Tu and Lei start the pod with their thoughts on Li Auto’s big unveil for this year, the L9. The conversation evolves into a broader discussion about Li Auto’s future ambitions and how they compare to their domestic competitors who are more focused on the international markets.

The discussion moves over to some recent moves by Volkswagen and Mercedes that points to their continued emphasis on the China market.  They discuss how one makes sense but the other may do the opposite of what is intended. 

Tu and Lei then talk about the challenges that Volkswagen faces in the China market and what they should be doing to prep their local team for long-term battle and fight to maintain share even as the players around them seem to be moving faster with better products.

The next topic Tu and Lei discuss is the Qilin battery announcement from CATL that’s going to be in customer’s vehicles next year. 

Tu spends the last part of the pod listing out what he thought were the most interesting things that he thought happened during the week including news about Tesla in India & China, Foxconn/Lordstown Motors, ELMS, NIO in the news for the wrong reasons and DeepRoute’s move to short haul, autonomous trucking.