China EVs & More

Episode #51 - Great Wall Brazilian Investment, Stellantis' Premature Announcement, GM's BIG US Investment

February 04, 2022 Tu Le & Lei Xing
China EVs & More
Episode #51 - Great Wall Brazilian Investment, Stellantis' Premature Announcement, GM's BIG US Investment
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Tu & Lei kick off the pod with a brief overview of their chat with Aiways EVP - Alex Klose, Head of Overseas Operations, for Episode #2 of China EVs & More MAX.

Lei and Tu unpack the >$1B Great Wall Motors investment in Brazil to build hybrids and BEVs. Tu transitions this into a broader conversation about the three independent Chinese companies and how they seem to be even more ambitious than their SOE peers/brothers and how they think the current JVs will evolve and who will stand pat with their stakes in the JVS and JV partners.

Stellantis seems to be premature on their increased investment in the Stellantis GAC joint venture and points back to the history of challenges that the JV has had and how it’s created opportunities for Chinese domestic automakers, Great Wall in particular. 

Tu excitedly transitions the conversation over to the $7B GM investment in Michigan facilities and talks about his 1st job experience working at GM after graduating from university. 

Tu & Lei close out the pod talking Tesla’s earnings call this week, specifically how very little was said about China operations. 

Tu Le:
Hi all and welcome to China EVs & More where my co-host Lei Xing and I will go over the week's most important news oming out of the China EV, AV, and mobility sectors. We will open the room up at around the 40 minute mark to anyone who's keen to ask us any questions. We have one rule, although we appreciate rigorous debate, let's all be considerate and respectful to each other. What Lei and I discuss today is based on our opinions and should not be taken as investment advice. Even if it sounds like investment advice, it isn't. We encourage those who enjoy this room to connect with us on LinkedIn, get the word out to your friends and tune in again in two weeks. Because we are taking a Chinese New Year holiday off.

My name is Tu Le and I am the managing director at Sinoauto Insights, a Beijing-based consultancy that helps organizations bring innovative and tech-focused products and services to the transportation and mobility sectors. I write a free weekly newsletter that we pull many of our discussion topics from. You can sign up for it at sinoautoinsights.com, which I encourage you all to do. Lei, happy New Year, Xin Nian Kuai Le! Can you introduce yourself, please?

Lei Xing:
Good evening from my side, my name is Lei Xing, and I am the former chief editor of China Auto Review, which published newsletters and the only tabloid magazine in English focused exclusively on the Chinese auto market. Pre-pandemic, I spent pretty much 20 years on the ground in China covering the industry. Since the pandemic, I've been in the U.S. as an independent analyst/consultant looking afar and still trying to keep tabs on the rapidly evolving market.

Tu Le:
Our expertise has been pulled back and forth now, China, U.S., Europe, so it's pretty global.

Lei Xing:
This is Episode #51, our last episode in the Year of the Ox. So happy New Year of the Tiger again to everyone. I have a long list of my headlines today. I think this is the longest that we've ever had on this show. It's been a busy week in the China EV, AV, and mobility space, globally as well. So it's probably going to take me a minute or two to go through these. So here I go:

Latest news out of today: Great Wall Motor plans to invest $1.86 billion over the next 10 years in Brazil to build a plant there to produce exclusively hybrid and electric vehicles, roughly 40% of the investment will be made by 2025, and the other by 2032.

Stellantis Group announces plans to increase its shareholding in its joint venture with GAC Group from 50% to 75%, but then GAC Group came out with a statement that basically said, not so fast!

Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, we haven’t heard from them for awhile, have we, is back with a vengeance, announcing the 2030 Roadmap: 23 billion Euros invested over the next 5 years, 35 new EVs from 5 common platforms, and 220 GWh of battery capacity.

Mercedes-Benz announcement investment into Taiwan’s ProLogium and co-development of solid-state batteries for next-gen vehicles, this comes just a few weeks after the Factorial Energy investment.

Tu Le:
Mitigating risk I guess, huh?

Lei Xing:
Tesla’s big earnings beat for Q4 and 2021, Elon shocks the world again by saying FSD is coming this year for the 9th time and that “he would be shocked if FSD does not achieve safety better than a human driver this year.”

Bentley announces the “5-in-5” BEV plan starting with first BEV in late 2025 and one each year thereafter, and 2.5 billion pounds of investment in the UK over the next 10 years. 

Jidu raises nearly $400 Million in Series A financing from parent companies Geely & Baidu.

BYD was the fastest growing automotive brand in 2021 and the fifth, I think, fastest growing brand overall according to Brand Finance’s Brand Global 500 2022 rankings released earlier this week. BYD also released the Type A battery electric school bus here in the U.S. with a range of 140 miles. And it also beat 30 other EVs in the world’s biggest Winter EV range test that was conducted two days ago under Norwegian conditions, just slightly beating out the Model Y and Porsche Taycan. 

GM’s $7 billion investment in Michigan, hiring 8,000 tech jobs in 2022, Mary Barra meets the President and takes her first ride in the Cruise driverless car in San Francisco.

Tu Le:
That’s a bit surprising that was her first ride, to be honest. 

Lei Xing:
40 millionth F Series truck, and that’s 10% of the 400 million vehicles Ford has produced since its inception in 1903. CEO Jim Farley gave a big nod to NIO, saying in an interview on TV that “the companies that I think about that I admire because of their commitment – and frankly, the hard work they did to earn their reputation - are companies like NIO and Tesla.”

We welcome ZEEKR into the 10K cumulative EV production club.

Much earlier in the week, Baoneng Motor announces the GX5 and the Qoros 6.

Tu Le:
I don’t seen any of them (Qoros) driving around in Beijing.

Lei Xing:
Roborock, the Chinese vaccum company part of the Xiaomi ecosystem got sucked into EV assembly, reportedly forming a company called Rock Motors. The tagline is very interesting for Roborock. 

Tu Le:
It’s so awesome.

Lei Xing:
It’s “We make vacuums that suck, but don’t suck.” I certainly hope they don’t make an EV that suck. 

Geely and Lifan Technology forms new Chongqing Livan Automotive Tech Co., Ltd. to produce and develop battery swappable EVs.

JMC & Ford establishes new JV to run the passenger vehicle business of JMC, which by the way Ford owns roughly a third of shares.

Tu Le:
I did not hear that one.

Lei Xing:
VW and Bosch collaborate on both battery cell manufacturing and AV software development.

And get this, Huawei’s former AV head Su Jing who made headlines by saying Tesla kills people, reportedly joins VW China’s AV business as CTO. Reportedly.

So that's full of headline news, but I guess we should talk about our recent conversation with Dr. Alexander Klose, EVP of Overseas Operations at AIWAYS. This was our MAX Series Episode #2, following our first guest Henrik Fisker. This was an interesting conversation for a Chinese smart EV startup that’s having more success in Europe than in China.

Tu Le:
It's one of those things where you don't know what to expect coming in, but very candid, talked about his challenges over the last 2 years because of the pandemic, not to mention their aggressive moves into 10, now going to be 11 countries in the 2-year span. So if you look at the sales numbers, you kind of wonder, but then you think about all the challenges he and his team had to endure, get over the hump in order to enter these markets, you're kind of amazed that they were able to successfully do that, right? And so I believe that he's going to be providing a blueprint for some of these other China EV Inc. companies entering Europe, because they were the pioneers that created that path.

Now, these other companies are going to all alternate and take different paths, but they're the first, ten countries, pretty impressive.

Lei Xing:
And how they did it during the pandemic. Selecting the right partners, did a few stunts and just initially picking that French island of Corsica to put a fleet of vehicles for rental for people who go there for vacation, right? Even though during the pandemic, I think a lot of French people still went over there and there you had sort of a first taste of a Chinese EV, and I think the quality, the interior, surprised a lot of people for how much they sell, right? And then it just snowballed. Though the volumes are still small, less than 3,000 units, but it's already significant, right? If you compare the other ones.

Tu Le:
We have to remember that they had, they were looking to raise money, and so they were able to do that this month? Was it this month that they made an announcement, made some management changes.

Lei Xing:
It was earlier this month. So a former executive that was with NIO is now their new CEO.

Tu Le:
So they have investment, which is important for international expansion and growth in the domestic Chinese market. And then number two, they have another product coming online. It's been delayed a little bit, but that doesn't surprise me because most auto makers’ products at least in the EV space at least has been delayed, see Tesla for the number one example. But investment, a fresh injection of capital and another product. I think that 3,000 number is going to increase significantly in 2022. And I do have to say, I thought it was funny, I had to chuckle when he, I I’ll say it, he gave you the smack down when you said there's 10,000 forecasted for 2022. And he's like, where did you get that number? So I was happy that he was very nice and aggressive about that.

Lei Xing:
I’ll be honest with you. I think 10,000 is a stretch, I still think it's a stretch. Because that's like 5X or 6X of what they did last year. But the most interesting thing is, AIWAYS in many of the Chinese press has been portrayed as rather negative, because they're not doing well in China. So that was one of the questions I asked and he responded saying that they do need to balance a little bit, because as a Chinese company, a Chinese brand, you need to be successful in the three markets to be a global brand: China, Europe and the U.S.. So he did say eventually the U.S. market, I think that's the first time that's been said, so very interesting.

Tu Le:
It's important to remember that if they get to 10,000 or even more than 10,000, every single one of those has to be imported. So it increases the degree of difficulty, especially because they're selling into so many markets. There's different customs, there's different logistics issues that they have to deal with. 

Lei Xing:
They just shipped 78 U5s to Israel last week. So that's their 11th market.

Tu Le:
Israel is one of their better foreign markets.

Lei Xing:
 Israel is not Europe, right? Is it Europe? It is Europe.

Tu Le:
It's not. 

Lei Xing:
We can put it as Eurasia.
So that was our MAX #2, and just a little bit of teaser. We already recorded Max Episode #3.

Tu Le:
Very entertaining conversation.

Lei Xing:
Very entertaining. We can't say who it is yet, but it's a Chinese AV startup.

Tu Le:
Very aggressive Chinese AV startup who made some bold announcements over the last, just a couple months.

Lei Xing:
We still have another couple on tap that we will record probably after the Chinese New Year. So look forward to these our MAX episodes. We have more these. 

So back to all the headlines, I think maybe we talk Great Wall Motor a little bit.

Tu Le:
Sounds good.

Lei Xing:
I think this episode we don't have, let's say a major topic, it’s just our kind of the last episode of the Year of the Ox. We just go light and easy and just talk about.

Tu Le:
We may even open the room up a little early.

Lei Xing:
So Great Wall Motor. This just came out today. Supposedly, it's the Mercedes or Daimler plant? 

Tu Le:
Just outside of Sao Paulo.

Lei Xing:
And it looks like it’s going to have an annual production capacity of 100,000 units and they will only produce hybrid and EVs, I’m not exactly sure whether it's plug-in hybrids or BEVs, but their plan is to launch 10 models by 2025. I think they will import first before the end of this year and produce at the second half of 2023. So that's the most recent info that I have.

Tu Le:
I’m assuming they got some assurances from the Brazilian government that they're going to be supported via investment and infrastructure and upgrading the grid to make sure that when these vehicles get plugged in, they're going to be safe. And enough of a charging infrastructure to build that sales volume up.

Lei Xing:
And they also have to confront the currency issue. I think it's very volatile, I believe, but they do have a lot of friendly pals like, Chery is there, I think a lot of Chinese friends are there already.

Tu Le:
Remember that Brazil is a few hundred million people, too. So it's not a small country. It's a pretty significant, I think one of the top ten countries in the world like population wise. So we will find that tou.

Lei Xing:
But this is a huge investment. $1.86 billion, so it's what, 10 billion, what's the currency?

Tu Le:
Real.

Lei Xing:
Brazilian real. So I think I haven't seen the Chinese official statement come out yet, but probably soon. So this is huge investment. But it's part of the Great Wall Motor’s, I mean they're huge. They have a plant in Russia, and they're all over the world. They're in Thailand, they are in India.

Tu Le:
They had put a bid on that factory in Spain, outside of Barcelona.

Lei Xing:
But that's still, I don't know whether that's off or?

Tu Le:
I haven't heard anything about it. We will follow up and try to figure out what. I don't know if it's a Spanish government hold up or if it's something else that's holding it up. So Great Wall and I think how I'm looking at this Lei, is that the three, quote unquote, independent non-SOE Chinese automakers are being extremely aggressive, the other two being Geely and BYD. So maybe that is because they don't have this domestic machine that they need to manage from an SOE standpoint, I don't know. It just seems like those three are really in the headlines quite often, Great Wall with making investments, and then Geely and BYD just pushing into foreign markets. Geely, pushing into different types of partnerships, technology partnerships, manufacturing partnerships. I don't see that subsiding at all.

Lei Xing:
And it so happens that these three are not the state owned companies. They're listed but they're the private companies that now are leading the way sort of.

Tu Le:
You could say they're not state owned, but they get a lot of local help from their local provincial governments. So to me, it's like a pseudo, it's not categorically a state owned, but kind of sort of. 

So let's talk Stellantis.

Lei Xing:
Yes, so I think it's worth a mention and go into a little bit in detail. So Stellantis, this is a classic case where the Chinese and the foreign partner, they're not in tune. When you have one side of it saying that we already agreed, and we announce this plan, then the other side comes out and saying, we deeply regret you saying that, then then you look at their performance, the JV performance, then you're (like), okay, that's why they're doing so bad. They're the same as sleeping on the same bed, dreaming different dreams. 

Tu Le:
This goes back a long time because it was FCA first, right? 

Lei Xing:
It was Fiat.

Tu Le:
Fiat, and then FCA, and then the tragedy of Sergio dying, which there was already a bit of uncertainty between that joint venture. And then Sergio Marchionne passing away that complicated or didn't help things. And then Stellantis acquires them. And for that period of time, there was also a lack of investment. There's also a lack of new products. So currently Jeep which is one of the biggest joint ventures between the two companies, the only clean energy vehicle is a hybrid Jeep. Jeep was super popular among Chinese consumers because like the U.S., there's this amazing following for Jeep Wranglers and Jeep products, and they kind of lost that momentum, and it seems that Great Wall has really, really filled that void. They filled that void, right?

Lei Xing:
Yeah, exactly. The macho, the Tanks, and Haval, and WEY SUVs, and just in general, I think their product pipeline just didn't have competitive offerings. And I think this this a case where I think for GAC group, I actually think this is a win-win situation, even though the JV is not doing good in the sense that GAC group, I think they can care less about maybe this joint venture, because they'll be, look at, we have our Trumpchi, we have our GAC AION brands that are doing fantastic. And the JV now sells what, 10,000 or 20,000 units a year at most, and whereas Stellantis they want more freedom right to cooperate and they get that.

So then it's going to be market competition. So even if Stellantis gets 100% of ownership, is it going work out? I don't know. Because the competition now is no longer the JVs having those competitive advantages, like before. So I think GAC Group’s statement is also based on disclosure rules. Because GAC Group is also listed. So the timing of this, when this can be announced, I think is a bit different so they were a little bit irked.

Tu Le:
But it's simple. It's to your point. It's an indication of the relationship. One hand, not speaking to the other, and then number two, let me say this is: this is also déjà vu between Ford and Chang’an a little bit. Because it's well known that Ford and Chang’an also have a challenging joint venture relationship. And Ford starved the joint venture with product. And so Ford was at over a million unit sales just 5 or 6 years ago, down to less than half a million. And now they've turned the corner. They brought into China CEO Anning Chen, and it looks like at least design wise anyways, and product wise, they are back on the upslope. So do you think that we'll see that with Stellantis as well?

Lei Xing:
Ford and Stellantis are in completely different directions, right? So Ford wasn't doing well, but at least they are progressing ahead, whereas Stellantis they're at most stuck in the same place, if not further back. So I think part of the reasons, obviously, we aid this in one of the earlier episodes is that China for Stellantis Group has been on the back burner for well over a year because of this merger going on. They first had to figure that out. Then just Stellantis, all of their brands, at least the one that are in the joint ventures, FCA is basically Jeep, nothing else. The other side of it which I was going to talk about is the Dongfeng, the Dongfeng Peugeot Citroën or DPCA and I just learned today that something similar would be happening at that joint venture with Dongfeng, but the thing is they have two brands, Citroën and Peugeot, right?

So what I’ve heard is from my sources close to this is the two brands, they kind of have the two divisions. So what's going to happen is that Citroën is going to be given to the Chinese partner Dongfeng, meaning that they'll operate as a majority joint venture with Chinese having the majority. And Peugeot is going to be given back to Stellantis were Stellantis will have a majority say. I think this will be announced when they announce the global strategy on March 1. But this is what I’ve heard, so do look for announcements in that regard. And this is exactly what we talked about, the opening of the market, now you're seeing these actions taking place. And the actions that are being made are these foreign companies that are not as successful, but think that if they can have the majority, they have more freedom and can move faster. I don't know about that. But whereas, let's say a Volkswagen, I think they're okay. I don't think they're the ones that are going to be aggressive to say I’m going to buy shares from SAIC or FAW because those JVs are doing okay. An Stellantis, they're the latest or the farthest back of the pack in terms of EV portfolio in China or anywhere else in the world, not counting the European markets.

Tu Le:
The Citroën, Peugeot and Jeep, they just don't do that well in China full stop. And unfortunately, it takes desperation before they make drastic moves typically in the auto industry. Because if the machine is running and it's running well, nobody wants to change anything. That's what you're seeing with Volkswagen, this huge struggle, because they've been doing so well in the China market. And now they're struggling to pivot because the vested interests were getting promoted, were getting bonuses because they're printing money in the China market, but it'll be interesting to see whether or not these three brands, I think Jeep has some possibilities because Jeep is going to have new products. I don't know as much about Peugeot or Citroën.

Lei Xing:
I think the Jeep branding in China, I feel like it's been deteriorated a bit over the last few years, whereas let's say Citroën, what's been happening with Citroën and Peugeot lately is at least if you see in the Chinese press that Citroën is trying to push hard for the C5X, it’s called the Fan Er Sai C5X in Chinese, but you don't hear much about Peugeot. 

Tu Le:
Nothing.

Lei Xing:
Nothing. This is a tell-tale sign of what's going on of what I said, pulling back Peugeot and making more decisions back a headquarters, where Citroën is going to be pushed more aggressively. And still no EVs yet.

Tu Le:
And we shared this story in a prior pod that GAC was holding off on changing the joint venture name from FCA to Stellantis, because they were waiting on Tavares to make assurances that he was going to invest in the joint venture. So I don't even know if the joint venture has changed its name to GAC Stellantis yet, it still might be GAC FCA but that was kind of sort of that it epitomizes the relationship that they have, like there's no trust.

Lei Xing:
He said, she said.

Tu Le:
Exactly. I do want to bring up the GM thing because being the Detroit kid or Pontiac kid more specifically my first job, so I went to Michigan State University which is in East Lansing. The $7 billion announcement includes investment in the Orion Assembly Plant and the Lansing facilities. So when I was going to school there, I believe they were building Cadillacs in Lansing. And my first job after graduating from Michigan State was working at the Orion Assembly Plant. We built five different cars, the Buick LeSabre, the Oldsmobile Aurora, the Buick Park Avenue, the Buick Riviera and one more I forget. Effectively, we built 17 cars because each of those had two or three different trim lines, LX and EX or whatever. 

This thing, this Orion Assembly Plant is huge. And at the time I worked at it, it was one of the worst UAW plants, because a few factories within 120 miles had recently been closed. And so some of those factory employees, in order to keep their jobs at GM they were transferred to the Orion Assembly Plant. And so it was eye opening my first job, working at an assembly plant. I was this 22-year-old kid wearing my khakis and my white shirt, walking out to the plant floor with a clipboard and the UAW guys when they see this snot-nose kid coming out with the clipboard, they think industrial engineer and to them an industrial engineer is more work with less people. And so they were not willing to help me at all with anything. And so I worked in the material office, and we were responsible for making sure that parts, it was a just-in-time environment. So every part every day, most of the parts were shipped on a daily basis, and then the seat factory was within 5 miles. And so those came every hour. And so great experience. And to see that it’s Factory Zero now building Bolts, and will build the new Chevy sSilverado EV. It's just you know it makes me smile because I grew up 15 or 20 minutes from that facility. It was my first job. And God bless them because Michigan lost out on that $12 billion, $11 billion investment from Ford, which Tennessee got, so I think it's awesome. And I do have to say that Elon tweeted that he wasn't very happy that Mary got to meet with Biden and stuff, which is fari.

Lei Xing:
The T and the A and the ESL in between you know.

Tu Le:
But for him to, he got a lot of help from the U.S. government. Okay, so it's not, they might be giving him less help than a GM and a Ford today, but he had that credit for the longest time, and he took full advantage of it.

Lei Xing:
I think the other narrative is in terms of who's leading, there's a lot of debate. So what GM deliver 26 EVs in December. And you look at all these announcements, they won't materialize until mid-decade. I think a lot of people are still questioning whether GM, including Ford, can catch up? In the Tesla earnings call, they're expecting at least 50% growth. So by the time, if they continue with that, by the time 2025 rolls around Tesla is supposed to be doing 3.5 million a year globally and where will GM and Ford be?

Tu Le:
Technically Tesla by 2030 is supposed to be building 20 million cars a year.

Lei Xing:
Those are still questions, but it's such far ahead and the lead I think a lot of people are questioning. But at the same time, like if I was you Tu, I'd be rooting for GM and Ford.

Tu Le:
I just love this. I just love the competition.

Lei Xing:
And so I don't know who said this. It's not going to be winner take all. I don't think it’s winner take all. So the recent mishaps that GM’s had with the Volt, and Bolt, they're all failures pretty much. I hear the Bolt is going to be discontinued. These are scars.

Tu Le:
Honestly though, I go all the way back to Rick Wagoner, or even before that, who's the CEO, was it Jack (Smit) something?

Lei Xing: 
Skateboard. Autonomy. 

Tu Le:
But Mary, I like what she's doing, I really do, and I like what Jim's doing. And if GM and Ford can push Tesla, we're all going to be better for it I think, and let's talk about Tesla for a second because the earnings report, I think we both kind of pointed to it they didn't, there wasn't really any mention of China, which was 51% of the production.

Lei Xing:
Except the part about their gross margins, and one of the factors that Zach, the CFO he mentioned was Shanghai capacity and cost reductions and being able to ship out of Shanghai. The logistics cost. Other than that not much, just no new products.

Tu Le:
Remember that they're the only automotive company in China that has complete control of operations. They decide everything which is so big for them, because of these cost reductions. So they don't need to wait on decisions. They can immediately make decisions and then execute on them. So China is such an important piece to Tesla’s strength, strategy, growth, and operation. So for them to not really talk about it for more than a couple minutes is a bit surprising, but it's not surprising. But I'm surprised more people or media didn't really, really talk about it. And this is my complaint about these western analysts. They just don't have a clue about what's going on here and rather than try to get educated, they just let it go.

Lei Xing:
I think the significance of Tesla China is maybe often underestimated to an extent, at least, I guess, over here from the western press.

Tu Le:
Yeah, because they all think that the United States is the center of the world, and Europe is the center of the world for the European media. But if we're talking Tesla, it has to be a global conversation. 

Lei Xing:
Sure. And this year, at least in the first half of this year, it looks like Shanghai will still play a significant role, depending on Berlin. And then like here in the U.S., if Giga Texas ramps, then I guess it's supposed to be for the eastern 2/3 of the U.S., supposed to alleviate some of the demand problems. But with only two vehicles, I think it's still the significance is only with the 3 and the Y that they can, without the 4680, without new models, that they can still sustain. And you look at their inventory days, I think the latest quarter was 4 days.

Tu Le:
Just to give folks an example. In the past, traditional automakers in the U.S. would say 40 to 60 days worth of inventory. We're talking cars now. We're talking 30 day or 40 days worth of inventory was healthy. So they're getting fed hand to mouth from a production standpoint. That means that they can't build ahead enough to build safety stock, to build inventory, so that if there was any shutdowns or any supply issues, they could have time to remedy them, because the inventory creates that buffer. If a supplier doesn't ship apart, the plant shuts down for 3 days, they have 30 days of inventory to fix that before product doesn't get manufactured or product doesn't ship.

So when you say 4 days that's effectively zero inventory, and if Tesla is complaining about or warning about supply chain issues, you know there's a high likelihood, and I'm just going to say it, that maybe F-150 gets delayed, maybe Hummer gets delayed, these super important EVs, because Ford and GM do not want to ship and then a week later shut the factory down. So they're going to have to reconcile launching on time, because there's quality issues, there is reliability issues, there is engineering and manufacturing issues. And then let's say you get past all of thar, and then your suppliers like we can't build and ship you to the production schedule that you sent us. So it's better to produce something, but if it's a stop and start, especially for a new product, man, you could lose momentum and never gain it back.

I'm talking a little bit at a higher level, but hopefully you guys aren't confused. Hopefully it's pretty straightforward what I'm saying.

Lei Xing:
Yeah, and the other factor is the chip shortage, anyways, makes it a situation where you're waiting for parts and you produce it, then the demand has already backed up. Then that's probably also reason why the low inventories.

Tu Le:
And that's a good Segway, Lei, because BYD semiconductor said that they're going to go public.

Lei Xing:
I think they received what the approval or something from China..

Tu Le:
The Chinext?

Lei Xing:
Yeah, good for them. 

Tu Le:
I wonder what Taylor thinks about.

Lei Xing:
And deservedly so that they were the fastest growing automotive brand and the 5th fastest growing brand overall, according to that Brand Finance rankings, I think they definitely deserves it.

Tu Le:
They keep on chugging along man, they keep on chugging along.

That brings us to the end of this week’s show. Lei and I thank you for tuning in. My name is Tu Le and you can find me on Twitter at @sinoautoinsight. You can find Lei on Twitter @leixing77.  If you wouldn't mind rating and reviewing us on Apple podcast, Spotify, or wherever you grab your podcasts from, we'd appreciate that as well. Even better if you enjoy the show, please tell your friends about it. Please join us again next week as we track down all the latest news on China EVs and More!

 

Lei's longest headlines ever
Quick recap of MAX #2 with Alex Klose, EVP Overseas Operations of AIWAYS
Great Wall Motor's Brazilian investment
Stellantis irks partner GAC Group in JV equity share increase announcement
GM's big $7 billion investment in Michigan
Tesla Q4 & 2021 earnings
BYD semiconductor listing