Leading German automakers are showcasing cutting-edge innovations at Auto Shanghai 2025, the largest edition in the event’s history, drawing over 100,000 daily visitors to explore breakthroughs in smart cockpits, new energy vehicles, and intelligent platforms.
Since the show opened on Wednesday, nearly 1,000 automakers and suppliers from 26 countries and regions are participating, solidifying its status as the largest edition in the prestigious event's history.
At the BMW booth, a super-sensory smart cockpit, developed by the Shanghai R&D team, made its Asia debut. This groundbreaking human-machine interaction technology is set for mass production by year’s end, with plans for introduction in European factories.
"So, the largest R and D group outside of Germany is located here in China. More than 3,000 people work on exactly this feature-- automated driving and the digitalization of the user interface. And a lot of the elements of the Neue Klasse have been developed here in China. An emphasis lies here on AI, artificial intelligence, which is developed here in China and we bring it to the car," said Oliver Zipse, chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG.
At the same time, the Volkswagen Group is presenting the first results of its "In China, For China" strategy, featuring its largest-ever lineup of new energy vehicles. This move underscores its commitment to China’s rapid technological and innovative progress.
"The market is progressing very fast in China, with a high innovation speed, especially in the automotive sector. With intelligent connected vehicles, cloud services and AI, they play big role on this, and Volkswagen Group is in the middle of this," said Oliver Blume, CEO of Volkswagen Group.
Meanwhile, German automaker Audi, in collaboration with SAIC, has made significant strides, unveiling a chassis tailored for China's road conditions and co-developing an advanced intelligent platform to enhance vehicle technology.
"China is the epicenter of the automotive transformation worldwide, there is no other market which is more competitive than China in terms of technology, in terms of speed," said Fermín Soneira, CEO of the Audi-SAIC Cooperation Project.
In addition to automakers, German parts supplier Bosch Group has unveiled its latest innovations in China, solidifying partnerships through new cooperation agreements with domestic companies.
German automakers lead innovations at Auto Shanghai 2025, highlighting smart mobility
Highlighting the "Future Energy" as a key direction for China's strategic emerging industries, the country's nuclear energy development, guided by its three-step strategy, has seen major strides in the past year, said a member of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
In a recent press briefing, Xin Feng, also deputy general manager of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), updated the media on the progresses China has achieved under the strategy.
"China's three-step strategy for nuclear energy development -- from the thermal reactor to the fast reactor and the fusion reactor -- was formulated in 1983 as a medium- and long-term plan. For the thermal reactor, over the past year, our 2.0 version of the Hualong One technology has been approved. This is a unified and fully self-owned intellectual property based third-generation nuclear power technology solution. And the Linglong One small modular reactor also successfully completed its cold-state functional test last year and is expected to be put into commercial operation this year," he said.
For the second and third steps, Chinese researchers and engineers have achieved milestones in the past year with the government support, Xin noted.
"Then for the fast reactor, last year, a closed-cycle system for an integral fast reactor successfully achieved preliminary standard design. We will continue to solve its engineering technology challenges. As for the fusion reactor, in 2025, with national support, we established the China Fusion Energy Company in Shanghai. And our Huanliu-3, a platform for conducting research and development of fusion technology, made a big stride, with an iron temperature in it achieving 117 million Celsius and an electron temperature reaching 160 million Celsius. We will continue to adhere to the development strategy and focus on technological research and engineering technology development," Xin said.
The fourth session of the 14th NPC and the fourth session of the 14th National Committee of the CPPCC kicked off in Beijing on March 5 and March 4, respectively.
The "two sessions" -- which refer to the annual meetings of China's supreme organ of state power, the National People's Congress (NPC), and its top political advisory body, the National Committee of the CPPCC -- are a key event on the country's political calendar and offer a window into the country's development direction.
China's nuclear energy development makes great strides with three-step strategy: CPPCC member
