The first stock in Physical AI, Momenta officially rings the bell on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, market cap close to 70 billion HKD. Public offering oversubscribed 414 times, international capital such as Singapore Government Investment Corporation, Fidelity International, Oaktree Capital followed the investment. This subscription heat is quite rare in the Hong Kong stock market in recent years.

Many people might not be very familiar with this company yet. Simply put: Momenta was founded in 2016, one of the earliest companies in China to do high-level intelligent assisted driving. You might not have heard its name, but the intelligent driving system in the car you drive is likely the solution provided by Momenta.

How strong is Momenta's industry status? Look at July 8th, nearly 20 automakers applauded its IPO together, you can feel the company's industry recognition is not to be underestimated.

Cumulative deployments exceeded 1 million units, 9 of the top 10 global automakers cooperate, third-party city NOA market share 65%, firmly ranking first in the industry, landed in over 10 countries including Asia, Europe, Oceania, etc.

In the global intelligent driving track, a competitive pattern of FSD, Momenta, and Huawei advancing together has formed. Relying on proprietary underlying technology + deep adaptation to Chinese road conditions, Momenta has become one of the only two Chinese intelligent driving forces with global competitiveness.

But the relationship between Momenta and these OEMs is far more than supplier and customer. SAIC, Mercedes-Benz, BYD have upgraded from customers to shareholders, SAIC, Mercedes-Benz, BYD all appear in the investor list. At the same time, Momenta deeply binds intelligent driving business with SAIC, GAC, the two parties form an industrial community of risk sharing and value sharing, at the technical level even deeper co-creation, cooperation almost covers the whole series of models. This forms a virtuous cycle — automakers use Momenta's solution, make money, and in turn continue to invest in Momenta.

The result is Momenta's revenue tripled in three years, reaching 2.413 billion in 2025, compound growth rate exceeding 80%, gross profit margin rose from 17.5% to 71.6%. CEO Cao Xudong said: The "GPT moment" of Physical AI has arrived. The next decade, what Momenta wants to do is General Physical AI — not just cars, but also Robovan, Robotaxi and robots.

A sample of Chinese AI going global, Momenta is already in the lead.

Author: Shi Ke

Every few years, the automotive industry is declared to be "entering an elimination race". In 2018, they said elimination was coming, in 2020 they said winter was here, in 2022 they said reshuffling started, in 2024 they said they couldn't compete anymore, by 2026, after swapping a batch of executives, someone says again: this time it really enters an elimination race.

Why hasn't this industry been eliminated completely?

Seeing titles like "160+ executive changes" and "densest personnel shake-up in ten years", the first reaction isn't nervousness, it's fatigue. The data is piled up neatly, the conclusions are drawn decisively, reading it feels like an industry report with exclamation marks added. But is the market really that terrible?

Not necessarily.

Change perspective: What if this isn't the apocalypse?

From 2015 to 2018, China's mobile internet also went through a round of "the densest in history" management iteration. BAT collectively "had a blood transfusion", O2O companies were found dead everywhere, shared bicycles lay colorfully on the streets. Back then, the voices depreciating the mobile internet were much louder than the voices depreciating cars now.

So what was the result?

ByteDance "grew" TikTok within that "winter". Pinduoduo found trillion-yuan level opportunities in the downward-tiered markets that no one looked down upon. Meituan climbed out of the sea of blood from the "Thousand Group War" and became a giant in local life. The internet didn't die; instead, it moved from inception to maturity.

The Automotive Industry is Walking the Same Path Now

Over the past 5 years, new energy penetration rate went from 5% to over 60%. That was a wild era, whoever was bold enough could take off. But now penetration passed 60%, the game rules changed. From "whether there is one" to "whether it is good", from "grabbing territory" to "competing in internal power". The people needed now are no longer bold heroes, but professional managers who understand systems, AI, and the global market.

A bunch of companies simultaneously changing executives looks like something is wrong with the industry. Actually, the industry changed, and companies are desperately trying to make themselves match the new battlefield.

This isn't an elimination race. It's just that the rite of passage comes with a bit of pain.

People crying about domestic sales are calculating a confused account - retail sales of passenger cars dropped by nearly 20% in the first 5 months, profit margin was 3.2%, a historical low. The numbers are real, but if you shout "apocalypse" looking only at these numbers, your vision is too narrow.

In 2023, China exported 4.91 million cars, surpassing Japan for the first time to become number one globally. In 2024 it rose to 5.8 million. BYD built factories in Thailand, Brazil, Hungary; Chery went to Spain to acquire factories; SAIC, Great Wall, Geely expanded capacity to all continents globally. Domestic dropped by 20%, overseas rose by nearly 50%. Using the "domestic retail sales" metric alone to sentence the entire industry to death is like using a thermometer for a full-body checkup. You found a fever, but didn't see the person gaining muscle.

Then there's the saying that "370 million units in possession is the ceiling". People who say this have their minds stuck in the fuel vehicle era.

Back then, a car was driven for ten years, so of course it hit the ceiling. But now cars are becoming AI terminals, smart driving capabilities iterate every six months. When cars change from "durables" to "tech consumer goods", replacement cycles will shorten significantly. Possession volume is not a ceiling; it's a huge pool waiting to be reactivated.

The "Price War" Can No Longer Work? Thank Goodness

"The continuous 3-year 'price war' is invalid, low prices can no longer stimulate consumption." This sentence was cited everywhere as evidence of pessimism, but it is actually the best news of 2026.

The "price war" of 2023-2024 pressed industry profit margins to the historical low of 3.2%. What flooded the market during that time? Products just for the sake of being cheap, configurations shrinking, quality declining, safety hazards frequent. Car companies fell into a dead loop of lowering prices to move volume, shrinking profits, and cutting R&D; consumers also didn't gain any advantage. Only after buying did they realize that the little money saved was all spent on car repairs and regret.

But starting in 2025, the market changed.

BYD's cars above 200,000 yuan sell better and better. Huawei AITO M9 average price over 500,000 yuan, monthly sales stably breaking 10,000 units. Xiaomi SU7 exploded upon launch, relying not on low price but on product definition capability. Li Auto, amidst the pain of pure electric transformation, the L series still dominates the niche market.

These enterprises have one thing in common: they are not the cheapest in their respective tracks, but consumers are willing to pay.

To put it plainly, Chinese consumers have matured. Evolved from "buy whoever is cheap" to "buy whoever is good". The "price war" fizzled out because price sensitivity decreased, and value sensitivity increased. This is a huge benefit for companies with real abilities; the days of "bad money driving out good" have finally ended.

Li Auto Lost 12 People, So What?

"Li Auto had 12 core executives resign in half a year" was portrayed repeatedly as a crisis signal, but few people mentioned another matter: Li Auto simultaneously recruited AI algorithm engineers, smart cockpit experts, and autonomous driving architects on a large scale at a faster speed.

12 left, maybe 120 recruited. What is the direction of talent flow? From traditional automotive positions flowing to AI positions. This is not talent drain, it is strategic "blood transfusion".

NIO's logic is the same. Massively poaching cross-industry talent from Huawei, Apple, DJI. Li Bin doesn't want people who know how to build cars better, he wants to turn NIO from a car-building company into an AI-driven mobility tech company. "Changing commanders" is not to save sales, but to equip new teams for the new strategy.

Changan promoted two post-80s vice presidents. The personnel logic of large state-owned enterprises changed. The era of software-defined cars doesn't need experienced "old masters", it needs new managers who can iterate quickly and dare to make mistakes.

BBA deployed headquarters' overseas executives to directly manage the China region, interpreted as "powers consolidating overseas". This interpretation is really a bit funny. If the Chinese market really wasn't working, what did the European headquarters send the strongest lineup for? Retirement? Quite the opposite. In fields like smart cockpits, high-level smart driving, China's innovation speed has already led Europe by one or two steps. BBA upgraded China from "sales market" to "global innovation base". This is "putting out fires", not centralizing power.

What We Should Really Worry About is Not Who Left, but Who Hasn't Arrived

Personnel changes themselves have never been the root of the problem, they are just the appearance. Changing a CEO cannot save a company with bad products, but a good strategy matched with the right people can allow a mediocre company to be reborn.

The biggest risk in the current automotive industry is not that "changing commanders" is too frequent, but that some companies haven't changed thoroughly enough.

Some car companies are still fighting stock wars with incremental era tactics: fighting on price, stacking configurations, competing on parameters, but uniquely not competing on user experience. Some management teams are still holding ten-year-old meetings, making ten-year-old decisions, looking at today's market with ten-year-old eyes. These are what should truly be eliminated.

The "wave of changing commanders" in 2026 eliminates not the industry, but the tactics of the old era. And those companies that first complete organizational iteration, think through the strategy, and assemble the team will become stronger after this round of adjustments.

Winter for the automotive industry hasn't come. It just took off the "old clothes" of the inception period, ready to step into the next decade.

Author | Guo Yue

Editor | Zhi Hao

Production of Chinese cars begins in multiple regions overseas, marking a new milestone for Chinese automakers' global expansion.

In the last three days, Chinese automakers have made new progress in their global expansion: Xpeng Motors just announced that its third local production base globally has officially started production. The first batch of G6s from the EPMB factory located in Malacca, Malaysia, has officially rolled off the assembly line, and production ramp-up has begun.

Xpeng's third local production base globally officially starts production

On June 23, Leapmotor International, a joint venture between Leapmotor Motors and Stellantis, completed the construction of a battery assembly workshop in Malen City, Spain. The planned annual capacity for battery modules is about 65,000 sets, with a maximum expansion potential to 100,000 sets.

On June 22, Chery inaugurated a new production line at the Ebro factory operated through a joint venture with the Spanish Ebro Automotive Group in the Barcelona Free Trade Zone of Spain, further enhancing production capacity.

Almost at the same time, Canadian Federal Minister of Industry Melanie Joly revealed that BYD, Chery, and Geely, the top three Chinese automakers, are actively exploring the possibility of establishing a joint venture passenger vehicle factory in Canada.

From Southeast Asia and Europe to North America, from complete vehicle manufacturing to core three-electric system support, multiple major announcements landed densely within just three days, making the offensive of Chinese automakers going global even stronger.

This is not accidental. According to incomplete statistics from Che Dongxi, 10 mainstream automakers including Dongfeng, BYD, Changan, SAIC, Chery, Xpeng, Great Wall, etc., all have new moves in overseas markets — either building factories locally, establishing joint venture companies, or acquiring overseas automaker production lines, deepening the overseas layout.

Local production is no longer an optional strategy for Chinese automakers going global, but a necessary choice for Chinese car brands to break tariff barriers and deeply cultivate regional markets. A global upheaval from "product output" to "industrial rooting" is fully unfolding.

I. Chinese automakers "buy up" global factories, deepening local layout

Since the beginning of 2026 until now, news of domestic top automakers landing overseas factories has almost never stopped, and the local production layout of Chinese automakers is unfolding at an unprecedented speed.

Among these, Europe has become the core battleground for domestic automakers' recent overseas factory layout, with Chery Group, SAIC Group, and Leapmotor all welcoming new progress in their local layout in Europe this month.

Recent progress in overseas layout by Chinese automakers in the last three months

Multiple foreign media reports stated that Nissan Motors has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Chery. According to the agreement, Nissan's passenger vehicle base in Sunderland, UK, will begin using its Line 1 to contractually produce passenger vehicles for Chery starting from April 2027. Existing models such as Qashqai, Juke, and Leaf will be consolidated into Line 2 for centralized production, while idle production lines will handle Chery's localized manufacturing demands.

Nissan UK Sunderland Factory

On local time June 2, the Galician Regional Government of Spain announced that SAIC Group plans to build its first electric vehicle factory in the EU at the Port of Ferrol, with an initial investment of about 200 million euros (equivalent to about 1.568 billion RMB).

SAIC Group plans to build the EU's first electric vehicle factory

The factory will focus on the production of new energy models. Construction may start next year, operations begin in 2028, and the factory's annual capacity is expected to reach 120,000 units.

In May, the European local layout of Chinese automakers was equally dense.

On May 20, Stellantis and Dongfeng Group announced their cooperation, intending to establish a joint venture in Europe. Stellantis holds 51% and Dongfeng holds 49%. In the announcement, Stellantis Group stated that this joint venture is expected to be responsible for the sales and distribution business of Dongfeng Group's Voyah brand models in designated markets in Europe. Both parties also have intentions to carry out local production of Dongfeng Group's new energy models at Stellantis' Renault factory in Rennes, France.

On May 8, Stellantis also announced an expansion of strategic cooperation with Leapmotor Motors. The two companies plan to carry out capacity sharing at Stellantis Group's factories located in Madrid and Zaragoza, Spain, to comply with "Made in Europe" requirements.

Thus, from contract manufacturing, self-building to joint venture capacity sharing, Chinese automakers are deeply penetrating the European manufacturing heartland through multiple paths.

In addition to the aforementioned announced cooperation, at the end of April this year, according to Reuters citing informed sources, FAW Hongqi may be negotiating with Stellantis, intending to utilize the latter's factory in Spain for local production.

Spanish media "LaTribunadeAutomoción" also reported that Geely may reach an agreement with Ford Motor to acquire the Ford Body 3 assembly line located in Almussafes, Valencia, Spain, and use it for new energy model production.

In addition to accelerating the layout in the European market, the local layout of Chinese automakers in markets such as Southeast Asia, Middle East, Americas, Africa, etc., is also accelerating, with flowers blooming in multiple points.

In the Southeast Asian market, on May 13, Xpeng Motors officially acquired 90.1% of the equity of the EV manufacturing entity EIDO under the listed company PT Sinar Eka Selaras Tbk in Indonesia.

Xpeng acquires equity of Indonesian car factory

The core asset of this acquisition is the EIDO electric vehicle production and assembly factory located in Plakarta, West Java Province, Indonesia. This factory is Xpeng Motors' first overseas production base, adopting the Completely Knocked Down (CKD) model.

In the Middle East market, on April 25, Li Auto signed agreements with two Middle Eastern dealers, Al Fahim Motors in the UAE and Mohamed Yousuf Naghi Motors in Saudi Arabia, declaring the entry of Li Auto L series models into the Middle East market.

Li Auto signs with Middle Eastern dealers

In the Americas market, on March 27, Changan Motors and partner CAOA Group jointly opened a new chapter in Brazil's automotive industry. The highly automated production line located in Anápolis was officially completed and put into production. Changan Motors' Brazil factory's first phase plans to launch 3 models, covering various power forms such as fuel, hybrid, and plug-in hybrid.

Changan Motors Brazil factory officially completed and put into production

In the African market, according to foreign media reports, executives of Great Wall Motor's South Africa company revealed that they are weighing two local production plans in South Africa — either sharing production facilities with other automakers, or acquiring existing factories if conditions permit, and have already started negotiations with Mercedes regarding this.

Looking at a series of cases, the actions of Chinese automakers to land overseas capacity are increasing day by day. A large number of layout projects are moving from the signing agreement stage to the production stage, and the overseas expansion of Chinese cars is advancing at an unprecedented acceleration.

II. Domestic increase faces a ceiling, going global is the inevitable choice for automakers to break the situation

Why do automakers want to accelerate local layout?

The answer points directly to the fierce competition in the domestic automotive market. Currently, the Chinese automotive market has shifted from incremental expansion to stock game.

According to data released by the CPCA, if calculated by broad passenger vehicles, the cumulative retail sales of the national passenger vehicle market reached 7.178 million units in the first five months of this year, down 19.7% year-on-year. During the same period, export sales reached 3.4 million units, soaring 67.7% year-on-year.

Comparison of year-on-year growth rate of national passenger vehicle retail sales and export sales in the first 5 months of this year

When domestic price wars continuously compress automakers' profit margins, overseas markets have become the key direction for automakers to seek incremental growth.

However, going global does not equal simple complete vehicle export. Chinese automakers' complete vehicle export is usually constrained by multiple factors such as transportation costs, tariff policies, and market access.

The biggest challenge Chinese automakers face in going global is often not about selling cars, but about placing capacity overseas.

For this reason, local production is significant for automakers' overseas layout. It is not only an effective path to avoid trade barriers and reduce comprehensive costs, but also the foundation for deeply embedding in regional markets and achieving long-term operations.

Meanwhile, the operational difficulties faced by multiple overseas automaker giants have provided opportunities for Chinese automakers' overseas layout.

In recent years, multiple overseas automakers have been significantly pressured in electrification transformation, showing declining performance one after another.

Stellantis Group's net loss in 2025 reached as high as 22.3 billion euros (equivalent to about 174.8 billion RMB), turning from a net profit of 5.5 billion euros (equivalent to about 43.1 billion RMB) in 2024, for the first time in nearly 5 years falling into annual loss; Nissan's operating profit in the 2025 fiscal year dropped 16.9% to 58 billion yen (equivalent to about 2.4 billion RMB); Mercedes-Benz Group's net profit in the 2025 fiscal year was 5.331 billion euros (equivalent to about 41.8 billion RMB), a year-on-year decrease of 48.8%, setting a new low in nearly 5 years.

Stellantis Group 2025 Performance

Behind the decline in overseas automaker performance is a series of practical problems: falling demand for fuel cars, lengthened investment return cycles for new energy vehicles, and severely insufficient capacity utilization rates for some factories and production lines.

Taking Nissan Sunderland Factory as an example, MarkLines statistical data shows that its actual operating rate in 2025 was only 45.5%, down 8.7 percentage points compared to 2023, and annual output was less than half of the designed capacity. At the same time, idle factories and production lines still need to bear rigid costs such as depreciation, labor, and maintenance, further increasing their financial burden.

Facing profit pressure, multiple overseas automakers are achieving cost reduction by closing factories and reducing capacity — which precisely provides a perfect opportunity for Chinese automakers' local layout.

Compared to the construction cycle of building a factory from scratch taking three to five years, acquiring or renting an existing factory can significantly compress the time for capacity landing. Chinese automakers can complete production layout with lower capital costs and time costs, thereby seizing the market opportunity.

The "retreat" of overseas automakers is, in a sense, becoming an accelerator for Chinese automakers' "advance".

III. Overseas sales surge, era of Chinese car grand navigation arrives

With the acceleration of automakers' local layout, the effectiveness of automakers' global layout is already reflected intuitively in overseas sales data.

Looking at the export sales performance in May, multiple Chinese automakers showed bright overseas sales performance in May 2026.

Three Chinese automotive groups broke through 100,000 units in export sales in May, with Chery Group exporting 182,000 units, up 81% year-on-year. BYD's overseas sales in May were 160,000 units, up 81% year-on-year, creating a new monthly record for overseas sales. SAIC Group exported 129,500 units in May, up 32% year-on-year.

Summary of export sales and total sales of some domestic automakers in May 2026

In addition, Geely and GAC's overseas sales doubled, exporting 85,000 units and 28,000 units in May respectively, up 184% and 140% year-on-year.

It can be seen that the monthly overseas sales of top automakers have stabilized at the hundred-thousand level or even reaching the two-hundred-thousand level, and going global is moving from "testing the waters" to "volume release" stage.

And looking at the cumulative export data performance in the first five months of this year, this growth trend is even clearer: overseas sales of six automakers — BYD, SAIC, Chery, Geely, Great Wall, and Changan — have all climbed.

Summary of export sales and export annual sales target achievement of some domestic automakers in the first five months of this year

Among them, Chery Group's cumulative export in the first five months of this year reached 753,000 units, up 70% year-on-year, a net increase of 309,000 units compared to the same period last year. Its increment ranks first among the six automakers.

During the same period, BYD followed closely with an increment of 243,000 units. Cumulative export in the first five months of this year reached 617,000 units, up 65% year-on-year.

The overseas sales target set by BYD at the beginning of this year is 1.5 million units for 2026. In the first five months of this year, 41% has been completed.

Recently, BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu revealed at the annual shareholders' meeting that it is expected that overseas sales this year will exceed the original target, releasing a clear signal of acceleration in going global.

Geely's cumulative overseas sales reached 371,000 units in the first five months of this year, up 158% year-on-year. With the fastest growth rate among these 6 automakers, Geely's export sales target this year is 640,000 units, with 58% achieved in the first five months of this year.

SAIC, Changan, and Great Wall's export sales reached 589,000 units, 299,000 units, and 231,000 units respectively in the first five months of this year, up 46%, 21%, and 47% year-on-year. Growth is stable, with export annual sales targets achieved at 39%, 40%, and 39% respectively.

Whether single-month export sales or cumulative export sales, Chinese automakers' overseas sales show the characteristics of continuous, stable, and high growth.

It can be foreseen that in the second half of the year, the investment of major Chinese automakers in building factories overseas, channel expansion, and supply chain localization will continue to be increased, and the pace of going global will be further accelerated. Chinese cars are moving comprehensively from "product output" to "industrial rooting", and the competition of the era of grand navigation has just begun.

Conclusion: Chinese automakers accelerate overseas landing

From building factories overseas, acquiring factories to leasing production lines, Chinese automakers' local layout is blooming in multiple points and accelerating landing.

Those who can integrate overseas capacity in the fastest speed, integrate into regional supply chains, and seize local market shares will be able to occupy the initiative in the next stage of global competition.

This is not only a challenge, but also a necessary path for Chinese automobiles to go from large to strong.

From "complete vehicle export" to "technology output + local production", from "going out" to "going in", the curtain of the era of Chinese car grand navigation has been lifted, and the real journey has just begun.

At the beginning of June, all car companies announced their May sales data. Since entering the second quarter of 2026, sales for each brand have generally been steadily increasing.

It is still the familiar two giants, BYD and Geely. May sales figures were respectively383,453 units and237,637 units.But in my personal opinion, their export data is even more worth our attention.

First, looking at BYD's part, in May their passenger cars and pickupsold 160,177 units overseas, an increase of 80.7% year-on-year; cumulative sales from January to May reached 614,470 units.

Geely similarly performed excellently,May overseas export sales volume was 85,144 units, a year-on-year growth of 184%.

Actually, many readers should know, BYD's 'ATTO 3' which is the overseas version of the Yuan PLUS, and their pickup model 'BYD SHARK' sold quite well overseas.

But in fact, BYD sells more than just these products overseas, and BYD's big weapon 'Flash Charging Technology' is also still in the initial layout stage overseas.

They plan to scale up about 6,000 megawatt flash charging stations overseas by the end of 2026, simultaneously exporting flash charging models equipped with second-generation Blade Batteries.

As for Geely, their premium brand Zeekr has recently been shining overseas, not only is Zeekr 9X very popular in the Middle East market, but the video of 'Zeekr 8X Beating Ferrari' is also widely circulated on the foreign internet.

Including in some lower-tier markets, models like Emgrand, Xing Yuan are also opening up recognition, Chinese car exports can be said to be welcoming a new stage.

According to data released by CPCA,in 2025 China's car exports reached 8.32 million units, a year-on-year growth of 30%; new energy vehicle exports in 2025 totaled 3.43 million units, a year-on-year growth of 70%.

Time has come to 2026, January to March China's car exports reached 2.34 million units, year-on-year growth of 53% compared to the same period in 2025. Combining this data and the current situation, see,I think China's car export volume in 2026 is expected to break through 10 million units.

Everyone says the economy is bad now and no money to buy cars, so why are car companies constantly launching new cars? Yes, one important reason is that Chinese car export business is growing rapidly.

Although the domestic car market has already tended towards saturation, the overseas market is still very vast, and Chinese cars are very competitive.

From CPCA's Cui Dongshu's article we can see, Chinese cars are exported in large quantities to countries such as Russia, Brazil and Mexico, and like the UK, Belgium and Italy in Europe, are also important export regions for Chinese cars.

Besides new cars, exporting used cars is also a big trend.

Domestically, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles long exceeded 50%, but it is not so overseas. In recent one or two years, while domestic consumers use replacement subsidies to buy new cars, a large number of fuel cars flowed into the used car market.

But the market cannot timely digest this part of inventory, therefore many used car merchants chose to export some 'Global Models' with relatively good condition to overseas, especially Asian, African, and Latin American countries, they have a huge demand for such products.

It is not hard to see, in the long term in the future, Chinese car exports will be a very big trend. If friends are interested, they might try to enter this industry, maybe there will be good development prospects.

So how are the major car companies laying out? If friends pay attention to this side should know, new force car companies actually attach great importance to export business.

Take the familiar 'NIO, XPeng, and Li Auto' as an example, NIO had already laid out the overseas market as early as 2021, and also built charging swap stations in parts of Europe and the Middle East.

But NIO's current main focus is still on consolidating the domestic market. Indeed NIO just recently 'got better', there is not enough financial strength and energy to cope with overseas challenges, so NIO's going global speed slowed down in 2026.

But with the help of ES8 and ES9, NIO basically passed the most difficult moment. I think it is time for them to work harder on new car going overseas.A car like Firefly is very suitable for the European market, at the same time, it is already being sold overseas, I think more can be done with it.

And XPeng Motor, for example, 2025 delivered over 45,000 new cars overseas, business covering 60 countries and regions globally.

At the same time, they have also set up 3 production bases overseas, to cope with challenges in tariffs and manufacturing costs. As early as July 2025, the Indonesia base was completed and started production; September Graz, Austria factory started European localization production; December Malaysia base was also completed.

Even they set such a grand goal as 'achieving half of sales from overseas by 2033', believe XPeng has the opportunity and ability to complete it.

But among new force brands, the one with the biggest potential I think is still Leapmotor.

Nowadays Leapmotor in the domestic market can be said to be on a strong trend, continuously gaining the title of sales champion among new force car companies,and in the overseas market it relies on Stellantis Group's sales network, at extremely cost-effective prices achieved good results in the European market.

2025 Leapmotor export volume reached 67,052 units, and in 2026 I think this data is expected to improve further, after all, if they want to achieve the goal of 'millions of annual sales', overseas market naturally cannot be ignored.

Of course, there are also some new force car companies whose export business started relatively slowly.

For example, Li Auto officially started export business only in 2025, but their products were sold overseas via 'parallel export' very early, and also received good reviews.

For example, Xiaomi Motor which sold very well domestically, plans to start export business only in 2027, but according to Xiaomi Tech's layout and influence overseas, I think Xiaomi Motor also has the opportunity to sell hotly.

However, the continuous increase of Chinese car export volume is not entirely the credit of 'Chinese brands', many joint venture brands' models produced in China exported overseas also counts as Chinese car export.

This includes products produced by Tesla China factory, and models from brands under SAIC like MG, Chevrolet, etc.Some joint venture brands' products may not be welcome domestically, but placed in the overseas market that is a 'blockbuster'.

This also explains why some brands' presence domestically is not quite high, but when statistics sales data is not considered bad.

Overall, the increase in Chinese car export volume is very beneficial for promoting economic circulation, can promote the inflow of foreign exchange, provide support for reviving the economy.

And independent brand car companies should also attach more importance to export business, only then can they open up a larger market.So which car company is the biggest winner now? I think some readers should be able to guess, it is Chery Motor.

May 2026, Chery Group sold 247,823 cars, year-on-year increase of 20.5%. Among them, group new car exports were 181,871 units, year-on-year growth of 80.5%, and broke Chinese car single-month export record for three consecutive months.

In the full year of 2025, Chery Motor exported new cars totaling 1,344,020 units, a year-on-year growth of 17.4%; cumulative car exports 5.85 million units, ranked first in Chinese brand passenger car exports for 23 consecutive years.

Although I often criticize Chery's product sequence is chaotic, it is precisely the sufficiently rich product sequence that allows Chery to do well in different countries, plus early layout, let Chery Group become the unquestionable 'Chinese Brand Car Company Export No. 1'.

Nowadays the iteration speed of new cars has become incredibly fast, many friends might think 'Why are there so many people wanting to buy cars'? But after understanding this car export matter, everyone should have a new understanding.

Car companies releasing new cars is not just for the domestic market, it is also a layout for overseas business.

The domestic new car market indeed has already tended towards saturation, but if we look further and wider, from a global perspective, isn't the market very vast?

Everyone can perceive that now is no longer the period of economic upward trend, in the situation where the real estate industry has cooled down, we need a new pillar industry.

For the domestic market, the automotive consumption industry is the choice made by the 'Invisible Hand'. So in your opinion, will car export business be a new trend?

((The above content represents only personal opinion))

When the narrative of sheer scale in the Chinese New Energy Passenger Car Market is no longer persuasive, a more severe question arises: Where lies the value foundation of the industry?

Looking at the sales data for April alone, it seems everything is "growing upwards": The retail penetration rate of Chinese new energy vehicles historically broke through 60%, reaching 61.4%, meaning for every 10 new cars sold, more than 6 are new energy vehicles.

However, a set of less-than-ideal data echoed in the industry at the same time: In 2025, domestic car sales exceeded 34.4 million units, but the overall profit margin of China's automotive industry during the same period was only 4.1%.

"It looks like scale is growing, but the industry's overall health faces challenges." Wang Hui, Vice President of Avatr Technology, cited data from the CPCA, and in January-February 2026, this figure dropped further to 2.9%.

The latest data shared by Cui Dongshu, Secretary-General of the CPCA Passenger Car Section, shows that in January-March 2026, the automotive industry's profit margin fell to 3.2%, at a low level for the same period in recent years. The automotive industry's profit margin is not only significantly lower than the average profit margin of national industrial enterprises above designated size, but it is also approaching the break-even point for operations for the vast majority of vehicle manufacturers.

When a penetration rate of 61.4% collides with a profit margin of 2.9%, it forms a very fractured industrial landscape: China's automotive industry is speeding ahead on the road of "getting bigger", but is stumbling on the road of "getting stronger".

At the Shenzhen 2026 (4th) Future Automotive Pioneer Conference, these "pioneers" gave some answers and posed deeper questions.

Image Source: Future Automotive Pioneer Conference

Sales Are Rising, Profits Are Falling?

Since 2026, China's automotive market has presented a seemingly contradictory yet established picture.

On one hand, the surge of new energy vehicles is unstoppable. Data from the CPCA Passenger Car Section shows that in April 2026, domestic new energy passenger car retail reached 849,000 units, the penetration rate historically broke through 60%, reaching 61.4%, an increase of 9.7 percentage points compared to the same period in 2025, setting a historical record for monthly penetration in the domestic car market.

Among these, the performance of independent brands was particularly eye-catching. In April, the new energy penetration rate within independent brands reached 80.1%, while the new energy penetration rate among luxury vehicles was only 26.1%. Chinese brands already hold a dominant position in the new energy market.

On the other hand, profit margins for vehicle manufacturers are being compressed sharply. From 4.1% in 2025 to 2.9% in the first two months of 2026, this downward curve is concerning.

Just looking at the absolute value of profit, the total profit of the automotive industry in January-March 2026 was 78.4 billion yuan, a 18% year-over-year decrease. Facing this figure, Wang Hui's remarks at the conference appeared particularly sharp: "Sales without profit are fake sales; scale achieved through price wars is even more of a false prosperity."

Image Source: Future Automotive Pioneer Conference

"Selling more while losing more" has turned from a joke into a ruthless reality.

Investigating the reasons, large-scale "price wars" are undoubtedly the most direct catalyst.

Since 2025, the industry has seen the slogan "Electricity is cheaper than fuel", followed by various companies catching up. Lowering prices is no longer news. But the more fundamental problem is that when all car manufacturers have high convergence in technical routes and product configurations: 800V high-voltage platforms, AI voice large models, and end-to-end intelligent driving become standard configurations, price becomes the only differentiated competitive means, and profits are eroded layer by layer.

Xu Jun, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Leapmotor, analyzed: "A range of 700 kilometers versus 1000 kilometers, user perception difference approaches zero, yet costs rise exponentially. Compute power from 30 TOPS to 1000 TOPS, experience difference is far smaller than parameters."

Image Source: Future Automotive Pioneer Conference

He therefore believes that specs so far are just a basic entry ticket, not the deciding factor.

Behind Xu Jun's viewpoint is a trend worth reflection: When automotive technology enters a "convergence period", the architecture of centralized computing + regional controllers is converging, end-to-end intelligent driving solutions are becoming identical, and AI solutions for smart cockpits are becoming increasingly similar, making it increasingly difficult to build differentiated competitiveness relying on technical parameters.

The weight of brand attention in user purchase decisions is rising significantly.

Nio Founder Li Bin revealed the latest research data from McKinsey: One or two years ago, brand was only ranked fifth among purchase decision factors, now it has jumped to second, "believes it will soon enter the top spot".

Image Source: Future Automotive Pioneer Conference

When brands begin to become the "deciding factor", China's automotive industry's technological dividend is quickly turning into brand dividends, while brand reconstruction and construction are far more difficult and test fortitude more than stacking parameters.

Who is Trying to Break the Negative Growth Curse?

Against the background of declining industry profit margins, not all enterprises have fallen into the mud of "revenue growth without profit growth".

At this conference, a few "dark horses" used solid data to prove a possibility: Chinese brands can not only sell at higher prices, but also make profits back.

Xing Xinchu, Chairman of Jianghuai Automobile Group, disclosed in his speech that since Maextro S800 launched in May 2025, cumulative deliveries have exceeded 18,500 units, ranking first in luxury sedan sales above 700,000 yuan for 8 consecutive months.

Image Source: Future Automotive Pioneer Conference

From the perspective of price segments, million-level Chinese luxury cars surpassing century-old luxury brands was almost unimaginable five years ago.

Xing Xinchu attributed this to the path choice of "redefining luxury with technology": "The Maextro brand is not simply copying the development path of traditional luxury cars, but rewriting the narrative paradigm of ultra-luxury car brands with technological innovation."

Nio represents another path worth examining.

On June 1st, Nio announced the latest delivery data: Deliveries in May totaled 37,705 units, a significant year-over-year increase of 62.3%, and a month-over-month increase of 28.4%, setting a new record for single-month deliveries in the brand's history.

The main brand "Nio" delivered 20,013 units, a 50.8% year-over-year increase; the brand "Onvo" positioning the family market performed particularly well, delivering 12,029 units, a 91.5% year-over-year surge, and a month-over-month increase of up to 124.8%; the new brand "Firefly" delivered 5,663 units, a 53.9% year-over-year increase.

From January to May this year, Nio's cumulative new car deliveries have reached 150,526 units, a 68.7% year-over-year increase. At this point, Nio's historical cumulative deliveries officially broke through the 1.14 million mark, reaching 1,148,118 units.

Regarding financial reports, in Q1 this year, Nio's total revenue was 25.53 billion yuan, a 112.2% year-over-year increase, exceeding the revenue guidance upper limit of 24.48 billion to 25.18 billion yuan previously given by the company; total gross profit was 4.86 billion yuan, a 428.4% year-over-year significant increase; the company's comprehensive gross margin reached 19.0%, the highest in four years. Vehicle gross margin was 18.8%, growing quarter-over-quarter for four consecutive quarters, also the highest in four years. Other sales gross margin was 20.6%, also the best level in four years.

Regarding net loss, Q1 net loss narrowed to 332.1 million yuan, significantly narrowing from the net loss of 6.75 billion yuan at the same period last year. As of the end of Q1, Nio's cash reserves increased to 48.2 billion yuan, achieving positive operating cash flow for three consecutive quarters.

In Q1 2026, Nio brand's average transaction price reached 390,000 yuan, 50,000 yuan higher than BMW and 130,000 yuan higher than Audi.

Behind this price difference is a qualitative change in brand premium capability.

No less coincidentally, data shows that the average transaction price of the HIMA全系 series vehicles has remained stable at 390,000 yuan, ranking first in the average transaction price of Chinese car brands for several consecutive months, with performance in some periods surpassing traditional luxury brands.

In segmented brands, the AITO brand's average transaction price reached as high as 409,000 yuan, flagship model AITO M9 cumulative deliveries exceeded 280,000 units, ranking first in 500,000-level luxury SUV sales for 21 consecutive months. The Maextro brand positioning the ultra-luxury market also performed strongly, the first model Maextro S800 price range 708,000 - 1,018,000 yuan, deliveries exceeded 17,000 units in 11 months since launch, ranking first in ultra-luxury sedans above 700,000 yuan for 8 consecutive months, single-month sales even exceeding the total sales of multiple traditional top luxury sedans.

Image Source: Future Automotive Pioneer Conference

The logic behind these brands rising against the trend in price wars is not accidental: First, deep understanding of user value rather than simple spec stacking, second, extreme investment in new technologies forming tech premiums, third, forming systemic capabilities in manufacturing, supply chain, and quality, fourth, deep synergy with partners like Huawei forming technological leadership.

However, analyzing the financial performance of the above brands more deeply, a thought-provoking question emerges: Will the existence of these high-price, high-profit brands change the trend of the automotive industry's profit margin overall?

The answer may not be optimistic. Although Maextro S800, Nio ES8/ES9, and AITO M9 have achieved impressive results in their respective price segments, their share of overall industry sales remains limited.

In other words, the "local breakthrough" of high-endization has not yet reversed the "overall predicament" of the entire industry.

For most independent brands, the average car price is still below 150,000 yuan, and the main battlefield of price wars continues intensely in the mid-to-low-end market.

When most players are still struggling at the loss line, a few successful high-end brands cannot support the entire industry's profitability level.

The true test of China's automotive industry moving "from big to strong" is not whether it can produce one or two products that can rival the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, but whether it can achieve high-quality value creation universally across all categories and price segments.

Mercedes-Benz Sales in China Dropped 27%, Can Chinese Cars Smile Overseas?

When the smoke of price wars rises and falls in the domestic market, the overseas market is becoming China's new "second battlefield" for the next round of competition.

At this conference, multiple guests elaborated in-depth on the strategic layout and direction of China's automotive globalization. If domestic competition is about fierce struggle in the existing stock market, then global competition is a long-term bet on the incremental market.

Avatr's globalization practice provides a highly representative sample.

Wang Hui disclosed in the speech that Avatr has entered more than 40 countries and regions. Avatr 11's starting price in China is about 290,000 yuan, but overseas it is close to 450,000 yuan.

"In Thailand, we firmly hold the #1 spot in luxury electric SUV sales, and in Dubai we occupy 10% of the local high-end electric vehicle market share." Wang Hui said, "At the end of this year, we will officially enter Europe. Although we have been in overseas markets for about a year and a half, we have already achieved stable profitability. So future globalization is something that must be done."

Wang Hui also revealed the brand strategy of sponsoring the Portugal national team in the interview session. He stated that Avatr's main products in Europe will fully enter Europe in November and December. He will go to Europe to communicate with partners in multiple countries. "Sponsoring the Portugal national team is just one of our actions at the Europe brand level. What we adhere to in Europe including globally is long-termism. Besides the brand side and product side, greater resource investment is in the service side, system side, and construction of operational capabilities."

Geely's globalization layout is more macroscopic and systematic.

Geely Automobile Group Vice President Li Chuanghai pointed out that the "most essential thing about China's automotive globalization is not low-price volume, but technology as the root, system as the foundation, brand as the soul, ultimately completing globalization from selling cars to defining the future of cars".

Image Source: Future Automotive Pioneer Conference

He introduced that Geely has operated globalization business for 20 years, owning 5 R&D centers, 16 test bases, with deep integration of local partners in Europe, Southeast Asia, Middle East, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Geely has participated in co-building international standards and is the first Asian car manufacturer in IATF with board voting rights.

In the dimension of car exports, data from April 2026 also provides an important reference.

In April 2026, car exports reached 901,000 units, a 74.4% year-over-year increase, among which new energy vehicle exports increased by more than double year-over-year, reaching 430,000 units. The overseas market has become the most important incremental engine for China's automotive industry.

However, while export growth is gratifying, a comparative data worth examining is: In Q1 2026, Mercedes-Benz Group sales in China were 111,600 units, a 26.9% year-over-year decrease, becoming the region with the most significant decline among its major global markets. Meanwhile, financial reports showed Mercedes-Benz Q1 revenue was 31.602 billion euros, a 4.9% year-over-year decrease; net profit was 1.433 billion euros, a 17.2% decrease; global sales were 499,700 units, a 6% year-over-year decrease.

This set of numbers reflects both the challenges Mercedes-Benz encountered in the China market, and poses a question: When Chinese brands take root in the overseas market, in what posture will they face global competition?

Chinese cars are replicating the dilemma BBA faced in China's domestic market: When local brands continuously conquer territory through technological advantages and high cost-performance ratios, powerful international brands may also encounter strong counterattacks from local brands in other markets.

When Mercedes-Benz China Senior R&D Executive VP Drummond Jacoy was asked how he views China's new luxury brands, his answer was cautious yet with a hint of urgency: "China has many very excellent brands and products, I respect them very much. We are vigorously embracing technological innovation, continuously learning, and blending cutting-edge technology with brand accumulation."

Image Source: Future Automotive Pioneer Conference

He particularly emphasized that Mercedes-Benz has already carried out deep cooperation with Chinese tech companies in China, from ByteDance and Tencent to Momenta, from Amap to Spark, Mercedes-Benz is trying to narrow the intelligent technology gap with China's local enterprises in unprecedented ways.

This just reveals the new trend of global competition: The battlefield has expanded from China's domestic market to the global market, and the core focus of competition has evolved from single-product competition to all-round competition covering technology, ecosystem, supply chain, and brand.

In Li Chuanghai's words: "Going out is not difficult, standing firm, integrating, and taking root is the real skill."

True globalization is by no means simply copying domestic products and price models overseas, but achieving deep and comprehensive integration from capital to technology, from standards to supply chain.

Leapmotor's strategic layout also echoes this judgment. Leapmotor Founder Zhu Jiangming once publicly disclosed Leapmotor's globalization goals. Zhu Jiangming believes the first step is to achieve a "40-60 split", China accounting for 60%, overseas accounting for 40%; next, strive for a "50-50 split"; the most ideal state is "reverse 40-60". If China's automotive global share can achieve 40% domestic and 60% overseas, that is the best state of true globalization.

From "selling products" to "building systems", this is the threshold China's automotive globalization must cross. In the next three to five years, whoever can first form a viable and sustainable profit model in the overseas market will seize the initiative in the long-term race of globalization.

Conclusion: Car Manufacturers Must Make Money

Back to this conference's theme — "Climbing Steps".

China's automotive industry has completed a leap from catching up to leading in 20 years. There are no short cuts on this road, every step is trodden out. But today, China's automotive industry faces an awkward dilemma: Its achievements in volume have reached the peak, global largest car producer, global largest new energy market, globally leading intelligent technology cluster, but breakthroughs in quality are only just beginning to show signs in local areas.

Industry profit margins dropping through 3.2% means the red light for industry health has already lit up.

When most enterprises have exhausted profits in price wars, who will still have enough funds to invest in R&D for next-gen technology, brand reconstruction, and globalization expansion?

From Wang Hui's "Sales without profit are fake sales", to Xu Jun's "Everyone can lower prices, cutting costs is the real skill", to Li Chuanghai's "Keeping direction in the no-man's land", the most valuable consensus of this conference might just be this common sense as simple as it is: The competition of the automotive industry is a war of attrition, not a blitzkrieg.

As Xing Xinchu said: "On the road of breakthrough in high-endization of Chinese brands, there are no lone heroes, only symbiotic evolution."

When the penetration rate of 61.4% and the profit margin of 3.2% are written on this page of the industrial picture at the same time, the answer is already clear enough: China's automotive industry must move from pursuing "getting bigger" to a new stage of "getting stronger".

The issue is not whether it can sell cars to the million-level, but when the price war burns out the last bit of profit, whether the entire industry can still stand steadily on every step of "Climbing Steps".

May 28, 2026, the World Living Room of the North Bund in Shanghai. In the live broadcast lens of Dragon TV, there were no lengthy speeches by leaders, but rather a "Global Relay Delivery" spanning across Asia and Europe, connecting multiple cities globally.

SAIC Group welcomed its first 100 millionth global user, officially becoming the first automotive group in the history of China's automotive industry to accumulate production and sales exceeding 100 million vehicles.

15 brands, counting down from the 99,999,996th vehicle to the 100,000,012th vehicle, 18 models were delivered synchronously in Shanghai, Liuzhou, Anting, London, Jakarta, and Singapore.

This is not only a milestone for an enterprise, but also a vivid footnote to China's automotive industry developing from scratch and from weak to strong.

In May 2014, SAIC actively implemented the instruction that "developing new energy vehicles is the only path for China to move from a large automotive country to a strong automotive country" and fully transitioned to new energy.

Twelve years later, SAIC completed the transition from "leading the way" with early transformation to "thousands of horses galloping" with brands, technology, ecosystem, and global reach blossoming, all through this 100 million delivery.

If you tear off all those hollow PR words and focus on the diverse owner profiles at the car delivery ceremony, some even spanning extreme geographical regions, you will find that the true smart-electric mass production capability and systemic power of a big factory lie precisely in these votes by different circles using their feet.

True International Natives

True internationalization has never been about holding a temporary press conference overseas or inviting a few Chinese media outlets, but about your product truly integrating into the lives of ordinary overseas people. Among the military merit medals of SAIC's 100 million deliveries, cumulative overseas deliveries have exceeded 7 million units.

At the delivery site in London, intern doctor Natalia picked up an MG4 EV. For her, this is not just an urban commuter pure electric small car. Her growth path has always had MG company, and her grandfather drove a classic British convertible MGB back then.

MG represents a new chapter in the global expansion of Chinese automakers. This brand, once born in the UK and possessing a century of history, after being wholly owned by SAIC Group, has multiple years consecutively topped European sales among Chinese brands.

At the same time, in Jakarta, the core winger of the Indonesian National Men's Football Team, the "genius boy" Eg who studied in Europe for five years, chose Wuling's 7-seater SUV Eksion produced locally in Indonesia, perfectly adapting to Indonesian local spatial and comfort needs, as the travel partner for himself and his family.

Behind this global multi-time-zone, multi-city relay delivery is SAIC's deployment of over 100 parts bases, 3 R&D centers, and 4 overseas manufacturing centers overseas. Even to avoid being strangled by international logistics capacity, SAIC also formed a self-operated RoRo fleet with a scale of 41 ships covering routes globally.

This "Age of Discovery" throughput of "Glocal" local globalization allows overseas car buyers, when purchasing, not to buy a distant imported symbol, but a reliable product supported by a local R&D layout and a local systemic ecosystem.

Efficiency Tool for Wealth Creators.

Those focusing on new forces of car making in middle-class private cars will find it hard to understand why SAIC's delivery list would simultaneously include a large number of commercial light trucks, logistics vehicles, and buses.

In Singapore, DHL (Dunhuang) Senior Vice President Herbert picked up a batch of MAXUS eDeliver 5 pure electric light trucks to cope with high-density, high-frequency urban last-mile delivery and cross-border parcel transfer;

In Taiyuan, Shanxi, Henglongsheng Industrial and Trade General Manager Zhang Yanbin purchased 56 Hongyan new energy heavy trucks again, working frequently in the most severe and labor-demanding mixing stations and urban infrastructure projects;

In Yangzhou, Jiangsu, Top Land Senior Vice President Yuan Guo batch-delivered nearly 10,000 Feifeng Dana T1 pure electric light trucks;

In Henan, Zhonglian Tourist Automobile General Manager Wang Xiaobing purchased Iveco Joy Star EV in one breath, used to run the high-density mountain road custom shuttle route from Luoyang to Laojun Mountain.

When the car circle is flocking to compete in TVs, refrigerators, and big sofas, these strivers walking on the front lines of infrastructure, culture, tourism, and logistics care most about availability rate, quality bottom line, and energy consumption cost. MAXUS light trucks can reduce cost per kilometer to as low as 5 cents under the city distribution model; Hongyan new energy can withstand extreme working conditions in mountainous slope operation environments.

This is the counter-cyclical structural advantage possessed only by big factories with "Full Scenario, Full Category Coverage". The essence of systemic power is that it can not only build the IM LS9 Hyper to fly close to the ground for the elite class at the 300,000 yuan level luxury electric car, but also build the smart electric tool car running in the urban logistics backbone network to help ordinary people efficiently create wealth.

Without a doubt, such a three-dimensional product matrix cannot be bought for even a lot of money by single-track lane players.

Reject High-Price Monopoly

Frontier smart-electric technology should not just be exclusive high-price toys for the rich.

In this delivery, the most touching story comes from Pang Fuqiang, a post-80s village party secretary in Lantian, Shaanxi. He personally pays every day to provide door-to-door meal delivery service costing 2 yuan per meal for 74 left-behind elderly people in the mountains. Because the delivery routes are scattered and road conditions are dispersed, the tricycle he drove before had small loading capacity and no safety guarantee.

In this activity, he was gifted a Wuling Rongguang Pure Electric Version. The 4.3 cubic meter large space, Shenyan Battery Commercial Version, and collision zero spontaneous combustion safety record became his helper to protect mountain elderly more quickly and safely.

And in Dahua Yao Autonomous County, Hechi, Guangxi, charity blogger Liu Jia drove back and forth through towering mountains for five consecutive years rain or shine to give haircuts and companionship to left-behind children. The Buick ZhiJing E7 he picked up, equipped with eye-protection ceiling lights and zero formaldehyde cabins, became the "full score cabin" for the children in the mountains.

Why can ordinary people and grassroots strivers enjoy the most cutting-edge and reliable technology?

The answer is still the scale effect and technology mass production brought by the system.

Because SAIC owns a full technology route, full price range product layout, it can use the integration capability of the supply chain to smash the Qualcomm 8155 chip and Doubao Deep Thinking Large Model into the 60,000 yuan national family sedan Roewe i6;

Turn Huawei Qiankun Intelligent Driving Pro and HarmonyOS Cockpit into standard configuration across the line for the 150,000 yuan Wuling Huajing S, directly breaking the strong binding between high-level intelligence and high price.

Quickly realize mass production of top technology in the laboratory, downgrade, turn into a delivery car in the mountains, turn into a smart vehicle not lagging in a tens-of-thousands yuan fuel car, let technology empowerment, this is the unique, cutting-edge underlying hard power of car company big factories.

99,999,999th Car Owner

The 99,999,999th vehicle delivered by SAIC Group globally is the SAIC Volkswagen ID. ERA 9X.

This delivery also welcomed the 6,999th car owner of ID. ERA 9X. As the World Cup is about to start, the first Chinese player to fight in the Bundesliga, Yang Chen, became the 6,999th owner of ID. ERA 9X, jointly witnessing SAIC Group's cumulative production and sales entering the "100 Million Level Era".

Deeply integrating "German heritage + Chinese wisdom", ID. ERA 9X broke 10,000 locked orders within 1 hour of launch, and retail delivery reached 2,326 units just 5 days after launch, and in April it forcefully ranked in the top 3 of extended-range large high-end SUVs.

Now, just one month after launch, cumulative delivery exceeded 7,000 vehicles, further confirming its user recognition and product competitiveness in the high-end extended-range market. This achievement stems from SAIC Volkswagen's 42 years of deep cultivation in the Chinese market, and is more the fusion empowerment of the "In China, For China" strategy and "Global Wisdom + Chinese Speed".

This milestone delivery is both an important node for SAIC Group to move towards 100 million global cumulative production and sales, and a solid mark of SAIC Volkswagen's deep cultivation in the new energy track.

"100 Million Units" Is Not a Solo Act

"100 Million Units" has never been a solo act for SAIC alone, but the result of these 100 million car owners with vastly different identities, located in different time zones, voting with their feet on their respective life tracks.

Cao Xudong, CEO of a top intelligent driving enterprise, picking up the IM LS9 Hyper in Shanghai, stepping on the gas pedal in London streets by British intern doctor Natalia, the passenger car driver picking up waves of tourists at Luoyang scenic spots, and village party secretary Pang Fuqiang driving an electric car in the mountains of Lantian, Shaanxi to deliver meals for left-behind elderly...

They have different professions, skin colors, and budgets, but what they experience in intelligence, quality, and peace of mind at the moment they buy the car keys, shares at the bottom level, is the same huge, cutting-edge, and omnipresent smart electric big factory mass production system.

100 million vehicles is not the end point, but the starting line for this big factory smart electric mass production beast to accelerate transformation into a user-centric high-tech company. The system story of Chinese intelligence, in this global relay delivery season, has just turned a new chapter.

With the comprehensive deepening of electrification and intelligence, mainstream automotive supply chain companies are beginning to step from behind the scenes to the forefront, achieving role transition in the process of major changes in the automotive industry and reconstruction of the automotive ecosystem, rather than being limited to suppliers of car companies in the past. The underlying logic of their "rise" is to leverage the new tracks of electrification and intelligence to achieve a paradigm shift in technology, reach a technology premium, become joint definers and equal participants of the underlying technology stack of new cars with automakers, and thus achieve a brand premium, with influence directly reaching the consumer end. Automotive supply chain companies are welcoming a strategic development opportunity for comprehensive advancement.

Aiming at the advancement of supply chain companies, "Auto Panorama" specially produced this issue's "Cover Story" special report.

Currently, the new energy industry stands at a new historical node. In this historical process where the energy revolution and the technological revolution intersect, and reality and the future overlap, CATL has always been answering a question with action: How to build deterministic long-term value in an uncertain world?

CATL's financial report shows that its revenue in 2025 reached a high of 423.702 billion yuan, with net profit of 72.201 billion yuan, and global market share reached 39.2%. It has ranked first globally in power battery usage for 9 consecutive years. Of note, this supply chain company located upstream of vehicle manufacturing saw its net profit last year exceed the total profit of 13 mainstream listed automakers. The joke that "car companies work for King Ning" seems to have come into reality.

Behind this phenomenon lies CATL's influence on mainstream automakers globally. And the starting point of all this is the core status of power batteries in the new energy vehicle industry—power batteries account for about 40% of the cost of the entire vehicle and are undoubtedly the "heart" of new energy vehicles. For automakers, stable and reliable battery supply has long evolved from a basic guaranteed demand into a core strategic demand concerning product competitiveness and long-term development; for CATL, how to transform "top customers" into "strategic allies" is also a key issue determining the ceiling of its business landscape.

So, how did CATL "bind" nearly half of the automotive industry single-handedly? The reason lies in the fact that from a power battery supplier to a full-domain energy ecosystem service provider, CATL has built a deep binding system covering capital, production capacity, R&D, supply guarantee, ecosystem, and more over more than ten years. It is this system that firmly incorporates mainstream global automakers into its own industrial landscape, realizing a leap from "selling batteries" to "setting standards, building ecosystems," and thoroughly reshaping the relationship between supply chain companies and automakers.

Capital Binding

In the wave of electrification reconstructing the automotive industry, CATL jumped out of the traditional supplier's single model of "supply and collect money," using diverse capital means such as direct investment, strategic equity participation, and joint venture holding to deeply penetrate the equity structure of automakers, upgrading the supply-demand relationship into a community of interest and a strategic symbiosis, achieving all-round binding from the levels of funds, discourse power, and resources, and solidifying the foundation of industrial discourse power.

According to incomplete statistics, as of the end of May 2026, the number of new energy automakers invested in by CATL through direct or indirect means has exceeded 10. The latest move was on May 25, 2026, when Seres Group announced that its subsidiary Chongqing Luedian Technology Co., Ltd. received capital increase totaling 6.671 billion yuan from five investors. In the investor list, Ningbo Meishan Bonded Port Area Wending Investment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Wending Investment") ranked third with an investment amount of 984 million yuan and a shareholding ratio of 9.878%. This Wending Investment is a subsidiary wholly held by CATL.

Earlier, on May 12, 2026, the high-end intelligent new energy vehicle brand Qijing Auto jointly created by GAC Group and Huawei Qiankun announced that it had completed a strategic capital increase of more than 1 billion yuan, invested by CATL, investment platforms under Bosch, and capital of state-owned enterprises and central SOEs. It is understood that CATL's investment this time was also realized through paid-in capital of 300 million yuan via the wholly held Wending Investment, making it the single largest investor.

In fact, CATL's investment landscape extends far beyond these. In the new energy circle, "King Ning" is not just a battery seller, but more like a super player holding a capital map and "setting up circles" everywhere. In 2021, CATL invested heavily 770 million yuan to become the second largest shareholder of Avatr with a shareholding ratio of 23.99%, forming the unique CHN (Changan + Huawei + CATL) model at the time. As a return, Avatr not only featured CATL batteries as standard across all models but also globally launched CATL's Pangshi skateboard chassis for the first time.

In addition, CATL is also an early investor of Zeekr Auto, participating in Zeekr's Pre-A financing round. CATL not only holds about 2.97% of Chery through Wending Investment, but both sides also established the "Times Chery" joint venture company with a registered capital of 2 billion yuan. SAIC and CATL have actually been old partners for a long time. CATL holds about 0.48% of IM Motors, which is under SAIC. In BAIC Motor's financing of more than 8 billion yuan at the end of 2024, CATL invested 200 million yuan to become a shareholder.

In the commercial vehicle sector, in March 2026, Puquan Capital under CATL led the investment of 1.2 billion yuan in Lingyi Auto. In November 2025, FAW Jiefang announced a capital increase of 191 million yuan for the joint venture "Jiefang Times," and CATL invested simultaneously. The three parties invested a total of 412 million yuan. This joint venture company, established in 2023 with 50% shareholding each by FAW Jiefang and CATL, is just a microcosm of CATL's deep binding of automakers through capital ties in recent years.

In overseas markets, CATL also adopts the joint venture participation logic. On December 10, 2024, CATL and Stellantis each hold 50%, investing 4.1 billion euros to build a large-scale Lithium Iron Phosphate battery factory in Zaragoza, Spain. Products are exclusively for Stellantis' European models. Capital binding helps CATL deeply penetrate mainstream overseas automakers.

Of course, CATL has also hit snags when investing in automakers. For example, CATL once held about 2.67% of Neta Auto shares and invested in Aiways Auto early on. However, looking at the current situation, these two EV startups have basically exited the market.

CATL's capital binding is by no means simple financial investment, but a strategic layout to reconstruct the OEM-Supplier relationship and control industrial discourse power. This capital network model allows CATL to upgrade from a simple battery supplier to a strategic partner and community of interest for automakers, firmly grasping industrial leadership in the electrification wave, laying a solid capital foundation for all-round binding in technology, capacity, ecosystem, and other fields.

Production Capacity Lock-in

If capital is the skeleton of ties, then capacity is the flesh and blood. In the industry environment of cyclical tightness in battery supply and demand and intensified raw material price volatility, stable capacity is core competitiveness. CATL's capacity binding strategy can be summarized in one sentence: Build battery capacity where it is most needed—super factories next to automakers, or even directly built in customers' workshops. CATL provides deterministic capacity guarantees for cooperating automakers through three models: exclusive production lines, factory-in-factory, and regional bases, achieving deep binding through "capacity lock-in."

On June 30, 2025, CATL's two CTP 2.0 high-end battery pack production lines officially went into production at Seres Super Factory. This is the first time CATL cooperated with an automaker using the "Factory within a Factory" model to supply battery systems for local production of the AITO series models. The "Factory within a Factory" model is an innovative supply chain synergy model. CATL directly built battery production lines inside Seres Super Factory, achieving efficient closed-loop management from battery production to vehicle assembly. Batteries achieve "produce and install immediately," saving intermediate links such as packaging, transportation, and warehousing, shortening supply chain response speed to the 20-minute level.

If the "Factory within a Factory" is just a trial run of an innovative model, then the power battery joint venture companies widely established by CATL with mainstream automakers such as SAIC, GAC, FAW, Dongfeng, Geely, and Changan, such as Times SAIC, Times GAC, Times Geely, and Times Changan, usually hold controlling rights with 51% shareholding. As early as 2017, CATL cooperated with SAIC Group to establish "Times SAIC Power Battery Co., Ltd.," with a total investment of more than 10 billion yuan. This forward-looking layout allowed SAIC to fully reap dividends in the subsequent new energy transformation wave. When other competitors were queuing in front of CATL's headquarters to grab batteries, SAIC could steadily obtain battery packs meeting their customized needs through the exclusive production line of Times SAIC.

On February 13, 2026, Times Chery (Hefei) New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. was officially established, with registered capital of up to 2 billion yuan, held by CATL, Chery Automobile, and Chery Commercial Vehicle (Anhui) Co., Ltd. CATL holds 51%, while the latter two hold 49% in total. According to the agreement, Chery will obtain supply rights for CATL's core products such as Qilin Batteries and Sodium-ion Batteries first, while CATL will promote the application of innovative technologies such as semi-solid-state batteries and battery swap models in Chery's high-end models through technology licensing and joint R&D.

In factories laid out in Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, and other overseas locations, CATL has also achieved "wherever the vehicle is, the battery capacity is there." For international automakers such as Tesla, Volkswagen, and BMW, the European base is configured nearby; for automakers going global like Chery, Geely, and Leapmotor, the Southeast Asian base follows synchronously. Regional capacity layout effectively avoids trade barriers, logistics risks, and exchange rate fluctuations, ensuring automakers always have stable battery guarantees in global market expansion.

The underlying logic of capacity lock-in is using deterministic supply to counter uncertain cycles. For automakers, CATL's capacity guarantee means new cars do not get "choked" at launch, peak season delivery does not run out of stock, and overseas expansion has no worries; for CATL, locking capacity means locking sales, improving capacity utilization, dampening investment costs, and forming scale effects and cost advantages.

R&D Front-loading

If capacity lock-in binds the present, then R&D front-loading binds the future. Traditional battery supply follows a posterior adaptation mode of "automaker raises demand, battery factory makes products," while CATL has completely front-loaded R&D, achieving synchronized development, joint definition, and joint testing of vehicles and batteries, shifting from passive adaptation to active co-creation, realizing binding through deep technology embedding.

On December 17, 2025, CATL signed a 10-year deepened cooperation agreement with Voyah Auto. According to the agreement, CATL will actively cooperate with Voyah's new model development, prioritize providing leading battery technology, and comprehensively promote the scale application of benchmark battery brands such as Qilin, Shenxing, and Xiaoyao on Voyah models. This means Voyah's product planning will stay synchronized with cutting-edge innovation in the battery field. The cooperation vision between the two parties has expanded from a single power unit to new fields such as battery swap models, CIIC Intelligent Chassis Integration, Pangshi Chassis, and V2G representing future mobility ecosystems.

Of course, CATL's R&D front-loading logic is not limited to just this automaker. On November 11, 2025, CATL signed a 10-year comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement with GAC Group. Both sides will carry out joint R&D in cutting-edge fields such as intelligent chassis and battery swap ecosystems, and based on CATL's deep accumulation in power batteries, energy storage systems, and energy service fields, jointly create new energy vehicles with stronger market competitiveness. Regarding GAC Trumpchi's model planning, both sides are actively promoting the application of Pangshi Chassis technology.

Since 2025, CATL has reached cooperation with many automakers—not only GAC Group and JAC Group, but also core customers like Li Auto and Seres. Battery manufacturers and automakers are stepping over traditional buying and selling games towards a new stage of deep binding and value co-creation. CATL's R&D system has thereby become more "forward-looking": When the next generation of battery technology is still iterating in the laboratory, CATL has already been planning future vehicle platform architectures with partners.

The deep significance of R&D front-loading lies in making CATL transform from a supplier passively responding to demand into a standard setter proactively defining future technology routes. The Qilin Condensed Battery released by CATL on February 26, 2026, with an energy density of 500Wh/kg, is planned to be equipped for the first batch on NIO ET9 and Zeekr 001 FR at the end of the year. These technology explorations, which are still among the forefront in the industry, are becoming the strongest glue for CATL to bind high-end customers.

Ecosystem Co-construction

In fact, CATL's business field extends far beyond batteries. It is extending electrification goals to broader fields such as low-altitude aviation, ships, and data centers, rapidly expanding battery swap networks and services, promoting zero-carbon ecosystem construction, improving the industrial ecosystem, and extending the value chain. Around automakers, CATL is building an all-domain ecosystem of battery swaps, energy storage, charging, green power, and recycling, achieving irreplaceable binding through ecological barriers.

In the battery swap field, CATL takes Chocolate Battery Swap and Qiji Heavy Truck Battery Swap as the core, working with Changan, Chery, GAC, Seres, SAIC-GM-Wuling, BAIC, and others to form a Super Swap Shared Network, jointly building swap stations, sharing swap blocks, and unifying interface standards. On April 25, 2026, Chery Automobile, Chery Green Energy, CATL, and Times Energy Service signed a strategic cooperation agreement. All parties will focus on the layout of "Super Charging + Battery Swap" shared networks and green energy ecosystem co-construction. Chery Automobile will comprehensively import the Chocolate Battery Swap system of CATL and Times Energy Service. CATL's cooperation with GAC Group is even more all-round. It covers not only key fields such as intelligent chassis application, joint R&D of battery technology, battery swap ecosystem co-construction, and electrified platform innovation, but will also carry out long-term deep cooperation in business fields such as battery leasing and joint station building.

Zero Carbon Parks are projects CATL is vigorously promoting. Currently, zero carbon parks have been laid out in Dongying, Shandong, Xiamen, Fujian, Datong, Shanxi, Yancheng, Jiangsu, Hainan, and other places. They create green smart manufacturing bases through 100% green power direct connection and Source-Grid-Load-Storage integration technology. On July 26, 2025, the first national 100% green power direct-connected zero carbon industrial park led by CATL started construction in Dongying, Shandong. The total investment exceeds 10 billion yuan. The project adopts "Wind-Solar Coupling + Grid-forming Technology" to build an independent energy system, directly connecting wind power, photovoltaic generation, and energy storage systems to the factory. CATL's ultimate goal is to create a panoramic, integrated zero-carbon solution including green power direct supply, zero carbon parks, source-grid-load-storage, and grid-forming energy storage.

Used battery recycling is the last puzzle piece to achieve closed-loop management of the battery full lifecycle. Through recycling methods, CATL processes, purifies, and synthesizes metal materials such as nickel, cobalt, and manganese in used batteries, and recycles collected metal materials such as copper and aluminum through third-party recycling, realizing effective circular utilization of key metal resources needed for battery production. CATL has built a complete closed loop of "Production - Use - Cascade - Recycling," providing battery recycling, cascade utilization, and recycled material closed-loop services for cooperating automakers. Through scaled recycling and regeneration, raw material costs are reduced, feeding back into the price competitiveness of vehicle batteries, forming full-chain value sharing.

In addition, in overseas markets, CATL promotes vehicle-battery integration joint global expansion with Chery, Yutong, Geely, Dongfeng, etc. Overseas battery bases follow the rhythm of vehicle global expansion, providing global warranty, local services, supply chain support, and other services. Automakers going global no longer face battery adaptation, certification, and supply difficulties. CATL expands its global share following automakers going global, forming a globalized ecosystem binding.

The strategic significance of ecosystem co-construction far exceeds commercial cooperation itself. When CATL not only masters battery manufacturing but also controls battery swap networks, Battery Passport data (CATL cooperated with BMW in February 2026 to carry out an EU "Battery Passport" cross-border data pilot), and battery recycling full lifecycle management, it changes from a supplier simply providing parts into an infrastructure platform for the entire new energy mobility ecosystem. Automakers still play the role of building cars in this ecosystem, but key dimensions such as energy replenishment solutions, battery management, data services, and even user travel experience will be included in CATL's ecosystem system. This ecological-level binding far exceeds the product and price levels, forming a true "community of shared future."

The international energy situation continues to fluctuate, oil prices continue to rise, prompting Europeans to accept electric vehicles, and giving Chinese new energy vehicle brands new hope in Europe. According to foreign media reports, in April 2026, overall sales of Chinese automakers in the European market increased by 114% year-on-year, with SAIC Motor, BYD, and Chery emerging as the big winners.

While products are selling well, facing EU trade barriers and the global reality of excess capacity, Chinese top new and old automakers are also accelerating the layout of overseas production bases, landing localized production by acquiring and renovating idle capacity of traditional automakers in the US and Europe.

From export to sales to production, Chinese new energy vehicle brands going global are accelerating their advancement, expected to enter a new stage of reshaping the European automotive industry landscape.

SAIC Steady, Chery Aggressive, Chinese Cars Selling Big in Europe

On May 22, 2026, European automotive media cited the latest data from local market research firm Dataforce, stating April overall new car sales in Europe continued to recover, up 6.4% year-on-year, with the regional car market maintaining a steady recovery trend overall.

Due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, European oil prices have risen by about 20% since 2026, therefore, new energy models became the core driver pulling April growth in the European car market. Among them, pure electric vehicles performed the most prominently, with April sales increasing by 38% year-on-year, setting the highest single-month growth rate since 2026; Plug-in hybrid vehicle sales growth was 21%, and Hybrid vehicle sales growth also reached 15%.

European car users are accelerating their shift to new energy vehicles, which also created a perfect growth opportunity for Chinese car brands to accelerate expanding sales in the European market.

Data shows, in April 2026, overall sales of Chinese automakers in the European market doubled, surging 114% year-on-year. Among them, SAIC Motor sales in April were 30,074 vehicles, stably at the top of the Chinese automaker sales list, BYD single month sales were 28,186 vehicles ranking second, Chery April sales were 25,656 vehicles, ranking third. From a single-month performance perspective, the sales gap between the three Chinese automakers in the European market is also continuously narrowing.

In terms of sales growth rate, April European car market growth rate list was almost dominated by Chinese brands, Leapmotor growth rate was as high as 423%, Chery and BYD followed with year-on-year growth rates of 344% and 125% respectively, overall growth momentum was strong.

Among them, Chery became the Chinese automaker with the strongest growth explosiveness in the European market in April. Compared to April 2025, Chery sales increased by nearly 20,000 vehicles. Dataforce data shows, Chery brand April 2025 sales in Europe were only 4 vehicles, this April reached 5,446 vehicles; In addition, two sub-brands under Chery, Omoda and Jaecoo, both exerted force synchronously, all ranked in the forefront of European market sales growth, among them, Omoda growth ranked third in Europe, Jaecoo ranked sixth. Terminal market performance indicates Chery's layout in Europe has entered a stage of full-force exertion.

Because contrasting sharply with the high growth of Chinese brands is that some European local automakers and traditional car giants encountered sales decline in April. For example, Toyota dipped slightly 1% year-on-year, Renault declined 3%, Ford fell 11%, Hyundai decline reached 12%, Premium brand Porsche also surprisingly declined year-on-year to 17%, Mitsubishi decline was most prominent, reaching 51%.

European local giant Stellantis, which maintains close relations with Chinese automakers Leapmotor and Dongfeng, April sales achieved 4.3% year-on-year growth, but growth rate was lower than the overall European car market performance. Brand performance division within the group was significant, Leapmotor, Fiat, Opel/Vauxhall, Citroen maintained positive sales growth, while Peugeot and Alfa Romeo showed obvious sales decline.

If Chinese new energy vehicle new and old brands can continue this upward momentum, they will be expected to reshape the European market competition landscape.

Chinese Automakers on a Crazy Buying Spree, But Still Must Clear Union Hurdles

On one hand, multiple factors such as oil price hikes and new energy vehicle market transition overlap, leading to weak sales of traditional car giants in the European market. On the other hand, the manufacturing system left over from the fuel vehicle era is also gradually falling into the dilemma of idleness or excess capacity.

Consulting agencies predict, large numbers of low-utilization car factories in the US and Europe will face shutdown or transfer in the future, and the EU's measure of imposing additional import tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, will further promote Chinese automakers to accelerate the layout of European localized production.

In this context, taking over and renovating traditional automaker factories has become a core method for many Chinese automakers laying out overseas localized production. This phenomenon has also attracted foreign media attention, recently a European automotive media reported that BYD is currently negotiating with Stellantis and other European automakers to take over idle factories in the region. In fact, BYD announced building a factory in Hungary as early as the end of 2023, becoming the first Chinese automaker to build a passenger car factory in the EU.

BYD Hungary factory planned annual capacity is 300,000 vehicles, in 2025 BYD sales in the European market exceeded 187,000 vehicles, year-on-year increase of over 260% compared to 2024. Predicting according to the growth rate, BYD relying solely on one Hungary factory will be difficult to satisfy car sales needs in Europe, therefore rumors about negotiating factory purchase with local car makers are reasonable.

Chinese automakers full of ambition for the European market are not just BYD. Just in one month of May 2026, news has spread about multiple Chinese automakers negotiating European capacity cooperation projects. For example, on May 20, Stellantis Group announced cooperation negotiation with Dongfeng Group, planning to rely on France Rennes factory to achieve local production of Dongfeng new energy models. In addition, Leapmotor also revealed that Leapmotor International established as a joint venture with Stellantis, is expected to acquire Stellantis factory located in Madrid, Spain, quickly build a European local production base.

There is also news that Geely is also actively accelerating the acquisition of Ford Spain Valencia factory partial assembly production line; Xpeng was also exposed to be negotiating with Volkswagen Group, seeking to acquire its European idle capacity. There is also Chery cooperating with Spain Ebro Group to activate former Nissan old factory, currently production has been resumed, Chery models are about to be imported and landed.

Taking over and renovating European automakers' idle capacity, the benefit is avoiding industry duplicate construction, increase local European employment opportunities, conforming to industrial policy orientation, also can save more time and improve efficiency compared to completely self-building factories.

However, what needs to be reminded to Chinese automakers is, buying spree does not mean permanent security, behind it also hides great risks.

Also recently, after news spread about Volkswagen Group and Xpeng negotiating idle capacity sales, Volkswagen Group union head (Daniela Cavallo) stood before tens of thousands of workers, heatedly criticized group management, and strongly opposed management negotiating with Chinese automakers etc. third parties to yield idle capacity.

Under this pressure, Volkswagen Group CEO (Oliver Blume) publicly stated, currently, Volkswagen has not had any negotiations with Chinese manufacturers regarding using European factory capacity, in the future there are absolutely no related cooperation plans.

Compared to emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, Middle East, Africa with high inclusivity to Chinese automakers, mature European car market regulations, unions, environmental protection, employment commitments etc. constraints conditions are more severe, Chinese automakers landing localization through the method of acquiring factories, besides renovating production lines, adapting supply chains, more need to adapt to local rules, adapt to local culture to survive better.

Of course, self-built factories can fully fit the automaker's own manufacturing standards, supply chain systems, and production concepts, autonomy control is stronger, but this also suits fund-adequate, layout pace controllable automakers to go for long-term layout. From this level, currently BYD's capacity layout in Europe fits long-term + short-term coordination better, globally, besides negotiating qualified old factories in major markets for renovation, BYD has landed at least 4 self-built complete vehicle factories in places like Thailand, Hungary, Turkey.

European new energy vehicle sales significantly increased, brought development opportunities to Chinese automakers eager to go global, however European complex emotions on Chinese automaker acquiring factories, again makes Chinese automakers' Europe road full of difficulties. Actually, this round of global automotive capacity restructuring led by Chinese automakers, reflects structural transfer of industry discourse power in the new energy vehicle era.

Fuel vehicle era, US/EU/Japan/Korea automakers dominated global car technical routes, capacity configuration and industry rules, under the wave of smart electrification, relying on complete new energy supply chain, mature three-electric and intelligent technology, efficient capacity system, Chinese automakers are upgrading from product export to full-scale overseas presence of capacity, technology, standards, expected to reshape the European and even global automotive industry landscape.

(Source: autonews.com, reuters.com, bloomberg.com)

That's right, China's first automaker to accumulate production and sales volume exceeding100 millionhas been born.

What does 100 million mean? If you built 1,000 units daily, it would take over 270 years. SAIC started from a small internal combustion engine parts factory in 1955, and it took 71 years to build this milestone.

In 1958, workers hammered out the first "Phoenix" sedan. Back then, not to mention intelligence, even air conditioning was a luxury.

What happened later? 1983 Santana manual assembly rolled off the line, opening the joint venture era; 1997 Shanghai GM built a factory and produced cars in 23 months, called "Shanghai Speed"; 2006 Roewe born; 2016 Roewe RX5 shouted "World's First Internet Car"; 2020 IM entered the high-end intelligent electric vehicle segment...

To be honest, SAIC's over 70 years is a microcosm of the Chinese automotive industry going from "knowing nothing" to "competing head-on."

And the thing I admire most is SAIC always has a slogan —"Understand Cars, Understand You Better".

Many think this is marketing talk, but look at what they do: early on, joint venture with global giants to build the supply chain system; in the intelligent-electrified era, deep synergy with domestic tech partners to push Large AI Models, Solid-state Batteries, and Full Wire-control Chassis onto cars.Understanding cars is hard tech; understanding you is turning hard tech into functions you enjoy using.

100 million cars is not just a number, it is100 million trusts. This is worth more than any parameter.

The 100 millionth unit is the IM LS9 Hyper, this car has some things

The first 100 millionth car delivered this time, is not Santana, not Wuling Hongguang, butIM LS9 Hyper.

I'll get straight to the point: Full Wire-control Four-Wheel Steering, 520-line LiDAR, Nvidia Thor Chip, Full-domain 800V, Star Super Extended Range... Take this config sheet out, any single one could be bragged about for half a year. It also first equips "SAIC Gold Label Hurricane Three-Motor", directly into the3-second Club.

Even more fierce, it collaborated with Purple Mountain Laboratories to develop "Intrinsic Security" technology, expanding safety from the physical level to the information and system level. Put simply,In the AI era, cars aren't just afraid of crashes, they're afraid of hacks. IM sealed this defense line solid.

Who is the 100 millionth owner?Momenta CEO Cao Xudong.

This is no coincidence. Momenta is SAIC's core intelligent driving partner, deep co-creation between both parties.Partners Become Owners, this delivery carries much more weight than a standard car handover ceremony — this is not a transaction, it is ecosystem resonance.

Behind 100 million cars is SAIC's"Full Suite" no one can copy

Don't think 100 million cars was achieved by one car. SAIC holdsSix Major Sectors: Vehicle, Parts, Mobility Services, Finance, International Operations, Innovation Tech. Full-chain closed loop, from R&D to selling cars to going overseas, they can even run the loop with themselves.

January-April this year, SAIC sold 1.302 million units, ranking first in China for four consecutive months. Among them, independent brands accounted forNearly 70%, New Energy 412,000 units, Overseas 459,000 units, up 50.2% year-on-year.

High Independent Share, Strong New Energy, Fast Overseas Expansion— with these three indicators shining simultaneously, across the domestic market, few can do it.

Look at the delivery site family photo: Independent brands have Shangjie Z7, Huajing S, Roewe M7, MG4 Semi-Solid State Battery version, Wuling Starlight 560... Commercial vehicles from Maxus to Hongyan to Sunwin, cover personal mobility, logistics transport, urban public transit completely.

Joint venture side is not giving in for nothing. Volkswagen ID. ERA 9X launched one month delivered 7,000 units, Buick Zhijing E7 exceeded 10,000 in one month. Note, these cars use SAIC's technology feedback —From "Market for Technology" to "Technology Export", SAIC's role flip is impressive.

Globalization is not just talk, SAIC really sells cars to over 170 countries

At the ceremony, delivery scenes connected Shanghai to London, Indonesia, Singapore... This is not just showboating. SAIC has over 100 parts bases overseas, 3,000+ dealership networks, raising 42 RoRo fleet Anji Logistics, 8 international routes covering global major markets.

MG in Europe has been China Brand Sales Champion for 11 consecutive years, sold over 300,000 units in 2025, becoming the first China Brand to accumulate over a million in Europe and UK. January-April this year, Europe alone sold 120,000 units, growth 22%.

And SAIC not only sells cars, Semi-Solid State Batteries, IM AD Intelligent Driving System, i-Smart Vehicle System all spread overseas.From Product Going Global to Value Chain Going Global, this move is fierce.

100 million units is a milestone, but not the end point. SAIC also said, this is the starting line of "Second Entrepreneurship". 2014 was the first to transform to New Energy, 12 years down, Independent, Joint Venture, Commercial, Overseas —A Thriving Boomsituation has emerged. The sentence I admire most is: "Understand Cars, Understand You Better". Tech is cool, if it doesn't land on users it's scrap. From social media bloggers to National Team Player Yang Chen, from London intern doctors to left-behind children welfare volunteers, every real story is the background color of these 100 million cars. So, don't just stare at numbers. After 100 million units, can SAIC continue "100 Million Mile Journey Together"? It depends on whether it can make the next 100 million users feel —This Automaker, Really Understands Me.

Toyota Motor recently announced plans to further increase the scale of its overseas production cuts, raising the total overseas production reduction volume from June to November of this year from the previously planned 38,000 units significantly to 83,000 units, doubling the production cut magnitude. Combined with the preliminary production cut of 40,000 units by Japanese domestic factories for the Middle East market in the first quarter of this year, Toyota's total vehicle capacity reduction plan within half a year exceeds 120,000 units.

Toyota's capacity adjustment this time is highly targeted, mainly aiming at sluggish markets and slow-selling models, including overseas factories in Thailand, India, Malaysia, etc., and overseas production lines dedicated to the Middle East market. Main models with production cuts are concentrated on fuel version RAV4, Camry, Fortuner, Innova and other traditional fuel SUVs and family sedans. Hybrid models and pure electric models capacity remains basically unchanged.

On the surface, short-term geopolitical crisis and supply-demand imbalance might be the main reasons for Toyota's current production cuts, but actually, this also reflects that holding firm to the internal combustion engine base in the global new energy wave has already fallen into a strategic disadvantage.

For a long time, Toyota insisted on hybrid technology route, pure electric model R&D and launch pace was slow, relying on durability and resale value advantages to deep-plow global fuel car blue ocean market. Especially in emerging markets like Middle East, Southeast Asia long-term occupied absolute leading position. However, in recent years, global auto industry landscape completely reconstructed, core markets like China, Europe comprehensively accelerated electrification substitution, Southeast Asia, Middle East and other traditional fuel car "safe havens" also began to gradually introduce new energy supportive policies, local new energy models rose rapidly, diverting fuel car market share.

Toyota continuously shrinking overseas capacity also reflects the new logic of current multinational automakers' global layout. In the past, automakers pursued global layout, capacity full coverage, to reduce production costs with economies of scale; Nowadays global geopolitical conflicts frequent, regional trade barriers rising, car market regional division intensifying, blind expansion of global capacity risk surged. Multinational automakers began to shift from "global expansion" to "precision layout", shut down inefficient, slow-selling fuel car capacity, concentrate funds and capacity into high-growth electrification tracks, becoming common industry practice.

It can be said, this global capacity shrinkage wave initiated by Toyota, also sounded a warning bell for current Chinese independent brands expanding overseas.

In recent years domestic car market fierce competition intensified, top automakers increased investment in overseas factories, complete vehicle exports, Middle East, Southeast Asia are exactly the core growth markets for Chinese automakers going overseas, in 2025 China's car export volume to the Middle East exceeded 1.4 million units, coinciding with Toyota passively yielded market share due to logistics disruption, geopolitical turmoil, many domestic automakers followed suit to increase regional capacity deployment and inventory stocking. But Toyota's dilemma directly exposed the common risks of global car building: single region geopolitical turmoil, sea shipping routes blocked, regional demand changes, can instantly severely damage heavy-asset overseas capacity layout.

At the same time, Chinese automakers going overseas also currently hide two hidden risks: One is some automakers blindly copying Japanese past heavy-asset factory building models, rapidly launching complete vehicle factories in emerging markets, capacity expansion pace far exceeds local new energy penetration rate, very easy to follow Toyota's fuel car capacity excess trap; Two is some overseas products structure single, over-rely on fuel cars or low-price entry-level new energy cars, lack diverse product matrix adapted to different regional policies, road conditions, insufficient ability to resist market volatility.

In addition, geopolitical supply chain risks Toyota is currently facing also reminding Chinese automakers, going overseas cannot only pursue sales volume scale, must simultaneously build diversified shipping routes, disperse regional market layout, accelerate overseas supply chain localization support, reduce impact brought by external sudden risks.

Looking at the overall situation, Toyota's overseas production cut is another heavy signal of the end of the global fuel car era. Auto industry stock competition arrives, geopolitical risk, energy change, electrification wave triple variables are reshaping global auto industry new rules. For all multinational automakers, relying on fuel cars to lie back and win era has completely ended, only by accelerating capacity structure reform, can adapt to the brand new global auto market layout.

May 20, Stellantis and Dongfeng signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding, planning to establish a joint venture in Europe. Among them, Stellantis holds 51% equity, while Dongfeng holds 49%.

This joint venture will do four things: sell VOYAH brand new energy vehicles, localize production at Stellantis' Rennes factory in France, joint procurement, joint R&D.

After establishing the "Leapmotor International" joint venture with Leapmotor in Europe, Stellantis extended an olive branch to its old partner Dongfeng again this time, adding a layer of consideration for "localization production".

Does this mean Chinese automakers have completely changed their strategy for going global?

First, Clarify the Global Expansion Models

Before analyzing this, let's first clarify the several strategies Chinese automakers use for going global.

The first is whole vehicle export. Cars are built domestically, shipped on boats, and sold by dealers locally. This model is the simplest with the lowest investment, but it lacks market control; once tariffs rise, the price advantage disappears. Chery's early export to Russia followed this path; once tariffs were added, the rhythm was completely disrupted.

The second is KD assembly. Parts are shipped locally and assembled in local factories. This model is a step up from whole vehicle export, able to evade some tariffs and carry a "Locally Made" label. But honestly, many KD factories are just large screw-nailing plants; core parts are still shipped from China, with limited localization. Many Geely and Chery factories in Southeast Asia and the Middle East use this model. It solves some problems but not the root ones.

The third is building factories alone. Bringing money overseas to buy land, build factories, hire people, and build channels. This is the most "hardcore" way and the path taken by top independent automakers. Great Wall Motors and BYD have adopted this model. BYD's Thailand factory is already in production, the Brazil factory is under construction, and the Hungary factory is in planning. The benefit is becoming a true "local brand", evading import tariffs, and securing local government industrial subsidies. But the investment is high, the cycle is long, and management complexity increases by an order of magnitude.

The fourth is acquiring local brands. Geely acquired Volvo, later invested in Daimler, and acquired Lotus. This is the path Geely walked earliest and most systematically. Partial equity or binding with a local giant equals directly inheriting the other party's brand assets, channel networks, and local compliance capabilities. But integration difficulty is huge, with high risks of cultural conflict and management chaos.

And this cooperation between Stellantis and Dongfeng does not fit well into any of the above.

Strictly speaking, it is a combination of the third and fourth types.

Using Stellantis' existing French factories for production is borrowing the other party's manufacturing assets, not building independently; selling VOYAH using Stellantis' existing European sales channels is borrowing the other party's commercial assets. Moreover, the capital structure is shared equity, not Party A hiring Party B to help, but a true interest binding.

This model, I will temporarily call it "Grafting Global Expansion" — not planting a tree yourself, but grafting branches onto an existing big tree.

Why is this path worth attention? Because it solves several core pain points of going global.

1. Channel. The European automotive dealer system is very closed. For a new Chinese brand to build a network from scratch, it would take three to five years. But Stellantis has dealer networks for brands like Peugeot, Opel, and Citroën. These are resources accumulated over decades and cannot be bought with money.
2. Factory. If the Rennes factory can be utilized, VOYAH doesn't need to build from scratch, saving a lot of time and funds.
3. Brand. Selling VOYAH cars separately in Europe, whether consumers recognize you is one thing, but if backed by Stellantis, the trust level will be different.

Where Does Localized Production Really Matter?

Many people talking about localized production first think "evading tariffs". That's right, EU anti-subsidy taxes plus tariffs mean a Chinese EV pays dozens of percentage points more tax entering Europe, basically wiping out the price advantage. But tariffs are just one dimension.

More critical is the carbon footprint. The EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) has started trial operation, and future import vehicle carbon emissions will also need to be considered. If cars are produced in Europe using European green electricity, the carbon footprint will be much better. In the next 5 years, the cost pressure in this area will increase.

Another point to consider is the supply chain.

Dongfeng is producing in European factories, but what about the supply chain? The memorandum wrote "joint procurement", which means some parts are still sourced from China, leveraging Dongfeng's procurement capabilities in China's new energy ecosystem to reduce costs. But the local supply chain must keep up gradually, otherwise, if geopolitical risks arise, production lines will stop.

Next, the brand. European consumers have high loyalty to car brands; Germans buy Volkswagen, French buy Peugeot. This is a habit of decades. Chinese new brands want to break this habit; product strength alone is not enough, there must be "trust endorsement". Stellantis' participation is this endorsement.

Of course, the cost is that the joint venture is led by Stellantis, and the voice in the European market is mainly in Stellantis' hands. This is a price that has to be paid.

Who Will Be Mainstream in the Next Three to Five Years?

My judgment is that in Europe, "binding with local giants" will become the mainstream.

The reason is simple, the European market is too hard to fight. Tariff barriers are highest, regulations most complex, consumers most picky, competition most intense. The whole vehicle export model will become increasingly difficult in the European market, forcing Chinese automakers to find a way out of localized production.

On the other hand, Stellantis needs to make up for the electrification shortcoming. Other Western automakers, such as Ford, General Motors, Renault and other traditional automakers, are struggling in transformation dilemmas. They have channels, factories, and brands, but lack new energy capabilities. This is exactly what Chinese automakers can provide.

Both sides have needs, so cooperation will increase.

The method may not necessarily be a joint venture form like Stellantis and Dongfeng, it could also be more flexible forms such as technology licensing, channel sharing, joint development, but the core logic is the same: not fighting alone, leveraging momentum to land. While in markets like Southeast Asia, Middle East, South America, building factories alone and KD assembly remain mainstream because barriers are relatively low and price advantages still work.

However, "binding with giants" is not without risk. Being tied up with a giant means destiny is partly in others' hands. What if Stellantis cooperates with Dongfeng today but finds a better partner tomorrow? What if joint venture performance fails to meet expectations? What if there are disagreements on product positioning and pricing strategies? Dongfeng Peugeot Citroën's history has already proved that the relationship between joint venture partners is not always smooth.

From Dongfeng Peugeot Citroën to European joint venture, over thirty years, the relationship between Dongfeng and Stellantis has completed a "two-way rush". Behind the role reversal is the accumulation and transformation of the Chinese automotive industry over decades. Chinese automakers are no longer satisfied with "selling cars"; they want "rooting". The prerequisite for rooting is learning to cooperate with locals.

Whether this time can succeed, we will wait and see.

Author |Ben Yi

Editor |De Xin

In April 2026, there were 660 car models available in the Chinese market, but only 29 had monthly sales exceeding 10,000.

In late May, Shenzhen, 13 leaders from the automotive industry gathered at the 4th Future Car Pioneer Conference. Morning talks focused on product reconstruction, afternoon discussions on vast horizons, but almost everyone was saying the same thing: The competition of specifications is unsustainable; the next card to play must be the brand.

Industry profit margins fell to 2.9%, domestic passenger car retail dropped nearly 19% year-on-year, and more than 150 new models crammed into the market this year but most couldn't even enter user choice circles. The endpoint of the "specification racing" road should be visible to everyone.

Li Bin quoted a set of data from McKinsey research: the ranking of brands in consumer car purchasing decisions ranked fifth two years ago, but has now risen to second. "Believe it will soon enter the first place."

Source: Future Car Pioneer Conference

This judgment was repeatedly verified in the mouths of different speakers.

Avatr Chairman Wang Hui said consumers no longer need you to tell them how fast the acceleration is or how far the range is. "They want to know more rationally what this brand believes in, pursues, and whether it is worthy of entrusting."

Leapmotor Senior Vice President Xu Jun was even more direct. "Specifications have become the most basic entry ticket, no longer the deciding factor."

Chery Vice President Wang Lang believed that cost-performance ratio solves "worth buying", brand value solves "worth believing, worth long-term choosing, worth recommending to others".

Every press conference talks about 800V platforms, large AI models, end-to-end intelligent driving. "If it continues like this, there will be no product differentiation."

If important decision-makers in the whole industry begin to collectively use "brand" instead of "specifications" for external expression, this itself conveys a clear signal: the competition of China's intelligent electric vehicles is shifting from "hardware racing" to competition at the brand dimension.

Avatr's Wang Hui shared a set of data from CPCA: domestic car sales exceeded 34.4 million vehicles in 2025, but profit margins were only 4.1%.

By January-February 2026, this number fell further to 2.9%.

He spoke sharply on site, "Sales without profit are fake sales, scale won by price wars is even more false prosperity."

CPCA Secretary-General Cui Dongshu added a supplement to this data from the supply chain perspective.

Whole vehicle enterprises selling cars don't make money, "basically becoming a state of working for upstream", while mining industry net profit margins have risen to about 40%. Car companies expanded the industry cake, but profits were taken by upstream.

Source: Future Car Pioneer Conference

The market side is also seriously challenging. Li Bin revealed that domestic passenger car retail sales dropped 18.9% year-on-year from January to April 2026, and even dropped more than 24% in the first few weeks of May. CPCA's annual forecast adjusted from -1% at the beginning of the year to -11% all the way. Cui Dongshu himself said, "This "drastic forecast adjustment is historically rare".

The backlash caused by price wars has also fully manifested.

Wang Hui calculated an account, "Price can only hold for two months, after two months there is not much effect, and there is a pile of old users being backstabbed." Since April, nearly 20 products in the market have announced price hikes. Avatr's own 06T and new Avatr 12 average price was 20,000 to 30,000 yuan higher than the previous generation. He said, "After the price increase, we can finally sleep soundly. Because we told customers we wouldn't stab them in the back, this counts as fulfilling the promise to users."

In a sense, it is not that car manufacturers chose to wake up proactively to carry out "brand upgrading", this is more of a passive turn under profit squeeze. When prices can't be driven down, specifications can't stack differences, "brand" almost became the only competition dimension that hasn't been fully penetrated.

Consensus is consensus, but specifically "how to build a brand", each gives a completely different answer.

Li Bin stated he would not make extended range, plug-in hybrid, and MPV. "Cars that are obviously not profitable will not be developed." Basic R&D (chips, operating systems, batteries) is firmly invested, application layer looks more at ROI. NIO brand average transaction price is about 400,000 yuan, 50,000 yuan higher than BMW, 130,000 yuan higher than Audi, achieving operating profit for two consecutive quarters. ES8 launched 215 days, delivered over 100,000 units, consecutive 5 months over 400,000 yuan regardless of energy form sales champion, so the current NIO is "save where you should, spend where you should".

Changan Group just streamlined its future five-year products from 63 models to 36 models. Wang Hui's led Avatr has struck a combination of punches in the overseas market: entering more than 40 countries, Avatr 11 starts at 290,000 yuan in China, selling near 450,000 yuan overseas, Thailand luxury electric SUV sales first, achieving stable profit after only one and a half years entering overseas.

"50:50 market, but looking globally, may need to put 80% of resources to gain the recognition of another 50% of customers." Wang Hui's underlying meaning is obvious, Domestic competition is exhausted, globalization is real incremental.

Xu Jun did not reveal details of the second brand, but said a thought-provoking sentence, "The end game of China's automotive industry development must be brand". When Leapmotor starts talking about brand upgrading, this itself is a clear signal. System synergy capability (CTC+ Central Integrated Architecture overall optimization), scenario definition capability (C16's large six seats solves second-child family travel, not just two extra seats), and long-term compound interest accumulated from over a decade of full-domain self-research, are the three layers of "hidden kung fu" supporting Leapmotor's turn.

Zhang Zhengping revealed, AITO M9's intelligent driving mileage share has exceeded 52% (overall data of 280,000 vehicles). Users choose AITO Top 3 reasons are: Intelligent driving, Safety, Brand, traditional "high performance" (acceleration, range) even did not enter the top three.

AITO also did one thing in the manufacturing end: "One Car One File", every screw of each car, each welding time, voltage, current, and operator have complete records. This is adding user trust in the brand from the underlying infrastructure.

New Generation AITO M9｜Source: HarmonyOS Intelligent Official Website

If a car company wants to build "Intelligent Brand Competitiveness" in the AI era, may need to learn from Geely.

Geely Research Institute Director Li Chuanhai admitted facing severe AI talent shortage, "Those who understand AI don't understand products, those who understand mechanics don't understand training models", and traditional recruitment can't attract top AI talents, those people are in large model companies.

Geely's solution is not hard recruitment, but building an ecosystem, and cooperating with partners like StepFun, Qianli Technology, XinQing Technology, etc., pulling AI talents into their own ecosystem. Product end, ZEEKR 4 years cumulative delivery nearly 750,000 units, average price over 300,000 yuan, ZEEKR 9X average transaction price over 530,000 yuan, consecutive months over 500,000 yuan SUV sales champion, proved the output ability of this system.

The intelligent driving supply chain side also has resonance on this.

DeepRoute CEO Zhou Guang judged, current small model intelligent driving has reached the ceiling, "Investment is increasing more and more, improvement is slower and slower".

He used "See-Saw Effect" to describe: small models solved Shanghai's problem, Shenzhen might get worse, the repeated see-saw between versions is the core reason users find it difficult to trust intelligent driving systems long-term.

DeepRoute bet on large model paradigm transition, deployed 40B base model, goal is to increase city safety takeover mileage from tens of kilometers to over 1,000 kilometers. If realized, intelligent driving will change from "usable" to "commonly used", in reverse will also become the core barrier of brand differentiation.

Source: 2026 Future Car Pioneer Conference

Additionally, worth mentioning is that the topic of FSD entering China was mentioned multiple times that day.

Zhang Zhengping stated "New M9 equipped with 6 laser radars, 40 sensors, hardware configuration definitely not lose to FSD". Zhou Guang was much more open-minded, he believes "This is a positive signal, Tesla FSD entering will make intelligent driving safety higher", but also pointed out, if still insisting on small model paradigm, "it will be quite troublesome".

Competition has upgraded, every company must bring out real stuff.

"Future ultra-luxury cars must collapse. There is no luxury car concept in the world, only premium car concept. Luxury will be replaced, just like electronic consumption, no century accumulation, only technological innovation." Cui Dongshu gave a very radical judgment.

But the big shots doing premium products on stage may not fully agree with this.

Li Bin holds 400,000 yuan average price not letting go, Wang Hui's Avatr overseas wants to sell 450,000 yuan, Xiang Xingchu's Luxeed S800 consecutive 8 months holding luxury sedan sales champion over 700,000 yuan, Zhang Zhengping's AITO M9 consecutive 2 years 500,000 yuan level champion.

Interesting is, This "disagreement" on luxury concept may not be true disagreement.

Cui Dongshu speaks of old luxury disintegration, that is luxury supported by century accumulation, handcrafting, Logo premium. What Chinese brands are doing is exactly using "Technology + Experience" to redefine luxury, which is "Real luxury is not who you are like, but who you are."

As the only foreign car company guest that day, Mercedes-Benz China R&D Head Drummond Jacoy being present on site itself makes the discussion interesting.

He mentioned "Oil and Electric Equipped with Intelligence" and "Chinese Speed" in speech, for example Chinese R&D team has begun to lead multiple global projects, including new generation S-Class rear entertainment system. When asked if Chinese luxury new brands pose a threat to Mercedes, his answer was relatively restrained, but significant: "China has many very excellent brands and products, I highly respect them."

Source: 2026 Future Car Pioneer Conference

Cui Dongshu and manufacturer representatives actually speaking of "Luxury" one body two sides: Old luxury is dissolving, new luxury is building. Disagreement also fundamentally not at "whether to do premium", but "what supports premium".

When Luxeed S800 sells to 800,000 yuan with technology, when NIO average price exceeds BMW, market data has already given the answer. The foundation of brand premium, is shifting from historical accumulation to technology experience.

This is probably the most worth paying attention to topic of this year's Future Car Pioneer Conference: when industry profit margin drops to 2.9%, when specification competition reaches the end, each car brand must answer is, what exactly are we selling?

Obviously, a function configuration table piled with various specifications is already not attractive enough.