Finance

Tesla’s China rival Zeekr to roll out free advanced driver assistance

Published

3 months ago

March 18, 2025

The view from inside a Zeekr Mix electric vehicle at one of the company’s showrooms in Shanghai, China, on March 16, 2025.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

BEIJING — Chinese electric car company Zeekr is releasing advanced driver-assistance capabilities to its local customers for free as competition heats up, Zeekr CEO Andy An told CNBC ahead of a launch event Tuesday.

The tech enables the car to drive nearly autonomously from one pre-set destination to another, as long as drivers keep their hands on the steering wheel and there is regulatory approval — which is increasingly the case in most major Chinese cities.

It’s the latest Chinese electric vehicle brand to upgrade its driver-assistance products as Tesla tries to attract more buyers of its own version, called Full Self Driving, in China.

After initial criticism that the 64,000 yuan ($8,850) software was too expensive, some Chinese social media users said Monday that Tesla was offering some users the driver-assistance system for free through April 16. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Zeekr’s version will be free, rolled out to a pilot group initially and then released to the public in April, according to the company.

“Right now, in this period of development, I think subscriptions aren’t that meaningful,” CEO An said in an interview Friday, according to a CNBC translation of his Mandarin-language remarks.

Given intense competition, he said, Zeekr needs to close the gap on driver assistance with market leaders and become a top player. “So we need to bear some cost,” An said, noting Zeekr previously only offered more basic driver-assistance capabilities, such as for parking.

Following Tesla CEO Elon Musk's money in China

Zeekr, which is listed in the U.S., is scheduled to release quarterly earnings on Thursday ahead of the U.S. market open. Shares are up about 6% year-to-date.

Nvidia chips

CEO An said that Zeekr’s driver-assistance system uses two Nvidia Orin X chipsets and one lidar, or a light detection and ranging unit that allows a vehicle to navigate roads without relying too much on sunlight conditions.

He said a forthcoming version of the system will use Nvidia’s more advanced Thor automotive chip, one long-range lidar and four shorter-range lidar units.

“Using lidar may increase cost, but this reflects how much we value safety,” An said. He said the driver-assistance system for Zeekr cars sold overseas will not use the Nvidia chips for now, given different regulations and local market demand.

Zeekr’s driver-assistance system will also be used for fellow EV brand Lynk & Co.’s cars, An said, and potentially vehicles from parent company Geely. Zeekr officially acquired Lynk & Co. this year.

From price war to driver-assistance competition

Sales of Nvidia’s “self-driving platforms” helped drive the chipmaker’s revenue from automotive and robotics to a record $570 million in the fourth quarter of the 2025 fiscal year.

Also reflecting market demand, major lidar producer Hesai said this month that its lidar shipments have more than doubled annually for four straight years as of 2024.

Hesai’s CFO Andrew Fan told CNBC last week that the company expects significant growth in advanced driver-assistance systems this year from last year, and noted an industry joke that China’s electric car market has shifted from a price war to a war over driver assistance.

Over the last two years, the technology has increasingly become a selling point for new energy vehicles in China, which include battery-only and hybrid-powered cars.

NEV giant BYD in February announced it was rolling out driver-assist capabilities to more than 20 of its car models. While current features mostly focus on parking and highway navigation, the company said an upgrade with point-to-point driver assistance would likely be issued by the end of 2025.

The most basic version of BYD’s driver-assistance system uses Horizon Robotics’ chipset along with Nvidia‘s Orin, while more advanced versions only use other Nvidia chips, according to Nomura’s research.

Chinese EV startup Xpeng, another Nvidia customer which made advanced driver assistance an early selling point, has delivered more than 30,000 cars a month since November, thanks in part to its new P7+ car that also did away with requiring additional subscriptions for driver assistance.

Nio has advertised subscriptions for its driver-assistance features but has yet to charge users for them, according to the company.

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1 day ago

June 6, 2025

Business Finance News

Finance

Swiss government proposes tough new capital rules in major blow to UBS

Published

1 day ago

June 6, 2025

Business Finance News

A sign in German that reads “part of the UBS group” in Basel on May 5, 2025.

Fabrice Coffrini | AFP | Getty Images

The Swiss government on Friday proposed strict new capital rules that would require banking giant UBS to hold an additional $26 billion in core capital, following its 2023 takeover of stricken rival Credit Suisse.

The measures would also mean that UBS will need to fully capitalize its foreign units and carry out fewer share buybacks.

“The rise in the going-concern requirement needs to be met with up to USD 26 billion of CET1 capital, to allow the AT1 bond holdings to be reduced by around USD 8 billion,” the government said in a Friday statement, referring to UBS’ holding of Additional Tier 1 (AT1) bonds.

The Swiss National Bank said it supported the measures from the government as they will “significantly strengthen” UBS’ resilience.

“As well as reducing the likelihood of a large systemically important bank such as UBS getting into financial distress, this measure also increases a bank’s room for manoeuvre to stabilise itself in a crisis through its own efforts. This makes it less likely that UBS has to be bailed out by the government in the event of a crisis,” SNB said in a Friday statement.

‘Too big to fail’

UBS has been battling the specter of tighter capital rules since acquiring the country’s second-largest bank at a cut-price following years of strategic errors, mismanagement and scandals at Credit Suisse.

The shock demise of the banking giant also brought Swiss financial regulator FINMA under fire for its perceived scarce supervision of the bank and the ultimate timing of its intervention.

Swiss regulators argue that UBS must have stronger capital requirements to safeguard the national economy and financial system, given the bank’s balance topped $1.7 trillion in 2023, roughly double the projected Swiss economic output of last year. UBS insists it is not “too big to fail” and that the additional capital requirements — set to drain its cash liquidity — will impact the bank’s competitiveness.

At the heart of the standoff are pressing concerns over UBS’ ability to buffer any prospective losses at its foreign units, where it has, until now, had the duty to back 60% of capital with capital at the parent bank.

Higher capital requirements can whittle down a bank’s balance sheet and credit supply by bolstering a lender’s funding costs and choking off their willingness to lend — as well as waning their appetite for risk. For shareholders, of note will be the potential impact on discretionary funds available for distribution, including dividends, share buybacks and bonus payments.

“While winding down Credit Suisse’s legacy businesses should free up capital and reduce costs for UBS, much of these gains could be absorbed by stricter regulatory demands,” Johann Scholtz, senior equity analyst at Morningstar, said in a note preceding the FINMA announcement.

“Such measures may place UBS’s capital requirements well above those faced by rivals in the United States, putting pressure on returns and reducing prospects for narrowing its long-term valuation gap. Even its long-standing premium rating relative to the European banking sector has recently evaporated.”