Beijing Auto Show and two EV road trips: recapping an incredible month in China
Time really flies.
As I write this, I’m currently somewhere above the Bering Sea, about halfway to Beijing on a 15-hour flight from JFK.
I’m heading back to Beijing again, this time with family for the summer, less than two weeks after having returned to the U.S. from one of the most incredible months spent in China. It’s almost as if I haven’t left.
The month-long trip from April 22 to May 20 had three major items on the itinerary for me: attending the Beijing Auto Show (also known as Auto China 2024) which returned after a 4-year hiatus (6-year for me); followed by an EV road trip where my co-host Tu Le and I drove an Xpeng G9 from Beijing to Shenzhen in three days; and culminating with another EV road trip taking several investors visiting 8 EV-related companies in 5 cities in 5 days in collaboration with TechBuzz China.
And if I may add a fourth one which is non-EV related but nevertheless automotive related and very dear & near to my heart: attending the opening of my father’s Golf Heritage Museum at the conclusion of the Volvo China Open in early May in Shenzhen at the Hidden Grace Golf Club. It was very cool and inspiring to see my father’s second dream come true after starting China Automotive Review, his first dream, nearly 30 years ago. I owe him for who I am and where I am today and for constantly inspiring me with his endless energy and passion.
And everything else that happened in between: the countless conversations I’ve had with industry friends old and new at various occasions and events, the companies I visited and some of the latest vehicles and technologies I experienced. It was action packed and non-stop. I was basically on the road for nearly three weeks after the Beijing Auto Show up until I returned to Beijing from the investor trip.
Here’s a laundry list of my activities during the month-long trip:
April 22: landed in Beijing;
April 23: Attended Volkswagen Group International Media Workshop, did an interview with Tian Wei on CGTN previewing Beijing Auto Show, checked out the Xiaomi SU7 at one of the showrooms in Beijing, had the China EVs & More happy hour at Jing A;
April 24: Attended Volkswagen Group Capital Markets Day live viewing and Volkswagen Group Media Night;
April 25–27: Attended Beijing Auto Show, tons of walking and met many industry friends old and new;
April 28–30: Drove an Xpeng G9 with co-host Tu Le from Beijing to Shenzhen with stops in Zhengzhou, Changsha and Guangzhou (stopped by Xpeng HQ), covering about 2,300 km and charging a total of 10 times along the way with no issues;
May 1: Played in the 2024 Volvo China Open ProAm, won some gifts during dinner;
May 2: Rested, did slow charging for the Xpeng G9 at one of the TELD’s A/C charging (7kW) piles in the apartment complex where I was staying;
May 3: Visited Snow Capital team in Nanshan, did an Beijing Auto Show recap with CGTN’s Liu Xin, saw Meituan delivery drones in action, drove back to Longgang and test rode Baidu Apollo fully-driverless Robotaxis;
May 5: Saw Volvo China Open third & final round, met Snow Bull Capital Team again and witnessed the opening of my dad’s Golf Heritage Museum, did another roundtrip robotaxi ride with Tu, did some more A/C charging overnight;
May 6: Visited DeepRoute and took a ride in one of their test vehicles for L2++ ADAS, dropped off Tu at Shenzhen airport;
May 7: Went out and did some charging hunting, did a 360-kW charge at an Xpeng S4 charger, and then saw another set of Xpeng-branded 480-kW chargers later at one of the biggest battery-swapping EV charging complex I’ve seen, visited RoboSense, drove to Dongguan to visit old college mate;
May 8: Drove back to Guangzhou and visited WeRide, rode in a WeRide robotaxi and RoboBus, saw some RoboSweepers in action, finally returned the G9 after 10 days, flew to Shanghai;
May 9: Gave an auto show recap at AmCham Shanghai event, had lunch with an industry friend, had coffee with two other industry contacts, met up with a new industry friend that I met at Auto Shanghai who introduced me to a couple of Xiaomi SU7 owners over drinks at the Bund in Shanghai, test rode a Xiaomi SU7 for the first time;
May 10: Visited SenseTime and SenseAuto, visted Bloomberg Shanghai, had coffee with an UBS Analyst, had dinner with a dealer consultant and test drove a JIYUE 01;
May 11: Met a couple of more industry friends and media friends during the day, recorded China EVs & More episode #164;
May 12: Test drove a Xiaomi SU7 courtesy of the owner I met earlier, met Dr. Junli Gu, founder & CEO of Dazhuo and former head of autonomous driving at Xpeng; kicked off TechBuzz China EV Trip in Shanghai with dinner and surprised the investors with two Xiaomi SU7 EVs for them to test drive and ride;
May 13: Visited smart EV startup JIDU (joint venture between Geely and Baidu) in Shanghai and LiDAR startup Seyond in Suzhou;
May 14: Visited leading EV charging operator Star Charge in Changzhou, leading smart EV startup NIO and Volkswagen Group-invested battery cell supplier Gotion in Hefei;
May 15: Visited battery cell supplier SVOLT in Changzhou, flew to Shenzhen and visited a popular shopping wall to check out and even test ride some of the smart EVs (AITO, JIYUE and AVATR), had dinner with an executive from a Shenzhen-based large tech company;
May 16: Visited LiDAR startup RoboSense in Shenzhen, had dinner with a couple of expats living in Shenzhen;
May 17: Visited leading Chinese NEV manufacturer BYD in Shenzhen, some of the investors got to test ride a Baidu Apollo robotaxi;
May 18: Returned to Beijing in the morning via an overnight soft sleeper train, recorded China EVs & More episode #165;
May 20: Left for the U.S.
This is by no means an exhaustive recap of one of the most interesting, fun and rewarding months I’ve had in recent memory. It was eye-opening even for me, someone who has closely followed China’s auto industry for nearly the last quarter century. And I learned so much along the way.
Here are some key takeaways from each of the major items on the itinerary:
#Beijing Auto Show:
The Beijing (Shanghai) Auto Show remains as the only relevant and truly global auto show in the world. The only other auto show that comes close is the revamped IAA Mobility in Munich that succeeded the Frankfurt Motor Show. It is also my home auto show, having attended at least 10 times during my years at China Auto Review so I definitely had plans to attend thoroughly.
The number of foreign faces I saw was at least 10X Shanghai Auto Show last year. There were 28,000 foreign visitors including 7,401 foreign dealer representatives, according to the show organizers.
This was a “party in a bloodbath:” a respite and a mini-break from one of the most cutthroat and prolonged price wars I’ve ever seen in all my years of covering China’s auto industry.
It was Lei Jun and Xiaomi’s world. After breaking the internet with the launch of the SU7 in late March, Xiaomi broke Hall W2 with its press conference and people lining up at its booth to get a glimpse of the SU7. Lei Jun created both massive online and foot traffic as well as congestion with his entourage and visits. According to both the show organizers and Xiaomi, of the 892,000 people that visited the Beijing Auto Show, over 150,000 visited Xiaomi’s booth.
On the other extreme, it was jarring to see how low key GM CEO Mary Barra and President Mark Reuss were walking the halls. It was also great to bump into Jose Munoz, CEO of Hyundai Motor North America, being his customer as an owner of the Santa Fe Hybrid in the U.S. and also chatting about the previous Beijing Auto Show that both of us attended, which was the 2018 edition when he was in charge of Nissan’s China business and had unveiled the Sylphy EV then. “I was completely shocked by the great progress made by the Chinese OEMs over the last 6 years,” he wrote me in an email.
It was great to see the interactions among global and Chinese CEOs led by Lei Jun & Co. I happened to see interactions between Oliver Blume and Oliver Zipse as well as Blume with CATL Chairman Robin Zeng at Porsche’s booth, Lei Jun walking with Li Xiang and Zhu Huarong, Lei Jun visiting Ola Källenius at the Mercedes booth, Renault CEO Luca de Meo speaking to JIYUE’s head of design Frank Wu, Wang Chuanfu visiting Dongfeng, and Zeng visiting He Xiaopeng. In some way the Beijing Auto Show turned into the “Beijing People Show” of the big shots overshadowing the big new model reveals.
The Chinese again dominated the show in terms of EV reveals. My top favorites in terms of design and innovative features were the ZEEKR Mix, Denza Z9 GT, BYD Ocean-M, JIYUE 07, STELATO S9 and Qiyuan E07. On the foreign side, I liked the ID.CODE, Mazda EZ-6 and MINI Aceman.
How media is consumed has completely changed: there were both Chinese and foreign KOLs livestreaming throughout the show and the organizers even required applicants to have a certain number of fans or followers on their platforms to be granted media credentials.
After the shock last year, the foreign legacies in particular the Germans came back to Beijing with a vengeance, led by Volkswagen Group. It was heartwarming to see the interaction between He Xiaopeng and Ralf Brandstatter at the Volkswagen Group Night about how He grew up with Volkswagen the last 40 some years and now standing on stage as a key partner to the leading foreign automaker in China.
The competition in smart cockpit and second row seating comfort was on display with the likes of the Li MEGA, Xpeng X9, ZEEKR 009 Grand, WEY Lanshan, EXEED STERRA ET, Dongfeng eπ 008, etc.
I couldn’t remember any relevant new ICEV model unveiled, except for maybe the new VW Tiguan L Pro and Magotan with DJI Automotive inside dubbed as the “smartest ICEVs,” NEVs were front and center and dominated the show.
The new tech kids on the block to keep a close eye on are Horizon Robotics, Black Sesame, DJI Automotive and SenseAuto. The Big 3 LiDAR startups of RoboSense, Hesai and Seyond all revealed their cheaper next generation LiDARs as they become commoditized and go on more vehicles.
Huawei was in full force putting up several booths of its Qiankun automotive solutions, powertrain business, Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance (HIMA) and partner SERES (which produces the AITO).
Elon stole the headlines on the first Sunday of the show by touching down in Beijing and meeting Chinese Premier and old pal Li Qiang, delivering news that FSD is now in the process of being made available to Tesla owners in China. Musk’s visit preceded Chinese President Xi Jinping’s trip to Europe and followed visits by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The geopolitical stakes re: EV tariffs between China and Europe and China and the U.S. couldn’t be any higher.
I’m just glad more of the world saw and experienced first-hand how competitive, advanced and international the China EV Inc. and China Tech Inc. were, and how foreign legacy automakers are embracing them as crucial partners to be successful in China.
#ChinaEVRoadTrip:
After this trip, I am erasing range anxiety out of my vocabulary. Every single charging session throughout the journey was seamless and issue-free. No matter the brand of the charging operator, it was simply plug, scan and charge thanks to one national standard. The caveat is of course a little bit of planning and avoiding the May 1 Labor Day holiday travel rush.
Of the total of roughly 3,000 km that was eventually driven throughout the 10-days I’ve had with the Xpeng G9, I’d say more than 2,500 km was under the XNGP mode, Xpeng’s advanced driver assistance feature or often known as L2+ ADAS that is currently one of the most competitive racetracks in the smart EV space in China. The XNGP with Xpeng’s latest AI Tianji 5.1 OS offered superb highway and even urban scenario NOA (navigate on autopilot) features that really helped with alleviating fatigue in long-distance driving and even some of the urban driving scenarios.
This trip provided great insights into the China EV charging ecosystem as well as the capabilities and quality of an EV that’s among the countless of similar EVs that are on offer at competitive prices and rich tech features. It’s fair to say Volkswagen has picked a the right partner and a model platform to develop two B-segment SUVs for 2026. It would be interesting to see how Volkswagen will market and position what in simple terms will be a VW-badged Xpeng G9 in two year’s time.
It was great to see the different scenery along the journey and every city we stopped along the way had their own vibes and cultural characteristics, but there is something in common: the number of vehicles with green license plates (which denote NEVs) were a common sighting and charging infrastructure was widely available.
#TechBuzzChinaEVTrip:
Like the investors, it was also the first time for me to have visited so many Chinese companies along the EV value chain in so little time.
What was eye-opening for me (and I hope for the investors as well) was not the advanced technologies or products that the investors got to see and experience were valuable, but really the talent from these companies at various levels of positions driving the development, growth and globalization of these companies. This is what makes China tick. And this is why China is ahead on EVs. And many of these companies are already very international thanks to these talents. It was very inspiring for me.
It was really nice to hear from the dinner guests many of whom have lived and worked in China for extended periods of time and their valuable on-the-ground perspectives, views and insights.
I believe the companies that we visited and the representatives that hosted us also gained something in return through the thought provoking questions that they received from the investors as well as the conversations.
I’m super thankful for all those, too many to list, that have made this month-long trip possible, enlightening, entertaining and so memorable.
In case you missed it, please tune into our recent episodes of China EVs & More for more perspectives of Beijing Auto Show and the EV road trips:
Episode #163: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/china-evs-more/id1568843912?i=1000657233743
Episode #163 in video format recorded in the Xpeng G9 on our way down to Shenzhen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY4Y3mA8Pwo&t=11s
Episode #164: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/china-evs-more/id1568843912?i=1000657285236
