After nearly 3.5 years away, my family and I have now been back to Beijing for just over a month. This is the first time since January 2020 that all three of us have stepped on China soil and stayed for an extended period of time. I no longer had the shock culturally or seeing all the EVs on the roads that I felt back in April when I alone came back for the first time since the pandemic for a quick Auto Shanghai 2023 rendezvous (ICYMI: https://blog.evsmart.net/english-content/shanghai-electric-cultural-shock-and-concern/).
It was relatively an easy switch for us: me having lived and worked in Beijing for nearly 20 years before the pandemic, my wife who I met in Beijing is a Beijing native, and my daughter, who was born in Beijing, went to kindergarten and elementary school (until 3rd grade) here. And after 3.5 years living in a rural, small college town in the U.S., it’s great to be back in the big city and experience the daily fabric and vibe of life here, as if nothing had happened in those 3.5 years. That’s what we tell the many relatives, friends and prior acquaintances from work that we have met so far each and every time: life, at leas to us, seems just like how it was before the pandemic.
But we know that’s an overgeneralization. Some of the changes I see, besides the myriad of different EV brands and models on the roads, are that there are a lot more scooters, shared bikes and “waimai brothers” or express delivery guys (or gals in certain instances) on the roads mixed with motor vehicle traffic, causing mobility movement to be even slower and traffic to be more complex than what I experienced before the pandemic, especially at intersections (traffic is definitely worse!). The Chinese society is a scan, pay and go society, more than even before the pandemic. You cannot live without WeChat (or many of its mini programs) or Alipay because every single transaction you can think of is done through those platforms. Even facial recognition and self-checkout have become pretty common in many places like super markets and convenient stores. People generally are working hard, no matter the profession. People do talk about the economy not rebounding as expected and the seriousness of unemployment (21.3% for age 16–24 group in urban areas in June as reported a few days ago by the National Statistics Bureau) is worrisome. Restaurants and shopping centers sometimes are not filled to capacity at peak times. But some of the places that we’ve had meals at, especially a few of the local Peking Duck chains, were always packed with many people waiting in line. But people carry on with their lives. Hot spots like Sanlitun Taikooli are still packed with locals and visitors, popular tourist sites are packed with tourists during the summer peak tourism season, a Beijing Guo’an game that my family went to was packed with enthusiastic spectators and fans. Speaking of packed, I spent two days at the Universal Studios Beijing with my daughter and some other friends in early July during extreme heat, crossing off an item on the bucket list but also seeing with my own eyes the sheer number of people at an amusement park the scale of which I’ve never seen before. Same goes at a local water park that my daughter and I went.
Are people downsizing consumption? The official data certainly shows it with the June month over month drop in retail sales, but it’s not immediately reflected in terms of what I see on the ground. What people tell me is that there seems to be less of fervor or livelihood than before the pandemic. And I do feel a sense of people looking for bargains more. Whatever the case the pandemic and the strict COVID-restrictions especially last year have definitely taken a toll on people psychologically, as well as their outlook for the future, and it may take additional measures from the government (save for another major stimulus package) to inject optimism. Case in point is the measures to boost autos and electronics consumption jointly announced by several ministries and commissions a few days ago.
On the EV, AV and mobility side, after many years of covering the Chinese auto industry through my time at China Auto Review as well as the last 2.5 years co-hosting the China EVs & More podcast, I’ve finally had time to actually experience what I’ve been talking or writing about all this time: “owning” an EV and driving it for an extended period of time and experiencing the charging ecosystem. I am currently driving an AVATR 11 on loan from a former co-worker who works at the smart EV “startup.” The top trim of this uniquely style electric SUV is equipped with dual motors and super long range (680 km) thanks to a 100-kWh+ NCM battery from CATL. AVATR is a brand formed by the so-called “CHN” or Chang’an, Huawei and CATL. It’s just one of many new premium smart EV brands that emerged during the pandemic, the likes of VOYAH, IM, Rising Auto, Deepal, ZEEKR, too many to list here. The 11 drives amazing in terms of handling, the chassis is well tuned and features are rich with intuitive UI and UX in the cockpit. I’ve also experienced the charging ecosystem, having charged the vehicle at charging stations operated by CAMS, a Volkswagen charging joint venture, on two separate occasions, as well as at a Shell charging station. Unlike the debate over CCS and NACS currently in North America, there is only one standard in China and that is the “guobiao” or National Standard. EV charging is also a plug-in, scan, pay, charge and go process, no matter which third-party charging station you charge at, and the experience is as close to Tesla’s plug and charge as possible. Charging simply works and there are plenty of places to charge an EV, at least in a big city like Beijing, which I think is an important reason driving EV adoption in China in addition to the purchase tax exemption that was recently extended for two more years, as well as the myriad of EV models at all price points with great features that you can buy.
I’ve also visited quite a few smart EV showrooms including Denza, ZEEKR, Tesla, NIO, VOYAH, smart, BYD, LeapMotor, VW ID., Xpeng, Li Auto, etc. which have taken over shopping malls and plazas. A Denza showroom, for example, that opened at a mall that I frequented near where I lived before the pandemic used to be a KFC restaurant. It’s great to talk to the sales people many of whom are very patient and willing to talk to you and explain their cars and offer you a test drive. They all have their ways to market their own products and dunk on competitors, so it’s interesting to hear perspectives from these sales people. I’ve already test rode the Denza N7 and ZEEKR X, two of the most talked about EVs on the market, and I should be getting an Xpeng G6 for a few days at the end of this month so really looking forward to experiencing especially the ADAS features like the city NGP that Xpeng tout so much about.
Speaking of test rides, on the afternoon that I picked up the AVATR 11, I went to Yizhuang, a southeastern suburb where the Beijing Highly Automated Driving Demonstration Zone (BJHAD) is located and test rode the latest versions of Baidu’s Apollo Moon as well as WeRide’s fully driverless robotaxis. Yes! I was on cloud nine because I got to test ride two different fully driverless robotaxis in the same afternoon and I might have been the first in the world to experience the one from WeRide, which had just gotten permits to run these in BJHAD a few days earlier. It was great to compare the difference in planning, control and decision making of two different types of robotaxis, with the more established Baidu offering a more conservative and smooth ride compared to the more aggressive ride from an AV startup like WeRide. But both cases the robotaxis handled the loop without any incidents with the exception of a few corner cases that were navigated around pretty well. There are also a few other companies running testing or pilot operations in the area including Pony.ai and AutoX and hopefully I’ll get a chance to try those as well. Coincidentally, on the same day that I test rode the robotaxis, BJHAD announced that soon these fully driverless robotaxis will be able to offer paid rides like what Cruise is doing in San Francisco, which I got to test ride in last November. So I’d say I’m probably one a few people in the world who have experienced fully driverless robotaxi rides in both the U.S. and China and on multiple platforms.
Some of these EV, AV related experiences I’ve talked more in detail on China EVs & More so make sure you tune in at https://chinaevsandmore.buzzsprout.com/ or subscribe wherever you get your podcast. But there is just too many details and interesting anecdotes to list here. I just want to say, what I and my family have experienced so far in Beijing I’m full of appreciation and gratefulness that we have the opportunity to do so. The conversations we’ve had, the places that we’ve been to, the meals that we have eaten and the support we’ve gotten from family and friends have been tremendous. Exactly a month from today, we will head back to the U.S. I know it will be very difficult to say goodbye. Hopefully I’ll get to cross off some more items from my bucket list as I’ll plan a couple trips to other parts of China before I leave.
July 23, 2023
Beijing
