The pod begins with Lei having just returned from LA while Tu was still  there after they'd spent the last few days doing a NorCal & SoCal trip.Tu and Lei begin with a detailed discussion about their (two) rides in the GM - Cruise Automation's driverless robotaxis in San Francisco.  They went from Japantown to Sunset at ~10pm in the evening.Tu and Lei move onto congratulating Henrik Fisker and team for getting the Fisker Ocean to Job #1 in Austria (with a lot of help from Magna) and then Lei highlights some of the people that he & Tu caught up with at the LA Auto show events. They then have a broader discussion on the LA Auto show and some of the breakout rooms and events they attended during that week including the Motor Trend documentary 'Coding the Car' and Tu shares his 'review' of the documentary.

Tu and Lei start the podcast out with a discussion on NIO's Q3 earnings and bullish Q4 outlook, specifically what it'll take for NIO to hit 20K units for the month of December. The discussion moves onto Geely's big week that started with the Farizon commercial vehicle launch moving onto the Geely & Renault powertrain tieup, then the Volvo EX90 unveil to finally the Radar RD6 camper launch. Tu pushes into a deeper dive about Renault and their announcements that week including its doubling down on the Google partnership and how they will become digital, connected and electric via their Ampere entity. The podcast closes out with Lei talking about pricing inflection point where NEV sales volume drops off significantly and what it says about the China market. 

Tu chews on the latest EV startup to throw its hat in the ring - BeyonCa. Lei and Tu take the first several minutes of the show discussing in detail how the company came about and how Weiming Soh, the current Renault China CEO & BeyonCa founder, was able to pull everyone together. The conversation then moves onto two China-fornia companies having problems in the US, TuSimple and Faraday Future. Tu and Lei discuss what they'd heard which has now mostly been substantiated by the recent articles about the two company's challenges. Tu and Lei end this week's podcast with a discussion on what it takes to be successful in the global EV space, something they feel that only two companies can really claim for now - BYD & Tesla. 

In this latest MAX episode, Tu & Lei catch up with former journalist and current author Henry Sanderson whose recently launched book, Volt Rush: The Winners and Losers in the Race to Go Green - is one of the most compelling and insightful books about the previously little known rare earth metals that are key for building the battery cells that power electric vehicles and which are forecasted to be in much higher demand as the world begins its massive transition to EVs. This book is a must read for anyone that’s in or follows the battery or EV sector. Just over a year ago, Henry left the Financial Times after over 7 years of covering commodities and mining and is now the Executive Editor at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, one of the leading providers of data and information on the battery industry.

Tu and Lei begin the podcast with their thoughts on the Jidu Auto ROBO-01 production model unveil. They both seemed pretty impressed and detailed that Jidu Auto is going directly after Tesla customers once the ROBO-01 hits the streets in 2023. They then get into how fast Jidu Auto has been moving in order to get their product into production and think it's even faster than what is commonly known as 'China speed.'Lei then asks Tu - Lotus Eletre or Polestar 3? A discussion follows on about Geely and the two competing brands within Geely's own stable.The discussion moves to Argo closing up shop - some Monday AM quarterbacking is done as to why it happened and why now.The show closes on unpacking how Tesla slashing prices on its MIC Model 3/Y will affect the rest of the market and which companies are likely to follow suit.

The pod starts with Tu and Lei talking about Tavares' comments about doing business in China and how Europe should place import tariffs on Chinese imported EVs into Europe. They discuss whether his comments were controversial or not. Lei then takes a few minutes to discuss his time at the Paris Motor show and the Chinese brands that both directly and indirectly attended and how it seems that they've infiltrated the. market already.Tu talks about his trip to San Francisco and the panel that he sat on regarding China US trade and IP rights. The pod ends with a discussion on EV sales and the pricepoints that dominate the volume for China's record sales year that still has almost a full quarter left. 

In this latest MAX episode, Tu & Lei chat with John Voelcker, one of the most well-known & respected US journos and one of the first to cover hybrids and EVs in the US while he was  Editor in Chief of Green Car Reports for over 9 years.John talks about car reviews, EV test drives, domestic & foreign competition, China EV Inc coming to the US and his newest venture, the Tempting Fate Tours. 

Tu and Lei immediately get to the biggest news of the week - the Volkswagen Group investment in Chinese chip design startup Horizon Robotics.  They both articulate what they believe the implications are from this transaction, especially at this sensitive time. Tu moves the discussion over to the increased restrictions posed on China for chips and chip making equipment by the US govt and what this does to US employees working for companies currently working to support Chinese chip design and fabrication companies.Lei then shifts the conversation over to September sales which bleeds into the Polestar 3 unveil which they debate the merits on and whether it will be competitive in the two markets where it will be manufactured - the US & China. Tu and Lei end the pod with a brief discussion about Li Bin's ambitions to be a top global automaker by 2030. 

The podcast starts with Lei asking Tu about his thoughts on the NIO event in Berlin launching its products into 4 European countries. Lei and Tu discuss their thoughts on the subscription pricing that NIO announced during the event.The discussion shifts to BYD and their pricing announcements for the three products being introduced to the European market as well as the partnership announcement between Sixt and BYD. Tu and Lei end the podcast unpacking the news of Gotion and Our Next Energy (ONE) investing to build factories in Michigan to manufacture battery components/cells for electric vehicles.

In this latest MAX episode, Tu & Lei welcome Dr. Jun Pei, Co-founder/CEO of Cepton, one of the world's leading LiDAR companies. Jun talks about the personal journey that led him to co-found Cepton, how they were able to get that design win with GM and how Cepton's LiDAR technology is different from their competitors.  **We apologize for some of the audio issues with portions of this recording.**