industry

A peek under the hood of the global automotive industry.

Tesla’s Flying Car Got Applause. Its Shareholders Got a $93 Billion Bill.
At the SpaceX test site in Texas, the white Roadster drove up a curved ramp with the body inverted. The tires clung to the wall, the roof pointed toward the ground, and then the car went airborne, rolled, cleared five Teslas parked on the ground, and came back down under thruster control. The applause in the livestream was loud. Musk stood nearby and said something, but the cheering covered it.
By Jin8 days ago in Wheel
Tesla's Roadster Flip Uses Two Separate Tricks
Two clips released the same day show different maneuvers. In the official C-shaped ramp clip, the car runs up a large curved wall, reaches a near-inverted attitude near the top, leaves the surface, rotates roughly half a turn in the air, and lands on four wheels after a burst of white gas from the underbody. In the five-car jump clip posted by Elon Musk, the car launches forward and upward, clears a row of vehicles including a Semi, rolls nearly a full turn sideways, and fires downward jets before touchdown.
By Jin9 days ago in Wheel
Why BYD Wants to Build a Factory in Renault’s Backyard
I At the 2026 Paris Motor Show in October, the BYD booth was surrounded three layers deep. Stella Li stood on stage with the Seal, Dolphin, and Denza D9 lined up behind her. She laid out the plan for the Hungarian plant to begin production in the fourth quarter. Then she paused and added in an even tone: “France entered the shortlist because your energy prices are very competitive.”
By Jin9 days ago in Wheel
Tesla's Flying Roadster Is a Rocket Testbed With License Plates
The car drove up a curved ramp, kept going until its wheels were above its roof, and stopped. It hung there, upside down, twenty meters above the ground. Then it pushed off.
By Jin9 days ago in Wheel
Tesla Built a Flying Car. The Road Still Says No.
October 15, 2026, McGregor, Texas. At a SpaceX rocket test site, a silver-gray Roadster shot up a giant curved ramp. Underbody fans pinned it to the vertical steel. The car drove upside down for dozens of meters, left the ramp, completed a barrel roll in midair, and landed on four wheels. From hundreds of meters away, the audience saw a driverless sports car move through fog and red laser light in a way that looked edited.
By Jin9 days ago in Wheel
I Use My Car’s Autohold Button Like a Handbrake. It’s Faster Than the Real One.
Red light. Ninety seconds. Foot off the brake. Green Hold on the dashboard. Shift to N. Phone screen lights up, then goes dark. Horn from behind. Shift to D. Tap the gas. Hold goes off. Car moves.
By Jin10 days ago in Wheel
Beyond the Home Shores: Toyota Century’s Long-Awaited Global Ascent
For more than 60 years, the Century has stood as Japan’s most exclusive automobile, a car reserved for emperors, prime ministers, and corporate titans, built in small numbers and seen almost nowhere outside the home islands. That era of quiet pre-eminence is drawing to a close. Toyota is now systematically elevating Century into a true standalone marque, positioned above Lexus at the very peak of its global lineup, with new models, dedicated showrooms, and a clear ambition to compete head-on with the world’s most celebrated ultra-luxury names. The message delivered in Detroit last week, when Chairman Akio Toyoda arrived at the Automotive Hall of Fame in a Century SUV not yet sold in the United States, was unambiguous: this is no longer merely a Japanese institution; it is a global contender.
By Mark Lim 12 days ago in Wheel
Assembly Lines for Defence: Automakers Repurpose Mass-Production Might for Global Security
The factories that built the world’s passenger cars are turning toward the battlefield. Across Europe, North America, and Asia, automakers are redirecting decades of mastery in high-volume, low-cost manufacturing toward defence not merely by building military vehicles, but by converting entire assembly lines, supply networks, and automation systems to produce everything from drones to air defence components. Surging global defence budgets and protracted conflicts have placed a premium on speed and volume of supply, making the automotive industry’s greatest strength, the ability to deliver millions of units of consistent quality a new strategic asset. For an industry grappling with slowing growth, fierce competition from China, and 2.5 million units of idle capacity across Western Europe alone, defence is more than a new market: it is a lifeline.
By Mark Lim 12 days ago in Wheel
Empty Showrooms: The New-Model Drought Reshapes Auto Retail
Something is conspicuously absent from car showrooms across the United States: genuinely new vehicles. Across the industry, the pipeline of all-new models has slowed to a trickle, a combination of costly transition to electrification, stretched product-development timelines, and a sharp pullback in spending amid uncertain demand. For dealers, the result is a growing disconnect: customers are paying more for largely unchanged vehicles, and many are beginning to push back. As one New Jersey retailer put it plainly: “It’s real bad. I literally have people saying, ‘I am not leasing this car again. It’s the same car, and the price keeps going up.’”
By Mark Lim 12 days ago in Wheel
PowerCo × Gotion: Volkswagen’s LFP Battery Push Builds European Independence
Volkswagen Group and its battery subsidiary PowerCo have formed a landmark partnership with Gotion High-Tech to establish Europe’s first large-scale production of lithium‑iron‑phosphate (LFP) batteries, a chemistry poised to dominate affordable electric vehicles but currently manufactured almost entirely outside the continent. The agreement creates three joint ventures across Spain, Slovakia and Morocco, combining Volkswagen’s platform and vehicle scale with Gotion’s proven LFP manufacturing expertise. Announced against a backdrop of sweeping restructuring across the Group, the move underscores a dual imperative: to secure supply chains for the next generation of accessible EVs and to restore profitability amid intense global competition.
By Mark Lim 12 days ago in Wheel
Taking the Wheel: AITO’s Independence and the Reset of the Huawei–Seres Partnership
On September 15, 2026, the automotive landscape shifted. Seres and HarmonyOS Intelligent Mobility announced a revised operating model for the AITO brand: from that day forward, Seres would take full lead across product definition, design, marketing, retail channels, and after‑sales service. Huawei would remain a strategic technology partner through Yinwang Intelligent Technology, but its Consumer Business Group would step back from day‑to‑day operations, branding, and distribution. The market’s immediate verdict was unambiguous: Seres’ A‑share closed down 5.09% at ¥45.46, while its H‑share fell 6.12% to HK$34.68, touching the lowest point since its November 2025 listing. While both sides characterised the move as an evolution rather than a breakup, the restructuring marks the end of one of the most explosive growth partnerships in China’s automotive history and the beginning of a make‑or‑break chapter for Seres.
By Mark Lim 12 days ago in Wheel
AITO Is Going to Europe in 2027. Can the M9 Take On the GLS and X7?
At the 2026 Paris Motor Show, AITO 5 through AITO 9 lined up. Seres Vice President Kang Bo gave the timetable: enter the European market in autumn 2027. WVTA EU Whole Vehicle Type Approval has started. Product development targets Euro NCAP 2026 five-star. AITO wants overseas sales to reach 20% of total sales within three years. Today that share is less than 1%.
By Jin12 days ago in Wheel