Chinese ministry focuses on car standards to put industry in global driving seat
New five-year plan also emphasised importance of stronger standards in boosting Chinese manufacturers’ competitiveness
To sharpen its competitive edge in the world’s next-generation vehicle market, China has pledged to fast track automotive technical standards to build its status as a global rule-setter.
The plan also said that by upgrading industrial benchmarks, Beijing aimed to facilitate market-driven mergers and acquisitions while accelerating the orderly exit of outdated production capacity.
CCTV reported on Thursday that the new standards would raise product quality, such as battery cycle life for electric vehicles, and also spur technical innovation, including artificial intelligence applications for cars.
This push builds on an MIIT directive issued in April last year that called for the strengthening of standards in “advantageous industries”, specifically targeting intelligent connected vehicles and their critical infrastructure.
The ministry officials were speaking at the first meeting of a new National Technical Committee of Auto Standardisation, after the five-year terms of the members of the previous committee expired.