OEM Trends
Gasgoo: XPENG Chairman He Xiaopeng took to social media on Feb 25 to announce that the 2026 XPENG X9 pure electric version is set to officially launch on March 2.
Jiemian News: Aston Martin said on Feb 25 it will slash 20% of its roughly 3,000-strong workforce, a move expected to save about £40 million but cost around £15 million to implement. Annual profit at the luxury automaker missed expectations, weighed down by sluggish demand and tariff pressures. This round of cuts is significantly deeper than the 5% reduction planned just a year ago.
Gasgoo: Gaoyu Flying Car Manufacturing (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd. has officially been established, with Zhang Ning serving as legal representative and a registered capital of 30 million yuan. Ownership data from Qichacha reveals the firm is wholly owned by Guangdong Gaoyu Technology Co., Ltd., which is in turn held by GAC Group. Its core business operations span auto parts manufacturing, intelligent unmanned aerial vehicle sales, civil aircraft maintenance, and digital technology services.
IT Home: Tesla is planning an upgrade to its Matrix Headlights, a distinctive high-tech feature equipped across several of its models. The system aims to maximize visibility clarity for drivers while simultaneously safeguarding oncoming traffic.
Supply Chain News
Gasgoo: Haosi Power's Smart Control Center Lab has officially commenced operations. Expanding from a modest 30 square meters in 2018 to over 600 square meters today, the facility is designed to bolster the company's R&D verification capabilities in intelligent power control. Dedicated to comprehensive testing of powertrain controller software, the lab is equipped with 18 hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) test benches and 21 ECU network and information security test stations.
Gasgoo: EVE Energy has marked a milestone with the completion of its Malaysia base's Phase 2 plant, accelerating its overseas capacity build-out and global expansion. The Malaysia project began operations on Feb 16, 2025, with a planned total capacity of 684 million units across 15 production lines. Phase 1 involves a maximum investment of $420 million (approximately 2.99 billion yuan), focusing on the production of lithium-ion prismatic and cylindrical batteries—a strategic foothold for EVE Energy across the Southeast Asian market.
Industrial Economy
CLS: According to preliminary estimates, nearly ten automakers rolled out "seven-year low-interest loan" financing packages in February, including BYD, Deepal, Haval, Dongfeng eπ, GAC AION, NIO, and Onvo. Extending the count to cover both January and February, that figure rises to more than twenty brands.
CLS: Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), wrote on Feb 25 that the national passenger car inventory stood at 3.57 million units at the end of January 2026. That represents a drop of 80,000 units from the previous month but an increase of 580,000 compared with January 2025, signaling a period of high inventory accumulation. The days' supply of inventory at the end of January 2026 was estimated at 70 days—higher than the 48 days seen in January 2025, and indicating relatively heavy pressure compared to the 65 and 70 days recorded in January 2023 and 2024, respectively. Looking at pure EV manufacturers, industry inventory fell to 620,000 units in September amid efforts to reduce 'involution,' but climbed back to 720,000 units in January 2026. While this is down 160,000 units from the peak, it is still an increase of 60,000 from December. With market performance falling short of expectations, factory and channel inventories for NEV dealers are facing significant pressure.
CLS: As the ownership of new energy vehicles expands and charging infrastructure improves, Sichuan saw a distinct surge in NEV highway travel during this year's Spring Festival holiday. Data from State Grid Sichuan Electric Power shows that highway charging volume across the province reached 11.02 million kWh as of midnight on Feb 24 during the 2026 Spring Festival—a 61.68% jump from the previous year. NEV travel is rapidly becoming a mainstream choice for the holiday rush.
Gasgoo: UK autonomous driving startup Wayve announced on Feb 25 that it has closed a $1.2 billion Series D funding round. The investment was led by major players including Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, Nissan, and Uber, alongside tech giants Nvidia and Microsoft and several investment firms. The company is currently scaling up its robotaxi deployments and collaborating with global automakers on driver-assistance technologies. Wayve noted that including Uber's milestone-based commitments, the total for this round reaches $1.5 billion. This brings cumulative funding to $2.8 billion and boosts the company's valuation to $8.6 billion.
Gasgoo: Yinshi Robot recently announced the completion of C1 and C2 financing rounds, raising a combined total of several hundred million yuan. The C1 round was co-led by the China Mobile Chain Leader Fund and Shenzhen Capital Group, with participation from Boyuan Capital, Fortune Capital, and Primavera Capital. The C2 round was led by the Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund, with follow-on investments from Qiming Ventures, Boyuan Capital, Primavera Capital, Jingshi Digital Economy Fund, and TCL Ventures.
Policy Updates
CLS: Henan Province recently released its "2026 Implementation Plan for Large-scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade-Ins." The proposal sets a target of facilitating the scrappage and replacement of roughly 500,000 personal vehicles and 5 million home appliances by the end of 2026, while further stimulating consumption of digital and smart products.
CLS: The Fujian Provincial Department of Commerce and eight other departments have issued the "2026 Fujian Province Implementation Rules for Automobile Trade-Ins." Under the new rules, consumers trading in for eligible new energy passenger vehicles will receive a subsidy equal to 8% of the new vehicle's sales price, capped at 15,000 yuan; those trading for eligible internal combustion engine passenger vehicles will receive a 6% subsidy, capped at 13,000 yuan.
Personnel Changes
Gasgoo: Yuanli Wuxian announced a key executive appointment on Feb 25: Wang Yizhou, a founding member of Nvidia's DriveAV team, has officially joined as Chief Technology Officer. Wang will oversee technical strategy and team management, partnering with scientist Chen Jiayu—who joined last year—to drive the development of the company's "embodied brain" technology.
Gasgoo: Jaguar Land Rover China recently announced a reshuffle of its top leadership. Pan Qing, the current President and CEO of JLR China, has been promoted to Global Procurement Director while retaining his role as China President, effective immediately. At the same time, current JLR China CFO Tim Howard will succeed Pan as CEO. Wu Chen, the current Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) for China, and his team will now report to Howard.
