Where “Kaya Ko” Began

The Biggest Auto Show in History is happening right now, right here in Beijing, nearly 1500 vehicles and over 180 world premieres. But it's not just about shiny new models, oh no, China is rewriting the rules of the road, from next-gen batteries to smarter assisted driving. So what are the biggest trends coming out of Beijing now and how will they reshape the cars that we drive? We're live from our studios here in Beijing, this is Roundtable, I'm Steve, thank you so much for being with us today, and for the show and with Feifei and Yushan. First up. The global auto industry has headed straight to Beijing, and this year it's arriving in a very big way. So China 2026 is set to be the largest auto show ever held anywhere in the world, nearly 1500 vehicles on display more than 180 making their premiere, and the entire industry is showcasing what's coming up next. There are big changes happening in automotive innovation, from giant electric SUVs and next-gen batteries to smarter assisted driving and even dedicated insurance for autonomous vehicles, China is increasingly setting the pace for the global car industry. So what are the biggest trends to watch for it this year's Beijing auto show? We are about to find out Feifei and Yushan, and if I'm being honest, I do enjoy a story about cars. Oh, surprisingly. I don't know, surprising. Yeah, right. I really expect you to be a car fan. Oh, very, very much so. I mean, I wouldn't call myself an expert by any stretch, but I enjoy. I've been to auto shows before, and they're really fun. You get to walk around and check out the cool, you know, new tech in terms of what's available. And then you see the cars that aren't cars yet, and probably will never be cars. They're just those kinds of cars. Concept cars. Yeah, the concept cars that are on display. Those are fun too. They usually have some older models to check out. So yeah, it's just a really, really good time. And it's special this year here in Beijing, because as I mentioned, it's the biggest one held anywhere in the world. Exactly. It's the biggest auto show quite literally, because it spends a massive 380,000 square meters, which is about more than 50 standard football pitches. So you can imagine the scale of the halls. That's been housing all these different kinds of, you know, electric vehicles or vintage vehicles or large or small, or even I heard, there are also like aviation drones in display as part of the venues. And now it happens in the district called Shunyi in Beijing. And it drops a dual venue model that utilizes both the Chinese International Exhibition Center Shunyi New venue and the Capital International Exhibition Convention Center. So for those of us who are curious about, you know, what's been on display during in this Beijing auto show, prepare yourself for a lot of leg works. Yeah. Check out your steps by the end of the day. I bet you'll be more than 20,000. If you haven't been getting in shape to prepare for this, you may regret it, I suppose. Happening, well, it started April 24th and it's going on until the third of May, right? Yeah. Exactly. Just previously one day ago, one of my British friend who's been in Beijing for a long time, he texted us in the group saying, I've got tickets for the auto show here in Shunyi. Is anybody joining? I was like, what? Wait, that's going on already? Apparently it has. So what else is so impressive about this show is that companies from 21 different countries and regions, they have come to take part too. They're bringing together some of the world's leading car makers and supply chain partners and technology innovators. And altogether, the show features 1,451 vehicles on display and that includes 181 cars making their world debut and 71 futuristic concepts. That's a lot of concept cars. Yeah, that's a lot of concept cars that's offering just the glimpse into what driving actually look like in the future. That's so cool. And right now, I think the auto show is opening to the media, all the traders, but for the general public, you can visit the massive auto display from April the 28th to May the 3rd with visiting hours between 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. And the tickets are set into prizes. So 50 yuan, which is about more than seven US dollars per day between April 28th to the 3rd and also on May the 3rd. And then we're approaching to the May the holiday and during the two day public holiday, the ticket price will be priced at 100 u.m. per day for May the 1st and 2nd. Can you imagine the number of people? I mean, that's, these things are amazing, but one little tiny negative side effect of these because they are so cool and so popular is the number of people that visit. And I don't think there's any good advice or any secret hacks or tricks or tips and how to get in there when nobody else is in there. I think it's just something, I think it's just something you deal with. Yeah, it just deal has to deal with the crowds. Yeah, those ticket prices, that's quite reasonable, isn't it? 50 yuan for the day. I mean, that's pretty affordable. It's like you said, it's about seven bucks. And then yeah, it's going to get more expensive for those two days up to about 14, 15 US dollars, about 100 yuan for the day. But still, considering what you get to take away from it, still a very reasonable price. Okay, now one of the big pieces of news coming out of the auto show, and if you go on the internet, you'll find tons and tons of articles written about, oh, this is a highlight and that's a highlight. One of them is about the larger sized electric SUVs. These are suddenly everywhere. Yeah, you're talking about the large flagship six seat SUVs with more and more leading car mixers, actually rolling out brand new or refreshed models just under this category. And they're all aimed squarely at China's premium market. It's priced between about 300,000 and 600,000 yuan. It's about 44 grand, 28 grand. So these models, they are setting the stage for an increasingly fierce battle among domestic brands. So there is the new Neil ES9 mode of type. It's unveiled just this April and now on display at the Beijing Auto Show too. It is Neil's flagship full-size electric SUV and the vehicle is quite long. I remember seeing the picture is like very spacious, meaning that there's plenty of interior space for a whole family or like a full-size business team or something. It comes in both six seat and seven seat versions designed to appeal to everyone from high-end business travelers to large families that's looking for comfort and room. And then there's also the Lee-Ultil L9 livis, which made its global debut right here at the show and is positioned as a flagship embodied intelligence SUV. I've never heard of that tack before. Because it didn't exist before. Yeah, it builds on Lee-Ultil's reputation for spaciousness and comfort. Yeah, that's true. Whenever you see a Lee car, especially when it comes to an SUV, it looks so bulky. When you drive behind it, you want to stay as far away from it because it looks like it's hard to mess with on the road. And then step inside and it's like stepping into a seven-star hotel. Yeah. It's really eye-catching that its advanced intelligent driving technology is kind of inserted too, including Huawei's latest Chen Kun ADS 5 systems and LiDAR sensors, meaning that it can give the hardware and software needed for L3 level 3 autonomous driving across everything from crowded city roads to high-speed highways. And I think we're going to touch a bit more on autonomous driving just a bit later. Yeah, we'll define those a little bit because they can be confusing L1, L2, L3. But why now I wonder why the market is suddenly a little bit obsessed with these big SUVs? Well, first of all, I think there are knees for the families when it comes to driving, when it comes to driving in particular, Chinese families are compared with the last 102 decades ago, is getting a bit larger. So when it comes to, for example, we can sit out of the city for short trips. They are in the demand of the spacious and comfortable driving experiences for families. And that's one reason I would say. But on the other side, I think it's more about the electric vehicle has been developing in China for the past 10 years. It reached this phase that cheap, small cars won't continue to generate profits for car makers. And also with the technologies ready, the batteries, the embodied intelligence systems you shan't talk about, is ready that they're able to build larger cars with longer ranges and offer more services. example we can talk to your car as you drive which tradition cars can't do before. So I think it comes with these two reasons. I mean, they're selling, they're selling really well in 2025 sales of these large six seat SUVs in the country. They nearly doubled. They sold more than a 725,000 units, almost 730,000 units. Yeah, I think Faye Faye, you're right for the reasons that you mentioned. And I guess part of the answer is because they can, because it's time. But also I think they're able to offer this size vehicle with that level of tech at some competitive prices. Now $44,000 to $88,000. That's still a whole lot of money for a car, but considering what you're getting and what the automakers are putting in those vehicles, they have been able to reach a price point that is doable for a lot of families out there. Indeed, it sets kind of like where this trend is going to flow to in the future because when we look ahead, the competition in this segment will only get more intense and will likely center on three key areas as pointed out by some experts. First of all, it's this murder driving experience. And then there's the longer battery range with faster charging. And also there's the better cost control that's a lot of automakers that are working on right now. And ultimately, the winners will be the brands that can strike the right balance between luxury, technology, performance, and price. So yeah, that's where we're hitting next phase. And also there's one of the reasons at the Beijing Altar Show this year, you know, the car brands are not the only prognet protagonists out of the stage. For example, battery makers like CATL, they're also making their product debut at the show as well. And you don't usually see that right at an auto show. It's usually about the cars and only the cars. Yeah, I read an opinion piece by a car sort of industry observer on global times. And he said in the past, when he went to any auto shows around the world, is normally the car brands that are making the debut, taking the main venues when it comes to this kind of a large scale, you know, exhibition halls. But now they're he is saying seeing like battery makers or even tech companies like Huawei is setting their halls next to legacy brands international. So as seeing that, I think the car industry is transforming itself not only the car brands are taking the center stage, but battery makers like CATL because when it comes to EVs, batteries are basically most of our price went to that is, you know, how big, how long of a range your batteries are able to offer and how fast you can charge your car. And I think at these years, Altar Show In Beijing, these ultra fast charging functions for batteries are also one of the key highlights for different car models out there because, you know, you can't wait eight hours to charge a car every year. Yeah, people are looking at I want to charge my car within six minutes. And that's one of the, you know, functions that CTO battery makers like CATL is offering this year right now. Yeah, customers, they want what they want. And if you want to stay competitive, you got to get it to them, right? Yeah, lots of battery news coming out these days too. Smart tech, obviously, is going to be one of the major headlines from this year's Auto Show. Exactly. That's another one of the major themes that this year's show indeed. That is the smart vehicles. And we know that intelligence is truly taking center stage nowadays in all different professions and different fields and realms across almost every model on display just within the show, for example, the car makers are already putting the spotlight on artificial intelligence, advanced driver assistance systems. And next generation smart cockpits as their biggest selling points. In many ways, this, this signals a much deeper shift. So the global auto industry has officially entered a new era where smart technology is no longer just an extra feature, but the main arena for competition. So everybody wants to share. Yeah. So smart cockpit, that's probably pretty easy to understand, but they're doing something with the call to smart chassis as well. And that's the body of the car getting a lot smarter. Now you might be thinking, how can the body of the car get smarter? Well, in a traditional car, you've got your steering that would operate pretty independently. You've got your breaking that would operate independently. Your suspension too would work mostly on its own. But when you have an intelligent chassis, an intelligent body of the car, all of those systems are connected and they're controlled by a central computer. And what that means is that the car can react instantly to road conditions. So for example, let's say you have to make like a really sharp turn. Well, then the car's body can automatically stiffen the suspension. It can adjust the steering. It can balance the braking and all of that happens at exactly the same time. And the result of all of that happening is a smoother ride. It's also safer for the driver and the passengers. And it's just more comfortable overall too. Such a good news for bad driver like me. Don't say that yet. Well, what's the leading role's name in the movie Transformers again? The main, like the car, the biggest one. Yeah, I forget. I never watched any of those movies. Yeah, but yeah, it sounds like those idea in movies are coming true. Megatron. Exactly. I just came to me. But anyhow, and that is among many news and niche designs that's coming out. And another big hit would be the 896 line lidar, which is really giving cars better ice, quote, unquote ice ice nowadays. So lidar is like a car's laser to scan the surroundings and create a detailed 3D map on the road. And what when I mentioned earlier, the 896 line lidar is Huawei's latest lidar system just just unveiled in March this year. It is recognized as the world's highest line count automotive lidar system in mass production at this point. And more importantly, in marks of major leap of faith in vehicle sensing technology. It's moving it into a new era of image grade sensing. So in plain English, that means the car can quote unquote see it's surrounding with far greater detail and clarity. How to perceive that Steve as a car fan? How would you like such a system to come true? Well, so again, it's about safety, right? Because if the car has that level of an advanced lidar system, it means it can identify potential problems far before they get to you before they get to the car. So if you're in terrible weather, bad weather conditions, no rain fog, what have you or if it's just super dark, sometimes you find yourself on a stretch of road where there are no street lights. Well, you feel as a driver that's pretty dangerous, right? But this system helps with driver assistance and self-driving features. If your car is equipped with that, it just functions a lot better in those types of conditions. So you kind of don't have to worry as much about it. And I'm also sensing that these car makers are preparing themselves for autonomous driving as well. Oh, 1000% they are. With these kind of features. Yeah, yeah, 100%. For passenger, most of the time, that's my role, most of the time on a car. And you do it very well. Yes. And I'm very, very curious and also to find a lot of these AI powered functions in a car. For example, right now, when you are driving a traditional car, you can't really tell your car, you know, find me that place. Navigate this direction for me or find a good restaurant for me. But now you can do that. And but apparently now with new intelligent interaction system in a lot of cars, not only these cars can do this kind of service for you one at a time, they're able to do, you know, multiple services for you simultaneously. For example, you can say, tell them find a good restaurant on the way, avoid traffic and check the weather for me. We talked about how when you order your car now, right? When you order your car to come pick you up, like D.D. You can speak to the AI, right? And the AI can, through its intuition, sometimes can figure out what you want or you can string together sentences. This is exactly the same thing, except it's in your vehicle and you're talking to your own car, which is amazing. All right. So let's talk about the different levels of autonomy then. The new standard is on the way to L4 autonomous driving. So before that L3, L3 autonomous driving, it's gone from being like a premium feature in a car to a basic requirement for market entry now and automakers, they're continuing to put a whole lot of money into advanced autonomous driving. The L4 capability, it's become kind of, I guess you'd call it the new frontier. It's what's next in terms of competition for the automakers. And it's also one of the highlights at the auto show this year. And L4, by the way, it can drive itself in a bunch of situations without need. much help from the driver. L3 still, you still need a licensed human. -It's between the driver's seat. -A boring old human as a backup plan, but L4 requires basically no human intervention within within the zone that the car is allowed to operate. -L4 is, you know, finally the autonomous driving that we normally had in mind. -Yeah. -That you don't need to, you don't need, you know, a real person, yeah, to sit in the driver's seat. And I think some of the robot tags it out there, you know, shuttle buses within the confined regions, for example, within industrial parks are already testing out this kind of technology, but when it comes to public roads, I think it's another question. That's the reason that last year, for example, in China, the government approved two models for pilot road operations in Beijing and Chongqing for L3. -Yes. -And we talked about that on Roundtable 2, because the reason they chose Chongqing in Beijing as two different places to test, Beijing's very flat. Chongqing is not apparently. So they're doing the flat testing here and they're doing kind of the hilly mountainous testing down in Chongqing. -Yes, for Beijing, I think the section of the road is between the city center to the Dushing Airport. So those models can test out how fast these kind of L3 driving functions can work. Well, in Chongqing, it more is about avoid traffic. Avoid censoring, you know, what's in front of you or right next to the car so that the autonomous system know how to work around a very congested traffic and very complex, you know, ups and downs of going on the road, public roads. -Well, let's talk a little bit more about that actually. So if we started the bottom L0, that's no automation whatsoever. That's just a car. -Yeah, I was just about to mention that for someone who has very low automotive literacy and was not that show that you guys were mentioning earlier, I'm trying to understand this as a five-year-old. Okay, so L0, like you mentioned, is absolutely no automation, meaning full control on the human driver's side. And here I've got a spectrum from society of automotive engineers specifying that L5, which is currently the top, is full automation, meaning that it's passenger only without a human driver at all. And now we're kind of like in the middle moving on to the top. So we're largely covering L2 already, level two, that's partial automation. And now we have policies covering L3, that's conditional automation. And you're telling me that we're already almost there with L4 high automation. -Yeah, but L3 is the first level where the car is responsible for monitoring the environment, not the human being. And L3, that's the entry stage for that. And this kind of autonomous driving has made big news in Beijing recently, because Beijing launched dedicated self-driving car insurance. -Yeah, actually, Beijing is the first Chinese city to launch this kind of dedicated commercial insurance for self-driving vehicles. It's actually announced in March by the Beijing regulatory bureau of the National Financial Regulatory Administration. And that insurance policies will be developed in cooperation with other insurance companies and offer differentiated coverage based on vehicles autonomy levels covering L2, which is partial automation, meaning, you know, I think it's some of the car models out there already putting the Tesla autopilot. -Yeah, that's an L2. -And L4 that we talked about being on display at the Beijing Auto Show this year. -It's pretty cool. So you can buy insurance for your L3 autonomous vehicle. -L3, by the way, to put that in a context for you, that's kind of the eyes off the road level. Like, you could sit there and browse your social media because we need more of that. I don't know, read a book. That's a better option. -And that's the tricky part when it comes to the insurance policies, because, you know, someone out there needs to decide if something happened, who is responsible now? Is the driver or the car? And L3 is basically the divided line between, you know, maybe the tech, you know, either the system or the car maker holds some of the responsibilities out there. And I think with this kind of insurance policies, they will go through this process to check, first of all, who is responsible for this accident and then decide how to, you know, go proceed with the policy and with the payment compensation forward. -But when it comes to the policies, how it's going to be implemented, we're just at the beginning stage, right? Because currently, the existing policies are still largely based on human drivers scenarios, meaning, even though that's a lot of the L2 scenarios that's already very widely covered, we still only have features like limited, very limited coverage for system failures or like features like sub-er security risks. And yeah, previously I heard that limited insurance coverage for self-driving cars was available as an add-on to standard policies purchase, meaning that, yeah, you're lucky if you got it. But now, I think the new policies will definitely initially apply to vehicles and step, step, allow new car owners to choose between the new policies and existing auto insurance, then featuring a list of eligible models and automakers will be released in in batches following evaluation too. So yeah, we're witnessing a lot of changes and of course it's going to make us feel safer on the road. -Yeah, it's still very new. I was thinking one of the good things is that it will stop a lot of accident arguments between drivers and less they're arguing about how stupid the other person's automated system is. -Oh yeah, good reasons for real-time. -Yeah, but I mean the person to person arguing about bad driving, that'll cease to exist at some point in the future I would guess. All right, so let's go global here for a moment. We know because we see it in the news a lot how popular Chinese cars are on the global stage. -Yeah, you know, thinking about, you know, the Beijing or Shanghai Auto Show, I don't know, one or two decades ago, most the brands mentioned will be international brands and now we are mostly talking about Chinese brands and that's coming from, you know, their development to electric vehicles, new energy vehicles and I think last year China exported seven million new vehicles globally and that was up 20% year on year. -That's a lot. -So that's yep pretty remarkable and for example in countries like the UK they said the Chinese brands are on course to account for wanting every 10 new cars sold in that country last year. So it's making a great impressive increase year on year as cells of these new electric models and also all the different AI powered services they offer. -I mean China's been the world's largest vehicle exporter for I think three years in a row. So yeah seeing these numbers maybe not surprising this year that it continues to lead but seeing that number 21.1% increase year on year I mean that's pretty impressive. -And also we not only exports the products from inside China we're also trying to build factories overseas too and that is by 206 Chinese automakers are expected to have overseas production capacity of around three million vehicles overseas production overseas production with actual annual output exceeding two million units and that's according to industry estimates to for example BYD which is a very common and you can see it everywhere on the road type of brand here in China they are kind of building factories in in Brazil too and that offers a clear example of just how deep localization can look like. So the company's factory there has produced around 25,000 EV like electric and hybrid vehicles since operations begun in October last year and according to the head local head of BYD Brazil business the company plans to ensure that 50% of components produced at the plant are locally manufactured or sourced by the end of 206. So it's providing a lot of opportunities and for other countries to kind of take a piece of that cake too. And also when it comes to these car manufacturing I think now it's more than just assembling different parts from you know imported globally it's also about the fully cool system we talked about the batteries and also the AI powered system smart system a lot of functions for example Huawei has been collaborating with a lot of legacy brands like Audi and they are together pushing and launching new car vehicles out there because driving we talked about you know the differences between L2 L3 L4 so driving is no longer that fossil fuel powered engine machine anymore is more than that and how to elevate either your driving experiences or experiences of passengers out there we need tech companies in support that's why at the Beijing Auto Show company tech companies like iFly Tech is also part of an auto show can you imagine the tech company also setting up their stall yes I can yes I think we mentioned how drones can become part of a car system to on the top flying cars yeah that's I think it's it's a thing yeah yeah yeah and also as CTO they're also demonstrating their own aviation technologies as part of the auto show so it's more than just car makers right now and how to maintain your market share in the future transport system that's a question not only for the Lexi car brands but also for the new cameras as well it's um even if you don't love cars I think the auto industry is still kind of an interesting industry to keep your eyes on because it's going through really significant changes right now Beijing auto show are you gonna go and check it out either of you if I can get the ticket I'm not sure yeah let's see easy we can make the purchase I was uh I was supposed to meet my friend last weekend who lives in the area of the auto show oh look he is and neither he nor I at the time realized that the auto show had started and he said dude I don't think I can come out tonight I don't know what's going on I think there's two auto shows near my house and the traffic is insane well now we know it wasn't two auto shows it's the same auto show the biggest one in the world so um I'll text him on the show today and tell him why he was stuck at home uh yeah the biggest in the world if you have an opportunity go check it out lots of really really really cool and interesting things to see