China is tying its climate agenda more closely to industrial policy. The State Council's newly released Action Plan for Carbon Peaking in the 15th Five-Year Plan sets ambitious targets that could further accelerate domestic new energy vehicle (NEV) adoption while intensifying pressure on foreign automakers.

AI-defined vehicles (AIDVs) are built on software-defined vehicles (SDVs), and Tesla is arguably the world's most representative company at integrating and commercializing these technologies. Yet the market rarely hears Tesla emphasize or explain the AIDV concept.

South Korea's hydrogen rail commercialization is entering the final stretch, with Hyundai Rotem, a unit of Hyundai Motor Group, building hydrogen trains equipped with Hyundai Motor's in-house fuel cell system. The first commercial service is expected as early as 2029, but a 2024 shutdown of hydrogen trains in Foshan, China has raised questions about economic viability.

A more than 3x rise in China's lithium carbonate price over the past year has pushed sodium-ion batteries back into the spotlight, with the technology increasingly seen as a potential mainstream alternative to lithium batteries. But US industry players say sodium batteries made in the US still cost more than lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, and subsidies from federal and local governments have yet to create a viable market in the near term.

Taiwan's first domestically built submarine, Haikun, has entered submergence testing and is on track to be handed over to the navy in the second half of 2026, state-owned shipbuilder CSBC Corp. Taiwan said at a shareholders' meeting.