China EVs & More

Tu begins the podcast talking about how the price war still has legs and will likely last through the end of this year into 2025. BYD has been leading the way with price cuts on their more popular vehicles daring their competitors to do the same. Tu then talks about the Buick Electra E5 EV that has just gone on sale for ~$23K and wonders out loud why they can't sell that in the US for a similar price. The discussion shifts to the technology companies that have entered the EV competition, in particular Huawei, Xiaomi and Baidu via Jiyue. With Jiyue's sales struggles, they openly wonder what is too much technology and whether Xiaomi can come up with the 'just right' approach to stuffing their EV with tech features. They then point out how many legacy automakers have announced dialing back its EV ambitions and the challenges they still have to overcome. They focus on the German automakers and reveal that one of their next MAX guests is Daniel Kirchert, former BMW executive who also co-founded BYTON.The podcast ends with Tu hoping that there's another price cut for the Model Y in the US since it may put him over the top for buying it himself. 

Tu and Lei start out the podcast by wishing each other 'Happy New Year' and discuss a bit about the holiday and their traditions and how it's celebrated by their families.Lei then moves over to discuss the Chinese Opinions on NEV trade cooperation and both of them add their opinions about how the language and roll out of the opinion piece should be interpreted. Tu then spends a few minutes discussing how the premium used passenger vehicle market has changed and is now more of a buyers market.He then talks about being a guest on Autoline and some of the topics they discussed including Chinese brands entering Mexico. Tu and Lei then transition to the news that Ford has a skunkworks team in SoCal working on a profitable small vehicle and unpack their thoughts on that.The podcast closes with news that HiPhi may be about to close its doors for good and others that have likely built their last vehicles. 

Tu and Lei start the podcast out with some of their family traditions for Lunar New Year. They then move onto unpacking January sales numbers and emphasizing the MoM comparisons not that important due to Lunar New Year being in January last year. Tu anticipates what we should see in March and beyond depending on how panicked the OEMs will be coming out of the New Year break, likely around late February. The goal of course is to keep the metal moving at a brisk pace of course. Tu and Lei then move over to the discussion about Evergrande, the Chinese real estate development company being forced into liquidation by a Hong Kong court and how that will affect Hengchi, their EV brand. Tu then talks about the impact that could be felt from the just announced partnership between Didi and CATL. The podcast closes with a brief clarification on export numbers and who the actual leader in global exports for passenger vehicles was in 2023. 

Tu and Lei begin with briefly discussing their latest MAX episode with Gansha Wu, Founder & CEO of UISEE - an autonomous driving startup based in China. Tu and Lei then transition over into a detailed discussion about Tesla’s earnings and the role that the China market plays in their earnings and operations and how most analysts miss how important the China market is to everything that Tesla does. Lei then changes gears into a discussion about the recently unveiled Porsche Macan EV that still doesn’t have pricing for the China market announced. Tu gets into the recent challenges that Porsche had in the China market and how this could really be a catalyst for the resumption of growth in the China market for Porsche, but it’s going to have stiff competition now. Tu and Lei close the show on the announcement that DJI will have, none other than BYD, as an investor and partner for their ADAS systems which should help make ADAS a common feature in mass market vehicles in China sooner rather later.

Lei throws a curveball to begin the show and talks about some of China’s societal challenges, namely the aging population and shrinking number of babies born. Tu chimes in with his experience coming to the US at a very early age. They broaden the discussion out a bit to bring in a few more noteworthy challenges to round out the discussion. Tu & Lei get into some of the discounts that were announced last week and get into the forecasted export numbers and some of the surprise automakers that could be exporting out of China in 2024.Tu points out that each year that the China market breaks sales records makes the following year even tougher to top. And the combination of a tough Chinese economy, high interest rates and the slowdown in the US & EU all point to a more challenging 2024. Tu shifts the conversation to the Lotus Emeya and what brands and products it may be going after and whether or not they should be nervous. The podcast closes on the news that TuSimple is exiting the US market and how EV related IPOs aren’t likely going to find many takers in 2024. 

Tu and Lei dedicate this episode to the sights and sounds coming out of Las Vegas CES 2024. Lei spends the first half of this episode unpacking all that he saw and thought about the technology he experienced and the people he spoke to. Tu and Lei then go onto some of the macro sales numbers that came from China for 2023 and unpack what they all mean, including GM's slide since 2017. Tu closes out the podcast by telling Lei he's considering buying a used Tesla from Hertz now that they've put a number of them on sale. 

Tu and Lei begin the podcast out with a look back at how Tesla ignited the price war in the beginning of 2023. They move onto a discussion about Xiaomi and CEO Lei Jun's strategy for entering the market and building up excitement for their first vehicle that's due to launch in the next year and finally making guesses on what their vehicle's price will be once announced. They move the conversation over to how difficult it is for the legacy automakers to keep up with the constant barrage of new brands, products and endless refreshes in order to not lose pace in the China market. They acknowledge that most automakers aren't able to keep up which could lead to even more challenges in the future. Tu and Lei briefly discuss making sure to follow the people that are out there getting it done and visiting the countries, trying out the vehicles and meeting with the executives. They end the podcast with their review of 2023 and a discussion about which events shaped the year. 

Each year this episode is HIGHLY anticipated and is ALWAYS one of the most downloaded epsiodes of the year. If you want to hear what they think of 2024 in China and around the world for the EV, battery and mobility space, you have to listen to this episode. 

The podcast discusses NIO Q3 earnings, Stellantis partnering with Ample for battery swapping, the Inflation Reduction Act's impact on the EV market, Mary Barra's views on EVs and Tesla's rumored capacity expansion at ShanghaiGiga.

Tu and Lei start out the podcast with a quick review of the November sales and a broader discussion about the difficulty of and pressure on the EV makers to grow sales in an ultra competitive environment.They both then spend a few minutes unpacking the announcement & implications of  VW developing an EV platform called the China Main Platform (CMP) based on the MEB platform for the China market ONLY and how that's likely to do.Lei gets Tu's thoughts on Elon mentioning that in the future the Top 10 EV makers will be Tesla with the other 9 all being Chinese.  The podcast shifts over to discussing all the latest moves by Huawei, who both agree have been very aggressively moving into the connected, EV space over the last couple years with a goal to grow revenues from this new division significantly over the next several years.The podcast ends with both discussing NIO's expanding swap partnerships in China, now including Geely.