CHINA: BYD Studies Canada Plant, Mercedes Weighs Geely Tie-Up and VW ID.Unyx 8 Production Begins | 16 Mar 2026

Capital One's tech team isn't just talking about multi-agentic AI. They already deployed

one. It's called chat-concierge and it's simplifying car shopping using self-reflection

and layered reasoning with live API checks. It doesn't just help buyers find a car they

love. It helps schedule a test drive, get pre-approved for financing, and estimate

trading value. Advanced, intuitive, and deployed. That's how they stack. That's technology

to find out about the technology of the tech team.

It's exciting to know the tech team isn't just talking about multi-agentic AI. They

already deployed one. It's called chat-concierge. It's simplifying car shopping using self-reflection

and layered reasoning with live API checks. It doesn't just help buyers find a car they

love. It helps schedule a test drive, get pre-approved for financing, and estimate

That's how they stack. That's technology at Capital One.

That's how they stack, that's how they stack.

Lee ruled out a joint venture model and said the approach does not fit with BYD.

And that puts BYD at odds with Ottawa, the Canadian government wants Chinese car makers to use

joint ventures with local partners as a condition of the investment exactly what China did a

couple of decades ago. The timing matters, Canada changed its policy on Chinese EVs in January

exempting 49,000 Chinese built EVs a year, from 100% tariffs down to 6.1%, BYD not only looking

at Greenfield investment though. Lee said the company is also reviewing legacy automaker assets

and acquisition targets. Well, BYD is not messing around. Mercedes-Benz are next in the news today,

holding talks about deepening cooperation with China's Glee as it tries to strengthen

vehicle development in China. The discussions remain at an early stage. They focus on possible

cooperation for models that come after the current generation of Mercedes-Benz vehicles.

People familiar with the matter said greater reliance on Glee would help Mercedes cut

development times in China and lower costs. That matters because domestic brands in China are

pulling ahead on speed and pricing. Mercedes have not commented on the talks. A company spokesperson

said Mercedes is, I quote, continually reviewing ways to make research and development faster,

better and more efficient both in China and globally. A spokesperson for Glee declined to make

a comment on the record. The logic fits a wider pattern where Volkswagen Group partner

with X-Pung to improve its competitiveness in China. Renault and Chinese engineering partners

work together in Stellantis, invested in leap motor to bring some of that Chinese speed

to develop two developments and also get access to leap motors when they sell them outside of China.

Volkswagen and Nui, talking to VW and joint venture in China, confirming four model launches this

year across all four quarters and the schedule starts with the ID Unix 0-8. That rolled off the

production line three days ago. The very first ID Unix 0-8 rolled off the line on the 13th of

March in China, cars and outreaching dealers ahead of a market launch before the first half of

2026 is over. And the ID Unix 0-8 matters for a simple reason. It's the first co-developed

Volkswagen with X-Pung, the production version of the ID Evo concept seen in April at the Shanghai

Auto Show last year. The Volkswagen and Nui began life in 2017 as a 5050 joint venture with JAC

performing neo manufacturer. The move now looks rather different this time,

signing the joint development technology agreement to start the mass production in 24 months to

give you a sense of the pace, the speed the China works at. With X-Pung on an 800 volts platform

using silicon carbide components supporting ultra fast charging and high efficiency as well with

high levels of efficiency and driver technology, the car ship's standard with X-Pung's VLA. Full

scenario, intelligent driving and level two driver assistance, 1500 tops of computing power. That's

right up there by the way with some of the best of the best in China right now. Are the China

electronic architecture is the platform jointly developed by VW X-Pung and Karyad China,

that is Volkswagen's software division. Inside, the cabin closely resembles the X-Pung G9's

cockpit layout funnily enough, a 10.25 inch fully digital instrument cluster and dual 14.96 inch,

2.4K central displays, nice place to be the inside of this by the way, a large 5C crossover SUV

and Volkswagen has packed in all the usual high-end premium features so that would be a 20 speaker

audio system, huge auto dimming panoramic sunroof and so the entry level by the way of this one

is 230 kilowatts of power, the top all wheel drive version using two motors and 370 kilowatts

of power and the LFP packs come from CATL either 82.4 or 95 kilowatt hours and so

the rest of the plan for the year fills up pretty quickly. We got a car, a quarter coming refreshed

to Unix 06 Unix 07, the brand's first pure electric sedan and another joint venture car with X-Pung.

That fills in the blanks very, very quickly. Now, let's get into some of the cars announced with

the filings because we've got some new regulatory filings cropping up at the end of last week,

which does tip off the cars that are coming. All right, let's whip through them then. You're

going to see a pattern here because a lot of them are BYDs and they were waiting to tell us more

about their blade battery 2.0 and their new flash charging at 1500 kilowatts and so now they can

file for all the details without giving the game away. Right, first of all, BYD's Fang Cheng

Bao sub brand launching the TI3 into variants, either 21,000 or 23,300 US dollars equivalent,

either rear wheel drive or four wheel drive using BYD's new blade battery 2.0 and flash charging.

So that's 70% in five minutes, 97% in nine minutes, and then 12 minutes. If you're charging

this at temperatures down to minus 30 degrees Celsius. Using BYD's EVO Plus platform, a double wish

bone McPherson set up with a rear five link suspension arrangement. So this is a four wheel drive

vehicle looking very off-roady, very boxy. Looks like it could handle some utility. If you throw

that kind of rear door mounted storage box, not a spare tire, but that would be where on an

off-roady, you know, we have the spare tire on there, but they've got a big storage box on the,

it looks like a top opening boot, not a side opening tailgate, which again, pretty common in off-road

vehicles, but intelligent all-terrain recognition, intelligent torque control, electronic four wheel

drive for off-roading and things like that. Staying with BYD, I told you there's going to be a bit of

a pattern emerging. Let's talk the BYD SEAL 06. This is a plug-in hybrid DMI wagon. Oh, this

is interesting. This looks like, let me think for my Western buyers, an MG5 actually. So like the

estate MG that you can get, this is not, I'll be honest, not the sexiest wagon, and I'm a sucker for

a wagon, by the way, I love an estate car. Not the most aggressively tapering rear roofline that

we've seen in some of the sports oriented ones, but new paperwork filed today, or at the end of

last week, for the BYD SEAL 06 DMI plug-in hybrid estate body version, and so it's a 34-kilowatt-hour

battery pack, over 200 kilometers of pure electric range on the China cycle, which is optimistic.

Optional LiDAR package as well. Up until the, well, almost to the C pillar, really, certainly pass

the B pillar. It's otherwise exactly the same as the BYD SEAL 06 sedan. But then further back,

the given estate form factor, this car starts at $15,000, by the way, 110,000 RMB. So that's the

segment it sits in. Wow, can you, can you hear that flying overhead? Something,

something just flew very low over. We do have an exceptionally long runway here in Bournemouth.

It's an old military runway, actually, which is why we get some big planes taken off from it,

and occasionally the Army do their, some trials out at sea. And that, if you picked the mic's

picked it up, that was very loud in the whole, the whole house shook. That was very low flying.

Anyway, I can have edited it out, but I thought I'd leave it in. Wow. The timing matters for this

vehicle. The model enters a segment that's gained momentum recently. Rye was include the ZK 007 GT

estate, the Neo-ET5 touring, and Huawei's backed wagon projects have appeared in winter testing

as well. Staying with BYD, the SEAL 08 filed as well. Now, that's a, a step up in terms of vehicle.

In fact, it's, it's many steps up in terms of the Chinese segments. The BYD SEAL 08 will serve

as the flagship sedan in the ocean lineup. So, mid to large, fast back sedan above the SEAL 07

and song L. So, this looks like they're pushing more premium to me. 800 volts architecture,

their latest DMI plug in hybrid system with the blade battery, lithium manganese,

ion phosphate LMFP, a dual format design. BYD says it combines short blade design for 8C fast

charging and long blade design delivering higher energy density. I didn't think that was in the

same battery pack, but that's a job for me to go away and research. That maybe they are combining

that in the same battery. I got a hybrid battery. I will wait and see. But yeah, megawatt level

flash charging on this. So that is how they haven't given us the top speed. When they say

megawatt level, is it 1,000? Is it 1,500 kilowatts? I mean, either would either would be very, very good

on a plug in hybrid on a plug in hybrid expected pricing from 33,000 pounds. That's 42,000 dollars

or 300,000 RMB in local currency. So this think Tesla Model S, Neo 87, what else think? Oh,

X-Pung P7 premium electric sedan. Really nice looking car. If you want a plug in hybrid,

that coming with the new blade battery, very, very fast charging, talking of blade batteries,

more filings. BYD will launch the all new song ultra and they're going to launch it on the 26th of

March. This is the dynasty lineup and the sales chief confirming on web woe social media that

this SUV that's crossover goes on sale in just 10 days time. The model went on pre sale on the 5th

of March on the day the BYD unveiled their blade battery 2.0 and the song ultra EV, one of the first

models to get the new battery. When they launched this, they did specifically mention 1,500 kilowatts

and 9 minutes, 97% charge. Second generation blade battery supports two CLTC range variants.

There'll either be 620 or 710 kilometers. The vehicle starts at 22 and a half thousand U.S.

dollars. BYD are going to keep both the existing blade battery and blade battery 2.0 in production.

They say that gives you pricing flexibility and broadening customer choice. I wonder if customers

will look at this song ultra and say, right, which one, which batteries inside it? I want the latest

greatest technology, which trim level which spec if they are going to mix and match the existing

and the new blade battery technology. Otherwise, pretty regular looking 5C SUV with a lighter hump

on the top for pretty mid-size price, low $20,000 equivalent in China. All right, let's take a break.

We'll come back and talk leap motor and onvostick around.

Capital One's tech team isn't just talking about multi-agentic AI. They already deployed one.

It's called chat concierge and it's simplifying car shopping using self-reflection and layered

reasoning with live API checks. It doesn't just help buyers find a car they love. It helps schedule

a test drive, get pre-approved for financing, and estimate trading value, advanced, intuitive,

and deployed. That's how they stack. That's technology at Capital One.

Capital One's tech team isn't just talking about multi-agentic AI. They already deployed one.

It's called chat concierge and it's simplifying car shopping using self-reflection and layered

reasoning with live API checks. It doesn't just help buyers find a car they love.

It helps schedule a test drive, get pre-approved for financing, and estimate trading value,

advanced, intuitive, and deployed. That's how they stack. That's technology at Capital One.

Hey, welcome back to the podcast. Now some more filings.

Leap motor filed regulatory submissions for the A05. The A05 is a compact, pure electric car

in the budget segment. The filing shows the A05 will offer front, binocular, cameras,

and optional roof-mounted lidar. Interesting, and that matters because lidar has until recently

mostly stayed in premium vehicles. But that shift is no longer rare. BYD added

lidar to its seagull back in January. The seagull is their cheapest model and sells for $10,000.

A January filing showed the BYD dolphin with lidar, and the patent is clear.

LIDAR is moving as it becomes more affordable technology into affordable EVs.

Chinese automakers now treat AIDAR systems as one of the competitive tools of which to sell a vehicle

people looking at spec sheets and asking, does it have lidar? Not asking, what does the lidar do?

If you talk to some experts in autonomy, many of them will tell you that you can do many scenarios

with vision only. Some would say nearly all. Tesla says all scenarios with vision only. Some

doubt that. But the lidar, the ultra-wide-band sensors, things like that, they are described by some

as more belt and braces, more validation if you like of the camera knowledge just to make sure.

And of course, in dark conditions, low light conditions, and also poor visibility,

lidar comes into its own, of course, because it can see what your eyes and cameras can't see,

but still. It fits Leap Motors plan as they go into a very low segment here, not quite the

little T-03, which is the tiny urban city car, but the A-05, certainly a much smaller budget car.

Stellantis backs the firm, Leap Motors won a million vehicle sales this year, premium sensor

technology in a very budget model sits at the heart of that strategy of attracting more buyers

by adding more things to the specs sheet. And NEO's sub-brand, as I'm staying down at that

part, a down at that part of the market, it's a snobby, doesn't it? But as I'm in the mainstream

affordable model range, NEO's affordable range, that would be onvo, is going to add lidar

to its L60 mid-size SUV. We know, because again, we've got the regulatory filings here.

It's a busy day, whenever these get published. The version appeared in the filing published last

Friday. That marks a change for the L60, which had no lidar option since launch onvo,

launched the L60 in September 2024, pitched up against Tesla's Model Y in China, and they plan

lidar upgrade for the larger L90 as well. Together, the L60 and larger L90 changes, suggest the brand

wants to spread autonomous driving sensor hardware across the range. The move brings onvo closer to

NEO's, as in the mother brands, wide approach. The main brand NEO models currently include

roof-mounted lidar as standard, and NEO treats lidar as essential to its ADAS. The timing looks

deliberate as well. Onvo is seeking to stimulate demand in a tough market, and lidar support will

help it stand out, with buyers always wanting more capable driver assistance. It would also

fit the Chinese market very well, where lidar remains the dominant sensor choice. Amongst

TV makers, Tesla rejects it, and his camera only, X-Pung, one of China's early lidar adopters,

recently followed Tesla by going vision only, so it doesn't look like it's one size fits all.

Now, China unveiled a new five-year plan last week with a pre-vulge from the National

Legislature. Climate climate observers, how I think given it a mixed response, I would describe

that as the targets are modest on the surface. China certainly had some more bold climate claims

in the past, Beijing has committed to cutting carbon intensity by 17% by 2030, measured as CO2

emitted per unit of GDP. That's a smaller decline target than previous five-year plans,

which China missed. The plan also avoids a hard pledge to cut coal consumption over the next five

years, instead referring to coal control and reduction efforts. The wording falls short of the

previous plan, in 2021 Xi Jinping pledged to phase down coal use. That does not mean climate policy

has slipped the agenda. The plan points to a strategy built on flexibility, they say. It also

sets out tools to pursue emissions goals for 2035, which Mr Xi did announce last September with some

firm emissions reductions. Up to 10%, 7% to 10% below 20 peak levels by 2035. That is a commitment

to an absolute target, if you like, an absolute emissions reduction. These tools include expanded

national carbon markets and tighter industrial emissions standards. Transport didn't get so much

of a mention in this plan, by the way. I don't think they view EVs as a done deal. Right,

job done, but certainly China is now able now that it has a very dominant EV market. I think

it's now able to do things like look at regulations over door handles and safety and solid state

batteries and battery safety, rather than simply saying we want to build EVs. Right, Chinese automakers

are next in the news. They've made the Middle East a key export market, as you know,

shale sales of EVs at home, domestically retail, have gone off to a soft start to this year

because some buyers pulled forward their purchase decisions to make the most of financial benefits,

but they've leaned into exports to hold up their sales numbers. The Middle East has been a

tricky part of that. Now the region, which has given them profit and growth, is looking

like it's struggling, geopolitical conflict escalated suddenly. The straight of

Hormuz was effectively shut down when the Israeli-US attack on Iran happened. That closure cut off

the Persian Gulf shipping and car carrying vessels, so-called Roros, roll on, roll off.

The straight of Hormuz matters beyond one trade route. It's a critical global energy and trade

choke point. Gasco Automotive Research Institute

singled out Cheri, BYD, SAIC, Changan and Gili, as the main Chinese exporters to the Middle East.

Cheri led Chinese passenger exports to the region from January to November last year,

and the largest business scale of any Chinese brand in the Middle East.

Cheri looks most exposed. His Middle East operations are heavily concentrated in Iran.

Its Iranian business model depends on supplying semi-knockdown kits to local assembly partners,

wartime conditions, will tighten things like the central bank and foreign exchange,

which will reduce Cheri's business volume and the blockade of the Hormuz straight,

also disrupts Cheri's kit shipments and even its complete vehicle exports to the UAE.

The picture looks at the moment. In the short term at least,

less bleak, for those that are centered on somewhere like Saudi Arabia, Changan,

SAIC and Gili, can reroute shipments through the JEDDA port on Saudi Arabia's West Coast.

JEDDA port handles two-thirds of Saudi Arabia's also imports.

This route lets those brands bypass the Red Sea entirely,

hire inland transport costs only partly offset that benefit.

Not every brand can shift so easily. SAIC's MG brand runs the

very tightly integrated port to store logistics chain,

and depends heavily on hub port like Dubai's Jabal Ali.

And that leaves MG highly exposed to any breakdown and regional logistics.

And that's your podcast for today. Thank you for listening.

We're off and up and underway for a brand new week of EV News China.

I'll see you on the next one.