Cars

There is a division of Xiaomi that no one pays attention to. It is exactly the one that is paying for the party of mobile phones, AI and cars

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Xiaomi is no longer just a smartphone company; It is a conglomerate of four large divisions that support and feed each other to compete in an increasingly aggressive market. The surprise is that financially the division that generates the least attention is the one that is paying for the other three. The results for the first quarter of 2026 They make it clear: boring business is pure profit. Four companies in oneto. Xiaomi’s current structure settles in four large pillars that are also notably different from each other. Smartphones with the brand that ended up becoming popular globally remain critical to preserving the user base. Then there are internet services (advertising, Mi Cloud), which complete the Apple-style mobile ecosystem. The electric car and AI make up another pillar that fascinates and demonstrates the firm’s ambition in these new areas. And finally there is the IoT division, which a priori seems the least notable, but is much more so than anyone would think. Services, services, services. As we said, mobile phones are Xiaomi’s hallmark, but its profitability comes hand in hand with internet services, which operate with an astonishing gross profit margin of 76.1%. As with Apple, here Xiaomi takes advantage of its almost 750 million active users with advertising, subscriptions and cloud services integrated into its HyperOS mobile operating system. It is a profitable vicious circle: IoT and mobile phones are Trojan horses that manage to put the user into a digital ecosystem in which they end up spending money. Blessed IoT. And despite the fact that it receives less media attention, the gross margin of the IoT division reached a spectacular 25.2% in the first quarter of 2026 according to the company’s financial results. This number is much higher than the 10.1% generated by smartphones, which have logically been punished by the memory crisis. In fact, the gross profit of the IoT division has been 6.2 billion RMB, much higher than the 4.5 billion of the mobile division. The latter bills much more, but it does not shine as much in those gross profits. Refrigerators triumph. The president of Xiaomi’s IoT division, Lu Weibing, explained that the role of this business is key in the Xiaomi group, because it is “a very important balancer” against the impact of the increase in memory costs in the rest of the divisions. Company officials expect this “cost supercycle” (or in other words, the memory crisis) to last until 2028, and that will continue to complicate the mobile division’s margins. Sell ​​less, but more expensive. The escalation of component costs has made Xiaomi make a drastic decision: sell less, but more expensive. The distributed smartphone units they fell 19.2%, but its average selling price reached a record figure of 1,310 RMB, 8% more than in the same quarter of 2025. Xiaomi has a 23.5% share of premium smartphones in mainland China, and makes it clear that the focus is now on super high-end mobile phones. “Premiumization” of the home. The strategy of selling more expensive is also being applied notably in the IoT division, which includes household appliancesand which has also adopted a “premiumization” strategy. Instead of just distributing third-party products, the company is developing its own high-end air conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines. This has allowed IoT gross margin to rise 5.1 percentage points in just one quarter. AI price war. The launch of its own AI model, MiMoit was already a surprise, but these days the firm has announced that cut the prices of its API by up to 99% (there are technical arguments) in order to compete with rivals like DeepSeek. This model is at the level of the best Chinese open models, but the company itself has not yet achieved the objectives they seek. As with other AI startups, the costs are massive, so this division of Xiaomi depends on the cash flow generated by the rest of the businesses. Cars impress, but they lose money. The division that brings together electric cars and AI did not have a good quarter and lost 3.1 billion RMB. The new Xiaomi Su 7 has been a success in number of reservations (80,000), but operating expenses for this part of the business have risen 45.8%, too much to be offset by the revenue growth of this division. Xiaomi is the new Samsung. Xiaomi He was born looking very similar (or aspiring to be very similar) to Apple, but currently its structure and strategy are much more similar to that of Samsung. Its advantage is that it currently has an ecosystem with more than 1.1 billion IoT devices that allow it to grow and invest in cars, AI or mobile phones. The problem is what happens if the cushion provided by the benefits of the IoT division deflates. In Xataka | Leica is teaching Xiaomi everything it knows: when the student no longer needs the teacher, the agreement will have fulfilled its function

Western brands are looking for the perfect car. Their way of achieving this is to sell us renowned Chinese cars

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There was a day when China lured Europe with the promise of vacant land and cheap labor. Today those days are over. Today the automobile industry has taken the road back. Today, more and more Western manufacturers are partnering with Chinese companies. And the reason is obvious: to sell you a rebuilt Chinese car as your own. What is happening? That traditional manufacturers are assuming Chinese technology to simply sell their product to you cheaper. A product that has little of its own and a lot of Chinese, for better and for worse. The reasons They are different: Pressure to jump to the electric car Complications in making that leap (either due to monetary issues or internal difficulties) Duty A Chinese technology that is above Brands that are on the verge of bankruptcy For some of these reasons (or the sum of several), more and more traditional manufacturers are intertwining with Chinese companies to advance their products. Products that, as we say, are sometimes pure Chinese cars “disguised” as Western. The Stellantis case It is the most recent but far from unique. It is also probably the most complex. The automobile conglomerate has faced serious financial complications in recent years. The cost reduction in many of its models led to the PureTech scandal. With the obligation to manage 14 brands, some of them have lost all types of identity. And their partnership with Leapmotor has shown them that they can get a lot of juice out of the Chinese electric car. During the presentation of its latest strategic plan, the company confirmed that they have reached an agreement of 1,000 million euros with the Chinese manufacturer Dongfeng to produce Peugeot and Jeep cars in China. They will be New Energy cars (NEV). This is what they call electric cars and plug-in hybrids in China. At the moment, not many more details have been given but a key detail does seem confirmed: These are cars designed to be sold in China and exported. That is, they are not cars manufactured in China whose main market is Europe. This suggests that they will probably be entirely Chinese cars that adopt the design language of these two Western brands. Chinese production is not the only one that is compromised. The agreement opens the possibility for European plants to produce Dongfeng cars, specifically the Voyah brand. This allows Stellantis to keep the work committed in its plants (specifically, the Rennes plant in France is targeted) and Dongfeng could sell these electric cars without paying tariffs, as is happening right now. But in addition to this latest news, China has become more and more rooted in the bowels of Stellantis. Since 2023, this automobile conglomerate manages the distribution and sale of Leapmotor outside China. This company is one of those that seems to have greater potential when it comes to selling electric cars at a low price. For now, Stellantis has already confirmed that some of these cheap cars will be produced in Europe. Specifically, Figueruelas (Zaragoza) has been one of the chosen locations. This plant, therefore, will carry out small electric cars from Peugeot, Citroën and Opel and, in parallel, those from Leapmotor because they do not share a platform. However, the latter has already begun to be debated. Tianshu Xin, director of Leapmotor International, pointed out a few weeks ago that “Leapmotor vs Stellantis They are two independent manufacturers and have their own platforms. However, one of the strategic objectives of this alliance is to generate synergies, which could include platforms and their components. “About 65% of Leapmotor components are manufactured in-house, and there are synergies that would allow Stellantis to use Leapmotor parts in its future platforms,” ​​in words reported by forumelectriccars. A few days ago Stellantis presented its STLA Onethe new modular platform that will replace STLA Small for segments B, C and D. This leaves the door for the smallest size, that of segment A, just where the new Citroën 2 CV will arrive, which has fueled rumors about a greater presence of Chinese components or software in the car. To this we must add that A new Opel electric car from 2028 will have Leapmotor technology but German dress. And the relationship between Stellantis and China does not seem to end here. In recent days the rumor has gained strength that the automobile conglomerate could look to JAC for a collaboration to move Maserati forward. The Italian sports car firm has already thrown away billions of euros in its jump to the electric car and JAC manufactures luxury cars together with Huawei in China. Producing them would allow Stellantis to put an electric Maserati on the street without taking more risks. Are you sure it’s western? That a car uses Chinese technology and is re-bodied like a Western one does not have to be bad in itself. In fact, automotive conglomerates such as Stellantis or the Volkswagen Group have made their synergies between brands one of the keys to building their success. However, in some cases yes it can be a problem. When a brand boasts of being different and unique, it has a problem if it only uses a “disguise” to camouflage that what is under its body comes from outside its factories. This is what can happen to Maserati and what Mazda is playing with. Until now, the Maserati customer has bought Maserati because, quite simply, their product was a Maserati. Italian elegance with a heart inherited from Ferrari to conquer a public that preferred its cars to, for example, Porsche. When you buy this type of car, not only buy numbersbuys an aesthetic and a sound and boasts of going against the grain compared to the majority German options such as Porsche or Mercedes. Just give up the engines ferraristas It was a serious problem for his image.. The Mazda 6e and CX-6e have a Chinese heart and soul despite the fact that the brand defends the Japanese philosophy in both cars If Maserati only … Read more

The Chinese brand that sells the most cars in Europe decides on Spain

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MG will manufacture cars in Spain. It is official after weeks of rumors in which we had been hearing that the Spanish region was one of the best positioned to produce cars from the Chinese firm of British origin. It is its first major investment outside China in almost a decade and, without a doubt, an endorsement of its European plans. The advertisement. MG has confirmed it: Galicia is the region chosen for the return to MG manufacturing in Europe. The announcement had been advanced by Alfonso Ruedapresident of the Xunta, this morning but it was not until this afternoon when the MG herself confirmed the news. For months it has been known that the Xunta de Galicia has been in talks with the Chinese brand to settle on Spanish soil for its new arrival in Europe. And in April, Rueda himself held a series of meetings with representatives of the brand between April 23 and 25 in China, according to The Automotive Tribune. The project. The company assures that, from the outset, the project has an investment of 200 million euros and that it will create “more than 2,000 jobs in Europe, establishing a strategic center for the next phase of MG’s growth.” That is, the press release provided by the company does not specify how many of these jobs will be in Spain and how many will be created by the increase in cars in the European market. The company assures that this new plant is scheduled to come into operation in 2028 and that it will have an annual capacity to manufacture up to 120,000 vehicles. At the moment, it has not been confirmed what types of vehicles will be manufactured (pure combustion, hybrid or electric) nor have the models been specified. For its part, in information collected by The Worldthe Xunta raises the figure to 2,300 jobs, of which 1,000 would be direct, another 1,000 indirect and 300 would be related to the company’s activity in As Pontes (a town near Ferrol). In this location, the company is expected to build a components plant. Some doubts. For now, what is known is that the company will establish itself in Ferrol and build an auxiliary plant in As Pontes. The choice of Ferrol is determined by its port, which has already served as a gateway for other Chinese manufacturers for sale in Spain or subsequent distribution throughout Europe. What has not been confirmed, in addition to the type of vehicle used, is what manufacturing method will be carried out. The Chery Group in Barcelona uses the DKD method where the local impact is minimal. The companies (Omoda/Jaecoo/Ebro) have repeated that they will increase the number of operations that will be carried out in Barcelona but, for the moment, the cars arrive semi-assembled in containers and on Spanish soil only the last pieces of the puzzle are being put together. At the moment, in its information SAIC (owner of MG) does not refer to whether the cars will arrive more or less assembled on Spanish soil. The more processes that need to be carried out in the Spanish plant, the more direct jobs and the more work will be given to auxiliary companies in the area. “In Europe, for Europe”. That is, according to MG, the maximum of this landing in Galicia. And the company has found a vein in our continent with the sale of cars with all kinds of technologies at very low prices. In Europe it is the Chinese brand that sells the most carsplacing in 2025 a total of 211,014 units in the European Union and 305,717 units if we put the Nordic countries and the United Kingdom into the equation. These sales are understood because the SAIC Group has found in MG a vein to sell cheaply in Europe. The brand, previously British, is not unknown to the public and both its hybrids and electric ones are cheap compared to traditional European proposals. In Spain, so far this year, the MG ZS is among the 10 best-selling non-plug-in hybrids and is the sixth best-selling car in the sum of all technologies, according to ANFAC data. Furthermore, the brand is the tenth best-selling company in our country. Duty. It remains to be known, as we said, what the bet is in terms of specific models but it is clear that the landing of Chinese brands such as BYD in Hungary and Turkey or the Chery Group in Barcelona is directly associated with the implementation of European tariffs on Chinese electric cars. SAIC, which owns MG, is the company facing the highest tariffs. Manufacturing in Europe may allow them to compete, even more, on price, but the European Union has already made it clear that it will be necessary to make a minimum number of investments to consider that the car is European. This does not mean that the car is electric. Although cars with combustion engines do not have tariffs, rumors point to greater European shielding of their economy. And producing in Europe for Europe can help, even more, to lower the price of cars with combustion engines, partially alleviating the economic effort that the company has to make with electric cars. Photo | MG and Counting Stars In Xataka | Spain has a new brand of Chinese cars and it arrives with an ambitious plan: “Five million units by 2030”

China has found a giant “tunnel” to introduce its cars into Europe without Europe. And it is facing Spain

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In 2007, when Morocco inaugurated the port from Tangier Med off the Spanish coast, many saw it as an ambitious logistical gamble. Less than two decades later, that port has not only become the largest of the Mediterranean and Africabut has begun to surpass historic European giants like Algeciras in traffic. What seemed like a regional infrastructure ended up becoming one of the main commercial gateways to Europe. A half-open door to Europe. Europe has been trying for years reduce your dependency China’s industrial sector and, more recently, protect its manufacturers against the avalanche of electric vehicles from the Asian giant. The tariffs imposed by Brussels, in fact, respond precisely to that objective. However, I remembered the weekend the financial times that, while attention was focused on Chinese ports and factories in the country’s interior, Beijing began to build a much closer alternative: an industrial network located on the other side of the Strait of Gibraltar. The growing concern in Brussels does not arise because China is exporting more cars from its territory, but because it is transferring part of its production capacity to a country that enjoys privileged access to the European market. Map of the surroundings of Tangier, with Tanger Tech City (to the south), Tanger Automotive City and the port of Tangier Med Morocco as an industrial platform. It explained the means that the transformation is visible around Tangier and Kenitrawhere Chinese investments in tires, brakes, electronic components, battery materials and future gigafactories are multiplying. What is emerging are not simple isolated plants, but a supply chain increasingly complete capable of feeding the European electric car industry. Morocco offers practically everything you are looking for manufacturers: geographical proximity to Europe, competitive labor costs, renewable energy, tax advantages and an extensive network of trade agreements. For many Chinese companies, producing there is more attractive to continue manufacturing in China and then face the growing European trade barriers. The fear of Brussels. European concern does not lie solely in foreign investment. What is worrying is the possibility that Morocco will become in an indirect way so that products backed by Chinese capital, technology and subsidies enter Europe with much more favorable conditions. The European Commission already has detected cases in which components manufactured with Chinese financial support end up benefiting from preferential agreements. The challenge is to distinguish where it ends an authentic Moroccan industrialization and where a strategy designed to circumvent tariffs begins. Put another way, the more complex supply chains become, the more difficult it becomes to answer that question. Beijing’s geographical advantage. If you like, China too. has understood that geography can be as important as technology. Off the Spanish coast is a country connected by trade agreements with Europe and the United States, equipped of modern ports and increasingly integrated into global production chains. From the Chinese perspective, installing factories in Morocco does not mean abandoning Europe, but rather get even closer to her. Instead of shipping finished products from thousands of miles away, companies can manufacture components and vehicles a few hours of the main European markets. The strategy reduces costs, limits commercial risks and makes the application of protectionist measures difficult. A battle for European industry. What happens in Morocco reflects much broader economic competition. Europe tries to protect an industrial base that consider strategicas China looks for new ways to keep its huge manufacturing capacity running despite increasing Western restrictions. The result is that North Africa is becoming a space increasingly disputedwhere the interests of Brussels, Rabat and Beijing intersect. For Morocco, investments mean jobs, infrastructure and growth. For China, they represent a privileged platform next to the gateway to the European market. And for the European Union they constitute a uncomfortable question: If Chinese production can be installed just on the other side of the Mediterranean, to what extent are tariffs really capable of slowing its advance? Image | Adam Cle, The Spanish Monkey In Xataka | China and Europe do not trust each other when it comes to electric cars. And someone is taking advantage of it: Türkiye In Xataka | The Chinese auto industry is moving to colonize Africa and Latin America. Also to be your springboard

cars will beep (even) more starting in July

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For two years, since June 2024, all new cars have been beeping. They whistle a lot. It is the first disappointment that every driver experiences when they put aside their old car and decide to buy a new one. In Spain, where The average age of the vehicle fleet is 14.6 yearsbuying a new car is the closest thing to experiencing the jump into a black hole and moving into the future. And those who have had the opportunity to brand new car approved from 2022 or purchased as new from 2024 will have experienced that irritable feeling of checking that your new car beeps every now and then. The most obvious thing is with the intelligent speed assistant which, as I commented in this articleit can turn into hell. Now, starting July 7, 2026, every new car must have new driving assistance… or surveillance systems. Driver monitoring will be more proactive to alert the driver in case of distractions so that he can correct his behavior and thus avoid an accident. More surveillance, more beeps To understand all this, you have to go back a little before 2020. Then the European Union approved a project called Vision Zero with which we want to reduce by 50% the road fatalities registered between 2020 and 2030 with those who died between 2010 and 2020. The ultimate objective is to reach zero deaths in 2050. To carry out this ambitious aimthe European Union carried out the obligation to implement a series of safety systems with the aim of reducing accidents. This project has three phases, of which the first came with a huge battery of new systems. As stated in the Regulation (EU) 2019/2144From July 2022, all new cars approved they have to be equipped, among otherswith systems like smart speed assistantemergency braking or the reversing camera. And with the driver fatigue and distraction assistant. In the second phase, it was contemplated that from 2024 every new car had to be sold with the previous equipment, regardless of when the car had been approved. That is, if you buy a car right now, it will have to have these systems. And starting on July 6, 2026, the next phase begins. From the next day, every new registered car must have an even more advanced system to monitor driver distractions and fatigue. Yes, indeed, we are facing an advance of what is already known. What was mandatory until now was the system known as Driver Drowsiness and Attention Warning o Drowsiness and Attention Assistant (DDAW) and from now on cars will have to have the new Advanced Driver Distraction Warning o Advanced Driver Distraction Warning (ADDW). What changes? The first system is more passive than active. The one known as DDAW which is mandatory at this time, analyzes whether or not the driver keeps his eyes on the road and warns when this does not happen. However, it bases its operation on small movements on the steering wheel and general control of the vehicle but, by itself, it is not clear whether we are looking at the mobile phone or simply looking at the rearview mirror repeatedly because we are going to merge onto a highway. The new ADDW system, as explained by our colleagues from Motorpassionis more proactive and it does monitor the movement of our eyes and head but it also has three areas mapped. If our eyes are distracted by something that has happened in a space where it is impossible to keep our attention on the road, such as the roof, the system will alert us. If, on the other hand, the system detects that we are looking at a window or at the central area, where the screen is located, it will allow a few seconds to pass. If the driver keeps his eyes on one of these spaces, the car will begin to beep and send sound and tactile signals (such as the vibration of the steering wheel). The system will activate automatically after six seconds as long as we move between 20 and 50 km/h. Once this threshold is exceeded, the warning will arrive after just 3.5 seconds. He problem with this type of assistants is that sometimes they are much more intrusive than we would like as drivers. We already commented in Xataka that if not well implemented, the speed assistant that works with sign recognition can be all hell. Especially in the city, where the streets constantly change boundaries, the warnings can become desperate. In our experience, the same thing can happen with fatigue detection assistants. If you bought a car after 2022, you may have noticed that your car may beep when, as we said, you are simply checking the rearview mirror to enter a very congested road. The objective of this new system is to be more careful and not fall into these false positives. However, some studies assure that this extensive security package can be too overwhelming for older drivers (who would also benefit the most) and? many others disconnect them Tired of the constant beeping. Some of them, such as speed assistant or distraction monitoring, They are activated with each new ignition and it is mandatory to move between the menus to disconnect them in the vast majority of cars. In addition, this decision by the European Union has also garnered some criticism for increasing the price of vehicles. Especially Daciawhich was the queen of offering the most basic car possible on the market, has complained bitterly about this but what cannot be denied is that part of the increase in car prices comes hand in hand with these new mandatory security improvements. Photo | Xataka and Mazda In Xataka | The industry has been filling cars with complex safety systems for years. The only problem is that we don’t use them

with cars prepared to take advantage of them

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The United States has been playing catch-up for some time when it comes to high-power chargers for electric vehicles, many of them capable of delivering 500 kW, 600 kW, and even one megawatt. The problem is that, right now, almost no electric car sold there can swallow such power. In Europe, however, we are starting to see cars that take advantage of this capacity. And although at the moment it is still somewhat testimonial, for the electric promises to be fulfilled, the infrastructure must accompany the innovation of these cars. Why is it important. For years, recharging has been the great brake on electric cars convincing the general public. The promise of charging as fast as you fill a tank of gas has been promised for some time, and now the technology is starting to live up to it. But a one-megawatt pump is of little use if the car you connect only accepts a fraction of that power. More fast charging in the US. According to collect InsideEVs, the company ChargePoint presented last month a 600 kW device that it described as “the fastest independent charger for electric cars in the world”, while the Swiss ABB announced 1.2 megawatt units and Kempower showed a charger with an MCS connector capable of delivering 1.2 MW. The Italian Alpitronic, for its part, is preparing chargers that provide up to 1,000 kW to trucks and 600 kW to passenger cars, and which will begin to arrive on American soil at the beginning of next year. Even Tesla, historically limited to 250 or 325 kW, is slowly rolling out its 500 kW V4 Superchargers. Few take advantage of it. As the same media points out, right now there are no electric cars for sale in the United States that accept more than 500 kW. He Tesla Cybertruck It has been seen charging at 500 kW, but its official specifications still indicate a maximum of 325 kW. The most capable models on the market or about to arrive, such as the Lucid Gravity, the Porsche Cayenne Electric or the BMW iX3reach 400 kW. The reason for such a rush. Loren McDonald, CEO and Chief Analyst at Chargeonomics, explains told InsideEVs that some of the high-powered Chinese cars could arrive in the United States in the next five years, so these chargers “shield” the facilities for when that happens. The idea, furthermore, is to distribute the load intelligently between several points according to what each car can absorb, so that a modest model and a high-end model can be plugged in at the same time without either wasting power. Who is really ahead?. China and Europe are setting the pace in this regard, with systems such as BYD’s 1.5-megawatt “Flash” stationsto which we were able to access first-hand with the presentation in Europe of the Denza Z9GT. More in China than in Europe, the difference is not so much in the raw power of the plugs as in the fact that manufacturers are releasing vehicles prepared to take advantage of it. In Europe we also have a long way to go to be able to take advantage of these capabilities in commercial passenger cars, but little by little we are getting to know more brands that want to join. And Spain, where is it? He latest Barometer of ANFAC Electromobility, corresponding to the first quarter of 2026, makes it clear that the priority here continues to be the basics, that is, having enough points and making them work. Spain closed March with 55,077 public access charging points, after adding 2,005 in the quarter, a growth that the report itself describes as lower than that recorded in the same periods of the previous three years. The quality problem. Beyond the total number, ANFAC data points to two weaknesses. The first, power: only 31% of the infrastructure exceeds 22 kW, far from the 55% objective that the association sets for 2026. The remaining 69% are low power points that require charging times of at least three hours. The second, reliability: ANFAC estimates that 17,073 points are out of service (24% of the total installed) due to breakdown, poor condition or lack of connection to the electrical network. If they worked, Spain would be close to 72,150 points. The high power, still testimonial. Chargers of 250 kW or more, those that truly allow recharging in minutes, There are only 2,469 units in all of Spain.. They grew by 309 during the quarter, and the report indicates that around 75% of high power points respond to projects by the automobile manufacturers themselves. The big obstacle, according to the association, continues to be administrative, since processing difficulties and, above all, access to the electrical distribution network keep many projects paralyzed. Cover image | myenergi In Xataka | The hydrogen fuel cell at 250º C that solves a decades-old problem: the constant need for water

Ukraine has been left without thousands of drones. An error classified them as electric cars, and the Treasury has fried them with taxes

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During World War II, the United States Army created entire systems classification and emergency purchases because normal bureaucracy was too slow to keep up with the pace of war. Eight decades later, Ukraine has discovered the same problem from the opposite side. Drone warfare crashes into bureaucracy. Ukraine has been transforming the front into a war laboratory automated where ground drones have become essential to transport ammunition, evacuate wounded or attack Russian positions without exposing soldiers. The problem is that, while kyiv was trying to accelerate this military revolution, the bureaucracy has ended up mistakenly classifying these unmanned vehicles within the same tax category than electric cars. When an old exemption for EVs expired on January 1, drones began paying a 20% VAT. The result has been devastating: according to the industry, the army could have bought some 5,000 additional drones only in the first half of 2026 if that tax had not come into force. Thousands of drones lost at the worst moment. They counted on Insider that the impact has been especially serious because it has arrived at a critical phase of the war. Ukraine is increasingly relying on autonomous systems to compensate for human and material attrition against Russia, to the point that Zelensky claimed that his forces carried out more than 22,000 missions with ground drones in just three months. kyiv wanted to acquire 50,000 units this year, but the new VAT skyrocketed costs, froze public contracts and left manufacturers whole for months. no state orders. Some companies drastically reduced production to survive, while others tried to reclassify their robots as armored vehicles to avoid the tax burden. A trapped military industry. The chaos also reflects how the military technological revolution is advancing faster than the laws themselves. Ground drones were so new within European and Ukrainian commercial standards that they did not even there was a category clear to classify them. When a former tax exemption for electric vehicles expired, the system automatically absorbed these military robots into the same regulations. The Ministry of Defense suddenly found itself with insufficient budgets and paralyzed purchasing processes because, technically, essential weapons for the front had no longer been considered. exempt military equipment tax. Manufacturers like Tencorecreator of the popular TermIT dronethey spent up to five months without public contracts and had to survive thanks to volunteer organizations that directly supply military units. In a war economy where many companies literally live from order to order, three months without state purchases is equivalent to little less than a heart attack industrial. The big problem is not just making weapons. The episode reveals something deeper about the evolution of modern warfare. For years, drones, artificial intelligence and automation have been talked about as the future of combat, but Ukraine is discovering that the bottleneck is not always in the technology. Sometimes it is in the administrationin legislation or in bureaucratic systems designed for peacetime. Russia and Ukraine are immersed in a race of constant adaptation where every month counts and where losing half a year due to tax procedures can have direct effects on the front. The sector itself calculates that the tax exemption would save about 200 million dollarsa gigantic figure for an industry that still depends on precarious financing and accelerated production. The problem is that even if Parliament now corrects the law, the damage has already been done: delayed contracts, lost capacity and thousands of drones that never made it to the battlefield when they were needed most. The paradox of the war of the future. The story perfectly summarizes one of the great contradictions of this war. Ukraine has become the country that has integrated autonomous systems the fastest in real combat and has built an ecosystem with more than 280 companies and 550 models different from ground drones. However, that same ecosystem remains dependent on sluggish state structures, legacy regulations, and legal frameworks unable to keep pace with military innovation. While the front is filled with robots that transport ammunition, evacuate wounded or attack Russian trenches without a human driver, the State continued to administratively treat them as if they were simple electric cars. The irony could not be more brutal: one of the most technologically advanced wars of the century lost thousands of combat machines not due to lack of industrial capacity or due to Russian attacks, but because the Treasury decided to apply the same tax treatment than to a civil electric vehicle. Image | x In Xataka | A Ukrainian stork has managed to outwit a Russian drone in flight. The video is the best clue about who will win the war In Xataka | Ukraine has been terrorizing Russian soldiers with its heavy drones for years. Now they are literally giving it back.

In its leap to electric cars, Europe fears total dependence on China. Your solutions arrive (quite) late

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The rope tightens. This time it is Europe that pulls to its side. Or, at least, that is what he wants according to what is stated in Financial Timeswhere we read that the European Union wants to force car manufacturers to reduce their level of dependence on China. Now, forcing them to buy fewer components from their suppliers. A new goal. It is, according to Financial Timeswhat the European Union wants to impose on companies in key sectors such as automobiles, industrial machinery or the chemical sector. In the newspaper’s information we read that European institutions are looking for tools to put pressure on their own companies. In the information, which is attributed to two European officials familiar with this project, the objective is to put a limit on the percentage of components that can be supplied to a single country. That is, if a company wants to manufacture a product in Europe, it could not buy all of its components (or the vast majority) from China. To distribute the purchases. If the project goes ahead as we read in the British media, a company could only buy between 30 and 40% of its components from the same country. It is sought that, at least, the origin of the parts that, in this case, make up a car is from three suppliers and from at least three different countries. This would not be much of a problem if it were not for the fact that the 30-40% barrier could not be overcome. “Gradually dependent”. “In many areas we are gradually becoming dependent on China’s exports,” the words are from a senior European Union official consulted by the newspaper. According to Financial Timesthe organizations are very aware of the extent to which a stoppage of Chinese factories or exports can damage the European economy. In fact, last summer some factories had to stop or saw their production compromised after China put greater impediments to export of products in which rare earths are used such as the magnets in electric car motors. Just a few months later, The Nexperia crisis once again set off the alarms of possible interruptions in the supply chain since a good part of the chips used by the European industry uses components from this company. They are not key products for its operation but without them, a car cannot be sold because They are essential for auxiliary but basic functions How to raise and lower the car window. 1 billion. That is what, according to Financial Timesthey calculate in the European Union that we lose to China. 1,000 million euros of deficit in the trade balance. 1,000 million. Diaries. The figure has been floating for two years now. and the automotive industry is one of those that has suffered the most. According to the European Union, they have achieved this with a doped industry, which has led to the lifting of tariffs on electric cars arriving from China. And the Chinese manufacturers have wanted to land abroad on our continent but also the Europeans have wanted to manufacture in China because it was cheaper. Spain? According to Anfac dataIn Spain we have a deficit in our trade balance of 5,000 million euros annually if we talk about components. As the second largest car producer in Europe, our auxiliary fabric is not enough and we need to buy components worth 16,893 million euros when exports exceed 11,525 million euros. There is no data on the origin of these imported components but we do know that The second country that exports the most cars to Spain is China. Last year, 9.2% of cars purchased in our country from outside our borders arrived from China. Very far, yes, from the German 26%. The problem is that despite importing cars worth almost 2.7 billion euros, China does not appear among the 10 countries to which we export the most cars and we barely place 658 million euros in exports to all of Asia. The game of balance. Yet the European Union is discovering that perhaps it has arrived late to the trade battle. Yes, it has lifted tariffs on electric cars sold from China but the country’s tentacles reach deep into vehicles made in Europe, producing all kinds of cheap components but also producing key technology such as semiconductors or batteries of electric cars. China is aware that it can squeeze European industry but it also needs our trade to export all the cars that are already surplus there. It is no coincidence that Europe has not imposed tariffs on cars arrived with combustion engines and? have negotiated with China the possibility of lifting trade barriers to electric cars. The Band-Aid. Until now, a very important part of the components used in European cars had their origin within the borders of the European Union itself. However, China’s weight has skyrocketed in recent years. In 2024, China has already become the main exporter of cars to Europe and the weight of its components within the cars manufactured here is increasingly greater, which reduces the competitiveness of our exports, according to this report BBVA. This imbalance is doubly worrying because the European Union is trying to reduce Chinese dependence now that it is seeking to make the definitive leap to the electric car, a technology where the Asian country dominates the supply chain. In recent months, Europe has tried to curb dependence promoting mineral mining on our soil or battery production but Chinese dependence remains evident. Photo | Michael Fourset and Sou Jest In Xataka | Japan has been charging a 0% tariff on foreign cars for half a century. It will be very difficult for you to find one on the street.

which cars can circulate and which rest on May 23

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A new Saturday Today No Circula day is launched this weekend, a measure coordinated by the Environment Secretariat of Mexico City (SEDEMA) whose objective is to mitigate pollution levels in the Valley of Mexico. Those who plan to travel in their private vehicles must carefully verify the last digit of their license plate and the verification hologram before going out on the street. It is worth remembering that this ordinance not only restricts mobility in the 16 municipalities of CDMX, but its obligation extends to various metropolitan municipalities of the State of Mexico. The program operates in: Atizapan of Zaragoza Coacalco de Berriozábal Cuautitlan Cuautitlán Izcalli Chalco Chicoloapan Chimalhuacan Ecatepec de Morelos Huixquilucan Ixtapaluca Peace Naucalpan de Juárez Nezahualcoyotl Nicolas Romero Tecámac Tlalnepantla de Baz Tultitlan Chalco Valley Also, remember that if your route passes through any of these locations, the Saturday No Circulation Day also applies. Which vehicles and license plates are affected by Hoy No Circula Saturday? The objective is to reduce the volume of cars in circulation to reduce polluting emissions; However, Saturday sessions operate under particular guidelines that complement the rules in force from Monday to Friday. Not all units must stop on the same weekend: the hologram, the completion of the license plate and whether Saturday corresponds to an even or odd week will determine which driver must leave their car parked and who has the option of transiting. Likewise, it is mandatory to consider that the Saturday Hoy No Circula does not remain active during the entire day. The hours of application go from 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., so outside of that period—during the night and early morning—the regulations do not limit road traffic, unless the authorities dictate an environmental contingency or another extraordinary measure with added restrictions. For the specific date of May 23, 2026it is established that as we are talking about the fourth Saturday of the month, it is the vehicles with hologram 1 and license plates whose ending is an even number that will have to suspend their activities and not circulate for the duration of the program. If your car has these characteristics, it will be mandatory to keep it motionless until the regulatory deadline ends after 10:00 p.m. In contrast, those cars that have a 0 and 00 hologram retain the authorization to move freely under the guidelines of Today No Circula Saturday. Meanwhile, the units identified with hologram 2 cannot circulate under any circumstances on Saturdays. Apart from the previous categories, it is necessary to take into account that there is a list of exempt vehicles that enjoy the benefit of circulating without being compromised by the restrictions current. These include: Electric, natural gas or hybrid technology vehicles Units registered with plates for people with disabilities All those intended for urban public transport services (including funeral services) Those dedicated to school or passenger transportation Those assigned to public security and/or civil protection Motorists who do not comply will face significant financial penalties. The fine for violating the program ranges from 20 to 30 times the Measurement and Update Unit (UMA), which is equivalent to approximately 1,924.40 pesos at the minimum and up to 2,886.60 pesos at the maximum. Along with the direct monetary impact, the potential retention of the unit in a warehouse and the setbacks linked to clearing the corresponding procedures with the authorities are contemplated. In short, if you plan to make trips in your car this Saturday through CDMX or through the suburban municipalities of the State of Mexico that are included in this regulation, it is advisable to carefully check before starting what hologram your vehicle has, what the ending of your license plate is and if the calendar shows an even or odd week. Photo | Sunira Moses In Xataka | The countries that pollute the most in the world, gathered in a detailed graph

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