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Continue reading Tesla issues another round of sweeping price cuts
Tesla issues another round of sweeping price cuts originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 7 Apr 2023 10:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | CommentsThe first BYD model to be equipped with DJI Automotive's assisted driving solution is the Sea Lion, an all-electric SUV expected to go on sale within the year, according to local media.
(Image credit: CnEVPost)
BYD (OTCMKTS: BYDDY) will use the assisted driving solution provided by DJI Automotive, the automotive division of local drone maker DJI, on some of its models, according to a report by 36kr today.
The first BYD model to feature DJI Automotive's solution is the yet-to-be-released Sea Lion, the report said, citing a person familiar with the matter, adding that their partnership involves a city NOA (Navigate on Autopilot) feature that doesn't rely on high precision maps.
The Sea Lion is an all-electric SUV in BYD's Ocean series, which is expected to go on sale within the year, the report said.
On July 28, 2022, Auto Home reported that BYD was building an SUV called Sea Lion, which could compete with Tesla's Model Y.
The BYD Sea Lion has a sharp, sporty front end, Auto Home said, citing spy photos they obtained of the model.
DJI announced its automotive business, DJI Automotive, in April 2021 and said at the time that it had been in the auto parts business for five years.
In September 2022, SAIC-GM-Wuling launched the 2023 Baojun KiWi EV, with one version featuring DJI's smart driving system, the first time the system has been used in a production vehicle.
The DJI Automotive team, which currently numbers around 1,300 people, has previously partnered with SAIC-GM-Wuling and Volkswagen China, the 36kr report said, adding that its partnership with BYD is expected to open up the market further in terms of mass production of smart driving systems.
For BYD, the Sea Lion needs to have a strong intelligent configuration, or at least the shortcomings can't be too obvious, to be competitive, of which high-level assisted driving features are essential, 36kr's report said.
Although DJI Automotive has a low profile in China's electric vehicle industry, especially compared to Huawei, the company has had a number of achievements in assisted driving systems.
On April 2, DJI Automotive unveiled its next-generation smart driving solution at the China EV 100 Forum, which enables L2+ assisted driving functions including city NOA with as low as 32 TOPS of computing power without the need for high precision maps or LiDARs.
(Image credit: DJI Automotive)
The pure vision-assisted driving system also supports the addition of millimeter wave radars, ultrasonic radars, LiDARs, and high-precision maps to enhance the safety redundancy of the system, it said.
The solution provides both low-threshold access to high-level smart features for budget models and an advanced technology experience for mid- to high-end models, DJI Automotive said.
The solution is now in a usable state and is actively advancing mass production with partner car companies, DJI Automotive said on April 2.
Wuling refreshes KiWi EV, DJI's assisted driving system debuts in production vehicle
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Zhu, 43, has been officially named senior vice president of Tesla's automotive business.
Tom Zhu, who has made significant contributions to the development of Tesla's China business, has been officially named one of the top four executives at the US electric vehicle (EV) maker.
Zhu, 43, has been named senior vice president of Tesla's automotive business, according to a filing the EV maker made with the US Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday.
"Tom Zhu has served as our Senior Vice President, Automotive since April 2023," the filing reads.
Here is a brief description of Zhu in the filing:
Mr. Zhu joined Tesla in April 2014, and served in various operational roles before being appointed as Vice President, Greater China, where he led the construction and operations of Gigafactory Shanghai.
Mr. Zhu holds a bachelor's degree of commerce in information technology from the Auckland University of Technology and an M.B.A. from Duke University.
Zhu joined Tesla in April 2014 as the director of the EV maker's Supercharger program in China.
In July 2019, he was mentioned in media reports as Tesla's global vice president and president of Greater China region.
Rumors of Zhu receiving a promotion at Tesla began to emerge from late last year.
On July 8, 2022, Bloomberg cited people familiar with the matter as saying that Tesla had changed its management structure in the Asia-Pacific region, with executives in the region now reporting to Greater China rather than the United States.
Senior executives in the region report to Zhu, then president of Tesla China, meaning he also oversees Tesla's Asia Pacific region, a position previously held by US executives, according to the report.
On December 8, local media outlet Ping West reported that Tesla CEO Elon Musk would have Zhu succeed him as CEO of the EV maker.
Zhu's CEO position would be global, but the scope of responsibilities would likely be limited to Tesla's automotive business and not include self-driving and robotics programs, the report said.
Zhu has been promoted to head Tesla's US assembly plants and sales operations in North America and Europe, Reuters said on January 3, citing an internal report line announcement.
The move makes Zhu the highest-profile Tesla executive since Elon Musk, with oversight for deliveries in all of its major markets and all of its production outside the still-ramping Tesla plant in Germany, the report noted.
Zhu's promotion is apparently related to Tesla's China business becoming increasingly important.
Tesla delivered 422,875 vehicles worldwide in the first quarter, including 412,180 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles and 10,695 Model S and Model X vehicles, according to figures it announced April 2.
Tesla's China-made vehicles delivered 229,322 units in the first quarter, up 25.88 percent from 182,174 units in the same quarter last year, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) monitored by CnEVPost.
This means that 54 percent of Tesla's global deliveries in the first quarter were made at the Shanghai plant.
Tesla sells 88,869 China-made vehicles in Mar, CPCA data show
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Continue reading Tesla workers shared sensitive images recorded by customer cars
Tesla workers shared sensitive images recorded by customer cars originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 6 Apr 2023 11:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Continue reading Toyota plans full overhaul of EV strategy under new CEO Koji Sato
Toyota plans full overhaul of EV strategy under new CEO Koji Sato originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 6 Apr 2023 08:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | CommentsIn the past five weeks, NIO vehicles had 11,929 insurance registrations. The company delivered 10,378 vehicles in March.
China's new energy vehicle (NEV) sector saw continued improvement last week, with most major players posting sales increases.
In the week ending April 2, insurance registrations for all vehicles in China were 465,500, up 46.9 percent year-on-year and up 19.9 percent from the previous week, according to data shared today by several auto bloggers.
Of these, 139,500 were NEVs, up 44.7 percent year-on-year and up 9.28 percent from the previous week, with a penetration rate of 29.96 percent.
Gasoline vehicles were 326,000 units, up 47.9 percent year-on-year and up 25.1 percent from the previous week.
BYD vehicles continued to register the highest number of insurance units last week at 46,218, up from 43,490 the previous week.
In the past five weeks -- February 27 to April 2 -- BYD NEVs had 204,195 insurance registrations in China.
As a comparison, BYD sold 207,080 wholesale NEVs in March, including 13,312 units sold overseas, according to data it released on April 2.
Insurance registrations for Tesla vehicles in China last week were 14,275, slightly lower than the previous week's 15,886.
In the past five weeks, Tesla vehicles had 79,171 insurance registrations in China.
Tesla sold 88,869 China-made vehicles in March, including exports, according to data released earlier today by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
Those numbers mean that Tesla's Shanghai plant may have exported only a few thousand vehicles in March, with the rest for deliveries to Chinese consumers.
Tesla's pattern is to produce cars for export in the first half of the quarter and for the local market in the second half.
Insurance registrations for NIO vehicles were 2,730 last week, up from 1,909 the previous week.
In the past five weeks, NIO vehicles had 11,929 insurance registrations.
NIO delivered 10,378 vehicles in March, including 3,203 SUVs, and 7,175 sedans, according to data released by the company on April 1.
Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI) vehicles had 6,185 insurance registrations last week, up from 5,081 in the previous week.
In the past five weeks, Li Auto vehicles saw 24,169 insurance registrations. For comparison, it delivered 20,823 vehicles in March.
XPeng (NYSE: XPEV) vehicles had 2,034 insurance registrations last week, up from 1,564 the previous week.
XPeng's total for the past five weeks was 7,950, and the company delivered 7,002 vehicles in March.
Zeekr vehicles had 2,571 insurance registrations last week and a cumulative total of 7,555 over the past five weeks. It delivered 6,663 vehicles in March.
Neta had a figure of 3,740 vehicles in the last week and a total of 12,286 vehicles in the last five weeks. It delivered 10,087 vehicles in March.
BMW had 2,598 NEV insurance registrations last week, for a total of 9,959 over the past five weeks.
China's Mar passenger NEV wholesale sales up 20% MoM to 600,000, CPCA estimates show
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In the first quarter, Tesla sold 229,322 China-made vehicles, contributing 54 percent of its global deliveries in the quarter.
Tesla sold 88,869 China-made vehicles in March, including exports, according to data released today by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
That's up 35.03 percent from 65,814 vehicles in the same month last year and up 19.44 percent from 74,402 vehicles in February.
This is the second highest China-made vehicle sales ever for Tesla, behind the 100,291 units sold in November of last year.
The sales include sales in China as well as exports, and the breakdown is expected to be available in the coming days.
In the first quarter, Tesla's China-made vehicle sales were 229,322, up 25.88 percent from 182,174 in the same period last year.
Tesla has a factory in Shanghai that currently produces only the Model 3 and Model Y.
The EV maker delivered 422,875 vehicles worldwide in the first quarter, including 412,180 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles and 10,695 Model S and Model X vehicles, according to data it released April 2.
Today's figures mean that 54 percent of Tesla's global deliveries in the first quarter were made at its Shanghai plant.
Tesla doesn't publish its deliveries in China, the CPCA publishes those numbers every month.
Including exports, Tesla sold 66,051 and 74,402 China-made vehicles in January and February, respectively.
Tesla delivered 26,843 and 33,923 vehicles in China in January and February, respectively, and its Shanghai plant exported 39,208 and 40,479 vehicles in those two months, according to the CPCA.
In addition, Chinese media outlet 36kr reported earlier today that Tesla is planning up to 4 million units of annual production capacity for one of a lower-priced model, a smaller version of the Model Y.
Tesla's North American factories will take on 2 million units of capacity, with the Monterrey, Mexico, plant providing most of it. Its plants in Berlin, Germany, and Shanghai will each take on 1 million units of capacity, the report said.
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Tesla will soon begin large-scale testing of FSD (Full Self-Driving) in China, according to a report by Caixin on April 3. TSLA.US
(A screenshot from the Tesla China website.)
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), despite being a pioneer among electric vehicle (EV) makers in exploring autonomous driving, has been seen as slow to move in the space in China. Now, it looks like things are about to change.
Tesla is about to begin large-scale testing of FSD (Full Self-Driving) in China, local media outlet Caixin said in an April 3 report.
The story was a feature on BYD and did not mention anything more about Tesla's FSD localization efforts in China.
Notably, this is the second time in a week that similar rumors have surfaced.
Tesla China will soon push out a major update to Autopilot, auto blogger Zheng Xiaokang, who has 532,000 followers on Weibo, said on March 27.
The blogger did not mention any more information, and in the comments section of his Weibo post, there was speculation that the update might be Tesla's vision-only V11 software.
All Tesla vehicles currently come with the free Basic Autopilot (BAP) software. In addition, Tesla offers Enhanced Autopilot (EAP), FSD software as an option.
EAP and FSD cost $6,000 and $15,000 in the US and RMB 32,000 ($4,650) and RMB 64,000 in China, respectively.
Tesla opened the EAP feature option in China on February 5, 2021, adding several features compared to BAP, including automatic assisted lane change, automatic parking, and smart summoning.
Tesla has made the EAP feature available free of charge to Chinese owners on holidays several times over the past two years, although the software has not won much praise.
The optional Tesla FSD capability has always been available, but Chinese consumers who have purchased the package have so far failed to get a significantly better experience than BAP.
In contrast, Tesla's Chinese counterparts are seeing tremendous progress with the assisted driving feature.
On March 31, XPeng (NYSE: XPEV) made its Tesla FSD-like advanced driver assistance aystem (ADAS) available for its flagship G9 and P7i models, though the capability still relies on high-precision maps for now. The feature was previously available on the P5 sedan.
XPeng plans to expand full lane-changing, overtaking and left/right turn functionality to major Chinese cities without high-precision maps in the second half of 2023, while full-scene ADAS is planned for 2024.
On February 20, NIO (NYSE: NIO) began allowing all NT 2.0 platform models to trial NOP+ assisted driving software, which enables a point-to-point assisted driving experience on highways as well as urban expressway scenarios.
($1 = RMB 6.8822)
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XPeng now has more than 1,000 of self-operated charging stations in China, including 186 S4 ultra-fast charging stations. | XPeng US | XPeng HK
(Image credit: XPeng)
XPeng (NYSE: XPEV) already has nearly 200 charging stations equipped with the latest S4 ultra-fast chargers, after the first such facility was built last August.
XPeng launched its charging station upgrade program this year and has so far completed upgrades of more than 160 stations with S4 ultra-fast charging capability, according to a WeChat post from the company today.
The station upgrades cover 91 cities in China, and S4 ultra-fast charging capability refers to charging piles with a maximum output of 360 kW and 480 kW.
Including the new S4 charging stations, XPeng has now put 186 ultra-fast charging stations into operation in China, it said.
XPeng's charging network added 349 third-party charging stations in the first quarter, and they are able to serve the company's vehicle owners for free, the company said.
As of April 1, XPeng's charging network had a cumulative total of more than 2,200 charging stations, including more than 1,000 that the company operates itself.
XPeng said it will continue to expand its S4 ultra-fast charging network and expects to add about 500 S4 ultra-fast charging-capable stations in 2023.
The company completed its first S4 ultra-fast charging station on August 15, 2022, its 1,000th self-operated charging station.
The charging station has a maximum power of 480 kW, a maximum current of 670 A and a peak charging power of 400 kW.
XPeng's flagship SUV, the G9, was able to get a CLTC range of 210 km in 5 minutes when using this S4 ultra-fast charging station, as shown in a real-world test displayed by the company.
For comparison, Tesla's V3 supercharger has a maximum power of 250 kW and a maximum current of 631 A, and can get a range of 150 km in as little as 5 minutes.
XPeng expects to add more than 500 S4 ultra-fast charging stations in 2023, and the number will exceed 2,000 by 2025, the company said at its G9 launch event last September 21.
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Tesla's lower-priced model will be a smaller version of the Model Y, and the EV maker is building a capacity plan for it of up to 4 million units a year, a new report said.
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Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) is planning capacity for a lower-priced model, though it's not the one previously rumored to be priced at $25,000, according to a new report.
The model will be a smaller version of the Model Y, for which Tesla is building an annual capacity plan of up to 4 million units, Chinese media outlet 36kr said in a report today, citing sources.
This is an early capacity strategy, and Tesla is signaling to the industry chain that the 4 million units of capacity will be spread across its factories located around the world, according to the report.
Tesla's North American plants will take on 2 million units of capacity, with the Monterrey, Mexico, plant providing the bulk of the capacity. Its factories in Berlin, Germany, and Shanghai will each take on 1 million units, the report said.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said at the company's 2020 Battery Day that self-driving electric vehicles priced at $25,000 will be possible by 2023.
Although rumors of the lower-priced model have popped up from time to time over the past few years, it has never become a reality.
For an electric vehicle with a range of no less than 400 kilometers and a mainstream smart driving suite, material costs are extremely difficult to get below RMB 150,000 ($25,000), the 36kr report said, citing an engineer from a local car company.
Depending on the factory's construction schedule, mass production of Tesla's $25,000 model may not come soon, at least more than a year away, the report said, citing a source.
If Tesla can bring the price of its electric vehicles down to slightly more than RMB 100,000, not only will it gain significant market share for itself, but it will also be a huge push for the maturation of the industry chain, an industry source said, adding that this is when the smart electric vehicle industry will see drastic changes.
Tesla delivered 422,875 units worldwide in the first quarter, up 36.39 percent from 310,048 units in the same period last year and up 4.34 percent from 405,278 units delivered in the fourth quarter, according to its announcement on April 2.
Tesla Model 3 and Model Y delivered 412,180 units worldwide in the quarter, and Model S and Model X were 10,695 units.
In China, Tesla has a factory in Shanghai that produces the Model 3 and Model Y. It is the largest Tesla factory in the world, with an annual capacity of about 1.1 million units per year.
Tesla does not reveal its deliveries in China, although the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) publishes these numbers every month.
Tesla's deliveries in China in January and February were 26,843 and 33,923, respectively, and its Shanghai plant exported 39,208 and 40,479 units in the two months, according to the CPCA. March figures are expected to be available in the next few days.
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