Tagged: China

BYD warms up for F brand as official launch nears

The new brand's official name could be Fangchengbao, with the first model expected to compete with the Mercedes-Benz G-Class.  |  BYDDY.US | HK

(Image credit: Fangchengbao)

BYD (OTCMKTS: BYDDY) is starting to warm up its new brand, internally codenamed F brand, with its official launch set for later this month.

BYD's professional, personalized brand coming soon, the new energy vehicle (NEV) giant said on Weibo today.

"The door to F is now open," BYD said, suggesting that the new brand is the F brand.

At the same time, a Weibo account called "Fangchengbao" (literally, Formula Leopard) was registered and verified today.

Fangchengbao may be the official name of the F brand, as the background image of its profile is similar in style to the video accompanying BYD's preview Weibo today.

(Screenshot of BYD Weibo's video.)

BYD registered the Fangchengbao trademark in August last year. Late last month, the name of Shenzhen BYD Auto R&D Co Ltd changed to Shenzhen Fangchengbao Automobile Sales Co Ltd, perhaps paving the way for the brand's launch.

BYD said at an event marking the rollout of the company's 3 millionth NEV on November 16, 2022, that in addition to the Yangwang brand, BYD will launch a highly specialized and personalized new brand in 2023.

The new brand will meet the increasingly personalized needs of consumers, and it will focus on building with users, BYD chairman and president Wang Chuanfu said at the time.

In February, local media reported that the new brand's internal code name would be F brand. BYD subsequently confirmed it.

On March 31, CnEVPost learned that the new brand is expected to officially launch its first model codenamed SF in June to target a market with prices ranging from RMB 400,000 ($56,260) to 600,000.

Xiong Tianbo, former head of BYD's sales research institute, will be the general manager of the F brand's sales division, leading the brand's product planning, channel sales and brand building, a company insider previously told CnEVPost.

CnEVPost obtained several spy photos of the SF model in March and learnt that the first model of the F brand is expected to compete with the Mercedes-Benz G-Class.

BYD expected to unveil 1st model of F brand in Jun

($1 = RMB 7.1094)

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Chinese team creates eVTOL with futuristic design

The eVTOL can take off and land on the water and is currently used mainly for sightseeing tours and performances.

(Image credit: Shenzhen News)

In the field of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles, we see a variety of novel designs, and a new product built by a Chinese team offers a new one.

On June 3, a low-altitude economy investment promotion event was held in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, where a local company demonstrated an eVTOL with a flying saucer shape, according to a June 4 report in the local Shenzhen News.

The eVTOL can take off and land on the water and is currently used mainly for sightseeing tours and performances.

The core research and development team from Beihang University and Northwestern Polytechnical University has been working on the vehicle for more than three years, according to the report.

The eVTOL is equipped with 12 propellers and can fly for up to 15 minutes and reach an altitude of 200 meters, according to the report.

It has a maximum horizontal flight speed of up to 50 kilometers per hour and can switch between autopilot and manual pilot modes.

The report did not provide more information about the eVTOL, a video of which was shared by Nanfang Daily.

Last November, another local team unveiled a two-seat engineering prototype of a manned split flying vehicle, the world's first such product with a split design.

The flying vehicle consists of three separate modules: an autonomous vertical takeoff and landing vehicle, an intelligent control cockpit, and an autopilot chassis, capable of driving on land as well as switching between airborne flight modes.

Aeroht, a subsidiary of XPeng, wants to build manned flying vehicles based on cars, and its X2 tested a flight over the Yellow River on June 5.

(Image credit: XPeng Aeroht)

Ehang, for its part, is building an autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV) closer to a helicopter, and the company said last April that it had received a pre-order for 100 EH216s from Indonesian airline Prestige Aviation.

On July 27, 2022, Volkswagen Group China unveiled its first eVTOL manned vehicle prototype, the V.MO, which is also close to a helicopter in appearance.

Chinese team builds flying car prototype unlike any other

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Great Wall Motor sells record 23,755 NEVs in May, up 60% from Apr

The Lanshan DHT-PHEV, which competes with 's Li L8, sold 5,136 units in its first full month of sales, and its production capacity is climbing, Great Wall Motor said.

Great Wall Motor's new energy vehicle (NEV) sales saw significant growth last month as the auto giant ramps up its efforts to make the transition to electrification.

Great Wall Motor sold a record 23,755 NEVs in May, up 104.13 percent from a year earlier and up 59.83 percent from 14,863 units in April, data released yesterday showed.

Including conventional fuel vehicles, Great Wall Motor's total sales in May were 101,020 units, up 26.18 percent year-on-year and up 8.49 percent from 93,107 units in April.

This means that NEVs contributed 23.5 percent of Great Wall Motor's sales in May.

From January to May, Great Wall Motor's NEV sales were 66,426 units, up 30.48 percent year-on-year, contributing 16 percent of all vehicle sales of 414,095 units.

Although Great Wall Motor saw significant growth in NEV sales, it still lags far behind (OTCMKTS: BYDDY) in the segment.

BYD sold 240,220 NEVs in May, up 108.99 percent year-on-year and up 14.23 percent from April.

BYD ceased production and sales of vehicles powered entirely by internal combustion engines in March 2022, shifting its focus to plug-in hybrids and pure electric vehicles.

On May 25, Great Wall Motor accused two BYD hybrid models of failing to meet pollutant emissions standards.

Great Wall Motor's battery electric vehicle-focused brand, , sold 10,616 units in May, up 19.27 percent from 8,901 units in April.

Its premium Wey brand sold 5,770 units in May, up 128.97 percent year-on-year and up 142.95 percent from April.

The Wey brand launched the six-seat Lanshan DHT-PHEV on April 13 with a starting price of RMB 273,800 to compete with Li Auto's Li L8. Deliveries of the model began on April 25.

The Lanshan DHT-PHEV sold 5,136 units in its first full sales month, and its production capacity is currently climbing with more orders to be delivered, Great Wall Motor said yesterday.

On May 25, Great Wall Motor's Haval brand launched the Haval Xiaolong and Haval Xiaolong Max, two hybrid SUVs with a starting price of RMB 139,800.

The Haval Xiaolong and Haval Xiaolong Max sold 3,088 units in May, Great Wall Motor said.

On June 1, the Wey brand launched the Mocca DHT-PHEV, a 5-seat SUV with a starting price of RMB 231,800,000.

Great Wall Motor sold a record 25,131 units overseas in May, up 15.21 percent from April and 104.04 percent year-on-year.

Its cumulative overseas sales from January to May were 98,920 units, up 100.36 percent year-on-year.

Great Wall Motor accuses 2 BYD hybrids of failing to meet pollutant emissions standards as competition intensifies

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NIO App resumes showing wait time for new ES6

Consumers who lock in their orders for the new ES6 can now expect delivery in about five weeks.

(Image credit: CnEVPost)

's (NYSE: NIO) vehicle configurator page stopped displaying the wait time for the new ES6 last week, and the information is now being displayed again.

Consumers who lock in their orders for the new ES6 now can expect delivery in about five weeks, the latest information on the NIO App shows.

NIO unveiled the new ES6 on April 18, the first day of the Shanghai auto show, and began accepting pre-orders, although the price was not announced at the time.

On May 24, NIO officially launched the new ES6 with a starting price of RMB 368,000 ($51,810), including the battery.

Deliveries began the same night the model was launched, with the NIO App showing an expected delivery date of "May".

NIO began production of the new ES6 based on the designer's recommended configuration combinations, and if consumers purchase these vehicles, deliveries will officially begin on May 25, according to a May 24 NIO App post.

Consumers who wish to customize the vehicles can lock in their orders in the NIO App, and deliveries will begin in mid-June, the company said at the time.

On May 30, NIO's mobile app stopped showing the wait time for the new ES6.

Although NIO produced some new ES6 vehicles in advance for quick delivery, the model is still in the capacity creep phase and contributed minimally to its May deliveries.

NIO delivered 6,155 vehicles in May, down 7.55 percent from April and down 12.37 percent year-on-year, according to data released on June 1.

The deliveries included 2,396 SUVs, and 3,759 sedans, NIO said, without disclosing model-specific breakdowns.

NIO will complete the capacity ramp for the new ES6 in June to deliver vehicles as early as possible, Jim Wei, the company's senior vice president of user operations, said in announcing May delivery figures on the NIO App on June 1.

($1 = RMB 7.1025)

Data table: Latest wait times for NIO models on Jun 6

(Screenshots on June 6.)

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NIO may launch ET5 Touring on Jun 15, more photos revealed

management aims to capitalize on the success of the 001, which proves there is a sizeable local market for luxury sporty EV wagons, Deutsche Bank said.

NIO (NYSE: NIO) will likely launch the ET5 Touring in 10 days, after the electric vehicle (EV) maker said last week that deliveries of the model would begin this month.

The first slide on the front page of NIO's English-language website shows a picture of part of a model's interior detail, with text that reads "Inspired By Life. Witness the launch of our next chapter."

The date on the image implies that the event will take place on June 15.

The information on NIO's website does not suggest that the model is the ET5 Touring, but the image shows that it does not appear to have a HUD (heads-up display), and the ET5 is currently the only one in NIO's product lineup that does not support HUD.

NIO plans to launch a new model based on NT 2.0, the ET5 Touring, a midsize smart electric wagon that will begin deliveries to customers in June, it said when it announced May deliveries on June 1.

The ET5 Touring will be launched globally in June and deliveries will begin in the Chinese market, it said in a separate press release.

On June 2, car blogger Wu Ying, who has about 1 million followers on Weibo, said NIO would launch the ET5 Touring on June 15.

NIO did not confirm the information, though one of its energy service Weibo accounts liked the Weibo post.

More images of the ET5 Touring have also been widely circulated on Weibo in the past few days.

Here are the images shared by car blogger De Lu as well as Dong Maimai.

For the ET5 Touring, Deutsche Bank analyst Edison Yu's team expects pricing of RMB 335,000 ($47,090) - RMB 345,000, which will be slightly higher than the regular ET5's RMB 328,000.

NIO management aims to capitalize on the success of the Zeekr 001, which proves there is a sizable local market for luxury sporty EV wagons, the team said in a research note sent to investors today.

NIO delivered 31,041 vehicles in the first quarter, with the ET5 contributing 18,703, or 60 percent, according to data monitored by CnEVPost.

($1 = RMB 7.1135)

NIO Q1 earnings preview: Struggling along for another quarter

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NIO Q1 earnings preview: Struggling along for another quarter

Deutsche Bank expects to report soft results for the first quarter, with downside risk to margins, though some relief in on the way.

NIO (NYSE: NIO) will report first-quarter unaudited financial results on Friday, June 9, before the US markets open. As usual, Deutsche Bank analyst Edison Yu's team provided their preview.

"NIO is suffering from weaker-than-expected demand and is facing its greatest adversity since nearly going bankrupt in 2020," the team said in a research note sent to investors today titled "Struggling along for another quarter."

The team expects NIO to report soft results in the first quarter, with downside risk to margins, and a very weak outlook for sales, and margins in the second quarter.

First quarter earnings

Previous data showed that NIO delivered 31,041 vehicles in the first quarter, slightly above the lower end of the guidance range of 31,000 to 33,000 vehicles.

NIO's previous revenue guidance for the first quarter was between RMB 10.93 billion and RMB 11.54 billion, implying year-on-year growth of about 10.2 percent to 16.5 percent.

Yu's team expects NIO to report revenue of RMB 10.9 billion in the first quarter, with a gross margin of 2.5 percent and adjusted earnings per share of RMB -3.07.

This compares to the current analyst consensus estimates of RMB 11.7 billion, 7.4 percent, and RMB -2.66, respectively, in a Bloomberg survey.

Looking ahead, Yu's team expects NIO to deliver 21,000-23,000 units in the second quarter.

NIO delivered only 12,813 units in April and May combined due to very low demand for the ET7 and ES7, the team noted.

The EV maker delivered 6,155 vehicles in May, down 7.55 percent from 6,658 in April, according to data released on June 1.

Why the weak sales?

While production and supply chain issues appear to be resolved, underlying demand for NIO's premium BEVs has been disappointing as customers opt for gasoline models from German luxury carmakers BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and EREVs, Yu's team said.

The team attributed NIO's recent weak sales to 3 main factors. The following is from their research note:

1. NIO's pricing is the highest amongst the start-ups and premium BEV demand has been generally weak across the board.

2. The premium segment appears to be electrifying more slowly which may be counter-intuitive to those outside China. Based on our analysis of the premium SUV market (>300k RMB), the BEV mix is only 12% YTD, compared with PHEV (includes EREV) at 18%, leaving 70% for ICE.

This compares with the overall market that is 21% BEV and 10% PHEV, showing customer preferences are quite different depending on the sub-segment.

Our read is the EREV value position is resonating with a much broader audience than anticipated which Li Auto has done a very effective job at maximizing.

3. We believe NIO's brand appeal has hit a wall of sorts as it is struggling to get momentum outside of Shanghai (and surrounding provinces) and also beyond finance/tech social circles.

To illustrate this, we look at the performance of NIO's best-selling ET5. Nearly 40% of sales mix comes from this region and ET5 sells quite poorly in the south despite in theory having the broadest appeal amongst NIO's offerings.

Moreover, based on our channel checks, affluent older customers simply are not buying into the brand (yet) and still prefer traditional BBA cars.

Management will need to figure out ways to augment the appeal of its unique services such as battery swapping. For existing customers, the usage is actually quite high, having set records during recent holiday (69k swaps in one day or ~20% of car parc).

Some relief on the way

NIO officially launched the new ES6 -- the best-selling NIO SUV in history -- in China on May 24, and deliveries began the same night.

In addition to the new ES6, NIO will also begin deliveries of the new ES8 and the ET5 Touring, a derivative of the ET5 sedan, this month.

NIO's deliveries in June will get a boost from a full month of new ES6 deliveries and partial contributions from the ET5 Touring, Yu's team said.

The new ES6 starts at RMB 368,000, higher than expected, as many potential buyers are comparing it to the Li Auto Li L7, which starts at RMB 319,800, the team said.

(Image credit: CnEVPost)

For the ET5 Touring, the team expects pricing to be at RMB 335,000 - RMB 345,000, slightly higher than the regular ET5.

NIO management aims to capitalize on the success of the 001, which proves there is a sizable local market for luxury sport EV wagons, the team said.

Yu's team expects NIO to see only a minimal improvement on vehicle margins in the second quarter.

"While lower battery input costs should help by at least 1-2% sequentially along with phasing out of aggressive promotional activity on first-gen 866 models, this will be partially offset by lack of overhead absorption/higher D&A as overall volume in 2Q will be down materially compared with 1Q," the team wrote .

As sales improve in the second half of the year, auto margins should return to double digits, the team said.

On the operating cost side, with sales under so much pressure, Yu's team suspects NIO management may be forced to show some level of restraint.

"We are skeptical NIO can achieve 'core' breakeven in 4Q23 and overall breakeven in 2024," the team wrote.

Also, cash burn will intensify due to declining deliveries, similar to what XPeng is experiencing, the team said, adding that they suspect NIO management will roll back its previous RMB 10 billion capex outlook.

Notably, the team remains bullish on the company's prospects, despite many investors have lost patience after multiple sales and margin disappointments.

"We think the stock is already embedding in a very negative path forward and we reiterate NIO's longer-term strategy of having multiple brands, holistic charging infrastructure, and an aspirational ecosystem can still ultimately win out once the dust settles on the EV wars," The team wrote.

NIO's local peers react to launch of new ES6

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Global EV battery market share in Jan-April: CATL 35.9%, BYD 16.1%

In January-April, CALB's power battery installations of 8.4 GWh surpassed Samsung SDI's 7.5 GWh, according to SNE Research.

China's and (OTCMKTS: BYDDY) continued to be the world's two largest power battery manufacturers in January-April, the latest data show.

In January-April, global battery consumption for electric vehicles (EVs) totaled 182.5 GWh, up 49 percent from 122.5 GWh in the same period last year, according to data released today by South Korean market research firm SNE Research.

Among them, CATL installed 65.6 GWh of batteries from January to April, up 55.6 percent from 42.1 GWh in the same period last year.

The Chinese power battery giant continues to rank No. 1 in the world with a 35.9 percent share and remains the only one in the world with a market share of more than 30.0 percent.

This was higher than its 34.4 percent share in the same period last year and up from its 35.0 percent share in the January-March period.

CATL's batteries are installed in many major passenger EV models in China's domestic market, such as the Model 3, Model Y, SAIC Mulan, Y and ET5, as well as Chinese commercial vehicle models, and continue to grow steadily, SNE Research said.

BYD installed 29.4 GWh of power batteries from January to April, up 108.3 percent from 14.1 GWh in the same period last year.

The company ranked second with a 16.1 percent share from January to April, up from 11.5 percent in the same period last year but down from 16.2 percent in January-March.

BYD has gained popularity in China's domestic market with its competitive pricing by establishing a vertically integrated supply chain management, including battery self-sufficiency and vehicle manufacturing, SNE Research said.

With the launch of the Atto3 model, BYD showed explosive growth by expanding its market share outside of China in Asia and Europe, SNE Research said.

LG Energy Solution installed 25.7 GWh of power batteries from January to April, up 49.3 percent year-on-year.

The South Korean company ranked third in the world with a 14.1 percent share, unchanged from a year ago.

Japan's Panasonic was fourth with 8.2 percent share, South Korea's SK On was fifth with 5.2 percent share and China's CALB was sixth with 4.6 percent share.

South Korea's Samsung SDI of, China's Gotion High-tech of China, Eve Energy and Sunwoda ranked seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth respectively, with shares of 4.1 percent, 2.4 percent, 1.8 percent and 1.5 percent from January to April, respectively.

It is worth noting that CALB's power battery installed base of 8.4 GWh exceeded Samsung SDI's 7.5 GWh in the January to April period.

In January-March, CALB was 5.7 GWh, lower than Samsung SDI's 6.5 GWh.

In 2023, Chinese companies are expected to enter overseas markets such as the US and Europe in preparation for a gradual decline in growth rates in China's domestic market, the largest EV market, according to SNE Research.

The European EV market, which has relatively fewer political issues than the US, is attracting attention as a strategic point for seeking to diversify the battery supply chain, the report noted.

Going forward, the share of LFP batteries in Europe is expected to increase as Chinese companies enter the European market in earnest, the report said.

CATL unveils Condensed Battery for electric aircrafts and EVs

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