At the world’s greatest automobile truthful, which opened in Beijing on Friday, there have been a whole bunch of producers, greater than 1,000 automobiles, a whole bunch of hundreds of fans – and hardly anybody behind a wheel.
China’s automobile firms have cornered the home electrical car market, and are more and more seen on the worldwide stage. Now they’re turning their consideration to what they’re betting is the way forward for mobility: autonomous driving.
On the Beijing Auto Honest, an enormous business occasion that covers 380,000 sq. metres on the outskirts of the capital, the nation’s carmakers confirmed off a variety of clever driving applied sciences.
In China’s cut-throat home market, almost each huge carmaker is investing closely within the software program and computing energy wanted to make “hands-free” driving a actuality as they compete to supply further perks and discover new methods to generate income.
And Huawei, the telecommunications group, revealed this week that it could be investing as much as 80bn yuan (£8.7bn) over the following 5 years to develop its autonomous driving software program and computing energy.
“The truth that nearly each automaker has some model of clever driving makes it completely different to nearly any market on the planet,” mentioned Tu Le, the managing director of Sino Auto Insights, a consultancy.
Le mentioned that the Chinese language market was so aggressive that merely promoting passenger automobiles domestically was not a viable manner for Chinese language firms to earn a living. Extra perks, corresponding to leasing AI-powered software program, are wanted to spice up revenues.
The EV maker Xpeng mentioned its newest AI mannequin permits drivers to present the automobile instructions – corresponding to, “park close to the doorway to the buying centre” – slightly than a selected spot on a map.
An AI-powered working system from Xiaomi, an equipment and cellphone maker, permits drivers to make restaurant reservations, compile notes whereas driving and place espresso orders. It could actually additionally detect when drivers appear confused or agitated and regulate the lighting and music for his or her arrival at dwelling.
Home automobile gross sales in China have fallen sharply in current months. The variety of passenger automobiles bought in China dropped by 17% within the first three months of this 12 months as the federal government phased out a subsidy programme.
BYD, the chief of China’s EV business and the corporate seen as a bellwether for the sector, has reported seven consecutive months of declining gross sales.
China’s exports, in the meantime, soared by greater than 60% within the first quarter.
China’s largest automobile exporter, Chery, has just lately set its sights on the UK market. Since launching within the UK in August 2025, it has grow to be one of many nation’s fastest-growing automobile manufacturers, with 13,500 vehicles bought between September 2025 and March 2026.
On Friday, the corporate introduced a objective for 10m world annual gross sales by 2030, up from 5m in 2025. Farrell Hsu, the UK nation director for Chery, mentioned: “This distinctive development underlines Chery UK’s place as a key contributor to the general enterprise development by 2030.”
The concentrate on abroad gross sales was evident on the truthful because the carmaker Geely introduced plans to deploy hundreds of driverless taxis globally subsequent 12 months via its ride-hailing arm, Caocao. Chinese language firms wish to compete with US robotaxi corporations corresponding to Waymo, which have confirmed profitable in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Robotaxis have already been rolled out in a number of Chinese language cities, however their widescale adoption has been restricted by regulatory boundaries as a lot as technical ones.
Final week the federal government concluded a public session on a proposed new set of security requirements for autonomous vehicles. There are not any nationwide pointers, and Beijing has been cautious about permitting unfettered entry for driverless vehicles on its roads.
Final month a number of of Baidu’s Apollo Go robotaxis stalled in the midst of the street in Wuhan, leaving riders stranded for hours.
However, Chinese language robotaxis are anticipated on the streets of London this 12 months as Lyft and Uber have introduced partnerships with Baidu to make use of its self-driving software program.
Confronted with tariffs in huge markets, corresponding to theUS and the EU, Chinese language carmakers are specializing in smaller markets, such because the UK and Canada, to shift models.
One business skilled mentioned the UK was interesting for Chinese language firms as a result of it was seen as being “culturally agnostic” about permitting Chinese language EVs on its roads – whereas different international locations have blocked them on nationwide safety grounds.
Chinese language firms are anticipated to account for one in each 10 new vehicles bought in Britain in 2025.
In February, Chery launched its fourth model within the UK. Hsu mentioned the corporate was “actively contemplating choices for manufacturing and R&D services within the UK”.
