When Chinese brands of smart new energy vehicles such as the XPeng G6, IM LS6 and Xiaomi SU7 Ultra made a collective appearance at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK, among which domestic Robotaxis were speeding on the streets of many countries including the United Arab Emirates and Singapore, Chinese automobiles attracted worldwide attention with their intelligence.

 

In recent years, China's automotive intelligence has advanced by leaps and bounds, providing a "Chinese model" for the global automotive intelligence transformation in terms of policy, market, technology and ecosystem. An Qingheng, a member of the China Automotive Industry Consulting Committee, expressed his amazement at a recent Chain Expo theme forum.

 

In recent years, with the continuous breakthroughs in key technologies and the maturation of the industrial chain and supply chain, the curtain has risen on the second half of the intelligent journey for Chinese automobiles going global, and the flames of battle are raging.

 

The time has come for the world's leading intelligent technologies to go global

 

Relevant data shows that currently, the installation rate of L2 and above assisted driving functions in passenger vehicles in China has exceeded 50%, ranking first in the world. As mid-to-high-end models increasingly come standard with parking functions, the penetration rate of parking assistance has exceeded 20%, ranking among the top in the world. The penetration rate of intelligent cockpits in domestic passenger vehicles will exceed 70% in 2024. It can be said that in terms of intelligence, we have achieved terminal first, and the industrial ecosystem has become increasingly rich. Zhang Yongwei, vice chairman and secretary-general of the China Association of Electric Vehicles, said recently in a public occasion.

 

In the key technology fields of intelligent driving algorithms, lidar, high-precision maps, and automotive-grade chips, An Qingheng pointed out that a number of domestic enterprises such as Horizon Robotics, Black Sesame Intelligence, Huawei, and Baidu have emerged in China, achieving accelerated breakthroughs. In terms of ecological collaboration, currently, over 50 cities across the country have carried out road test demonstrations of intelligent connected vehicles, opening up 32,000 kilometers of test roads and completing the intelligent transformation of approximately 10,000 kilometers of roads. The integrated advantages of "vehicle-road-cloud-network-map" are obvious. It can be said that China currently holds a leading position in intelligent technology and has established a relatively complete supply chain system in areas such as algorithms, sensors, chips, communications, cloud computing, and audio-visual effects.

 

In the wave of intelligence, China's automotive industry, with its forward-looking layout and market vitality, is transforming from a "follower" to a "parallel runner" and even a "leader", becoming an indispensable driving force in the global automotive intelligence development map. An Qingheng said that thanks to its comprehensive leadership in technology, products and applications, China's technologies in areas such as intelligent driving, vehicle-road coordination and high-precision perception are benefiting the world in the form of joint research and development and standard co-construction.

 

In April this year, IM AD intelligent assisted driving, jointly developed by IM Motors and Momenta, announced its official overseas expansion. Subsequently, the IM IM5 (overseas version of IM L6) and IM IM6 (overseas version of IM LS6) equipped with this intelligent driving assistance system were launched in the UK in July and made their debut at the 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed. In May this year, Zero Run Auto also announced plans to launch models equipped with its intelligent driving technology in Europe in 2026.

 

Robotaxi companies such as weride and RoboTaxi have accelerated their overseas expansion through cooperation with local governments and international mobility platforms. In March, RoboTaxi, a subsidiary of Baidu, successively reached cooperation agreements with the Dubai Road Transport Authority and Autogo, an autonomous driving mobility company in the United Arab Emirates, planning to carry out large-scale tests and services of intelligent assisted driving in Dubai and ABU Dhabi. In May, Pony.ai and weride successively announced that they would expand their cooperation with Uber or reach a cooperation agreement, leveraging Uber's global platform to deploy overseas Robotaxi fleets in Europe, the Middle East and other regions. Not long ago, Robotaxi announced that it would connect thousands of Robotaxis to Uber's global mobility network and deploy its sixth-generation Robotaxis in the Asian and Middle Eastern markets first by the end of this year.

 

"Electrification has become one of the 'new three elements' for going global, and intelligent overseas expansion also offers overseas development opportunities for China's automotive industry." " Zhang Yongwei introduced that in the past two years, the penetration rate of new vehicles with L2-L3 driving automation functions in China has been nearly 20% higher than the global average. This means that China's automotive industry can rely on a large number of vehicles equipped with intelligent functions and go global together with a large supply chain of intelligent components. This will become a new supporting force for the global development of China's automotive industry after electrification.

 

Undercurrents are surging, and multiple challenges cannot be ignored

 

Compared with electrification, the overseas expansion of intelligence clearly faces more problems and challenges. In an interview with China Automotive News, Hu Jianyao, chief researcher of the Fifth Research Institute of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, believes that the overseas expansion of automotive intelligence not only faces challenges from changes in the external environment such as geopolitics, but also encounters very complex issues in terms of technical standards, data compliance, and ecological services.

 

In this regard, Lu Wenliang, a specially-appointed researcher for the automotive industry at the Industrial Science and Technology Innovation Center of the Institute of Strategic Consulting of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told China Automotive News that the overseas expansion of intelligent connected functions involves aspects such as cross-border data flow, personal privacy protection, and service export, posing challenges to a large number of security and compliance issues including cyber security, data security, and privacy security. It is reported that currently over 100 countries have issued regulations related to data security, with diverse requirements. This means that how to meet the intelligent security requirements of various countries is the primary and core issue that automakers face when going global with intelligence.

 

For instance, Europe has a very strict General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and there are certain differences in details between the rules for protecting personal information and those in China. Lu Wenliang introduced.

 

Secondly, the current willingness of foreign car consumers to pay for intelligent functions is still lower than that in China. How to cultivate consumption habits and adapt to local driving scenarios is also a difficult problem that needs to be solved in the process of automotive intelligence going global. Take Europe as an example. European countries are generally small in area, with fine and diverse road networks. The density of roads in European countries such as Germany and the United Kingdom is much higher than that in China, which means that the road network is rather complex. In the face of differentiated paths, it is particularly important for Chinese intelligent driving to overcome the problem of "incompatibility with the local environment".

 

In addition, Zhang Yongwei pointed out that complex geopolitics would also hinder the pace of intelligent overseas expansion. In January this year, the US Department of Commerce issued a management rule on the grounds of "protecting the national security of the United States", prohibiting the sale or import of certain connected car software and hardware from China and Russia. The software ban will come into effect for models starting from 2027, and the hardware ban for models starting from 2030.

 

From the perspective of technological development itself, Zhou Weidong, the president of the Machinery Industry Branch of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, emphasized that China's automotive industry still needs to first overcome the technological shortcomings in core areas such as in-vehicle operating systems and high-performance chips, and accelerate the process of domestic production.

 

Take multiple measures to build the brand of "China's Smart Vehicles"

 

How can Chinese automobiles break through the various constraints of intelligent overseas expansion and go global?

 

Zhang Yongwei proposed that it is necessary to explore diversified overseas expansion paths for the intelligent vehicle industry chain and supply chain. Firstly, in the early stage, enterprises can adopt a localization strategy to store, process and use data to ensure data security and compliance. According to Lu Wenliang, currently, most domestic automakers going global choose to replace the suppliers of intelligent network functions with local European suppliers to meet local data compliance requirements. Additionally, they need to modify or delete some functions in accordance with local regulations and standards.

 

Second, intelligent component enterprises can rely on the global networks of multinational companies to expand their overseas development. Take Momenta as an example. It not only realizes the official overseas expansion of IM AD intelligent assisted driving through IM Motors, but also joins hands with Uber to plan to launch commercial autonomous driving Robotaxi services in Europe in early 2026.

 

Zhang Yongwei said that car manufacturers also need to adopt differentiated strategies in line with the demands of local consumers and install intelligent functions. They can give priority to promoting the overseas expansion of simple functions such as intelligent parking. It is reported that in recent years, in order to accurately capture the demands of overseas consumers for intelligent vehicles, many automakers have established intelligent R&D centers overseas one after another. In April 2024, NIO's European Intelligent Driving Technology Center was officially launched, aiming to provide intelligent driving experiences for users in the European market based on actual driving scenarios, user demands, and relevant regulatory requirements in Europe. In May this year, BYD's European headquarters officially settled in Hungary, with the plan to first focus on in-depth research in intelligent assisted driving technology and next-generation automotive electrification technology.

 

While the expansion of domestic brands outward brings about market expansion and enhanced popularity, it is also inevitable that disputes in areas such as intellectual property rights will arise. Therefore, the international layout of intelligent connected vehicle technology still needs to rely on the discourse power of the patent system and standards, and use intellectual property rights to safeguard the global development of China's automotive intelligence. At present, China is actively participating in the formulation of international standards related to intelligent connected vehicles and continuously enhancing its say. Not long ago, the international standard "Test Scenario Evaluation and Test Case Generation for Autonomous Driving Systems of Road Vehicles", led by our country, was officially released. This is an important practice in participating in the formulation of global automotive intelligence rules.

 

According to Cao Keqiong, the intellectual property director of ZEEKR Intelligent Technology Co., LTD., relevant data shows that the number of overseas patent applications in the field of intelligent connected vehicles has been continuously rising since 2012 and reached its peak in 2022. Among them, China, Japan, the United States, South Korea, Germany and other countries have a relatively large layout. Cao Keqiong stated that when enterprises make overseas layouts, they must integrate their own development strategies, local automotive industry development, laws and regulations, and review standards, among other factors, and use intellectual property rights to pave the way for the overseas expansion of automotive intelligence.

 

Of course, the overseas expansion of automotive intelligence cannot do without an open and collaborative global technological ecosystem. Zhou Weidong called on all countries around the world to break down technological barriers and promote mutual recognition of international standards in areas such as artificial intelligence, algorithms, vehicle-road coordination protocols, and data security, jointly building a common divisor of technical standards. Meanwhile, he pointed out that the intelligent vehicle chain runs through numerous links such as chips, materials, and energy. It also requires global enterprises to jointly tackle issues like battery recycling and green logistics, and build a green supply chain community.

 

Originally published on China Automotive News Network on July 28, 2025