A highly integrated seven-in-one electric drive assembly with a peak system efficiency of 96%; an intelligent flexible workstation for welding supporting flexible automated production of steel and steel-aluminum car bodies; and the Wenjie M9 new energy vehicle, with over 200,000 units delivered in two years… Entering the National Museum's "14th Five-Year Plan" Achievements Exhibition on Made in China, the technological breakthroughs of the Seres Group in the field of new energy vehicles vividly reflect the development of Chinese manufacturing towards innovation and excellence.
The automotive industry, a pillar industry of the national economy, has a long industrial chain, a wide scope, and a strong driving force, playing a crucial role in stabilizing industrial growth.
In recent years, General Secretary Xi Jinping has visited automotive companies multiple times, emphasizing that "developing new energy vehicles is the only way for my country to move from a large automobile country to a strong automobile country," and pointing out that "to promote the high-quality development of my country's automotive manufacturing industry, we must strengthen the independent research and development of key core technologies and key components, achieve technological self-reliance, and build strong and large national brands."
Strengthening R&D, accelerating transformation, and intensifying market expansion, China's new energy vehicle industry reached new heights in 2025, deeply cultivating new tracks: production and sales of new energy vehicles reached 16.626 million and 16.49 million units respectively, representing year-on-year increases of 29% and 28.2%, with new energy vehicle sales accounting for 47.9% of total new vehicle sales; key core technologies such as next-generation power batteries, electronic and electrical architecture, intelligent cockpits, and intelligent assisted driving achieved continuous breakthroughs.
"Driven by the combined effects of policies such as the trade-in program for consumer goods, the promotion of new energy vehicles in rural areas, and enhancing supply-demand matching, the market demand potential of my country's new energy vehicle industry continued to be released, and production and sales maintained their growth momentum," said Fu Bingfeng, Executive Vice President and Secretary-General of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. He added that the impressive performance of new energy vehicles reflects the strong resilience and surging momentum of my country's economy as it moves forward under pressure and towards new and superior development.
Full-domain artificial intelligence empowers and enhances the competitiveness of the new energy vehicle industry.
Autonomous obstacle avoidance, navigating continuous curves and blind spots… On the streets of Guangzhou, Guangdong, an XPeng test vehicle equipped with the second-generation VLA large-scale model demonstrated its powerful scene adaptability and accurate predictive capabilities. As a crucial step towards achieving Level 4 autonomous driving, XPeng's second-generation VLA has entered the final stage of preparation for mass production and will be officially launched in the first quarter of this year.
While rapidly iterating in the field of combined assisted driving, in 2025, automotive companies are fully committed to promoting the deep integration of artificial intelligence with the entire industry chain.
Based on the Xingrui Intelligent Computing Center with a computing power of 23.5 exascale per second, Geely is accelerating the implementation of "full-domain artificial intelligence"; GAC Group, in collaboration with Huawei, has jointly developed an "AI-enabled intelligent manufacturing solution for the automotive industry," which can significantly shorten product development cycles and optimize order and production resource allocation.
Brand upgrading is accelerating, and the in-depth rectification of "involutionary" competition is beginning to show results.
With the implementation of measures to combat product inconsistency and enforce anti-unfair competition laws in the automotive industry, including measures to curb internal competition, the persistent problems of disorderly price wars that once plagued the domestic auto industry are gradually being corrected.
From a development model reliant on resource input and low-price competition, the industry is shifting towards technological innovation and value upgrading. Mainstream automakers are focusing on high-quality supply, taking new steps towards brand advancement. A number of flagship models representing brand technological strength have gained market recognition.
Standard upgrades are reshaping the safety baseline for new energy vehicles.
The passenger compartment structure remained intact, with no significant deformation of the A-pillar; the doors unlocked normally, and all four doors could be opened normally after the collision; the high voltage was deactivated normally, and there were no leaks in the fuel system; the battery pack showed no leakage, no smoke, no fire, and no explosion; the dummy injury met the limit requirements…
Recently, at Geely's Global Safety Center, two Lynk & Co 900s completed a "relative 100 km/h non-uniform speed car-to-car collision" with excellent results.
“Unlike traditional constant-speed head-on collisions, a low-speed vehicle traveling at 30 km/h experiences greater structural deformation stress compared to a bullet vehicle traveling at 70 km/h. This crash test is the first to incorporate the high-frequency, high-risk scenario of ‘lane-changing, overtaking, and head-on collision’ in real-world road conditions into extreme verification,” explained a representative from Geely’s Global Safety Center. The center can perform not only designated tests but also crash tests at any angle from 0 to 180 degrees, assisted driving tests in extreme environments, and verification of technologies related to health and safety, and digital security.
In 2025, to improve the safety of new energy vehicles, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Transport, and other departments successively organized the formulation of a series of mandatory national standards and draft standards for public comment, covering areas such as power batteries, combined driving assistance systems, door handles, and automotive safety technologies. Innovation by new energy vehicle manufacturers is also beginning to focus on preventing battery thermal runaway, raising the safety ceiling of combined assisted driving systems, and improving active safety features.
Data shows that from January to October 2025, the installation rate of automatic emergency braking systems in the new energy passenger vehicle market reached 72.1%.
Looking ahead to the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the automotive industry, along with other sectors, will adhere to innovation-driven development, accelerate the cultivation and expansion of new growth drivers, enhance the dynamism and vitality of high-quality development, and seek new breakthroughs in the pursuit of new and superior development.