The "Eurasian Tour with AITO" convoy, featuring several AITO models, arrived in Paris last October after a 15,000-kilometer, 38-day journey from Seres super factory in Liangjiang New Area. [Photo provided to english.liangjiang.gov.cn]

Automobiles have become a signature made-in-Chongqing product. In 2024, the city exported 477,000 vehicles, a 29.6 percent year-on-year growth. The total value reached 43.11 billion yuan ($5.90 billion), up 30 percent from the previous year. 

In 2023, Chongqing launched a globalization plan for the automobile industry, with the goal of exporting 10 percent of China's annual vehicle volume by 2027. One year later, made-in-Chongqing vehicles expanded their presence across six continents.

Japanese car brands had long dominated the Oceania automotive market. In 2024, Liangjiang-based Changan Automobile took an alternative market entry strategy. Instead of competing in the fuel vehicle sector, where Japanese brands hold a strong advantage, Changan promoted its new energy vehicles to gain a foothold. 

"The electric Deepal S07 is our first model to enter the local market," said Xu Hao, senior manager of Changan Automobile Asia-Pacific. He added that the electric Qiyuan E07 will hit the local market in June, followed by the Deepal S05 in September, which features electric and range-extender versions. 

Changan's footprint has expanded globally: It has established a plant in Thailand that manufactures right-hand drive vehicles for the Southeast Asian market, it offers fuel vehicles for the Central and South American market, and it has introduced three new energy brands — Deepal, Qiyuan, and Avatr — for the European market. In 2024, Changan's overseas sales exceeded 530,000 vehicles, a nearly 50 percent year-on-year increase. 

Many local carmakers have joined the race to go global. Seres, a leading new energy vehicles brand in China, has exported over 500,000 vehicles to 62 countries. Livan Auto, a brand backed by Volvo-owned Geely and Lifan, has partnered with the Indonesian company ALETRA to establish a local R&D facility focusing on right-hand drive electric vehicles. 

Chongqing exported 60,000 electric vehicles last year, an increase of 96.5 percent from the previous year. The new energy vehicle sector is widely perceived as an important growth driver in Chongqing's globalization plan for the automobile industry.

In response to this trend, various policies and measures have been released to support the new energy vehicle sector. For instance, Liangjiang New Area has introduced an international new energy vehicle brand center, which will function as a testing and certification base and an import-export trading base. As a major platform for developing the new energy vehicle sector, Liangjiang contributed 58 percent of Chongqing's total new energy vehicle production in 2024.

Zhan Yi, an associate researcher at the Industrial Economics Institute of the Chongqing Academy of Social Sciences, suggested that Chongqing use the new energy vehicle sector to promote industry globalization. 

The new energy car sector involves more than just vehicles. It involves various industrial fields, many of which are advantageous sectors for Chongqing, such as electronic information, new materials, energy storage, artificial intelligence, industrial Internet of Things, and equipment manufacturing.

Liangjiang New Area is a major platform for Chongqing to develop the auto industry. [Photo by Wang Jiaxi]