As the new year commences, China's top electric vehicle manufacturers have been announcing their delivery volume for the final month and entire year of 2022, a challenging period marked by repeated pandemic-induced lockdowns and supply chain shortages.
On December 30, the 20th Guangzhou International Automobile Exhibition officially opened and attracted many car companies that hope to stimulate consumers' enthusiasm for buying cars during the New Year's Day holiday.
On the day before the opening of the 20th Guangzhou International Automobile Exhibition, which will last from December 30 to January 8, a fire suddenly broke out at the booth of IAT Automobile, a Beijing-based vehicle technology firm.
Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory will reportedly suspend production from January 20-31, longer than China's national Spring Festival holiday from January 21-27. The EV maker responded that most employees at the factory will have a holiday from January 20 to 28.
Voyah, an electric vehicle brand owned by Chinese state-owned automaker Dongfeng Motor Corporation, said on December 28 that its first batch of 500 Voyah Free models had arrived in Oslo, Norway at the end of November. In December, it started local deliveries, now reaching 136 units.
Chinese electric vehicle maker NIO announced on December 27 that due to skyrocketing COVID-19 cases across the country, the company now estimates that 38,500 to 39,500 vehicles will be delivered in the fourth quarter of this year.
Tesla's China chief Tom Zhu stepped down as legal representative of Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., but will remain its chairman. This may be another signal that Zhu is fading out of Tesla's business in China.
Meizu, a Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer, announced on December 23 that it will build 1,000 stores in the next three years, covering not only mobile phones and vehicles, but also AR glasses, tablets, watches and smart home appliances.
Baidu announced on December 26 a major expansion of its commercialized fully driverless robotaxi service in Wuhan, Hubei Province. The move triples the size of its operation areas, increases the number of robotaxis in service and expands the system's operation times to include key evening hours.
In 2018, Chinese automaker Geely sued its rival WM Motor on the grounds of infringing upon its trade secrets. The case has been tried many times over the last few years. The latest judgment showed that WM Motor needs to compensate Geely to the tune of 7 million yuan.
On December 24, Chinese automotive firm NIO released electric flagship coupe SUV EC7 and all-new electric flagship SUV ES8. The firm also unveiled its third-generation battery swap station and commented on its mobile phone business and a recent data leakage incident.
The AITO brand built by Huawei and its car-making partner Seres has sold over 10,000 electric vehicles in August, September and October, but Seres is facing some new problems, such as low profitability and an inability to tear down the label of Huawei's foundry.
TuSimple, an autonomous driving technology company, has announced a restructuring plan which will impact approximately 350 of its employees, or 25% of the workforce, while 80% of the remaining approximately 1,100 employees are in R&D functions.
ECARX Holdings, a Chinese automotive technology startup, listed its shares on the Nasdaq on December 21 alongside special purpose acquisition company COVA Acquisition Corp.
The founder of Chinese electric vehicle maker NIO has said that the company will launch new products during "NIO Day" on December 24. On December 19, spy photos of the firm's EC7 model and ET5 shooting brake version were exposed.
During an internal Huawei meeting on December 8, Richard Yu, the head of the firm's consumer and automotive units, said that vehicle operations should become profitable in 2025.
With the recent easing of stringent COVID-19 control policies across China and increased support for struggling enterprises, many domestic automakers have sped up the resumption of production and kickstarted fresh marketing campaigns in pursuit of their sales targets.
Chinese electric vehicle maker NIO, which set up a subsidiary insurance brokerage firm at the beginning of this year, has recently acquired another insurance company that was established eight years ago.
Spy photos of the first vehicle model created by a trio of Chinese companies, including automaker Chery, tech giant Huawei and battery maker CATL, have surfaced on the internet.
Several Xiaomi employees recently wrote on Chinese career and social networking platform Maimai that during a product launch conference on December 11, roughly 6,000 employees received notices of being laid off.