"They developed very quickly, and they developed them in large scale. And now they're exporting them," Bill Ford said.
(Image credit: Ford China Weibo)
The US is not ready to compete with China in electric vehicle (EV) production, Ford executive chairman Bill Ford said on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" Sunday program.
"They developed very quickly, and they developed them in large scale. And now they're exporting them," Ford said, adding, "They're not here but they'll come here we think, at some point, we need to be ready, and we're getting ready."
Ford CEO Jim Farley said in May that Chinese EV makers are its main competitors in the segment and that Ford would need a unique brand or lower cost to beat them.
"I think we see the Chinese as the main competitor, not GM or Toyota. The Chinese are going to be the powerhouse," Farley said.
China has a well-established EV industry chain that Ford is trying to tap into in its electrification transformation efforts.
On February 13, Ford announced it is investing $3.5 billion to build a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery plant in Marshall, Michigan.
The plant, which is wholly owned by Ford, is the first battery plant in the US to be wholly owned by an automaker and will introduce LFP battery solutions for Ford's EV products.
Notably, Ford will use technology provided by Chinese power battery giant CATL.
Ford has a new agreement with CATL, which will provide technical and service support for the production of the LFP battery plant, and Ford engineers will work on cell and vehicle integration, it said at the time.
In China, Ford appears to be scaling back its efforts on electrification, after initial attempts didn't yield the desired results.
Earlier this month it was reported that Ford was making organizational changes that would see the Mustang Mach-E team integrated back into Ford China, and that the separate entity running the program would be written off in the future.
That's because Mustang Mach-E sales were too poor for the separate company to sustain losses for long, Jiemian said on June 8, citing a person familiar with the matter.
The reshuffling of the team does not mean the Mustang Mach-E will be withdrawn from China, and the project will continue to be produced by Changan Ford, Ford's joint venture in China, according to the report.
Chinese car penetration is expected to rise to 16.5 percent in Europe and 12.8 percent in Southeast Asia by 2025, according to Canalys.
China's total vehicle exports are expected to reach 4.4 million units in 2023, with new energy vehicles (NEVs) expected to account for more than 30 percent of the total, market research firm Canalys said in a report today.
China's auto exports have been climbing since 2020, surpassing Germany as the world's second-largest exporter in 2022. In the first quarter, China surpassed Japan as the world's largest auto exporter, with growth in NEVs exports the main reason for the overall increase, Canalys said.
In April, China's vehicle exports rose 142.40 percent to 424,200 units, up 9.61 percent from March, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
In January-April, China's auto exports were 1.49 million units, up 71 percent year-on-year, according to the CPCA.
The core regions of China's auto export destinations are shifting from Africa, Central Asia and South Asia to more developed regions, including Europe and Southeast Asia, the report noted.
China's light vehicle exports to these two core regions contributed 5.9 percent and 7.6 percent of the country's vehicle exports in 2020, respectively. In 2022, the share was 22 percent and 14.3 percent, respectively, according to Canalys.
The average selling price of Chinese car exports increased from RMB 112,000 ($15,670) in 2021 to RMB 140,000 in 2022, up by more than 25 percent. In the European market, the figure was RMB 210,000 in 2022.
In 2022, Chinese automotive products had a penetration rate of 2.6 percent in the Southeast Asia region. By 2025, that figure is expected to rise to 12.8 percent, Canalys said.
In Europe, the penetration of Chinese cars is expected to rise to 16.5 percent by 2025, according to the report.
The average selling price of mainstream products in the European market is highly aligned with the average price of Chinese automotive exports, and consumers here are more aware of the NEV market, according to Canalys.
The overall light vehicle market volume in Europe and Southeast Asia is expected to grow to 13.7 million and 3.8 million units, respectively, by 2025, with NEVs penetrating more than 40 percent in Europe, Canalys said.
In 2021, the Covid pandemic caused instability in overseas supply chains and was the core reason for the growth of Chinese vehicle exports. After 2022, the growth of the overseas NEV market presents new opportunities, according to the report.
Chinese automakers have a first-mover advantage in electrification and vehicle intelligence, and have sufficient capacity and short product delivery times, Canalys said, adding that brands in other countries are lagging behind in the NEV transition and are falling short of expectations in core technology development.
The EC6 is the last remaining piece of the puzzle as NIO switches models from the NT 1.0 platform to the NT 2.0 platform.
(Image credit: Weibo @肉肉爸比ev)
The EC6 is the last remaining piece of the puzzle as NIO (NYSE: NIO) switches models from the NT 1.0 platform to the NT 2.0 platform. Now, the revamped version of the coupe SUV may not be far from being available.
Long-time NIO follower and car blogger @肉肉爸比ev shared several pictures of the new EC6 on Weibo yesterday, saying that the model is undergoing testing.
The daytime running lights on the front of the new EC6 are the biggest difference between it and other models, the blogger noted.
On February 13, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced a new batch of catalogs of models that will be allowed to be sold in China, and the new EC6 was included.
The page for the new EC6 shows that it uses the same LiDAR and camera setup on the roof as the rest of the NT 2.0-based platform, and the front and taillight designs are similar to the other latest models.
The model is 4,849 mm long, 1,995 mm wide, 1,697 mm high and has a wheelbase of 2,915 mm.
For comparison, the old EC6, based on the NT 1.0 platform, is 4,850 mm long, 1,965 mm wide and 1,731/1,714 mm high, with a wheelbase of 2,900 mm.
The old EC6 was previously offered in three versions, priced at RMB 396,000 ($55,566), 436,000 and 496,000 respectively.
The new EC6 is equipped with dual motors produced by NIO's electric drive systems division in Hefei, Anhui province, with a maximum power of 150 kW and 210 kW, respectively, and can support a top speed of 200 km/h, according to the regulatory filing in February.
The two lower-priced versions of the EC6 on the NT 1.0 platform carry dual motors both with a maximum power of 160 kW, while the highest-priced version carries a maximum power of 160 kW for the front motor and 240 kW for the rear motor.
The new EC6 will support the option of retractable electric tow hooks and will be equipped with an electric rear wing.
NIO is launching new models at a very tight pace this year. The company unveiled the EC7 and new ES8 on NIO Day 2022 on December 24, 2022, with deliveries of the former already starting on April 28 and the latter due to begin later this month.
The EC7 is also a coupe SUV and is currently offered in two versions with starting prices of RMB 458,000 and RMB 548,000 respectively.
The EC7 is not the NT 2.0 version of the EC6, which is expected to offer a lower price point to meet the needs of the group that prefers this type of vehicle.
On April 18, NIO launched the 2023 ET7 and unveiled the new ES6 on the NT 2.0 platform on the first day of the Shanghai auto show.
Deliveries of the 2023 ET7 began on May 20, and the new ES6 was officially launched on May 24 and deliveries began that night.
The Li L7 is a model that was nearly canceled during development, according to Li Auto CEO Li Xiang.
(Image credit: CnEVPost)
The Li L7 -- a new model that almost got canceled -- saw its highest single-day sales ever on Saturday, according to Li Xiang, founder, chairman and CEO of Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI).
"Yesterday was our first tech day, and today is also a historic moment -- the first time that the Li L7 has sold more than 1,000 units on a single day with no new model launch," Li wrote on Weibo late at night on June 18.
Li Auto held its first Family Tech Day event on June 17, announcing the official name of its first BEV, Li MEGA, and the company's progress in developing assisted driving and supercharging capabilities.
"For a model with a starting price of RMB 300,000 ($42,100) or more and in a steady state of sales, selling more than 1,000 in a single day should be a moment to remember," Li said.
Li Auto launched the Li L7, its first five-seat SUV, on February 8 and currently offers three versions with starting prices of RMB 319,800, RMB 339,800 and RMB 379,800, respectively.
All of the company's current models are extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs), with the other two being the higher-priced, six-seat Li L8 and Li L9.
The Li L7 was almost canceled during development, according to Li, who said he was quite determined to axe the model last September, but several other executives stopped him.
Li mentioned in another Weibo yesterday that most members of Li Auto's management team thought the company should set an annual sales target of 360,000 units at the beginning of the year, but he ultimately decided to set a budget target based on annual sales of 306,000 units.
"This was partly because I didn't think we could be too optimistic about the economic environment this year, and partly because we didn't meet our budget targets for all three years from 2020-2022," he said.
Li said the too-low targets he set caused the company to place orders at suppliers at the beginning of the year that were clearly not keeping up with current sales, so several key components would take more than a quarter to reach the right capacity if production ramp-up began now.
Currently, Li Auto's plant in Changzhou, Jiangsu province has two production lines, one for double-shift production and one for single-shift production, according to Li.
The current peak capacity of the plant is 7,500 units/week, of which six days are production time and one day is used for maintenance, Li said.
Li Auto's goals set at the beginning of the year were too conservative, and suppliers of key components are currently adding equipment in line with the company's demand of more than 10,000 units/week, according to Li.
Li said Li Auto won't be able to achieve 10,000 units/week capacity until the fourth quarter when both of its lines will be based on double-shift production.
Li Auto delivered a record 28,277 vehicles in May, up 145.97 percent year-on-year and 10.11 percent from April, the third consecutive month to exceed the 20,000-unit mark, according to data released June 1.
The Li L7 achieved its second consecutive month of over 10,000 deliveries in May, Li Auto said at the time, without disclosing specific figures.
Li Auto aims for the Li L7, Li L8 and Li L9 models to see combined monthly sales of more than 40,000 units this year, Li said on June 1.
Overall, the ES6 is a very accomplished car. I cannot even pick an obvious problem apart from that lack of storage on the back of the front seat.
This is a guest post by Haoran Zhou, previously a member of NIO's PR team in China. The review was originally published as a video on the YouTube channel Telescope望远镜.
Hello and welcome to the Telescope. Every week we bring you fresh insight from the biggest car market in the world today.
We're on the launch of the NIO ES6. With over 127k units sold, the ES6 was, is, and by the looks of today, always will be NIO's biggest seller.
I know I said that with the ET5, but some people are not happy with some of the compromises NIO made on the ET5. Because of the battery swap system, for example, the seat height. They think the ride is a bit too harsh. They don't like there's not enough room in the back.
None of those problems exist on the ES6. This finally is the complete package.
The color we have here today is the stratospheric blue. This is the only standard color that's not black, white, and gray. So, this is going to be a very popular color.
We are on the optional twenty-inch wheels. I think this is only €600 extra. And this is on the low rolling resistance Goodyear tire.
In a moment you will see some of the performance footage we did on the airfield. This low rolling resistance tire when you are deliberately trying to extract performance figures out of it there is a difference between this and the Pirelli. But most of the time, I recommend people just buy this.
Several features on the exterior. First is this much bigger air curtain to send some airflow to seal off all of the turbulence and the wake of the front wheels. The second feature is only noticeable at certain angles, but once you notice that you cannot unseen it. This fully flush side window. The B-pillar, C-pillar and D-pillar no longer sticks out. It is fully flush with the side window.
This feature is pioneered by the Porsche Panamera. It's also present on the latest Range Rover. This is a design feature but it also has an aerodynamic benefit. Because once you hide all of these pillars away, the airflow from A-Pillar onwards will stay attached all the way to the rear of the car. That cuts drag.
All of these contribute to the 0.25 drag coefficient for this relatively boxy SUV. This is not a coupe SUV. You will find a coupe SUV that has a lower drag coefficient than this. But you will not find another traditional upright SUV that is as slippery as this.
The ES6 of course has all the cameras and a lidar that is standard on all of the NT 2.0 platform NIO models. This will have all the capabilities we showed you earlier in the ET7 NOP+ video. This of course being a NIO can battery swap.
We did a quick swap on the way here. So this car as big and as wide and as heavy as it is, is actually the most potent long-distance electric SUV on the market today. It's irrelevant about its range. It's so strong on long-distance driving purely because of that battery swap.
The new ES6 is about fifty millimeters lower in height compared to the previous generation, which is actually quite significant. You really see it on the rear of the car. They put more shape into this rear body.
This crease here is actually an aerodynamic feature called "the departure curve" being integrated as a design element. This basically sends the airflow away from the car. This deliberately separates the airflow from following the body all the way around, creating more drag.
This boot is competitive in its class in terms of capacity. This is about 580 liters. So it's right in between the coupe version of the Porsche Cayenne and the regular Porsche Cayenne. You also have over 100 liters of underfloor storage. So practicality wise this is competitive in its class.
I know we already did a static review of the ES6. But at that time that was before the press conference. We were not allowed to sit in the only ES6 available at the time. Now sitting in the car one thing i can tell this windscreen is much smaller in terms of opening area than the previous generation ES6.
I think this is where the lowered fifty-millimeter height comes in. To give an example the previous ES6 feels like it has a windscreen that is as big as a Range Rover Sport. This is more of a BMW X3 size windscreen. You probably don't know what I'm talking about. But
If you have sat in the previous generation ES6, now sitting here, this is the biggest difference in terms of overall visibility that you can tell. The rest of the cabin is 95 percent NIO ES7, which means I think is too good for the intended role of the ES6. The only area you can tell that this car is trying to cut some cost is the lower half of the door. It's using the same recycled plastic fiber seen on the ET5.
In the rear cabin, it's surprisingly spacious. The wheelbase has grown by 15mm. The headroom is actually better than the previous ES6 because they drop the floor by as much as, I think, 9-10cm. That is a huge amount in terms of packaging.
They expanded the panoramic glass, so you get a little bit more room by having the glass extended all the way to the top of your head.
Another important area is the seats. Because the slimmer the seat, especially the seatback, the more room you're going to get for the rear passenger. This seat looks significantly slimmer than the previous generation ES6. That has very bulky, sporty-looking seats. Looks cool but it takes up a lot of space.
This is an in-house developed seat system and it does look much slimmer. But one area I still don't understand is why there is still no storage space on the back of the front seats. I mean this may eat away 2cm of knee room. You have more than two centimeters of knee room available. I'm five foot eleven. This is easily doable if you want to add a storage compartment.
We are on an airstrip to demonstrate the performance, but I don't think there's going to be any doubt about this. All NIO models up until this point have an excessive amount of performance. This is no exception. 490ps, 4.5s to a hundred kph claimed. We're going to show you how does that feel like.
This is on the low-rolling-resistance tire. If we are on the Pirelli P-Zero, this should be even better, especially the braking.
The next part is where I was surprised. I actually drove this car briefly about two weeks ago on a damp track. On the solemn 21m apart, the standard setup, ES6 can regularly maintain close to 60 kph. I have recently driven the best-handling petrol-powered SUV on an F1 track.
That car can also only maintain close to 60 kph. So this car's solemn performance is unusually good. I need to sample more high-performance electric SUVs to see if this is an attribute specific to the ES6 or if it's just that all-electric SUVs are very good at this slalom test.
Now we are out of the airstrip and into the real world. This is a closed-off, very nice piece of mountain road that it is reserved for the ES6 test drive. I am happy to report that this is probably the NIO that most people wanted.
I still prefer the ET5 because it is firmer and sportier. This generation of ES6 is head and shoulders above the previous generation ES6. I criticized the dynamics of the first-generation NIO SUVs in the original ES8 review. I thought it was too comfort biased. The whole car is very floaty. This car is not floaty at all.
NIO achieved all of that improvement while making the spring rate on the suspension softer. Overall, you feel this car is a lot more stable. And it grips the road much better than the previous generation ES6 with none of the wobbly sensations.
Another highlight is the ESP system on this car. You probably saw earlier in a slalom test that it's achieving very good average speed. On a closed-off airstrip and also on these mountain roads, we've tested back-to-back to BMW X3.
It's surprising that, to me anyway, the X3 feels like the more conservative setup on the ESP system. I never thought that day would come for NIO to give the drivers more liberty on the body control of the car.
Another aspect that you know this generation has made a huge leap forward is just that sense of size this car feels on the road. This feels like a much smaller car because the body is and especially the rear and follows the direction so much better.
The previous generation ES6 on the road feels as big as the ES8 while being significantly shorter. This feels like a much smaller car although actually on the size they are virtually the same.
All the time I've been speaking to you on camera, I'm actually in the sport mode which is not a mode that I will use on a previous ES6. All NIO cars previously, they all have a lot of performance. But you never felt like they're set up for enthusiastic driving.
I think this car is set up for the sport mode. Even the sport plus mode is much more usable. For the previous generation cars, not just the ES6, the ES8, and EC6 in general, I will only use the sport plus mode when I was trying to demonstrate performance to new customers or new journalists.
This is actually in daily driving, even the sport plus mode is much more usable. That's just another area you know this car is so much more developed than the previous generation.
Overall, the ES6 is a very accomplished car. I cannot even pick an obvious problem apart from that lack of storage on the back of the front seat.
It's big enough. It's very well made. It's very luxurious inside. It can battery swap. It has very strong autonomous driving hardware. Currently, on software this is behind the Avatar we reviewed a week ago and XPeng on the urban assisted driving functions. But NIO will have that function ready before the end of this year.
But currently, the biggest talking point on the ES6 is not about the car itself, because we know how good the ES6 can be. And it really is as good as we expected. But it's about the price.
If I put my ex-NIO employee hat on, and look at the product lineup as a whole. I can very easily give you a very educated guess on the price of this ES6. Actually, I already did that in the static review of the ES6. I guess it will be priced around 358-368k RMB. By the time you're watching this video, you would have already known whether my guess is correct or not.
Because we are filming on May 16, about nine days before the actual launch. I think if you look at this car close enough, you would come to my conclusion that the ES6 is easily worthy of that price. However, whether the market has the patience to find that out, whether the customers have the patience to find that out, is a separate question that I cannot answer.
That is all from the Telescope today. If you enjoy this video, keep watching, keep subscribing, more videos coming along very soon.
"We are confident that it will be the No. 1 seller of all passenger cars priced at RMB 500,000 ($70,160) or more, regardless of energy form and regardless of body form," Li Auto said.
Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI) announced the naming of its first battery electric vehicle (BEV) model and set an ambitious goal for its sales.
Li Auto's first BEV, its super flagship model, has been officially named Li MEGA and is expected to be released by the end of 2023, the company announced today at its first Family Tech Day event held at its facility in Changzhou, Jiangsu province.
"We are confident that it will be the No. 1 seller of all passenger cars priced at RMB 500,000 ($70,160) or more, regardless of energy form and regardless of body form," the company said.
Li MEGA will break the traditional perception that high-end pure electric vehicles cannot be hot sellers, Li Auto said.
Li Auto currently has three models on sale, the five-seat Li L7, and the six-seat Li L8 and Li L9, all of which are extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs), essentially plug-in hybrids.
The Li MEGA will be Li Auto's first foray into the BEV market, and it will be an MPV (multi-purpose vehicle, or van) model, according to information it previously shared.
By 2025, Li Auto's product array will include one super flagship model, five EREVs, and five BEVs, it said on the first day of the Shanghai auto show on April 18.
By then, Li Auto's models for the market priced above RMB 200,000 will fully meet the needs of family users, the company previously said.
Li Auto models currently on sale have a starting price range of RMB 319,800 to RMB 459,800.
Li Auto's first all-electric model will be the world's first to feature CATL's 4C Qilin Battery, it said on April 18.
C refers to the battery's charge multiplier, and 4C means that the pack can theoretically be fully charged in a quarter of an hour.
Notably, Li Auto began today's Family Tech Day event by introducing its 5C charging solution, which it said allows for charging power of more than 500 kW.
Li Auto has developed its own 800 V high-voltage all-electric platform and will mass-produce 5C all-electric vehicles, it said.
The company has optimized the battery at the system level to take fuller advantage of the battery's 5C charging multiplier, giving vehicles a range of 400 kilometers in 9 minutes and 30 seconds and 600 kilometers in 22 minutes of charging.
As a comparison, Tesla's latest V3 Supercharger has a peak charging power of 250 kW and can charge the vehicle with up to about 250 km of range in 15 minutes at peak power.
Li Auto will fast-track the deployment of the 5C supercharging network, completing more than 300 supercharging stations by the end of this year and more than 3,000 by 2025, it said.
Li Auto did not say whether Li MEGA will use that 5C solution, but said that with mass deliveries of its 5C BEV models, more Chinese households will enjoy the high-voltage, pure-electric technology that will replace fuel-powered vehicles on a large scale.
The company unveiled its auto-charging robot at today's event, saying it will provide an energy replenishment experience that goes far beyond refueling.
Li Auto's vehicles will automatically drive to charging spaces and park themselves, and the charging robot can automatically connect, charge and settle with the vehicle through visual recognition.
Li Auto also announced its progress on advanced driver assistance systems, saying it will open internal testing of City NOA (Navigation on ADAS) in Beijing and Shanghai this month.
In the second half of the year, Li Auto will open up the commute NOA feature and make City NOA available in more cities, it said.
For the commute NOA feature, vehicles can be activated for simple routes in less than 1 week and trained for more complex routes in 2-3 weeks.
Li Auto estimates that commute NOA can cover more than 95 percent of commuting scenarios, making the vehicle a "dedicated elevator" for owners.
The company said its City NOA is the first in China that doesn't rely on high-precision maps, and with the help of AI big models, will achieve driving performance close to that of a human driver.
Li Auto also unveiled the progress of its in-car voice assistant, Lixiang Tongxue, at today's event, saying it built Mind GPT, a cognitive big model, to make the feature even smarter.
With the help of Mind GPT, Lixiang Tongxue can turn into a teacher for users, a professional car butler, an expert in teaching drawing and programming, Li Auto said.
In addition to its technological advances, Li Auto announced that its 400,000th vehicle rolled off the assembly line today.
The ET5 Touring vehicles currently being delivered by NIO are produced in advance, and consumers who customize the model will have to wait about 3-4 weeks.
(Image credit: NIO)
NIO (NYSE: NIO) today began delivery of the ET5 Touring, which was officially launched in China and Europe yesterday.
The first owners from several cities across China took delivery of the ET5 Touring on June 16, NIO said in an article posted on its mobile app.
NIO did not announce the number of ET5 Touring deliveries today, though it shared images showing deliveries in cities including Xiamen, Suzhou, Chengdu and Guangzhou.
NIO officially launched the ET5 Touring yesterday, and its pricing is identical to that of the regular ET5.
Including the battery, the version with the 75-kWh battery pack starts at RMB 298,000 ($41,860) and the 100-kWh version at RMB 356,000.
Chinese consumers who choose to purchase the model using the BaaS (battery as a service) service will see the prices start at RMB 228,000 for both versions, with monthly battery rental costs of RMB 980 and RMB 1,680 respectively.
It is worth noting that the ET5 Touring vehicles delivered today are not customized, but were produced by NIO in advance based on designer-recommended configurations to enable quick first delivery.
Consumers who currently customize the ET5 Touring are expected to receive delivery in about 3-4 weeks after locking in their orders, as shown by the information on the configurator for the model in the NIO App.
This is the same approach NIO took when it launched the new ES6 on May 24, when it began deliveries of the SUV the night of the launch.
The pricing of the ET5 Touring was a surprise, as it was previously widely seen to be priced RMB 10,000 to 20,000 higher than the regular ET5.
"Pricing of ET5 Touring is more competitive than we thought -- on par with the incumbent ET5 sedan at Rmb 298k+," Morgan Stanley analyst Tim Hsiao's team said in a research note sent to investors yesterday.
With NIO's broad price cut and the rapid rollout of the new NT 2.0 model, its sales can rebound considerably in the second half of the year, paving the way for 20,000 units per month, Deutsche Bank's Edison Yu's team said in a research note sent to investors today.
Here are more images of the first ET5 Touring deliveries shared by NIO on its mobile app.
