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Great Wall Motors Releases 2025 Strategy
On June 28th, Great Wall Motors held the Great Wall Technology Festival, where Chairman Wei Jianjun announced the company’s goals for 2025: 1. Selling 4 million vehicles; 2. 80% of vehicle sales to be new energy vehicles; 3. RMB 600 billion in revenue. Additionally, Great Wall Motors plans to launch 50 new energy vehicles by 2025, with the Ora brand targeting worldwide sales of 1 million vehicles by 2023 and the first model of the Salon brand set to launch in 2022.
In terms of autonomous driving, Great Wall Motors plans to achieve a 40% rate of high-level autonomous driving installation by 2025, with high-speed navigation assisted driving already achievable.
Commentary:
This week, the Great Wall Technology Festival opened in Baoding. In the meeting today, Great Wall revealed many figures and timelines related to future development plans. In addition to planning for sales and production, Great Wall plans to invest RMB 100 billion in R&D in the next five years, focusing on areas such as new energy, semiconductors, sensors, and artificial intelligence. The number of R&D employees will increase from the current 15,000 to 30,000, with over 10,000 of those being software developers. Great Wall Motors aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045.
Tesla Recalls 285,520 Model 3/Y Vehicles in ChinaOn June 26, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued a recall notice, announcing the recall of a total of 35,665 imported Model 3 electric vehicles produced between January 12, 2019, and November 27, 2019; a total of 211,256 domestic Model 3 electric vehicles produced between December 19, 2019, and June 7, 2021; and a total of 38,599 domestic Model Y electric vehicles produced between January 1, 2021, and June 7, 2021.
The vehicles within the scope of this recall may experience false activation of their active cruise control system due to a problem with the system, which can cause the vehicle to accelerate to the set speed when the vehicle’s current speed is lower than the set speed. This sudden increase in vehicle speed can affect the driver’s expectation and cause the vehicle to be misjudged, which may lead to a collision in extreme cases and pose a safety hazard.
Comment:
This recall can be carried out through OTA updates, and vehicles that cannot be resolved through OTA updates can be handled at the store. The recall plan did not mention the solution to this hidden danger logic. In response, 42 Garage obtained an answer from Tesla customer service by calling, stating that the new version of the software will add a speed start-up threshold to the ACC settings (automatically set to road speed limit after being turned on). When the speed is lower than this threshold, the ACC needs to be double-confirmed by the driver to start. Tesla customer service did not give a specific OTA update time, but stated that it will be as soon as possible.
XPeng plans to launch its fourth intelligent electric vehicle in 2022
On June 23, Bloomberg reported that XPeng has been approved for listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and can raise up to $2 billion in funding as early as this year, citing anonymous sources. Subsequently, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange disclosed XPeng’s post-listing data, which revealed the fourth vehicle model planned by XPeng.This car will be an SUV with a price between the P7 Wing Limited Edition (starting at RMB 366,900) and P7 (starting at RMB 229,900), expected to be launched in 2022. The new car is based on the same Edward platform as the P7 and will be equipped with advanced autonomous driving system and LIDAR, supporting XPILOT 4.0. XPeng Motors said that the core vehicle system of the new model will be enhanced to provide fast charging capability, a more comprehensive domain control unit, stronger OTA capability, and will be equipped with intelligent chassis and air suspension system.
Quick comment:
Although it is a new car, it is based on the same Edward platform as the P7, which means that the wheelbase of this model is between 2,800 millimeters and 3,100 millimeters, positioning it as a mid-to-large-sized pure electric SUV. XPeng Motors currently has two intelligent electric vehicle platforms, David and Edward. After the hearing, XPeng Motors also stated that they have started to invest in the development of a new platform. In addition to the new car, this new platform is even more worth looking forward to.
Guangzhou Issues Notice to Improve New Energy Vehicle Information Management
On June 27, the Development and Reform Commission of Guangzhou City issued a “Notice on Further Improving New Energy Vehicle Information Management (Trial)” which includes the following 7 regulations of the “Guangzhou New Energy Vehicle Information Management Certificate:”
The “Notice” will be implemented for a period of 2 years, and the specific start date of its implementation has not yet been announced by Guangzhou City.
Quick comment:
The “Guangzhou New Energy Vehicle Information Management Certificate” is a certificate issued by the Guangzhou municipal government to qualified car companies, which implements a one-car-one-certificate system. Users can only apply for new energy indicators and then apply for new energy green license plates after obtaining the certificate. From the details, it can be seen that the new policy is not to limit green license plates but to regulate car companies’ requirements for vehicle safety and facilities, further regulating the industry.
Pony.ai and Geely Group Deny Cooperation to Build Cars
On June 23, according to “Latepost,” Pony.ai and Geely will cooperate to build cars based on the SEA platform. Zhao Qian, the former chief designer of XPeng Motors Design Center, has joined Pony.ai and is responsible for vehicle design.
Quick Take:
Recently, Xiaoma Zhixing and Geely Group stated that rumors of Xiaoma Zhixing entering the car-making market are untrue. They are currently focused on commercializing intelligent driving products. Geely also stated that they have not had any communication with SEA over the development of intelligent electric vehicles. Previously, media reports had been misunderstood.
Panasonic sells all Tesla shares
On June 25th, Nikkei News reported that Panasonic had sold all of its Tesla shares before the end of March this year. However, specific figures are unknown. According to Panasonic’s financial report last year, they earned 429.9 billion yen (approximately US$3.88 billion) in revenue from “equity-method investments and other financial assets sold and repaid,” and Tesla’s stock sales are expected to make up a large proportion of this amount.
Panasonic spokesperson Yayoi Watanabe stated that the sale of Tesla shares was part of the company’s review of the cross-holding policy, and would not affect their relationship with Tesla. Panasonic had also notified them of the transaction in advance.
Quick Take:
In 2009, Panasonic signed a battery supply agreement with Tesla for the first time. In 2010, they purchased Tesla stocks to enhance their collaboration. This time, Panasonic plans to use the proceeds from the stock sale to acquire a software developer called Blue Yonder to improve their operational efficiency.
Audi to stop selling fuel cars by 2033
Recently, Audi announced that they will stop selling fuel cars by 2033 and only launch electric models after 2026.
However, this plan does not include the Chinese market, where they believe there is still a demand for fuel cars. Therefore, they will continue to supply fuel cars to the Chinese market.
Quick Take:# As of now, almost all major automakers have announced their respective electrification transformation timetable.
- Volkswagen Group plans to stop selling fuel vehicles before 2035;
- BMW Group plans to increase the production of electric vehicle models by a quarter between 2021 and 2023;
- Daimler stopped developing internal combustion engines in 2019 and hopes to achieve carbon neutrality by 2039;
- Jaguar plans to achieve complete electrification of all products by 2025;
- Volvo plans to cease production of fuel vehicles starting in 2030 and only sell electric vehicles;
- General Motors plans to only produce electric vehicles after 2035 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2040.
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.