Intel Report: The Weekly Mobility News That Matters

BY AUTOMOTIVE VENTURES | May 4 2026 | VIEW ONLINE

Keith Corso from Automotive Ventures portfolio company BusRight catches up with Steve to discuss his entrepreneurial journey, perspective on leadership, and vision for the company.Full segment is available here:YouTubeApple PodcastsSpotify

What We're Reading:

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Automotive

Foreign-based automakers have warned the Trump administration that they are looking at pulling their cheapest car models out of the U.S. market if the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement isn’t renewed or is watered down, according to people familiar with the discussions. Companies such as Nissan, Hyundai and Toyota are among the few carmakers to offer U.S. consumers new models of small, affordable automobiles after Detroit-based automakers ditched such cars in recent years in favor of SUVs and trucks. Cars like the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla are made in the U.S., but rely on parts from all three North American countries. President Trump signed the USMCA in 2020 and provided tariff-free treatment to cars built largely with U.S., Mexican or Canadian parts. Trump, however, has upended those supply chains with his second-term automotive levies, which charge a 25% tariff on the non-U.S. content of vehicles that previously would have qualified as duty-free under the USMCA deal. Trump has said the levies are needed for national security, and his team has publicly considered ditching the USMCA or splitting it into two separate deals as the governments undertake a review of the agreement this year. If USMCA no longer exists or a renewed version doesn’t significantly reduce tariffs on cars and auto parts made in North America, some foreign carmakers might not be able to build and sell the cheaper cars for the U.S. market, the people familiar with the discussions said. That message has been communicated to Trump’s economic advisers, according to the people. | The Wall Street Journal ($)

Glenn Mercer's high-level perspective on global automotive market share: If one were to look at this from a very big picture perspective, and over the very long run, from say 1900 onward, you could say:

Europe invented the motor car, as a luxury good
America transformed it, into a mass-market product
And East Asia figured out how to build it, inexpensively

| Glenn Mercer

The company formerly known as Research In Motion RIM abandoned hand-held devices a decade ago, and it feels more like a century ago when phones had clicky keyboards and everyone was obsessed with Brick Breaker. But an astonishing number of people still rely on BlackBerry—and they don’t realize it. The company’s most lucrative product is not hardware but the hidden software in 275 million cars on the road today. In fact, BlackBerry’s essential technology can be found in all sorts of unexpected places, and you wouldn’t find it even if you went looking for it. | The Wall Street Journal ($)

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China

To stem their loss of market share, carmakers around the world are looking to become more like their Chinese competitors—and not just when operating in China. So they might. Francois Provost, Renault’s chief executive, admits that China now leads the industry in technology, speed and competitiveness. To match them, increasingly rattled car bosses are adopting Chinese practices and partnering with Chinese firms. Done judiciously, this may help them close the gap. But further down the road potholes lurk. Slowing the pace of China’s blistering rise is vital. The market share of foreign firms in China has almost halved in five years, to around 30% in 2025. Moreover, in 2023, China passed Japan to become the world’s largest exporter of cars. In 2025, over 8 million of its vehicles went abroad, nearly a third more than the year before. In Europe over the past five years, Chinese brands have gone from almost nowhere to nearly 8% of all sales, according to Schmidt Automotive Research, a consultancy. Incumbents are also under siege in markets from Mexico and Brazil to Indonesia and Malaysia. Chinese cars are cheap. They are also packed with whizzy technology. Often in partnership with local tech giants, the country’s carmakers have developed software that has become an increasingly important source of differentiation; among the latest examples is the integration of voice-controlled artificial-intelligence systems. The pace of innovation is stunning. “China speed” has become the “drumbeat” of the industry, says Ola Kaellenius, boss of Mercedes-Benz AG. The legacy industry’s product-development cycle—around 40 to 80 months for new models—now looks painfully slow. Production processes designed around electric vehicles (EVs), combined with deep vertical integration and a greater willingness to improve vehicles after they are released via software updates, mean it takes 24 months at most in China. The technology integrated into foreign cars is often two years or more behind Chinese offerings. | The Economist ($)

China built nearly as many vehicles as the next six largest auto-producing countries combined in 2025 — driven by software-first design, battery scale and faster development cycles rather than just low prices. About 34.5 million vehicles were built in the country last year, up 3.25 million from 2024, according to the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (OICA). The growth was driven by a 29 percent surge in new-energy vehicle output to 16.6 million. The next six largest producers — the U.S., Japan, India, Germany, Mexico and South Korea — produced a combined 35.4 million vehicles in 2025, OICA data showed. China’s dominance is particularly marked in electrification. Automakers in China accounted for 80 percent of domestic electric vehicle sales in 2025, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Industry experts indicate that there are about 150 active brands in the Chinese automotive market. This includes 97 domestic brands, including large state-owned SAIC, FAW, Dongfeng Automobile and Changan Automobile, as well as major independent players, such as BYD, Geely, Chery, Great Wall Motor and BAIC. There are about 43 active joint venture brands with foreign automakers, such as SAIC Volkswagen, BMW Brilliance Automotive (BBA) and Beijing Benz Automotive, a JV between Mercedes-Benz AG and BAIC. Many factors give China an advantage, including software-first design. China’s advantage stems from more than low-cost production, according to a report by Reuters Events. The country’s edge comes from software-first design, battery scale and supply chain control, vertical integration and faster development cycles, the white paper said. | Automotive News ($)

Chinese automakers will nearly triple overseas production to 3.4 million vehicles by 2030, with Europe and Latin America as primary targets, as they seek to escape brutal domestic price wars and overcapacity, according to a report from strategy consultants AlixPartners. The big overseas push is a shift for China’s car companies, which have relied on their massive domestic market but now face intense competition and shrinking margins at home. Vehicle prices in China have fallen by a fifth over the past two years, said Dan Hearsch, AlixPartners’ automotive and industrial practice global co-leader. Chinese brands are competing successfully against Western companies by offering affordable vehicles, faster product cycles and sophisticated intelligent-vehicle systems. | Automotive News ($)

Just 5 miles from the U.S. border, a bustling commercial strip here offers the buzzy Chinese car brands currently blocked from the American market. A Geely dealership features the all-electric EX2, a sleek compact that starts at only around $20,000. A bulky hybrid pickup truck sits next to a charger outside a BYD dealership. Great Wall Motor boasts some beefy gas-powered sport-utility vehicles, one advertised with the slogan “Be More Tank.” Luis Hernandez, a Geely salesman, said he has poached many longtime Ford Motor Company and Chevrolet owners attracted to the affordable sticker prices and whiz-bang Chinese technology. He recently sold two Geely Emgrand sedans, which start at around $17,000, to a Mexican family for their two daughters to commute to college in El Paso, where the sleekest Chinese cars are now attracting attention. “If they were allowed to be sold in the United States,” Hernandez boasted of the Chinese models, “they would destroy the American car market.” U.S. automotive executives don’t entirely disagree. Without a clear plan to deal with Chinese competitors, some of them said in interviews, the arrival of affordable, high-tech Chinese cars could upend a U.S. industry that contributes $1.3 trillion to the economy each year. | The Wall Street Journal ($)

A group of several dozen House lawmakers urged President Trump to prohibit Chinese car companies from ever building vehicles in America, the latest salvo by Congress in a debate roiling the auto industry. In a letter Tuesday to Trump, Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell and more than 70 other Democratic representatives said any effort to lower barriers for Chinese automobiles to enter the U.S.—including ones produced in other parts of North America—would “pose a direct threat to American manufacturing, workers, and national security.” “This must remain a firm and non-negotiable priority,” the letter, which was seen by The Wall Street Journal, said. “We must not cede the American auto industry to a strategic competitor intent on global dominance.” China’s upstart carmakers have been largely kept out of the U.S. for years because of hefty tariffs on vehicle imports and a ban on Chinese connected-vehicle software. But concern over the prospect of these high-tech competitors breaking into the U.S. has ratcheted up as Trump prepares for a summit next month with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. | The Wall Street Journal ($)

BYD’s 3,000 hp electric supercar, the Yangwang U9 Xtreme, sold for nearly $3 million at the Beijing Auto Show, making it the event’s highest-priced vehicle. Although BYD is best known for low-cost vehicles like the $10,000 Seagull (Dolphin Surf in Europe), Dolphin hatch, and the Atto 3 SUV, the company is quickly expanding into new luxury segments. Outside its core Dynasty and Ocean series, BYD has several luxury sub-brands, including Denza, Yangwang, and Fang Cheng Bao, each offering unique vehicles. While all are considered premium brands, Yangwang is the most expensive, focusing on performance and advanced technologies. Yangwang debuted the production version of the U9 Xtreme, a 3,000 hp electric supercar, at the Beijing Auto Show last week. According to Li Yunfei, general manager of BYD’s branding and public relations, the Yangwang U9 Xtreme sold for over 20 million yuan a piece, making it the most expensive car sold at the event. The electric supercar is extremely limited, with only 30 units for sale globally. However, this isn’t your average vehicle either. Built on a 1,200V platform and equipped with four electric motors, the Yangwang U9 Xtreme delivers a combined 2,977 hp (2,220 kW) of output. In September, it became the fastest production car in history with a top speed of 496.22 km/h (308 mph), and weeks later BYD announced the Yangwang U9 Xtreme “conquered the Nürburgring Nordschleife in record time, completing the lap in 6:59.157, making it the fastest EV production vehicle around the track.” With just 30 units for sale globally, calling it a “production vehicle” is questionable. At nearly $3 million (20 million yuan), it would be the most expensive production vehicle BYD has sold to date. In comparison, the standard Yangwang U9 starts at 1.8 million yuan ($265,000) in China. | Electrek

BYD’s overseas sales soared in April as surging gasoline prices in the wake of the Iran war spurred renewed interest in electric cars, though softening demand at home in China dragged total deliveries down for the eighth month in a row. The automaker’s sales outside of China jumped 71% last month from a year earlier to 134,542, it said Friday in a post on social media platform Weibo. Still, that wasn’t enough to prevent total deliveries falling 16% to 321,123. The strength in international sales underscores the importance of BYD’s global expansion as demand at home cools following the removal of government subsidies and intensifying competition from the likes of Geely and Xiaomi. BYD is aiming to sell 1.3 million cars outside China this year, around a quarter more than in 2025. | Bloomberg ($)

BYD’s profits have fallen by more than half as the company’s downturn in the cut-throat Chinese market outweighs improved demand for electric vehicles globally in the wake of the Iran war. The Shenzhen-based group on Tuesday reported first-quarter net profit of Rmb4.1bn ($600mn), down 55 percent from the same period last year and roughly in line with analyst forecasts. It was the lowest level since the second quarter of 2022, according to Visible Alpha. Revenue of Rmb150.2bn in the first three months of the year was down 11.8 percent from a year earlier but above forecasts of Rmb140.4bn. The results highlight the recent drop in BYD’s China sales, particularly in January and February, following years of astronomical growth as government subsidies for EV purchases are phased out. | Financial Times ($)

American drive-in theaters might be a relic of the past, but Chinese carmakers have found a novel way to bring them back: headlights that project movies onto walls. Take the Stelato S9 sedan, developed by Huawei and BAIC Motor. It features a system that not only lights up the road, but can cast the latest Marvel flick on a 100-inch screen outdoors. The 2-megapixel headlights can also beam crosswalk and navigation arrows on the ground. It’s yet another example of how local carmakers are innovating on another level to get ahead in China’s hyper-competitive market. | Bloomberg ($)

Volkswagen Group is open to sharing unused capacity at its European plants with its Chinese automaking partners as the company fights to reduce production costs to stay competitive. Co-producing at factories would be a “clever solution” to reduce capacity and lower costs, VW Group CEO Oliver Blume said April 30 on a conference call for its first-quarter earnings. | Automotive News ($)

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Autonomy & Robotics

Uber has a long-term ambition that goes well beyond shuttling passengers: the company eventually wants to outfit its human drivers’ cars with sensors to soak up real-world data for autonomous vehicle (AV) companies — and potentially other companies training AI models on physical-world scenarios. For now, AV Labs relies on a small, dedicated fleet of sensor-equipped cars that Uber operates itself, separate from its driver network. But the ambition is clearly much larger. Uber has millions of drivers globally, and if even a fraction of those cars could be transformed into rolling data-collection platforms, the scale of what Uber could offer the AV industry would dwarf what any individual AV company could assemble on its own. Uber's insight driving their program is that the limiting factor for AV development is no longer the underlying technology. The bottleneck is data. | TechCrunch ($)

About a century ago, when cars began invading urban areas en masse, many cities made a disastrous choice. They reconfigured themselves to favor vehicles over people. The extreme case is the U.S., which now devotes more space to parking each car than housing each person, writes Henry Grabar in Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World. Cars don’t suit cities, and humans never got very good at driving them. The arrival of driverless vehicles gives cities a second chance to manage cars. Robotaxis are already common in several Chinese and American cities. They are now hitting the streets of the late-adopting continent, Europe, from Zagreb to London, where Google’s robotaxi start-up Waymo has begun piloting its vehicles. Meanwhile, robobuses putter through some European cities. The driverless era could work out brilliantly or terribly, depending on how cities handle it. Here are two scenarios. | Financial Times ($)

Houston, known for NASA and putting a man on the moon, has completed another milestone, this time without any humans aboard and involving a Bot Auto autonomous truck. The company announced Thursday that it has completed its first fully humanless, over-the-road commercial truckload in its history. The haul occurred the night before. A Bot Auto autonomous tractor hauled commercial freight 231 miles across Texas overnight without a safety driver, a remote operator or an in-cab observer. | Freightwaves

Uber’s forthcoming luxury robotaxi service with Lucid Motors and Nuro is getting a fourth partner: Hertz. The companies announced Thursday that Hertz will provide “day-to-day vehicle asset management, including charging, maintenance, repairs, cleaning, and depot staffing.” The service, announced last year, is supposed to launch by the end of 2026 in the San Francisco Bay Area, using Lucid’s Gravity SUVs and Nuro’s self-driving tech. Hertz is handling this work through a newly established affiliate it’s calling Oro Mobility, which the rental company says will “provide integrated fleet management solutions across a range of mobility segments.” “As the industry transitions from personally owned vehicles to commercially operated driver-led and autonomous fleets, Oro aims to fill a critical orchestration and operations gap,” the Hertz press release reads. | TechCrunch ($)

🚘 Car of the Week

Our Automotive Ventures "Car of the Week": a 1991 Porsche Singer 911 Classic. | Tom Hartley Jnr

Have a great week,Steve Greenfield

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📰 In The News

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On this episode of the Car Dealership Guy Podcast, Jim Roche, CEO of WarrCloud, discusses why fixed ops now drives over half of total dealership gross, and why most dealers still aren't giving it the attention it deserves. | Car Dealership Guy

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Paul Daly got Steve to reveal the topic of his keynote presentation at ASOTU-CON. | More Than Cars

April 28th was National School Bus Driver Appreciation Day, and BusRight, the leading all-in-one student transportation technology platform, marked the occasion with the launch of its first-ever Behind The Wheel Award. | BusRight

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On this week's Future of Automotive segment on CBT News, we walk through the implications of Carvana acquiring Stellantis dealerships. | CBT News ($)

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👀 Automotive Ventures Company to Watch

WarrCloud completely automates a dealership's warranty processing, reduces costs, improves gross profits, and frees up your employees to focus on customer satisfaction. | WarrCloud

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