FUNTI's daily electric motorcycle market brief for September 25, 2026: raw material prices, overseas market regulation and China export data, compiled from public sources for importers, distributors and fleet operators.
FUNTI MARKET INTELLIGENCE · September 25, 2026
① Today's Highlights
- The Chinese and US heads of state held talks at the White House. The official readout confirms that the two trade teams "achieved new outcomes in a new round of consultations" and that both sides agreed to continue dialogue toward a better agreement; the two presidents also confirmed mutual support for hosting the 2026 APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting and the G20 Summit. Bottom line: the direction of an institutionalized China–US trade consultation mechanism has now been confirmed at head-of-state level, and the policy environment for US-bound business has stabilized in the short term, but uncertainty has not been removed, so order books and new quotations should still carry policy-flexibility clauses (Caixin / People's Daily, 2026-09-25).
- The lithium battery consumption tax has formally entered its collection cycle. Announcement No. 20 of 2026, issued jointly by the Ministry of Finance, the General Administration of Customs and the State Taxation Administration, specifies that from September 1, 2026, lithium primary batteries and lithium-ion batteries are subject to a 2% consumption tax, rising to 4% from September 1, 2027; sodium-ion batteries, solid-state batteries, fuel cells and perovskite, tandem and gallium-arsenide PV cells are exempt until December 31, 2028. The tax is levied at the production, toll-processing and import-release stages, with battery manufacturers as the taxpayer, and exported batteries are taxed first and refunded later. Cost pass-through has already begun: EVE Energy and Lishen Battery each added a 2% consumption-tax cost to their domestic sales prices from September 1. Bottom line: the export refund channel is unchanged, but this tax is pushing cell ex-works prices up along the domestic chain, so the procurement cost of the lithium battery packs used in e-motorcycles must be re-reconciled (MOF and two other ministries, Announcement No. 20 of 2026 / JRJ / Science and Technology Daily, 2026-09).
② Raw Materials & FX
- Lithium carbonate spot (Mysteel MMLC basis): early trading on September 25 showed premium battery-grade lithium carbonate at RMB 130,300/t, battery-grade at RMB 128,300/t and industrial-grade at RMB 125,800/t; for reference, the battery-grade mid-price in the evening session of September 20 was RMB 130,250/t, meaning the spot mid-price has fallen about RMB 1,950/t (roughly 1.5%) within a week — clearly less than the futures decline, which totalled about 6.7% over the two trading days of September 23 and 24. Bottom line: spot is falling far less than the futures board, which shows downstream buyers are not panic-selling; do not use the sharp futures drop to squeeze suppliers, and instead lock volumes in batches at prevailing spot prices (Mysteel MMLC / East Money, 2026-09-25).
- Steel: Mysteel's September 24 price index shows MySpic Composite at 122.88 (-0.08%), rebar at 131.51 (-0.02%) and hot-rolled coil at 117.71 (-0.29%), with the Tangshan billet index at 91.62 (-0.13%) and the 62% Australian fines index at 98.84 (-0.10%); flat products fell more than construction steel. Bottom line: there is no upward momentum in steel used for frames and structural parts, so recent volumes can be locked at current prices (Mysteel, 2026-09-24).
- Copper and aluminium: no new spot quotations for September 25 were obtained in this search (that day's prices have not yet been published); the September 24 prices and premiums were already listed in the September 24 report and are not repeated here (cnal.com / Changjiang Nonferrous Metals Network, 2026-09-25).
- FX: the September 25 RMB/USD central parity was published at 9:15 and had not yet been released when this report was prepared; the September 24 central parity of 6.7489 is the latest official fixing. In the spot market, USD/CNY returned to around 6.7125 in the early hours of September 25, a modest give-back from the 6.7005 night-session level of September 24 (the RMB weakening by about 0.2%), ending its earlier one-way strengthening. Bottom line: spot has ended its winning streak and the USD has rebounded slightly, so the settlement window for USD-denominated orders should not be postponed further, and the quotation model must still leave FX headroom separately by currency (CFETS / public market quotes, 2026-09-24 to 25).
③ Overseas Markets
- The global two-wheeler market is highly concentrated: data from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) shows that 85% of global two-wheeler sales in January–October 2025 were concentrated in 10 markets — India, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brazil, Mexico, Thailand, Pakistan and Europe. Bottom line: overseas resources should be concentrated in these ten markets first, with other markets treated as opportunistic orders, so that manpower and certification costs are not spread across low-volume markets (Guancha citing ICCT, 2026-05-18).
- Indonesia's National Electric Motorcycle Programme (Molinas) has further clarified its implementing rules (the scale of the programme was reported on September 20; this is new progress): the programme was launched on August 13, 2026, and products admitted to it must meet four criteria — local content of major components above 60%, Indonesian-owned design and engineering capability, use of nickel-based batteries to support domestic downstreaming, and pricing in line with domestic market purchasing power; the initial local-content (TKDN) requirement is 40% and rises progressively to 60%, the government targets annual capacity of 100,000 units, and Indonesia's total e-motorcycle market demand is projected to reach 1.5 million units by 2028. Bottom line: the entry threshold is being raised further from "CBU trade" toward "local supply chains", so companies with CBU-only export capability need to place their bets early on CKD/SKD and local sourcing (Indonesia Shangbao / Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, 2026-08-20).
- A "tariff-cutting" new gateway has emerged in Latin America: Ecuador will further reduce its import tariffs on Chinese cars and motorcycles from January 2026. Bottom line: with Brazil's CBU tariff already back at 35% and Mexico tightening emission and OBD certification requirements, tariff-reducing Latin American markets such as Ecuador can serve as supplementary channels, though the specific tariff schedule and depth of the cuts must be verified before pricing (Hua Ren Toutiao, 2025-12-21).
FUNTI · Taizhou Fangxiang Technology Co., Ltd.
Daily electric motorcycle market brief for importers, distributors and fleet operators. Figures are compiled from public market sources and industry associations; verify before commercial use.
