Tagged: China

NIO’s 1st NIO House in Netherlands to open on Mar 23

The House is located in the Rotterdam Centrum neighborhood of Rotterdam, the second largest city in the Netherlands.  |  NIO US | NIO HK | NIO SG

(Image credit: NIO)

NIO (NYSE: NIO) will open its first NIO House in the Netherlands a day later, as the Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker works to bring its entire service model from China to overseas markets.

NIO's first NIO House in the Netherlands will officially open on March 23 local time, according to a post by Ruben Keuter, general manager of NIO Netherlands, published today on the company's mobile app.

The NIO House is located in Rotterdam, the second largest city in the Netherlands, which is an important port connecting five continents.

NIO Houses is NIO's flagship showroom, which functions as a space to display and sell vehicles while providing a quality lifestyle for NIO owners. The company's showrooms also include the much smaller NIO Spaces.

The NIO House building generally consists of two areas, a display area for vehicle models, and a place with various functions for users.

With the NIO House, NIO hopes to make this lifestyle available to users in every city, so that outsiders will think that buying an NIO vehicle is not just getting a car, but joining a high-end lifestyle group.

The first NIO House in the Netherlands is located in Rotterdam's Rotterdam Centrum neighborhood, next to a new, chic and colorful variety of buildings, according to the article in the NIO App.

On October 1, 2021, NIO opened an NIO House in Norway, its first such facility in Europe.

NIO held the NIO Berlin launch event on October 7 European time, introducing its three latest models to European consumers -- the ET7, EL7 and ET5. The EL7 is known as the ES7 in China.

On October 18, NIO said it made the first ET7 deliveries in Germany and the Netherlands.

On December 1, the first NIO battery swap station in the Netherlands went online. On December 13, NIO announced that its second battery swap station in the Netherlands was put into operation.

Here are some images of Rotterdam shared by NIO.

NIO to launch ET5 shooting brake variant in Europe in June or July, says president

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Neta sending 3,600 EVs to Thailand

This is the largest single export to date for the new Chinese carmaker. The V has already accumulated over 2,000 deliveries in Thailand.

(Image credit: Neta)

Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker Neta Automobile is sending thousands of EVs to Thailand as it ramps up its efforts in Southeast Asia.

On March 21, 3,600 Neta V EVs began shipping at Guangzhou's Nansha port, the largest single export to date by a new Chinese carmaker, Neta said in a press release today.

The vehicles will be shipped to Thailand, where Neta V has already accumulated more than 2,000 deliveries and ranked second on the list of pure electric model license plate registrations for 2 consecutive months, Neta said.

Neta announced the launch of the right-hand-drive version of the Neta V at a launch event in Thailand on August 24, 2022, as its first model offered there.

Neta said at the time that it had 25 authorized dealers in Thailand and that number would reach 30 by the end of 2022. Its press release today did not mention the company's latest number of dealers in Thailand.

To date, Neta has established a European division, a Thai subsidiary, launched three overseas products including Neta U global version, Neta V global version and Neta V right-hand drive version, and has a presence overseas across ASEAN, South Asia and Middle East markets, it said.

Neta currently sells the Neta V, Neta U-II and Neta S in China, which start at RMB 83,900 ($12,190), 135,800 and 242,800 respectively.

The company delivered 7,117 vehicles in February, up 255 percent from a year earlier, but down 35 percent from 11,009 units in January, data released by the company earlier in the month showed.

On March 10, Neta laid the groundbreaking for its plant in Bangkok, Thailand, which will be its main manufacturing base for building right-hand drive electric vehicles for export to ASEAN.

The plant is Neta's first overseas factory and the first in Thailand for a new Chinese carmaker.

When completed, the plant will have a capacity of 20,000 units per year and is expected to be operational by the end of January 2024, Neta said earlier this month.

Neta plans to expand its overseas operations to more regions including the Middle East and the European Union, making it a brand that consumers around the world recognize and trust, company co-founder and CEO Zhang Yong said at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Thai plant.

As competition in China's EV market grows fiercer, many local car companies have stepped up efforts to expand into overseas markets.

Neta's latest export is the ninth batch of NEVs to be exported from Guangzhou's Nansha Free Trade Pilot Zone this year, according to a report by state-owned CCTV today.

So far this year, the Nansha pilot zone has exported 7,251 NEVs, up more than 33 times year-on-year, according to the report.

($1 = RMB 6.8847)

Neta starts construction of its first overseas plant in Thailand, with planned annual capacity of 20,000 units

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NIO CFO says confident of meeting this year’s sales target

That will be achieved through new models, expanding the company's charging and battery swap network, and unlocking technology, the CFO said.  |  NIO US | NIO HK | NIO SG

An NIO (NYSE: NIO) executive re-emphasized the electric vehicle (EV) maker's confidence that it will meet its goal of doubling sales this year, at a time when the Chinese auto industry has been weak overall so far this year.

"We are very confident to achieve our sales target in 2023," NIO CFO Steven Feng said in an interview with Bloomberg TV today.

That will be achieved through new models, expanding the company's charging and battery swap network, and unlocking self-driving technology, Feng said.

NIO delivered a total of 122,486 vehicles in 2022, up 34 percent from 91,429 vehicles in 2021.

William Li, the company's founder, chairman and CEO, said during a March 1 analyst call after NIO reported its fourth-quarter earnings that the company aims to see sales double this year compared with last year.

"Our team is very confident in that," Li said at the time.

If raw material prices fall in line with current trends, and without considering the investment in innovative businesses, NIO could still be profitable in the fourth quarter of this year, Li said earlier.

Feng mentioned in the interview with Bloomberg TV today that the company is "confident" of breaking even at the group level next year.

Strong revenue growth and tighter expenses are key to improving profitability, he said.

Feng also mentioned the ongoing price war in the auto industry in the interview, saying it showed there were too many carmakers in China.

"We expect the industry to go through some profound consolidation," Feng said."It's almost consensus that China now has too many automakers, but we have no plan to buy anyone."

NIO's shares traded in Hong Kong surged in early trading today, rising more than 7 percent to HK$74.25 at press time, bringing its gains over the past two days to about 17 percent.

Sales performance in China's auto market has been weak overall so far this year, with cumulative retail sales of all passenger vehicles from January to February at 2.68 million units, down 19.8 percent year-on-year, according to data released earlier this month by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).

Retail sales of NEVs in China in the first two months were 770,000 units, up 23.31 percent year-on-year.

China's auto market remained weak heading into March, and the ongoing price war has brought disruptions to the sector.

In terms of insurance registrations, China's passenger car sales for the month were 630,000 units as of March 19, down 2.53 percent year-on-year, according to data monitored by CnEVPost.

Among them, insurance registrations of NEVs for the month were 220,000 units, up 12.34 percent year-on-year.

China NEV insurance registrations for week ending Mar 19: BYD 38,414, Tesla 18,712, NIO 1,775

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BYD to use Nvidia Orin chips in its next-gen EV models

and are already using Nvidia DRIVE Orin chips in their smart driving systems, with NIO even having its third-generation battery swap stations equipped with two of the chips.  |  BYDDY.US | HK

(Image credit: Nvidia)

BYD (OTCMKTS: BYDDY) will use Nvidia's DRIVE Orin chips in its next-generation models, making it the latest Chinese new energy vehicle (NEV) maker to use the US chip giant's smart-driving chips.

Nvidia is enhancing its partnership with BYD, which will use the DRIVE Orin system-on-chip (SoC) across the multiple models of its next-generation Dynasty and Ocean series vehicles, according to a press release from the US chip giant yesterday.

Nvidia and BYD share the belief that future cars will be programmable, evolving from being based on many embedded controllers to high-performance centralized computers -- with functionalities delivered and enhanced through software updates over the life of the car, the release said.

Nvidia's press release provided no further details on BYD's plans to use the DRIVE Orin chips. BYD's product matrix includes the Dynasty and Ocean series, with dozens of models.

Several Chinese electric vehicle (EV) makers are already using Nvidia's DRIVE Orin chips to power the vehicles' assisted driving systems.

All of NIO's (NYSE: NIO) models based on the latest NT 2.0 platform come standard with the NIO Adam supercomputer, which is built on four DRIVE Orin chips and has more than 1,000 TOPS of computing power.

Orin is the world's highest-performance, most advanced processor for vehicles and robots, offering up to 254 TOPS to handle a large number of applications and deep neural networks running simultaneously in autonomous vehicles and robots, Nvidia said following the launch of NIO ET5 in late 2021.

In addition to using the DRIVE Orin chip in vehicles, NIO is equipping the third-generation battery swap station with 2 Nvidia Orin chips for a total computing power of 508 TOPS.

Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI) also uses two Nvidia Orin X chips in its AD Max smart driving system, and its AD Pro system uses the Journey 5 chips from local Chinese supplier Horizon Robotics.

Back to BYD, the NEV maker announced on March 23 last year that it had entered into a partnership with Nvidia on smart driving technology to equip some of its NEVs with the Nvidia DRIVE Hyperion platform for smart driving and smart parking of vehicles starting in the first half of 2023.

BYD's NEVs will use the Nvidia DRIVE Orin chip as a centralized computing and AI engine for autonomous driving and smart cockpit features, according to the company's press release at the time.

On January 4 of this year, BYD announced that it was working with Nvidia to bring Nvidia GeForce NOW cloud gaming streaming to its vehicles.

BYD is the largest NEV maker in China, selling 1,863,494 NEVs in 2022, up 208.64 percent year-on-year.

The company sold 193,655 NEVs in February, up 27.96 percent from 151,341 units in January and 119.36 percent from 88,283 units a year earlier, data it released earlier in the month showed.

BYD working with Nvidia to bring GeForce NOW cloud gaming to its vehicles

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BYD to use Nvidia Orin chips in its next-gen EV models

and are already using Nvidia DRIVE Orin chips in their smart driving systems, with NIO even having its third-generation battery swap stations equipped with two of the chips.  |  BYDDY.US | HK

(Image credit: Nvidia)

BYD (OTCMKTS: BYDDY) will use Nvidia's DRIVE Orin chips in its next-generation models, making it the latest Chinese new energy vehicle (NEV) maker to use the US chip giant's smart-driving chips.

Nvidia is enhancing its partnership with BYD, which will use the DRIVE Orin system-on-chip (SoC) across the multiple models of its next-generation Dynasty and Ocean series vehicles, according to a press release from the US chip giant yesterday.

Nvidia and BYD share the belief that future cars will be programmable, evolving from being based on many embedded controllers to high-performance centralized computers -- with functionalities delivered and enhanced through software updates over the life of the car, the release said.

Nvidia's press release provided no further details on BYD's plans to use the DRIVE Orin chips. BYD's product matrix includes the Dynasty and Ocean series, with dozens of models.

Several Chinese electric vehicle (EV) makers are already using Nvidia's DRIVE Orin chips to power the vehicles' assisted driving systems.

All of NIO's (NYSE: NIO) models based on the latest NT 2.0 platform come standard with the NIO Adam supercomputer, which is built on four DRIVE Orin chips and has more than 1,000 TOPS of computing power.

Orin is the world's highest-performance, most advanced processor for vehicles and robots, offering up to 254 TOPS to handle a large number of applications and deep neural networks running simultaneously in autonomous vehicles and robots, Nvidia said following the launch of NIO ET5 in late 2021.

In addition to using the DRIVE Orin chip in vehicles, NIO is equipping the third-generation battery swap station with 2 Nvidia Orin chips for a total computing power of 508 TOPS.

Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI) also uses two Nvidia Orin X chips in its AD Max smart driving system, and its AD Pro system uses the Journey 5 chips from local Chinese supplier Horizon Robotics.

Back to BYD, the NEV maker announced on March 23 last year that it had entered into a partnership with Nvidia on smart driving technology to equip some of its NEVs with the Nvidia DRIVE Hyperion platform for smart driving and smart parking of vehicles starting in the first half of 2023.

BYD's NEVs will use the Nvidia DRIVE Orin chip as a centralized computing and AI engine for autonomous driving and smart cockpit features, according to the company's press release at the time.

On January 4 of this year, BYD announced that it was working with Nvidia to bring Nvidia GeForce NOW cloud gaming streaming to its vehicles.

BYD is the largest NEV maker in China, selling 1,863,494 NEVs in 2022, up 208.64 percent year-on-year.

The company sold 193,655 NEVs in February, up 27.96 percent from 151,341 units in January and 119.36 percent from 88,283 units a year earlier, data it released earlier in the month showed.

BYD working with Nvidia to bring GeForce NOW cloud gaming to its vehicles

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BYD reportedly reduces shifts at two EV plants

has asked some workers at its Xi'an plant to work only four days a week and shifts at its Shenzhen plant have been reduced from three shifts a day to two shifts a day, according to a report from Reuters.  |  BYDDY.US | BYD HK

(Image credit: CnEVPost)

BYD (OTCMKTS: BYDDY), China's largest new energy vehicle (NEV) maker, has reduced shifts at two plants, a new report said, as consumer demand for EVs weakens.

BYD has asked some workers at its Xi'an plant, its largest manufacturing hub, to work only four days a week, with the plant running two eight-hour shifts a day, Reuters said in a report today, citing an internal memo and three people familiar with the matter.

BYD also reduced shifts at its Shenzhen plant, which makes the Han sedan, from three shifts a day to two shifts a day, according to the report.

BYD did not give a reason for the reduction in shifts in the memo, the Reuters report said. One of the people said BYD is scaling back production in the face of weak industry-wide demand in China since the beginning of the year, according to the report.

It was not possible to determine how long BYD's shift reductions will last and whether its other three assembly plants in China are being affected by the change in production schedules, the report noted.

BYD has been growing rapidly and taking market share in China. But it has also been slowing production since the beginning of this year, when sales across the industry began to slow and China ended its state subsidy program for NEVs, the report said.

The NEV maker sold 193,655 units in February, up 27.96 percent from 151,341 units in January and up 119.36 percent from 88,283 units a year earlier, data it released on March 1 showed.

After 's sharp price cut in China in early January, several NEV makers followed suit. During the month, traditional fuel car makers began offering significant official discounts, bringing about a widespread price war.

On March 9, BYD also began offering discounts on Song Plus as well as Seal models, as the price war intensifies.

Analysts believe aggressive discounts have created some demand as other automakers have followed Tesla into what has become a price war for market share, but inventories have been rising across the industry, the Reuters report today noted.

At the end of February, China's passenger car inventory stood at 3.41 million units, up 2.4 percent from 3.33 million units in January, according to data released last week by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).

China's fuel vehicle market was slower to stabilize in February, leading to higher inventories at manufacturers and dealers at the end of February, the CPCA said.

BYD offers discounts for Song and Seal as China's auto price war intensifies

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Panic selling of lithium carbonate just won’t stop

Lithium carbonate prices continue to decline, leading to a heavy wait-and-see mood among downstream customers, who are reluctant to place large orders.

 

The price of lithium carbonate has dropped by half from five months ago, with panic selling not stopping.

Battery-grade lithium carbonate prices in China fell RMB 12,500 per ton ($1,818 per ton) today, bringing the average price down to RMB 300,000 per ton, according to Mysteel.

Industrial-grade lithium carbonate also fell by RMB 12,500 per ton today, leaving the average price at RMB 260,000 per ton.

Compared to yesterday's average prices, battery grade lithium carbonate and industrial grade lithium carbonate fell by 4 percent and 4.59 percent respectively, the new biggest drop of the year.

The price of battery-grade lithium carbonate has fallen 49 percent compared to RMB 590,000 per ton on November 21 last year, and the drop this year is about 40 percent.

Lithium carbonate is still being sold off at an accelerated pace, a report in local media Yicai today quoted an unnamed industry source as saying.

The continued decline in lithium carbonate prices has led downstream customers to shy away from placing large orders, with a heavy wait-and-see mood, the source said.

On March 20, a company in northwest China's Qinghai province dropped its sell offer for battery-grade lithium carbonate to RMB 280,000 per ton, and some local battery-grade lithium carbonate ex-factory prices dropped to RMB 250,000 per ton, the report noted.

As lithium prices continue to fall in China, some analysts previously said the drop will not last long as imports become more attractive.

Overseas lithium products have seen a significant premium, which could support prices for lithium products in China, said CITIC Securities in a March 7 research note.

Notably, Yicai's report today said there have been withdrawals of lithium carbonate orders in overseas markets, which has further pushed down the price of lithium carbonate.

A month ago, it was reported that was pushing a lithium rebate program to car companies, with some cells to be settled at RMB 200,000 per ton of lithium carbonate.

CATL acknowledged the plan on March 9, but did not mention the base prices.

CATL's lithium sharing plan was not motivated by a price reduction, but rather that the company already owns some mineral resources and does not want to reap windfall profits, the company said.

CATL's proposed price benchmark of RMB 200,000 per ton for lithium carbonate has further lowered market expectations for the price, accelerating the panicked drop in lithium carbonate prices, Yicai's report today quoted several industry sources as saying.

($1= RMB 6.8742)

Lithium prices see biggest drop this year in China as decline accelerates

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CATL has begun mass production of Qilin Battery, report says

Deliveries of 's Zeekr 009 MPV, the world's first vehicle to be powered by the Qilin Battery, are expected to begin in the second quarter.

(Image credit: )

Chinese power battery giant CATL's Qilin Battery has achieved mass production and has a 13 percent higher capacity than 4680 batteries in the same volume, local media outlet The Paper reported today.

As the world's first vehicle to be powered by the Qilin Battery, deliveries of Zeekr's Zeekr 009 MPV are expected to begin in the second quarter, 1-2 months behind the battery's mass production, the report said.

A high percentage of consumers who ordered the Zeekr 009 opted for the version with the Qilin Battery, a Zeekr source said, adding, "This surprised us."

On June 23, 2022, CATL officially unveiled its highly anticipated CTP (cell to pack) 3.0 Qilin Battery, which it said brought battery system integration to a new level.

The Qilin Battery allows volume utilization to exceed 72 percent and energy density to reach 255 Wh/kg, easily allowing vehicles to achieve a range of 1000 km, CATL said at the time.

With the same chemistry system and the same pack size, Qilin Battery delivers 13 percent more power compared to 4680 batteries, achieving an overall improvement in range, fast charging, safety, life, efficiency, and low-temperature performance, according to CATL.

Last August 27, Zeekr and CATL announced that the Zeekr 009 MPV will be the world's first vehicle to carry the Qilin Battery, and the Zeekr 001 will use an ultra-long range version of the Qilin Battery, which will be the world's first production vehicle to carry the 1000-km range Qilin Battery.

In a post on its WeChat account at the time, Zeekr said that deliveries of the Zeekr 009 with the Qilin Battery are expected to begin in the first quarter of 2023, while the Zeekr 001 with the battery will be available in the second quarter of 2023.

"With its 140-kWh battery pack, the Zeekr 009 ME version sets a global record for a mid to large size MPV achieving an all-electric range of 822 kilometers," The Paper quoted Liu Changyan, CATL's executive president of China passenger vehicle business, as saying.

In addition to Zeekr, several other vehicle brands, including , , Lotus and AITO, have previously said they will use CATL's Qilin Battery.

It is worth noting that the Qilin Battery is a CATL innovation in pack structure, not in battery chemistry. This means that both ternary batteries, as well as lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, can use this pack structure.

The Qilin Battery can achieve energy densities of 255Wh/kg with ternary cells and 160Wh/kg with LFP cells, CATL previously said.

CATL's innovation was named the best invention of 2022 by Time magazine in the US, according to information shared by the battery maker on Weibo on December 30 of last year.

CATL unveils Qilin Battery, says it can easily achieve 1,000 km vehicle range

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Qiantu inks deal with Mullen to tap US market, K50 supercar to be rebranded as Mullen GT and GTRS

Mullen has acquired Qiantu's North and South American intellectual property and distribution rights, allowing the assembly and distribution of the Qiantu K50 in the Americas.  |  Mullen Automotive Inc

Qiantu inks deal with Mullen to tap US market, K50 supercar to be rebranded as Mullen GT and GTRS-CnEVPost

(Image credit: Qiantu)

Qiantu inks deal with Mullen to tap US market, K50 supercar to be rebranded as Mullen GT and GTRS

Mullen has been granted Qiantu's North and South American intellectual property and distribution rights, allowing the assembly and distribution of the Qiantu K50 in the Americas.

Qiantu Motors, which is almost forgotten in its home market of China, is partnering with an American electric vehicle (EV) maker to bring its electric supercar back to life.

Qiantu recently signed a strategic partnership agreement with Mullen Automotive to expand into the Americas, according to a press release from the Chinese startup today.

Qiantu will leverage its strengths in vehicle design, technology development, and process innovation, combined with Mullen's manufacturing and sales strengths in the Americas market, to bring new EV options to consumers in the Americas, the release said.

Qiantu's partnership with Mullen dates back to 2019, when the two partnered on the marketing of the Qiantu K50 in North America.

With the signing of the latest partnership agreement, the Qiantu K50 will transition from the marketing phase to a substantial production and sales phase, the release said.

The partnership area will also be expanded from the North American market to include the entire Americas, according to the release.

Separately, Mullen said in its March 20 press release that it has been granted the North and South American intellectual property and distribution rights for Qiantu and its affiliates, allowing assembly and distribution of the Qiantu K50 in the Americas.

Mullen will begin its program to re-engineer and re-design the product to meet requirements for US certification and customer expectations for today's supercars, with final assembly in Mishawka, Indiana, the US EV maker said.

These modifications will be consistent with Mullen's current vehicle design language in the Mullen FIVE and Mullen FIVE RS.

To ensure supercar status, the car will also feature an updated powertrain, targeting a 0-60 mph time of less than 2.0 seconds and a top speed of more than 200 mph.

Qiantu inks deal with Mullen to tap US market, K50 supercar to be rebranded as Mullen GT and GTRS-CnEVPost

(Image credit: Mullen)

Qiantu, a wholly owned subsidiary of CH-Auto Technology Co Ltd, was founded in 2015 and was one of the first EV startups in China.

Qiantu's first model, the Qiantu K50, was launched in 2018 at a then subsidized price of RMB 686,800 ($99,860), but the model did not earn recognition for the company and was discontinued in November 2020.

On December 18, 2021, Qiantu held a strategy sharing session at its plant in Suzhou, marking its return after a two-year hiatus.

On June 6, 2022, Qiantu announced the start of pre-sales in China for its second model, the Qiantu K20, a two-door, two-seat hatchback with a pre-sale price range of RMB 86,800 to 149,800.

On October 24, 2022, Qiantu and Appollen EV held a launch event in Malaysia to showcase and start pre-sales of the Qiantu K50, Qiantu K25, and Qiantu K20.

They were renamed S1, A1 and A2 respectively in Malaysia, with the Qiantu K25 making its global debut and not previously launched in China, the company said at the time.

($1 = RMB 6.8772)

Qiantu Motor taps Malaysian market with 3 models

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