China EVs & More

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tu and Lei start this podcast by highlighting a WeChat moment post by He Xiaopeng, founder of XPeng warning that if issues can’t be contained and resolved production for the entire month of May could be lost. They then move on to review the March & Q1 sales and registration numbers.  Tu takes a few minutes to explain his prior experience working on the supply chain side back in the US and dealing with production disruptions in the automotive and high tech spaces. Since they talked about Q1 numbers, Lei dives deeper into the brand sales numbers that were reported. Lei points out that for the first time, Ford China reported March sales numbers for the Mustang Mach E. Most brand sales numbers were down from Q4’21 which is no surprise. Tu and Lei agree that the Volkswagen ID Series sales numbers continue to disappoint and Tu takes a few minutes to explain that the opportunity to build sales momentum starts when the product is launched when you have a marketing budget that’s supposed to build excitement for the product. One year into the initial launch of the ID.4 and sales are still hovering around 10K/month which points to a lack of overall enthusiasm for the products. Tu stresses that it’ll be difficult to ignite any real excitement for the products after having been in the market an entire year already. Tu takes a few minutes to rant about Newsweek’s article about automotive disruptors without any mention of Tesla or any Chinese EV makers. Lei then talks about his trip to the New York International auto show and how Hyundai and Vinfast seemed to be the BIG news along with a few American EV startups that he’d not heard of until that event. Digital Disruption with Geoff Nielson Discover how technology is reshaping our lives and livelihoods.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

Tu and Lei start this show out by paying homage and giving a big shout-out to their friends that live in Shanghai that are currently on lockdown. After the headlines, Lei gives everyone a lesson on the EV100 Conference that is normally held each January but was delayed and finally put online last week. One highlight of the EV100 was the announcement from Horizon Robotics about licensing their IP to OEMs so that the OEMs could piggyback off of their existing chip technology in order to design their own SoCs.Tu shifts the conversation over to compelling design takes a happy marriage between hardware and software and one without the other would likely make for a bad UX.The discussion then shifts to XPeng earnings. Lei summarizes the ‘flagpoles’ that XPeng is planting this year likely hit their margins in 2021. The momentum of the P5 & G9 should help them build on their margins as XPeng only needs to focus on marketing these vehicles and launching them on time and on budget. Tu then shifts to talking about the launch of the Lotus Eletre and the reactions on social media from the various interested parties. Lei discusses how surprised he was about the Lotus’s extensive sensor kit for ADAS/AV and how now LiDAR and premium sound have become qualifying features in the near-premium/premium segments. Tu closes out the pod with his take on Vinfast and their aggressive moves into the US market including their recent announcement of building a factory in North Carolina. Digital Disruption with Geoff Nielson Discover how technology is reshaping our lives and livelihoods.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify