Tu and Lei start out with a discussion about the challenges of China’s overall economy and some of the stimulus that the Chinese govt. has announced they’d provide in order to get it jumpstarted. Shanghai is finally opening back up on June 1st, so factories should begin to product more product consistently in June and beyond but Tu cautions that any outbreak could jeopardize the recovery. Lei then shifts the conversation over to May sales numbers and how he expects BYD to be much further along in their sales volume than the other EV makers. This opens up a broader discussion about BYD including their boldness in entering the ultra luxury market with a vehicle launch later this year that’s supposed to be in the ¥1.5M price range but they both question whether BYD is stretching themselves too thin?Tu shifts the conversation over to Jidu and their impending vehicle unveil scheduled for June 8th. Jidu is the brand that was created by a collaboration between Geely and Baidu. Lei laments that their messaging is a bit confusing, specifically the claim on being a ‘autorobot’ and he wonders if Jidu is overpromising what the product can deliver?The pod moves onto the news about the strategic investment Bosch made into WeRide the Guangzhou based autonomous vehicle startup and the possible reasons for the investment and how they could provide each party access to an area that they currently lack or that isn’t available to them.Tu and Lei close out the show with a brief discussion on ECarX, the software intelligence startup owned by Li Shufu aka Eric Li, the founder of Geely and then a quick chat about XPeng’s earnings as well as who they believe may be moving to the US market first. 

In this latest MAX episode, Tu & Lei welcome Omer Keilaf, Co-founder and CEO of Innoviz, which designs and develops. LiDAR and perception software for ADAS systems & autonomous vehicles. Omer talks about the early days in the Israeli military, starting Innoviz six years ago, why he is confident that this is the right time to enter the Chinese market, his views on LiDAR competition, technology, the difficulties in achieving mass production, and how Innoviz is tackling these issues with unique approaches. 

Lei and Tu take a few minutes to reflect on a year of hosting the China EVs & More (first) Clubhouse room before moving to Twitter Spaces and finally evolving to this podcast. Lei begins this week’s update with news that the Chinese govt is looking at introducing a stimulus package to jumpstart car sales. Tu moves the conversation to the current situation on the ground in Beijing and the challenges he’s had with trying to purchase a plane ticket back to the US.There were some product introductions this week that Lei goes over including one from Denza, the joint venture between Mercedes and BYD. For the sake of those unfamiliar with Denza, Lei gives a history lesson on the company and how they got to where they are today.Tu then pulls out the discussion to the broader MPV (or multi-purpose vehicle) segment and why it’s an important segment in China. Tu and Lei close out this week’s podcast talking about QCraft who introduced a ¥10K L2 stack for use with passenger vehicles. They both go into a bit of QCraft’s history and how they’re part of the 2nd wave of autonomous vehicle companies. 

Tu starts this episode out with a quick Covid update on his situation in Beijing. Tu & Lei have a discussion on the production challenges and sales slides for the automakers in April. Lei opens up a bit about what he's heard about Tesla's doubling down in Shanghai and all of the help that they've been offered to get ShanghaiGiga but up and running. With the additional capacity that's anticipated in Shanghai, Tu coins the term Tesla City for the Lingang area where ShanghaiGiga resides. The conversation shifts to NIO getting listed in Singapore and the chances that they will be booted off of the NYSE. Tu then asks Lei for a history lesson on Qiantu who had just announced that they'll be going public via a SPAC merger later in 2022. Tu and Lei think it's a pretty peculiar move for them due to the negative shift in sentiment in SPACs.Tu closes out the pod with a bit of speculation on where any excess capacity coming out of ShanghaiGiga will go - he believes more vehicles will be shipped to Japan, South Korea and parts of SEA.We apologize for technical issues we had recording this episode. 

Tu starts off episode 65 with an update on his status in Beijing and the latest news about auto manufacturing in Beijing and Shanghai including the shutdown of ShanghaiGiga due to a shortage of wiring harnesses. Tu and Lei them move onto BYD’s Changsha problem that has nothing to do with Covid. Due to protests from local neighbors of the factory, BYD was forced to close it factory while an investigation is underway to determine whether or not they’re permitted to be there building cars. Lei shifts the discussion over to LI Auto’s earning that were just released and highlights the announcement about making an even more affordable EV similar to NIO who also had more information leaked recently about their mass market brand targeting the 200 - 300K RMB market segment. The podcast moves onto what Cadillac is doing to prep the market for the Lyriq launch and some of the new vechicles launched by Denza, Arcfox, and LeapMotor that all make bold claims about redefining their market segments. Tu moves the focus to Volkswagen’s announcement about reviving the Scout brand and Lei weaves in his takeaways from the FT’s Future of Mobility conference that featured fireside chats with Elon, Ola, and Herbert and they go into a deeper dive about Elon’s interview and some of the contradictory statements he seemed to make about ShanghaiGiga.   

In Part #2 of this MAX episode, Tu & Lei welcome Steve Levine, global citizen, adjunct professor at Georgetown University, and editor at The Electric - a premium newsletter that specializes in the EV & battery spaces. Steve talks about the journalism journey that brought him to cover EVs & batteries, the challenges he sees ahead including consolidation in the automotive space, and how he thinks things may shake out in 2030 and beyond. 

Tu & Lei start out the pod with a discussion on how the current April sales numbers look to be shaping out. It doesn't look good for most of the legacy OEMs with the exception of BYD. Tu gives a Covid update for Beijing and what he expects to see in the next few weeks.Tu transitions the conversation over to the China autonomous vehicle update and they both share their thoughts on all of the announcements that came out last week from Pony.ai, Baidu Apollo, Momenta and WeRide, who partnered with Pony.ai for the latest investment round of OnTime, a mobility platform whose other major investor is GAC Group. Tu shifts the discussion over to Volkswagen (VW) opening a China office for their software division, Cariad and moving over a Volkswagen veteran to over with strong ties to China to lead the group. Tu and Lei spend a few minutes debating the merits of the moves and the leadership appointed to launch the team in China with, surprise, Tu being a bit skeptical of the moves and whether or not it'll get VW where they need to be with SW development in the timeframe they need to do it in. Tu wraps up the pod with a few quick updates on CATL's swapping station, BYD's substantial increase YoY from Q1 sales, and finally a comment on Elon's purchase of Twitter and whether he'll be pressured by the Chinese govt. to promote a more positive tone on the platform. 

In Part #1 of this MAX episode, Tu & Lei welcome Steve Levine, global citizen, adjunct professor at Georgetown University, and editor at The Electric - a premium newsletter that specializes in the EV & battery spaces. Steve talks about the journalism journey that brought him to cover EVs & batteries, the challenges he sees ahead including consolidation in the automotive space, and how he thinks things may shake out in 2030 and beyond. 

Tu and Lei start the pod out with an update on which manufacturers have been affected by the lockdowns and Covid outbreaks throughout China - Which are running and which aren’t, areas to keep an eye on, and what to expect in the next few weeks. Tu explains what happens normally if there are supply issues at a factory, all of the parties involved, how accurate data needs to be, and how everyone has a timeframe to do it in order for the factory to continue to build. This leads to a discussion about Tesla’s earnings call and how impressive they continue to be. Tu and Lei agree that ShanghaiGiga needs to get back online sooner than later if Tesla is to reach their goal of >1.5M units for 2022. The conversation shifts over to BYD’s announced partnership with Horizon which BYD also happened to invest in. Lei summarizes the five EV debuts that came out within two days of each other - ALL coincidentally from the legacy automakers. Tu gives his opinion on these concept vehicles, one, in particular, that’s he specifically critical of. The podcast ends with a deep dive on the F150 with both Tu & Lei pointing out how inspirational it is for an Asian woman to be the Chief Engineer of such an important product for Ford.  

Tu & Lei go over March sales and BYD’s continued strength despite all the prevailing headwinds and challenges that the other EV makers seem to be running into. Tu explains that the China EV space is being told in chapters starting with Tesla is coming to the current chapter of BYD begins to dominate. Lei continues on with a brief history of BYD and the important milestones in its brief but eventful history and how each inflection point in its history builds up to the announcement that it’ll no longer build ICE vehicles. Tu also points out that the current direction of the auto sector, investing heavily to bring in-house battery cell R&D & chip design, BYD has been a pioneer in those two areas. Lei then turns to some of the challenges that BYD faces and what they still need to confront if they’re to continue to build momentum, gain share and finally enter foreign markets with their passenger vehicles. Tu and Lei move the talk over to Geely and how they’re trying to turn past issues with Chinese build quality on its head by building Smart, Lotus, and Polestar brands in China for the foreign markets. Tu and Lei close the pod by talking about what they expect and how severe the lockdowns in Shanghai and Jilin will be to the automotive sector in Q2’22.