Daily Archive: May 15, 2023

Honda puts off-key e:Ny1 badge on mainstream EV for Europe

Honda e:Ny1 EVHonda has found a lot of success in Europe with its Honda e hatchback. And now it’s adding a second EV to its Continental lineup with the e:Ny1. Honda calls the e:Ny1 “the logical next step on our electrification journey in Europe.” The small crossover appears positioned for the B-segment core of the Euro market, rivaling a...

Alibaba backtracks on autonomous driving R&D

Alibaba's DAMO Academy's autonomous driving lab will lay off about 70 percent of its staff, while others will be transferred to the e-commerce giant's logistics arm, according to local media.

Alibaba backtracks on autonomous driving R&D-CnEVPost

(Image credit: DAMO Academy)

Alibaba, one of China's most powerful tech giants, is backing away from autonomous driving research and development, highlighting the challenges facing the field.

Alibaba's DAMO Academy no longer retains its autonomous driving business and team, which was merged into its logistics unit Cainiao, the Shanghai Securities News said in a report today, citing people from the e-commerce giant.

This means that Alibaba's autonomous driving business is entering a whole new phase of moving from cutting-edge tech exploration in the lab to applications in real-world scenarios, the report noted.

The Shanghai Securities News report did not provide more information, but according to a subsequent report by Jiemian, another local media outlet, not all of DAMO Academy's autonomous driving business was merged into Cainiao, but rather a significant layoff will be made.

DAMO Academy's autonomous driving lab previously had more than 300 people, with 80-90 receiving the option to move to work at Cainiao, while about 200 others, or about 70 percent, will be laid off, according to Jiemian.

One of the key reasons Cainiao was unable to take on all members of the team was the limited investment it was willing to make, the report said, citing an Alibaba insider.

The team that will be incorporated into Cainiao will be primarily responsible for keeping the autonomous driving robot Xiaomanlv, or little donkeys, in business and will not do much expansion, the report said.

Xiaomanlv is an L4 autonomous driving product launched by DAMO Academy's autonomous driving lab in September 2020 to serve the last three kilometers of delivery, take-out and fresh food delivery.

To date, the autonomous driving robot has entered more than 200 universities and communities, with a fleet size exceeding 500 vehicles.

It is worth noting that DAMO Academy's self-driving lab has undergone previous management changes.

In January 2022, the lab's then-head, Wang Gang, left after three years on board. In March this year, his successor, Chen Junbo, also left after one year in the position.

Alibaba's move underscores the huge challenges facing autonomous driving R&D.

At the end of March, BYD chairman and president Wang Chuanfu said at an earnings meeting that autonomous driving is nonsense that comes out of capital coercion.

BYD has more than 600,000 employees, and the company can't even replace all its workers with machines, because the machines can't simulate every scenario of manual operation, he said.

"It's not even possible to do unattended work on a fixed production line, let alone the ever-changing actual road conditions," Wang said at the time.

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Li Auto stops sharing weekly sales data, CEO explains why

Li Auto CEO said they have been complained about by many of their peers, so they are temporarily unable to publish insurance data from last week.

(Image credit: CnEVPost)

Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI) continued to share weekly auto insurance registration numbers in China after they became unavailable on major channels starting in April.

Now the automaker has stopped sharing those numbers as well, and its founder, chairman and CEO Li Xiang explained why.

"We have been complained and reported by many peers, so we can't release the insurance registration data for the time being since last week, very unfortunate," Li wrote on Weibo today.

Notably, earlier today, multiple versions of a table purportedly showing the insurance registration data for the first week of May circulated on Chinese social media, with Li claiming that much of the data was fake.

"I saw that some of my peers couldn't stand the fact that some people started faking the insurance registration data (which every car company buys) and took it upon themselves to release the real data for the first week," he said.

Li Auto's insurance was not less than 6,000 in that falsified data, but 7,000, he said.

Previously, we had access to those numbers every Tuesday, and it was Li Auto's practice to share a portion of them later to show off that it was leading the pack among new car makers.

The company last shared those numbers on May 5, when it provided a table showing that it sold 8,100 units in the week of April 24 to April 30.

Li Auto delivered 25,681 vehicles in April, another monthly high, while surpassing the 20,000-delivery mark for the second consecutive month.

On May 10, Li Auto reported its first-quarter earnings with guidance that second-quarter vehicle deliveries would range from 76,000 to 81,000.

This means that it expects to deliver a total of 50,319 to 55,319 vehicles in May and June.

Insurance registrations for week ending Apr 30: Tesla 11,500, Li Auto 8,100, NIO 2,600

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Singapore’s deputy PM visits NIO House in Shanghai

NIO is building a R&D Center in Singapore, where it looks into smart power solutions & autonomous driving technologies, said Lawrence Wong.

Singapore's deputy PM visits NIO House in Shanghai-CnEVPost

A Singaporean deputy prime minister visited a NIO House in Shanghai today, the first senior local official to visit the electric vehicle (EV) maker since it went public on the country's stock market.

Lawrence Wong, Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, tweeted today that he visited NIO and saw its next-generation battery technology.

"NIO is building a R&D Center in SG, where it looks into smart power solutions & autonomous driving technologies. Had a fruitful conversation & I wish NIO all the best in its EV journey in SG," Wong wrote.

Wong shared a picture that shows William Li, the founder, chairman and CEO of NIO, accompanying him on his tour.

"NIO team is honored to welcome Singapore Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Mr. Lawrence Wong and Singaporean government officials for a visit and further discussion at NIO House | Shanghai Tower today," the EV company said in a retweet.

On May 20, 2022, NIO was listed on the Main Board of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (SGX-ST), becoming the first Chinese automaker to list in three locations.

NIO announced at the time that it would establish an artificial intelligence and autonomous driving R&D center in Singapore. The company has already established R&D centers in Beijing, Shanghai, San Jose, USA, and Europe.

"We will also leverage Singapore's advantageous position as an international financial and technology center. By collaborating with science and research institutions and establishing NIO's R&D center for AI and AD in Singapore, we will further broaden and enhance our global R&D footprint," Li said at the time.

NIO made a secondary listing in Hong Kong by way of introduction on March 10, 2022, and the listing in Singapore was its second secondary listing.

NIO is currently down 2.89 percent to S$8.07 in Singapore. It closed down 2.46 percent to HK$63.50 in Hong Kong today.

NIO makes its debut on Singapore's stock market

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