Podcasts about Jia Yueting

Tu & Lei get busy this week with XPeng finally launching specific pricing for it's recently announced P5 sedan and there is a lot for them to debate. Mercedes closely follows VW last week with their electrification plans and when they plan to be ALL-electric.Tu & Lei also take some time to talk about the drama that has historically followed founder of Faraday Future, Jia Yueting, till this week when Faraday became a US publicly-traded company. Now the hard work begins for them!

Jia Yueting is a complicated entrepreneur. He's been involved in some big projects with some spectacular fallout. From streaming video to a startup car company, we look at his influence and failures. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

In this episode of our TechCon Conference Series we speak with Shyam Sundar who heads Product Management for Vehicle Software Platforms at Faraday Future (FF). Faraday Future is an American electric vehicle company based in the Los Angeles area that is creating premium vehicles and founded by Chinese businessman Jia Yueting. Shyam discusses challenges and breakthroughs at Faraday as well as his experiences heading several Snapdragon Android projects at Qualcomm through its Billionth chip milestone.

The founder of secretive electric vehicle startup Faraday reportedly declared bankruptcy in the U.S. after running up more than $2 billion in debts.Bloomberg, citing court documents filed in Delaware, reports that under a debt restructuring plan, Jia Yueting plans to turn over his stake in the EV company to his creditors in China.Jia, the founder of a sprawling Chinese tech company, emerged as the primary backer of Faraday as it rapidly — and quietly — grew from startup to a hundreds-strong staff in Los Angeles that purported to be preparing a challenge to Tesla for electric vehicle supremacy.He took over as CEO in late 2017, after the company had rolled out an underwhelming prototype, announced plans for a $1 billion factory in Nevada and set a timetable to make its first cars. Its ambitions, however, were rapidly scaled back amid questions about its finances.The company scrapped the Nevada plant for a smaller operation in California, then burned through hundreds of millions invested under a new partnership.Most recently, the company formed a joint venture with a Chinese gaming company for another infusion of cash, and replaced Jia as its chief executive.Jia’s creditors reportedly hope to be reimbursed — at least in part — with the proceeds from an initial public offering, although the filing conceded that might not raise as much as the company hopes, due to, Jia's filing said, “negative press.”

Show #563   Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily for Tuesday 27th August 2019. It’s Martyn Lee here and I go through every EV story to save you time.   Thank you to MYEV.com for helping make this show, they’ve built the first marketplace specifically for Electric Vehicles. It’s a totally free marketplace that simplifies the buying and selling process, and help you learn about EVs along the way too.   Hello to new PATREON PRODUCER PELLE KROG   10 stories to bring you today.   POLESTAR OPENS NEW PRODUCTION CENTRE IN CHINA Polestar, the electric performance brand, today opens its first production facility, a key milestone for the rapidly growing car company.  The new Polestar Production Centre in Chengdu, China, sets a new industry benchmark in electric vehicle manufacture and will produce the Polestar 1 – an exclusive, carbon fibre-bodied Electric Performance Hybrid. The facility, which has been completed on schedule, will produce vehicles for both China and global export markets with first customer deliveries expected before the end of 2019. The inauguration underlines China’s maturing industrialisation, an improving reputation for quality manufacturing, and, crucially, access to the right skills. Five hundred Polestar 1 cars are planned to be built per year in the new Chengdu facility, with a total of 1,500 planned over a three year production cycle.   https://www.polestar.com/press-release/2019/08/27/polestar-announces-world-manufacturer-identifier-and-opens-new-production-centre-in-china   ELON MUSK IS RUMORED TO UNVEIL FIRST CHINA-MADE TESLA MODEL 3 AT EVENT THIS WEEK "Tesla CEO Elon Musk is going to Shanghai later this week, and he is now rumored to unveil the first China-made Tesla Model 3 at an event on Thursday." reports Fred at Electrek who does say you should take this one with a pinch of salt: "On Thursday, Musk is set to kick off the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai with a fireside chat with Alibaba cofounder Jack Ma. Musk confirmed that he also plans to launch a Chinese division of his Boring Company during the trip. Both of those things don’t have much to do with Tesla, but Shanghai is also where Tesla is currently building Gigafactory 3, the automaker’s first Chinese factory. Now local media reports are suggesting that Musk also plans to unveil the first China-made Tesla Model 3 at the WAIC."   https://electrek.co/2019/08/27/elon-musk-tesla-china-made-model-3-rumor/   THE UPGRADED VW PLUG-IN HYBRID "The Volkswagen Passat GTE has been given an EV range boost thanks to a larger capacity lithium-ion battery pack." reports CarAdvice.com.au: "The Passat GTE's battery capacity has been boosted from 9.9kWh to 13kWh. Electric-only driving range under the WLTP standard is now rated at 56 kilometres for the sedan, and 54km in the wagon. With this boost in battery capacity, Volkswagen claims the Passat GTE is capable of completing most commutes around major European cities without any tailpipe emissions. The rest of the drivetrain remains unchanged with a 115kW 1.4-litre turbo petrol engine and an 85kW electric motor built into the six-speed dual-clutch transmission."   https://www.caradvice.com.au/787212/2020-volkswagen-passat-gte-gains-bigger-battery/   FARADAY FUTURE RUMORED TO RESTRUCTURE "Embattled Chinese electric vehicle maker Faraday Future (FF) has added another chapter to its tumultuous history, as the company is rumored to be restructuring its organization and CEO Jia Yueting will step down as the firm’s leader." according to PenDaily.com: "Following FF’s very public break up with the Chinese real estate giant and lead financier, Evergrande Group, the electric vehicle company lacked the funds to continue much of its operations. FF was forced to lay off many employees and sell its Los Angeles headquarters. With Jia stepping down as the leader of the firm, the company should be able to try and revive itself, whether that is via a joint venture partnership or some other type of structural reorganization."   https://pandaily.com/faraday-future-to-restructure-ceo-to-step-down/   BMW IX3 TO BE AVAILABLE IN EUROPE FIRST IN 2020 "As we approach 2020, the picture of BMW iX3 market launch becomes clearer. This new model, actually the first with the 5th EV generation drivetrain from BMW, is scheduled for production in China in 2020 by BMW Brilliance Automotive joint venture in Shenyang." so says InsideEVs: "Unofficially, the first version of the iX3 will be rear-wheel-drive with a 75 kWh battery pack named sDrive75. With more than 200 kW of power, probably up to around 200 miles of real-world range and 150 kW DC fast-charging capability, the most important factor will be the price - it must be competitive with the highly anticipated Tesla Model Y. sales to start in 2020 in Europe, then also in China and North America"   https://insideevs.com/news/367360/bmw-ix3-first-in-europe/   ELECTRIFIED ICEBREAKER REACHES NORTH POLE "A Norwegian Coast Guard icebreaker equipped with ABB’s Azipod electric propulsion system has reached the North Pole as part of an international environmental research expedition." according to electrive: "The KV Svalbard, built in 2001, was on its way in Arctic waters as part of the Coordinated Arctic Acoustic Thermometry Experiment (CAATEX). The expedition aims to place seabed sensors with which scientists could monitor water temperatures in Arctic waters. Such sensors at and around the North Pole are now expanding the researchers’ database."   https://www.electrive.com/2019/08/26/electrified-icebreaker-reaches-north-pole/   WORLD PREMIERE FOR “NEW VOLKSWAGEN” AT THE FRANKFURT MOTOR SHOW At this year’s Frankfurt Motor Show, the Volkswagen brand is celebrating two world premieres. In addition to the full-electric ID.3, the brand is presenting its new logo and its new brand design to the public under the motto of “New Volkswagen”. With the new brand design, “New Volkswagen” will become visible and perceptible in the design of the vehicles, in customer contacts and in the corporate presentation as a whole. The objective is to create a new 360° customer experience that is modern and fascinating throughout the world and across all channels.   SONNEN, ROCKY MOUNTAIN POWER TO DEPLOY 12.6MWH VIRTUAL POWER PLANT "Rapidly-globalising energy storage company Sonnen has teamed up with utility Rocky Mountain Power to take its virtual power plant concept to the US state of Utah."  writes energy-storage.news: "an apartment complex of 600 homes in Herriman, Utah, will be equipped with 5MW of solar PV and a total of 12.6MWh of battery energy storage, aggregated together from individual units in each apartment. When it is completed by the end of December 2020, with residents set to start moving in this September, Sonnen’s Utah project is claimed to be the “largest fully installed and operational residential battery demand response solution in the United States”.   https://www.energy-storage.news/news/sonnen-rocky-mountain-power-to-deploy-12.6mwh-virtual-power-plant-in-utah   VATTENFALL & MHI VESTAS INAUGURATE 407 MEGAWATT HORNS REEF 3 OFFSHORE WIND FARM "Swedish energy group Vattenfall and offshore wind turbine manufacturer MHI Vestas joined with the Crown Prince of Denmark and Danish Prime Minister last Thursday to open the country’s largest offshore wind farm, the 407 megawatt Horns Reef 3." says CleanTechnica: "Vattenfall won the right to construct Horns Reef 3 back in 2015 and the first foundation was laid in October 2017. The first electricity was delivered just over a year later and it is now delivering electricity equivalent to the needs of approximately 425,000 Danish households. Built using the world’s currently most powerful wind turbine platform — MHI Vestas’ 8.3 MW V164 model (soon to be succeeded by a number of more powerful turbines) — Horns Reef 3 is delivering electricity at one of the cheapest prices in Europe"   https://cleantechnica.com/2019/08/26/vattenfall-mhi-vestas-inaugurate-407-megawatt-horns-reef-3-offshore-wind-farm/   CLAIMS DATA POINTS TO HIGH-END ELECTRIC CAR RISKS: AXA "Electric luxury cars and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) may be 40% more likely to cause accidents than their standard engine counterparts, possibly because drivers are still getting used to their quick acceleration, French insurer AXA said." and reported by Reuters: "The numbers, based on initial trends from claims data and not statistically significant, also suggest small and micro electric cars are slightly less likely to cause accidents than their combustion engine counterparts, AXA said at a crash test demonstration on Thursday. Half of electric car drivers in a survey this year by AXA had to adjust their driving to reflect the new acceleration and braking characteristics."   https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-autos-insurance/claims-data-points-to-high-end-electric-car-risks-axa-idUKKCN1VC1R4   QUESTION OF THE WEEK The MYEV.com Question Of The Week.   Asking current EV drivers, how often do you charge and why?   I want to say a heartfelt thank you to the 245 patrons of this podcast whose generosity means I get to keep making this show, which aims to entertain and inform thousands of listeners every day about a brighter future. 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Elliott Zaagman is the co-host of the China Tech Investor podcast and works as a PR and leadership consultant for Chinese tech founders and executives. He is a frequent commentator on issues facing China and its tech industry, and his work has been published by The Lowy Institute, Foreign Policy, SupChina, and TechNode, as well as in Chinese on Huxiu.com.   “This entire thing (LeEco) that he (Jia Yueting) had built, he built it basically within a year to 14,000-people offices all over the world, all these different verticals of business and then it all collapsed.” – Elliott Zaagman   Worst investment ever Elliot tells the story of what he sees as the worst investment for probably many people in the rapid rise and fall of what was at the time China’s Netflix, Le.com LeEco (Leshi Internet Information & Technology Corp, (300104:CH; 300104.SZ). He had been working in China for many years when he was approached to work one of the group’s companies, LeEco, around the beginning of 2016 to consult for LeEco. The company had been streaming video since around 2012 and in were moving into making smart TVs. Elliot believed this was a rather savvy business venture – to combine the streaming video with smart TVs and create a kind of hardware and content ecosystem. They had some success and founder Jia Yueting had aspirations to become the Steve Jobs or Elon Musk of China, as he had also made forays into electric vehicle production, establishing Faraday Future, a California-based start-up tech company set up to develop electric vehicles in April 2014. Jia Yueting is described by Elliot as a futurist, very interested in the potential of technology. And China had said it wanted to have some global tech champions, so this was a chance for Jia Yueting and people like him to build this empire and raise a lot of money. So he used a very capable kind of PR and media team and just expanded at an exponential rate. He went into smartphones, wanting to be the next Apple Inc, virtual reality, sports contracts, music, cloud services. The company opened a 500-employee office in Silicon Valley, a 100-employee office in India, a few thousand employees in 2014 to 7,000 in 2015. And by the end of 2016, it had 14,000 employees. So the company was expanding in every direction, to the point that there was no way to hit its deadlines. Part of the corporate culture was that Jia Yueting had filled his C-suite with “Yes People”, so when they went to present themselves to the US market, they sent someone (a person Elliot had worked with) who could barely speak a word English, to run their US office in Silicon Valley. The ambassador of the company had also rarely been to the US, didn’t understand the US market and he was running their go to market. The entire company, not just in the US, had chaotic atmosphere. The beginning of the end was an enormous product launch to introduce themselves to the US market at the Innovation Hangar (now also permanently closed) in San Francisco. It was excessive and people failed to understand why the company was holding such a large event. Three weeks later, founder Jia Yueting sent out a company-wide message that said something like: “We expanded too quickly and we’re out of money. And now we need to fix it.”LeEco has debts in China of around US$442.3 million (3 billion yuan), and Jia Yueting is under investigation by regulators and has remained outside China since 2017. Some lessons You cannot grow quickly, in many areas business. Jia Yueting had built the entire empire within a year to all over the world, with different verticals of business and then it all collapsed. Look deep before involvement in China’s tech ecosystem and economy. Chinese banks tend to lend loosely to companies that are aligned with government or Communist Party (Party) initiatives. Venture capital firms are willing to invest in areas that the Party wants to promote. Appearances can be deceiving, especially for tech-naïve lenders in China. A lot of the people in charge of the money did not really understand technology, so they were fed excuses by people who wanted the money, such as “This is just how tech businesses operate.” Jia Yueting got a lot of funding through smoke and mirrors, making good video presentations and display products without a solid core to his business.   “Look under the hood a little bit when it comes to these companies, especially I think in China.” - Elliott Zaagman   Andrew’s takeaways China doesn’t have to be our enemy. There are many things that Chinese people admire about America and a lot of the transformation that happened in China came because the People’s Republic implemented some free market principles. It is sad to see US politicians gaining points at home by pitting Americans against China. Be careful of over-diversifying because you’ll lose focus. Don’t be seduced by greatly diverse businesses such as Apple or Microsoft. They have been growing for a long time and may expand into different areas, but they have a very strong core. They might do something like Amazon Web Services, for example, but they built up to that point slowly. When money is available freely and at low cost, you find malinvestment. Undisciplined investment. What’s happening in the world, in America, and also in China is that so much money has been poured into the industry that you cannot avoid the type of situation where you have faults such as lower asset utilization rates. The problem of “yes people”. One of the benefits of a developed company is that it has a board of directors to provide the kind of checks and balances system necessary to curb the visionary excesses of CEOs such as Jia Yueting.“Having ‘Yes Men’, either in management or at the board level, can turn out to be a real disaster.”- Andrew StotzThat is why we see great people surrounding some of the best businesses. Such people are serious professionals who are not afraid to stand up to the CEO and say “No! This is the way we have to go.” So getting such people is highly valuable. No. 1 goal for next the 12 months Elliot writes a lot about Chinese tech companies and companies such as Huawei, and is concerned about the decoupling that US and Chinese technology, ecosystems and expertise appear to be undergoing. He hopes in the next year to continue to add his voice to that conversation and offer clear analysis, allowing his readers and listeners to gain a clear picture of the broader situation, one that is honest and respectful and in service of the truth. Parting words “Seek truth from facts.”       You can also check out Andrew’s books How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market My Worst Investment Ever 9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them Transform Your Business with Dr.Deming’s 14 Points    Connect with Elliott Zaagman Podcast: China Tech Investor  LinkedIn  Twitter   Email     Connect with Andrew Stotz astotz.com  LinkedIn Facebook  Instagram Twitter  YouTube My Worst Investment Ever Podcast     Further reading mentioned Zhang Yu, Han Wei (30 April 2019) Fugitive tycoon Jia Yueting and Leshi under probe CX Live, Caixin Global  Asia Times staff (29 April 2019) Jia Yueting under investigation by regulator Asia Times   

In episode 22 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about electric carmaker NIO, which went public on September 12 on the NYSE. This episode covers how NIO got started, its purported business model, and how it differs from its competition. Listeners will also hear from Elliott Zaagman, a writer covering Chinese tech as well as an organizational development consultant for Chinese tech firms. Rui and Ying-Ying start their story with Li Bin, or William Bin Li, who is NIO’s celebrity Founder, Chairman, and CEO. Li Bin, only 43 years old this year, is known as the “godfather of the transport sector” in China: not only did he have his first IPO in 2010 for a car-related internet company named BitAuto, but he has also invested in at least 32 companies in the transportation sector, including 5 unicorns. Indeed, Li Bin is widely recognized for being a master at both making and raising money. However, Li Bin and NIO’s path in the electric vehicle (EV) industry has not been without its challenges, particularly because of the domestic sector’s past experience with unreliable players such as Jia Yueting, the founder of LeEco and Faraday Future. In fact, one recent Chinese article cheekily called NIO and its fellow EVs “the cars that came out of PowerPoints” — a partial reference to the fact that NIO raised about $2.5B in four rounds before going public, but is still losing money rapidly, to the tune of half a billion dollars in the first half of this year. Listen to the newest episode of TechBuzz China and join our co-hosts in an exploration that seeks to answer the key question: is Li Bin going to be able to deliver on the hardware he promises? Just how comparable is NIO to Tesla? What about to Xpeng Motors, founded by celebrity entrepreneur He Xiaopeng, the other high-flying EV unicorn in China with an internet DNA? What is NIO’s actual business model, when it does not actually make its own cars, or even its own batteries (yes, you read that right)? Is it accurate to consider NIO a luxury brand, and if so, is that the right strategy in China? As always, you can find these stories and more at pandaily.com. Let us know what you think of the show by leaving us an iTunes review, like our Facebook page, and don't forget to tweet at us at @techbuzzchina to win some swag!

Welcome to the 50th installment of the Caixin-Sinica Business Brief, a weekly podcast that brings you the most important business stories of the week from China's top source for business and financial news. Produced by Kaiser Kuo of our Sinica Podcast, it features a business news roundup, plus conversations with Caixin reporters and editors. This week: We acknowledge a new report that found out that the cost of living in Beijing and Shanghai has become relatively cheaper in the last three years compared with other major cities around the globe. We analyze some new data that suggests that while Americans born today can expect to live for a few years longer than their Chinese counterparts, China's newborns will experience more “healthy” years. We note that Jia Yueting 贾跃亭, founder of LeEco, once a star Chinese tech company, has been barred indefinitely from traveling via train and air in China. We learn that China's railway builder ran into another setback to its overseas expansion aspirations after the new Malaysian government announced it will scrap a bullet-train project linking its capital to its southern neighbor Singapore. We hear the news that China's top securities regulator may punish six mutual funds for alleged insider trading by their managers. We discuss that Google has released the new app Files Go, which is customized for mainland Chinese users, in its latest small step back into the world's largest smartphone and online market. We discover that China said it would cut import tariffs by more than half on a wide range of consumer goods starting in July, aiming to boost domestic consumption and balance its foreign trade amid heightened tensions with the U.S. In addition, we talk with Fran Wang, senior economics reporter at Caixin Global, about how the new consumer tariff cuts fit into the bigger trade picture. We also chat with Doug Young, managing editor of Caixin Global, about the latest in the Chinese auto and dairy sectors. We'd love to hear your feedback on this product. Please send any comments and suggestions to sinica@supchina.com.

"I've never seen two Chinese guys comparing (car) engines (like people do in Europe)," says Freeman Shen, founder of Chinese electric vehicle start-up WM Motor Technology Co., Ltd. "China doesn't have a long driving culture...the car is more a tool for people to get from point A to B." It's one reason his three-year-old company, with RMB10 billion (US$1.5 billion) in funding, is taking a different route than most of its rivals. Instead of simply producing a decent, mass market car, WM will offer its EV customers flexible ownership, essentially combining Tesla Motors and Uber in one company. It's an important selling point given that WM is targeting young Chinese consumers, who are famously quick to accept new things, but far less willing to purchase new cars. For Shen, the former chairman of Volvo China and a 20-year automobile industry veteran, the future of China's car industry will be shaped by three words: electrification, connectivity and sharing. As such, his company is creating a 100% electric car that is connected 24/7 and will let owners choose if they want to share their cars. "For example, a customer owns our car in Shanghai but he travels to Beijing a lot. With a Super ID (a membership service offered by WM), he can easily access another WM Motor vehicle while in Beijing and lease out his car in Shanghai," Shen told China Money Network at the company's headquarters in Shanghai. The "new business model", as the soft-spoken Shen calls it, is full of unforeseen challenges. Jia Yueting, the disgraced and currently exiled ex-chief of LeEco, wanted to build something similar with that company's smart car unit LeSEE and car hauling platform Yidao. That plan was cut short by corporate financial crisis that is still unfolding. And Tesla itself plans to launch a ride sharing system called "Tesla Network" as early as this years, allowing its car owners to share their vehicles, and creating immediate competition for WM. "The challenge is how to make this dream (become) real...we are in a race to see (which company) can get to the market (first)," said Shen. It is a race indeed. China, the world's largest car and EV market, already has three EV start-ups valued at US$1 billion, (NIO, WM Motor and BAIC BJEV, according to China Money Network's China Unicorn Ranking) with another one (Future Mobility Corporation) approaching unicorn valuation. The U.S., on the other hand, has none. Read more on five Chinese EV start-ups that could rival Tesla Competition between these well-funded Chinese EV start-ups is intense. NIO's ES8 model will hit the market in mid-December. Another Chinese EV start-up, CHJ Automotive (known as Chehejia in Chinese), completed a test production run two months ago at its new factory, which was built in only one year. Shen says WM Motor's high-tech customer-to-manufacturer (C2M) factory in Wenzhou will be completed at the end of this year and small volume production will commence during the first quarter of 2018. Only then will we know if his digital car dream can become reality. Read an interview Q&A below. Also subscribe to China Money Podcast for free in the iTunes store, or subscribe to our weekly newsletter. ON CHINA'S EV INDUSTRY: Q: How would you describe the current transition toward electric vehicles by China and the global automobile industry? A: As you know, China is already the largest car market in the world, and it also leads in electrification. The first reason China is going electric is because it relies on imports for about 60% of its oil, of which 80% is used by cars. From a national security respective, the Chinese government has to push very hard for electrification. Pollution is another reason. The electric vehicle revolution has been going on for about five years. However, at first not many people took it seriously. But I believe now is the right time. Customers are already well educated, and electric cars are a good solution for daily u...

#299 The Shape of Things to Come. In the bleak reality of Brexit and Trump we look to the future and find solace in cars. The EV gold rush, can Faraday Future succeed where Tesla did? Sniff Petrol on Liberty, car servicing and a British car of the past.