“The landscape of global cooperation and development in the automotive industry is undergoing profound changes. On one hand, barriers to vehicle sales are constantly increasing and gradually extending to the supply chain sector; on the other hand, the supply chain has become highly complex and more vulnerable, with the complexity of transformation going beyond the automotive industry itself. Against this backdrop, the automotive industry needs a new global cooperation model.”
On June 25, The 2025 Global New Energy Vehicle Cooperation and Development Forum (GNEV2025·Shanghai) was held. At the event, Zhang Yongwei, Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of China EV100 and Executive Chairman of GREEM, delivered a keynote speech on the theme of “Linking China’s Automotive Industry with the World”.
In his opinion, the most significant change in the global automotive industry is the reshaping of the industrial structure driven by intelligentization and electrification. In this new round of transformation, the most prominent trend is the rapid rise of China’s new energy vehicle (NEV) industry, which now accounts for nearly 70% of the global market share.
“Although the development pattern of the automotive industry has changed, its nature as a global large-scale industry has never altered—whether in terms of trade, technology exchange, supply chain cooperation, or policy, standard, and management coordination,” he emphasized.
He pointed out that the current global automotive industry cooperation model involves promoting brands and products to the other country while seeking to bring in its own component systems. This results in investment being made in the invested country but with limited industrial spillover effects, and this model is now facing restrictions from market barriers.
At the same time, “invested countries hope to develop their own automotive industries. When traditional models conflict with new situations and demands, it becomes necessary to find new paths to resolve such conflicts and adapt to changes,” he added.
“Amid the rapid changes in the global development landscape and the formation of new development paths, China’s automotive industry is becoming increasingly crucial,” he stated. How to connect China’s new automotive industry with the international market and industry has become the key to exploring new paths and models for global cooperation.
According to the situation, he raised core questions: In the new environment, how can China’s automotive industry, especially OEMs, better develop overseas; how can the global automotive industry better utilize China’s automotive supply chain to serve the countries where they operate; how can multinational automotive enterprises in China leverage the advantages of the Chinese market and industry; how can changes in the Chinese market connect with changes in the world market and consumer behavior?
He believes that the Chinese automotive industry is interconnected with the world and there are multiple feasible new paths. Firstly, Chinese vehicle models and supply chains link with the global automotive industry; secondly, Chinese auto components and service systems link with the global market; thirdly, overseas small and medium-sized enterprises link with the Chinese automotive industry chain; finally, multinational enterprises’ localization.
Taking multinational enterprises as an example, their development in China is currently undergoing two important changes, which also represent new paths for global cooperation. On one hand, multinational enterprises are achieving better localized development in China, including localized R&D, management and operations, as well as localized supply chains and ecosystems. On the other hand, some multinational enterprises have put forward the concept of “In China, for the World”—utilizing their strong platforms and global resource networks to extend achievements made in China to the rest of the world.
However, he also reminded that these new paths for China’s automotive industry to connect with the world are not a replacement for the traditional models of brand overseas and OEMs exports, but a supplement to the global cooperation models for overseas expansion under the new situation.
