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Welcome to EV News China — the podcast dedicated to the world’s largest electric vehicle market. Each day, I bring you the latest headlines, insights, and analysis from the heart of China’s booming EV industry — and decode how fast-moving developments in the east are shaping the global EV landscape.
BYD TURNS DATA TROVE INTO DRIVER-ASSIST EDGE
BYD has rolled out the fifth version of its driver-assistance stack, God’s Eye 5.0, after seeding earlier iterations across more than 2.3 million cars on Chinese roads. That fleet gives the firm a store of real-world data most rivals lack.
The new system leans on reinforcement learning and what BYD calls a closed-loop assisted-driving architecture. In practice the software learns from actual journeys, feeds performance back into its training pipeline, then ships updates over the air. Each trip both uses and trains the product.
Advanced driver assistance has become one of the few clear ways to stand out in China’s bruising EV market. Local brands and Tesla all chase the same urban, tech-aware buyers, who now weigh software and autonomy features as closely as range and price. With 2.3 million vehicles already running God’s Eye in some form, BYD can iterate fast at scale and point to on-road miles rather than lab demos.
Reinforcement learning also shows how Chinese regulators and carmakers may split from Western peers. China already allows wide use of over-the-air updates and large-scale data collection on domestic roads, giving firms like BYD scope to tune behaviour in dense, unruly traffic that stretches any algorithm.
BYD’S BLADE BUSES CUT DEEPER INTO RICH MARKETS
BYD will run more Blade battery buses on roads in Europe, Singapore and Australia in 2026. The Chinese group keeps pushing its cell‑to‑chassis design from home turf into rich, regulated markets that shape global bus procurement.
That matters for two reasons. First, cell‑to‑chassis turns the battery into part of the structure, which cuts weight and improves packaging. In a segment where duty cycles and total cost of ownership decide tenders, a lighter chassis with higher usable energy can undercut diesel and legacy battery rivals.
Second, each new fleet outside China gives BYD data, visibility and political leverage in places where local makers and unions fret about Chinese imports.
The buses use BYD’s Blade battery, built into the chassis rather than packed in separate modules. BYD claims better rigidity, simpler manufacturing and lower cost than conventional skateboard layouts. Transit agencies, for their part, care less about the labels than about range, uptime and depot integration. Wider deployment in Europe, Singapore and Australia in 2026 shows that operators and regulators now trust the chemistry, the thermal design and the support network enough to lock in multi‑year contracts.
https://bit.ly/4t9r0yM
CHINA’S BATTERY CHAMPIONS TURN HARD FOR SODIUM
CATL and BYD are speeding up plans to put sodium-ion batteries into Chinese electric cars.
A Changan Oshan passenger vehicle now carries the new CATL cells and is heading into winter tests.
Sodium-ion is moving off lab benches and out of test packs into China’s mass-market segment. The chemistry promises lower costs and easier raw-material supply than lithium iron phosphate, but with lower energy density. Putting it into a mainstream passenger model, even on trial, shows Chinese carmakers and their main battery supplier see it as close to commercial use.
China sets the pace in global battery supply. When its two biggest cell-makers shift focus, carmakers and raw-material suppliers everywhere must pay attention. Sodium cells promise lower material costs and a supply chain less tied to lithium, nickel and cobalt. They also suit cheaper, shorter-range vehicles that dominate China’s mass market and its export push.
CATL and BYD both have sodium-ion technology ready and have spoken before about mixed packs that pair sodium with lithium cells. Rising lithium prices now give them an economic case to move from pilot lines to volume use. The appeal is strongest for small city EVs and low-cost commercial vehicles, where every yuan shaved off the pack helps hold down sticker prices in an increasingly vicious price war.
The shift also fits Beijing’s wider aims. A more diverse battery mix reduces exposure to swings in global lithium markets, where miners and refiners outside China still matter. Greater use of sodium, sourced from abundant salt, tightens China’s grip on the mid- and low-end of the EV market, just as Western rivals fret about dependence on Chinese batteries.
If CATL’s Naxtra packs hold up in low temperatures, they will look more attractive for small, cheap city cars, ride-hailing fleets and entry-level crossovers that dominate the Chinese market. Changan Oshan, a volume brand aimed at cost-conscious buyers, is a natural early host.
https://bit.ly/3NXeeTU
CHINA SCRUBS ONLINE ATTACKS ON EV MAKERS
Chinese censors have removed what they call large-scale defamatory content aimed at new-energy vehicle makers and punished the accounts behind it, just as NEVs pass a symbolic marker: more than half of car sales in China.
That timing matters. Beijing has made the electric-car sector a pillar of industrial policy and a shop window for its tech ambitions. Yet as local brands crowd the market, online pile-ons and rumour campaigns can move share prices and unsettle buyers faster than any official sales chart.
Regulators say they have deleted large volumes of posts that smeared NEV brands and have issued penalties against the individuals and organisations that ran those networks. They claim to target co-ordinated disinformation rather than fair criticism. In a market where social media often doubles as a customer-service desk, that line will test both regulators and firms.
The clean-up shows how central NEVs have become to China’s economy. When electric and plug-in hybrid cars take more than half of national sales, the health of the online debate about them becomes a matter of public policy, not just of marketing. It also reflects China’s habit of fusing industrial strategy with strict control of public speech.
For investors and foreign rivals, the signal is blunt. China wants fast NEV growth and a less unruly digital arena in which that growth plays out. Whether that brings a more transparent market or simply a quieter one will show up not in viral posts but in order books and export figures.
HEFEI RACES TO LOCK IN 1.5M EVS BY 2027
Hefei aims to lift annual output of new-energy vehicles and intelligent connected vehicles to 1.5m units by 2027. It wants its NEV industrial scale to reach about 500bn yuan and the wider automotive sector to hit 1trn yuan.
The targets rest on a base that already matters in China’s EV map. Nio, BYD, Volkswagen (Anhui) and JAC all run operations in the city. Their plants anchor a supply chain that runs from batteries to complete vehicles and related services.
City officials plan to speed up the building of a “world-class” NEV and intelligent connected vehicle industrial cluster. They want more high-end resources in new-energy and intelligent cars to gather in Hefei and talk of a regional innovation system that links vehicle manufacturing, parts, software, infrastructure and services.
Policy support underpins the plan. Local officials call for more work on core technologies in batteries, operating systems and vehicle chips. The strategy also backs the roll-out of charging and swapping networks and related digital infrastructure to raise production capacity and the use and management of NEVs.
CHERY PICKS LIVERPOOL FOR FIRST EUROPEAN TRUCK HQ
Chery Commercial Vehicles will open its first European headquarters in Liverpool in 2026, tying its continental truck ambitions to a British port city better known for shipping than lorries. The site will handle research, engineering, innovation and business development, and is expected to create more than 50 jobs in its first phase, according to Liverpool City Council.
For Britain, the move offers a modest but concrete slice of the investment that Chinese carmakers are now spreading across Europe. For Chery, it marks a shift from simple exports to a more rooted European presence. General manager Gong Yueqiong says the firm plans to build a local business with its own operating powers, hire British staff and work with local institutions to tune products to demand.
Chery cites Liverpool’s port, transport links and existing automotive base as the pull factors. Local officials present the deal as another example of China–UK co-operation in new-energy vehicles and advanced manufacturing, and hope it will add a new strand to the city’s industrial mix.
The headquarters follows Chery’s passenger-car foray into Britain in 2024, when its Omoda and Jaecoo brands, spanning internal combustion, hybrid and battery-electric models, quickly built a dealer network of more than 70 outlets. The commercial-vehicle arm has grown briskly at home: in 2025 its monthly heavy-duty truck sales passed 1,000 units, mini-truck volumes stayed near the top of the segment, and its light trucks jumped seven places in industry rankings. The Rely pickup reached more than 10,000 sales within three months of launch, while its autonomous logistics businesses have moved into commercial use.
Chery Commercial Vehicles wants to sell 1 million units a year by 2030 and become a leading global brand.
CHINA AND DENMARK DEEPEN GREEN SHIPPING ALLIANCE
China and Denmark have renewed a green maritime pact that ties Beijing’s industrial heft to Copenhagen’s shipping know‑how. The deal extends a long‑running alliance between the world’s largest shipbuilding nation and the home of Maersk, the container line pushing hardest into green fuels.
The agreement rests on three planks: efficiency, clean fuels and digital oversight. Chinese shipyards and equipment makers will work with Danish firms on energy‑saving hulls, low‑carbon propulsion and on‑board systems that cut fuel use. Both sides also pledge to ease adoption of alternative fuels, including green methanol and ammonia, through joint pilots, technical standards and safety rules. Digital tools—data platforms, remote monitoring and smarter routing—round out the agenda.
For China, the pact fits its plan to move up the value chain in high‑tech, green shipping rather than just turn out cheap hulls. For Denmark, it brings deeper reach into the only big market still adding shipyard capacity at scale, and access to Chinese deployment muscle in green corridors that link Asia and Europe.
DIDI AND GAC AION PUT PURPOSE-BUILT ROBOTAXIS ON CHINESE ROADS
Didi Chuxing has begun taking delivery of its first jointly developed robotaxi with GAC Aion, less than a year after the pair unveiled the vehicle in April. An initial fleet has already cleared the regulatory hurdle for road tests in Guangzhou.
The move marks another step in China’s shift to home-grown autonomous ride-hailing platforms built around domestic electric-vehicle brands. Didi, long dominant in Chinese ride-hailing, gains a purpose-built robotaxi rather than a retrofit. GAC Aion, one of the country’s faster-growing EV marques, gains a captive customer and a showcase for its software-ready hardware.
Regulators in Guangzhou have signed off an initial batch of vehicles for public-road testing, underscoring how local governments in China continue to back commercial pilots for autonomous fleets. That contrasts with a more hesitant stance in many Western cities, where approvals arrive more slowly and often with tighter constraints.
The joint robotaxi also shows how China’s EV makers use partnerships to lock in demand at a time of fierce price competition. For GAC Aion, baking its platform into Didi’s robotaxi strategy could help steady orders in a choppy market.
CHINA’S LATEST EV ARMS RACE: HOW CARS TURN
SAIC’s premium EV brand IM Motors has shown off a new flagship, the LS9 Hyper, and claims a first: a production SUV with four-wheel electronic steering.
Four-wheel steering has appeared before on low-volume or high-end models. IM pitches its system as fully electronic and ready for series production on an SUV, a segment Chinese buyers still favour even as sedans and fastbacks multiply. If the firm delivers at scale, it will set a benchmark for chassis tech in a crowded domestic market where software and gadgetry now sell cars as much as motors and batteries.
SAIC has form as a fast follower on EV hardware and software. IM, its joint-venture premium brand, sits above the group’s mass-market electric offerings and aims to compete with Nio, XPeng and Tesla for affluent city buyers. The LS9 Hyper’s four-wheel electronic steering shows that SAIC wants to push beyond range and charging specs into handling, parking ease and active safety, all areas that Chinese regulators and consumers now watch closely.
But the claim of a “world’s first production SUV with four-wheel electronic steering” will draw scrutiny from rivals already working on steer‑by‑wire and integrated chassis control. Global makers have talked up similar systems, but few have moved from press release to showroom.
CHINA’S EV BADGES CRASH GRAN TURISMO PARTY
Gran Turismo 7 will soon host its first Chinese car. Xiaomi’s SU7 Ultra will join the PlayStation racer, with BYD’s Yangwang U9 Xtreme due to follow.
The deal gives two of China’s flashiest electric brands a shop window far from their home roads. Sony’s driving game remains one of the few digital stages where carmakers jostle to place halo models. Chinese firms now dominate global EV volumes but still chase prestige in Europe, Japan and America. Until now they have stayed off this grid.
Xiaomi uses the SU7 Ultra as the sharp end of its push from smartphones into cars. Dropping it into Gran Turismo 7 shows that the firm wants to sit alongside long‑established performance badges, not just other tech outfits.
BYD, through its Yangwang label and the U9 Xtreme, is doing much the same at the high end, where margins and brand strength matter more than fleet averages.
Virtual exposure will not fix worries over tariffs, data rules or safety politics. Yet prominent placement in a franchise like Gran Turismo 7 helps normalise Chinese badges for younger buyers who may first “drive” them on a console rather than in a showroom.
https://bit.ly/4a0DIXV
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