It’s the dog days of, um, fall? Whatever the case, everyone’s pressing onward toward the end of the year, despite the lull in the energy of our environment. Believe me, the switch to daylight savings time isn’t kind to anyone here on staff. But that doesn’t mean things stop in the EV world. Businesses will keep doing business, which means the electric vehicle world will keep moving forward with or without you. Even if it now gets dark at 4:30 PM.
Today, GM has told its suppliers that it needs to get out of China, and pivot toward getting its goods elsewhere. Also, Honda sees China as its biggest threat, not any sort of roadblocks in the US or any looming chip shortage. Meanwhile, Xiaomi has surpassed Tesla in sales. Well, at least in China.
Okay folks—it’s Critical Materials time—the most interesting stories in the EV world. Let’s hop to it.
30% GM To Suppliers: Get the Hell Out of China
It looks like geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China are unlikely to let up anytime soon. And thus, automakers are preparing to weather the long haul here, reconsidering where exactly our car parts come from, from stem to stern.
GM is reportedly taking the lead here, by telling its suppliers that it should start moving away from China, with the goal from having everything weaned off China completely by 2027.
From Reuters:
GM executives have been telling suppliers they should find alternatives to China for their raw materials and parts, with the goal of eventually moving their supply chains out of the country entirely, the people said. The automaker has set a 2027 deadline for some suppliers to dissolve their China sourcing ties, some of the sources said.
GM approached some suppliers with the directive in late 2024, but the effort took on fresh urgency this past spring, during the early days of an escalating U.S.-China trade battle, the sources said. GM executives have said it is part of a broader strategy to improve the company’s supply chain “resiliency,” the sources said.
Geopolitical tensions between the two superpowers have left car executives in triage mode throughout 2025. U.S. President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs and bouts of industry panic over potential rare-earth bottlenecks and computer-chip shortages have auto companies rethinking their ties to China, long an important source of parts and raw materials.
On one hand, this feels like a shrewd way for GM to weather the storm of a Trump administration. Re-shoring supply chains is the name of the game here, and the government is actively discouraging any tie ups with other nations, especially China.
On the other hand, this only furthers the disconnect between GM’s global operations and its North American ones. China has done a lot of legwork for global GM models in the past. Re-shoring the supply chain away from a China only further removes synergies between the two entities.
60% Tariffs? Meh, Actually China Is The Biggest Threat, Says Honda.
Photo by: Honda
Honda has faced lots of headwinds as of late. Tariffs have been one of the biggest issues recently, as financial barriers have sprung up from nowhere, making even gas car production hard considering how many parts come from global markets. At the same time, geopolitical tension has kneecapped Netherlands-based Nexperia, creating what could be a newfound chip shortage.
Still, Honda doesn’t see these setbacks as the main event toward its future plans. It feels the real boogeyman for its future is actually China. Historically, the market has been a big driver of sales for the brand, yet Honda’s sales have been sinking in China, while China’s own homegrown brands have grown both inside and out of China.
“The advance by BYD and others comes as China’s own auto industry faces a brutal price war at home, prompting its EV makers to expand aggressively overseas.
Honda’s retail sales plunged nearly 30% in Indonesia over the first nine months compared with the same period last year, according to company data. In Malaysia, they fell 18% and in Thailand, they were down 12% over the period.
The company has no new models planned for the region from this fiscal year into the next, apart from an overhaul of the City compact sedan – a delay that could risk ceding more ground to Chinese manufacturers.”
This malaise in other parts of Asia explains some of Honda’s latest moves, however. The 0 Series Saloon and SUV have recently been joined by to the 0 Series Alpha crossover, a smaller version of the 0 Series SUV concept. Honda says this smaller (and cheaper) EV is meant to do battle in places like India and parts of Southeast Asia, where cheaper EV and PHEV models from China are quickly making inroads.
Now, will this be enough? We’ll just have to see how things will pan out. It’s clear that Chinese brands are here to stay in most of the world, so it’ll take some innovation to ensure that Honda still has a place in a world with new competition.
90% Xiaomi Outsells Tesla
Photo by: Kevin Williams/InsideEVs
It was kind of a matter of time, no? This past June, Xiaomi launched the YU7, a Ferrari Purgosangue-esque fully electric crossover. Built by one of China’s biggest phone makers, now turned electric car maker, the YU7 has been one of the hottest-selling cars on the Chinese market.
The problem is that Xiaomi has been notoriously production-constrained. The brand got more than 200,000 lock-in orders for the car within its first week of announcement. However, this is basically the full capacity of Xiaomi’s lone Beijing-area factory. It was going to take time for Xiaomi to speed up production ot the YU7, while also still meeting the demand of the SU7 sedan.
It’s not clear if things are starting to equalize, but at the very least, Xiaomi has dethroned sales king Tesla. At least in China, for one month.
“Independent sales trackers at ECC Intelligence Bureau highlighted the comparison with Tesla. ECC noted that Tesla’s October wholesale shipments totalled approximately 61,500 units, including roughly 35,400 units exported, leaving about 26,100 units for the domestic Chinese market in October. By that measure, ECC reported YU7’s October wholesale figure above Tesla Model Y’s domestic deliveries.
Xiaomi itself earlier announced on November 1 that October deliveries had continued above 40,000 units, but the company did not publish a detailed model-by-model breakdown; the CPCA report supplied the first public numerical breakdown. Combining Xiaomi’s earlier statement that YU7 deliveries began on July 6 with the CPCA’s October figures, calculations indicate that YU7 cumulative deliveries have exceeded 70,000 units to date.”
Now, this is great for Xiaomi. The brand is likely to continue its surge forward, even through the very real quality and safety concerns brought up by the public. It’s clear that efforts like the three-row Model Y won’t be enough to keep sales afloat.
100% Can We Truly Decouple from China?
Photo by: Kevin Williams/InsideEVs
It doesn’t take two seconds on any car-oriented website to find an article that extols the virtues of China’s car industry or brands. Whether you like it or not, the cars themselves are making waves in global markets, save for the United States.
But, most brands have some sort of presence or tie-in to China and it’s cars. Is it even possible to decouple from China?
Contact the author: Kevin.Williams@insideevs.com.
