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China Electric eMobility eV Fisker Industry News

US EV startup Fisker plans to open delivery center in China this year

"I believe we can get production up and running in China as early as next year, potentially adding capacity of 75,000 Fisker Oceans annually," Fisker CEO said.

(Image credit: Fisker)

Fisker (NYSE: FSR) plans to open a delivery center in China this year, becoming the next US electric vehicle (EV) startup to target the Chinese market after Lucid Motors (NASDAQ: LCID).

Fisker plans to open a delivery center in China in 2023 and start delivering the Fisker Ocean SUV in the first quarter of 2024, the company said in a June 9 press release.

Fisker's leadership team recently visited China and met with officials and business leaders in Shanghai to discuss cooperation and opportunities in the region, according to the release.

The conversations focused on the automotive supply chain, logistics, warehousing and future production development, Fisker said. The company opened its China office in 2022, according to the release.

"We expect China to be an important growth market for EVs in the future and believe our vehicles will be very appealing. That is why we established an office there and intend to open a delivery center this year," said Henrik Fisker, Fisker's chairman and CEO.

"I believe we can get production up and running in China as early as next year, potentially adding capacity of 75,000 Fisker Oceans annually," he added.

Interestingly, local media outlet Jiemian reported on June 7 that Zhu Jiang, who previously served as an executive at (NYSE: NIO), Ford (NYSE: F) and Auto, the car-making arm of Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU), has joined Lucid to head up its China operations.

Lucid is starting to prepare for its entry into the Chinese market, Zhu told the outlet.

China is the world's largest EV market, with the segment seeing explosive growth over the past two to three years.

Global EV sales are largely driven by China, with 56 percent of total EV sales in the first quarter coming from the Chinese market, market research firm Counterpoint Research said in a June 8 report.

In China, the premium and affordable luxury segment is growing faster than the general segment, Daniel Foa, Fisker's China board member, said at the company's annual shareholders meeting on June 6.

Fisker fits right into that segment with its unique history, features and design, Foa said.

The company recently announced that deliveries of its first production model, the Fisker Ocean all-electric SUV, will begin in the US on June 23. It starts at $37,499 for the Sport interior trim level.

Notably, Chinese power battery giant is a supplier to Fisker.

On November 2, 2021, Fisker announced it signed an agreement with CATL, which will supply batteries for the Ocean SUV.

CATL will provide Fisker with more than 5 GWh of initial capacity per year from 2023 to 2025, according to a previous statement.

Lucid prepares for China entry, hires ex-NIO, Ford exec Zhu Jiang

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China Electric eMobility eV Ford Industry News Mustang Mach-E Tesla

Ford scaling back ambitions for Mustang Mach-E in China amid poor sales

The Mustang Mach-E team will be integrated back into Ford China and the separate entity running the project will be written off in the future, according to local media.

(Image credit: Ford Mustang Mach-E Weibo)

Ford once had high hopes for the Mustang Mach-E's performance in China and set up a separate entity to run the line.

Now, after a long period of weak sales, the US auto giant is reportedly scaling back its ambitions for the program.

Ford China is recently undergoing an organizational restructuring that will see the Mustang Mach-E team integrated back into Ford China and the separate entity that runs the program written off in the future, local media outlet Jiemian said today, citing several sources familiar with the matter.

The organizational restructuring will involve more than 2,000 employees and is expected to be completed in July, according to the report.

Because Mustang Mach-E sales are so poor, the separate company will have trouble taking on losses for long, a person familiar with the matter said.

The integration of the team does not mean the Mustang Mach-E will be withdrawn from China, and the model will continue to be produced by Changan Ford, Ford's joint venture in China, according to the report.

Ford launched the Mustang Mach-E in China in April 2021, with the first deliveries coming on December 26 of the same year.

Zhu Jiang, then head of the program, joined Ford China in June 2020 and was responsible for Mach-E-related operations and management of marketing, PR, sales, service and customer experience.

Zhu joined as vice president of user development in March 2017 and left in March 2020.

In November 2021, Zhu left Ford to join Auto, Baidu's car-building arm, and earlier today, Jiemian reported that Zhu had left Jidu to join Lucid Motors.

Ford had high hopes for the Mustang Mach-E, setting up a company called Ford Electric Mach Technologies, or FMeT for short, in September 2022.

It was the first independent company in the Chinese market to be established by a foreign auto brand with a deep focus on the development and operation of smart electric vehicles to fully accelerate electrification and intelligence development, Ford said at the time.

Ford will build on its strong R&D capabilities to create products that meet the needs of Chinese consumers, it said.

But Mustang Mach-E sales in China have been weak, well below those of China's major electric vehicle startups.

Mustang Mach-E sales peaked at 1,535 units last December and then declined, selling just 332 units in April, less than a fraction of rival 's Model Y, Jiemian's report said.

Notably, last December's sales peak appears to have been driven by incentives introduced by Ford.

On October 24, 2022, Tesla lowered the prices of the entire Model 3 and Model Y lineup in China, with the entry-level, rear-wheel-drive Model Y's subsidized starting price dropping to RMB 288,900 ($40,610), down from the previous 316,900.

A few days later, on October 31, Ford announced a price cut for the entire Mustang Mach-E lineup in China, with the subsidized starting price dropping from RMB 275,900 to RMB 249,900.

China's purchase subsidies for NEVs expired at the end of 2022 and had not been renewed.

($1 = RMB 7.1140)

Ford offers up to $5,740 discount on Mustang Mach-E in China

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China Electric eMobility eV Industry News Lucid Lucid Team Tesla

Lucid prepares for China entry, hires ex-NIO, Ford exec Zhu Jiang

Zhu Jiang, a former executive at , Ford and Auto, has joined Lucid to head up its China operations, and he said Lucid is starting to prepare for its entry into the country.

(Image credit: Lucid Motors)

US electric vehicle (EV) startup Lucid Motors (NASDAQ: LCID) has hired an auto industry veteran in China, as it began hiring for a slew of positions late last year.

Zhu Jiang, who previously served in executive roles at NIO (NYSE: NIO), Ford (NYSE: F) and Jidu Auto, the car-making arm of Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU), has joined Lucid to head up its China operations, local media outlet Jiemian reported on June 7.

Lucid is just starting to prepare for its entry into the Chinese market, Zhu told the outlet.

Since April, Zhu has been sharing information about Lucid in the status of his personal WeChat account, according to the report.

Lucid said on May 31 that it was raising about $3 billion through a new stock offering, most of which came from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), which controls it.

The financing is aimed at allowing Lucid to accelerate bringing state-of-the-art EV technology and product experiences to users across the industry and around the world, and China is looking forward to it, Zhu said recently, according to Jiemian.

Zhu is a Chinese automotive industry veteran who joined BMW Brilliance in 2003 to head marketing activities and served as Mini brand director from November 2008 to 2012.

He left BMW to join Lexus in 2013 and helped the automaker achieve its first 100,000-vehicle annual sales in China in 2016.

Zhu joined NIO in 2017 as vice president of user development.

He left NIO in the first half of 2020 and joined Ford China on June 1, 2020, as chief operating officer of the EV business unit.

During his time at Ford, he led the team through the production and launch of Ford's first all-electric vehicle, the Mustang Mach-E, in China.

In November 2021, Zhu joined Jidu as vice president and head of user development and operations. Jidu was officially launched on March 2, 2021 and the first model has been unveiled but has not yet hit the market.

Lucid was co-founded in 2007 by Bernard Tse, former vice president and director of , and Sam Weng, a former Oracle executive. In December 2016, Lucid's first production car, the Lucid Air, was launched.

Lucid is targeting the high-end luxury EV market, with the Lucid Air starting at a current price of $87,400.

In July 2021, Lucid went public on NASDAQ through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) and currently has a market cap of $14.5 billion.

In November 2021, Lucid said in its first earnings report after listing that it planned to enter the Chinese market in 2023.

The company's CEO, Peter Rawlinson, said in a CNBC interview at the time that Lucid will build a factory in China by "mid-decade".

In December 2022, Lucid's website opened up 14 jobs in China, all of them in Shanghai, in areas including hardware engineering, supply chain, retail, logistics, digital, and legal.

Three of the 14 jobs were related to localization, implying that Lucid was launching preparations to enter China at that time.

US EV startup Lucid hiring for 14 jobs in China

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China Electric eMobility eV Nio NIO GPT NOMI Trademarks

NIO applies for GPT-related trademarks in China

With ChatGPT becoming a hot topic around the world, many Chinese tech giants have announced their progress in the field.  |  US | NIO HK | NIO SG

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NIO (NYSE: NIO) is filing for several GPT-related trademarks in China, possibly in preparation for making its virtual voice assistant NOMI smarter.

The Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker filed five GPT-related trademark applications on May 15, and their classifications involve communication services, scientific instruments, construction, and social services.

These trademarks include a NIO GPT, two NOMI GPTs, and two Knowme GPTs.

GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer), essentially solves for the probability of the next word occurring, sampling and generating a word from a probability distribution with each call.

With ChatGPT becoming a hot topic around the world, many Chinese tech giants have announced their progress in this field.

Auto, the car-making arm of Baidu, announced on February 14 that it will leverage Baidu's ChatGPT-like product ERNIE Bot to create a large-model AI interaction experience for smart car scenarios, thereby supporting natural communication for its robocars.

Great Wall Motor-backed Chinese startup Haomo.AI Technology officially launched DriveGPT on April 11, saying it is the first generative large model for autonomous driving that will reshape the technological path to automotive intelligence.

Earlier this month, NIO's local counterpart (NASDAQ: LI) filed a trademark application for MindGPT in China.

In 2017, NIO released the first-generation ES8, and its in-car voice assistant NOMI was announced at the time.

NOMI is derived from the harmonic sound of Know Me in English. If you have seen the science fiction movie "Her", NOMI is the NIO version of "Her".

NOMI is the voice assistant in the car, but NIO seems to expect more from it than that, letting it occupy the most central position in the front of the cockpit.

What is NOMI? Here's everything you need to know

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