China News Service, Beijing, October 23 (Reporter Liu Liang) The "Brand Side Event" of the 2026 World Intelligent and Connected Vehicles Conference with the theme of "Co-building an Innovation Ecosystem for Intelligent and Connected Vehicle Brands" was held in Beijing on the 23rd. Participants discussed the path for China's intelligent and connected vehicle brands to "go overseas".
Zhang Xuejun, director of the News and Publicity Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that brand has become a core element for the intelligent connected car industry to participate in global competition and is directly related to the position of my country's automobile industry in the global value chain. Promoting China's intelligent connected cars from product output to brand output is a must-answer to achieve my country's goal of moving from a major automobile country to a powerful automobile country.
In this regard, Zhang Xuejun put forward three suggestions: first, tell the story of industrial innovation well and consolidate the narrative foundation of China's intelligent and connected automobile brands; second, build a collaborative communication matrix to promote the formation of a joint external communication force for the industry as a whole; third, deepen platform empowerment services to help enterprises improve their global brand operation capabilities.
Kang Bo, director and vice president of Thalys Group Co., Ltd., introduced the three-stage development path of Chinese brands towards internationalization: first, go in and establish a business foundation through trade cooperation; second, go out and promote localized production and research and development; third, go out and realize the global export of technical standards and brand value.
Liu Yan, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, emphasized that it is necessary to seize the critical opportunity period of the "15th Five-Year Plan" to jointly build a mental label for Chinese automobile brands that resonates emotionally and long-termly with consumers around the world, and complete the collective transition from "products going overseas" to "brands going overseas."
"Brand high-end construction is an important path to enhance the status of China's automobile industry in the global value chain." Yang Jing, chief expert of China Automotive Technology Research Center Co., Ltd., pointed out that under the wave of new energy and intelligence, the premium logic of high-end brands is undergoing profound evolution, that is, from traditional symbolic premiums and single-point technology premiums to comprehensively moving towards systematic experience premiums. Technology must be transformed into perceptible experience.
She emphasized that the sense of high-end should be based on trust and set the tone by aesthetics. To build this kind of trust, brands must possess the characteristics of "long-termism" that transcends cycles, and regard ultimate reliability and security as the most solemn commitment to users.
Gu Yang, deputy general manager of the Geely Automobile Group Brand Communication Center, said that there is no shortcut to promoting the upward development of Chinese automobile brands. Only by relying on safe and reliable products can we win the trust of global users and achieve the leap from "going out" to "going up."
Car companies are working hard to improve their internal skills, not only to improve quality and technology, but also to thoroughly study the actual needs of overseas users. Shao Mingfeng, deputy general manager of Lantu Automotive Technology Co., Ltd., said that for products to go overseas, they must have strong capabilities; for brands to go overseas, they must have local business capabilities; and for culture to go overseas, users with different cultural backgrounds must understand and recognize them.
Yu Enyuan, founder of Neolithic Huitong Technology Co., Ltd., said that the urban distribution market accounts for more than 40% of China's operating vehicle market and is also the largest potential market for autonomous driving. In the future, unmanned freight transportation in urban areas needs to solve the three major pain points of "unmanned transportation + unmanned loading and unloading + unmanned handling". Neolithic has basically solved the demand for unmanned transportation, is constantly adding unmanned loading and unloading solutions, and is trying to explore the integration with manned 2C scenarios.
Wu Zhao, global partner of Roland Berger and vice president of Greater China, said that when car companies go overseas, they have shifted from product output to system management, and intelligent network connection has become a key capability for a new round of competition. Intelligent network connectivity capabilities must be integrated into brand, R&D, production and supply, and local ecology to form sustainable overseas competitive advantages. China's intelligent network going global requires system collaboration and ecological co-creation to win long-term trust with reliable local experience.
Wang Zhisheng, vice president of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in the European Union and director of the European Association of China, said that European companies' purchases of Chinese new energy vehicles have shifted from testing the waters to relying on batch trust, and brand recognition continues to increase. The cooperation between Chinese and European intelligent connected car brands is not a zero-sum game, but a joint effort to write a new order for the global automotive industry.
This brand side event was jointly organized by the News and Publicity Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Equipment Industry Development Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
