Exploring New Models for Automotive Industry Expansion

The global automotive industry is undergoing rapid transformation, with increasingly complex international trade relations bringing numerous uncertainties to the automotive supply chain. China's new energy vehicle industry is participating in global cooperation with an open and innovative approach. Strengthening the link between China's automotive industry and the world, while promoting supply chain collaboration, is crucial for the green transformation and innovative development of the global automotive industry. With electrification and intelligence driving profound changes in the global automotive industry landscape, China's new energy vehicle industry has risen and established a comprehensive industrial chain system. Latest data indicates that from January to May this year, China's total vehicle exports reached 2.49 million units, an increase of 7.9% year-on-year; new energy vehicle exports reached 855,000 units, a rise of 64.6%. At the recently held 2025 Global New Energy Vehicle Cooperation and Development Forum in Shanghai, Zhang Yongwei, Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the China Electric Vehicle Hundred People’s Association, stated that China's automotive industry needs to explore new development paths in light of the new global automotive landscape. The traditional model of global cooperation is facing bottlenecks. On one hand, barriers to vehicle sales are increasing and extending to the supply chain; on the other hand, the new energy vehicle supply chain is highly complex and may be affected by geopolitical factors, technological barriers, and cross-industry integration, posing potential risks. Under these circumstances, continuing the old model of 'exporting brands + investing in complete vehicles' is unlikely to succeed. It is essential to reconstruct the logic and paths of cooperation. Zhang Yongwei suggested that Chinese automotive companies and supply chains should deeply link with the global automotive market. By leveraging China's rich vehicle models and relatively complete supply chain focusing on new energy and intelligence, it can empower the development of the global automotive industry, assist other countries in developing local automotive industries, and even create local brands for mutual industrial complementarity and resource win-win. Moreover, a digital, intelligent, and standardized service system should be established to accelerate integration into the global market. Brand globalization and local operation are gradually becoming a new model for Chinese automotive enterprises expanding globally. Tang Zhikun, General Manager of the International Business Center of Xpeng Motors, shared that the company is exploring four market models in Europe: direct agency, agency, subsidiary plus dealer, and general agency, achieving comprehensive coverage of the European market. In terms of brand building, they are trying cross-border marketing to help the brand deeply penetrate local communities and cultures. For instance, in Norway, where consumers favor outdoor sports, Xpeng Motors has sponsored local cycling events for three consecutive years to enhance consumer recognition of the brand. According to the latest plans from Lantu Motors, they aim to cover the mainstream new energy vehicle market by 2026 and enter 60 countries by 2030, establishing over 500 stores. Gao Yuan, Senior Director of Overseas Affairs at Lantu Motors, noted, “The Lantu Zhi Yin global version is being adaptively developed for overseas markets, while integrating local service resources and financial supply chains to achieve a win-win by serving local users with local resources.” As China's new energy vehicle manufacturers venture internationally, battery export becomes an important part of the industry's collaborative development. "Global development must adhere to long-termism, with technology driving industrial growth," said Xiong Yonghua, Vice President of Strategic Operations at Guoxuan High-Tech. The company has developed its passenger vehicle product line to the fourth generation of battery cells, established eight R&D centers and 20 production bases worldwide, and applied for over 10,000 global patents. Many countries in Europe and Southeast Asia have introduced localization policies for battery production and carbon footprint, raising higher requirements for companies. For example, the EU's new battery legislation mandates that producers assume extended responsibility throughout the battery's lifecycle, including collection, treatment, recycling, and disposal. "We plan to establish 99 recycling points this year through two models: building our own recycling supply chain and collaborating with overseas strategic partners to create a recycling system," Xiong Yonghua stated. The company has constructed a vertically integrated industrial chain from mining battery raw materials to material production, battery manufacturing, product application, and battery recycling. The supply chain of the traditional automotive industry includes vehicle manufacturers, parts suppliers, and service providers, while the new energy vehicle industry requires hardware manufacturers, energy service providers, and data service providers to build the entire value network. Cheng Dandan, Deputy General Manager of Ruipu Lanjun Energy Co., Ltd.'s European subsidiary, believes that China is innovating in core technologies such as batteries, intelligent driving, and electronic control to break technical monopolies and achieve a strategic shift from 'OEM manufacturing' to 'rule-setting'. Realizing true green internationalization for new energy vehicles relies on a complete charging and swapping infrastructure, as well as collaborative layout across the entire chain involving vehicles, charging piles, networks, and storage. "With electrification penetration exceeding 40%, the supply chain is shifting from cost-driven to ecology-driven," said Sun Maojian, Vice Chairman of Hubei Jingneng New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. He believes that the new demands of global collaboration are forcing the entire supply chain to break boundaries and reconstruct. Sun Maojian noted that during the international expansion process, they have encountered issues such as the fragmentation of global supercharging standards and a high rate of repeated testing for supercharging certification. He called for the establishment of a high-quality global intelligent supercharging network, promoting mutual recognition of testing results between China, Europe, and ASEAN to eliminate digital barriers of repeated certification and create a technology-sharing platform. "For Chinese companies to successfully enter markets like Europe, it is essential to focus not only on product competitiveness but also on a profound understanding of local markets, regulations, cultures, and user habits," stated Luca Ford, Executive Vice President of Eldo Group. Establishing charging infrastructure in Europe faces multiple obstacles, including urban land scarcity and complicated policies, which requires Chinese supply chain companies to strengthen cooperation with local governments and enterprises to create infrastructure solutions suitable for local conditions. China has become the world's largest automotive exporter, transitioning from selling products to providing services and further to deepening local markets. This shift from 'going out' to 'integrating in' raises higher demands for local operations and innovation capabilities, requiring collaborative efforts to build a comprehensive service system for the automotive industry's international expansion. In the era of digital transformation, automotive companies face new challenges. "Safety and compliance are the first steps in internationalization; one cannot rush out to sell products only to retreat after failure," analyzed Shen Tao, General Manager of Amazon Web Services (China) Industry Cluster. The automotive industry not only has regional compliance requirements but also new requirements including generative AI applications and data privacy protection. Bai Hua, General Manager of the Solutions and Delivery Department at China Unicom Smart Network Technology, suggested that Chinese automotive companies, by learning from the internationalization experiences of German and Japanese automakers, should design a globally compliant management platform that is identifiable for risks, manageable for processes, and traceable for responsibilities when establishing overseas subsidiaries to ensure alignment with local enterprises and laws. Bai Hua believes that China's automotive export is not only about products but also represents a comprehensive breakthrough in the globalization layout of the entire industrial chain. This requires integration with local culture, markets, and supply chains to implement 'one country, one policy'. China Unicom Smart Network relies on the support of a fully digitalized industrial chain foundation, establishing localized Internet of Vehicles service platforms and teams in Frankfurt, Riyadh, Singapore, and Mexico City. The company will expand its digital services from the Internet of Vehicles to the digitalization of industries, integrating compliance solutions, overseas intelligent computing center solutions, digital manufacturing systems, and marketing systems. Driven by both intelligence and globalization, the automotive industry is transitioning from 'electrification export' to 'intelligent export', enhancing the international competitiveness of Chinese automobiles. Xing Di, Vice President of Alibaba Cloud Intelligent Group's AI Automotive Industry, shared that Alibaba Cloud's Tongyi large model possesses full-size, full-modal, and wide-open-source capabilities. The application of this model in vehicles will further improve the experience of intelligent assisted driving and intelligent cockpits. Alibaba Cloud will continue to invest to accelerate the creation of a global cloud computing network, deploying full-stack AI capabilities at every global node to serve outbound enterprises. As the global stock of new energy vehicles increases, the value of related enterprises overseas needs to extend from R&D, production, and sales to usage and service stages due to the long automotive supply chain and usage cycle. Jiang Yongxing, Founder and CEO of Kaishi Shidai Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., pointed out that the rapid iteration speed of new energy models, the multitude of components, and the complexity of technical support may lead overseas owners to face issues such as a lack of authorized repair shops nearby and different operational system ecosystems. Jiang Yongxing suggested that in the aftermarket for new energy vehicles, suppliers should build a digital network to connect information on OEM authorization, parts repair, and warranty traceability, providing better services to global vehicle owners.