Automundo China

Toyota and BMW launched their new cars at the Shanghai auto show Wednesday, featuring products tailored to the China market and integrated with AI.

Tesla planned to produce thousands of Optimus robots this year, but are now lacking a key component

STORY: Chinese EV giant BYD is executing a European reboot. Reuters sources - all current or former executives - say the firm is having a rethink after a series of strategic stumbles. That includes failing to sign up enough dealers or hire executives with local-market knowledge. BYD has also decided it needs to offer hybrids in countries still resistant to fully electric vehicles. The executives say it’s now moving fast to tackle all such failings. That includes poaching managers from European automakers, in particular Stellantis. BYD is targeting Europe after enjoying a stellar rise in China, where its sales have risen seven-fold since 2020. It’s now the world’s sixth-biggest automaker, and has overtaken Tesla as the top maker of EVs. But a protracted price war in its home market has made profits hard to come by, and spurred the search for overseas income. The company expanded to Europe in 2023, with bold ambitions. BYD aimed to be the region’s top EV seller by 2030. But the Reuters sources say it failed to do its homework before diving in. They say the core mistake was to treat the area as one market, when car buying customs and preferences are actually very different across European countries. Now some figures suggest its reboot is already paying off. Including the UK, sales in Europe more than tripled in the first quarter of this year. Even so, the firm still has a long way to go. In Germany - the region’s biggest market - BYD sold fewer than 2,900 cars last year.

Global car companies as BMW, Volkswagen and General Motors are attempting to retain their market share in China as tariffs and rising Chinese competition threaten sales.View on euronews

Nissan Motor Co. has committed to invest an additional 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) in China and says it sees the nation’s intensely competitive automobile market as fertile ground to help it develop electric vehicles, an area where it needs to improve in order to get back on its feet.