When the main motor exhibitions in Europe and the United States are forced to reduce or change their structure, those in China keep expanding.
With 1,451 cars on display, including 181 world shows, the 2026 Beijing International Auto Show 2026 (also known as Auto China 2026) has become the largest auto show in history—and that’s in terms of exhibit space and the number of vehicles on display.
This fact itself reflects a shift in the center of gravity of the automotive industry, but not only that. The biggest structural changes are taking place in China today.
In the past, the focus was on low-cost electric car models, but now price is no longer the primary competitive factor. At the exhibition, not only were there many high-end EVs and large SUVs from Chinese manufacturers with advanced driver assistance technologies and AI functions, but these technologies are also rapidly spreading to the lower price range.
Cars of Chinese manufacturers offer many interesting technological features. Lidar sensors, which use lasers for advanced driver assistance, are now even included in EVs costing less than 100,000 yuan (about $14,500). Models with “drive-by-wire” technology, which replaces mechanical steering linkages and hydraulic brake lines with electrical signals, are clearly visible. Even Toyota’s in-house models are using Huawei powertrains and a smart pilot steering system.
The simple dichotomy of “cheap Chinese cars vs. high-end European cars” no longer holds weight. While remaining competitive in the low-cost market, Chinese manufacturers are also gaining leadership in areas such as AI, driver assistance systems, in-car chips, smart cockpits, and high-performance EVs.
These 19 unique models from the 2026 Beijing Auto Show embody this evolution.
XPeng GX
Courtesy of Xpeng
There is a fundamental difference between a car designed for autonomous driving and an existing car that has been added with autonomous driving technology. XPeng Motors’ GX is a classic, a model in which the sensors, computing infrastructure, and AI models for level 4 driving in mind were designed, then developed into a new SUV headed for the commercial market.
With up to four proprietary AI chips, it has a total computing power of 3,000 terabytes of operations per second—about 12 times the 254 TOPS that a single Nvidia Orin can do. The latest in-car AI design can recognize spoken commands as well as images captured by the car’s cameras, and can understand and adapt to the current driving situation.
Volkswagen has used XPeng’s AI chip and driver assistance technology in its EVs, meaning that XPeng is not just an EV maker. It becomes the platform provider of the intelligence behind autonomous driving for Europe’s largest car manufacturer. The price is 399,800 yuan (about $58,000).
