"Following Chinese automakers overseas is a false proposition," a head of a component enterprise told Gasgoo.
The market has never reached a consensus on this statement, nor can it be simply judged as right or wrong.
However, it is undeniable that following OEMs overseas can solve the problem of supply chain market entry from 0 to 1. Suppliers can enter the overseas market with lower barriers and faster speed, completing the initial landing from domestic to overseas. More than one enterprise has expressed to Gasgoo its willingness to follow Chinese automakers overseas.
Regardless of the globalization path chosen, the real test lies in how to turn a one-time purchase into repeat purchases, how to upgrade from single-point supply to multi-point expansion, and further achieve the global replication of solutions.
How to Avoid "One-off" Transactions
In recent years, Chinese automakers have accelerated their entry into overseas markets, driving a group of local suppliers to go global. Seats, interiors, thermal management, electric powertrain systems, domain controllers, autonomous driving solutions... From traditional components to intelligent vehicle software and hardware, Chinese supply chains are all seeking new opportunities in overseas markets.
For many enterprises, following OEM clients with whom they have already established cooperative relationships to enter overseas markets is indeed a more efficient path. When OEMs build factories overseas or promote vehicle sales, suppliers following them into the local market can save a lot of preliminary development costs. In their view, overseas business is more of an extension of domestic clients; doing a good job in project delivery and solving local problems is already a crucial capability.
At this stage, AutoNavi is taking this path. Relying on long-term cooperation with domestic independent automakers, its Auto SDK International Edition is delivered following the overseas layout of OEMs, providing basic capabilities for intelligent cockpit development. Currently, the AutoNavi Auto SDK International Edition has covered more than 170 countries and regions globally, including Europe, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, South America, Australia, and New Zealand, and supports 19 major global languages, including English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
As an enterprise in the domestic backlight driver market, LPSemi has also chosen a similar globalization path.
Another type of enterprise has a more proactive mindset; in their planning, they treat the overseas market as a new growth space. Therefore, these enterprises will make global layouts in advance, or grasp both following others overseas and independent layout. For example, Horizon Robotics and SemiDrive are doing just that.
Horizon Robotics, following vehicle brands synchronously into the global market, has achieved results. As of now, it has accumulated over 60 designated export vehicle models, with cooperating automakers including Chinese independent brands such as BYD, Chery, SAIC, NIO, and Great Wall, achieving scaled coverage of core markets such as Southeast Asia, the Middle East, South America, and Europe. It also continuously accumulates overseas working condition data and automotive-grade engineering experience through real-vehicle verification of overseas road conditions.
This means that Horizon Robotics has not only won overseas project design wins, but has also entered the stage of mass production delivery and overseas data accumulation. From this perspective, following automakers overseas is an extremely convenient and practical path. As for directly entering the overseas market, Horizon Robotics is still in the initial stepping stage.
The two paths look different, but upon entering the overseas market, both cannot bypass one issue: they cannot just do a single order.
The layout of Chinese suppliers in the Russian market is a case in point. Around 2022, after Western automakers and suppliers withdrew one after another, a gap emerged in Russia's original automotive supply system, and the Chinese automotive industry chain quickly filled the void. In 2023, China's export volume of auto parts to Russia increased by more than 200% year-on-year.
In the book "Automotive Going Global: Practices and Strategies of China's Automotive Industry Going Global", this stage is summarized as "substitution-driven prosperity".
However, what some enterprises have captured is mostly short-term substitution demand, with product adaptation, local services, and channel construction failing to keep pace. After the market environment changed, some orders, channels, and even cash flows quickly came under pressure. The previous market opportunities have instead turned into operational risks.
The changes in the Russian market illustrate that the value of overseas orders lies not only in the orders themselves. When the market window opens, suppliers can easily seize opportunities relying on cost and delivery speed. After the window narrows, product adaptation capabilities, service response speed, and customer relationship stability directly determine the sustainability of overseas business.
This is the reality all enterprises must face when going global. Like AutoNavi, when following Chinese automakers into overseas markets, it needs to face map data, navigation services, and compliance requirements of different countries. To this end, its Auto SDK International Edition cooperates with overseas map service providers such as HERE. For enterprises that treat overseas markets as a second growth space, these preparations need to happen even earlier.
How to Turn It into Repeat Purchases?
The first order is secured, and then what?
For Chinese supply chain enterprises that treat the overseas market as a new growth space, the value of a single project is not just about securing revenue; more importantly, it is about accumulating products and capabilities from the project that can be used for the next time. Especially in fields with fast technology updates and long development cycles, such as automotive electronics and autonomous driving, if a new set of products is developed from scratch for every new client and every new market entered, it will be very difficult to truly expand overseas business.
Therefore, enterprises need to focus on a more specific question: Can a one-time customized demand from a client be accumulated into a general-purpose product, and then replicated to more vehicle models and clients?
This is precisely the lesson that the Chinese supply chain needs to make up for when stepping into the global procurement system.
The advantage of global top Tier 1 suppliers lies right here. After decades of global development, enterprises such as Bosch, Continental, ZF, and Aptiv have formed mature platform-based products and engineering systems. When a client proposes a demand, the enterprise can make adjustments on the existing technology platform. When new regulatory requirements emerge in a market, adaptation can also be completed on the original product architecture. The more clients and projects there are, the richer the product and engineering experience accumulated by the enterprise.
But today, there are also Chinese enterprises doing just that.
SemiDrive's "dual-track" model is based on this logic. Its overseas business walks on "two legs": one follows Chinese automakers overseas, accumulating development experience in different markets and vehicle models in mass production projects; the other directly cooperates with overseas Tier 1 suppliers and local industry partners to enter the supply chain of international automakers.
Based on different client demands, SemiDrive's approach is to extract the common requirements from the two types of projects to feed back into the iteration of chip architecture and software platforms. The result of doing this is that chip architecture, software platforms, toolchains, and verification systems can be reused across projects, and problems solved in the previous project can be incorporated into the design in advance next time. Reusable experience is precisely the foundation for forming repeat purchases in overseas business.
Momenta, on the other hand, starts from global autonomous driving solutions. Its tripartite cooperation with XHEART and QNX jointly creates a mass-production-oriented global safety standard autonomous driving platform.
Among them, Momenta outputs algorithms, XHEART provides the automotive-grade SoC (System on Chip) chip X7, and QNX provides the safety operating system. This solution has passed the TÜV Rheinland ISO 26262 ASIL D certification and can meet the European UN R171 access requirements. Integrating algorithms, chips, operating systems, and safety certifications into a single mass production solution is in itself reducing the costs of repeated development and compliance verification for different projects.
Shenzhen Hangsheng Electronics Co., Ltd.(HSAE)'s practice provides another reference. Yang Hong, Chairman and President of HSAE, stated that if domestic solutions are only adapted to overseas markets in a "patchwork" manner, changing once for every new market encountered, they will forever only be able to do a one-off business. HSAE chooses to front-load international standards into its product and R&D systems, meaning products are made according to established processes, and technology is continuously integrated into itself to optimize efficiency, rather than winning by relying on low costs.
Talent is also part of this capability. HSAE takes a gradual path of "export + rotation + local cultivation". Compliance and competition concepts are equally critical. In HSAE's view, going global must comply with local product and employment regulations, adapt to rules such as labor laws and labor unions, and cannot simply apply the Chinese model.
The repeat purchase logic for software service enterprises is somewhat different. Enterprises such as ThunderSoft and Neusoft embed themselves in overseas automakers' projects as software service providers, gradually establishing long-term cooperative relationships in the process of continuous participation in R&D and product iteration. When the client's next product continues to adopt the original software capabilities, the supplier's business is also extended accordingly, achieving the goal of repeat purchases.
The commonality of these cases is that enterprises are all finding ways to generate more value from a single order. In particular, universality must be considered during the product definition stage; the technology and engineering experience that can be accumulated after the project ends are the truly valuable parts of a project.
Only those that can achieve continuous repeat purchases can be called long-term business; those that cannot are just doing a bunch of projects without leaving anything behind.
Choosing the Right Path to Go In and Move Up
When products have a global foundation and enterprises have also accumulated reusable technical capabilities, the next issue to solve is business expansion. Based on their own endowments, the globalization paths of different enterprises have shown diversified differentiation.
The first path is to continue following Chinese automakers, expanding from single-client supporting to multi-client expansion. For suppliers with limited scale and insufficient overseas client resources, following OEMs remains a highly efficient path.
The second path is to proactively enter the supply chain of mainstream overseas automakers. The layout of most supply chain enterprises is closer to this direction: on the one hand, continuing to serve the overseas business of Chinese automakers; on the other hand, enhancing the global adaptation capabilities of products and proactively connecting with global mainstream clients.
This method places higher demands on the enterprise's product capabilities, certification capabilities, and overseas business capabilities. However, once entering the supply chain of mainstream overseas automakers, client sources become more diversified, and there is also an opportunity to break away from the dependence on a single OEM client.
The third path is to quickly obtain an overseas business foundation through mergers and acquisitions. Joyson Electronics' acquisition of Germany's Preh is a typical case. Through M&A, enterprises can acquire overseas clients, technology, talent, and production operation systems at one time, entering mature markets faster compared to starting from scratch.
The fourth path is to further enter the local supply chain by building factories overseas. For enterprises that already have a certain scale of overseas orders, local manufacturing can further shorten the supply chain distance with clients, and also provide conditions for subsequently acquiring more vehicle models and platform projects.
For example, enterprises such as CATL and Envision AESC are all building production bases overseas, laying out capacity close to clients, shortening logistics radii, and better meeting the requirements of local OEMs for local supply and stable delivery. Desay SV's overseas layout is also continuously extending towards R&D, manufacturing, and services.
Of course, top suppliers usually do not stick to a single path for the long term, but combine and use them according to different markets and business stages. The number of clients, order scale, product attributes, financial strength, and global team capabilities will all affect the enterprise's choices.
Horizon Robotics demonstrates the possibility of "two paths in parallel". Horizon Robotics believes that following Chinese automakers overseas and directly entering the global supply chain of overseas automakers will run in parallel for the long term, supporting each other, rather than replacing each other. SemiDrive and others are doing the same.
SemiDrive told Gasgoo that Chinese automakers going global and mainstream overseas automakers are both important service targets for SemiDrive, with "two paths advancing in parallel and supporting each other". It does not arrange priorities by "regional ranking", but follows the needs of OEM clients and the capabilities of partners, focusing on "project priority".
The stage where the Chinese supply chain is currently at is mostly one where "following Chinese automakers overseas" continues to play a core role. Meanwhile, "directly entering the global supply chain of overseas automakers" has just set sail or entered the mass production stage.
Path selection is only the first step. When overseas business expands from a few projects to multiple clients and multiple vehicle models, the depth of the supplier's local investment will become a new watershed. Some enterprises first establish sales and technical support teams, some first set up R&D centers, and manufacturing enterprises will further build production bases. As clients and orders increase, the enterprise's local procurement, manufacturing, after-sales, and service capabilities will also be gradually made up.
For example, if a client in Germany raises a technical issue, and engineers still need to be temporarily arranged from China to go over, both response time and costs will increase. After there is a local technical team, many problems can be handled directly, and participation in new vehicle model development can also be faster.
For Chinese supply chain enterprises, what is needed to truly stabilize the overseas market is precisely this kind of continuous investment. Orders increase, and the team expands; clients increase, and capabilities continue to be made up. Business scale and local capabilities promote each other, and the overseas market will gradually become the enterprise's own business base. And when the relationship between the supplier and the client changes from single-project cooperation to long-term cooperation, it can be considered truly rooted.
Looking further ahead, the Chinese supply chain going global requires patience. Enterprise globalization is a long process, "taking at least 10 to 20 years to integrate into the local community and society and truly take root". When clients, vehicle models, and markets continue to expand, and the enterprise forms a stable business system locally, the overseas market will truly become a new growth space.
And what the Chinese supply chain truly needs to accomplish is precisely this kind of qualitative change.
This is also exactly the issue that the 8th Gasgoo Golden Selection Awards in 2026 hopes to further explore by taking "Chinese Solutions to the World" as the annual theme.
How can Chinese speed be accumulated into global value? What kind of Chinese innovation truly has the potential to become a global solution? After entering the global automaker system, is "being adopted" the end, or the beginning of a new round of tests? What changes are happening in the next-generation automotive supply chain? Ultimately, how should Chinese solutions cross the "last mile" of regulations, standards, data, local manufacturing, and industrial ecology?
Focusing on these questions, Gasgoo will successively launch five series of observations combining the 2026 Golden Selection Awards annual theme "Chinese Solutions to the World": "From Chinese Speed to Global Value", "What Kind of Chinese Innovation Can Become a Global Solution?", "Global Adoption: A New Starting Point for Chinese Solutions", "What is Happening in the Next-Generation Automotive Supply Chain in China?", and "How Can Chinese Solutions Cross the Last Mile of Globalization?".