Automakers at Guangzhou auto show pursue trendy electrification transformation

Foreign-funded and joint venture automakers at the ongoing 22nd Guangzhou International Automobile Exhibition are pursuing intelligence and electrification transformation and striving to align with China's advancements in the field.

The exhibition kicked off in south China's Guangdong Province on Friday, with new energy vehicles catching the spotlight.

Japan's largest automaker Toyota Motor Corp. said that in the first 10 months of this year, its luxury Lexus models sold nearly 150,000 vehicles in the Chinese market, a year-on-year increase of about three percent and more than half of the models were electrified.

Li Hui, Executive Vice-President of Lexus China, said that the impressive performance has inspired them to keep up with the pace of China's new energy vehicle development.

"We will accelerate our pace. When we look at the speed and pace of product launches, almost every product incorporates the requirements of electrification technology," said Li.

In addition, Beijing Hyundai Motor Co., a joint venture enterprise, will launch its first pure electric vehicle model in 2025.

This auto show also saw the concentrated demonstration of new energy vehicles from famous German auto brands like Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

In May, China's SAIC Motor signed a cooperation agreement with Volkswagen's premium brand Audi, officially launching the joint development of the Advanced Digitized Platform. Their first car model will be on offer next year.

"We are doing everything new. We are not only creating a new platform, the Advanced Digitized Platform, new car with completely new design language, but even a new brand, a new interpretation of our brand. So the plan is to go big, to make it long term. And we are very confident because of the reactions we have seen so far with the project, with a car, with the brand. So we are very confident that we are moving ahead in the transformation of Audi China," said Fermin Soneira, CEO of Audi and SAIC Cooperation Project.

Automakers at Guangzhou auto show pursue trendy electrification transformation

The 26th China Hi-Tech Fair, which ran from Thursday to Saturday in south China's tech hub of Shenzhen, featured the debuts of over 4,300 new products and technologies.

One of the most eye-catching exhibits is an intelligent drone camera that doesn't require a remote control. It can take high-resolution pictures hovering at a certain distance above its owner after a facial recognition process.

"A great merit of the drone is it's portable, safe and convenient. The fully enclosed structure can effectively avoid visual obstacles for its 8K video camera. It is easy for customers to learn how to use the drone. It can fly at a speed up to 42 kilometers per hour. So it can be used during traveling and outdoor activities," said Song Yulong, an exhibitor.

Another highlight at the fair is a coffee robot capable of making latte art based on images uploaded to its system.

Besides daily products, the fair also presented many innovative solutions to production facilitation, such as a large language model that can quickly come up with dozens of design proposals based on a few pictures.

"For example, I upload the pictures of this pair of shoes and an armor, and then it can make a design based on just these two pictures. It can generate a specific and practical product design according to style references and modeling inputs," said Li Jiaxiang, another exhibitor.

The annual China Hi-Tech Fair, inaugurated in 1999, is the largest and the most influential science and technology fair in China.

This year's event attracted nearly 5,000 companies and organizations from over 100 countries and regions. More than 1,000 purchasing delegations around the world visited the fair, and more than 400,000 professional visitors negotiated deals at the fair.

It witnessed the signing of 869 contracts with their intended transaction volume surpassing 120 billion yuan (about 16.8 billion U.S. dollars).

New technologies, products shine at China Hi-Tech Fair