Chinese automobile industry grows premier green vehicles

Development of domestically grown premier electric vehicles will be a key strategy for Chinese automobile manufacturers, as the global new energy vehicle market has entered a golden era, according to automobile manufacturers during an international auto show in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province.

"The domestic NEVs market has kept growing, with exports also witnessing a sharp increase," said Feng Xingya, president of GAC Group, a leading automobile manufacturer based in Guangzhou.

The Guangzhou-headquartered company brought its latest i-GTEC, GAC Motor E8 and its NEV new arm Aion's Hyper HT and Aion Y series during the Guangzhou auto show, which kicked off on Friday and displayed the latest 469 NEVs and latest smart electric technologies and services.

According to Feng, export of China's NEVs is expected to grow by 50-60 percent year-on-year in 2023, helping greatly boost sales of Chinese electric vehicles.

"We are taking opportunities of the NEV market to promote the development of domestically grown brands GAC Aion and GAC Motor," said Feng. GAC Aion's production and sales of NEVs will surpass 500,000 units, according to Feng.

To facilitate the development of the NEV market, GAC Group has unveiled an ambitious plan to equip all vehicles with in-house all-solid-state batteries by 2026, according to Feng.

Chinese automobile makers have attached greater importance to the development of the NEV market by unveiling new models of premier electric vehicles during the auto show.

Denza, a joint venture between China's BYD and Germany's Daimler AG, also unveiled its D9 Premier MPV during the auto show, vowing to tap the growing luxury electric vehicle market.

"We will only focus on the production of premier NEVs in the Chinese market," said Zhao Changjiang, president of Denza. The company has opened more than 295 outlets in over 123 cities across the country.

Additionally, mobile transportation service provider Ontime unveiled its fully self-developed autonomous driving solution during the auto show, which includes Ontime Data Encoder, Ontime MapNet and Ontime NexSim.

The Ontime Data Encoder, which helps to improve the accuracy of vehicle recognition of traffic environment and optimize the reliability of autonomous driving algorithms and decision-making, will ensure the safety and excellent experience of driving.

The Ontime MapNet, which includes map collection, preprocessing, map production and compilation and other functions, helps to achieve automatic driving in both map and without-map sciences.

It was the first time that Ontime, based in Guangzhou, has publicly demonstrated its complete autonomous driving solution, following its hybrid operation of manned ride-hailing services and Robotaxi commercialization in 2022.