Nio (NYSE: NIO) founder, chairman and CEO William Li disclosed at a Friday media briefing — a day after Nio launched the five-seat ES8 on July 9, 2026 — that the ES8 SUV's per-vehicle cost has risen by nearly 20,000 yuan ($2,950) due to surging raw material prices, according to Sina Tech.
Li said Nio is working with supply chain partners to find ways to offset some of the added costs and is striving to keep vehicle prices stable, as rising raw material costs create sustained pressure for China's EV makers.
Li also noted that in May 2026, Nio's sales surpassed Germany's three major luxury brands across 48 cities and regions in China.
Li Auto's all-new pure-electric SUV, the i9, has appeared in China's MIIT regulatory filings, signaling progression toward its official launch in September 2026.
The i9 features a 5,225 mm body length, 3,168 mm wheelbase, 400 kW combined power output from dual-motor AWD, and 6-seat configuration—exceeding specifications of Li Auto's current flagship i8.
As the newest member of Li Auto's 9-series flagship family, the i9 continues the company's product positioning strategy in the premium large family SUV market segment.
Nio began nationwide deliveries of a 5-seat ES8 SUV variant in China on July 10, 2026, immediately following the model's official launch on July 9.
The 5-seat variant starts at 382,800 yuan ($56,470) with battery included, 5.9% lower than the 3-row version; ES8 deliveries fell 21.85% sequentially in June.
The expansion aims to broaden market appeal and restore momentum to Nio's best-selling model; founder William Li and co-founder Qin Lihong attended the inaugural delivery ceremony.
BYD's Fang Cheng Bao brand has filed the Shark plug-in hybrid pickup with China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), marking regulatory progress toward a domestic launch after the vehicle began overseas sales in Mexico in May 2024.
The vehicle combines a 1.5T engine with dual electric motors (170kW front, 150kW rear) for 320kW total motor power, uses LFP batteries from BYD's FinDreams subsidiary, and will be manufactured in Zhengzhou, Henan province, with a 0-100 km/h acceleration of 5.7 seconds.
The Shark represents BYD's vertical integration strategy leveraging its own battery subsidiary and expansion into commercial vehicle segments with PHEV technology, demonstrating how Chinese OEMs are diversifying beyond passenger cars.
Mercedes-Benz Group announced on July 8, 2026 that it sold 511,900 Cars and Vans in Q2, with sales outside China up 3% year-over-year.
Battery electric vehicle (BEV) sales rose 50% in the quarter, significantly outpacing the group's overall sales growth.
Among the BEV lineup, the Mercedes-Benz VLE 300 electric posts a combined energy consumption of 20.7-18.4 kWh/100 km, zero CO2 emissions, and CO2 class A*, underscoring the efficiency profile behind Mercedes' accelerating electric push.
Weichai Power (HKG:2338) announced on July 10, 2026 that its self-developed WP15 hydrogen direct-injection heavy-duty engine passed full China VI vehicle emission certification on July 3, 2026 at the CATARC Automotive Test Center in Tianjin.
The certification is the first time a heavy-duty hydrogen internal combustion engine, in China or globally, has met the country's stringent China VI emission standard.
Testing covered the complete national heavy-duty engine emission test cycle — cold start, low-speed idling, high-speed full-load, and transient variable-load conditions — verifying the engine's emission performance, reliability and stability under real-world operating scenarios.
NHTSA warned that driverless vehicles fail to recognize traffic cones, smoke, and fire, and cannot safely interact with first responders during emergencies.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk calls driverless vehicles a key engine of the company's future, meaning regulatory setbacks pose a direct threat to Tesla's share price.
Goldman Sachs' autonomous-vehicle growth forecast starts from a base of roughly 1,500 robotaxis operating across 5 U.S. cities today, underscoring how much the industry's expansion still depends on regulatory clearance.
On July 7, 2026 local time, Gasgoo CEO Zhou Xiaoying spoke at the 2026 Europe-China Automotive Industry Cooperation Salon held in Stuttgart, Germany, joining Chinese and European automotive supply-chain representatives and experts to discuss new trends in China's auto sector.
The salon centered on Chinese automakers' accelerating push into the European market and European OEMs' growing interest in deeper cooperation with Chinese partners on new energy vehicles, intelligent technology, and supply chains, providing a face-to-face platform for resource matching and win-win outcomes.
Zhou's keynote, titled "The Next Chapter for China's Auto Industry — From Market Scale Advantage to System-Level Innovation," drew on Gasgoo's industry perspective to frame China's auto sector shift from scale-driven growth toward system-level innovation.
On July 9, 2026, Xiaomi (HKEX: 1810) released the first interior images and a high-definition side profile of the debut model in its Sky Nomad series, revealing rotating front-row seats and a settable in-car "bar counter," while opening the vehicle for reservation inquiries the same day.
Sky Nomad is Xiaomi's second product series after the SU7/YU7 lineup, and this SUV is its first model, which Xiaomi positions as an "intelligent, transformable large-space SUV."
On July 8, 2026, Autoliv and XPENG Group formally signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement in Guangzhou, deepening collaboration across technical synergy, digitalization, low-carbon sustainability, new technology development, and global support.
Autoliv EVP and CTO Fabien Dumont said the tie-up moves beyond a traditional supplier relationship toward co-creation and joint development, with Autoliv's China team committed to supporting every new XPENG product with agile response and engineering resilience.
Autoliv, the world's largest automotive safety supplier with roughly 44-45% of the global passive safety market, 25 countries of operations, 65 production bases and 13 R&D centers, deepens this partnership as XPENG accelerates its 'Physical AI + Globalization' strategy.
XPeng's CEO He Xiaopeng completed the first internal passenger ride on the company's robotaxi platform in Guangzhou, demonstrating full end-to-end autonomous service functionality just eight months after announcing the project at its 2025 AI Day.
The test successfully connected the complete service chain from ride request through autonomous pickup and dropoff; XPEV stock rose 1.5% on the announcement.
XPeng plans to complete trial operations and begin regular demonstration services in Guangzhou during 2026, positioning its Physical AI-powered robotaxi as a competitive response to global autonomous-driving development efforts.
Tesla filed a new Model Y Performance variant in China through MIIT's regulatory process, with public disclosure from July 11-17 and production at its Shanghai facility.
The variant reaches 250 km/h top speed with dual-motor AWD (176 kW front, 291 kW rear), LG Energy Solution ternary battery pack, performance suspension, and 21-inch wheels (255/35R21 and 275/35R21 tires).
Model Y represents 73.04% of Tesla's June China deliveries; the Performance version will be priced above the current ¥339,000 Model Y L, strengthening Tesla's competitive position in China's premium EV segment.
Tanzania's richest businessman Mohammed Dewji's MeTL Group will invest about $275 million in graphite mining, with commercial production targeted within 18 months.
The graphite output is aimed at supplying the growing EV battery market, alongside a parallel push into luxury tourism, as part of MeTL's plan to grow annual revenue to $10 billion by 2035.
The bet reflects a broader wave of African investment aimed at capturing supply-chain value as automakers worldwide race to lock in critical battery minerals for electrification.
Waymo's Ojai, the company's first vehicle purpose-built as a robotaxi, launched on California streets last month (June 2026), and each ride is currently free because Waymo still lacks California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approval to charge passengers.
Waymo, an Alphabet subsidiary, filed with the CPUC in January 2026 to expand paid service, but the review has been delayed by unresolved questions such as how the vehicles respond in emergencies and how to prevent unaccompanied minors from riding; the CPUC has extended its review deadline to September 25, 2026, though it says a decision could come sooner.
The episode shows how a single state regulator's safety sign-off — not vehicle readiness — currently gates when and where a robotaxi fleet can start generating fare revenue, a bottleneck any autonomous-vehicle operator scaling commercial service must clear.
NHTSA is scrutinizing robotaxi safety after documenting instances of autonomous vehicles driving into active emergency scenes and blocking first responders.
The regulatory body identified that AVs unable to safely interact with first responders pose a danger to public safety.
NHTSA will conduct meetings with robotaxi developers this month to discuss solutions for autonomous vehicle emergency scene interaction.
New Jersey has proposed a bill to launch a three-year pilot program for testing and deploying fully autonomous vehicles statewide, with a vote expected later this year; it would require such vehicles to be equipped with cameras plus two additional types of sensors, a mandate that conflicts with Tesla's camera-only autonomy hardware strategy.
Before companies can remove human safety monitors, the bill requires at least 50,000 miles of supervised testing on New Jersey roads without a major incident, plus mandatory reporting of certain crashes and state approval before any commercial robotaxi service can launch.
Because Tesla CEO Elon Musk has insisted on a camera-only sensor suite for the company's robotaxi ambitions, this multi-sensor mandate could effectively keep Tesla's robotaxis out of New Jersey unless it changes its hardware approach, highlighting a widening gap between Tesla's vision-only bet and regulators' growing preference for multi-sensor redundancy in autonomous driving.
NHTSA has issued a warning to robotaxi companies requiring them to ensure their vehicles do not obstruct first responders, with compliance changes mandated by the end of this month.
The warning lands as Waymo, owned by Alphabet, prepares to expand its robotaxi service to San Diego, Las Vegas, Tampa, and Denver in the coming weeks.
Waymo has recently faced a voluntary recall of nearly 3,900 robotaxis after software issues caused vehicles to enter freeway construction zones, according to a CNBC report.
