New energy vehicles (NEVs) represent a key direction for the global automotive industry’s transformation and green development, injecting new momentum into world economic growth. In the context of electrification and intelligent innovation, how can we drive collaborative innovation across the automotive industry chain and achieve high-quality development?
At the recent China Electric Vehicle 100 Forum (2025), Xin Guobin, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, emphasized that automotive companies must shift their focus from merely increasing scale to enhancing both scale and efficiency. This entails transitioning from application technology innovation to fundamental technology innovation, moving from a singular automotive industry to multi-industry integration, and evolving from solely selling products to enhancing lifecycle service capabilities.
Strengthening the Foundation for Electrification
In 2024, China’s annual production of new energy vehicles surpassed 10 million units for the first time, accounting for 65% of the global total and maintaining the world’s leading position for ten consecutive years. Significant breakthroughs in key technologies have further solidified the foundation of electrification, with the average vehicle range approaching 500 kilometers and mass production of fast charging technology that allows for 80% charge in just 15 minutes.
Despite these achievements, challenges remain in the industry. There is insufficient effective domestic demand, intense competition, and the supporting systems for mineral resources, battery recycling, and charging infrastructure need further improvement.
“We must firmly develop new energy vehicles and continue to strengthen top-level planning,” stated Chen Qingtai, Chairman of the China Electric Vehicle 100 Forum. He highlighted the need to further leverage technological innovation, particularly by accelerating the research and industrialization of all-solid-state batteries, enhancing charging facilities, financial insurance, maintenance, second-hand vehicle transactions, and battery recycling services, while also facilitating the integration of NEVs with clean energy.
With advantages in energy density, safety, and cycle life, all-solid-state batteries are leading a new wave of battery technology innovation. Car manufacturers are accelerating their technology development and production layouts to enhance their competitive edge in electrification. Deng Chenghao, Vice President of Changan Automobile and CEO of Deep Blue Automotive, revealed that Changan’s prototype equipped with all-solid-state batteries will debut this year, with gradual mass production expected by 2027.
Addressing user pain points related to slow charging and accessibility is essential for consolidating and expanding the development advantages of China’s NEV industry. By the end of 2024, the total number of charging facilities in the country reached 12.818 million units, reflecting a year-on-year growth of 49.1%. Approximately 38,000 charging piles have been established at highway service areas, covering 98% of all service areas nationwide.
Li Bin, founder, chairman, and CEO of NIO, stated that the company will continue to invest in its battery swap network. Recently, NIO reached a battery swap cooperation agreement with CATL to collaborate deeply in technology standard formulation and operational network synergy.
Huang Xuenong, Director General of the National Energy Administration, emphasized the need to accelerate technological innovation to build a vibrant industrial landscape, promoting in-depth integration of NEVs with the power grid and facilitating technological advancements across vehicles, charging piles, and power grids. The charging market is still in its early development stage, facing challenges of homogenized competition; therefore, the focus must remain on enhancing service quality and creating a healthy industry ecosystem.
Driving Intelligent Upgrades
“2025 is the year when vehicle intelligence technologies will explode,” said Ouyang Minggao, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Vice Chairman of the China Electric Vehicle 100 Forum. He noted that the DeepSeek model has sparked a wave of interest in large models, with advanced intelligent driving assistance technologies coming to the forefront, marking the beginning of the era of popular smart driving. “Universal smart driving does not equate to universal autonomous driving,” he clarified, as current widespread smart driving mainly features L2+ intelligent navigation assistance.
Recently, several car manufacturers have unveiled their intelligent driving systems. Geely has launched its “Qianli Haohan” intelligent driving system, based on AI “world models.” Changan’s “Beidou Tian Shu 2.0” plan aims to introduce 35 new smart vehicles over the next three years. “Without intelligent driving capabilities, there is no ticket to compete in the future,” stated Gao Rui, Deputy General Manager of GAC Group, highlighting the rapid adoption of high-level intelligent driving features in mainstream models priced between 100,000 and 200,000 yuan.
The automotive industry’s intelligence is entering a new development phase, with the integration of artificial intelligence and the internet deepening as technology evolves. To succeed, cross-industry integration and collaborative innovation are vital.
Computing power supports innovations in autonomous driving and intelligent cockpit scenarios. Li Qiang, Vice President of Alibaba Cloud Intelligent Group and General Manager of the AI Automotive Industry, shared that Alibaba Cloud will provide redundant computing power to car manufacturers, reducing innovation costs.
In terms of intelligent connectivity, Wan Gang, Chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology, emphasized the need to develop a cloud-based computing platform powered by deep artificial intelligence, enabling collaboration between cloud and vehicle systems for embodied intelligence in smart connected vehicles.
The application of intelligent driving extends beyond single-vehicle intelligence to an integrated “vehicle-road-cloud” system, allowing “smart cars” to empower “intelligent roads.” For instance, when navigation is activated, drivers can see the status of the next two traffic lights and real-time conditions for green wave segments. Integrating driving trajectories, navigation information, and real-time traffic signals will lead to a more precise big data navigation system. The Beijing high-level autonomous driving demonstration area has seen improved traffic efficiency through measures such as optimizing connected traffic control.
Wan Gang recommended incorporating intelligent connected infrastructure requirements into urban renewal and construction planning, promoting efficient collaboration among 5G communication, roadside perception, high-precision mapping, and related digital infrastructure.
Qin Haixiang, Deputy Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, stated that the ministry is continuously advancing the synergy between smart city infrastructure and intelligent connected vehicles, developing national standards and technical specifications for urban road intelligent connected infrastructure, and promoting pilot applications for intelligent connected vehicles and “vehicle-road-cloud” integration, continually enriching the application scenarios of intelligent connected vehicles in urban settings.
Currently, 57.3% of new passenger vehicles in China are equipped with L2-level combined assistance driving functions. Xin Guobin indicated that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will expedite the development of a new era of intelligent connected NEV industry development plans, accelerate the industrialization of autonomous driving, promote access and road trial pilots for intelligent connected vehicles, improve the standards system, and conditionally approve the production access for L3-level autonomous driving vehicles, thereby enhancing road traffic safety and refining legal regulations related to insurance.
Enhancing Internationalization
Recently, BMW has collaborated with Huawei and Alibaba to integrate the HarmonyOS vehicle digital ecosystem and apply large language models in intelligent voice interaction. Gao Xiang, President and CEO of BMW Group Greater China, stated that they will focus on cooperation in the fields of intelligent and electric technologies with various Chinese tech partners to achieve win-win collaboration.
As more overseas car companies recognize the importance of localizing their products for the Chinese market, Chinese automakers are also competing on the global stage. Recently, 24 Chinese brands were included in the “2024 Global Automotive Brand Value Top 100” list released by a UK assessment agency. In 2024, China achieved NEV exports of 1.284 million units, contributing positively to the global automotive industry’s electrification transition.
“The paths for Chinese automakers to engage in global development are becoming increasingly diverse,” stated Zhang Yongwei, Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the China Electric Vehicle 100 Forum. From early export trade to current local production overseas, joint ventures, and even empowering overseas partners to co-build industrial ecosystems, Chinese car manufacturers are adopting more innovative and cooperative approaches to go global.
BYD’s first overseas passenger vehicle base has commenced production, accelerating the creation of products with localized brand attributes. Wang Chuanfu, Chairman and President of BYD, commented, “Chinese NEVs, in terms of technology and industrial chain, are at the forefront globally. We should seize this window period to accelerate international development with higher-level green technologies and products.”
The greening of China’s automotive industry holds significant implications for the global economy’s low-carbon transition. Liu Yang, Deputy Director of the Climate Change Department at the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, proposed strengthening international cooperation through open collaboration to promote key technology and model innovations while accelerating the development of carbon footprint accounting standards and foundational data support for NEVs, power batteries, and electric motors.
Currently, the globalization of the automotive industry faces unprecedented challenges. Zhang Yongwei asserted, “Building an interconnected and symbiotic global automotive supply chain system is the foundation for global cooperation.” The next step is to promote mutual recognition and connectivity of the new energy intelligent vehicle service systems and establish a safe, controllable, orderly flow, and mutual trust governance mechanism for automotive data cooperation.
Sheng Qiuping, Deputy Minister of Commerce, stated that efforts should continue to deepen cooperation in automotive industry trade and investment, supporting automotive and parts manufacturing enterprises to enhance international cooperation, establish marketing networks, and after-sales service systems overseas to improve their operational service capabilities abroad.
