Author: Phate Zhang/CnEVPost

BYD says report that Tesla won’t extend battery supply partnership with it untrue

Post author By Phate Zhang/CnEVPost
Post date March 14, 2023

A BYD spokesperson, responding to CnEVPost's request for comment, said the information was untrue and did not correspond to reality.

BYDDY.US | BYD HK | TSLA.US

(File photo shows BYD's blade battery. Credit: BYD)

Tesla will not continue to use BYD's batteries after its contract with the latter expires, according to a report in a South Korean media outlet yesterday. BYD denied it today.

Tesla has decided not to use BYD's batteries due to quality issues arising from a series of fire accidents with the latter's LFP (lithium iron phosphate) batteries, South Korea's Korea Economic Daily said in a report yesterday.

Tesla first used BYD's 10 GWh batteries last year for its low-end models in Europe, according to the report.

Earlier this year, Tesla did not request the additional supply of BYD batteries for the standard, low-cost trim version of the Model 3 after its contract to supply them expired, the report said, citing industry sources.

Fires in electric vehicles where BYD applied its own batteries have occurred several times in China, triggered by quality problems, the report said.

Contrary to BYD's explanation, there is no reason for Tesla to use BYD batteries as accidents become more frequent, a source from the battery industry said. That seems to be the reason for it, he said.

Tesla's reliance on LG Energy Solution, which is accelerating the development of LFP batteries for electric vehicles at Tesla's request, is expected to grow, according to the report.

Tesla uses LG Energy Solution and CATL in Europe and Panasonic products in North America. Existing companies will most likely fill BYD's vacancy, the report noted.

A BYD spokesperson, responding to CnEVPost's request for comment, said the information was untrue and did not correspond to reality.

In February 2022, rumors surfaced that Tesla had officially placed an order with BYD's battery manufacturing division, FinDreams Battery, for blade batteries for 204,000 vehicles per year.

In early June 2022, BYD executive vice president Lian Yubo said in an interview with state-owned media outlet CGTN host Kui Yingchun that BYD would soon be supplying batteries to Tesla.

Lian provided no further details at the time, and a video of that interview posted on Weibo was subsequently deleted.

On August 10, 2022, Sina Tech cited multiple sources familiar with the matter as saying that BYD's blade battery supplies to Tesla had already begun to be delivered to the latter's plant in Berlin, Germany, the first Tesla Gigafactory to use BYD batteries.

Tesla's competitive relationship with BYD is also one of the reasons it will not extend its contract in Europe, according to Korea Economic Daily. Tesla asked LG Energy Solution to develop LFP batteries to keep its electric vehicle rival in check, the report said.

In October 2022, Steve Westly, a former Tesla board member and founder of Westly, said the only one that can truly compete with the US electric vehicle giant on a global scale is BYD.

"For the first time, I think there is a real challenger and that challenger's name is BYD," Westly said in a CNBC interview that aired on October 20 of last year.

"BYD will likely hit one million EV units produced and sold this year. That's something that should keep your eye on," he said, adding, "In contrast, it is good to compare, Ford, probably has 60,000 units and GM struggling to hit 50,000 units. They are barely 4 to 5 percent of Tesla."

So right now, it looks like it's Tesla and the Chinese battle, Westly said.

BYD sold 1,863,494 new energy vehicles (NEVs) in 2022, including 946,239 plug-in hybrid passenger cars, 911,140 pure electric passenger cars, and 6,115 commercial vehicles, according to data monitored by CnEVPost.

For comparison, Tesla delivered 1,313,851 vehicles worldwide in 2022, with 439,770 delivered to Chinese consumers.

Charlie Munger, a renowned US investor, said on February 15 that Tesla pales in comparison to BYD in China.

"Tesla last year reduced its prices in China twice. BYD increased its prices. We are direct competitors. BYD is so much ahead of Tesla in China, it's almost ridiculous," Munger said.

In addition to being an NEV giant, BYD is also one of the world's largest power battery manufacturers.

BYD installed 5.8 GWh of power batteries globally in January, up 78.8 percent from 3.3 GWh in the same month last year, according to a report released by South Korean market research firm SNE Research on March 6.

BYD ranked second globally with a 17.6 percent market share, up from the 11.6 percent share in the same period last year.

CATL installed 11.2 GWh of batteries globally in January, continuing to rank first with a 33.9 percent market share, but lower than the 37.6 percent share in the same month last year.

LG Energy Solution installed 4.3 GWh of power batteries in January, ranking third with a 13.0 percent market share, up from 10.1 percent in the same month last year.

BYD so far ahead of Tesla in China that 'it's almost ridiculous,' says Charlie Munger

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Tags BYD, CATL, Tesla

BYD BYD Atto 3 BYD Europe BYD UK China Deals Electric eMobility eV

BYD signs deal to supply 5,000 EVs to UK car rental firm Octopus EV over 3 years

Post author By Phate Zhang/CnEVPost
Post date March 13, 2023

The initial order will include the BYD Atto 3, which will be available under the Salary Sacrifice program.

BYDDY.US | BYD HK

(Image credit: BYD)

BYD (OTCMKTS: BYDDY), which just last week officially announced its entry into the UK passenger car market, has signed a purchase agreement with a local car rental company.

BYD entered into a partnership with UK-based Octopus Electric Vehicles (Octopus EV) on March 10, which plans to buy 5,000 BYD electric vehicles over the next 3 years, according to a press release today.

The initial order will include the BYD Atto 3, an all-electric C-segment SUV that debuted in the UK this month.

The vehicles will be offered with the Salary Sacrifice program, one of the most affordable ways to lease BYD vehicles in the UK, according to the Chinese new energy vehicle (NEV) maker.

The start of this commercial relationship lays the foundations for Octopus EV to become a BYD partner for the Salary Sacrifice scheme in the UK, with plans for further orders in the future, the release said.

A salary sacrifice program is an agreement to reduce an employee's cash compensation entitlement, usually in exchange for a non-cash benefit.

Founded in 2018, Octopus EV is a subsidiary of Octopus Energy Group, one of Europe's largest renewable energy investors based in the UK.

Octopus EV offers services including electric vehicle leasing, charging post installation, and special discounted tariffs for electric vehicles through its parent company.

On March 8, BYD announced the official start of sales of the Atto 3 in the UK, its first passenger car offered in the country.

The model will start at £36,490 ($43,230) in the UK and local deliveries will begin on March 15, BYD said last week.

The first BYD pioneer stores will open soon, in the backbone of the U.K., including Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Milton Keynes, the company said.

The Atto 3, known in China as the Yuan Plus, went on sale on February 19, 2022, and is the first SUV on BYD's all-electric platform, e-platform 3.0.

BYD to deliver 100,000 EVs to German car rental firm SIXT over next six years

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Tags BYD

China China Auto Market Electric eMobility eV Industry News Policy

China’s transition to new emission standard: How will this affect auto market?

Post author By Phate Zhang/CnEVPost
Post date March 13, 2023

Analysts believe the impact of the transition will not last long and will have less of an impact than the last switch in standards in 2019.

China's transition to new emission standard: How will this affect auto market?-CnEVPost

The recent price war in China's auto market has put a new emission standard that will come into effect in a few months' time in the spotlight.

CnEVPost obtained the views of several local analysts, which provide references on what impact that new emission standard will have on the auto industry.

As background, China released its final rule for stage 6 light-duty vehicle emission limits and measurement methods (China 6 standard) in December 2016, a new standard that combines best practices from European and US regulatory requirements.

The standard is being implemented in two phases, with the 6a standard already taking effect on July 1, 2020, and the 6b standard coming into effect on July 1, 2023.

CITIC Securities: Impact will not last long

From July 1, the China 6b standard will be fully implemented, which is more stringent in terms of emission standards and testing criteria compared with China 6a, especially the new RDE test that detects the actual driving emissions of the car, said Yin Xinchi, chief analyst of the auto industry at CITIC Securities, in a research note today.

There are still some old models on the market that do not meet China 6b emission regulations, and the de-stocking of these models may have an impact on the production, sales and prices of the auto industry, according to the note.

However, CITIC Securities also pointed out that the duration of the impact of the transition will not be too long, and the degree of impact will be significantly smaller than the switch of China's auto industry emission standard from China 5 to China 6a in 2019.

China Securities: Essence is the weakening competitiveness of JV brands

China's passenger car market will begin implementing the stricter China 6b emissions standard on July 1, which could exacerbate the pressure to de-stock older models, China Securities automotive industry chief analyst Cheng Siqi's team said in a research report today.

This may intensify the profitability pressure among car companies in the short term, but behind it reflects the further erosion of the competitiveness of second- and third-tier joint venture brands, according to the team.

Against the backdrop of rising market share of local Chinese brands and the ongoing electrification transformation of China's auto market, these joint venture brands have been forced to start cutting prices and de-stocking, the team said.

Huaxi Securities: Several regions have already completed the standard switch

The China 6b emissions standard will go into effect on July 1, and overall, this will have limited material impact on the auto industry, Huaxi Securities analyst Cui Yan's team said in a research note today.

The window for that transition is long, and several regions have already completed the transition ahead of schedule, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Tianjin, according to the team.

Car companies previously experienced the pain of the transition from China 5 to the China 6a standard and this time are expected to prepare beforehand, the team said.

Inventories in the Chinese auto industry are currently at an above-average level, but the vast majority of inventories have been accrued since April 2022, according to the team.

The team believes the recent wave of price cuts in the Chinese auto industry is largely due to the penetration of new energy vehicles (NEVs) reaching about 30 percent and the willingness and ability of some leading car companies to grab market share.

The China automobile dealers VIA (Vehicle Inventory Alert Index) stood at 58.1 percent in February, up 2.0 percentage points from a year ago but down 3.7 percentage points from January, still sitting above the 50 percent mark, according to China Automobile Dealers Association data released earlier this month The data.

For the VIA, a value below 50 percent is a reasonable range, and a higher reading means lower market demand and greater inventory pressure, according to the index's description.

If you'd like to learn more about the China 6 standard, here's a report from the International Council on Clean Transportation, a nonprofit organization.

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China Electric eMobility eV Nio NIO ET7 Wait Times

NIO App no longer shows ET7 wait time as talk of revamped model heats up

Post author By Phate Zhang/CnEVPost
Post date March 13, 2023

The NIO ET7 delivered around 3,000 units per month for most of the second half of 2022, but only 521 and 649 units were delivered in January and February of this year, respectively.

NIO US | NIO HK | NIO SG

(From left to right: EC7, EC6, ET7, ET5. Screenshot on March 13.)

Past experience has shown that whenever NIO's mobile app stops showing the wait time for a model, it means that the improved version of the model is not far from release.

The NIO App stopped showing the expected delivery date for the electric vehicle maker's flagship sedan, the ET7, starting today, the first time the company's model wait times have changed in the past month.

The NIO App is currently showing eight models, including the old ES8, ES6 and EC6 based on the NT 1.0 platform and the new ES8, ES7, EC7, ET7 and ET5 based on the NT 2.0 platform.

The EC7 coupe SUV and the new ES8 were launched at NIO Day 2022 held on December 24, 2022, with deliveries to begin in May and June 2023, respectively.

Wait times for all other NIO models remain unchanged today. The last change to this information was on February 14, when the wait times for both the ES7 and ET7 changed from the previous 3-4 weeks to about 3 weeks, and for the ET5 from about 3 weeks to 2-3 weeks.

(From left to right: All-new ES8, old ES8, ES7, ES6. Screenshot on March 13.)

NIO's latest move comes at a time when discussions on social media about a revamped version of the ET7 are on the rise.

In several WeChat groups where CnEVPost is present, some NIO followers are already anticipating a facelift of the sedan one year since deliveries began.

Longtime NIO follower and auto blogger @肉肉爸比ev hinted on March 10 that a revamped version of the ET7 is not far away.

"Are people that concerned about the ET7 facelift? Let's just say the 2023 ET7 may be coming soon," the blogger wrote.

Changes to the new ET7 will likely not be significant, and NIO may offer upgrade options to owners of the current model, the blogger said, adding that consumers interested in the ET7 may choose to wait and see in the short term.

NIO launched the ET7, its first sedan, at the NIO Day 2020 event on January 9, 2021, with deliveries starting March 28, 2022.

In April 2022, the ET7's first full month of delivery, the sedan was ranked No. 10 in a list of premium sedans starting at more than RMB 300,000 ($43,440) by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) with 693 retail sales.

With increased capacity, ET7 sales continued to grow after deliveries began and reached a new monthly high of 4,349 units in June 2022.

Deliveries of the ET7 remained around 3,000 units per month for the vast majority of the second half of last year, but in December deliveries slipped to 1,379 units, missing the CPCA's ranking of premium sedan sales for the first time.

NIO stopped publishing ET7 figures in its monthly delivery figures this year, but figures released by the CPCA show that the sedan delivered 521 units in January and 649 units in February.

The CPCA's figures come from the numbers reported by carmakers, and the ET7 sales figures in its monthly rankings are consistent with the available figures previously published by NIO.

(1 $ = RMB 6.9063)

NIO ET5 drops 1 spot in ranking of top-selling premium sedans in China

Changes in wait times for NIO models

Date	Model	Latest Wait Time	Prev Wait Time
03/13/23	ET7 (NT 2.0)	Stop showing	About 3 weeks
02/14/23	ES7 (NT 2.0)	About 3 weeks	3-4 weeks
02/14/23	ET7 (NT 2.0)	About 3 weeks	3-4 weeks
02/14/23	ET5 (NT 2.0)	2-3 weeks	About 3 weeks
02/6/23	ET5 (NT 2.0)	About 3 weeks	3-4 weeks
01/28/23	ES7 (NT 2.0)	3-4 weeks	2-3 weeks
01/28/23	ET7 (NT 2.0)	3-4 weeks	2-3 weeks
01/28/23	ET5 (NT 2.0)	3-4 weeks	7-9 weeks
01/11/23	ET5 (NT 2.0)	7-9 weeks	8-10 weeks
01/5/23	ET5 (NT 2.0)	8-10 weeks	9-11 weeks
12/29/22	ET5 (NT 2.0)	9-11 weeks	10-12 weeks
12/22/22	ET5 (NT 2.0)	10-12 weeks	12-14 weeks
12/20/22	ES7 (NT 2.0)	2-3 weeks	4-6 weeks
12/13/22	ET5 (NT 2.0)	12-14 weeks	13-15 weeks
12/13/22	ET7 (NT 2.0)	2-3 weeks	About 2 weeks
12/13/22	EC6 (NT 1.0)	Stop showing	About 2 weeks
12/2/22	ET5 (NT 2.0)	13-15 weeks	21-23 weeks
11/25/22	ES7 (NT 2.0)	4-6 weeks	7-9 weeks
11/25/22	ET7 (NT 2.0)	About 2 weeks	3-5 weeks
11/23/22	ES8 (NT 1.0)	Stop showing	About 2 weeks
11/16/22	ET7 (NT 2.0)	3-5 weeks	4-6 weeks
11/10/22	ES8 (NT 1.0)	About 2 weeks	2-3 weeks
11/10/22	ES6 (NT 1.0)	About 2 weeks	2-3 weeks
11/10/22	EC6 (NT 1.0)	About 2 weeks	2-3 weeks
11/3/22	ES7 (NT 2.0)	7-9 weeks	11-13 weeks
11/3/22	ET7 (NT 2.0)	4-6 weeks	6-8 weeks
11/3/22	ES8 (NT 1.0)	2-3 weeks	2-4 weeks
11/3/22	ES6 (NT 1.0)	2-3 weeks	2-4 weeks
11/3/22	EC6 (NT 1.0)	2-3 weeks	2-4 weeks
10/31/22	ES7 (NT 2.0)	11-13 weeks	12-14 weeks
10/31/22	ES8 (NT 1.0)	2-4 weeks	3-5 weeks
10/31/22	ES6 (NT 1.0)	2-4 weeks	3-5 weeks
10/31/22	EC6 (NT 1.0)	2-4 weeks	3-5 weeks
10/21/22	ES7 (NT 2.0)	12-14 weeks	13-15 weeks
10/21/22	ET7 (NT 2.0)	6-8 weeks	11-13 weeks
10/21/22	ET5 (NT 2.0)	Stop showing	21-23 weeks
10/21/22	ES8 (NT 1.0)	3-5 weeks	4-6 weeks
10/21/22	ES6 (NT 1.0)	3-5 weeks	4-6 weeks
10/21/22	EC6 (NT 1.0)	3-5 weeks	4-6 weeks

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Tags NIO

BYD BYD Plant BYD Thailand China Electric eMobility eV

BYD begins construction of Thailand plant with annual capacity of 150,000 units

Post author By Phate Zhang/CnEVPost
Post date March 11, 2023

On March 10, BYD held a groundbreaking ceremony for the plant in Thailand, and the delivery ceremony for the 10,000th BYD Atto 3.

BYDDY.US | BYD HK

BYD began construction of its passenger car plant in Thailand, as it reaches a milestone in deliveries there.

On March 10, BYD held a groundbreaking ceremony for the plant in Thailand, as well as a delivery ceremony for the 9,999th and 10,000th BYD Atto 3, according to a press release.

The establishment of a passenger car production base in Thailand is one of BYD's key initiatives to accelerate its expansion into the Asia-Pacific market, said Liu Xueliang, general manager of the company's Asia-Pacific automotive sales division.

The production base project is located at WHA Rayong 36 Industrial Estate and covers an area of nearly 960,000 square meters.

The plant is expected to start production in 2024 with an annual capacity of about 150,000 vehicles.

On September 8, 2022, BYD signed a land purchase agreement with Thai industrial property developer WHA Industrial Development PLC, a subsidiary of the WHA Group, to build a passenger car production plant.

The land agreement follows a set of investment commitments approved by Thailand's Board of Investment in August, including BYD's 17.9 billion baht ($491 million) electric vehicle production project.

On October 10, BYD, together with its local partner Rêver Automotive, launched the Atto 3 in Thailand, with sales of the model officially starting in November.

BYD held a delivery ceremony on March 10 for the 9,999th and 10,000th Atto 3, its first electric SUV based on the e-Platform 3.0 platform offered in Thailand.

Notably, the deliveries appear to be wholesale sales, that is, sales delivered to local dealers.

By the end of January, the Atto 3 had 1,352 registrations in Thailand, accounting for 8 percent of the 16,672 registrations of all pure electric vehicles in the country, according to BYD.

By the end of February, 3,000 BYD Atto 3 units were registered in Thailand, according to the company.

In addition to BYD, another Chinese electric vehicle company, Neta, began construction of a plant in Thailand on March 10, although it is smaller, with an annual capacity of 20,000 units.

BYD F brand to use new powertrain, targeting market with price above RMB 400,000

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Tags BYD

BYD BYD Plant BYD Thailand China Electric eMobility eV

BYD begins construction of Thailand plant with annual capacity of 150,000 units

Post author By Phate Zhang/CnEVPost
Post date March 11, 2023