My six-hour high-speed train ride from Beijing to Shanghai one afternoon last week felt like a WeWork on wheels. In a packed, second-class train car of about 90 people, many were working on laptops and chatting on business phone calls. When I arrived in Shanghai around 8 p.m., there was a line with a 15-minute wait for taxis. And when I finally got to the hotel on the city outskirts an hour later, many people were just checking in. The counter by the receptionist was filled with food delivery bags, waiting for the hotel robot to bring them upstairs. I was in town for an event by Chinese electric car company Nio , which was vying with Huawei’s big Connect conference for literal space and attention in a week of tech news. Electric car manufacturers are abuzz In the world of electric cars alone, Baidu -backed startup Jidu launched its car on Tuesday afternoon; Xpeng also unveiled its new G9 electric SUV. BYD on Wednesday announced its luxury SUV Yangwang U8 would start sales at one million-plus yuan ($150,000), while Arcfox on the same day released a mass-market car targeted at young parents. Leapmotor also launched two mass-market cars on the same day. Nio, which had just wrapped its fifth car release in four months the prior week, launched a smartphone on Thursday. The company also showed off what it was doing in autonomous driving software, artificial intelligence and factory automation. Customization is important for the premium customer, Nio CEO William Li said on stage in Mandarin, translated by CNBC. He noted the company offers a whopping 3.6 million combinations of colors and features for its cars. Li claimed that by increasing manufacturing efficiency with technology, it only takes Nio 21 days to deliver on a customer’s order — a capability with which he said the company can build its mass-market brand. Fast-fashion giant Shein has used tech-integrated supply chains and big data analytics to respond quickly to — if not anticipate — what clothes…
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