Is it a new Polestar car? No, it is the Dongfeng Aeolus eπ01 prototype with its own 'totally new' design language.
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Tagged: China
Pony.ai launches robotaxi service with no safety officer on board in Shenzhen after Guangzhou
Pony.ai has previously been approved to provide robotaxi service without a driver in the car in Beijing and Guangzhou.
(Image credit: Pony.ai)
Pony.ai, a Chinese startup backed by Toyota Motor and NIO Capital, has brought its fully unmanned robotaxi service to yet another Chinese mega-city as it continues to advance its self-driving ambitions.
On May 29, Pony.ai received a permit in Shenzhen to conduct robotaxi services without a safety officer in the vehicle in the city's core areas, the only one to receive the permit in the city so far, according to a press release today.
Founded in late 2016, Pony.ai has established R&D centers in Silicon Valley, Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai, and is running robotaxi operations locally.
In late 2019, NIO Capital said it invested in Pony.ai for an undisclosed amount when it announced the completion of a more than $200 million fundraising. In February 2020, Pony.ai announced it had raised $400 million from Toyota.
Pony.ai launched the robotaxi app PonyPilot in December 2018 and received a permit to operate the robotaxi service for a fee in Beijing in November 2021.
On March 17, Pony.ai announced that it received a license in Beijing to operate fully unmanned robotaxi services within a 60-square-kilometer area in the Yizhuang Economic Development Zone.
On April 26, the company said it was granted permission to offer robotaxi service without a safety officer in the vehicle in Guangzhou, when it put 17 robotaxis into operation.
The expansion of the driverless footprint to Shenzhen confirms Pony.ai's ability to quickly roll out self-driving technology in different cities, it said.
Driverless vehicles need to undergo rigorous testing before hitting the road, including remote scenarios, extreme scenarios, safety management, network and data security, risk response, and a comprehensive assessment by experts and government departments, Pony.ai said.
Successfully passing these tests proves Pony.ai's technical prowess, it said.
To date, Pony.ai has more than 1 million kilometers of fully unmanned testing and nearly 200,000 paid travel orders, the company said.
Pony.ai starts offering robotaxi service in Guangzhou without safety officer in vehicles
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NIO opens new plant in Hefei to produce swap stations
NIO is aiming to add 1,000 battery swap stations this year, and to make up for the lack of capacity, it decided to build a new plant in Hefei to produce them, an executive said.
(NIO Power senior vice president Shen Fei talks to the media in Shanghai in March 2023. Image credit: CnEVPost)
NIO (NYSE: NIO) has added a new factory to produce battery swap stations to support its aggressive plan to add 1,000 battery swap stations this year, which it announced three months ago.
A new battery swap station was shipped from the Hefei, Anhui plant on Friday evening, and the station was installed in Xiamen, Fujian this morning, according to NIO Power senior vice president Shen Fei.
Shen revealed the development today on Weibo, which is the first time we've seen content about NIO's new battery swap station factory in Hefei, home to two of NIO's vehicle assembly plants.
NIO decided to add 1,000 battery swap stations this year after the Chinese New Year, and to make up for the lack of capacity, the company decided to build a factory in Hefei to produce these facilities, Shen said.
It took three months from the time that decision was made to the time the first battery swap station was shipped from the plant, according to Shen.
Shen did not provide more details, but the progress appears to have been made with the help of NIO's battery swap station supplier.
Shenzhen-traded Shandong Weida Machinery, which has been supplying battery swap stations to NIO, said on March 29 that its Kunshan, Jiangsu-based subsidiary Swap had developed and delivered the third-generation battery swap stations for NIO.
Swap will continue to develop, produce and supply according to NIO's actual demand and orders in the future, Weida said at the time on an investor interactive platform.
Swap is a joint venture established in 2017 by NIO Power and Weida's industrial robotics subsidiary Demac, dedicated to the design, development, production and manufacturing of automatic battery swap systems, according to information on its official website.
It is unclear how many factories Swap has in China to produce battery swap stations for NIO, which has a factory in Hungary to produce the facility that went into operation in September 2022.
The third generation of NIO's battery swap stations was unveiled at the NIO Day 2022 event on December 24, 2022, capable of storing up to 21 packs, up from 13 for its predecessor generation and five for the first generation of the facility.
NIO announced plans at the time to add 400 battery swap stations by 2023, though that plan was raised to 1,000 on February 21.
William Li, NIO's founder, chairman and CEO, said at the time that the company would further accelerate the deployment of battery swap stations, with a goal of having more than 2,300 battery swap stations in China by the end of 2023.
Speaking at a press conference on the first day of the Shanghai auto show on April 18, Li said that NIO would add about 200 battery swap stations per month starting in June.
As of May 29, NIO had 1,432 battery swap stations in China, 383 of which are located along highways, according to data monitored by CnEVData.
The company also has 2,624 charging stations in China, providing 15,591 charging piles.
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Musk once laughed at BYD, but now thinks ‘their cars are highly competitive’
"That was many years ago. Their cars are highly competitive these days," Musk said.
A video of Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk laughing when asked about BYD (OTCMKTS: BYDDY) in an interview has sparked widespread discussion on social media from time to time.
Now, as the video has sparked renewed buzz on Twitter, Musk has responded.
"That was many years ago. Their cars are highly competitive these days," Musk said in a May 27 reply below a video shared by Tesla Owners Silicon Valley on Twitter.
That was many years ago. Their cars are highly competitive these days.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 27, 2023
In a 2011 interview, a Bloomberg host mentioned that Tesla began to have competitors, such as BYD, which was ramping up.
Musk laughed at those words and asked the host if she had seen BYD's cars.
Musk's reaction at the time was understandable; after all, BYD was just a Chinese car company targeting the lower end of the market in 2011 and was far less well-known than it is now.
Even in 2019, BYD's annual sales of only 461,400 units across all models are nowhere near the 2 million sales of SAIC Volkswagen in the same year.
BYD saw explosive sales growth in 2021 and stopped production and sales of vehicles powered entirely by internal combustion engines in March 2021.
BYD sold 1,863,494 new energy vehicles (NEVs) in 2022, up 208.64 percent from 603,783 in 2021.
For comparison, Tesla delivered 1,313,851 vehicles worldwide in 2022, up 40.38 percent from 935,950 in 2021.
In the first quarter of the year, BYD sold 547,917 passenger NEVs, up 92.81 percent year-on-year, including 264,647 battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and 283,270 plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs).
Tesla's vehicles were all BEVs, delivering 422,875 units in the first quarter, up 36.39 percent year-on-year.
Ford CEO Jim Farley expressed similar opinions on May 26, calling Chinese electric vehicle (EV) makers its main competitors in the segment.
Farley said that China has some of the best battery technology and is dominating EV production at the Morgan Stanley Sustainable Finance Summit.
He used BYD as a prime example of a Chinese automaker that has successfully developed and sold EVs, first in China and now in Europe.
"I like BYD. Totally vertically integrated, aggressive … very, very impressive company. And they were always committed to electric," Farley said when asked which company was doing the right thing in making EVs.
Tesla delivers 39,956 vehicles in China in Apr, exports 35,886 units from Shanghai plant
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Zeekr CS1E electric sedan was spied in China. To debut in Q3 2023
The Zeekr CS1E is a mid-size electric sedan that will debut in Q3 this year with a LiDAR sensor and a price range of 28,000 - 42,000 USD.
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Chery iCar 03 electric SUV spied during road tests without camouflage. Is it an off-roader?
The Chery iCar 03 spied in China during road tests. But it isn't really an off-roader. It will launch in China in Q4 this year.
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Cooperating with Huawei, the 100,000th vehicle of the AITO brand rolled off the production line
The Aito brand began in 2021, with Huawei providing technical support for related cars and Huawei responsible for sales.
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Xpeng new series confirmed. The first car to be the X9 MPV
The Xpeng X9 MPV is confirmed in China, becoming the first vehicle in the X-series.
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XPeng CEO teases MPV model called X9
XPeng will open up the MPV market to a younger demographic with the X9, said He Xiaopeng, chairman and CEO of the EV maker.
XPeng (NYSE: XPEV) is starting to warm up for the company's first MPV (multi-purpose vehicle) model, after previously mentioning plans to build such a model.
In addition to the G6, XPeng has recently been building a new MPV, the X9, the Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker's chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng said today on Weibo.
"We will open up the MPV market for the younger demographic with this product," Mr. He said.
Mr. He's Weibo didn't mention anything more, but was accompanied by a picture showing the logo of the MPV's name.
XPeng had mentioned last year that the company would launch its first MPV in 2023, and provided more details during its earnings call on May 24.
XPeng will launch a 7-seat all-electric MPV, internally codenamed X9, in the fourth quarter of this year, the company's management said in the call.
Mr. He's Weibo today implies that the model is being finally named X9.
XPeng is defining the 7-seat MPV thinking about how young people associate with MPVs and will go into more detail about the logic of young people buying MPVs at its launch at the end of the year, the company said.
In the second half of the year, gross margin levels will steadily improve with deliveries of the G6, P7i and the MPV, the company said in the Wednesday call.
There are few good MPVs to choose from in the Chinese market before 2022, with the most well-known being the Buick GL8 and the Toyota Alphard. There are even fewer new-energy MPVs.
Dongfeng Motor's EV subsidiary Voyah launched its MPV model Voyah Dreamer in China on May 7, 2022.
BYD's premium brand Denza launched its D9 MPV on May 16, 2022, and Zeekr launched its Zeekr 009 MPV on November 2.
Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI) is also expected to roll out its first MPV by the end of the year, though NIO (NYSE: NIO) has stressed several times that it has no plans to build such a model in the near future.
It's worth noting that the MPV market has been a niche segment in China.
Retail sales of passenger cars in China in April were 1,623,568 units, with 779,511 sedans, 748,503 SUVs and 95,554 MPVs, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
This means that MPVs contributed only 5.9 percent of China's passenger car sales in April.
China Apr auto sales breakdown: Sedan 779,511, SUV 748,503, MPV 95,554
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BYD Song Pro DM-i Champion Edition launched in China for 19,190 USD
BYD Song Pro DM-i launched in China right after GWM reported that BYD possibly failed emission standards. How did BYD handle it?
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