Toyota officially established the China Chief Engineer System, with Chinese engineers leading product development. The Baozhi 3X has become the first model to be launched under this system, and the FAW Toyota bZ Crossover and GAC Toyota Baozhi 7 will be launched soon. This move marks Toyota's departure from the “direct import of global models” model and its shift to in-depth localized research and development. Toyota's localization process has been accelerated, with the first appointment of a Chinese as Vice Chairman and General Manager of Toyota China in January 2025, and the announcement of the construction of a wholly-owned Lexus electric vehicle plant in Shanghai in February, with the President of Global Pure Electric Vehicle Development directly in charge. Mr. Akio Toyoda emphasized that he does not seek to be the top seller, but rather to be the “best local citizen”. Product development under the new system needs to balance Toyota's global “safety and security” standards with the speed and cost requirements of the Chinese market. Toyota's battery technology is already compliant with the new national standard to be implemented in 2026. Li Hui, General Manager of Toyota China, said that the company is moving from the 1.0 era of global model import to the 2.0 era of localized R&D, and in the future will enter the 3.0 era in which China's experience feeds the global market.

On April 22, local time, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he plans to significantly reduce his work for the Trump administration in May to focus on Tesla. It is reported that Tesla announced a first-quarter net income of $409 million that day, a 71% drop from the same period last year. Analysts warned that Musk's work for the "Government Efficiency Department" on behalf of Trump could damage its brand image. Musk pointed out that tariffs will be very difficult for companies when profit margins are still low. Musk expressed support for lower tariffs and will continue to advocate for tariff cuts.

Less than two days after the US issued a new presidential memorandum exempting smartphones, computers, chips and other electronic products from so-called "reciprocal tariffs", US President Trump "changed his words" again. On the 13th local time, Trump said on social media: "No tariff exemptions were announced on the 11th. They were just classified into different tariff "categories" and in the upcoming tariff investigation, the government will "examine semiconductors and the entire electronics supply chain!" On the same day, US Secretary of Commerce Lutnick also said in an interview: Although smartphones, computers and other electronic products are not subject to the so-called "reciprocal tariffs", they will be included in the semiconductor tariffs, which may be introduced in one or two months.

李嘉诚旗下长和集团向美国贝莱德财团出售全球23国43个港口的228亿美元的交易计划遭遇重大阻力。接近长和高层人士透露，原定于4月2日签订的巴拿马港回最终协议已被推迟，交易进程被迫暂停。 中国国家市场监督管理总局明确表示将依法对该交易进行审查，以保护市场公平竞争和社会公共利益。香港特首李家超等高层人士已对此表达关切。中国政协副主席梁振英质疑"商人有没有祖国”。 自消息公开以来，市场反应显著消极，李嘉诚旗下多家公司股价持续下跌。长和集团11个交易目内市值蒸发323.6亿港元。外交部已多次表态坚决反对利用经济胁迫。侵害他国正当权益的行为。

On March 24, BYD released a summary of its 2024 annual report. In 2024, the company achieved operating income of 777.102 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 29.02%, and net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies of 40.254 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 34.00%. As of the end of 2024, BYD's cash reserves were approximately 154.937 billion yuan. "The abundant cash reserves provide strong support for our rapid business development every time." BYD Chairman and President Wang Chuanfu said. Currently, BYD's main businesses include new energy vehicles, mobile phone components and assembly business, secondary rechargeable batteries and photovoltaic business. In 2024, BYD's global sales reached 4.2721 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 41.07%.

Recently, Cheung Kong Holdings Group announced the sale of 80% of Hutchison Port Holdings to BlackRock Consortium. The transaction involves 43 ports in 23 countries around the world, with a total value of US$22.765 billion. This move will bring back more than US$19 billion in cash for the group. The transaction includes 90% of the shares of Panama Ports Corporation, which operates important ports at both ends of the Panama Canal. It is worth noting that Trump had previously claimed to take back the Panama Canal operated by China, and the Panamanian government has launched an audit of the port company. Frank Sixt, co-managing director of Cheung Kong Holdings Group, emphasized that the sale was purely commercial and had nothing to do with the political situation in Panama. The transaction does not involve port businesses in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, South China and mainland China, which will continue to remain under Cheung Kong Holdings.

Recently, TSMC announced an additional $100 billion investment in the United States, bringing the total investment to $165 billion, setting a record for the largest foreign investment in U.S. history. Trump, Wei Zhejia and the U.S. Secretary of Commerce attended the announcement ceremony. The funds will build three wafer fabs, two advanced packaging facilities and a research and development center in Arizona. TSMC is expected to create 40,000 jobs and drive more than $200 billion in indirect economic output in the next decade. This move responds to the U.S. semiconductor repatriation policy and will also improve the U.S. AI supply chain. TSMC's main customers in the United States include chip design giants such as Apple, Nvidia and AMD, and the investment will provide them with a more stable supply of high-end chips.

Recently, according to media reports, British luxury car manufacturer Aston Martin said it would cut about 5% of its employees worldwide to further reduce costs and promote future investment. It is reported that about 170 employees will be affected by the layoffs, and it is expected that the layoffs will save about 25 million pounds (about 31.6 million US dollars) in costs. At the same time, the company has once again postponed the release of its first pure electric vehicle until before 2030. As of December 31, Aston Martin's adjusted pre-tax loss increased by 48.7% to 255.5 million pounds, and its net debt was 1.16 billion pounds, an increase of 43% year-on-year.

According to people familiar with the matter, Nissan is planning to replace its CEO as its performance continues to deteriorate and merger talks with Honda Motor have broken down. It is reported that Nissan's current CEO Makoto Uchida has previously stated that if he is asked to resign, he will accept it, but hopes to stay on until Nissan's business stabilizes. According to Makoto Uchida's previous financial warning, Nissan is expected to suffer a net loss of 80 billion yen in fiscal 2024, a huge gap compared to the net profit of 880 billion yen predicted nine months ago. Nissan faces a record debt maturity next year. After two downgrades in the past week, all three major credit rating agencies have downgraded the company to junk level. Earlier, at a press conference on February 13, Uchida admitted that Nissan will still need to rely on external cooperation in the future, "without partnerships, Nissan's survival will still be very difficult."

On February 27, according to media reports, Mercedes-Benz China launched a layoff plan to lay off about 15% of its employees. It is reported that this round of layoffs mainly involves the sales and auto finance systems, and the R&D system has not yet been involved. It is reported that in addition to the compensation of N+9, if the laid-off employees do not join a new company in the next two months, Mercedes-Benz China will also pay them additional wages for March and April, which means that the highest compensation from Mercedes-Benz China is equivalent to N+11. In response to rumors such as "Mercedes-Benz China's large-scale layoffs", Mercedes-Benz China issued a statement today saying, "The integration or reduction of businesses will inevitably involve the work arrangements of some employees. Mercedes-Benz China will strictly abide by relevant laws and regulations, and provide relevant employees with follow-up plans that are as reasonable and legal as possible with a frank, friendly and responsible attitude."

Recently, according to media reports, Mercedes-Benz has set a savings plan, aiming to reduce costs by 5 billion euros (about 380.7 billion yuan) by 2027, and plans to achieve half of this goal by the end of 2025. According to reports, Mercedes-Benz plans to implement large-scale layoffs, which may be as high as 20,000 people, and is expected to affect multiple departments and regional branches of the company. Globally, its layoffs may exceed 10,000 people, including management personnel. In addition to the layoff plan, Mercedes-Benz will also close inefficient factories, improve the utilization rate of existing factories and optimize the supply chain to further reduce costs and improve efficiency.

Recently, according to media reports, on February 18, local time, US President Trump said that he would impose a tariff of about 25% on imported cars, and he would make more statements on this topic on April 2. Trump said on the 14th that he might impose tariffs on imported cars on April 2. Trump has not yet disclosed more details of this tariff plan, but he believes that American exported cars have been treated unfairly in foreign markets for a long time. According to experts, this move by the United States is a manifestation of trade protectionism, which will cause huge losses to both the United States and its trading partners.

On February 9, local time, U.S. President Trump said in an interview that he had instructed the Department of Government Efficiency team led by Elon Musk to review the expenditures of the U.S. Department of Defense and the Department of Education. According to the report, Trump said in the interview that Musk has been a trusted ally in fulfilling his promise to cut red tape. Trump said, "People want me to find it (wasteful spending)," and Elon Musk has given me a lot of help. He is very good. " In addition, Trump also said: "Then we go and look at the military. Let's go and check the military, and we will find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse, and people elected me because of that."

According to US media reports, US President Trump said that he will announce a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imported into the United States on the 10th. According to the report, this new tariff will be added to the existing metal tariffs, marking another "major escalation" of Trump's trade policy. According to reports, Trump imposed a 25% tariff on steel and a 10% tariff on aluminum during his first term, but later gave duty-free quotas to several trading partners such as Canada, Mexico and Brazil. Former President Biden expanded these quotas to the United Kingdom, Japan and the European Union on this basis. The largest steel importers to the United States are Canada, Brazil and Mexico, followed by South Korea and Vietnam, according to data from the U.S. government and the International Steel Association.

On February 7, according to media reports, people familiar with the matter said that after the collapse of merger negotiations with Honda Motor, Nissan Motor is open to cooperation with new partners, and one of the potential partners is Foxconn. It is reported that at the end of 2024, there were media reports that Hon Hai Group, the parent company of Foxconn Technology Group, was trying to contact Nissan Motor and acquire its controlling stake. Hon Hai Group not only hoped to acquire Nissan's factories and equipment, but also planned to acquire Nissan's entire business. This also led to Honda Motor to accelerate the progress of discussing the establishment of an alliance with Nissan.

On February 4, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation announced the launch of an antitrust investigation into Google. Market analysis pointed out that the scope of the investigation may cover core businesses such as the Android operating system and Google service framework, with a focus on examining its cooperation conditions with Chinese companies and market competition behaviors. Data shows that Android system dominates the Chinese smartphone market, with a market share of 69% in the third quarter of 2024, far exceeding Hongmeng system’s 17% and iOS’s 14%. Previously, Google had encountered multiple rounds of antitrust investigations in the EU, and had been fined a total of more than 8 billion euros. This time, China's regulatory authorities may focus on examining whether it abuses its market dominance and eliminates competition in areas such as operating systems and application distribution.

On February 5, according to Japanese media reports, Honda and Nissan may terminate merger negotiations. The two parties originally planned to integrate through a holding company, but failed to reach an agreement on the integration ratio and other conditions. According to previous reports, Honda has approached Nissan to discuss incorporating it into a subsidiary due to lagging behind in the reorganization plan, but Nissan is strongly opposed to this idea. At present, Nissan and Honda have not officially expressed their stance on stopping the merger. In addition, the official website of the Tokyo Stock Exchange announced on the 5th that in order to confirm the authenticity of the news that Honda and Nissan have stopped their merger, trading in Nissan Motor shares will be suspended from 14:49 local time.

Recently, according to media reports, Mitsubishi Motors is considering giving up joining the business merger being promoted by Honda and Nissan Motors. Honda and Nissan plan to set up a holding company and join them, but Mitsubishi Motors does not intend to join, and will strive to strengthen cooperation with the two companies while maintaining an independent listing. People familiar with the matter revealed that Mitsubishi is most worried not about the burden brought by the merger, but about its voice being drowned out by the company dominated by Honda and Nissan. Mitsubishi Motors still hopes to maintain flexible business decision-making power to further expand its market share in Southeast Asia.

Recently, in response to the recent rumors of "Nissan bankruptcy", Liu Xinyu, general manager of Dongfeng Nissan Sales Company, responded strongly on his personal social media: I opened my eyes and saw that there was still 63 billion yuan on the books, which was equivalent to Xiaomi's investment in car manufacturing twice. From the picture of the content released by Liu Xinyu, we can see that Nissan currently has 1.36 trillion yen in cash on the books, which is about 63 billion yuan. He also compared it with the three new car-making forces of Xiaopeng, Weilai and Ideal. Xiaopeng, Weilai and Ideal have cash reserves of 36.5 billion, 57.3 billion and 91.3 billion respectively. From the perspective of scale, Nissan's capital reserves are still in the first echelon. The fuse that triggered the rumors of "Nissan bankruptcy" was Nissan's financial report last quarter. The financial report shows that from April to September 2024, Nissan's net profit was 19.2 billion yen (about 900 million yuan), a year-on-year decline of 94%. In the third quarter of last year, net profit turned from profit to loss, with a loss of 9.3 billion yen in a single quarter.

The U.S. stock market once again experienced severe shocks. Among them, the share price of Ultramicro Computer (AMD) plunged more than 30%, and finally closed down 32.68%, setting a major focus event in the market in the near future. This plunge triggered widespread market attention and investor panic. As a giant in the semiconductor industry, the collapse of Ultramicro Computer's share price not only reflects the company's own management problems, but also reveals the strict requirements and high volatility of the current market environment for companies. The incident not only raised investors doubts about the financial health of ultramicro computers, but also raised systemic concerns about the entire technology sector. At the critical moment of the U.S. stock earnings season, many technology and health care stocks frequently burst into "thunder", which severely damaged investor confidence. In addition to ultramicro computers, chip maker AMD's shares also fell more than 10%, as its fourth-quarter revenue guidance failed to satisfy investors.

The Russian government's fine on Google has reached approximately 20000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 Google lost the case in 2020 over its video platform YouTube blocking multiple Russian media accounts. Since then, Google has been fined 100,000 rubles per day. Legal professionals told TASS that if the fine is not paid within nine months, the amount of the fine will double every day with no upper limit. Only by abiding by the court's decision can Google return to the Russian market. This number far exceeds Google's own market value.

On October 21, Lenovo filed a patent lawsuit against ZTE in the High Court of England and Wales with the case number HP-2024-000038. According to media reports, the plaintiffs in this lawsuit include Lenovo Group Co., Ltd., Lenovo Technology (UK) Co., Ltd., Motorola Mobility UK Co., Ltd., and Lenovo Innovation Co., Ltd.(Hong Kong). The defendants include ZTE Corporation, ZTE Corporation (UK) Limited, Nubia Technology Co., Ltd., Gamegeek Co., Ltd., Livewire Telecom Co., Ltd., and EFones.Com Co., Ltd. ZTE responded positively on the morning of October 30 to Lenovo's patent lawsuit against itself. They stated that they have always respected any company's legal measures within the legal framework, but they very regretted Lenovo's behavior. After all, the two sides have been negotiating on patent licensing issues for many years, during which time ZTE has always had goodwill and hoped that the two sides can resolve the dispute in an efficient and reasonable way. As for Lenovo's travel to the UK to prosecute itself this time, ZTE's attitude can be summarized as "not understanding but respecting".

Scientific and technological themes continue to soar, and concepts such as mass spectrometry AI, AI mobile phones and PCs, flying cars, and mixed reality are rising in batches. Individual stocks set off a daily limit, with Xingxing Technology, Doushen Education, Jianxin and other stocks trading at a daily limit of 20cm, and many stocks such as Infront Micro, Bird, and Yanhua Intelligent trading at a daily limit. Domestic computing power has soared sharply, and stocks such as Guangxun Technology, Tongfang, and China Great Wall have gone up daily. On the news front, domestic CPO leaders Guangxun Technology and Huagong Technology released their third quarterly reports yesterday and their performance soared, which was verified by the high prosperity of the domestic computing power industry chain.