Episode 122 - Delicate Chinese economy, XPeng G6 Importance, So much news to cover

Lei kicks off this episode with his experience going to a Beijing Guoan game - Beijing’s professional soccer team. 

Tu then talks about the pollution blanketing MI with the smog coming from Canada and how it reminds him of his time living in China. 

Onto a detailed discussion about the XPeng G6 which just began delivery this week. Tu and Lei agree about how important this vehicle is for XPeng and the high expectations for the vehicle. 

Tu emphasizes that the Chinese economy has not fully recovered from Zero COVID and that it will be important to keep a close eye on what the Chinese govt is doing to try to jumpstart it and that vehicle purchase is one of the levers to try to do that. 

Tu and Lei compare and contrast XPeng’s strategy and results so far against Li Auto and their success over the last few quarters with new vehicle launches and debate whether Li Auto can achieve 1.6M sales by 2025 that Li Xiang outlined as a goal for the company. 

Tu moves on to give a brief history lesson about how automotive companies used to acquire and develop brand portfolios in order to follow a person’s journey through life with a brand / products for your first job and then having a luxury brand for when you are older and an executive. It looks like some of the EV companies that are launching multiple brands want to also try to use that strategy as well. 

Lei talks about how he’s still getting used to seeing brands and products that he’s not yet seen or heard of while Tu reassures him that he had trouble keeping up with all the news, brands and products that were consistently coming out each week. 

Tu closes out the pod with a summary of some of the news he highlighted in this week’s SAI Newsletter.