Summary: China has ranked first globally in new energy vehicle (NEV) production and sales for five consecutive years, becoming a new driver of the country's economic and social development. Recently, the General Office of the State Council issued the New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2021–2035). Industry experts believe that the next 15 years will bring a major window of opportunity for NEVs, with electrification, connectivity, and intelligence emerging as the prevailing trends in the automotive industry. China is steadily advancing toward becoming a global automotive powerhouse.
China has ranked first globally in NEV production and sales for five consecutive years, becoming a new driver of the country's economic and social development. Recently, the General Office of the State Council issued the New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2021–2035). Industry experts believe that the next 15 years will bring a major window of opportunity for NEVs, with electrification, connectivity, and intelligence emerging as the prevailing trends in the automotive industry. China is steadily advancing toward becoming a global automotive powerhouse.
The plan states that by 2025, China's NEV market competitiveness will be significantly enhanced, with major breakthroughs in key technologies such as power batteries, drive motors, and vehicle operating systems, and comprehensive improvements in safety levels. At the same time, through 15 years of sustained effort, China aims to bring its core NEV technologies to internationally advanced levels and build quality brands with strong international competitiveness.
Xin Guobin, Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology, recently stated at a State Council policy briefing that new energy vehicles are a major direction for the transformation, upgrading, and green development of the global automotive industry, and also a strategic choice for the high-quality development of China's automotive industry.
Xin noted that "the NEV industry is an ecosystem featuring coordinated development of vehicles, roads, and networks. After more than a decade of development, China has made significant progress in batteries, motors, and electronic control systems. Battery and motor technologies are among the world's best, electronic control systems still have some room for improvement, and network communications are at the global forefront. In terms of power batteries, China's current single-cell energy density has reached 300 watt-hours per kilogram, a level that is internationally leading." In addition, charging and battery-swapping infrastructure is a key link in NEV development. As of September this year, a total of 42,000 charging stations and 525 battery-swapping stations had been built nationwide, along with 1.42 million charging piles, giving a vehicle-to-charger ratio of approximately 3.1:1.
The development of China's NEV industry is also expected to further drive demand for nonferrous metals such as copper and aluminum, as well as steel, promoting the development of upstream and downstream enterprises in the nonferrous metals and steel industries. According to estimates from Huatai Futures, the amount of copper required for new energy vehicles in 2020 is approximately 149,000 tons. The release of the New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2021–2035) may change the current pattern of copper price fluctuations and provide some support for copper prices.