding of China's EV industry.  In this episode we talk about his work at CARB, China's ambitions, interactions with Elon Musk and how demand for electric vehicles will continue to vary by state and by country for the next decade. Dr Sperling also offers some practical advice to people who are on the fence about EVs.

Here is a candidate for the single most important development in the global auto industry this year: One of every two new cars sold in China this year will be electric. Half! In the US and Europe, we are experiencing a kind of EV wheel spin. EVs as a share of total sales in America still hover under 10%. Europe is a bit higher at 15%, but the pace of growth has slowed dramatically. Why is EV demand growing so much faster in China than in the West?  One big factor is the cost of batteries. That is where China enjoys a massive advantage. But the game is not over. Startups in the West, like OneD Battery Sciences, are developing better battery chemistries that deliver higher energy density at lower costs. What are they working on? How soon will we see breakthrough batteries? And how might the US electric change the landscape? To get answers, listen to Vincent Pluvinage and K.T. Neumann. 

It is no secret that electric cars are fast - very fast. But for many drivers, EVs like Tesla or Lucid - even Porsche -  do not seem to fuel quite the same emotion as sports cars powered by internal combustion engines. To borrow the French term, the piece de resistance seems to be missing. This makes today's buyers ask:  What is the point of driving a sports car if you're not feeling something extraordinary? Toni Piech and Tobias Moers agree. That is why they have set out a vision for an electric sports car that will be quick, very enjoyable to drive and extraordinarily talented when it comes to getting your adrenaline flowing. They will call it the Piech GT. And it will be ready for launch in 2028. They have set the highest bar. The goal is to make it even better than the Porsche Taycan in performance and excitement. So, what will separate the Piech GT from Porsche and everything else on the road? Let's find out. Toni Piech, Founder and Tobias Moers, CEO, Piech Automotive. 

In his best-selling book, Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari describes the most important feature that separates human beings from all other species on the planet: Imagination. We have the ability to imagine something that does not (yet) exist, communicate the concept to others and persuade them to believe it. As a concrete example, he cites the limited liability company, an idea first hatched by the Dutch back in the 1600s. Today we are going to explore the imaginative idea of Web 3.0, an ambitious project to take usout of the quagmire that has become Web 2.0. The basic goal is to create a private internet that is much safer and more efficient than what we have today. Getting there will require imagination, education and a lot of believing. To get us on the path, we are very pleased to have as our guest Tram Vo, co-founder of MOBI, an organization that is building the infrastructure to make Web 3.0 possible. 

By now you may have heard the term software defined vehicle. But what does it mean? Tesla was the first to make one. Chinese automakers like NIO and Xpeng followed quickly. Most Western OEMs today are still figuring out how to make them. But what exactly is a software-defined vehicle? How do they work?  Today I am joined on the Driving With Dunne podcast by John Wall, the SVP and Head of QNX Engineering, Product and Operations at Blackberry QNX. This Ottawa, Canada based company makes some of the most important real-time operating systems and software that power your car, including your digital cockpit and your advanced driver assistance systems. Think of QNX as the master plumber of software systems found in more than 230 million cars on the road today worldwide.

Dr. Ilaria Mazzocco and her colleagues at CSIS found that Chinese subsidies to companies in strategic industries are more than twice as high as in other countries. The numbers are not insignificant. This week, we learned that BYD secured some $3.4 billion in subsidies in 2023 alone.  As a group Chinese automakers have benefited from tens of billions of dollars in supply side and consumer subsidies since 2010. Complicating the picture, however, is the reality that China is also home to some fast-moving, highly innovative firms led by people who work harder and sometimes smarter than their peers in the West. Today, Ilaria and I dive deeper into the question of Chinese state capitalism, subsidies and how the West can respond to the rising tide - call it a tsunami - of low-cost, good quality Chinese automotive exports.