The Shanghai auto show 2021 is underway at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai). The show, slated to be held from April 19 to 28, is the world's first A-level auto expo held as scheduled this year. Many exhibitors of the China International Import Expo (CIIE) are participating in it, with NEVs and smart mobility as the highlights.

Last year, the world's top seven vehicle groups showed their products at the third CIIE. Over 90 percent of the auto exhibition area was occupied by Fortune Global 500 corporations and the world's leading auto makers.

NEVs and smart mobility vehicles attracted a lot of attention. Hyundai debuted its mass-produced heavy truck fueled by hydrogen and NEXO, a modern hydrogen fuel cell vehicle at the third CIIE. BMW displayed its i8 Roadster at the expo, showing off its new energy sources, new materials and new technologies. Volkswagen Group's three major auto brands, Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche, participated jointly in the CIIE where they showed a huge group of electric cars.

At the Shanghai auto show 2021, the carmakers which exhibited at CIIE are introducing new models of NEVs and smart mobility. Mercedes is displaying its entire range of EQ models, including the all-electric luxury sedan EQS that made its world premiere in China on April 16.

German auto parts supplier Bosch showed the latest solutions and cutting-edge technologies at the auto show such as fuel cell stacks, silicon carbide chips, smart cabins and automated valet parking, which are expected to support China's goal of peaking carbon dioxide emissions and becoming carbon-neutral.

General Motors introduced its Ultium hyperscale battery platform at the Shanghai auto show, and debuted the first model based on it, the Cadillac Lyriq SUV, expected to hit the market early next year.

GM plans to invest $27 billion in the electric vehicle and autonomous driving sectors by 2025, according to Julian Blissett, GM's executive vice-president and GM China president. Forty percent of the new models to be rolled out in the Chinese market will be purely electric, he added.

Speaking of the fourth CIIE that will be held in November, Blissett said "GM has exhibited at the CIIE for three consecutive years, and I signed an agreement on site last year to participate in the fourth expo."

"The CIIE gives us two major opportunities. First, it's a platform allowing us to show Chinese consumers our products and the company's future prospects. Second, by interacting with visitors we can fully assess the exhibits' market potential, which is helpful to bring in and fine tune products," Blissett told a reporter.

"CIIE is the touchstone of GM's oncoming products," he said.

The vast auto market in China is crucial to the transnational automakers' strategies of focusing on NEVs and smart mobility technology.

In 2020, the production and sales of NEVs in China reached 1.366 million and 1.367 million units respectively, with year-on-year growth of 7.5 percent and 10.9 percent, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Intelligent connected vehicles account for 48.8 percent of the total, 3.8 percent higher than the global average. 

Data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) show that in March, wholesale sales of pure electric micro vehicles reached 67,000 units, accounting for 40 percent of all-electric car sales.

Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the CPCA considered that pure electric micro vehicles have huge development space in 2021, with market share expected to remain about 40 percent of the total.

Sales volume of new energy passenger vehicles in 2021 is estimated to be 1.8 million and sales of all-electric micro vehicles are expected to reach 720,000, an increase of 400,000 vehicles compared with 2020, Cui said.

The CIIE has been successfully held three times. More and more enterprises make their commodities' world and China's debuts there. The expo has gradually become the bellwether for the development of various industries.

To acclimatize the development trends of the global auto industry and to support China's plans for advancing the industry, the CIIE Bureau recently hosted a series of activities, such as the promotion event on the fourth CIIE's smart mobility section and the opening ceremony of the smart mobility and new energy special committee of the 2021 CIIE Enterprise Alliance.

By making the moves, the CIIE Bureau aims to make full use of the expo's advantages as a comprehensive platform, help break through the barriers between industries, facilitate cross-industry exchanges and provide cooperation opportunities to the exhibitors.

The CIIE helps different industries to complement each other's advantages and realize win-win cooperation, which is a brand new cooperation model for the new era of a shared global future.

The fourth CIIE will continue include a smart mobility subsection in its automobile exhibition area. Enterprises are welcome to take an active part in the expo to embrace the Chinese market and share the opportunities arising from China's economic development.

Sources: chinanews.com, xinmin.cn