Chongqing is catching up with Guangdong province in terms of auto production as it was runner-up in 2023, and it aims to build a trillion-yuan level cluster. “Chongqing has been making progress in building an intelligent network NEV industry cluster and in 2023 our auto production ranked second nationwide, including 500,000 NEVs,” said Mayor Hu Henghua. In 2023, Chongqing produced 2.32 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 30%, and exported 368,000 vehicles to more than 80 countries and regions, a year-on-year increase of 29.8%, according to Chongqing’s Economic and Informatization Commission. In 2023, Chongqing’s GDP reached CNY3 trillion, up 6.1% year-on-year, becoming the first city in central or western China with a GDP exceeding the CNY3 trillion benchmark. Chongqing has set a GDP growth target of 6% for this year. The municipality, with over 32 million people, is one of the country’s key vehicle production bases with a complete auto industry chain and rich human resources.
In 2022, Chongqing put forward new goals – by 2025, production and sales of intelligent network NEVs will account for more than 10% of the country’s total, and by 2027, the industry scale will reach first-class global levels. “Chongqing’s auto industry has achieved progress in terms of quantity, quality, supply chain building, overseas development and new energy infrastructure,” said Tu Xingyong, Deputy Director of Chongqing’s Economic and Informatization Commission. Local automakers Changan and Seres are speeding up their market expansion campaigns and factory construction in Southeast Asia, South America and Europe. The city boasts 210,000 charging piles and the number of battery swapping stations ranks second nationwide. “This year, Chongqing’s auto production will reach 2.6 million units, a year-on-year increase of 12.2%. By 2027, the city is expected to produce and sell more than 2 million intelligent connected NEVs, with automobile exports accounting for 10% of the country’s total, and the industry scale exceeding CNY1 trillion,” Tu said.
Hu Yuanzhi, Dean of the School of Vehicle Engineering of Chongqing University of Technology said the municipality has advanced technologies for various types of NEVs, such as electric, plug-in hybrid, extended-range, hydrogen fuel and battery swap technologies. “In terms of intelligent network connection, Chongqing boasts the most comprehensive and multidimensional ‘vehicle-road collaboration’ scenarios in China,” he said, and also leads the country in terms of testing capabilities, application scenarios and demonstration scale of intelligent network-connected NEVs. In 2022, Chongqing’s Yongchuan district granted China’s first unmanned autonomous driving permits to five Baidu taxis, allowing for no human driver or safety operator to be in vehicles running on public roads for the first time. Hua Dubiao, Chief Expert of Chongqing Changan Automobile Co, pointed out that autonomous driving is an important direction for intelligent networked NEVs, and the integrated collaboration of cars, roads, networks, clouds and maps will become the focal point of competition among global NEV makers, the China Daily reports.
