Chinese ministry focuses on car standards to put industry in global driving seat

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 carmaking powerhouse would drive high-quality development of the auto sector through the formulation and enhancement of core standards during the next five years, officials from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) told state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) in Beijing on Thursday.

The move aligns with the national five-year plan released last month, with the development blueprint explicitly calling for stronger national standards to consolidate China’s competitiveness.

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benchmarks, Beijing aimed to facilitate market-driven mergers and acquisitions while accelerating the orderly exit of outdated production capacity.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.

South China Morning Post