On July 14, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Emergency Management urgently pre-allocated 430 million yuan of central natural disaster relief funds to support 10 provincial-level regions (autonomous regions and municipalities), including Guangxi, Zhejiang, Hebei, Liaoning, Tianjin, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi, and Sichuan, in carrying out flood control and typhoon emergency rescue and disaster relief work. Of this amount, on top of the previously pre-allocated 190 million yuan, an additional 150 million yuan was pre-allocated......

According to data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), the pickup truck market showed a boost in production and sales during the late spring and early summer period, with exports being particularly strong in June. In June 2026, pickup truck market sales reached 62,000 units, up 29.1% YoY and 2.8% MoM, the second-highest level for the month in the past five years. Sales from January to June totaled 343,000 units, up 11.9% YoY.

On July 7, Toyota Motor Corporation is shifting production of its Tacoma midsize pickup truck from a factory in Mexico to San Antonio, as part of the automaker's $3.6 billion upgrade plan for the Texas plant. The company will build a second production line at the San Antonio factory, creating approximately 2,000 new jobs by 2030. The factory currently mainly produces full-size pickup trucks and SUVs. The expansion of the San Antonio plant will double its facility size to approximately 5 million square feet. Since its groundbreaking 23 years ago, Toyota's cumulative investment at this site will reach $8.3 billion.

On June 30, according to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Ford Motor is recalling certain 2018–2021 Navigator and Expedition vehicles, 2020–2021 Explorer and Lincoln Aviator vehicles, and 2021 F-150 pickup trucks, totaling 741,195 units.The recall is due to a potential issue in which the transmission park pawl may unintentionally engage while the vehicle is moving, potentially damaging the parking system. This could cause the vehicle to roll away when parked, increasing the risk of a crash.

According to Barron's, the market might have assumed that Tesla would offer bulk buyers a certain discount. However, that was not the case. It turned out that one of the largest buyers of the Tesla Cybertruck was none other than SpaceX. Musk's rocket company spent $131 million to purchase the futuristic-looking pickup truck. According to the S-1 IPO registration statement filed by SpaceX, the EVs were purchased "at Tesla's manufacturer's suggested retail price." SpaceX did not receive any discount. Based on this amount, approximately 1,600 trucks could be purchased. This figure accounted for roughly 8% of the total Cybertrucks Tesla sold in the US market in 2025.

[SMM Tin Morning Brief: The Most-Traded SHFE Tin Contract Maintained a Sideways Trend During the Night Session, with Low Market Trading Activity]

Farasis Energy's SPS Super Soft-Pack Power Battery Solution has been designated for Geely Radar's next-generation electric pickup truck. It will supply a lithium iron phosphate high-voltage battery pack based on the SPS solution, with mass production expected to begin in the second half of 2026. Previously, the SPS solution had already been deployed in volume production for the Geely Radar Horizon model. The SPS solution has now achieved large-scale mass production, accumulating extensive manufacturing experience, process optimization data, and performance feedback across various application scenarios.

On April 14, data from the CPCA showed that pickup truck production and sales exhibited typical spring ramp-up characteristics, with exceptionally strong momentum at the end of the quarter. In March 2026, pickup truck market sales reached 70,000 units, up 11.7% YoY and up 72.7% MoM, standing at a high level over the past five years. From January to March, sales totaled 161,000 units, up 7.6%. In March 2026, pickup truck production reached 68,000 units, up 9.3% YoY. From January to March 2026, pickup truck production totaled 162,000 units, up 12.3%.

[US Automakers Accused EU of Trying to Block Pickup Truck Imports] According to the UK's Financial Times, US automakers accused the EU of trying to obstruct imports of large pickup trucks from Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis; the US Ambassador to the EU said the rules the EU planned to revise could violate the trade deal reached with the Trump administration.

In recent years, the most common and straightforward framework for assessing demand across the lithium battery value chain has been to anchor it to EV sales. The logic was simple: the more vehicles sold, the stronger the battery demand; conversely, a slowdown in vehicle sales would imply weaker battery demand. This relationship held true in the early stages of the industry, when EV penetration was rapidly increasing, product structures were relatively simple, and battery demand exhibited a strong linear correlation with vehicle sales. However, this linear relationship is now clearly weakening. Increasing evidence suggests that battery demand is no longer solely determined by vehicle sales , but is increasingly driven by multiple factors, including average battery capacity per vehicle, product mix, commercial vehicle electrification, and export dynamics. 1. The “Vehicle Sales = Battery Demand” Formula Is Breaking Down At its core, vehicle sales represent the number of units sold, while battery demand reflects total energy consumption, i.e., total installed battery capacity. These two metrics only move in tandem when the average battery capacity per vehicle remains stable. Once average battery size increases, or when the sales mix shifts across BEV vs. PHEV, passenger vs. commercial vehicles, the direct linkage between vehicle sales and battery demand begins to decouple. As a result, assessing battery demand today requires answering several additional questions beyond headline vehicle sales: What is the average battery capacity per vehicle? Which vehicle segments are driving incremental growth? Are export flows and regional differences amplifying demand volatility? In other words, the industry is transitioning from a “unit-driven” model to an “energy-driven” model . 2. Rising Battery Capacity per Vehicle: The Primary Driver The most direct reason for the decoupling is the continuous increase in battery capacity per vehicle. This trend is driven by three key factors. First, vehicle upsizing. Both in China and overseas, EV consumption is shifting from basic electrification to enhanced user experience. The rising share of SUVs, pickup trucks, larger sedans, and premium vehicles naturally drives higher battery capacity per vehicle. Larger vehicle size, longer range requirements, and higher performance expectations all translate into higher kWh configurations. Second, the range competition is not over. While the industry has moved beyond the most aggressive phase of “range-at-all-costs,” consumers still place strong emphasis on real-world range, low-temperature performance, highway efficiency, and charging convenience. Even amid intense price competition, automakers are reluctant to reduce battery capacity, as it remains a core determinant of product competitiveness. Third, the growth of premium BEVs and heavy-duty applications. Although EV sales growth is expected to moderate going forward, battery demand is still projected to grow at a faster pace, with increasing battery capacity per vehicle being a key contributor. This reflects a critical shift: vehicles may not be selling faster, but each vehicle is consuming more battery capacity. Therefore, relying solely on slowing vehicle sales growth to infer weaker battery demand may significantly underestimate the offsetting effect from rising battery capacity per vehicle. 3. Product Mix Matters More Than Total Sales Volume Beyond battery capacity, changes in product mix are also reshaping battery demand. For instance, selling one million EVs with a higher BEV share will result in stronger battery demand than the same volume with a higher PHEV share, due to differences in battery size. In other words, shifts between different powertrain technologies directly impact overall battery intensity. Globally, this structural divergence is becoming more pronounced. In Europe, policy adjustments have led to a temporary rebound in PHEVs, which dilutes average battery capacity per vehicle. In contrast, China continues to maintain a high share of BEVs and higher-capacity vehicles, supporting stronger battery demand intensity. Thus, evaluating battery demand today requires understanding not just how many vehicles are sold, but what types of vehicles are driving the growth . 4. Commercial Vehicle Electrification: The Most Undervalued Growth Driver If rising battery capacity per vehicle represents the first layer of demand restructuring, then the electrification of commercial vehicles represents the second—and arguably the most underestimated—layer. Passenger EVs typically carry battery packs in the range of tens of kWh, whereas electric heavy-duty trucks, construction vehicles, and specialty vehicles often require 300–600 kWh or more. This means that a single electric truck can generate battery demand equivalent to multiple passenger EVs . Even with a smaller sales base, incremental penetration in commercial vehicles can significantly amplify overall battery demand. Rising oil prices further accelerate this trend by improving the total cost of ownership (TCO) of electric commercial vehicles, particularly in high-utilization, heavy-load, and fixed-route applications. In such scenarios, electrification becomes economically compelling much faster. As a result, while commercial vehicles are not the largest segment by volume, they are likely to become one of the most powerful “energy leverage” drivers of battery demand in the near term. 5. Exports, Inventory Cycles, and Production Scheduling Are Increasing the Mismatch In addition to end-market dynamics, midstream factors such as exports, inventory cycles, and production scheduling are further widening the gap between vehicle sales and battery demand. On one hand, changes in export policies, overseas customer stocking behavior, and shifts in trade flows can either front-load or delay battery and materials production. On the other hand, inventory cycles are once again becoming a central analytical framework. Automakers and distributors are no longer maintaining stable inventory levels; instead, they dynamically adjust stocking based on sales trends and pricing competition. This means that battery production is increasingly influenced by inventory drawdowns, restocking cycles, and order visibility—rather than simply mirroring real-time vehicle sales. Analyst SMM Lithium Battery Analyst Lesley Yang yangle@smm.cn