Episode #59 - EV100, XPeng earnings, Talking about Lotus & Vinfast

Tu and Lei start this show out by paying homage and giving a big shout-out to their friends that live in Shanghai that are currently on lockdown. 

After the headlines, Lei gives everyone a lesson on the EV100 Conference that is normally held each January but was delayed and finally put online last week. One highlight of the EV100 was the announcement from Horizon Robotics about licensing their IP to OEMs so that the OEMs could piggyback off of their existing chip technology in order to design their own SoCs.

Tu shifts the conversation over to compelling design takes a happy marriage between hardware and software and one without the other would likely make for a bad UX.

The discussion then shifts to XPeng earnings. Lei summarizes the ‘flagpoles’ that XPeng is planting this year likely hit their margins in 2021. The momentum of the P5 & G9 should help them build on their margins as XPeng only needs to focus on marketing these vehicles and launching them on time and on budget. 

Tu then shifts to talking about the launch of the Lotus Eletre and the reactions on social media from the various interested parties. Lei discusses how surprised he was about the Lotus’s extensive sensor kit for ADAS/AV and how now LiDAR and premium sound have become qualifying features in the near-premium/premium segments. 

Tu closes out the pod with his take on Vinfast and their aggressive moves into the US market including their recent announcement of building a factory in North Carolina.