If building cars was easy, everyone would be doing it. Well, almost every electronics manufacturer has thought of it—Apple, Dyson, Sonyto name a few. But Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi lived out its dreams, and now it’s got some real bragging rights.

Welcome back to Critical Materials, your daily digest of all things electric car and automotive technology. Today we talk about Xiaomi breaking Tesla’s production speed record, CATL looking at the US for a plant and Stellantis betting big on synthetic graphite. Let’s jump in.

30%: China’s “Apple Car” is already a big hit

Two hundred and thirty days. That’s how long it took Chinese mobile phone czar Xiaomi to build 100,000 units of its first-ever electric car, SU7.

The acclaimed SU7 rolled off the assembly line on Wednesday, blowing past the Tesla Model 3 production record by a mile. Quite literally, Xiaomi halved the time it took Tesla to reach the same production milestone – 464 days. This isn’t just fast, it’s lightning fast for a company that had never made a car before. When Tesla did the same thing, it was on its fourth vehicle. Rivian? Try 919 days.

Xiaomi didn’t just quietly debut the SU7 either. The company came out swinging against Tesla, Ford, Sony, Apple – basically any company that builds cars or electronics. No one is safe.

And to top it off, the public reception has been completely off the charts. Xiaomi has sold every example of the SU7 it builds, making this production goal a testament to how damn popular the SU7 really is. Gobs of technology, nearly 500 miles of range and futuristic styling give the car a unique style in a world of battery-powered blobs. Oh, and it starts at just $29,990. It’s no wonder why the car has been as successful as it is.

And with other players in the personal electronics space (ahem—Sony) looking to get into the mix, it’s a clear indication that more and more companies could be looking at getting into the EV game. It also means that some smaller companies will definitely want to copy Xiaomi’s lessons. And as for Apple and its now canceled car project? Well, call it a missed opportunity.

Xiaomi originally expected to build 100,000 units by the end of 2024, but after some careful recalculations, actually up its production target to 120,000 units. Can it reach that in the last 49 days of the year? A little quick napkin math tells me yes – and with a few days to spare. Watch out, world.

60%: CATL would build US plan if Trump signs

Photo by: InsideEVs

Since we’re already talking China, let’s pivot from car manufacturing to just battery production for a second. Enter China’s—yes, the world’s, really—largest battery manufacturer: CATL.

The US has been on a bit of a warpath with China lately. Between cutting Chinese technology and materials from being eligible for the federal EV tax credit to slapping imports with a 100 percent tariff, an expansion of China’s manufacturing segment into the U.S. seemed pretty unlikely. Instead, companies like CATL have expanded their footprint by licensing their manufacturing technology and partnering with domestic automakers like General Motors and Ford.

But now that Donald Trump will sit back in the Oval Office in January, CATL appears to be a little less burdened — and the automaker is ready to spend some serious money to enter the U.S. market If Trump’s new administration signs off on it.

“Originally, when we wanted to invest in the US, the US government said no,” Chinese billionaire and CATL founder Robin Zeng said in an interview with Reuters. “For me, I’m really open-minded.”

Zeng’s comments were the first from any Chinese auto supplier since the US election.

Trump’s stance on tariffs and electric cars has been quite a complex topic of late. After a blossoming bromance with Tesla CEO Elon MuskTrump seems to be more open to the idea of ​​electric cars. But, as Trump has said in interviews, foreign automakers are welcome to sell cars in the United States if they “build plans here and (…) hire our workers.” Of course, this is what seems to have piqued Zeng’s interest.

For CATL, it’s not just about setting up in the US. It’s about direct access to the entire North American market without having to go through customs and tough trade negotiations. Recent protectionist measures have locked CATL out of the market, but if Trump’s agenda changes this policy to allow more foreign investment on American soil, CATL could soon break ground on a plant in your backyard.

90%: Stellantis invests $1 billion in an American supplier of battery materials

Stellanti CEO Carlos Tavares has been pretty straightforward about electric cars: build it and they will come. This cool and confident approach has been the face of the auto giant’s stance on battery power recently, though its brands don’t yet have the numbers to back it up. Now Stellantis is betting a cool billion on a US-based startup that would give it domestic access to a critical component needed to build batteries.

The car manufacturer signed a supply agreement with Novonix covering a purchase agreement for up to 115,000 tons of synthetic graphite — the material used to make the battery’s anode, or negative pole — produced by the Tennessee-based company over the next six years. And with that investment, Stellantis sends a clear message to the politicians: they continue to invest in Electric cars, regulatory headwinds be damned, and that’s it move forward with building domestic EVs regardless of who is in the White House or what incentives may be available to new car buyers.

The automaker did not say exactly how much it spent on the contract. That means we have to use some industry-wide numbers to determine how much Stellantis could spend on that much material. Given that the average cost of US-produced synthetic graphite is around $10,000 per ton, that puts the contract somewhere in the neighborhood of between $860 million and $1.15 billion assuming prices hold steady.

The average electric car battery needs between 110 to 220 pounds of synthetic graphite, according to Reuters. Let’s call it 165 pounds. This means that the supply contract can supply enough graphite to build around 1.5 million electric cars until 2031.

Of course, there’s some fine print in the details, like starting deliveries in 2026. This helps Stellantis see exactly how US politics will shake out in President-elect Donald Trump’s first year back in office. Should tariffs and trade policy see any changes as expected, the contract could put Stellantis in a good spot as other automakers play catch-up in the purchasing department.

Stellanti’s contract highlights a more important struggle for the entire industry. Automakers are uncertain about what the future of electric cars will look like but need to hedge their bets. On the one hand, if they slack off now, brands may find themselves struggling to compete in the near future. But if an “EV winter” sets in in the states with the uncertain future of federal subsidies and private financing, then Stellantis and almost every other automaker could find themselves in a fairly long financial doldrums.

100%: Which electronics company should build an electric car?

Photo by: InsideEVs

You know, I touched on this before, but I can’t get the thought out of my head. Everyone wants to be a car manufacturer. Yes, they think they want to be. Some have had manufacturing partners, others have tried to do it on their own. So far, it only appears to be Sony pursue something worthwhile with the Afeela brand.

That being said, what non-car company would you like to see build a car? Whether it’s a concept or something that makes it down the road. Your reasoning could be the design language, the direction of the brand or just because you like the brand – let me know your choice in the comments.