Automobile steady growth plan: standardize competition order, accelerate L3 access, break through automotive chips, solid-state batteries, and other technologies

Regarding the automotive steady growth plan, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and eight other departments have recently deployed: striving to achieve annual automobile sales of about 32.3 million units by 2025; further standardizing the competitive order of the industry; conditionally approving the production access of L3 level models; accelerating breakthroughs in automotive chips; and further increasing efforts to promote automobile consumption.

On September 13, the Ministry of Industry announced that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and eight other departments jointly issued the "Automotive Industry Steady Growth Work Plan (2025-2026)" on the 12th, proposing to strive for annual automobile sales of about 32.3 million units by 2025, a year-on-year increase of about 3%, of which new energy vehicle sales are expected to be around 15.5 million units, a year-on-year increase of about 20%.

The goals set for 2025 also include a year-on-year increase of about 6% in the added value of the automotive manufacturing industry and stable growth in automobile exports. By 2026, the industry operation will maintain a steady and positive development trend, with further improvements in industry scale and quality efficiency.

The plan points out that the 6% growth target for the added value of the automotive manufacturing industry reflects the policy level's firm confidence in the industry's steady growth, while the 20% sales growth expectation for new energy vehicles far exceeds the overall growth rate of the automotive market, highlighting the accelerated advancement of the industry's electrification transformation.

The plan addresses the current challenges faced by the automotive industry, such as insufficient effective demand and disorderly market competition, proposing to strengthen cost surveys and price monitoring, and further standardize the competitive order of the industry. At the same time, it will promote the access and road testing pilot of intelligent connected vehicles, conditionally approve the production access of L3 level models.

The plan clarifies that it will accelerate breakthroughs in key technologies such as automotive chips, operating systems, artificial intelligence, and solid-state batteries. The plan also proposes to further increase efforts to promote automobile consumption, encouraging tiered consumption and renewal consumption of automobiles.

Standardizing Competitive Order as a Key Task

In response to the issue of disorderly competition in the industry, the plan proposes to establish a "key automotive enterprise commitment reflection window," which will accept feedback from suppliers regarding related issues and coordinate to promote solutions. This mechanism aims to address the issue of vehicle manufacturers defaulting on payments to suppliers and maintain the healthy development of the industrial chain.

The plan requires the implementation of a special rectification of the chaotic online phenomena in the automotive industry, standardizing the release of industry data information and legally combating false advertising and commercial defamation. It will strengthen the supervision and inspection of product production consistency and urge key automotive enterprises to fulfill their payment commitment.

At the enterprise management level, the plan proposes to study and promote the group management of automotive production enterprises to improve resource allocation efficiency, supporting leading enterprises to become stronger and better. This will help enhance industry concentration and promote structural optimization of the industry.

Policy Benefits for Intelligent Connected Vehicles

The plan clearly promotes the access and road testing pilot of intelligent connected vehicles, conditionally approving the production access of L3 level models. This marks an important step for China in the commercialization of autonomous driving applications.

In terms of infrastructure construction, the plan proposes to deeply carry out the pilot application of "vehicle-road-cloud integration" for intelligent connected vehicles and accelerate the construction of connected infrastructure and cloud control platforms. It encourages high-performance communication modules such as V2X and 5G for automotive pre-installation, and accelerates the large-scale application of the Beidou system The plan supports enterprises in the automotive, information communication, and transportation industries to explore new business models with data as a link, accelerating the cultivation of a diversified value chain. This will create more commercialization opportunities for the intelligent connected vehicle industry.

Accelerating Key Technology Breakthroughs in Automotive Chips and Other Areas

In terms of technological innovation, the plan clearly proposes to accelerate breakthroughs in key technologies such as automotive chips, operating systems, artificial intelligence, and solid-state batteries. Breakthroughs in these areas will directly impact the core competitiveness of China's automotive industry.

The plan requires the acceleration of the organization and implementation of major scientific and technological projects in the automotive field, supporting the innovation of large, medium, and small enterprises, and fully leveraging the advantages of open-source. It aims to stimulate potential consumer demand through technological innovation, leading and creating demand with high-quality supply.

In terms of talent cultivation, the plan proposes to increase the introduction of high-level talents in key areas such as automotive chips, operating systems, and basic materials. It supports the construction of national excellence engineer practice bases in the field of intelligent connected new energy vehicles, enhancing the local cultivation capacity of composite talents.

Strengthening Consumption Promotion Policies

The plan proposes to implement large-scale equipment updates and the old-for-new policy for consumer goods, supporting the replacement of old vehicles, new energy city buses, and power battery updates. It encourages regions with automobile purchase restrictions to optimize their policies, gradually transitioning from purchase management to usage management.

In promoting new energy vehicles, the plan requires the addition of over 700,000 new energy vehicles in 25 pilot cities in areas such as public transportation, taxis, and logistics distribution. It will continue to organize activities to promote new energy vehicles in rural areas, enhancing the electrification level of vehicle use among rural residents.

The plan also proposes to carry out pilot reforms in automotive circulation consumption, expanding the aftermarket consumption of automotive modifications, rentals, events, and RV camping. It aims to implement measures to facilitate second-hand car sales and promote efficient circulation of second-hand vehicles