Dongfeng Motor Corporation

I've kind of reported on them individually.

They include Dong Feng and Huawei's vehicle technology business, Yin Wang, expanding beyond selling cells after its profit growth slowed in the third quarter.

Swapping replaces a depleted battery, well, it hasn't got to be depleted, with a charged one.

CATL advertises a 99-second battery swap time.

El Nasser Automotive started producing the Mage EV at its Hilawan plant, and it's made up of 45% local parts.

This car is the electric version of China's Dongfeng Mage, and it's being built by a joint venture between state-owned El Nasser and Al Safi Group, which is Dongfeng's local agent.

The two set up the operation in 2024 with $40 million.

Industry Minister Khalid Hashim says the next stage is increasing that local share, and EV parts, batteries, and motors are on the list.

We talked about that last week here.

Dongfeng, the 008 has launched.

That's the big six-seat SUV.

Have you seen that?

Which they've now changed.

But that obviously... skyrocketed complaints which is what put them in that position however what I think is bad news for the JK7 isn't that it is I don't know if you saw this I mean the unveiling of the Freelander brand yes as a brand not as a it's not a land yeah yeah we should be very very clear and this is getting confused as immediately as I guess everyone wanted but no brand who's going to call themselves do you know who's behind it is it Julie I want to say Changgang Changgang or is it Dong Feng I don't know No one wants that not to be confused.

So they want people to go there thinking, oh, have you seen the new Freelander? Thinking it's not a Land Rover.

It's a Freelander.

It's Mengsi.

It's a Dongfeng company that makes a huge SUV.

So anyways, we got that.

It has a Huawei system, but it's not a Huawei company like Ito or Stilato or any of those.

Iceland not announcing its battery choice or even launch date yet.

And different reports that I read today disagree over which Huawei partner would launch first with Dongfeng's Epicland.

Also a cool name.

What's better, New Cool or Epic Land as a startup brand? Also in the mix for getting CATL's battery swapping.

The Sinoforeign JVs were made with state-owned companies.

The Shanghai Auto Company, Beijing Auto Company, the three national companies are First Auto Works, Dongfeng, and Changan.

But the leaders, the pacesetters, are the entrepreneur-led companies.

Obviously, everybody globally m- probably is familiar with BYD, a battery company that became a car company.

So all of a sudden, the U.S. joint venture partner of Longyi is now riding that magic carpet right into South America, selling into markets or potentially selling into markets they would never be able to sell into.

This was the same model that Cummins Engines used when they built six joint ventures in China with Dongfeng and other Chinese tractor companies and heavy equipment companies.

They were able to build products, they were forced to build products that their Chinese partners insisted they build, that now they're selling into, you know, Bangladesh and into Kenya and, you know, in lots of countries that they would have never been relevant.

So this is how you have to think.

Some of those might come from Europe, but eventually coming to the U.S. and in other parts of the world, including Europe, Stellantis still has to depend on Leap Motor platform

and Dongfeng platform for that matter.

Same for Ford.

Mentioned Geely, CATL, GM in China.

He went through nine CEOs or something like that? Eight or nine, yeah.

Nine CEOs.

And I just had a conversation about Jeep returning to production in China with Dongfeng Puzhou.

And he's kind of actually signs off still.