Analysis of Chinese carmakers, electric vehicles, batteries, semiconductors and the companies building them - written from Denmark.
NIO delivered 109,178 vehicles in the third quarter (+25.4%) and BYD sold 1,323,065 (+18.7%). XPeng's 118,390 was up 2.1% and Li Auto's 99,964 up 7.2%. The growth came from NIO's premium brand and BYD's exports.
1 Oct 2026 · Analysis · 6 min
NIO, XPeng and Li Auto each delivered inside the third-quarter range they gave. NIO landed 39.3% of the way up its range, XPeng 56.5%, Li Auto 99.3%. All three set their ranges with part of the quarter already delivered.
1 Oct 2026 · Analysis · 6 min
A car battery is built in three layers, and each one adds mass that stores no energy. Removing the middle layer is why a pack figure and a cell figure have moved apart.
Updated 17 Sept 2026 · Explainer · 2 min
Battery cost per kilowatt-hour decides whether an electric car can be sold at a profit. The figure is quoted constantly and defined loosely, and cell price and pack price are not the same number.
Updated 17 Sept 2026 · Explainer · 2 min
The three drivetrains differ in how much of their fuel reaches the wheels, where their torque arrives, and how many parts they need to do it. The efficiency gap is the largest of the three, and the least discussed.
Updated 17 Sept 2026 · Explainer · 2 min
Batteries lose capacity through two separate mechanisms, only one of which is driving. Here is what degrades a pack, what a state-of-health figure means, and what the standard warranty does and does not promise.
Updated 17 Sept 2026 · Explainer · 2 min
The connector on the car is a regional decision, not a technical one. What actually separates charging types is whether the conversion from alternating to direct current happens inside the car or inside the charger.
Updated 17 Sept 2026 · Explainer · 2 min
Three drivetrains sold under one word. The difference that matters is whether the engine can drive the wheels at all, and how much battery sits behind it.
Updated 17 Sept 2026 · Explainer · 2 min
One is a rate and one is a quantity. Mixing them up is why people expect a 250 kW charger to add 250 kWh, and why a big battery and a fast charge are unrelated claims.
Updated 17 Sept 2026 · Explainer · 2 min
Milliamp-hours measure charge, not energy. Two batteries with the same mAh figure hold different amounts of energy if their voltages differ, which is exactly what happens between a single-cell and a dual-cell phone.
Updated 17 Sept 2026 · Explainer · 2 min
Mobile networks run on licensed frequency bands, and those bands differ by country. A phone supports a fixed list of them, so an imported handset can be fully functional and still lose service where a local one does not.
Updated 17 Sept 2026 · Explainer · 3 min
One panel makes its own light and one is lit from behind, which decides contrast, black level and power draw. The brightness figure quoted alongside is usually a peak nobody sees in normal use.
Updated 17 Sept 2026 · Explainer · 3 min
A phone's chip is not a CPU. It is a system-on-chip bundling a processor, a graphics unit, a neural engine, an image signal processor and usually a modem, and the marketing name covers all of it at once.
Updated 17 Sept 2026 · Explainer · 3 min
The same car is rated for different ranges in Europe, China and the United States. The car does not change. The test does, and the gap between the numbers is large enough to change which car looks better.
Updated 17 Sept 2026 · Explainer · 3 min
Denza, Yangwang, ONVO, MONA, Zeekr, Lynk & Co, MG, Avatr. Most of the names arriving in Europe belong to seven groups, one of which also owns Volvo, and one phone company that owns no carmaker at all.
12 Sept 2026 · Deep dive · 10 min
XPeng's gross margin rose from 17.3% to 20.7% over a year in which its cars got less profitable, not more. Both numbers come from the same filing. Here is how that works.
12 Sept 2026 · Deep dive · 8 min
An LFP pack cost $81 per kWh in 2025. The nickel equivalent cost $128. That $47 gap explains most of what has happened to electric car prices, and to the league table of who builds the cells.
12 Sept 2026 · Deep dive · 6 min
Group deliveries rose 14.5% in August. Inside that number the expensive brand doubled and the cheap one halved - which is the reverse of what the strategy called for.
12 Sept 2026 · Analysis · 5 min