Innovation drives nation's EV success: China Daily editorial

In news that marks a structural shift in a key manufacturing industry, Chinese automakers sold roughly 27 million vehicles in 2025, compared with the 25 million of Japanese brands, claiming the top spot.

Underlying those figures is not merely a reshuffling in the rankings, but the decisive transition to electrification. The rise of Chinese electric vehicle brands has been underpinned by "full-chain autonomy", the country's unusually complete industry ecosystem, spanning raw materials, batteries, manufacturing and recycling.

This vertical integration has delivered both scale and cost advantages. Chinese EVs can be produced at lower costs than many Western counterparts, while maintaining comparable or even better performance.

Equally important has been the focus of Chinese EV makers on technology. Chinese companies have concentrated resources on the so-called "three electrics" — batteries, motors and electronic control — while simultaneously advancing intelligent vehicle systems. As a result, when electrification accelerated, Chinese EV industry has a solid foundation to seek new progress.

The rise of BYD illustrates this dynamic vividly. Its ascent to sixth place in terms of global sales, and its overtaking of Tesla in pure EV sales, reflect not only corporate execution but also the company's ability to leverage deep supply chains, intense domestic competition and rapid innovation cycles. And that is perhaps the most important factor that is least appreciated by some outsiders in the West, who simply attribute Chinese EV's competitiveness to "subsidies" for political reasons. Subsidies do not lead to innovation.

Chinese consumers demand the latest tech. And China's superlarge domestic market is not just the world's largest automotive market; it is also a vast experimental laboratory. Technologies can be deployed, tested and refined at scale across diverse real-world conditions — from megacities to rural regions. The viral video of a child hailing a robotaxi in China, which astonished many overseas audiences, is telling precisely because it is a living reality in China.

This abundance of application scenarios accelerates learning. It shortens the path from innovation to commercialization. It also aligns technological development closely with user needs, an advantage that more fragmented or smaller markets struggle to replicate. Such scenario-driven innovation is a critical, and often overlooked, source of competitiveness.

None of this, however, should lead to complacency. China's achievements have been hard-won, and they remain incomplete. Dependencies persist in some key upstream technologies, notably semiconductors and advanced materials. In areas such as high-end automotive chips, reliance on foreign suppliers remains.

Moreover, traditional automotive powers retain their own strengths. Japanese and German firms continue to lead in precision engineering, quality control and certain advanced components. These are not trivial advantages; they are the result of decades of accumulated expertise.

History offers a sobering lesson. China cannot afford to miss the ongoing technological revolution. That should inform current policymakers. The objective of becoming an innovation-driven economy at China's scale cannot rest solely on application advances or market size. It requires sustained investment in foundational disciplines — mathematics, physics, chemistry and life sciences — that underpin long-term technological progress.

The 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–30) of the country emphasizes breaking technological bottlenecks through targeted, incremental progress. That reflects a pragmatic understanding: complex challenges must be decomposed into manageable problems. At the same time, fostering talent, strengthening intellectual property protection, cultivating an enabling environment and maintaining openness to international collaboration will be essential. Innovation ecosystems, as economic history repeatedly shows, thrive on both competition and exchange.

In this context, China's EV success should be viewed more objectively. It is the product of a particular conjunction of policy, market and technological focus.

The global automotive industry is being reshaped. Electrification and digitalization are redefining the car as an interconnected mobile smart platform that concentrates more connectivity than before. China has, for now, seized the initiative in this trend. But competitiveness is never permanent. It must be continuously earned — through innovation, discipline and, perhaps most importantly, an awareness of how quickly technology changes.

When the tides of time choose to cast you aside, they strike without a whisper.