Episode #225 - Stellantis in Transition, China’s 2040 EV Roadmap, and GM’s Tech Pivot

Tu Le and Lei Xing dive into one of the busiest weeks yet in the global EV world — from corporate drama to policy blueprints shaping the next 15 years. 🇨🇳⚙️🌎

Carlos Tavares’ bombshell remarks on a possible breakup of Stellantis spark debate: could a Chinese automaker one day buy Peugeot or Citroën? The hosts unpack Europe’s fragile position amid new export restrictions and the Nexperia chip crisis, which has idled factories and exposed just how dependent global OEMs are on Chinese-owned supply chains.

Then the conversation turns to China’s new SAE roadmap 3.0, outlining a sweeping plan through 2040 — including 80 % NEV adoption, peak carbon by 2028, and 70 % of new cars achieving Level 3–4 autonomy by 2035. Tu and Lei discuss what that means for Tesla, GM, VW, XPeng, and BYD, and why Western automakers still underestimate China’s speed and discipline.

They also hit:

⚙️ GM’s “Tech Day” and its Level 3 Escalade IQ launch — is Detroit finally catching up?

🏭 Volkswagen’s XPeng and Rivian alliances — lifeline or identity crisis?

🔋 CATL’s record 1,122 GWh battery output and Q3 earnings

🔥 The Li Auto MPV and Xiaomi SU7 fire controversies — and what they reveal about China’s speed vs safety trade-off

📈 NIO’s 40 K per-month production push and China’s Q4 sales surge

🚙 Why GM and Ford remain profitable in China despite sales declines

Smart, fast-paced, and unfiltered — this episode connects the dots between geopolitics, tech disruption, and the global EV power shift.

🔑  SEO Keywords

China EVs & More, Tu Le, Lei Xing, Sino Auto Insights, Stellantis breakup, Carlos Tavares book, Nexperia chip crisis, Wingtech ownership, China SAE roadmap 3.0, China EV 2040 targets, Level 4 autonomous driving China, GM Tech Day, Escalade IQ ADAS, Volkswagen XPeng partnership, Rivian VW deal, CATL battery output, Li Auto MPV fire, Xiaomi SU7 incident, NIO production 2025, Tesla China EV sales, EV policy China, global EV supply chain, rare earth restrictions, EV price war Europe

#️⃣  Tags

ChinaEVs & More, ChinaEVs, Stellantis, CarlosTavares, Volkswagen, XPeng, Rivian, GM, EscaladeIQ, CATL, BYD, Tesla, NIO, LiAuto, XiaomiSU7, EVRoadmap, AutonomousDriving, BatteryTech, EVSupplyChain, ChinaAuto, TuLe, LeiXing, SinoAutoInsights, GlobalMobility

Transcript

Tu Le (00:00)
 Hi everyone and welcome to China EVs and More. We're my co-host Lei Xing and I will go over the week's most important and interesting news coming out of the global EV, AV and mobility sectors. What Lei and I discuss today is based on our opinions and should not be taken as investment advice. For those that are new to the show, welcome and to our.
 
 loyal listeners and viewers, welcome back. We ask that you help us get the word out about this podcast to others that you think may be interested in viewing and listening as well. My name is Tu Le I am the Managing Director at Sino Auto Insights, a global management consultancy that helps organizations bring innovative and tech-focused products and services to the transportation and mobility sectors. I read a free weekly newsletter that we pull some of our discussion topics from.
 
 You can sign up for it at SinoAutoInsights.substack.com, which of course I encourage you all to do. A construction is done, have a brand new deck Lei Can you please introduce yourself?
 
 Lei Xing (01:06)
 Yes sir, good morning. This is your co-host Lei Xing, former chief editor of China Auto Review. And this is episode 225. Dos dos cinco Is that the correct pronunciation? Dos dos cinco Who do you got in the World Series?
 
 Tu Le (01:19)
 Yes.
 
 It's gotta be the Dodgers. ‚Åì
 
 Lei Xing (01:27)
 All right, then
 
 you know who I'm always rooting for. I'm always rooting for the underdogs. although it's going to be a monumental task, for those that don't know, we're talking about the baseball, also known as the fall classic here in the U.S. Yeah, it looks like a runaway for Dodgers, but who knows? mean, like, you know, it's national pride, right? Because there's only one baseball team in Canada. So.
 
 Tu Le (01:31)
 Okay.
 
 That's why they play the game, Lay.
 
 Yeah!
 
 Lei Xing (01:54)
 So it's like the whole country is like, I know some people, you know some people who are in Canada. I think their school even sends out messages to their students and parents about how to work around the schedule or something. That's how crazy it gets. back to China. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening.
 
 Tu Le (02:15)
 Jeffrey
 
 Lei Xing (02:17)
 Yeah, so there's lots of things to talk about. We can just pick and choose. Since last week, I apologize. I had a school-related event last Friday that took the whole day. So we can do this. But we should be able to continue with this schedule. Lots of things going on.
 
 Tu Le (02:37)
 Holy cow, Lei Heavy hitting question
 
 right off the get, right off the bat. We will circle back to this question. We will circle back.
 
 Lei Xing (02:44)
 Ugh. Probably since somebody
 
 mentioned about this Volkswagen being done, I don't think they're done, but they're stopping production apparently. And this is one of the biggest news the last couple of weeks since we last talked about it.
 
 Tu Le (02:58)
 Hey, so
 
 one other thing, a media outlet reached out to me because Carlos Tavares is writing a burn book.
 
 Lei Xing (03:05)
 That
 
 was the other thing I was going to kind of we can discuss about because there's some juicy comments that he said in that interview with Lapointe about, first of all, about a Chinese automaker acquiring some of the brands from the French side or the European side.
 
 Tu Le (03:23)
 So let's just talk about
 
 it. Did you interpret that as brands or like an entire company?
 
 Like Stellantis or like Peugeot or Citroen.
 
 Lei Xing (03:36)
 Well Stellantis is made up of let's say formerly FCA and PSA right so not I think not all out of the question that something if this were to be broken up I think the process is this first of all it has to be broken up like he suggested and then
 
 Tu Le (03:43)
 Right. They have too many brands.
 
 Lei Xing (04:02)
 possibly PSA, a company like a PSA who still has a Dongfeng as a joint venture partner and a shareholder. It's very possible that an entire company
 
 at least in some form, is owned by Chinese. But we say this
 
 with the backdrop of this next barrier.
 
 crisis which is something a company, European company, Dutch company, that is owned by Chinese company, and they're running into issues. So we look at it from different perspectives of how this can be possible or not.
 
 Tu Le (04:38)
 This points back to me a little bit, like
 
 the Arm debacle years ago, the semiconductor company, the British semiconductor company. this is different reasons for happening. We can talk about it a little bit later in the show.
 
 Lei Xing (04:44)
 Yeah.
 
 Yeah,
 
 my light is going down, so I have to deal with this. Sorry. I'll deal with it later.
 
 Tu Le (04:58)
 ‚Åì
 
 The other thing I wanted to talk about with you, Lei, is the China.
 
 Lei Xing (05:02)
 But the answer is yes,
 
 I think it's entirely possible.
 
 Tu Le (05:05)
 I think it would be a heavy, heavy, heavy, heavy lift. If it's a brand, one or two brands, yeah, I think that could be possible. There's nothing to say that a Chinese company couldn't be one to be a Volkswagen group with 10 or 12 brands under its portfolio of companies. I don't see that being an issue, but to swallow whole.
 
 Lei Xing (05:07)
 Heavy. Yeah.
 
 Tu Le (05:29)
 a Renault or a Stellantis or a Volkswagen group. You know, that's what I was a little bit. Is it referring to a single brand or is it referring to like these big companies that have multi foreign country shareholders? That's what I mean. It'd be complicated because Stellantis is French, but there's there's a little bit of Italy. There's a little bit of all these other countries, Spain. And so.
 
 It makes for a messy, messy, messy acquisition.
 
 Lei Xing (06:01)
 Yeah, and then we have the Stellantis LeapMotor what happens to that if it gets broken up? There's all these kind of crazy scenarios.
 
 Tu Le (06:15)
 Well, the other thing that Carlos had mentioned was the Chinese were going to demolish the European automakers basically, right?
 
 Lei Xing (06:21)
 Yeah,
 
 I think he was upset about the European Union kind of the path that they're on now. He was kind of upset about it. And even with the tariffs right?
 
 Tu Le (06:33)
 Well, he
 
 can poo poo all he wants because pre 21 % acquisition of Leap Motor, he was also, we have to protect, protect, protect, protect the European market and post. So I, I'll just say this. I sent a few pictures of the Paris Motor Show where Carlos was basically
 
 speaking at the Leap Motor Press event.
 
 Lei Xing (07:03)
 Yeah, yeah, right.
 
 That was that was last year, right? That was yeah, that was last year before before a couple of months before he got fired, right? Or got got? Yeah. But yeah, that book is that book in French, it doesn't appear to be available here. I mean, it'll be nice.
 
 Tu Le (07:10)
 That was last year.
 
 I got, yeah.
 
 So.
 
 I'm not even sure it's out yet. I think they just released some chapters or some excerpts from the book.
 
 Lei Xing (07:30)
 It's called A Pilot in the Storm. That's what the book is
 
 called. So I'll be happy. It'll be interesting to read it.
 
 Tu Le (07:38)
 I'll give him my $25. That's fine. Or 22 euro, 23, 25 euro.
 
 Lei Xing (07:40)
 you
 
 Yeah, yeah. And then, you know, I talked about that in next period, this is a whole new chip crisis.
 
 Tu Le (07:54)
 Let's back up. Let's explain to
 
 people. Let's explain to people. So there's a semiconductor company called NXP semiconductors. They're Dutch. Nexperia is a spin out of NXP. And Wing Tech ‚Åì acquired Nexperia. And
 
 Lei Xing (08:08)
 Wintec, Wintec, yeah Wintec.
 
 This was before
 
 the pandemic. think this was 2019, 18, 2019.
 
 Tu Le (08:20)
 Yeah, this is not recent. And the Dutch government effectively said you can't own Nexperia anymore because there is a substantial number of Dutch employees in a facility and a presence in Holland with Nexperia that is now Chinese owned. And so I think they did that at the behest of the United States government.
 
 Lei Xing (08:47)
 Well, because I think both Nexperia and a subsidiary were put on that entity list. So the whole reason behind this was because of the US influence. And the most recent, Nexperia China put out a statement, very provocative, very direct statement saying,
 
 whatever Nexperia headquarters has announced does not apply to what's happening in China, especially in that recent executive move. So it's still fluid, but it's causing Volkswagen and some other potentially European automakers to shut down production next week.
 
 Tu Le (09:18)
 they said basically ignore it.
 
 So let's peel the layers of the onion back, give it a little history lesson. The United States often sanctions, puts companies, Chinese companies on entity lists, but some of the time, a lot of the time they're toothless. So for instance, Huawei, they were put on an entity list, meaning that they couldn't buy certain technology from US companies.
 
 But there are loopholes, all kinds of loopholes. So there was a good article The Wire China had written about the subsidiaries that these Chinese companies create in order to purchase commodities, components, continue to purchase these commodities and components that the parent company is not supposed to. And Trump recently enacted, or the Trump administration enacted what's called the 50 % rule.
 
 So if there's a subsidiary that's owned more than 50 % by a Chinese entity, which there are hundreds and thousands, they're added to the entity list. that's my guess about Trump trying to close these loopholes. So to continue on that Huawei example, Huawei used to always be a handset maker that would buy
 
 Silicon from US companies or that had US IP They were put on the entity list. So what did they do? They started buying through Honor which is the other handset maker and of a brand under the Huawei brand and Honor is not on the entity list so they could continue this by certain components and commodities so when the United States
 
 Lei Xing (10:58)
 Yeah. ‚Åì
 
 Tu Le (11:09)
 It seems more saber rattling on certain occasions than actually closing loop loopholes, but this 50 % rule is really seems like it's trying to close those loopholes. And in response, a week later, I believe about a week later, the Chinese government dialed up restrictions on rare earth metals and on rare earth magnets. And so this is where we are today. And part of
 
 And the reason that Nexperia situation bubbled up is because to your point, they were added to this entity list because they're a Dutch company that is owned by China, Chinese company.
 
 Lei Xing (11:47)
 Chinese own.
 
 And this company, Nexperia, ships billions and billions of these little, what do you call them? Let's just call them chips for this simplicity. For ‚Åì electronics, for infotainment, for electronics control. Significant. And now we're back to a chip crisis. ‚Åì
 
 Tu Le (11:59)
 Control units, connectors, whatever.
 
 So let me give
 
 another quick dirty explanation. There are analog chips and then there are AI chips and Nvidia, AMD, they're more on the high end, high margin, lower volume that run the servers that train the algorithms. But then companies like NXP, Renesas, Texas Instruments, these
 
 Lei Xing (12:20)
 is up there in the, yeah. ‚Åì
 
 Tu Le (12:36)
 are companies that supply the automotive sector with analog chips that go in almost every control unit. And these control units are then shipped to run braking systems, to run air conditioning systems. And so these are the types of things that if Nexperia is taken out of the system, there is no other alternative really.
 
 There's no alternate source that can be immediately moved to in a lot of instances. So this is the bed that the rest of the world made, unfortunately.
 
 Lei Xing (13:11)
 Just, yeah.
 
 It just shows how fragile the global auto industry can be and is once again.
 
 Tu Le (13:23)
 So as an American, I don't understand how we got ourselves into certain situations.
 
 Lei Xing (13:28)
 Well, the
 
 US seems to be wants to have a say in everything everywhere in the world.
 
 Tu Le (13:36)
 Well, don't, I look at this way, Lei, I don't think that is any different than before, but now it's pretty open, it's in the open.
 
 Lei Xing (13:41)
 Right. Yeah.
 
 Yeah. And it looks like I was chatting with someone from Canada that the Lutnick Howard Lutnick does not want cars built in Canada.
 
 And interestingly enough, both GM and Ford has announced earnings. there's this Trump posted a truth social post saying that Mary Barra and Jim Farley thanked him because they're taking a lesser effect from the tariffs, thanks to Trump.
 
 You know, like it's very intertwined. We talked about the Carlos Tavares, Stellantis, Nexperia, the tariffs, the US automakers. And they're actually both GM and China, believe it or not. I think GM is 10 consecutive quarters of profitability or growth in China. Ford, nine consecutive profitable quarters, believe it or not, in China. Although they're not selling that well.
 
 So it's good and the bad, right?
 
 Tu Le (14:43)
 So Stellantis is also kind of on Canada's crap list because of the Brampton, Ontario factory is now getting products move back to the United States. And so...
 
 For those of you that were diehard automotive fans, you have to learn to be a little bit more geopolitical now, unfortunately.
 
 Lei Xing (15:08)
 Yeah, I mean, it's
 
 a...
 
 And then I think we shall go back to China because we left China for a bit. recently, I think you also mentioned in the news that there's this big roadmap announced from the SAE China's annual Congress of what happens 15 years from now. So maybe, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
 
 Tu Le (15:31)
 Let me stop you there, because I did want to talk to you about that. But I'm going to say this very,
 
 very plainly and very, very clearly. For those Westerners that were surprised in China's big moves, growth, whatever you want to call it, in the clean energy vehicle sector, in the battery sector, in the mining of
 
 minerals, the mining of rare earth metals, you have this roadmap. It's a 15 year roadmap. It has numbers. It has percentages. Don't tell me that you're surprised five to seven years from now, once they start making progress towards those goals. Do not do that because it is out in the open right now.
 
 Lei Xing (16:21)
 So China also this past week had the, what do call it, the Fourth Plenum Communique, which talks about the development for 15-5, 15th Five Year Plan, which means 2026 to 2030. And this roadmap from the SAE China Congress, first of all, it's not the first roadmap, is what you eluded.
 
 Roadmap 3.0. So 1.0 was 2016. No. So 2.0 was 2020. And now we have this 3.0, which supposedly goes to 2035. But they added another five years just to say what happens in 2040, at least the goal, at least the target numbers. Do you have those numbers?
 
 Tu Le (16:55)
 but they don't come out every year.
 
 Lei Xing (17:14)
 I'll let you shoot some out just to share. If not, I can share. There's lots of numbers. Well, the big, what a.
 
 Tu Le (17:20)
 Hold on. You sure? Well, I think what the important
 
 number was 80 % of all vehicles in China by 2040 will be clean energy vehicles.
 
 Lei Xing (17:32)
 Yes, the other interesting from the flipping to the other extent is by 2040, a third of the vehicles sold, passenger vehicles, will still have an engine. So these will include the regular hybrids, the PHEVs, and the EREVs. And by the way, XPeng is launching
 
 the X9 with the fuel tank, which we need some time to get used to because they're going backwards, You know, kind of, but.
 
 Tu Le (17:52)
 Check the X9
 
 in a 1,622 kilometer range.
 
 This X9,
 
 so for the Americans that are listening and watching, it has a 622 kilometer range, I wanna say, I believe.
 
 Lei Xing (18:17)
 Well,
 
 I don't know the battery range. It's probably at least 500, because it's got a 63.3 kilowatt hour battery.
 
 Tu Le (18:22)
 Well, total, total range, total. No,
 
 so I did the calculation as a 900 mile range.
 
 Lei Xing (18:31)
 Nine hundred mile range
 
 is 60 liter tank.
 
 Tu Le (18:34)
 my God. And it's a 60 kilowatt hour battery or so. So this battery is bigger than most BYD entry level BEV battery packs. Because most entry level BYD battery packs are less than 60 kilowatt hours.
 
 Lei Xing (18:38)
 Yeah, yeah.
 
 No, no, no. ‚Åì
 
 Yeah, and so they have this penetration target of the take rate among passenger vehicles of NEVs. So 2030 is 70%, 2035 is 80%, and 2040 is 85%.
 
 So that's the big numbers. And then they also gave out some other targets, not only on NEVs, but on energy consumption. It's an interesting thing. They said specifically for A-segment PVs, NEVs, by 2040, they want to reach 9.2 kilowatt hours per 100 kilometers.
 
 Currently on the market, lot of the NEVs are probably around 15 kilowatt hours. mean, XPeng says they can do 12. Mercedes with the CLA that they're launching, supposed to be below 12. So that gives you kind of a reference point. And then even on the hybridized, they expect by 2030,
 
 Tu Le (19:38)
 Mm-hmm.
 
 Lei Xing (19:54)
 Every vehicle that's sold in China, at least passenger vehicles, they will be no longer purely driven by ICE. So either some form of electrification by 2030. So full hybridization of PVs.
 
 And then even fuel cell EVs by 2040, they want to achieve annual production of 1 million fuel cell vehicles.
 
 And then on the ICE side, ‚Åì
 
 Tu Le (20:21)
 Well, here's
 
 another important one, Lei They will reach peak carbon emissions by 2028.
 
 Lei Xing (20:29)
 Yeah, I mean, that's probably part of the 2030, 2060 China had already announced, right, that the dual carbon. ‚Åì
 
 Tu Le (20:36)
 Didn't they also say something
 
 about intelligent driving? I think.
 
 Lei Xing (20:40)
 That's where I was
 
 going. Intelligent driving, want by 2035, 70 % of vehicles with level three or level four. And 2040, all ICVs will have level four capability.
 
 And,
 
 Tu Le (21:01)
 So let me throw a quick curveball lay because GM had that tech day and one of the things that they showed off was the, know, early sneak peak anyways, was a 2028 Escalade IQ that had level three. So, yeah, I think the...
 
 Lei Xing (21:07)
 Right, jam forward.
 
 Eyes off, basically eyes off. They call
 
 it eyes off, hands off.
 
 Tu Le (21:27)
 Right. And anecdotally, GM is talking out of both sides of its mouth because in the short term, it is reinvesting heavily in ICE. And then earnings, they killed it, share price up 15%. The next day, they didn't have this event in Detroit. They had it in New York City.
 
 Lei Xing (21:49)
 New York City,
 
 Tu Le (21:50)
 And this corresponds to Sterling Anderson, is their chief product officer, recently hired chief product officer, writing an op-ed in Fortune magazine. Okay. And he was part of the four or five people sitting on stage at tech day. And, so I was, texting with, with a mutual friend of ours, and
 
 He was like, what do you make of this? Because Linhua Wu, who is the chief comms officer is now, we talked about this a little bit last week, who is now the chief marketing officer for General Motors. I've looked at her LinkedIn. It doesn't seem to have a much of a marketing budget. One of the things that concerns me with that. So if you think of Sterling Anderson, the op-ed on Fortune, the tech day, it's GM.
 
 Lei Xing (22:25)
 Hmm.
 
 Tu Le (22:41)
 really really trying to reposition itself as a tech-ish company.
 
 Lei Xing (22:45)
 And remember they're doing what Volkswagen is doing. This central computing platform is agnostic. So it doesn't matter if it's ICE hybrids or what Volkswagen is doing, right? They're also using the CEA to apply it to all Volkswagen brand, ICE or any vehicles in China. So that's one thing. then...
 
 Sterling Anderson, was with who? Aurora before or some other? Aurora, right, right. So I mean, these are the backgrounds. But it, right. But when I saw this, right, mean, Rivian's are doing that and I saw this GM is I mean, compared to the Chinese, what they're doing, GM is five years late, kind of. But at least they're on the right track. They're doing it.
 
 Tu Le (23:13)
 He was with Tesla and he is the co-founder of Aurora.
 
 he's got the cred. He's got the cred.
 
 But, so, you know this, I'm in Detroit, I'm in meetings every week with people and I'm arguing with people. we're not, know, they're aware, they're not late, they're aware. You know why? I figured it out. I might've said this last week. If you don't see Chinese cars on your roads, you don't feel that urgency. Europe sees it.
 
 Lei Xing (23:37)
 Yeah.
 
 Tu Le (24:00)
 All these other countries in the rest of the world, many of them see it. So they see this quality level. They see and feel and touch how substantial and how much value these Chinese cars give them. Americans, they're like, man, I could be happier. And I'm exaggerating, but it is. You almost need that.
 
 vehicle to be on the roads here to remind you we have a limited amount of time.
 
 Lei Xing (24:30)
 And.
 
 And hence we do have this window thanks to the walls that have been put up. The 100 % tariffs the ICE ban. Who knows when that will continue to, but.
 
 And at the same time, think especially the EPA, there was a new proclamation, I guess, it's called that that's helping the US automakers, at least in North America.
 
 So they have this window, have this extra time to push ahead almost.
 
 Tu Le (25:01)
 I-
 
 And I want to really emphasize that Stellantis and Volkswagen Group need to be looked at differently than the GM and the Fords and even the Renaults because there aren't formal partnerships in play at GM and Ford with a Chinese partner. so Stellantis and Volkswagen Group have cheat sheets. In Volkswagen Group's case, they have
 
 twice the amount of cheat sheet because they're also partnering with Rivian. So you can almost look at it like it's the best of both worlds for Volkswagen. Now, it's a reconciling the size of my workforce. It's reconciling how much culture do we need to change at Volkswagen Group? How much faster can we go? Because assuming that XPeng technology,
 
 which, I believe it is, is top notch and assuming that Rivian technology is top notch, like competitive globally, then it's not about the technical part. It's about integrating these disparate companies, both startups that one is struggling more than the other. Xpeng seems to be on its way up. Rivian is still, I would say they're flat waiting for the R2.
 
 Lei Xing (26:11)
 it.
 
 Tu Le (26:26)
 So now, and Blume doesn't have an excuse because he's gonna get Porsche pulled from him at January 1st.
 
 Lei Xing (26:29)
 Well, yeah, we haven't talked about the Blume's
 
 Role change, but no also the escalate IQ with the Lieter on top. That's interesting. You who could that be? We don't have exact. But if I remember correctly. Either.
 
 Tu Le (26:36)
 Yeah, we can talk about that. So maybe we segue into that. So that's kind of how I look at it.
 
 Lei Xing (26:52)
 I it was Hesai who recently signed a major deal with the North American automaker. I could be wrong. I remember something that was announced. Can you have a Cadillac EV sold in the US with the Hesai lidar? Because Hesai is already on Euro, on his robotaxis.
 
 These are all interesting going forward to contemplate, to see. But, Blume, mean, that was just a matter of time. So I think it's good. I think he can focus a little bit more on a group level. And then...
 
 Tu Le (27:29)
 What do you think of the hiring of Lieter
 
 Lei Xing (27:31)
 I don't know this guy, but he did have Porsche experience, know, just have a new blood. He can be considered outsider or no, but it comes from these ultra luxury brands, Or a sporty brand. So hopefully that works out. But.
 
 Tu Le (27:47)
 so yesterday, Lei, I'm in New Lab. You visited New Lab while you were in Detroit. I'm at a conference that is being run by this organization that's a joint partnership between MIT, one of their economic or one of their organizations at MIT, and OP Mobility. Do you know who OP Mobility is?
 
 Lei Xing (27:50)
 Yup.
 
 Tu Le (28:12)
 Like it what their name was in the past. It's a french company. It's a tier one You know
 
 Lei Xing (28:17)
 Mm-hmm.
 
 yeah, the lighting, it? Plastic opt-in? Yeah. Omnium, yeah. I think they supply Rivian headlights or something, or the front assembly, if I remember correctly. Yeah, I've heard it.
 
 Tu Le (28:22)
 Yes.
 
 You're the plastic Omnium So they changed their name to OP mobility
 
 Yes. So I'm at this event that's hosted. It's
 
 an all day long conference. And the cool thing is it's actually being live streamed on LinkedIn, like we're being live streamed. so my friend, I don't know if you know him, but Jose Asumendi, who's the global head of auto research for JP Morgan, he flew in because he was a panelist.
 
 Lei Xing (28:54)
 huh.
 
 Mm-hmm. Okay.
 
 Tu Le (29:02)
 And then he was on a panel with the CEO of OP Mobility and the daughter of the owner and founder of OP Mobility. Jose tells me that OP Mobility is a really good tier one. They have about 50 % market share of fuel tanks in China. And so they do really well, but they are a lighting company as well. But yeah, there's some of these...
 
 Lei Xing (29:10)
 Okay.
 
 field tanks. yeah. All right. Right, right, right.
 
 Tu Le (29:30)
 You know who I also saw? XGM are now head of North America for OPM Mobility, Marissa West. So that was kind of funny to see her, but like, because they're on my turf, right? Because I work there twice a week or whatever, two, three times a week. But we're having these conversations about mobility and
 
 Lei Xing (29:32)
 You
 
 huh, okay.
 
 Tu Le (29:52)
 disruption and stuff. like, it's, Yogi Berra said, it's like deja vu all over again, because we've been talking about this for years. Or, you know, I've been writing about it for years in the newsletter and we've been talking about it. it, it, it starting to trickle in to your point, it's late because as of three years ago, we, they didn't even acknowledge the Chinese, right?
 
 And not only are they acknowledging the vehicles, but they're acknowledging the importance of connectivity in the connected vehicle. And one of the panelists was an Uber freight sales director. And they started talking about how important autonomy will be for freight transportation.
 
 Lei Xing (30:31)
 Mm.
 
 Tu Le (30:38)
 you know, the CEO of OP Mobility, it's a French company, so you would assume, but the CEO is French, flew in from Paris. You know, the daughter of the owner is French. And then there was Jose, who lives in London, but he's Spanish. And then the Uber freight guy was an American guy. you know, when the French are acknowledging and trying to build cred by talking about connected vehicles and stuff like that, it's like...
 
 ‚Åì but, it's starting to be socialized. starting to be socialized. And I was in, I was in a small private meeting with, another set of people. And, I'd said, if we're to compete, the government needs to create less friction, not more friction. And I.
 
 Lei Xing (31:07)
 Yeah, I've done that,
 
 Tu Le (31:29)
 maybe didn't state it as eloquently or as clearly as I could have maybe, but, I said, the OEMs still don't get it. And I got immediately pushed back because there's a couple of OEM and tier one representatives in the meeting. I have a bone to pick. I would disagree with that. You know, the leadership knows. And I looked at them and I said, because, you know, I don't have an OEM as a client.
 
 Lei Xing (31:52)
 Well, mean,
 
 here's where we should mention there's always a... We talk about China's speed, but there will be drawbacks. And the two most recent examples, these are the elephants in the room, the Xiaomi accident, which still there's no response from Xiaomi as of today. Last night, this Mega got burned down. Luckily, the passengers got out.
 
 Tu Le (32:16)
 Because there's a physical handle. There's a physical door handle.
 
 Lei Xing (32:19)
 In the
 
 attorney letter, the owner said they could not open the gliding door so he got off from the passenger side. So based on that attorney letter, but from the video that you can see this online, the right side gliding door actually opened later on, but it was already engulfed in flames.
 
 And we don't want to make any conclusions on what is the cause, but the way things transpire and get picked up in China is fast. There's always distortions. think that's the drawback of this China speak. think things happen. It's just...
 
 Tu Le (33:09)
 Well, it doesn't help that Xiaomi is not setting the record straight.
 
 Lei Xing (33:14)
 Maybe the investigation is taking longer. I don't know. Who knows? ‚Åì I think for Li Auto, it's definitely what you call when it rains and pours, right? Because they've been facing issues with their EREVs. And the I series, I6 is supposed to be good, but the I8 is not. And now they have this come out. And obviously, as a company, you have to do crisis PR.
 
 Tu Le (33:19)
 N N N
 
 Lei Xing (33:39)
 And in China, you know how it's done. So, I mean, these things, think are gonna...
 
 Tu Le (33:40)
 Design wise, i8 is just, ‚Åì external design is not great, in my opinion.
 
 And I will add
 
 this, Xiaomi has layers of challenges because there was an intelligent driving flaw.
 
 Lei Xing (33:56)
 Well,
 
 there's also the guy who was drunk driving. mean, these all are, you know, what you can control, what you cannot control. But, you know, these raises questions. People will, like you say, you know, people will throw a bone or people will challenge, you know, what is right. We talk about it. There's good and the bad that we have to talk about.
 
 No.
 
 Tu Le (34:21)
 Anything else you want to talk about? I did want to mention.
 
 Lei Xing (34:23)
 No, the other thing that's interesting
 
 is the JD car 001. It's an interesting, at least from a sales channel, the way how JD all of a sudden has come into play as a major player now, selling EVs in China. Plus the CATL chocolate swap. This is one of the first, guess not the first, but a
 
 Tu Le (34:39)
 Well, that's the same as Amazon.
 
 Yes.
 
 Lei Xing (34:49)
 something you can probably own and purchase through JD. It takes 99 seconds officially to swap and it's got a 500 kilometer range, which is quite high, quite long for this A0. The Aion UT Super is an A0 segment. So I think it's a hatchback, small hatchback with a 500 kilometer range. Yeah. And so they started this bidding process.
 
 Tu Le (35:13)
 Like, almost like a fleet vehicle.
 
 Lei Xing (35:19)
 online in ahead of the double 11 holiday shopping day. And somebody bid 78 million and then be to get this 001. So I don't know he's going to pay for it. But crazy things happen in China. Weird things happen in China for the good and the bad.
 
 Tu Le (35:39)
 Yeah,
 
 well, and we're just rounding the corner to the end of the year. So we're going to continue to see some crazy stuff.
 
 Lei Xing (35:45)
 Someone tells me
 
 it could just be a setup or this guy's not really going to pay 78 million but who knows? Ten million dollars.
 
 Tu Le (35:54)
 So
 
 one number this week that stood out to me was 1,122, as in 1,122 gigawatt hours. That's how much production of batteries has been built in China from January through September. if, so a Model 3 standard range is 60 kilowatt hours.
 
 That would build 1,122 gigawatt hours would build almost 19 million Model 3s.
 
 Lei Xing (36:27)
 You know, at the
 
 same time, CATL, I think they announced some numbers of their Q3 earnings, which was pretty good. And I think it was 180 gigawatt hours shipped. I gotta check what time frame that is, but it's some big numbers.
 
 Tu Le (36:47)
 And it's only going to get bigger between October and December.
 
 Lei Xing (36:51)
 Well, this is the time where for a LiAuto, for a NIO they're trying to produce all they can in these blockbuster models, right? I think NIO, did 10,000 a week registration for the first time ever last week, which means a 40,000 rate a month.
 
 Tu Le (36:52)
 It's gonna do this.
 
 Lei Xing (37:18)
 which I think they will get there. ‚Åì
 
 Tu Le (37:23)
 Because like the United States with
 
 the September 30th date, China is racing to December 31st because they're going to get rid of more subsidies.
 
 Lei Xing (37:33)
 Yeah, and hence, you know, the Q3, I think there is a bit distorted Q3 earnings. They were good for, you know, Tesla, GM, at least revenue wise, right? The earnings, they have to take hits from these other factors. yeah, I mean, this is crunch time for Q4. At the same time, they have the balance not pushing everything this year. Well, for NIO, their number one priority is profitability.
 
 So Li Bin send the internal letter and number one, everybody needs to work toward the goal of profitability by the end of Q4. So for different companies are different but.
 
 Come next year you pay You get half less from the purchase tax exemptions. So Right, you want to get those in you want to get those in?
 
 Tu Le (38:23)
 So I anticipate Tesla in North America having a pretty substantial pullback starting in October, November, December, which means that they'll likely incentivize the North American quote unquote U.S. buyer somehow some way, whether that's a discount on FSD, whether that's free charging, I'm not sure yet. But I think that if they see a substantial
 
 decline in sales in the first couple of weeks of October, they'll be prepared to incentivize somehow some way. And GM will likely see a little bit of a funk, but I think they're really, really high on a launch of the bolts for $29,000. And then obviously the slate vehicle that's supposed to be coming. My guess is that R2
 
 gravity, baby gravity don't end up coming until Q4 at the best at best and slate in and around that timeframe as well. So 2026 should be a weird year for clean energy vehicles in North America as we wait for the more affordable vehicles to come. Cause I don't, I can't think of too many others that are going to be in the thirties and
 
 low 40s in North America until at least late next year.
 
 Lei Xing (39:44)
 Well, the
 
 recent latest number from KBB was that in September, ATP crossed $50,000 for the first time in history. $50,000.
 
 Tu Le (39:56)
 So as some of you know, I also co-host a show with Joe White. He said that when he had made that same comment about it crossing 50,000 and now cars are a product for the rich. And if you're not rich, you can just buy a used car. And there is a market of 10, 20 million customers that, and he said that,
 
 Lei Xing (40:18)
 Brilliant,
 
 Tu Le (40:21)
 The $100,000 car is not a Mercedes or a BMW, it's an Escalade.
 
 So that's the most popular car. a, a, always something to talk about, man. Always something to talk about.
 
 Lei Xing (40:34)
 Yeah and
 
 then just a couple other things I think Leap Motor they launched this D19 large three-row six-seater with the battery electric range of 500 kilometers. There's this pyramid I don't know if you saw that of all the eREVs in China ranking their battery electric range so D19 is currently at the very top with 500 and I'm sure
 
 Tu Le (41:00)
 I haven't
 
 seen that. I haven't seen that.
 
 Lei Xing (41:02)
 I'll try to send it to you. And then I'm sure somebody will trump it.
 
 Tu Le (41:05)
 without question.
 
 Lei Xing (41:06)
 And then XPeng congrats to moving on this new nice looking spaceship headquarters. Yeah, it looks amazing. But they're launching, like I said, X9 with a 60 liter fuel tank. I had to wrap my head around it.
 
 Tu Le (41:12)
 We'll have to go check it out.
 
 And a
 
 63 kilowatt hour battery, which gets a 900 mile range. a bit of overkill, but hey, one of the things that I did in my newsletter this week, Lei, and you might have saw this because it's my newsletter and I can do whatever I want. I posted a little short video of the Detroit Lions Monday Night Football, so.
 
 Lei Xing (41:28)
 ‚Åì Yeah, but
 
 Tu Le (41:52)
 I took my son to watch that game, so that was cool. We won 24-9. Then next week is the Reuters Automotive Conference here in Detroit. So for those that plan to attend, I'll be there. Joe White and I are co-hosting a panel discussion on day one at around 430. I'll send you pics and I'll say hi to some people. I'm sure there's going to be people coming into town that you know as well.
 
 Lei Xing (41:52)
 Yeah.
 
 Have fun, have fun. Yeah, I'll be awesome.
 
 Tu Le (42:19)
 I'll be doing that all next week. And so let's get to questions.
 
 Lei Xing (42:24)
 right.
 
 Tu Le (42:25)
 Jeffrey, those crazy Dutch, the brands of Stellantis. Now that's what we call a cash burn, yikes. SSJJ005, is it true that LiAuto stopped announcing the weekly registration numbers?
 
 Lei Xing (42:44)
 So this past week, I have not seen those numbers. So maybe it is. But as you know, they've been going down. And I know that the i8 in September, the numbers were not good. but i8, yeah.
 
 Tu Le (42:48)
 Hmm.
 
 They're just trying to stop the bleeding.
 
 And Jeffrey again, better send King Trump and some tulips and wooden shoes.
 
 Lei Xing (43:09)
 We had,
 
 you know, last weekend we had this huge rally across the US and even in here in Amherst, it was this huge rally, yeah, of no kings rally, so.
 
 Tu Le (43:16)
 No kings.
 
 People are freaking out because he demolished a part of the White House. this one is a fine mess of all messes. Ironic that the Chinese are not blamed on this one. So I wrote a question, bless you, a couple of questions. Let's see if there are answers. So I wrote a question to the audience. What do they think about Canada? Will they eliminate the Chinese?
 
 Lei Xing (43:26)
 Yeah.
 
 Excuse me.
 
 Tu Le (43:47)
 tariffs on passenger vehicles. Jeffrey writes, Mark Carney let the Chinese EVs into Canada, remove the tariffs. ‚Åì
 
 Lei Xing (43:57)
 Well, there was this recent
 
 letter that was sent by the ambassador, Chinese ambassador to Canada, right? Asking to remove this in return for something I forget, agricultural, Yeah. But then remember in the back, you have this influence from Howard Lutnick from the US. So it's a delicate matter.
 
 Tu Le (44:06)
 Agricultural, I think Canada products.
 
 Dederjigoffmm7496 writes, what is Canada protecting? Well, they were protecting the US automakers building in Canada, but now they don't have much to protect because most of that, I won't say most, that's probably not an accurate statement. A lot of that production is moving back to the United States. Jeffrey writes, I think they might achieve
 
 that target sooner and I think he's talking about the 80 % by 2040 of clean energy vehicle take rates.
 
 Lei Xing (44:49)
 Well, this year,
 
 mean, this year, we're probably going to get to 50 % when the year ends. So let's say 33, 34 million, 16 million out of those, 50%, including export, obviously. But we're right there at 50%. But obviously, it's going to be a long tail. It's not going to be continuing growing as fast as the last few years.
 
 Tu Le (45:06)
 Mel?
 
 Lei Xing (45:14)
 you
 
 Tu Le (45:14)
 Malcolm
 
 Bennett 355 writes, I too wonder when Chinese EVs will be available in Canada. By the way, love the Ducati shirt. Thanks, man. Yeah, so some of my friends when I was in...
 
 Lei Xing (45:26)
 Reduce.
 
 I love the Ducati
 
 in the new Tron Ares movie I saw with my daughter. There's a, at the very, I don't want to do the spoiler, but at very end there was this classic Ducati at the very end of the movie, so yeah. Well, this movie apparently flopped, but they did have this Optimus trying to fight Jared Leto at the premiere, so.
 
 Tu Le (45:33)
 Is that a Ducati? Have you watched that movie?
 
 ‚Åì I to watch that. Yeah, it looked kind of good.
 
 let me see here.
 
 Lei Xing (45:56)
 speaking of workflow, I heard that Giga Shanghai is crazily ramping up because of the demand for the Y and the YL. It's also because of the Q4 seasonality that we talked about.
 
 Tu Le (45:56)
 Okay, here.
 
 Long?
 
 Well, and they're probably trying to export as many as they can to. Carney needs to make the move. Trump is distracted by his ballroom fiasco. Perfect time to move on it. SSJJ005 writes, Li MPV was on fire. We talked about that a little bit late. Jeff also writes.
 
 Lei Xing (46:33)
 Figuratively
 
 and literarily sad to say, but...
 
 Tu Le (46:37)
 Most of these people are too lazy to get on a plane and see it for themselves. And I wrote another question, when do you believe Chinese vehicles would be seen on American roads?
 
 Jeffrey writes, I feel once Carney tries to make a deal, Trump will just ahead of him, but acknowledgement is always too late with the automotive arena. I bet you did keep fighting. So I think he's talking about me in my meetings talking. Only getting worse for Li Auto WeChat was likely on fire too. I think he's talking about social media on WeChat. SSJJ writes, Li Auto fire got bad really fast, like in 10 seconds.
 
 Lei Xing (47:08)
 Yes.
 
 Tu Le (47:14)
 Luckily there were no passengers in the third row because it would have been too late.
 
 Lei Xing (47:19)
 Yeah, I this is, I think these things, I mean, we talked about Xiaomi, we talked about the auto. I mean, it could happen to anybody.
 
 Tu Le (47:28)
 It's inevitable. I'm actually really surprised. And maybe it's because of LFP. Well, let's assume one thing. I'm assuming that the quality level of the packs and the durability is a big reason why we're not seeing more fires. So.
 
 Lei Xing (47:28)
 What?
 
 Well, at
 
 the same time, everybody, all of these Chinese companies, when they launch these products, first of all, they talk about safety, safety, safety, the Zeekr 9X. And all of them are saying we've met this national standard. There's a requirement on the battery pack, know, not catching fire or, right? All of these things within, I don't know, two hours.
 
 And when something like this happens, then you question.
 
 Tu Le (48:12)
 Well, and there are
 
 consequences. You saw Xiaomi. You're seeing Li Auto right now with the MPV. So there are real consequences for any vehicles that are perceived to be unsafe.
 
 Lei Xing (48:26)
 Yeah.
 
 Tu Le (48:27)
 Mike the Car Geek writes, MIIT has become the leader in rules making globally. The door handles, the next vehicle you buy in the US will probably be influenced by the rules in China.
 
 Lei Xing (48:42)
 That's a good point. What's happening in China, whether it's the innovations or the tech coming out or whether it's these controversies, is a good reference for the rest of the world. What to do and what not to do.
 
 Tu Le (48:57)
 And then Jeffrey
 
 writes, likely Mike, very true. China's speed is quite powered. Go NIO. ‚Åì SSJJ005 laid. NIO had over 10,000 weekly number in September as well. So it was not the first time this right. Mike the Cargeek, Ontario's auto industry will soon be gone unless they reach an agreement with the US or get a Chinese automaker to come in. Well, I think they're trying to do both. I think they're trying to do both.
 
 Lei Xing (49:04)
 you
 
 Yeah, I mentioned that. Yeah.
 
 ‚Åì yeah, I think
 
 interesting. Yeah. ‚Åì
 
 Tu Le (49:27)
 So
 
 Lei Xing (49:28)
 your Friday, I'm good. What's that event? OK.
 
 Tu Le (49:30)
 I'm good. I'm good. So the
 
 the conference is Wednesday and Thursday
 
 Lei Xing (49:34)
 Okay, okay. All right, looking forward to hear some chatter out of that conference and then ‚Åì see what happens. We can talk about it, yeah.
 
 Tu Le (49:40)
 Yeah. Everyone
 
 have a good weekend. Thanks for joining us. it's Michigan, Michigan State weekend. So I'm going to go to East Lansing and watch the Spartans probably get crushed. ‚Åì anyways, good morning, good afternoon, good evening. We will talk with you all next week.
 
 Lei Xing (49:53)
 Yeah. Nice.
 
 Bye bye, goodbye.