We're trying to buy the new Li Auto i6 tonight, and quick-delivery cars are already hard to get: once we picked AWD plus the dual Mach chip pack, there was no quick-delivery car left to choose. The 2026 i6 is now on sale in China. Official price: from RMB 249,800, or RMB 239,800 as a launch offer for orders placed by Nov 30. Li Auto says deliveries start right away. What else we caught at the launch: - The electric front trunk is finally here, and 2025 i6 owners can pay to retrofit it from December. - Three special paints, normally RMB 6,000, are free during the launch period. - Li Auto says the outgoing i6 sold nearly 190,000 units. Key numbers: - Battery: 96 kWh, up from 87 kWh - CLTC range: 780 km RWD / 710 km AWD - Europe: sold as the "Li 6", Norway and the Netherlands first, from Q1 2027 We own a 2025 i6, so we know the old car well. This is a mid-cycle update: on top of the bigger pack and front trunk, it adds ADB adaptive headlights and swaps the front ultrasonic sensors for UWB radar, which tidies up the nose. Our gripe: with the new semi-hidden door handles, the interior door-open button pushes your elbow into the B-pillar. For mostly city driving, we'd pick RWD, which gets 70 km more CLTC range than AWD. Our own car will go into a long-term battery test.

Would love to hear his take from the back seat. Must be a strange feeling for someone who's spent a career being the one in control.

222 in one week is the number that jumps out. Curious how many of the 573 are already doing paid rides vs. still being staged around Austin.

Volkswagen's first China Tech Day in Hefei today: VW Group China unveiled VEGA, a full tech stack developed in China, and moved its China motto from "In China, for China" to "In China, beyond China." • CMP platform (A-segment BEV/PHEV): 600+ km CLTC, ~11 kWh/100 km, 30–80% in 25 min • CSP platform (full-size BEV/EREV): 850V+ peak, 10–80% in as little as 13 min, BEV range target 800+ km • CEA architecture: on 5 China-built VW EVs this year; PHEVs and ICE models in 2027, plus central compute aimed at L3 readiness; CEA 3.0 in 2029 for L4 development • Hyper Sense 8 (L2++ by CARIZON): city and highway NOA, on 7 new EVs across VW's 3 China JVs in 2026 The export angle: CMP + CEA go into locally built models in South America first, before 2030.

CATL says all-solid-state batteries could reach small-batch production in 2027. It reiterated the target on Oct 27, answering an investor on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange's Q&A platform: CATL says it keeps investing "firmly" in all-solid-state cells and calls its tech "industry-leading." The question was about its Hefei sulfide solid-state pilot base and whether it will be upgraded to a GWh line. CATL didn't address that part. For context: in June, chairman Robin Zeng said that on a 1–9 readiness scale, solid-state is "still at level four"; level nine means ready for mass production. So 2027 means small batches. Mass-market solid-state comes later. irm.cninfo.com.cn/ircs/compa…

82% of owners recommending it is a strong number, and charging being one of the top reasons tracks with 800V. Curious if winter range scored as well.

"The hardest part is getting people to try it that first time" is so true. Would love to know what she found weirdest in week one.

Source: Intilion de.linkedin.com/posts/intili… TENER Sodium specs, CATL: catl.com/en/news/6861.html

Fair, the 2018 one is still orbiting the Sun. This loop shot makes the new one look like it's practicing for it.

CATL's sodium-ion push into European grid storage keeps stacking up. New today: an MOU with Germany's Intilion to deploy 3 GWh of Tener Sodium storage over 5 years, across Germany, Switzerland and Austria. European sodium-ion deals CATL has announced this year: • Alfen: 5 GWh, from 2027 • Solarpro: 2 GWh • Intilion: 3 GWh CATL's claims: 15,000+ cycles, 25 years of operation, high discharge power at -20°C, and dimensionally compatible with lithium-ion systems, so buyers can switch chemistry more easily.

Mercedes' own Q3 sales release puts numbers on it: China car sales -31% YoY, while car sales outside China rose 1%. GLC and E-Class were almost two-thirds of its China volume, and the electric GLC L launched there in July. Full Q3 results land Oct 28. media.mercedes-benz.com/en/a…

438K driverless miles in a single week, in one city. Would love to see the same tracker run on Houston once that bigger zone fills up.

Airport to the beach with nobody in the driver's seat is pretty much the ride every Florida visitor will want to try first. Curious how soon "soon" turns out to be.

China's draft rules on car "innovative designs" (MIIT + 3 other ministries, comments open until Nov 10) go well beyond door handles: • Fully hidden door handles: banned • Foldable or flexible displays: not allowed • Lights, wipers or defrost on touch controls? A physical control has to be there too • Passengers can't switch headlights, wipers, defrost, doors or the hood by voice or gesture while driving • New filings from Jan 1, 2027; already-approved models must file test data by Jul 1, 2027 Fixed big screens stay. It's still a draft, so the wording can change. miit.gov.cn/jgsj/zbys/qcgy/a…

Since Q3, Horizon says, that stack has been going into 7 new EVs from VW's three China JVs (SAIC VW, FAW-VW, VW Anhui). Next up: VW's first China Tech Day is tomorrow in Hefei. VW is aiming for its first L3 deliveries in China in H2 2027.

Germany's President Frank-Walter Steinmeier test-drove two of VW's China-built EVs in Hefei today: FAW-VW's ID. AURA T6 and SAIC VW's ID. ERA 5X. Both run driver assist from CARIZON, VW's JV with Horizon Robotics, on Horizon's Journey 6H chip and its end-to-end HSD model.

GX and G9L launching together in the Middle East, with 1,200+ stores overseas now. Really curious how the regional pricing lands next week.

Static display only for now, but a Cybercab sitting in a KL mall is going to get a lot of people talking. Would love to see the reactions up close.

Swiss watch in one hand, blind catch with the other would beat any dance demo. I'd watch that on loop.

That Dallas lot is something else. Curious how fast it empties once rides start there.