China’s EVs to see self-driving ‘democratisation’ in 2025, UBS analyst says

China has rapidly progressed from a market for carmakers into an ‘innovative hub’ for technologies such as electrification and intelligence

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A man rides his bike opposite a self-driving taxi in the Daxing district in Beijing, China, September 2, 2024. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 5:30pm, 9 Jan 2025Updated: 6:00pm, 9 Jan 2025

Self-driving features will see mass-market adoption in Chinese cars this year, thanks to fierce competition among Chinese electric vehicle (EV) makers that is driving innovation, according to a UBS analyst.

This year will see the “democratisation of high-end autonomous-driving systems” in mainstream vehicles in the country, Paul Gong, head of China auto research at UBS, said during the South China Morning Post’s China Future Tech webinar on Thursday.

Self-driving systems are the brains of many EVs. Tesla is still waiting for approval from Beijing to install full self-driving on its models sold in mainland China. At the same time, Chinese EV makers are embracing self-driving features as key benefits of their new models.

The proliferation of self-driving systems in China will happen thanks to the country’s supply chain ecosystem, where some companies specialise in the hardware while others provide the software, Gong said.

A Tesla Model 3 using autopilot is shown driving on the highway in Palm Springs, California, October 12, 2024. Photo: Reuters

China has rapidly progressed from a market for local and foreign carmakers into a global “innovative hub” for new technologies such as electrification and intelligence, which is helping accelerate the adoption of self-driving, according to the analyst.