SAI Weekly #16 - 24: Auto Beijing 2024 SAI Awards
- The Sino Auto Insights team
- May 1, 2024
- 3 min read
We are moving!
We’ve outgrown the current newsletter platform so this will be our last newsletter here before we make our way over to Substack. I am going to try to port all subscribers over automatically but just in case it doesn’t work, please subscribe to our new platform here: https://sinoautoinsights.substack.com
Exhaling now. Just spent 3 days in an XPeng G9 with Lei as we made our way down from Beijing to Shenzhen. That was a total of ~1.5K miles / 2.5K km. We made stops in Zhengzhou and Changsha before pulling up to a hotel here in Shenzhen last night. Traffic and weather cooperated for the most part.
We documented our journey via X (old Twitter) and decided to do this because:
We wanted to test XPeng’s X-NGP intelligent driving system (L2+)
Experience the good and bad of charging while driving cross country in China.
Lei and I both needed to be down in Shenzhen for a few days.
Since I haven’t written in some time, I wanted to make sure you knew I was still around but out of pocket. I am back and sitting at a desk with an empty screen and will do a dump shortly. Appreciate those of you patiently waiting for my next post.
It’s on its way and I have a lot to update you on including my take on:
Latest Jiyue visit
Zeekr 009 Grand launch event
Seeing the Xiaomi SU7
Hosting a happy hour for friends & out of towners
Attending quiet dinner hosted by Google & carwow
AutoBeijing2024
KOL & content creator summit
Bumping into Mary
Road trip to Shenzhen
Tesla FSD in China
This won’t be the newsletter that all happens in though. But to leave you with more than a short update, I’m handing out awards! These awards are for what I saw & experienced in Beijing over the two media days. With pictures. Mostly mine unless specified otherwise.
Best of Show
Jiyue 07
Mazda EZ6
Denza Z9 GT
Buick Electra EV Wagon (picture from Car and Driver)
Fang Cheng Bao Super 9 concept (Picture from CNEVPost)
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Best Impersonator of a Thief
Lei Jun – who stole the show!
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The BALLS OUT booth – this is for the booth that spared no expense (and was one of the biggest to show for it)
Hongqi
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Sylvester Stallone award (the MOST Over The Top product at the show)
XPeng AeroHT
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Chinese Cybertruck
Changan Qiyuan E07 (picture courtesy of CarNewsChina)
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The Rick Astley award For ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ on China
The foreign Legacy Automakers
VW Brand Head of Design - Andreas Mindt, (a very nice dude) in front of the new design language for ID.Series vehicles.
Cadillac Optiq interior
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The ONLY ICE drop that mattered
Ford Bronco – this should be a winner for the Blue Oval (picture from Best Selling Cars blog)
This should hit for Ford. And boy does it need one. Only the four door will be available for sale in China for now.
What do you all think? Agree? Let me know...
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This weekly newsletter is a collection of articles we feel best reflect the happenings of the week or important trends that have effects on the global automotive and mobility sectors. We also provide a point of view that we hope educates and sparks debate.
The Sino Auto Insights team
Sino Auto Insights is a Beijing, China-based market research and advisory firm that specializes in assisting companies analyze, strategize, and develop products and services that will shape the future of mobility and transportation.
Members of our team have experience working in Detroit, Silicon Valley as well as here in China across multiple sectors and functions as entrepreneurs as well as working at larger companies like Apple, Google, Amazon, GM and FCA, and many others.
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The XPeng AeroHT winning the Sylvester Stallone award for most over the top product pretty much writes its own caption. A 1500 mile road trip from Beijing to Shenzhen specifically to test L2+ intelligent driving and charging infrastructure is exactly the kind of real world data that matters more than any press release. Came across a China EV industry roundup over at https://direwolfseo.co.uk/ covering similar Auto Beijing coverage which felt very relevant here. The Ford Bronco being the only ICE drop worth talking about says a lot about where the show's energy was concentrated.
This article https://www.pantherplumbing.com/ offered a clear and balanced look at the challenges facing the auto industry in China. The way you connected policy, pricing pressure, and market dynamics made it easy to follow. I recently came across a related analysis on a pantherplumbing review blog (pantherplumbing), which made this perspective even more interesting.
Your coverage of the SAI Awards and the highlights from Auto Beijing was both informative and well-organized. I particularly appreciated the way you broke down the key innovations in a digestible format. I also came across a discussion on a review blog about https://www.phonydiploma.com/ that touched on recognizing excellence and innovation in different fields, which made me think of your article in a new light.
Great industry coverage https://givingtreefamilylaw.ca/ with clear highlights and takeaways. The event summary was informative without being overwhelming. I’ve seen comparable industry insights mentioned on a givingtreefamilylaw-related review blog, which made this especially engaging.