* Xiaomi ( XIACF ) takes heat for crash

* Honda ( HMC ) swerves towards hybrids

* BYD moves to Hungary

Xiaomi post-crash orders tank

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi ( XIACF ) took the country's EV market by

storm last year with its first-ever electric car, the SU7 sedan,

which by December was already outselling Tesla's Model 3.

But orders for the SU7 plunged 55% in April from March after a

fatal crash where preliminary findings showed the car hit a

roadside pole at 97 kph (60 mph) seconds after the driver took

over control of the vehicle from its driver-assistance system.

This is quite the contrast with Tesla's experience in the United

States, where the automaker has either settled cases involving

car crashes involving its driver-assistance features or has

managed to limit the damages it could be forced to pay, all

without losing sales.

Xiaomi's ( XIACF ) woes have been compounded by customer complaints of

false advertising.

The EV maker may now be hoping that the launch later this week

of its eagerly-awaited YU7 electric SUV - touted as a challenger

to the Model Y in China - will help it change the narrative and

move on from the crash.

Recommended reading:

* Trump targets Biden's fuel economy rules

* CATL's blockbuster IPO

* South Africa's Musk push

Honda's ( HMC ) EV retreat

Honda ( HMC ) has decided to hit reverse on some of its EV investments,

opting instead to focus on hybrids and highlighting a tough

choice for traditional automakers.

After all, what is a major Japanese automaker to do when the

United States - a key market - under Trump is hitting the brakes

on the EV-friendly policies of his predecessor and interest in

electric cars there is not where it should be?

Honda ( HMC ) CEO Toshihiro Mibe  now says that instead of 30% of its

new car sales by 2030, EVs will account for about a fifth.

The automaker has slashed its planned investment in

electrification and software by 2030 by 30% to 7 trillion yen

($48 billion) and plans to launch 13 next-generation hybrid

models globally in the four years from 2027.

That all makes sense for the U.S. market where Honda ( HMC ) currently

just has three hybrids on offer.

But EV sales are not slowing in China, the world's largest car

market. This is where the dilemma comes in for Honda ( HMC ), which saw

its Chinese sales fall 44% between 2020 and 2024, to 881,000

cars from 1.56 million - or about two car factories worth of

production.

In a bifurcating auto world, traditional automakers cannot

afford to spend a ton of money developing EVs, hybrids and pure

fossil-fuel models all at the same time.

So Honda ( HMC ) has to roll the dice and hope it keeps U.S. market

share without losing too much more in China.

BYD says "igen" to Hungary

China's No. 1 automaker BYD will establish its European

headquarters in Hungary, creating 2,000 jobs.

BYD CEO Wang Chuanfu said during a press conference with

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest that its

European headquarters will be a hub for sales and after-sales

services, for testing and developing localised versions of its

models.

Strategically, the move from BYD's current offices in Amsterdam

makes sense.

BYD built its first European plant, an electric bus factory, in

Komarom in northwest Hungary in April 2016. A second Hungarian

factory to make EVs is under construction.

Hungary under Orban has also gone a long way to attract

manufacturing investments from China, unlike some EU nations

figuring out how to become less dependent on the world's

second-largest economy.

But while it makes sense strategically, it will be interesting

to see how many of BYD's European executives and experts want to

move to Hungary from Amsterdam.

Tesla's refurb gambit

For years Tesla prevented U.S. customers leasing its mass-market

Model 3s from buying them at the end of their contract - an

unusual move in an industry keen to sell lease-end cars to

consumers - saying they were destined to become part of Elon

Musk's fabled robotaxi fleet.

But as my Reuters colleagues Chris Kirkham and Abhirup Roy

report here, Tesla instead flipped many of the off-lease cars to

new buyers at higher prices.

Rather than storing the used cars - a fast-depreciating asset -

Tesla started adding features to them through software upgrades.

It then sold the vehicles to new customers willing to pay

thousands more than lease-end buyers would have.

The practice was an easy way to jack up used vehicle prices.

While legal, the practice denied lessees the option of buying

their vehicles and perpetuated the myth among investors that

Tesla was near fully autonomous driving technology.

Fast Laps

General Motors and battery partner LG Energy Solution  will

launch commercial production of lower-cost cells for future EVs

at a U.S. plant in 2028.

Battery maker CATL's chairman said that half of the heavy trucks

sold in China could be fully electric by 2028, up from 10% in

2024. 

BYD  became the most popular vehicle brand in Singapore so far

this year, outselling Toyota for the first time, government data

showed.

Nissan's  new CEO Ivan Espinosa faces an uphill task turning

around the troubled Japanese automaker with no guarantee it can

reverse sliding top-line sales, analysts said.

Harley-Davidson ( HOG )  defeated a proposal from investor H Partners to

remove three directors, including the CEO.

Tesla will start shipping components from China to the United

States to make Cybercab and Semi trucks from the end of this

month, after the two countries agreed a truce over tariffs.

Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward

this newsletter to them. They can also subscribe here.

(Editing by Mark Potter)