Recently, the National Advanced Manufacturing Conference was held in Beijing. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that on the new journey, we must be guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, fully, accurately, and comprehensively implement the new development philosophy, coordinate high-quality development and high-level security, adhere to the direction of intelligent, green, and integrated development, continuously expand and strengthen advanced manufacturing, enhance the level of independent and controllable industrial chains, accelerate the construction of a modern industrial system with advanced manufacturing as the backbone, consolidate and strengthen the foundation of the real economy, and provide strong support for advancing Chinese modernization.
In his speech, Premier Li Qiang clarified the practical path: we must conform to the trend of the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, take the new generation of intelligent manufacturing as the main direction, pay more attention to digital and intelligent empowerment in development strategies, focus more on high-end and independent innovation in technological routes, emphasize green and low-carbon production methods, and prioritize cross-boundary integration in scenarios and business forms, so as to vigorously promote the intelligent, green, and integrated development of the manufacturing industry.
In recent years, China's NEV (New Energy Vehicle) industry has achieved leapfrog development, with continuously expanding industrial scale and significantly enhanced technological innovation capabilities. Continuous breakthroughs have been made in fields such as power batteries, intelligent cockpits, and ADAS (Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems), forming a complete industrial chain that covers key raw materials, core components, vehicle manufacturing, charging and battery swapping facilities, and recycling. In 2025, China's NEV production and sales reached 16.626 million units and 16.49 million units respectively, representing year-on-year growth of 29% and 28.2%, ranking first globally for the 11th consecutive year. While strengthening the domestic market, Chinese NEVs are also accelerating their global expansion. In 2025, China exported 2.615 million NEVs, a year-on-year increase of 102%, and the overseas expansion model has expanded from complete vehicle exports to overseas R&D, production and manufacturing, supply chain collaboration, energy replenishment services, and brand operations.
However, it must also be recognized that international competition is shifting from product and price competition to comprehensive competition involving technology, standards, industrial chains, and ecosystems. Some countries are continuously raising tariff barriers, technical barriers, and green barriers, with increasingly strict requirements for cross-border data, supply chain security, carbon footprint accounting, and localized production. Chinese NEVs going global urgently need to bid farewell to the traditional model that mainly relies on cost and scale advantages. They must use intelligence to improve technological content and user value, use green transition to enhance international market adaptation and rule alignment capabilities, and use integration to build a cross-industry, cross-regional, and cross-entity global industrial ecosystem, realizing the transformation from "products going out" to "industrial chains going out, ecological systems going in, and international brands being established."
The Economic Logic of the Synergy of the "Three Transformations" from the Perspective of Going Global
The global expansion of NEVs is not just about cross-border product sales, but also a process of enterprises participating in global resource allocation, international division of labor, and value creation. As traditional cost advantages gradually weaken, enterprises need to shape new comparative advantages through technological efficiency, green standards, and industrial synergy. Intelligence, green transition, and integration respectively address the issues of efficiency, rules, and ecology in cross-border operations, jointly promoting the shift of competitive advantages from single-point breakthroughs to systematic support.
Reducing Cross-Border Operating Costs and Enhancing Product and Organizational Efficiency Through Intelligence. From the perspective of transaction costs and total factor productivity, intelligence can reduce enterprises' costs in information search, R&D adaptation, production organization, and after-sales services during transnational operations. Technologies such as AI (Artificial Intelligence), Industrial Internet, digital twins, and data platforms can not only improve the efficiency of R&D design, production and manufacturing, and supply chain management, but also help enterprises more accurately identify overseas market demands, shorten product adaptation cycles, and enhance cross-regional resource allocation capabilities. At the same time, intelligence drives the transformation of products from single functions to continuous iteration, remote services, and hardware-software collaboration, enabling enterprises to form differentiated advantages through data accumulation and software upgrades. For enterprises going global, the core significance of intelligence lies in transforming the technological, organizational, and scale advantages formed domestically into international competitive capabilities that can be replicated across regions and operated sustainably.
Addressing Environmental Externalities and Forming International Rule Adaptation Capabilities Through Green Transition. From the perspective of externalities and dynamic comparative advantages, green transition can promote enterprises to incorporate factors such as resource consumption, carbon emissions, and environmental impacts into production and operation decision-making, facilitating the shift from resource-input-driven growth to technology innovation and green efficiency-driven growth. Currently, requirements such as carbon footprint, green supply chains, environmental information disclosure, and recycling are gradually transforming from corporate social responsibility into important conditions for international market access, trade rules, and global supply chain collaboration. If enterprises cannot accurately account for and effectively manage life-cycle environmental costs, they may face additional certifications, trade restrictions, and supply chain exclusion. Therefore, green transition is not only a transformation of production methods to reduce energy consumption and environmental costs, but also an important way for enterprises to reduce institutional transaction costs, adapt to changes in international rules, and cultivate long-term comparative advantages.
Leveraging Network Effects and Enhancing Global Value Chain Status Through Integration. From the perspective of network effects and global value chain theory, the international competitiveness of advanced manufacturing increasingly depends on whether enterprises can organize and connect multiple resources such as R&D, manufacturing, energy, logistics, finance, information, and services. A single product entering the overseas market often struggles to independently solve problems such as channel construction, infrastructure, after-sales services, and localized operations. However, through the integration of manufacturing with services, the digital economy, the energy industry, and modern logistics, market entry costs can be shared, product application scenarios expanded, and user and partner stickiness enhanced. Integration can also promote enterprises to extend from the product manufacturing link in the value chain to high value-added links such as R&D design, system integration, operation services, and ecological organization, thereby enhancing the value capture capability and resource allocation status of enterprises in the global value chain.
NEV Global Expansion Shifts from "Scale Expansion" to "Systematic Going Global"
China's NEV global expansion has gradually entered a new stage of coordinated promotion of products, technology, supply chains, infrastructure, service networks, and brand operations, moving beyond early complete vehicle exports. Facing the market demands, industrial foundations, and regulatory environments of different countries, intelligence should be used to enhance product and operational efficiency, green transition to strengthen rule adaptation and long-term competitive capabilities, and integration to promote the deep connection of industrial chains and service chains with local economic systems, promoting the shift of NEV global expansion from "selling products" to "building systems."
Enhancing Product Adaptation and Global Operational Capabilities Through Intelligence. NEV enterprises should integrate intelligent capabilities throughout the entire process of R&D, manufacturing, sales, and after-sales services, strengthen key technology R&D around intelligent driving, intelligent cockpits, Internet of Vehicles (IoV), power battery management, and remote operation and maintenance, and simultaneously establish localized adaptation mechanisms for overseas markets. In response to the road conditions, climate environments, traffic rules, language and culture, and data regulatory requirements of different countries, enterprises need to build regional R&D and testing systems, improve data classification management, algorithm safety assessment, and software upgrade mechanisms, and promote the shift of intelligent products from "domestic technology export" to "global scenario adaptation." In the production and operation links, digital twins, intelligent production scheduling, remote diagnostics, and digital supply chains should be utilized to enhance the management efficiency of overseas factories and service networks, reducing cross-regional operating costs.
XPeng Motors' practice in Europe reflects the operational logic of intelligent global expansion. The company established an R&D center in Munich, completed the German localization acceptance of the intelligent driving model, cooperated with Magna International to achieve localized production, and joined forces with local dealers to build a service network, enabling products to adapt to local road environments and regulatory requirements. After intelligent vehicles enter the overseas market, what truly forms competitiveness is the capability of localized R&D, compliance adaptation, and service network operations.
Enhancing Life-Cycle and International Rule Adaptation Capabilities Through Green Transition. NEV enterprises should promote green global expansion from a life-cycle perspective. They should not only focus on energy conservation and emission reduction during the vehicle usage stage but also extend green requirements to raw material procurement, power battery production, vehicle manufacturing, cross-border transportation, vehicle usage, and end-of-life recycling. Specifically, they should establish a product carbon footprint accounting and green supply chain management system, increase the proportion of renewable energy used in production bases, promote the construction of green factories and low-carbon logistics, and improve environmental information disclosure, product certification, and battery recycling systems according to the requirements of target markets. At the same time, they should actively participate in the construction of international rules such as carbon footprint, battery passports, recycling, and green certification, transforming green advantages into market access advantages, compliance advantages, and brand advantages.
Batteries are a key link in the green competition of NEVs. CATL's (Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited) Shenxing batteries and CTP (Cell to Pack) batteries have been selected for the Global Battery Alliance's "Battery Passport" pilot, and multiple factories have obtained carbon-neutral production certification. The "Battery Passport" presents battery materials, production processes, carbon footprints, and life-cycle information in a digital way, transforming green requirements from concepts into auditable, traceable, and comparable market rules, and also providing a technical carrier for collaborative carbon reduction in the industrial chain.
Building Industrial Chains and Service Ecosystems Through Integration. The global expansion of NEVs should promote the coordinated layout of complete vehicle enterprises with entities such as power batteries, chips, software, charging and battery swapping facilities, energy services, finance and insurance, logistics and transportation, and maintenance and repair, forming a comprehensive global expansion model of "products + infrastructure + services." Enterprises can adopt joint ventures, local procurement, technological cooperation, joint operations, and talent cultivation according to the industrial foundation and consumption demands of target markets to improve the localization level of the industrial chain. For markets with insufficient charging facilities, the coordinated development of NEVs with renewable energy, smart grids, and urban transportation systems should be promoted; for countries with small market sizes but close regional ties, shared warehousing, logistics, maintenance, and charging networks can be built to reduce the market entry costs of individual enterprises.
The coordinated global expansion of Chinese financial institutions is becoming an important support for the construction of the NEV ecosystem. China Pacific Property Insurance, in partnership with Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, has launched NEV insurance policies in Thailand, adopting a "local direct insurance + Chinese reinsurance" model and synchronously exporting professional capabilities such as pricing, loss assessment, and claims settlement. Whether financial support can keep pace with the extension of the industrial chain is becoming one of the key variables determining the success or failure of global expansion.
Author | Qin Ping, Professor, School of Applied Economics, Renmin University of China; Xiao Qiyong, Ph.D. Candidate, School of Applied Economics, Renmin University of China. Editor | Qiu Jiangyong. Art Editor | Maria. Supervisor | Lian Xiaodong.