Syed Haseeb Hassan

EV & Auto insights and analysis from an engineer who’s seen both sides 🚗⚡ | 9+ yrs (5 combustion, 4 eMobility) | Creator of eTechvolution

[Syed Haseeb Hassan @etechvolution]

I’ve spent 10+ years inside the automotive industry, 6 in combustion engines, 4 in eMobility. 🚗⚡

From factories to charging sites, I’ve seen the shift up close.

This account is where I break it all down.
🧵 What you’ll find here:

[Syed Haseeb Hassan @etechvolution]

@sgqjqwh Absolutely true. I meant in general 1000 kW - as it is already such a high number.
I have been following BYD MW chargers since last year december and reported on it extensively. Even last month visited BYD MW charger system (2100 kW) in Shenzhen.

[Syed Haseeb Hassan @etechvolution]

A BYD Megawatt Flash Charging site, temporarily powered by a diesel generator, sounds ironic.

But I think the more interesting message is the deployment behavior.

I came across this example from China, reportedly from a BYD flash charging station on the Beijing-Shanghai highway.

My assumption is that the grid connection or cabling was still pending.

Is it ironic? Yes.

Is it also very Chinese execution speed? Absolutely yes.

Because the important part is this:

The energy was delivered.

The charging screenshot showed:

→ Start SOC: 22%
→ End SOC: 30%
→ Charging time: 13 minutes
→ Energy delivered: 8.56 kWh
→ Added range: 87 km
→ Average power: ~39.5 kW
→ Paid by user: ¥0.00 (perhaps due to 1 year free charging credits)

Of course, this is not the 1,000 kW headline people associate with BYD flash charging.

But that is exactly why it is interesting.

China’s EV infrastructure rollout often seems to follow a different sequence:

Deploy first.
Use temporary workarounds.
Get real usage.
Improve later.

West usually waits for cleaner execution and more site maturity before rollout.

Neither model is automatically right.

But they produce very different speeds.

Peak kW gets attention.

Deployment behavior is the real signal.

[Syed Haseeb Hassan @etechvolution]

I write about EV charging infrastructure, automotive strategy, and China/EU market signals here:

Newsletter (2,650 subscribers) + e-Mobility consulting
https://t.co/wRCN5SI7Q1

[Syed Haseeb Hassan @etechvolution]

@ChinaEV_Eng_Lif thanks - it makes sense. Walking on the streets of Huaqiangbei was indeed challenging due to the electric scooters 😅
I heard that they cannot be charged at home in residential buildings. Is it accurate?

[Syed Haseeb Hassan @etechvolution]

@ChinaEV_Eng_Lif That is a good idea. I downloaded rednote but it was probably the worst chinese media platform I saw so far. From 1st time installation homepage, notification - I felt it was designed for horny peple 😅

[Syed Haseeb Hassan @etechvolution]

BYD says it will pay if its City NOA (Navigate on Autopilot) system causes a crash in China.

When I first read that last week, I thought, this can't be true. There has to be a catch.

There is, actually a few.

But the catch is not the most interesting part. The interesting part is what BYD is really testing here:

Can responsibility become an ADAS feature? Not the features or performance, but responsibility.

If the system gets it wrong, who pays?

I broke down the BYD pledge, the fine print, the small asterisks* and why this could become a much bigger signal for the global ADAS race.

Full newsletter below. Subscribe to join the 2,550 industry professional reading my newsletter 👇

https://t.co/UnCFqwL3rn

[Syed Haseeb Hassan @etechvolution]

@imbabybrooklyn @NousResearch Thank you. Even after the update it had issues. Then after another update - now it seems to be working perfectly fine and no more auto scrolling 🙌

[Syed Haseeb Hassan @etechvolution]

@imbabybrooklyn @NousResearch It is a direct installation on mac mini.

[Syed Haseeb Hassan @etechvolution]

I updated it but the problem persists. Only for the sessions I start in the desktop app. If I start a session with discord, and look in desktop app - perfect, no problem.
But if I create session in Hermes desktop app, screen flickering (very few times) but then the auto scrolling is still happening.

[Syed Haseeb Hassan @etechvolution]

@AlexFinn Would you suggest using Kimi for Hermes if one has budget constraints?

[Syed Haseeb Hassan @etechvolution]

@electricfelix All three days - 23-25 😄

[Syed Haseeb Hassan @etechvolution]

@henrych00741608 Yes - i talked to a representative there for over 30 mins. He mentioned the routes are currently at coal mining sites. I will upload another video from their competitor Kargobot - hopefully in 4-5 days. They are using in the same application currently

[Syed Haseeb Hassan @etechvolution]

We all talk about self-driving cars. Almost nobody talks about self-driving trucks.

I just spent time next to one in China (Autoshow Beijing)

Days earlier I rode a Pony AI robotaxi in Beijing. No driver, no safety operator. Impressive. But the robotruck is the bigger business story.

It's a Sany Jiangshan EV448 (L4): 9 LIDARs, 13 cameras, 3 radars, front vision out to 650 meters. Serious hardware.

But the hardware isn't the interesting part. The use case is.

Pony AI is targeting mining routes in northwest China. 20 to 30 km from mine to plant. Low traffic. Thin infrastructure. The same route, every time.

That is where autonomous trucks don't need to be perfect yet.

The energy model surprised me too. Either swap the battery or charge with up to two cables.

So China isn't trying to crack public highway autonomy first. It picked the place where the problem is already solvable: mines with repeatable routes.

That may be where freight autonomy actually pays off first.

Full walkaround in this video 👇

#PonyAI #AutonomousTrucks #ChinaEV #SelfDriving

[Syed Haseeb Hassan @etechvolution]

Tomorrow I'm giving a guest lecture at KIT Karlsruhe, one of Germany's top technical universities, to a room of industry experts.

Topic: Where Germany's EV and charging market actually stands, and where it goes by 2030.
Time: 14:30 - 16:00.

The starting point is simple.

Germany originally targeted 15 million electric vehicles and 1 million public charge points by 2030. But we are now in 2026, and the reality is roughly: 2.1 million electric vehicles
and 200,000 public charge points.

So yes, Germany is behind and the numbers have been revised. But for me, the bigger question is not whether the target was realistic.

The bigger question is: Why did the market move at this pace? That is what I will discuss tomorrow. I will cover:

- how Germany’s automotive and EV market developed
what role subsidies played
- why company cars matter so much
- why public charging prices are so chaotic
- which charging use cases are already well established
- what I expect for EVs and charging infrastructure by 2030

The session will be in German and also available online.

If you want to join, let me know and I will share the webinar link. Also, if you are interested in an English version, let me know as well.

Looking forward to meeting you tomorrow or exchanging online after the session. Thank you!

[Syed Haseeb Hassan @etechvolution]

@ChinaEV_Eng_Lif @brandenflasch This seems to be from Germany on a 400 kW - Alpitronic HYC 400 charger. It is all in one and usually in Germany they are installed without a BESS.

[Syed Haseeb Hassan @etechvolution]

@DreselChristian @electricfelix Was this a power unit from BYD?

[Syed Haseeb Hassan @etechvolution]

Source: https://t.co/28kdNDPnvz

[Syed Haseeb Hassan @etechvolution]

BYD will pay for the crash its assisted driving causes. Not the driver.

In Level 2 systems, the legal burden stays with you. Remain present, concious, eyes on and ready to take control and if it fails, it is your problem.

BYD says it is testing the opposite.

God's Eye is BYD's driver assist system. A and B are its LiDAR-equipped tiers
that handle city driving.

For these users in China, BYD says: if the car is judged responsible and the crash is linked to its assisted driving, it will cover the direct economic loss for 1 year. Which means vehicle damage, third-party damage, personal injury. Full payout, no stated cap and this was the thing, that was the hardest for me to believe. I had to find multiple sources, to confirm this. 😅

This is not an insurance product. It is a manufacturer putting its balance sheet
behind its own software and this speaks extreme level of confidence in its technology.

While researching for it, I realized that BYD has done this before. It backed automated parking the same way in 2025, and as per reports, the parking feature use jumped from 21% to 93%.

Furthermore, there are already 3 million+ assisted driving BYD cars already on the road. They have plenty of data to develop their future technologies.

As a summary - on paper this is still Level 2 but commercially, BYD is taking L3-style responsibility.

I think the debate will change. Currently people ask how good these systems work and their questions are valid. I posted last year a footage of Xiaomi SU7 falling in a pond while being put in auto parking. (read the post as I explain the fallacy of composition and why it wasn't a failure really) 👇

https://t.co/uPRrmbxQn0

But now if you consider the chinese customer preferences and China Speed along with this BYD liability promise, the future looks really bright for BYD.

This will force local competition to match and at the end, it is only going to benefit the end consumers and enable autonomous driving leadership for Chinese OEMs at an even faster pace.

While the rest of world debates who is responsible, BYD turned it into a sales feature.

Would this make you trust assisted driving more, or ask harder questions?
___

Hi, I am Haseeb
Automotive & E-mobility Consultant - Services 👇
https://t.co/1qvxpEc9vb

I write a newsletter about what I see on the ground in EV, charging and automotive, for 2,550+ readers. 👇
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