Tesla Wants To Lure Back Chinese Customers With Longer Model Y L

Date:2025-08-19 22:26:48 Category:Car Views:1 Comment:0

Good morning! It's Tuesday, August 19, 2025, and this is The Morning Shift, your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. This is where you'll find the most important stories that are shaping the way Americans drive and get around.

In this morning's edition, Tesla looks to win back Chinese buyers with a longer Model Y, Teamsters are picketing non-union car carriers at GM plants, Chinese EV makers have their sites set on other markets, and electrified Canadian sales aren't going very well.

It's another busy day, friends. Buckle up.

1st Gear: Chinese Tesla Model Y L Aims To Bring Back Market Share

Tesla needs a win in China after months of losing ground to home-grown competition, and it believes the newly elongated six-seater Model Y L will be the answer to its prayers. The Austin, Texas-based automaker started accepting orders for the new car this week with a starting price of 339,000 yuan — about $47,200. That's right in line with local rivals that are all vying to win over middle-class families in the country.

The Model Y L (not the best name in the world) is about 5.9 inches longer than a standard Model Y, and it's designed to better accommodate a third row. Technically, you can get a standard Model Y with a third row, but that's cruel and unusual punishment. It also comes with 467 miles of range, according to Tesla — putting it on par with the performance version of the current five-seat car it sells in the country. From Bloomberg:

The pricing puts the six-seat model in direct competition with Li Auto's L8 variant and the Huawei-backed Aito M8. Tesla has been losing ground to domestic manufacturers, with shipments from its Shanghai factory slipping back into decline in July and local deliveries plummeting 12% from the same period last year.
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The new variant's pricing seeks to make up for delays in more advanced driver-assistance features that Tesla has marketed as Full Self-Driving, or FSD. The company has piloted the functions with its users since February, but has made slow progress.
While Tesla's global lineup has remained largely consistent for years, the new Model Y L suggests an effort to gain share in the world's largest auto market, where new EV models are launched every month. Earlier this month, the American EV maker unveiled a longer-range Model 3 sedan in China, capable of an extended 830 kilometers on a charge.

It's hard to say if this new model will make up for all of the damage CEO Elon Musk has done to the company's brand or the simple fact that home-grown automakers are building better vehicles at more competitive prices, but I suppose time will tell. Tesla has been on quite the self-inflicted losing streak lately, so it really needs the Model Y L to be a success

2nd Gear: Teamsters Are Picketing Non-Union Work At GM Plants

Car haul Teamsters from three local unions are picketing outside three General Motors plants in Michigan, Kentucky and Missouri because of work being done by non-union car carriers at the plants. The union says they are bringing down wage and benefit standards for unionized workers.

GM produces heavy-duty variants of the Silverado and Sierra at the Michigan plant, Corvettes at the Kentucky plant and the Colorado/Canyon and Express/Savana at the Missouri plant in From Automotive News:

The GM plants [...] are unionized, but use some nonunion operators, the union said. The Teamsters said the nonunion operators aren't sticking to the wages and benefits agreed to by the union. A union statement did not identify the nonunion carriers.
"Nonunion carriers out of these plants are dragging down standards that Teamsters have fought for decades to win," Avral Thompson, president of Teamsters Local 89 and director of the Teamsters Carhaul Division. said in the statement.
It wasn't clear if the picket lines were only for informational purposes or if they were disrupting traffic entering or exiting the plants. It also wasn't clear how many Teamsters pickets were on hand at each plant.
"We are aware of the presence of Teamster informational picketers at a small number of our facilities," GM said in an emailed statement. "While we respect the right to peaceful demonstration, our top priority remains the safety and well-being of our employees. We are actively monitoring the situation."

These protests are happening as the Teamsters prepare to negotiate a new contract. The current one is set to expire at the end of this month.

Solidarity forever, baby.

3rd Gear: Chinese EV Companies Are Spending More Abroad Than At Home

BYD EV retail store - TY Lim/Shutterstock

Chinese companies involved with its electric vehicle industry actually spent more money overseas than they did at home for the first time last year. Companies along the EV supply chain invested about $16 billion overseas last year. Most of that comes from battery production. That's ahead of the $15 billion they spent at home.

It's a huge change of pace when you consider the fact that for years, about 80% of investments were spent in their home market. From Bloomberg:

Chinese companies are being driven to expand globally as overcapacity and a long-running price war at home squeeze margins all along the supply chain. They are also seeking to skirt punishing tariffs in Europe and the US by building production facilities there, and bowing to pressure from foreign customers for more localized production.
"The fact that overseas investments now outpace domestic ones reflects a saturated Chinese market and the strategic appeal of expanding abroad for higher returns," said Armand Meyer, senior research analyst at Rhodium and an author of the report.
About three-quarters of the outbound investment came from battery makers, reflecting the capital intensive nature of the industry. Major battery makers like Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., Envision Group and Gotion High-Tech Co. have followed existing clients like Tesla Inc. and BMW AG abroad, driven by high transport costs and requests for localized supply, according to the report.
CATL, as the world's biggest EV battery maker is known, in June said it is making overseas expansion its "No.1 priority" as intense competition in China's domestic auto market threatens the industry's health. BYD Co., China's top-selling automaker, has factories in Brazil and Thailand, and is planning facilities in Turkey and Indonesia. Chery Automobile Co. has pledged to set up a $1 billion electric vehicle factory in Turkey.

This news is so surprising because overseas projects tend to be more expensive, take longer to build and face higher regulatory and political risks. Just 25% of EV manufacturing projects announced abroad have actually been finished — compared with 45% at home.

President Donald Trump isn't helping matters, either. Last month, BYD indefinitely shelved plans to build a major plant in Mexico because of wayward geopolitical tensions and U.S. tariff policies that shift with the wind.

4th Gear: Canadian EV, PHEV Sales Are Stagnant

Toronto, Ontario, Canada - March 13, 2024: Tesla electric cars charging at supercharger station. - VisualArtStudio/Shutterstock

Electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid sales in Canada shrank for the fifth straight month in June, thanks to the end of a $5,000 federal incentive program that went away in January. EV and PHEV sales totaled just 14,090 units in June. That's a 35.2% drop from the same time a year ago. Despite that, overall sales were up 6.2% to 177,313 vehicles in June. From Automotive News:

ZEV sales in Canada stumbled to start 2025, as long-time federal and provincial incentive programs ran out of cash or faced policy changes, and have yet to bounce back. They accounted for 7.9 per cent of all vehicles sold in Canada in June, down from 13 per cent in the same month of 2024 and far short of the monthly high of nearly 20 per cent in December.
Auto experts see little prospect of a short-term turnaround if the government does not step back in with rebates.
Steve Flamand, CEO of Hyundai Auto Canada Corp., said the company is selling about half as many EVs as it did in 2024.
"Until there's a better balance between the transaction price and the government's appetite to electrify, it's going to be difficult," he told Automotive News Canada.

There might be some relief on the horizon for Canadian buyers, though. Since April, lawmakers in Ottawa have repeatedly vowed that they will revive the zero-emission vehicle rebate program, but they have yet to say when that would actually happen.

Reverse: Let's Go Racing!

After seeing my first Indy 500 this year, I can certainly attest that there's a palpable feeling of energy, history and excitement inside The Brickyard. If you want to learn more about Indy's first race, you really should head over to History.com.