"High-quality development is not an optional question, but a must-answer question" - in the context of the 2025 National People's Congress focusing on technological innovation and globalization, Zhu Huarong, chairman of Changan Automobile, attended the meeting with suggestions such as "Suggestions on Accelerating the Improvement of Autonomous Driving Standards and Regulations" and "Suggestions on the Unified Construction of a Common Database for Overseas Markets". His suggestions not only echoed the national strategic expectations for the real economy, but also provided a practical model for the transformation of China's automobile industry with an overall transformation covering technological innovation and value ecology.
From the Chongqing intelligent manufacturing base to the Mexican industrial hub, from the AI big model of the "Beidou Tianshu" plan to the "Ocean Embraces All Rivers" global five-region layout, Changan Automobile is using the dual-core strategy of "technological revolution + global breakthrough" to reconstruct the competitive landscape of China's automobile industry.
Tech Changan: Digital technology defines future mobility
On March 2, the 2025 Changan Automobile Chongqing Marathon started passionately on Chongqing Nanbin Road. Unlike traditional marathons, this race has a high "AI content". AI robots lead the marathon and become cheerleaders on the sidelines of the track. This is just a microcosm of Changan Automobile using AI to drive the upgrade of the automotive industry.
"Disruptors never stop catching up" - when the global automotive industry was caught in the internal circulation of electrification, Changan Automobile used new-quality productivity as a weapon to break through the ceiling of traditional manufacturing and reconstruct the discourse system of the global automotive industry with "technological equality".
Changan Automobile has been ranked among the top in the R&D capabilities of the National Enterprise Technology Center for 7 consecutive years. It invests 5% of its sales revenue in R&D every year, and 10% of it is used for forward-looking technology research. It has now established a global R&D network of "six countries and ten locations". The "Beidou Tianshu 2.0" plan released in February 2025 marks the entry of its intelligent strategy into the deep water zone.
The advancement of the Beidou Tianshu 2.0 plan demonstrates Changan's deep understanding of the essence of smart cars. The "scenario engine" built through the AI big model allows vehicles to maintain human-like driving decision-making capabilities in extreme weather conditions such as heavy rain and fog. This breakthrough not only supports the goal of achieving full-scenario L3 autonomous driving in 2026, but also expands the applicable scenarios of high-level intelligent driving to areas that the industry has never touched.
"Smart driving should not be a luxury, but a standard feature of national cars," Zhu Huarong previously announced at the 2025 Global Partner Conference that Changan will completely stop selling non-digital new cars, launch 35 digital models in the next three years, and equip 100,000 yuan-class models with laser radars, increasing the AEB collision avoidance speed to 135km/h.
Behind this decision is Changan's accurate prediction of industry trends. While Tesla's FSD subscription system is still testing the market, Changan has decentralized technology through the "Tianshu Intelligent Driving" system, allowing high-end intelligent driving to enter the mass market.
On the other hand, in terms of manufacturing, Changan Automobile Digital Factory was shortlisted for the "Best Mobile Internet Economy Award" of the MWC25 GLOMO Awards, becoming the only Chinese automaker on the list. The "dark factory" behind it, which integrates more than 40 cutting-edge technologies such as AI visual quality inspection and software packaging and testing, is not only a manufacturing tool that improves production efficiency by 30%, but also creates a new model of "user-direct manufacturing". Consumers can participate in vehicle production in real time through the App, and even adjust configuration parameters remotely, redefining the industrial value in the era of mobile Internet.
This achievement not only confirms the global competitiveness of China's intelligent manufacturing, but also reveals Changan's leap from "manufacturing" to "intelligent manufacturing".
Changan's journey does not stop on the ground. The new generation of flying cars that will be tested at the end of 2025 and the humanoid robots that will be mass-produced in 2028 will outline a three-dimensional travel picture of land, sea, air and humanoid robots. The strategic significance of this layout is that when most car companies are still trapped in the battery life competition, Changan has built an ecological closed loop of software and hardware collaboration through the "Tianshu large model + multi-modal AI cockpit". As Zhu Huarong said: "The future competition is not a contest of single-vehicle intelligence, but a struggle of ecological systems."
Changan of the World: Breaking through Globalization in Three Steps
From price war to value war, the export of technology standards and the construction of a localized ecosystem have set a new benchmark for China's automobile globalization breakthrough.
In the face of challenges such as EU carbon tariffs and policy fluctuations in Southeast Asia, Changan's "Inclusiveness" plan has demonstrated strategic resilience. From the release of the "Inclusiveness" plan in April 2023, Changan Automobile was listed in the "BrandZ Top 50 Chinese Global Brands" in June 2024, which took only 14 months, becoming the fastest brand to be listed for the first time after the release of the global strategy in the automotive category.
In addition, public data shows that in January 2025, Changan Automobile's exports soared 8 times month-on-month, ranking among the top three Chinese automobile exports for the first time, and the CS series models' market share in Southeast Asia exceeded 12%.
Behind the impressive data and achievements is the three-step strategy of “product going overseas → brand going overseas → industry going overseas”.
By observing Changan Automobile's global plan for 2025, it is not difficult to discover its systematic strategic depth layout.
The Rayong factory in Southeast Asia will be put into production this year, which marks the upgrade of its overseas manufacturing capabilities from a single base to a regional hub, relying on Thailand's industrial aggregation advantages in ASEAN to radiate the markets of Southeast Asia and RCEP member countries. The KD project in the CIS region has also been put into production, achieving tariff cost optimization.
The European brand launch conference to be held this year is a key step in meeting international first-class standards. Through the deep adaptation of the localized R&D team and the EU carbon emission regulations, it will promote smart electric brands such as Deep Blue and Avita to break through the barriers of the high-potential market.
In addition, Changan Automobile has also made layouts in the markets of Central and South America and the Middle East and Africa. In the Middle East and Africa, Changan Automobile has introduced the three major brands of CHANGAN, DEEPAL and AVATR in stages, building a full spectrum coverage from economical commuter vehicles to high-end smart models, and responding to the fragmented market characteristics with a differentiated product matrix.
Behind this series of actions, Changan reflects the change in its overseas logic from "product overseas" to "industry overseas", and from "opportunity-driven" to "capability-driven". Through the three-dimensional layout of manufacturing localization, compliance pre-positioning and brand synergy, the risks of global operations are systematically reduced, laying a foundation for sustainable growth for the strategic goal of overseas sales accounting for 30% by 2030.
at last
In 2024, Changan Automobile's annual sales volume reached 2.683 million units, a seven-year high. New energy vehicle sales surged 52.8% year-on-year to 734,000 units, and overseas exports of 536,000 units further confirmed the effectiveness of the globalization strategy. In terms of structural optimization, the breakthrough of new energy revenue accounting for 25% and overseas revenue accounting for 23% indicates that Changan has transformed from a traditional manufacturing company to a technology-driven ecological company.
Looking to the future, Changan's goals are becoming clearer. Behind the 2025 "3311" goal (total sales of 3 million vehicles, revenue of 300 billion yuan, independent new energy sales of 1 million vehicles, and exports of 1 million vehicles) is the driving force behind Changan's embrace of transformation.
Changan's transformation path reveals the truth of the industry: without technological self-reliance, "overtaking on a curve" is just a castle in the air. This transformation practice is writing the historical process of China's automobile industry from "market for technology" to "technology wins the market".
In terms of technological innovation, Changan has proved that the core of new-quality productivity is "technological accessibility"; at the global level, its "three-step" strategy has created a new paradigm of "using technology to expand the market."
When the two sessions in 2025 were hotly discussing "cultivating emerging industries" and "improving the quality of international circulation", Changan Automobile has responded with actions, using digital technology to penetrate the industrial chain to reconstruct value, and to build a global ecosystem to transcend short-term trends. This transformation not only drives the company to transform into an intelligent and low-carbon technology company, but also provides key momentum for China to move from an automobile power to an automobile powerhouse.
