Policy

Chinese regulator of the automotive industry has begun asking car companies to conduct self-examinations of their data security and cybersecurity in order to address safety concerns.

China now has too many NEV companies, which are small and fragmented, and the industry's players need to get bigger and stronger in the future, a senior Chinese official said.

The move is intended to direct car companies to areas with low capacity utilization and to close plants that were built in the past few years but are now in surplus, the report said.

Effective immediately, these platforms are not allowed to grant new access to non-compliant vehicles and drivers and should accelerate the retirement of non-compliant drivers and vehicles.

Of the total 61 pilot projects, Nio is involved in three, and Xpeng is involved in one. Li Auto does not appear in the list.

Tesla received Chinese state subsidies for 101,082 vehicles sold in the country in 2020, for a combined amount of RMB 2.123 billion ($329 million).

Officials from China's top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission, recently researched the "battery swap model" of new energy vehicles and its application in Beijing.

With the development of smart connected cars, cyber data security issues have come to the fore and could pose significant security risks, a senior Chinese official said.

In the face of a growing chip shortage, the industry's regulator in China is taking action in addition to car companies finding their own ways to deal with it.

Since last year, Nio and the city of Hefei have been working together to build battery swap facilities and plan to add 20 new ones within two years.