China EVs & More

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. 

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.Digital Disruption with Geoff Nielson Discover how technology is reshaping our lives and livelihoods.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

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. Digital Disruption with Geoff Nielson Discover how technology is reshaping our lives and livelihoods.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

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. Digital Disruption with Geoff Nielson Discover how technology is reshaping our lives and livelihoods.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

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. Digital Disruption with Geoff Nielson Discover how technology is reshaping our lives and livelihoods.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

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.Digital Disruption with Geoff Nielson Discover how technology is reshaping our lives and livelihoods.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

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.**Digital Disruption with Geoff Nielson Discover how technology is reshaping our lives and livelihoods.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

Lei starts this pod out by talking about the MOVE America Conference in Austin, TX that he and Tu attended the previous week and move that onto their chat with Hesai at the conference. Tu then highlighted a discussion they had with a representative for Culver City who attended the conference in order to learn more about technology and startups that would be able to make his city safer. Lei moves the conversation over to BYD and NIO's moves into Europe. The unpack why they think William Li, NIO's CEO/ Founder is out in front for NIO's European launch. Tu and Lei close out the pod with a discussion on some of the lesser known Chinese EV companies that are taking share as a few of their more well-known counterparts continue with sales growth challenges.Digital Disruption with Geoff Nielson Discover how technology is reshaping our lives and livelihoods.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

In this episode, Tu and Lei start the pod out with a brief recap of their time at the Detroit Auto show with a quick pivot to reports that Chinese battery maker Gotion (Guoxuan) will be investing up to $3.6B in western Michigan. Lei moves the conversation over to GM's Durant Guild that is set to import higher end GM brand vehicles into China including the electric Hummer with the conversation moving quickly over to the XPeng G9.Tu was able to join a call where President/Vice Chairman - Brian Gu and head of Autonomous Driving - Xinzhou Wu and updated the participants about the current G9 and its City NGP and how they will combine it with Highway NGP in 2023 to create XNGP.The pod ends with a discussion about Li Auto and their product lineup and the quick response to customer requests and the recent additional responsibilities added to Ford Motor's Doug Field. Digital Disruption with Geoff Nielson Discover how technology is reshaping our lives and livelihoods.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify