Automotive forum highlights high-quality industry development

The 2026 China Auto Forum, which was held in Shanghai from Tuesday to Thursday, focused on seizing new opportunities to advance the high-quality development of the automotive industry.

Organized by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), this year's forum featured a series of thematic discussions covering sustainable development, industrial globalization, automotive talent, carbon management, and automaker strategies. Seventeen leading automakers and technology companies participated, to discuss critical, emerging issues facing the automotive industry.

"The overall scale of the automotive industry now accounts for more than one-third of the national machinery industry. We are focusing on automotive chips, in-vehicle operating systems, high-end power battery materials, and core algorithms for intelligent driving, to promote the widespread adoption of new technologies, new processes, new materials, and new equipment in automobiles," said Luo Junjie, executive vice president of the China Machinery Industry Federation.

Experts at the forum said that the automotive industry must build upon its existing leadership in scale to explore a high-quality development model suited for the new era. This involves continuous technological iteration, quality upgrades, brand empowerment, and optimization of the industrial structure.

"In 2025, the operating revenue of the automotive manufacturing sector exceeded 11 trillion yuan (about 1.6 billion U.S. dollars). Facing the rapid pace of industrial transformation, enterprises must strictly adhere to the bottom line in competition, return to rationality, and embrace a long-term development mindset. We must remain rooted in the domestic market to hone our core competitiveness," said Fu Bingfeng, executive vice-president and secretary-general of the CAAM.

With evolving domestic automotive consumption patterns, experts also highlighted the need for industry consensus and collaborative innovation across the entire supply chain. The goal is to collectively build a secure and resilient supply chain system and an open, win-win innovation ecosystem, all guided by global technical standards.

"We must rely on scientific and technological innovation -- including basic research and the strategic layout of future technologies -- to break through the bottlenecks in our foundational technologies. We need to keep core technologies firmly in our own hands, and ultimately forge a highly competitive and resilient supply chain system," said You Zheng, vice president of Dongfeng Motor Corporation.

Prices of fuels and lubricants for personal transport in the European Union (EU) increased by 13.7 percent in June compared with the same month of last year, data from statistical office Eurostat showed on Wednesday.

While the figure represents a slight drop compared with a 20.8 percent rise in April and a 20.7 percent rise in May, it still marks double-digit growth for a third consecutive month.

Data also showed that all 27 EU member states recorded month-on-month increases in fuel and lubricant prices in June, though the pace of growth eased in most countries compared with the previous month.

Analysts believe that a combination of factors, including high volatility in international energy markets and lingering geopolitical tensions, will continue to exert upward pressure on fuel prices across the continent.