The Hengchi 1 car. - AFP

SHANGHAI: The Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition kicked off today in China’s financial hub, a multiday event aimed at showcasing the best and brightest car innovations in the world’s biggest vehicle market.

Electric cars and intelligent-driving technology will doubtless be a major theme, with everyone from startups to the most venerable automakers plowing money into cleaner transport.

Any announcements from companies like Huawei Technologies Co. and Xiaomi Corp. will also be closely watched, as some of China’s biggest names in tech muscle into EVs too.

The show is also unique in the sense it’s being held, in all its physical glory, as many other countries are in the grips of worsening coronavirus outbreaks. China has largely managed to contain the virus, meaning big events such as this one are possible.


Tesla present, but low key

The world’s biggest maker of electric cars dominates China’s auto scene but typically doesn’t have a large presence at the country’s major auto shows. This year was no exception, with Tesla Inc. sporting an understated booth.

The Palo Alto, California-based company only had four models on display, all made in China at its gigafactory in Shanghai -- the Model 3 standard and Model 3 high performance, along with the Model Y long-range and Model Y high performance. It’s the first time the China-made Model Ys have been seen at an auto show.

Tesla started delivery of its Model Y cars in China in January and they’re proving a hit. The car can run for almost 600 kilometers (373 miles) on one charge. Some 10,140 China-made Model Ys were registered in March, double February’s figures.


Big spending but no cars yet

China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group Ltd. is a stock-market darling, with its shares rallying more than 1,000% over the past 12 months, giving it a market value greater than Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co.

But despite raising billions of dollars, the company hasn’t sold a single car under its own brand.

Although it has a huge presence at this year’s Shanghai auto show, the media could not get up close and personal with its Hengchi models on display.



The cars are contained within glass fences and only security and company personnel are allowed in.

A Bloomberg reporter who tried to enter was promptly escorted away.

Evergrande NEV’s president Liu Yongzhuo said at a briefing today that mass delivery of Hengchi cars will start by next year.

Daniel Kirchert, an executive vice president who joined recently after stints at BMW AG and another electric car startup Byton Ltd., said the Hengchi 1 will have a driving range of 760km while the Hengchi 9, a pure electric mid-sized SUV, will have an extra-long range of 910km.



Electric push

The world’s largest carmaker previewed its "Beyond Zero” bZ4X, an electric SUV sitting on its new "e-TNGA” platform at the show today.

The vehicle is a compact SUV that resembles Toyota’s popular RAV-4, but is built on a entirely new platform. Hybrid heavyweight Toyota Motor Corp. has taken a more cautious approach to EVs but that is starting to change with the the latest debut.



By comparison, Volkswagen, Toyota’s main global rival, is betting US$29 billion on new battery technology to accelerate its shift to EVs.

The Japanese automaker says the e-TNGA platform will speed up deployment of new EVs, reducing development time and allowing different models to be designed in parallel.

Volvo Cars and DiDi autonomous Driving, the self-driving technology arm of Didi Chuxing Inc., said they’ve signed a strategic collaboration agreement on autonomous vehicles for DiDi’s self-driving test fleet.



Volvo Cars will provide DiDi with its XC90 cars equipped with backup systems for functions such as steering and braking, and collaborate with DiDi autonomous Driving to integrate the additional software and hardware required to make the cars fully ready for autonomous driving.

In 2020, Volvo Cars provided DiDi with Volvo XC60s for use in Shanghai’s first pilot robotaxi program.

People in certain areas of the city could book trips by robotaxi in the DiDi app and be driven autonomously, although the cars were monitored by a safety driver and engineer.

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