Tu & Lei have a chat with James Hind, Founder and CEO of carwow.carwow is an online marketplace for buying and selling new and used cars and started in the UK but have since launched in Germany in 2016 and Spain in 2018. For those of you outside of Europe that aren’t yet familiar with carwow - in 2022, there were over 109 million visits to carwow sites with over £5B worth of cars bought and sold on the carwow platform. But not only does carwow make it easier for buyers and sellers to transact, it has the largest automotive YouTube channel in the world providing some of the most compelling and entertaining automotive content on the interwebs. The carwow YouTube channel which was launched in 2014 has over 2.6 billion views from it’s more than 8.2 million subscribers and growing. James talked us through his background and how he founded the carwow platform. I learned a lot about how his platform works and how they’ve developed their stickiness. James also talks to us about the trends he’s seeing the UK and German markets and how aspiring companies that are new to the automotive space can build their awareness and make a big splash. James has built carwow into a key resource for new brands and a key tool for directly engaging potential car buyers. Don't miss this terrific conversation!

Tu and Lei talk May EV sales and Lei calls the top group BATL BYD, GAC AION, Tesla, Li Auto are clearly the front runners consistently outperforming the rest of their competitors, specifically NIO.Tu and Lei also anticipate Li Auto to continue their strong sales with Tu spotlighting Zeekr to be potentially a future sales leader once the Zeekr X ramps. Elon, Tesla and China - The discussion moves over to Elon’s recent visit to China and Tu briefly reads an excerpt from this week’s newsletter that summarizes his take on Elon’s visit. Lei sees Elon and Tesla as an example of the better parts of the challenging US & China diplomatic relationship. Tu then compares and contrasts Nvidia’s need for the China market vs. Tesla’s need for the China market and how they differ quite substantially. The topic moves to BYD and its brand strategy as Yangwang and the F brand establish themselves in the next several years. They discuss whether it makes sense to launch a new brand and who it might work. Lei discusses why he’s in Cali and that’s to cover the ID.Buzz event. The pod closes with Tu and Lei discussing which EV startups are on life support and which should actually be able to weather the storm. 

Tu starts this podcast off with his thoughts on the latest reorg of Volkwagen Group's Cariad software group wondering why they installed another 'car' guy to run Cariad when Blume had a real opportunity to catalyze real change at the division.He then compares and contrasts that with the recent hire of Mike Abbot by GM to run their software team. After Tu's take, Lei spends a few minutes giving his counterpoint on Tu's thoughts.Lei transitions the conversation over to two product launches, one by BYD and the other by Wuling that caught his attention due to the price reductions both launched with. Lei briefly talks about Li Auto's product portfolio over the next few years and how its different then their competitors. The podcast closes out the podcast with Lei giving a brief history lesson on the Geely & Changan relationship and a bit of speculation on how they've moved past their differences and may work more closely together to help each other. 

Tu and Lei recap all of the big, 'watershed' moments of the last few weeks with the latest being VW rumored to be in talks with Huawei about a potential partnership in China. The convo then moves onto the latest news about Tesla and a larger conversation about what's next for them besides the Cybertruck, where will it happen and how much will it cost? If Model 2, how will it do now that BYD will be a significant competitor in most of the markets they'd likely launch the MIC M2 in?Tu and Lei then briefly discuss how China became the #1 passenger vehicle exporter in the world in CQ1'23 overtaking Japan. Will battery swapping work in the US - Tu and Lei compare NIO battery swapping to Ample, a startup that's champion of battery swapping for the US, who just intro'd their latest generation battery swap station. Tu closes the podcast with his concerns about EV adoption stalling out in the US due to the lack of viable, competitively priced EV products for the foreseeable future. 

Tu and Lei start the pod with a brief discussion about April sales the surprises and the disappointments. Lei then moves the conversation to Jim Farley outlining Ford’s updated strategy for the China market with exports being a primary business priority and exiting certain segments in the market. After closing out the April sales, Tu talks about the last week and a half of his return to China including going into detail about his visit BYD and riding DeepRoute and Pony AI robotaxis in Shenzhen. Tu follows up with Tu’s adventure from Shenzhen to HK and challenges he faced getting there. Lei and Tu close the pod with a discussion of some of the main differences between traveling in China vs. the US. 

This episode is a complete download from Tu & Lei re: 2023 Shanghai Auto show. It's also Lei unpacking his experience returning to China after 39 months away. There was so much to unpack, it took them over an hour! This is a for certain not to miss episode!

Lei kicks off the pod with his feelings on heading back to China after more than 3 years away. Tu then talks a bit about how much China has changed in that short amount of time. Lei moves the discussion over to his trip to the New York auto show and highlights the RAM EV truck that was unveiled. Tu comments on the massive size of the battery pack for the RAM. This gets them into a discussion about what the OEMs and the US need to do in order to create a real EV revolution in the US starting with producing affordable EVs, particularly below the $50K price point. They then begin to talk about why range is such an important consideration for Americans because of the desire to haul or tow things behind their vehicles and the challenges it poses to automakers who are challenged with providing sufficient range for vehicles when towing. Tu and Lei then briefly chat about the challenges being faced by the foreign legacies in China and Tu points to the hey days of them being market leaders is over.Tu and Lei end the pod with a discussion about Tu’s newsletter post unpacking GM’s announcement that it’s not going to support Apple Car Play anymore. 

The pod begins with Tu recalling the ordering process for OEMs to suppliers and Lei and Tu discussing the impact of the emissions standard update in July on the pricing and sales of ICE vehicles, specifically those that do not meet the new emissions requirements. Tu and Lei then move the conversation over to BYD and their export ambitions, recent earnings and overall outlook as they expand further into international markets. Lei then moves the conversation over to Huawei and they both discuss Huawei’s ambitions, their partners and what they think will Huawei’s ultimate path to success.The podcast closes out with a discussion on Faraday’s strange Job #1 announcement and their continued struggles. 

In this MAX episode, Lei has a sit down with Tom Fennimore, CFO of Luminar Technologies. Luminar is a US technology company that specializes in developing LiDAR for autonomous vehicles. It was founded in 2012 by a then 17-year old Austin Russell and went public on the NASDAQ via a SPAC deal on December 3, 2020. For those unfamiliar - LiDAR is an acronym of "light detection and ranging” or "laser imaging, detection, and ranging.” It is a method for determining ranges or distances by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected light to return to the receiver. LiDAR is also commonly used to make high-resolution maps.Some of Luminar’s current customers include: Volvo, Mercedes, Mobileye and Polestar and is considered a leader in the very crowded LiDAR space with further expansion plans into the US, European and Chinese markets. The LiDAR space is forecasted to grow to well over $3B by 2028 w/ averaging a compounded average growth rate of 18.4% of which Luminar is poised to take a big chunk of with it’s Iris LiDAR sensor and Sentinel self-driving HW/SW stack. 

The podcast begins with a brief discussion on Ford's accounting of EVs for China and China operations in general. They move their discussion to XPeng's earnings report and take some time to unpack what their troubles were in 2022 and what they're doing to address them now. Lei then summarizes Geely Holdings and their numerous brands and how they all fit together some of the history of a few of the brands that westerners might not have heard of and they both take a few minutes to update on Zeekr. Tu and Lei then give updates on the continuing price war and how it's affected some of the weaker players and foreign brands in particular. Lei pushes the discussion over to Nvidia and how they are likely the largest beneficiary in the push towards more AI use in apps, software and business. The pod closes out with a talk about the struggles of Kia/Hyundai in China and how they still are trying to make headway into the market with the recent announcement of new products.