design

A look into the art and science of vehicular design; all the ins and outs of building cars, trucks, motorcycles and more.

Tesla’s 66% Plunge in China Looks Like a Crash. The Export Data Says Otherwise.
In the last week of October, at a Tesla delivery center in Pudong, Shanghai, a salesperson leaned against a display car and scrolled through his phone. He had three delivery orders scheduled for the day. Two were carried over from late September. In the body shop next door, there were more technicians than cars. “It’s not that nobody’s buying,” he said. “There just aren’t any cars in the lot.”
By Jin2 days ago in Wheel
EV Road Trips Are Won by Fewer Stops, Not Faster Charging
Two cars, same price, different trip shapes Two EVs leave a charger at the same state of charge. Both cost about RMB 260,000. One is a mid-trim BYD Datang at RMB 269,900. It has a 130 kWh second-generation blade battery, a single rear motor with 500 hp, and a measured full-to-zero highway range of 611 km at an average 115 km/h. The other is a base ONVO L90 at RMB 265,900. It has an 85 kWh CALB ternary lithium battery. Dongchedi measured the high-trim L90 at 369 km of highway range.
By Jin2 days ago in Wheel
Foreigners Don’t Drive Small Cars Because They’re Pragmatic
Most of us buy e-bikes for errands. We do not skip Mercedes because we dislike Mercedes. We do not skip Tsinghua because we dislike Tsinghua. We do not share an apartment because a villa feels too big.
By Jin2 days ago in Wheel
A Dutch Court Just Stopped Land Rover’s “Fishing Expedition” Against BYD
On November 11, 2026, Judge H.F.R. van Heemstra of The Hague District Court issued a ruling. It ordered Jaguar Land Rover to destroy or return all materials seized from BYD’s Dutch offices in August within 24 hours of formal notice. If JLR missed that deadline, the fine would be EUR 50,000 per hour, capped at EUR 500,000. JLR also had to pay BYD EUR 25,376.57 in legal costs.
By Jin2 days ago in Wheel
The Ruling That Decided Nothing and Showed What Competition Now Runs On
On November 11, 2026, the court in The Hague issued a ruling in Jaguar Land Rover v. BYD. The ruling did not address whether the Ti7 copied the Defender. The court had to resolve a more preliminary question: which digital records seized in the August raid could enter the later proceedings. That procedural ruling, which avoided the infringement question, shows more clearly than an infringement judgment what is shaping competition.
By Jin4 days ago in Wheel
The Badge Changes at the Border: Why Zunjie Stays Home and Maserati Goes Overseas
The conclusion first: putting a Maserati badge on the domestic version is technically possible. The trouble starts after the badge goes on. Four questions will start a fight before anything else: who sells it, who services it, who prices it, and who takes the blame. That is why a split-brand arrangement is more sensible. Zunjie badge domestically, Maserati badge overseas. Channel interests and compliance realities produced the split. Brand taste did not.
By Jin4 days ago in Wheel
The 503 km/h Run Happened. The Record Is Narrower Than the Headline.
The Yangwang U9 Xtreme ran 503.17 km/h in Abu Dhabi. The setting needs correction first. It did not happen on an open road with traffic. Local authorities closed a 10 km section of the E11, including a 7 km straight. The car was prepared, the surface was inspected, and the run was organized as a record attempt. The conditions still differed from a purpose-built high-speed oval. There was no banking. The surface had ordinary road variation. Heat, dust, and crosswind were present.
By Jin4 days ago in Wheel
The 1 Million Yuan Gamble: Inside Audi's "Buy One, Get One Free" Disaster
On November 3, 2026, a case-filing notice from the Shanghai Jiading District Market Supervision Administration brought a provisional comma to the "buy one, get one free" controversy that had surrounded SAIC Audi for nearly a month. The reported party was Shanghai SAIC Volkswagen Automobile Sales Co., Ltd., and the matter pointed to a post published on the evening of October 11 titled "Congratulations to Qinwen on Her Championship! AUDI Full Lineup Buy One, Get One Free." When consumers clicked through, they found that the "free" item was a 1:18 scale model car of the same model, worth "probably less than 1,000 yuan"; and the "full lineup" in the title was not the Audi lineup as the public understood it, but only two battery-electric models under the AUDI lettered badge, the E5 and the E7X.
By Jin10 days ago in Wheel
The Car Was the Dream. Then They Did the Math.
"At first, my budget for a car was 300,000 yuan. Then it dropped to 250,000." Asked why she was fixed on that price range, Li Yu answered bluntly: "To show off."
By Jin10 days ago in Wheel
At 500 km/h, Horsepower Is the Least Interesting Number
For a production electric hypercar aiming at 500 km/h, horsepower is the easiest part to explain. The U9 Xtreme has 2220 kW, 3019 hp, and a power-to-weight ratio of 1217 Ps/t. Above 480 km/h, drag rises with the square of speed. Every extra 10 km/h nearly doubles the energy demand. At that point, 3019 hp is an entry ticket.
By Jin12 days ago in Wheel
Fast Cars Aren’t the Problem. Weak Rules Are.
Car companies are launching new models faster than ever. New brands, versions, trims, and price cuts arrive month after month. Launch events promise more than the owner’s manual supports. That has made “fast-tracked car” a label people use to mean short development cycles, thin validation, and exaggerated driver-assistance claims. Some of that criticism lands. Some of it unfairly dismisses serious engineering work.
By Jin12 days ago in Wheel
The Fork in Tech Carmaking: Why “Lead Everything” and “Enable Only” Sit One Accident Apart
In 2015, Alibaba and SAIC each put RMB 500 million into Banma Technologies. By 2025, Banma had lost more than RMB 3.6 billion over three years. Its 2025 loss alone was RMB 1.896 billion, including an RMB 1.841 billion impairment on operating-system intellectual property injected in 2020. Jiyue, the Baidu-Geely venture, sold about 14,000 vehicles in the first 11 months of 2024, roughly 1,200 a month. It collapsed in December when funding stopped. Afeela, the Sony Honda Mobility project, reached pre-production at Honda’s Ohio plant and opened showrooms in California. It was terminated in March 2026 with zero customer deliveries. Fisker, which had Magna build the Ocean in Austria, delivered about 4,700 vehicles in 2023 and filed for bankruptcy in 2024. Apple spent ten years and more than $10 billion on Project Titan and shipped no car.
By Jin12 days ago in Wheel