Keith Norton

Well, as you said, Ed, they did it far from Detroit.

This was set up in California.

It was led by Alan Clark, who's a former Tesla engineer.

And they sweat the details.

It's like improvement by a thousand cuts.

And they've managed to shrink the size of the battery on this EV.

The battery is the most expensive component of an electric vehicle, while at the same time extending the range by about 50 miles.

That's just one of many engineering gains they made.

which is the reason they can field this vehicle at $30,000 as a starting price, which is $20,000 below the average price of a new car in America today.

maybe distant keith ambitions on l3 systems what's the sort of timeline from here of this uev platform please yeah not exactly that far distant they're going to come with the eyes off the road level 3 semi-autonomy in 2028 so a year after they launch this vehicle they'll offer buyers the option of getting this semi-autonomous size off the road hands off the wheel

So their point is they can put a feature like that on an inexpensive car in the 30,000s, which is unusual.

Normally, those sorts of advanced technology features show up first on very high-end luxury cars closer to six figures.

Right.

So the advantage the Chinese have is in price.

I mean, there's a Chinese EV in China for $10,000.

Not likely that would come here, but they have a big price advantage, even if you make a car ready for the U.S.

market.

But they also have a technology advantage.

They have...

you know, cars that are essentially an extension of your smartphone, smart cars.