Yilun Zhang @yilunzh Twitter profile

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

5 months

Things I didn't like from Tesla earning call: 1. Elon claiming Tesla is doing better than its Chinese competitors. That is simply not true. Tesla shrunk -7% YoY in China while NEV market rose +33% and BEV market grew +15% YoY. 2. Elon pumping FSD hard during the call, but

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

1/ Recently, got my hands on a set of historical China insurance data for the past 14 months, down to sales of every single make model on the market for each month. Needless to say, I was extremely excited and dove straight in.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

Toyota launched the bZ3 using electric motors and batteries made by BYD. Audi just signed a deal to buy EV platform from SAIC Mercedes is now rumored to be buying Geely’s PHEV powertrain for its 3rd-gen CLA Not from regulations dictated by the Chinese government, but because

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

5 months

Every Tesla owner who bought FSD for $12k right now.

Tesla

@Tesla

5 months

You can now subscribe to FSD (Supervised) for $99/month in the US Upgrades > Software Upgrades > Subscribe

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

4 months

So…the new Onvo L60 (sub-brand of NIO) has: ✅ More interior space than the Model Y ✅ More range than the Model Y ✅ Faster charging than the Model Y, even if you don’t swap batteries. With swaps, the experience is even better. ✅ Cheaper than the Model Y Tesla who?

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

11 months

Lots of hot takes on $TSLA and $HTZ today on my timeline. Having a front row seat in all of this, here is my take: Operating an EV fleet at scale is incredibly challenging, probably more so than we initially anticipated. The fundamental problem we face is charging, both at the

funwithnumberz

@funwithnumberz

11 months

Wow. Brutal comments regarding $TSLA from Hertz. I wonder if @elonmusk will respond? @StanphylCap @GordonJohnson19 @ElectrekCo @bgrahamdisciple @JCOviedo6 @passthebeano @fly4dat @BradMunchen @montana_skeptic @Paul91701736 @lorakolodny @zerohedge

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

4 months

While Tesla guts the SC team, NIO launches 40 new supercharging stations in a single day, each capable of 640 kW. NIO now has twice as many supercharging stations as Tesla (3800 vs 1800) in China. They can charge twice as fast as Tesla’s V4 chargers (640 kW vs 350 kW)

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

5 months

This is the car everyone will be talking about for the next 7 days in China. Doesn’t matter if you are a car person or not. Most people on X probably don’t appreciate the influence Lei Jun and the Xiaomi brand have in China. Tomorrow is launch day and I think Lei Jun is going

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

2 years

1/ For those that are following the Chinese auto market, you may have heard about the price war that's happening right now. TLDR; OEMs are offering massive discounts (up to 40% off MSRP) on their inventory in March.

China OEM Price Drops Tracker | Created with Datawrapper

Major price drops from Chinese OEM in March 2023

www.datawrapper.de

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

4 months

Last year, there was smoke. This year, the house is legitimately on fire in Tesla China. It is now possible for a few Chinese OEMs to make an SUV that is better than the Model Y in every way while still making money (Below are 2 of them from NIO and Huawei). Those vehicles are

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

14/ Anyways, hope you found this helpful. If there's interest, I can do more content like these...but this was pretty in the weeds. Just not sure how many China EV nerds like me are out there. Let me know by liking, retweeting, or DMing me. Thanks! 🙏

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

8 months

It’s much harder to achieve 20%+ gross margin selling $20k cars than $40k ones. Most people are focused on their sales growth. I don’t think it’s yet appreciated how far ahead BYD is in terms of cost control compared to everyone else. They will absolutely mint cash as they

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

Below is sales ranking for all luxury brand during last week of March. This is all sales in China, so includes both NEV and ICE. 📊 @Tesla is really within a shooting distance of overtaking the Germans in China. It's not out of the questions we see them up on the top of the

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

2 years

1/ Some observations about Rivian ($RIVN) from a former employee and industry insider. This is my personal take on what they have achieved today and their road ahead. Long 🧵 👇

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

5 months

I still can’t believe the AVATR 12 is a production vehicle. Really looks like it came from the future. The most recent refresh saw starting price drop 13% from 300k RMB to 260k RMB. Supposedly, they have more than 40k orders in the backlog and the chip shortage that was

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

5 months

Remember the days when batteries were $400/kWh and EVs were cell constrained? Today, we are already at ~$100/kWh at pack level, which means the size of a 75 kWh pack is about the same as the cost of a performance ICE engine like the LS3. EVs are going to get stupid cheap in

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

Why does the market thinks $LCID is a more valuable company than $RIVN? Yes, Rivian has a profitability problem, but at least it’s a supply side issue and well understood. Lucid has 12 months of runway and can’t figure out how to sell more cars. To me, that’s a way scarier

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

If I were a $TSLA investor, I would be scared shitless by Elon's willingness to effectively drive margin down to 0 in the hopes that one day. It'll all come back via FSD. There is a non-zero chance they would actually have to do that this year in order to hit their 1.8M target.

James Cat

@TSLAFanMtl

1 year

I have been right more than wrong over the yrs on Tesla and $TSLA but I must give bears credit for this. I was wrong about Tesla’s price elasticity. I admit that I expected 450k deliveries in Q1 after cuts in Jan and i did not expect these additional, punitive price cuts in Q2.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

10 months

A refreshing bit of brand advertising from @XPengMotors comparing its X9 to the Li Auto Mega. Well done👏

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

4 months

Regardless of how you feel about NIO and battery swaps, seeing the progress they have made with this technology over the years is incredible They had a vision on day 1 and never wavered from that conviction. I think that’s very admirable👏 The world would be a better place if

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

5 months

So…yesterday I said I wouldn’t be surprised if Xiaomi got 20k orders in the first 24 hrs. Well guys…I was wrong…turns out, they got 50k orders in 27 mins! I repeat…50k orders! in 27 mins! Congrats @leijun and the entire @Xiaomi team!

Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

5 months

This is the car everyone will be talking about for the next 7 days in China. Doesn’t matter if you are a car person or not. Most people on X probably don’t appreciate the influence Lei Jun and the Xiaomi brand have in China. Tomorrow is launch day and I think Lei Jun is going

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

7 months

Doing some market research: Would you consider subscribing to an EV from Hertz (Insurance and maintenance included) for say…$500-$900/month (depending on model), with no down payment required. For that. you get to: 1. Drive a whole range of EVs across brands (Tesla,

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

2 years

Taylor Ogan

@TaylorOgan

2 years

BYD’s internal guide for FY23 is 3 million EVs more than what Tesla will likely sell in 2023. Let that sink in.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

4 months

I laugh when I hear people say that Tesla would be successful licensing FSD to other OEMs. Tesla is good at a lot of things, but long term partnership is just not in their DNA. Literally every major partner Tesla has ever worked with have been burned at some point. -

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. You can talk about brand and heritage all you want, but at the end of the day, consumers walk with their feet and vote with their wallets. Adapt or become irrelevant.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

4 months

Is robotaxi a good or bad business? Most people would assume it would be a highly profitable business…but I’m not so sure. It’s a business that requires many billions of dollars in upfront investment over many years, with only marginal revenue potential in the interim. The

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

I might get flak for this, but I firmly believe large and frequent price drops like these are actually brand dilutive and value destructive for @Tesla . 1. Customers and partners don’t want to be bag holders 2. You are educating prospective buyers that the products isn’t worth

funwithnumberz

@funwithnumberz

1 year

Tonight's $TSLA price changes, all but 1 are cut in Europe. @StanphylCap @GordonJohnson19 @ElectrekCo @TroyTeslike @WholeMarsBlog @JCOviedo6 @bgrahamdisciple @montana_skeptic @fly4dat @BradMunchen @passthebeano @lorakolodny @Benshooter @DeanSheikh1 @TSLAFanMtl @AnadarkoCapital

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

2 years

13/ If you read this far, thank you! If you liked what you read, would mean a lot if you can like/retweet the first tweet of this thread. Also give me a follow for more EV content like this. 🙏

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

Been thinking about this a lot over the last few days. What is happening to the Chinese auto industry right now is eerily similar to the smartphone industry back in 2015. In the beginning of the 2016, there were ~400 smartphone makers. Today, there are really only 5 that

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

5 months

Look everyone! Tesla’s new $25k Model 2 leaked! Details & specs👇

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

9 months

1044 kms over a single charge. This has been a long time coming (announced on 2020 NIO Day). @NIOGlobal always talks about their batteries being swappable, chargeable and upgradable. This is the first time upgradable takes center stage. Was thinking about the implication of

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

Zeekr X just had its official unveil today. Honestly, I'm a little shocked. On paper, this looks like a great product and should really give the @Tesla Model Y a run for its money Zeekr X vs Model Y SR+ specs: - Range: 560 KM vs 545 KM - Acceleration: 5.8s vs 6.9s - Design:

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

In a post-conference interview, Shen Fei, EVP of @NIOGlobal Charging Infrastructure, said: "I particularly dislike promoting the wattage of ultra-fast charging. Our charging pile has 500kW, but it can actually go higher. It can reach 1000V 660A, but there's no point, as no car

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

5 months

Salesperson doing livestream has to tape sign on herself saying “this is a Porsche”, because too many people think it’s the new Xiaomi SU7 😂

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

6 months

This might be a hot take, but unless Tesla drop its prices significantly, I think 2024 will be the year that the Model 3 loses its sales crown in the 180k - 300k BEV sedan segment in China. There are just too many new competitive models coming online. Most likley candidate to

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

9 months

Quick reaction to the NIO ET9. It’s a proper flagship for the brand. Lots of really high-end tech put together in a single package: - 900v architecture, - steer by wire, - active suspension - in-house battery cells - 4D radar along with latest in-house self-driving chip

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

13/ This is why I keep saying in order for @Tesla to grow in China, they need a diversity and add products in different segments. There are so many far more urgently than in other markets.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

11 months

Oh boy…this is a whole other topic on its own. I would paint the picture in 2 broad stroke: 1. As a rental fleet, we get far more use out of a vehicle than the average consumer. So for sure they will see more wear and tear. Also, your average renter is probably less careful

Neil 🇺🇸

@neilsaidwhat

11 months

@yilunzh I’m confused on the repair costs. I’ve had 3 teslas & they are by far the lowest maintenance of the over 20 cars I have owned in my life. It’s basically tires and air filter. Perhaps something specific to the rental crowd? Are they ripping the charging cable off each time?

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

9/ The reality is a bit more nuanced. In the mass market (200k - 300k RMB) BEV segment, Model Y and Model 3 still own ~40% market share. @BYDCompany with the Han and Seal is actually a distant second. In the specific narrow head to head comparison, @Tesla still dominates.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

9 months

Lots of noise on social media about $NIO battery swap partnerships with Changan, Geely, and now potentially JAC. The motivation for NIO is clear. They need scale to make battery swap profitable. If we work backwards from the 4000 swap station target by 2025, this implies that

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

Have been a bit silent on Twitter in the past month. Lots of life changes, including taking on a leadership role at @Hertz to modernize its digital customer experience and tooling. We are also investing heavily to make renting an EV seamless as well. As far as I know, Hertz

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

5 months

lol what?! At this point, Chinese EV designs are getting so crazy I can’t tell what’s real anymore. Is it really going into production like this? Looks like something I would drive on mars or the moon.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

The major Chinese EV brands have released their sales figures for March 📊 My quick commentary on their performance for the month/quarter: 1. @BYDGlobal continues to lead the Chinese new energy market and is expected to produce its 4 millionth new energy vehicle sometime this

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

5 months

During the Xiaomi SU7 product launch, the part that resonated the most with me was when Lei Jun answered who this vehicle is for. During that time, he said: “The SU7 is for Tesla 3 owners looking to upgrade BBA 34C owners who desires an intelligent smart vehicle More

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

Crazy how much lithium carbonate prices have dropped since start of the year. Many OEMs have agreements where there are commodity price adjustments every quarter, so we should see these benefits flow through starting in Q3 of this year. Bullish on EV profitability in second

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

8/ Looking at specific brands, we have all heard that @BYDCompany became the king of EVs last year in China. Even in pure battery electric vehicles, BYD now outsell @Tesla 2:1. At the same time, Tesla keep saying they are gaining market share. Well...which is it?

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

12/ So, @Tesla is indeed gaining market share in the 200k - 300k RMB segment especially after the price drop. But at the same time, they are also losing market share in total BEV and NEV segments. Really depends on how you slice it.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

5 months

Just kidding…this isn’t actually a Tesla, but a Geely E8 starting at $25k and in production today. It has 550 km or range, spacious interior, massive 45” screen, and is available with 800v architecture and 637 hp in its top trim. The irony is that a competitive $25k EV has

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

2 years

7/ The pressure that Tesla, BYD and other new NEV brands put on legacy OEMs is immense. Many new EV brands are also willing to sell vehicles at effectively 0% margin or even negative margin to earn market share today. Tesla's price cuts back in January didn't help either.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

3/ For example, did you know that in China, the luxury segment actually have the lowest EV penetration rate? In the US, we talk a lot about the lack of choice for affordable EVs, but it's actually quite the opposite in China.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

2 years

10/ What does all this mean? For the overall EV industry, I'm extremely bullish. It's clear that customers are voting with their wallets and want ever smarter, more electrified vehicles. It's also clear that most of these legacy OEMs simply cannot compete in this new world.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

6/ One thing that's not surprising is that the trio of Japanese automakers really don't give a f**k about EVs and are really sticking to their hybrids. @ToyotaMotorCorp , @Honda , @NissanElectric

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

7/ They also clearly don't care about their market share in China either so... 🤷‍♂️ Imo, the Japanese automakers are in real trouble this year in China. Note: this chart below is for all vehicles market share by brand region (ICE + Hybrid + PHEV + BEV)

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

2 years

6/ Lastly, the electrification process is happening much faster than people expected. Despite the overall market being down, NEV segment actually 🔼 by 22% the first 2 months. NEV penetration reached 31% in Feb, and in first-tier cities, that number is north of 40%.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

4 months

I just drove a 2023 Toyota Corolla for 100 miles without a single ADAS disengagement. I did some research afterwards, the system is from ZF and Mobileye Maybe my expectations was just super low to begin with, but I’m honestly super impressed with their the system. L2 have

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

5 months

@TPaintjob Quarter over quarter numbers are irrelevant between Q4 and Q1 in China due to Chinese new year.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

10/ It's just that BYD and other Chinese EV companies dominate sales in all the other price segment, where Tesla essentially have 0% market share. In the mass market segment, @BYDCompany dominates. In the premium segment, @NIOGlobal and @OfficialZeekr have done very well.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

9 months

My current view on Tesla's competitive position in China *sound on for best effect

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

Watched a bunch of speeches in the past few days from China EV100 forum. Normally, these are highly scripted & boring speeches 🥱, but not this year 😲. Most interesting commentary came from Huawei's Richard Yu (CEO of their consumer & automotive group). "We are currently

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

10 months

The Avatr 12 is one of the prettiest cars to launch this year. The coolest cars are all being designed and built in China these days. I’m so jealous.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

5 months

I think in 30 years, we are going to look back at this era of Chinese EV the same way we view 90s JDM. Everyone is just trying to make the best car possible, and pushing the boundaries of performance and manufacturing. Who is the Honda NSX, Nissan GT-R, Mazda RX7 and the

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

5/ In contrast, @VW who is often seen as the early mover amongst legacy OEMs that went all-in on EVs, have really struggled and seen their share of EV sale shrink dramatically starting in Q4 of last year. The ID series is really struggling mightily to compete in China.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

7 months

Since joining Hertz, I have driven a lot more variety of cars. Hands down, the worst feature of a modern ICE vehicle is the auto start-stop. Makes stop and go driving unbearable, all to save that 0.1 MPG. Worst of all, in many models, you can’t default to have it disabled. I

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

2 years

3/ It's worth asking, what is causing this and why now? I think there are 3 main reasons: First, macro environment is tough right now in China. Sales in the first 2 months are 🔻 20% YoY. For some legacy OEM brands (highlighted in yellow), sales are down almost 50%!

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

5 months

The bloodbath from price war continues in China. You can now buy an Xpeng P7 for 140k RMB now (~$20k USD) 😳 this was originally a 240k RMB ($33k USD) vehicle and was consistently selling 4000 units/month even at the end of last year. The P7 is in dire need of an upgrade. In

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

Woah! Hit 1000 followers today. I created my twitter account many years ago, but had always been a silent lurker, never a contributor. Only started posting on here 2 months ago. The response honestly has been better than I ever expected. And through this, I have met some

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

2 years

Latest week’s China’s NEV insurance # 1. @Tesla finally back up to 10k+/week 2. @BYDGlobal still crushes in China, 35% NEV market share 3. $LI sells more than $NIO + $XPEV now…how the tables have turned

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

Based on @LucidMotors production & delivery results, we can deduce it now has over 4000 cars in inventory. That doesn't sound like a lot until you realize they sold just 1400 in Q1, that's almost 9 MONTHS of inventory on hand. 😱 🚨🚨🚨 $LCID

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

Overall good quarter for @Tesla in terms of production & deliveries in. A few things to watch for in the short term: 1. This is the first quarter where there's such a big dislocation between production and deliveries for the S/X, suggesting demand in US have slowed drastically.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

2 years

8/ Earlier this month, as these struggling OEMs and dealers look at their order books and see sales down 50% YoY, the only option to salvage the quarter is to drop prices...by a lot. Selling at a loss is still better than not selling at all.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

11 months

These days, Norway effectively run entirely on renewable (98%). At the same time, this tiny country is also the 8th largest oil & gas exporter in the world (~$170B in 2022) As the great philosopher Al Pacino once said, don’t get high on your own supply.

Sino Auto Insights

@SinoAutoInsight

11 months

🇳🇴 is effectively a clean energy vehicle country ONLY country.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

10 months

Came across William Li’s internal communication on $NIO upcoming battery swap announcement. Found it super interesting so I have translated and posted on here. Regardless of your own opinion on battery swap, it’s worth a read. Translation: "In the entire industry, it's not

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

2 years

4/ Second, many OEMs tried to hit production targets late last year, despite consumer demand starting to wane. Remember, traditional OEM recognize revenue when inventory is transferred to dealer, not at point of sale.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

Interesting comment from @BMW Board Chairman Oliver Zipse at the Shanghai Auto Show this year. "What moves Chinese customers today will move the world tomorrow." In other words, whoever wins in China will be in pole position to win over the world.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

4/ Another example: @BMW have often been criticized for their slow transition to EV. This might be true 2 years ago, but BMW's EV portfolio have grown very well last year, reaching 10% of their sales since Nov '22 This is thanks to the introduction of the i3 and the ix3.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

4 months

It’s actually incredible how resilient Tesla stock is. Delivery miss, stock gets hammered Earnings disaster, stock gets hammered Then news report that Elon is now re-engaged. He sets up a war room, fires some people, hints at a couple announcements about robotaxi/FSD, fly to

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

4 months

Spending some time reading through NIO's annual report this weekend. Looks like NIO quietly renegotiated with Hefei to push out mainland IPO requirement from 2025 to 2028. Typically, there's a 2 year profitability requirement for listing on the mainland, which implies that

Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

One other thing I just realized is that @NIOGlobal will likely have to restructure its agreement with Hefei government for their original 10B RMB investment back in 2020, which have a China IPO filing requirement in 2024. Given that NIO wouldn't be able to turn profit this year,

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

2 years

12/ This is especially true in the 150k RMB - 300k RMB segment, which $TSLA, $BYD, and $XPEV primarily operate in. $NIO and $LI, I think are relatively more insulated in the premium segment. They are in a much stronger position competitively in that segment.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

Enovate, a Chinese EV startup just announced they are stopping production as of 4/1, likely because the 750m funding they were banking on didn’t come through. Bankruptcy is likely the next step. After WM Motors, this is the second brand to tap out this year. There will be a lot

Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

Been thinking about this a lot over the last few days. What is happening to the Chinese auto industry right now is eerily similar to the smartphone industry back in 2015. In the beginning of the 2016, there were ~400 smartphone makers. Today, there are really only 5 that

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

Have been driving the @PolestarCars 2 for the past week, especially in the context of comparing and contrasting between renting different EVs First, some things I like: 1. It felt more like a normal car compared to Tesla. Was much easier to get acclimated. Better interior as

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

One interesting observations from Shanghai Auto Show not related to new model introduction: @XPengMotors , Li Auto, and @Huawei have all announced new technology roadmaps for autonomous driving. @NIOGlobal is also hoping to launch their own FSD beta-like product in H2 2023.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

4 months

Hmm…Toyota BZ3 apparently outsold Tesla model 3 last week in China 😳 I know week over week data have lots of volatility…but this is still kind of shocking and funny.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

@Abdelmou2taleb They’ll be fine in Europe, they are done in China imo.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

11 months

@ShunbaoChen L2 is easier than L3, but still difficult at airports. Difficulty isn’t necessary in the install, but permitting/studies to get approval. Can be a multi-year process from what I’m told by the team. You also run into an upper bound on L2 in terms of productivity, especially with

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

2/ For today, I'd like to explore some common misconceptions about the Chinese EV market. I think these stem from having a mental model for the US and mistakenly applying it to China, or because some observations used to be true, but not anymore.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

5 months

Geely has such a cheat code, having acquired these beloved, but financially challenged brands for pennies on the dollar back in the days. They bought a controlling stake in Lotus for just $65m. Today, these brands are the golden tickets for Geely’s expansion abroad.

Sawyer Merritt

@SawyerMerritt

5 months

NEWS: Lotus has opened the U.S. order books for its fully electric SUV, the Eletre. • Starting price: $107,000. Top trim is $145k. • 905hp • 0-60mph in 2.95s • 112 kWh battery pack • 800V charging architecture • 350kW fast charging • Up to 354 miles WLTP range •

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

2 years

9/ Dongfeng and GAC were first companies to do this and the most aggressive, as they were struggling the most. Once that card is played, there was no going back and the other OEMs followed suit as well trying to out do each other.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

4 months

Lots of videos of top Chinese auto execs being friendly with each other and talking about future partnerships at the Beijing Auto Show Don’t let those smiles fool you. The war is escalating and the battle scene is only going to get bloodier as we approach the final elimination

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

11 months

If you buy @elonmusk 's argument that the biggest barrier to Tesla's growth is affordability, it's worthwhile to look back a bit further in history. Can you guess why Ford had to stop production of the Model T, despite the fact that it's 80% cheaper than when first introduced

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

Incredible...even just 5 years ago, this outcome was almost unthinkable. In the next 5 years, I would not be surprised if VW is out of the Chinese market entirely. VW and the foreign legacies got a little too comfortable counting their 💵

Danny Lee

@AirEVthingTRNSP

1 year

NEW: BYD is China’s best-selling car brand for the first time, dethroning Volkswagen as it continues its meteoric rise via @business @hyper_drive by @AirEVthingTRNSP & @hongjinshan w/ @ChunyingZhang

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

11 months

I have worked on retail side of automotive essentially all my career. From my POV, $NIO seems to always play the game on hard mode: - offering 8 models where as realistically they can get away with 3 (ET5, ES6 and ES8). That makes selling and differentiating between these

Marcel Münch

@_mm85

11 months

Has $NIO sales team rather a quality, than a quantity problem? Sceptical that just hiring more people will be that impactful compared with smarter strategies and better internal control …

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

5 months

Sometimes I really don't understand NIO. Spends all this money to build a state of the art 150 kWh semi-solid state battery. Now it's finally in production, and William Li goes on live stream and tells everyone...it's more symbolic than actually useful...🤦‍♂️ Just why? If you

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

2 years

11/ With that said, these sales tactics will boost legacy OEM sales in the short term by pulling forward demand from Q2 and Q3. Realistically, it'll put pressure on NEV sales for the of month of March and April. Would not be surprised to see ICE market share go up in March.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

2 years

1/ Came across this interesting study on brand health for 35 NEV brands in China (done in 2022). You are pretty good if you can rank in the top 5 for one of the 6 categories. @Tesla , @BYDCompany and @NIOGlobal are the only brands that rank in the top 5 for 5+ categories.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

Incredibly bullish on this having an immediate impact on delivery volume. Most of the problem that @NIOGlobal is facing today isn’t because people don’t like the product, but that it’s too expensive relative to competitors. ES6 is now priced similarly as the Li Auto L7. ET5

Sino Auto Insights

@SinoAutoInsight

1 year

Causing #ABB to head back to the drawing board. Nio cuts prices for its cars — and delays business expansion plans

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

5 months

On April 1st 2024, in light of competition, every prominent EV company in China either dropped prices or introduced upgrades to existing models, some just a few months old And by everyone I mean everyone except Tesla, who not only didn’t bring any new update to the 5 year old

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

Part 3 of the China EV Startup series is out. This time it's about @XPengMotors . XPENG is in a very precarious place right now. In the post, I explore their missteps in the past year and what they need to do to survive going forward. Enjoy! 😎

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

Interesting $NIO is raising another $1B in capital just 3 months after a $750m raise from the Saudis, both when stock price was at its relative low. Imo, the latest raise is value destructive. Management have guided target for 30k/month deliveries in the coming months. If

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

2 years

5/ As a result, days of supply became elevated, and now they have to find a way to liquidate them in the new year, even at a substantial loss.

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Yilun Zhang

@yilunzh

1 year

@ramit I paid ~$1000 for a few laps around the Nurburgring Nordschleife. Shout out to @Rent4Ring & @BTGDale for the incredible car and tutelage. It has always been a bucket list item for me, so was a dream come true. It was also raining that day, which made the experience so much

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