Both production and sales have exceeded 34 million units, ranking first in the world for 17 consecutive years. New energy vehicle sales account for nearly half of the total, and the penetration rate of L2 functional passenger vehicles has reached 64%... In 2025, China's automotive industry has delivered an impressive performance report. Behind these data lies the continuous breakthrough of technological innovation, the gradual improvement of market order and safety regulatory system, and the continuous improvement of overall industry quality. Scale is the answer sheet of the past, quality is the exam paper of the future. Under policy guidance, with the continuous promotion of electrification, intelligence, and networking, the transformation of China's automotive industry from scale accumulation to quality leap is constantly deepening. By 2025, China's automotive industry will achieve breakthroughs in various aspects, as it has been ranked first in the world in terms of scale for 17 consecutive years. According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), by 2025, China's automobile production and sales will reach 34.531 million and 34.4 million respectively, an increase of 10.4% and 9.4% year-on-year, higher than the initial expectations. Chen Shihua, deputy secretary-general of the China Automobile Association, said that in 2025, the automobile industry will withstand external pressures such as trade protection and the restructuring of the global industrial chain, overcome multiple challenges such as technical challenges and industry "involution", and show strong development resilience and vitality. With the addition of the "two new" policies to strengthen the expansion of the market, a smooth transition and orderly connection have been achieved. New products from enterprises have been launched intensively, and terminal demand continues to be released. The annual automobile production and sales have exceeded expectations. Specifically, in terms of new energy vehicles, in 2025, under the combined effects of favorable policies, abundant supply, and continuous improvement of infrastructure, the market size of new energy vehicles will continue to grow, with production and sales exceeding 16 million units, reaching 16.626 million units and 16.49 million units respectively, an increase of 29% and 28.2% compared to the same period last year. The sales of new energy vehicles will reach 47.9% of the total new vehicle sales, an increase of 7 percentage points compared to the same period last year. The export performance is also good. By 2025, China's automobile exports will exceed 7 million units, reaching 7.098 million units, a year-on-year increase of 21.1%. Chinese car brands have also shown good development momentum in the industry trend. In 2025, the sales of Chinese brand passenger cars reached 20.936 million units, a year-on-year increase of 16.5%; The sales share reached 69.5%, an increase of 4.3 percentage points compared to the same period last year. In 2025, automobile production and sales will reach a new historical high, ranking first in the world for 17 consecutive years. Among them, the release of new kinetic energy is accelerating, and new energy vehicles have become the dominant force in China's automobile market; Foreign trade has shown strong resilience, and the export scale has reached a new level. In 2025, the automotive industry will continue to demonstrate strong development resilience and vitality, with multiple indicators reaching new highs and achieving a successful conclusion to the 14th Five Year Plan. ”Chen Shihua said. Behind the technological innovation driving the upgrading of industrial "quality" and the growth of production and sales volume is the comprehensive development and leap of the automotive industry. Under policy regulation and guidance, as well as the efforts of automobile companies, the Chinese automobile industry has maintained a steady development trend in fierce competition and gradually moved towards a stage of high-quality competition. On the one hand, the further deepening of the intelligent development of automobiles not only enhances the market recognition of combined driving assistance functions (L2), but also the industry is working together to promote the landing of higher-level autonomous driving. According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in the first three quarters of this year, the sales of new passenger cars with combined driving assistance function (L2) in China increased by 21.2% year-on-year, with a penetration rate of 64%. On December 15, 2025, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology approved two L3 level autonomous driving (conditional autonomous driving) models to be put on the road, which is also considered to mark the gradual development of China's autonomous driving technology towards mass production and application stage. In September 2025, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and eight other departments jointly issued the "Work Plan for Stable Growth in the Automotive Industry (2025-2026)", which proposes to accelerate breakthroughs in key technologies such as automotive chips, operating systems, artificial intelligence, and solid-state batteries, continuously improve product economy, durability, comfort and other performance, develop more new functions such as intelligent interaction and intelligent driving that meet consumer needs, and lead and create demand with high-quality supply. The "2025 Urban NOA Automotive Assisted Driving Research Report" released by China Automotive Industry Economic and Technological Information Research Institute Co., Ltd. believes that the intelligent development of China's automotive industry has achieved fruitful results and has entered a key stage of promoting the popularization of advanced driving assistance and accelerating the demonstration application of intelligent driving. The huge market size provides unique conditions for the iteration and commercial application of intelligent vehicle technology. Not only is the process of intelligence accelerating, but China's automotive industry has also made positive progress in multiple technological paths by 2025. Taking solid-state batteries as an example, after a year of development in 2025 and entering 2026, GAC Group announced that the pilot line for all solid state batteries has been successfully built and put into operation. Automobile companies such as BYD, SAIC Group, and Dongfeng Motor have made new progress in the application of solid-state batteries, and several leading enterprises have proposed small-scale mass production and application plans for 2027. Zhang Yongwei, Chairman of Chebaihui, stated that based on the comprehensive progress of the industry, it is expected that from 2026 to 2027, all solid state batteries will enter the stage of small-scale production and vehicle demonstration. By around 2030, they will have preliminary conditions for large-scale application, and the energy density of battery cells is expected to further increase to 400 to 500Wh/kg. Against the backdrop of rapid market and technological development, the quality of China's automotive industry is experiencing further improvement, which cannot be achieved without policy support. The Ministry of Public Security has organized the drafting of the "Technical Conditions for Motor Vehicle Operation Safety" (draft for soliciting opinions), and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has released seven mandatory national standards (draft for approval), including the "Safety Technical Requirements for Car Door handles". China has implemented recalls related to passenger cars, resulting in a year-on-year decrease of about 30% in defective vehicles... The industry is continuously improving in product reliability and user experience. From the measures taken by Chinese automobile enterprises in improving standards and enhancing quality, it can be seen that China's automobile industry is entering a more standardized, healthy, and deep level development stage. The improvement of relevant standards and mechanisms not only regulates the development of domestic industries, protects consumer rights and safety, but also provides standard guidance for the safe development of the global automotive industry, which has positive international significance. ”Ji Xuehong, Director of the Automotive Industry Innovation Research Center at North China University of Technology, said. Industry norms help enterprises shift towards a "value war". In order to promote further development of the industry, China's automotive industry has embarked on a "paradigm shift" in 2025, with policies vigorously addressing "involution" competition and gradually moving towards a virtuous cycle of market competition. In mid-2025, in response to the initiative of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers to maintain fair competition order and promote healthy development of the industry, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology stated that it will increase efforts to rectify "internal competition" in the automotive industry, promote industrial structure optimization and adjustment, strengthen product consistency spot checks, and cooperate with relevant departments to carry out anti unfair competition law enforcement. Under policy guidance, multiple car companies have committed to payment cycles not exceeding 60 days, improving the situation of occupying supply chain funds, and gradually implementing their commitments in subsequent practice. At the end of 2025, the State Administration for Market Regulation released the "Compliance Guidelines for Price Behavior in the Automotive Industry (Draft for Comments)", which will further guide automotive production and sales enterprises to strengthen price compliance construction and promote high-quality development of the industry. With the joint efforts of multiple parties, the comprehensive rectification of 'internal competition' has shown results. In 2026, we will continue to deepen the rectification of 'internal competition', and with the continuous improvement of industry governance efficiency, it will promote high-quality development of the industry. ”Chen Shihua said. Industry insiders generally believe that under the promotion of the industry and policies, China's automobile market is accelerating its shift towards a higher quality competitive landscape. Zhao Fuquan, a professor at Tsinghua University and dean of the Institute of Automotive Industry and Technology Strategy, stated that the competition in the automotive market is shifting from a "price war" to a "value war", which will bring about a comprehensive restructuring of the competitive system of enterprises and trigger continuous upgrading of mergers and acquisitions. The "value war" is not just a competition of single product competitiveness, but also a competition of systematic capabilities supported by overall scale, cost, technology, ecology, and business models of enterprises. This systematic and all-round capability will ultimately shape the brand competitiveness of enterprises. The strategic choices of enterprises also deeply reflect the trend of industry restructuring. Zhu Jiangming, founder, chairman, and CEO of Zero Run Automotive, proposed in an internal letter that technology must continue to innovate; Quality must be achieved to the extreme; We must accelerate the expansion of overseas markets; Organizations must maintain efficiency and agility. NIO founder, chairman, and CEO Li Bin also stated that NIO has entered a new stage of development and needs to comprehensively improve operational efficiency and quality. The foundation of long termism lies in excellent execution and operational efficiency. In order for NIO to become one of the companies with the most detailed accounting, it needs to 'build a strong foothold and fight the battle of failure', further focus on research and development efficiency, internal management, and other aspects, and achieve steady growth of the enterprise. Looking ahead to the trend of the automotive market in 2026, Chen Shihua believes that 2026 is the beginning year of the 15th Five Year Plan, and promoting consumption remains one of the key tasks. With the implementation of a series of policies, it will be conducive to strengthening development confidence, stabilizing market expectations, and boosting automobile consumption. In 2026, China's automobile industry will continue to promote high-quality development, and the overall market will maintain stable operation