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NIO Delivered 11,348 ES8s in 2018
On January 10th, NIO released the number of ES8s delivered in December 2018 and the total number of deliveries in 2018. NIO delivered a total of 11,348 ES8s in 2018, including 3,318 in December. NIO achieved their goal of delivering 10,000 ES8s.
Comments: In the past year, NIO has experienced difficulties in scaling production but has been at the forefront of new energy vehicles. The bet between William Li and XPeng He ended with Li’s victory. After achieving the goal of delivering 10,000 ES8s, NIO still needs to continue to work hard in areas such as the production of ES6 and software improvements. This is just the first step of a long journey.
WM Motor Forms Strategic Partnership with Baidu
On January 9th, at the CES exhibition in Las Vegas, WM Motor and Baidu announced a long-term strategic partnership and the establishment of the WM & Apollo Joint Intelligent Automotive Technology R&D Center. Under the cooperation agreement, Baidu Apollo will provide WM with complete L3 and L4 autonomous driving solutions, and the L3 highway autonomous driving solution will be mass-produced in 2021. The cooperation will cover many aspects, such as vehicle computing platform hardware solutions, high-precision map and self-positioning services, simulation services, safety services, OTA services and more.
At the same time, WM Motor also stated that the WM ADAS advanced driving assistance system with L2 autonomous driving function will be open for configuration in the first half of 2019.
> Quick Review: With the launch of Apollo Enterprise Edition, WM Motor becomes a partner with Baidu in autonomous driving development. Although L3 is still a bit far away from us, L2 of EX5 is almost there. In this year for new forces to release their autonomous driving functions, how competitive WM Motor is?
Borgward releases teaser image, first SUV to debut this year
Recently, Borgward released a teaser image of its first model, a crossover SUV. According to previous official news, the car will officially debut at the Shanghai Auto Show this year and will be listed at the end of this year.
The car is 4600 mm in length, with a wheelbase of 2900 mm and is positioned as a medium-sized 5-seater SUV. The car will be equipped with L2 or higher level of autonomous driving function, with a battery energy density of over 160 Wh/kg, and in the future will be exceed 180 Wh/kg, there will be two versions of 500 km and 600 km endurance, and will be produced by FAW under commission.
Quick Review: In this year where new automotive forces are gathering, it is particularly important for consumers to remember new brands. Borgward has been relatively late in brand building and product launch. How many people will be interested in it? Let’s wait and see at the Shanghai Auto Show.
Tesla Model S/X 75D model halted sales
On January 10, Elon Musk tweeted that the 75D version of Tesla Model S and Model X would cease sales on January 14. From now on, Model S/X models will only be available with a 100 kWh battery. The starting price of Model S will be adjusted to CNY 8,496,000 (100D model) and the starting price of Model X will be adjusted to CNY 9,525,000 (100D model).
Quick Review: Is the cancellation of 75D versions of Model S/X to make way for Model 3? However, even with the CNY 560,000 Model 3 P, there is still a small CNY 300,000 difference from the Model S 100D. Will potential S/X buyers turn to Model 3 because of the cancellation of 75D?
2018 annual sales chart released, new energy vehicle sales exceeded 1 million units
The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers released data on January 10th that shows the wholesale sales of domestically produced narrow definition passenger vehicles in 2018 were 23.237 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 4.0%. The top three rankings are SAIC Volkswagen, FAW Volkswagen, and SAIC-GM. In December 2018, the wholesale sales of new energy narrow definition passenger vehicles reached 160,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 70%. The sales volume of new energy passenger vehicles in 2018 reached 1.01 million units, a year-on-year increase of 83%, exceeding market expectations.
Meanwhile, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers also announced the new energy vehicle sales rankings. The top three spots were occupied by BAIC New Energy EC Series, Chery eQ, and Qin Pro DM.
Quick Comment: In 2018, while the overall passenger car market was somewhat sluggish, the high growth rate of new energy vehicles was particularly eye-catching. Additionally, it’s worth mentioning that within the category of new energy vehicles, the growth rate of plug-in hybrids is significantly higher than that of pure electric vehicles. This indicates that, during this period, plug-in hybrids were a relatively safe choice.
Autopilot is Safer Than Human Drivers
On January 9th, according to Electrek, Tesla released its latest safety report for the fourth quarter of last year. The report indicates that, in the fourth quarter, there was one accident every 2.91 million miles when using Autopilot, compared to one accident every 1.58 million miles when Autopilot was not engaged. Autopilot semi-automatic driving still appears to be safer than human drivers.
Quick Comment: Although the data speaks for itself, there is always a lot of attention and criticism when autonomous driving or assisted driving systems have accidents. Perhaps this is just something that inevitably happens when disruptive technology is introduced.
Electric Vehicle 100-People Forum Convenes
From January 11th to 13th, the Electric Vehicle 100-People Forum (2019) was held at the Beijing Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. Many leaders, experts, and executives attended and gave speeches, including the Chairman of the Electric Vehicle 100-People Forum, Chen Qingtai, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and President of the China Association for Science and Technology, Wan Gang, Minister of Industry and Information Technology, Miao Wei, and Chinese Academy of Sciences Academician Ouyang Minggao.
The overall trend showcased in the conference was a high degree of attention to battery safety, practical concerns about driving range, focus on infrastructure, and the shift of decision-making power from policy to market.
Quick Comment: As one of the most influential new energy vehicle conferences in China, the Electric Vehicle 100-People Association always conveys some technological development and policy directions. Safety issues were raised to a new height at this conference, and the market-leading policy direction was also clarified. Experts generally mentioned that 2025 will be the year when the cost of electric vehicles reaches the level of traditional energy vehicles, and electric vehicles will achieve significant development. Let us look forward to that day together.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.