On September 3rd, the 2026 Chongqing Automotive Innovation Conference grandly opened at the Chongqing Science Hall. Co-organized by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers and China Merchants Detection Technology Holdings Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "China Merchants Detection"), and undertaken by China Merchants Detection Vehicle Technology Research Institute Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "China Merchants Vehicle Research"), this conference centered on the theme "New Intelligence, New Youth, New Ecology", bringing together authoritative forces from government, industry, academia, research, application, and finance to jointly build the innovation synergy and ecosystem of the automotive industry.

Deng Renjie, Deputy General Manager of China Merchants Group, Wang Zhijie, Director of Chongqing Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology, Fu Bingfeng, Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, Chu Xiaowei, Deputy Director of the Management Committee of Western Science City Chongqing High-tech Zone, attended the opening ceremony and delivered speeches.

Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Professor at Tsinghua University, Li Jun; Zhou Wei, Director of the Automotive Transportation Research Center of the China Academy of Traffic and Transportation Sciences of the Ministry of Transport and Foreign Academician of the Russian Academy of Engineering; Zhang Rizhong, General Manager of China Merchants Detection; Xie Rongbin, Chairman, Editor-in-Chief of China Energy Automotive Media Group and Chairman of China Auto Times; Xu Zhipeng, Deputy Party Secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Bureau of Science and Technology; Sun Xiyong, Deputy Director of the Chongqing Municipal Commission of Commerce; Yu Jun, Deputy Director of the Industry Development Department of China Merchants Group; Yan Hao, Deputy General Manager of China Merchants Venture Capital; Ji Lun, Deputy General Manager of China Merchants Detection and Chairman of China Merchants Vehicle Research; Kraisorn Ongphonglert, President of the Thailand Automotive Institute; Wu Fang, Deputy Station Chief of the Chongqing Correspondent of the China Media Group; Xiao Lingyun, Director of the Industrial Products Division of the Technical Center for Defective Product Recall of the State Administration for Market Regulation; Chen Dawei, Deputy Director of the Pollution Control Center of the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment; Zhao Lijin, Deputy Secretary-General of the China Society of Automotive Engineers and Deputy Dean of the National Automotive Strategic Research Institute; Tan Huan, Chief Expert of Changan Automobile and General Manager of Changan Tianshu Intelligent Robot Company; Shi Xiaohui, Former President of Chongqing University of Technology and Chairman of the Chongqing Automobile and Motorcycle Industry Association; Duan Wei, COO of Chongqing Seres Phoenix Intelligent Creation Technology Co., Ltd.; Liu Xiuc, Chairman of Shanghai Cailai Biotechnology Co., Ltd. attended the opening ceremony of the conference.

More than 1,000 guests from relevant industry departments, research institute scholars, industry association experts, heads of well-known automotive enterprises at home and abroad, representatives of young new forces, media representatives, and other fields attended the opening ceremony of the Chongqing Automotive Innovation Conference.

Guiding the Direction, Mapping the New Blueprint for the Development of an Automotive Powerhouse

Deng Renjie, Deputy General Manager of China Merchants Group

In his speech, Deng Renjie, Deputy General Manager of China Merchants Group, proposed three directions紧扣紧扣紧扣 the theme of the conference: solidifying the industrial foundation with "New Intelligence", promoting a closed loop of "technology breakthrough-testing verification-standard formulation-result transformation-industrial application", and supporting China Merchants Detection and China Merchants Vehicle Research to comprehensively improve R&D verification, testing evaluation, standard formulation, and quality certification capabilities; activating innovation momentum with "New Youth", promoting research, gathering talents, and promoting transformation through competitions, and guiding young talents to take the main responsibility at the forefront of the industry; expanding the open pattern with "New Ecology", relying on the "trade, transport, warehouse, inspection + finance" integrated automotive going-global service system, and helping Chongqing automotive enterprises move from "products going global" to "brands going in, and ecosystems going up". Deng Renjie stated that the China Merchants Group will anchor the overall goal of achieving decisive progress in comprehensively promoting the "Third Entrepreneurship", adhere to "what Chongqing needs, what China Merchants can do, and where the future goes", and serve the construction of a modern new Chongqing with deeper-level, wider-field, and higher-level central-local cooperation.

Wang Zhijie, Director of the Chongqing Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology, stated in his speech that Chongqing will classify intelligent connected new energy vehicles as the first industry of the "33618" modern manufacturing cluster. Returning to the status of "China's No. 1 Automotive City" in 2025, the production of new energy vehicles citywide from January to July this year, and the export volume of automobiles and new energy vehicles maintained high-speed growth, showing sufficient industrial resilience and a positive trend. Chongqing continues to empower industrial upgrade with innovation, building an industrial pattern led by leading enterprises and covering the entire chain. Relying on the new model of "Industry Brain + Future Factory" and high-quality computing resources to deepen cross-border integration, it has created a new track of "AI + Auto". The city has already built a perfect automotive industry innovation ecosystem and a full-process inspection and testing system. National-level testing and certification institutions represented by China Merchants Vehicle Research, relying on a group of "national" quality inspection centers, comprehensively cover the full-chain services of automotive R&D, manufacturing, and export certification, consolidating the foundation of industrial quality and technical guarantees. This conference gathers multi-party innovation resources, releases a series of innovation results and special competitions, and helps Chongqing accelerate the construction of an international influential capital of intelligent connected new energy vehicles, and grow a trillion-yuan-level automotive industry cluster.

Fu Bingfeng, Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, stated in his speech that the global automotive industry is in a century-old transformation period of deep integration of electrification, intelligence, and connectivity. Industrial competition has upgraded from single-technology comparison to a contest of ecosystem systems and cluster strength. He pointed out that industrial clusters are the core carriers of ecological prosperity, presenting characteristics of "innovation synergy, local supporting, and ecosystem integration"; Chongqing, as the core highland of the western automotive industry, relies on precise policy guidance and accelerated industrial upgrade through the Chengdu-Chongqing regional linkage, and has initially built an industrial cluster with global competitiveness. Fu Bingfeng emphasized that the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers will work with all parties to improve the supply chain synergy mechanism, build an industry exchange and cooperation platform, help regional industrial clusters continue to upgrade, and jointly promote the high-quality development of the Chinese automotive industry.

Chu Xiaowei, Deputy Director of the Management Committee of Western Science City Chongqing High-tech Zone, stated in his speech that Chongqing High-tech Zone is the core carrying area of Western (Chongqing) Science City. It is laying out the intelligent connected new energy vehicle industry ecosystem with full effort and has gathered a batch of leading enterprises and innovation platforms. The High-tech Zone will take this conference as an opportunity to deepen pragmatic cooperation with China Merchants Group, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, and industry enterprises, accelerate the gathering of high-end innovation resources, cultivate new development momentum for industrial development, and contribute to Chongqing's construction as an international influential capital of intelligent connected new energy vehicles.

Results Released, Witnessing the Hard-core Strength of "New Intelligence"

At the opening ceremony, Changan Automobile, Seres, Geely, Qingling, China Merchants Vehicle Research, Western Intelligent Connectivity, Chongqing University, Chongqing University of Technology, and Chongqing Jiaotong University jointly released 10 2026 Intelligent Connected New Energy Vehicle Industrial Cluster Innovation Results, covering cutting-edge fields such as intelligent driving, intelligent chassis, intelligent cockpit, and green low-carbon, fully demonstrating the innovation vitality of coordinated development of the industrial chain upstream and downstream.

Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Professor at Tsinghua University, Li Jun; Deng Renjie, Deputy General Manager of China Merchants Group; Fu Bingfeng, Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers; Xie Rongbin, Chairman, Editor-in-Chief of China Energy Automotive Media Group and Chairman of China Auto Times; Chu Xiaowei, Deputy Director of the Management Committee of Western Science City Chongqing High-tech Zone jointly witnessed the release of results.

Academician Insights, Diagnosis the New Direction of Intelligent Automotive Safety

Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Professor at Tsinghua University, Li Jun, delivered a keynote report titled "On the Architecture of Automotive Autonomous Driving Operation Safety — Continuous Safety Technology and System for the Full Lifecycle". The report points out that with Safety Case becoming the core standard for United Nations autonomous driving access and ISMR (In-service Monitoring and Reporting) written into China's mandatory national standards, the focus of autonomous driving safety has shifted from the "pre-deployment phase" to the "post-deployment phase", with long-tail scenarios becoming the core battlefield for safety optimization. He emphasized that the essence of continuous safety is dynamically verifying the validity of safety arguments and timely reconstructing failed arguments; autonomous driving development can be outsourced, but safety and verification responsibilities cannot. The vehicle manufacturer must implement the "set objectives, collect evidence, conduct arguments, and assume responsibilities" main responsibility, building an in-service vehicle operation safety data base. Aiming at the current lack of a set of interoperable safety deliverables in the industry, the report calls for vehicle enterprises, regulators, and testers to jointly build a full-lifecycle closed loop of "trigger-judgment-graded reporting-analysis-review-reconstruction of arguments-scenario re-injection", create an industry-level autonomous driving operation safety public innovation platform, support the internationalization of Chinese standards with third-party joint verification, and improve China's discourse power in the global automotive industry chain, supply chain, and value chain.

Zhou Wei, Director of the Automotive Transportation Research Center of the China Academy of Traffic and Transportation Sciences of the Ministry of Transport and Foreign Academician of the Russian Academy of Engineering, delivered a keynote report titled "Thoughts and Exploration on Intelligent Vehicle Transportation Services". The report systematically expounded the application path and management system of autonomous driving vehicles in the field of transportation services, proposing that application should clarify attribute positioning, adhere to three principles: people-centric, limited condition usage, and clear definition of responsibilities; it introduced that China has already built a policy and regulatory system covering test demonstration, product access, road travel, and commercial application, especially the "Guidelines for Autonomous Vehicle Transportation Safety Services (Trial)", which provides the fundamental basis for compliant commercialization pilots; it proposed that intelligent commercial vehicles should be classified and graded based on control subjects, and implement full-lifecycle management for autonomous driving transportation enterprises, vehicles, and personnel from the perspective of the "Three Gates and One Supervision" industry regulatory system, promoting the coordinated development of technology and regulations through pilots, and ultimately achieving safe, efficient, and scaled application of autonomous driving in real transportation scenarios.

Promoting Research through Competition, Gathering the Innovation Force of "New Youth"

As the "Merchants Cup" Creative Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, the first automotive technology vertical special event created in six sessions—"Young New Force Special Competition", is a highlight of this conference that has attracted much attention. Since the competition launch, it has gathered more than 600 young new forces and more than 120 innovative projects, anchoring five cutting-edge tracks: intelligent connectivity, new energy, humanoid robots, low-altitude economy, and artificial intelligence. Participating teams cover vehicle manufacturing enterprises such as FAW, Avatr, and Qingling; universities and research institutes such as Stanford University, Peking University, UESTC, and Chongqing University; and several hard-tech startup companies. Projects highly fit the local industrial chain in Chongqing.

Award-winning teams enjoy full-chain supporting support including innovation academy training, industry docking, resource linking, comprehensive financial services, and high-end media publicity, promoting more young innovation results to land and transform in Chongqing, injecting lasting momentum into the high-quality development of the intelligent connected new energy vehicle industry.

Strong Alliance, Building a "New Ecology" Collaborative Pattern

At the opening ceremony, two strategic cooperation agreements were signed and landed, injecting new momentum into deepening industry synergy and building an innovation ecosystem.

The strategic cooperation between the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers and China Merchants Detection was officially signed. This strong alliance between the two parties will jointly build the brand of "Chongqing Automotive Innovation Conference", strengthen industry activity exchange and industrial cooperation, and provide strong support for high-quality development of the industry. Yang Zhongping, Deputy Secretary-General of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, and Ji Lun, Deputy General Manager of China Merchants Detection and Chairman of China Merchants Vehicle Research signed on behalf of both parties. Fu Bingfeng, Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, and Zhang Rizhong, General Manager of China Merchants Detection, jointly witnessed it.

The "Automotive Intelligent Agent Safety Joint Laboratory" was jointly built by China Merchants Vehicle Research and Professor Li Jun's team from Tsinghua University. The two sides will carry out pragmatic cooperation in directions such as full-lifecycle safety argumentation and training-testing integrated datasets, jointly guarding the bottom line of automotive industry safety, and further improving the Chongqing intelligent connected new energy vehicle industry ecosystem. Jin Peng, General Manager of Zhejiang Yipu Digital Intelligence Technology Co., Ltd., and Ma Ruixue, Operations Director of China Merchants Vehicle Research, signed on behalf of both parties. Wu Jianhui, Chairman of Zhejiang Yipu Digital Intelligence Technology Co., Ltd., and Min Zhaoyuan, Deputy General Manager of China Merchants Detection, Chief Executive Officer of China Merchants Vehicle Research, and General Manager, jointly witnessed it.

Frontier Sharing, Co-expanding New Space for Open Cooperation

In the keynote speech session, many guests from vehicle manufacturing enterprises, testing institutions, overseas industry organizations, and young new forces shared insights on the frontiers of intelligent automotive technology and international cooperation.

Tan Huan, Chief Expert of Changan Automobile and General Manager of Changan Tianshu Intelligent Robot Company, in "No Innovation without AI, No Safety without Changan, Changan Practice of Intelligent Connected New Energy Vehicle Innovation", stated that AI is pushing automobiles to evolve into intelligent automotive robots. Changan adheres to "No Innovation without AI, No Safety without Changan", promoting innovation in intelligent driving, chassis, cockpit, etc., with the SDA Tianshu Architecture and Pan-Safety System as the foundation. Changan also proposed to build an innovation system driven by "Demand + Technology" for the future, promoting full-chain synergy of "Technology — Industry — Ecosystem".

Duan Wei, COO of Chongqing Seres Phoenix Intelligent Creation Technology Co., Ltd., in "Innovation Driven, Practicing the Development of New Quality Productive Forces", stated that the high-end development of Chinese automobile brands is a concrete embodiment of the development of new quality productive forces. Seres focuses on intelligent safety, Mofang Technology Platform, Super Extended Range, and Smart Services, promoting high-end brand development through the synergy of technological innovation and industrial innovation. At the same time, relying on the Automotive Industry Brain to link more than 300 partners, it promotes synergy efficiency in R&D, manufacturing, and industrial ecology through digital and intelligent capabilities.

Dr. Kraisorn Ongphonglert, President of the Thailand Automotive Institute, in the keynote speech "Exploring Opportunities to Establish a Regional Automotive Technology R&D Test Platform for the Global Market in Thailand", pointed out that Thailand, with its diverse test scenarios, mature manufacturing capabilities, broad ASEAN market, perfect trade network, and policy support, is an ideal choice for building a regional automotive technology R&D test platform. The ASEAN Automotive Innovation and Standardization Testing Center operated by it will be completed in 2026, covering full-domain test capabilities and meeting international standards. It looks forward to deepening China-Thailand automotive industry strategic cooperation, jointly building a technical innovation and verification system, and co-expanding the global market.

Chen Bin, Deputy Chief Engineer of the National New Energy Vehicle Quality Supervision and Inspection Center (Chongqing) and Senior Expert of China Merchants Vehicle Research, in "From 'Passive Disposal' to 'Active Prevention' — Exploration and Evolution of the Electric Vehicle Fire Safety System", stated that electric vehicle safety is shifting from post-event rescue to pre-event prevention. Material, structure, electrical, control, and evacuation synergy should be strengthened, and the C-EVFI verification system should be used to promote the implementation of safety standards. China Merchants Vehicle Research also builds a verification system covering 5 major blocks, 16 primary indicators, 43 secondary indicators, and 125 verification contents to construct full-scenario safety for the whole vehicle, and explores an "Inspection · Patrol · Extinguishment" integrated smart prevention and control solution for underground parking lots.

Cui Guijia, Chairman of Zhejiang Zhiyuan Sodium Science Technology Co., Ltd., Shanghai Jiao Tong University PhD, and winner of the first prize of the Young New Force Special Competition, in "Anode-free Sodium-ion Battery: Next-generation New Battery Technology for Multi-application Scenarios", introduced that anode-free sodium-ion batteries can improve energy density, reduce costs, and achieve breakthroughs in nail penetration safety, low-temperature performance, and cycle life, accelerating industrial landing. Currently, the team has built full-chain capabilities from electrolyte, current collector to cell manufacturing, and is promoting relevant production line construction and multi-scenario customer verification.

Gathering Strength for Innovation, Co-expanding New Space for Automotive Industry Development

To further extend the depth of conference exchange, broaden the breadth of industrial docking, and promote conference discussion from the macro strategic level to the implementation of specific technical fields and industrial practice scenarios, on September 4th, 9 major theme sub-conferences of the 2026 Chongqing Automotive Innovation Conference opened simultaneously. The sub-conferences revolved around themes such as automotive intelligent safety, automotive cryptography application, green low-carbon and health, electric vehicle fire mechanism, flying cars and low-altitude economy, Chinese automotive going-global globalization, intelligent safety systems, automotive intelligent testing equipment, and intelligent connected new energy vehicle industry-education integration. Through diverse forms such as keynote sharing, roundtable dialogue, and technology roadshows, it disassembled common industry pain points, explored cutting-edge application paths, and continuously deepened ideological collision and industrial docking.

The 2026 Chongqing Automotive Innovation Conference took "New Intelligence, New Youth, New Ecology" as the main thread, and built a high-end exchange platform connecting technology, industry, capital, and talent through a multi-dimensional activity matrix of "1+2+9+N". Looking to the future, China Merchants Vehicle Research will take this conference as an opportunity, break through the result transformation channel, promote more innovation results to walk out of the laboratory and land in industrialization, and with the posture of "Gathering Strength for Innovation", co-create a new situation of "Leading the Future", and contribute greater strength to the construction of an automotive power home and the transformation and upgrade of the global automotive industry.