●Xinhua News Agency reporter Gao Kang Zhang Ziyun
At NIO’s advanced manufacturing Xinqiao No. 2 factory, robots and workers coordinate with precision. AI multimodal automatic detection, 3D vision recognition, and other processes advance in an orderly manner, and after inspection, one new-energy vehicle after another automatically drives out of the workshop… Recently, the reporter visited Hefei, Anhui, and firsthand experienced the pulse of the new-energy vehicle industry’s development along the shore of Lake Chaohu.
“The robotic arm detects new cars using thermal imaging; the AI automatically identifies them, completing 69 inspection items in 84 seconds.” Li Yuting, an engineer on NIO’s Tian Tong project, told reporters that through tens of thousands of sensors, NIO’s advanced manufacturing Xinqiao No. 2 factory generates about 2TB of structured data every day. This data will be used for AI model learning and training, and the intelligent production lines are “growing” every day.”
From the first car rolling off the production line in 2018 to the 10 millionth car rolling off the line in 2026, NIO—one of China’s new energy vehicle makers—has taken root and flourished in Hefei, becoming a shining calling card for the city’s new energy automobile industry.
A single thread does not make a line, and a lone tree does not make a forest. The acceleration of new energy vehicle manufacturing is inseparable from the strong backing of a mature industrial chain.
“Focusing on the new energy vehicle industry, the Economic Development Zone has built a four-in-one development model: R&D, complete vehicles, parts and components, and the after-market.” Ma Long, deputy director of the Economic Development Bureau of Hefei Economic Development Zone, said that leveraging vehicle manufacturers such as Volkswagen, NIO, and JAC, the zone’s industrial scale has continued to expand, and it has already attracted more than 140 upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain.
At the same-city Gotion High-Tech Co., Ltd., reporters can see how the G-Kick battery enables rapid charging in the showroom, and also see in the Engineering Institute a row after row of battery charge/discharge testing cabinets. Here, reporters feel the hard strength of independently developed traction battery technology and the powerful momentum of industrial clusters gathering strength.
“The competitiveness of an industrial cluster lies in efficient collaboration among complete vehicles, core components, manufacturing equipment, talent, and service systems.” Zhou Fu, senior vice president of Gotion High-Tech and president of the Institute of Research for Technology, told reporters that Gotion High-Tech works in depth with vehicle manufacturers such as Chery, NIO, and JAC—not only as a supporting supplier, but also through joint development and continuous iteration.
From core components to complete vehicle manufacturing, localized industrial coordination makes Hefei’s new energy vehicle supply chain more stable, faster to respond, and more cost-effective. Today, Hefei has gathered 6 complete vehicle companies. From breakthroughs by leading companies to clusters formed across the entire value chain, momentum is building to propel the new energy vehicle industry’s healthy growth. In the first half of 2026, the city’s total vehicle output exceeded 750,000 units, including more than 550,000 new energy vehicles.
The vigorous growth of an industry is inseparable from precise policy support and sustained ecosystem cultivation. In recent years, Anhui Province has rolled out special development plans and supporting policies to make the automobile industry bigger and stronger—pushing efforts on multiple fronts including technology breakthroughs, industrial investment attraction, and market promotion—to drive the industry’s thriving growth.
Chery Automobile’s exports grew by 71.2% year on year in the first seven months of this year. On average, every 16 seconds, a “Chery-made” vehicle heads overseas. In 2025, the automobile industry in Wuhu generated over RMB 687.2 billion in revenue……
Relying on a dual-engine driven new-energy vehicle industrial chain centered in Hefei and Wuhu, Anhui continues to extend and expand the supply chain, while the province’s overall industrial competitiveness keeps strengthening. In the first half of this year, Anhui produced 1.6867 million vehicles in total, including 881,800 new energy vehicles; vehicle exports reached 1.006 million units, with export value of RMB 104.36 billion.
With over 10 years of deep cultivation, Hefei in Anhui has achieved remarkable results in the new energy vehicle sector. A well-developed industrial ecosystem, strong capabilities in scientific and technological innovation, and abundant talent supply have made this city on the shores of Lake Chaohu a truly real “new energy vehicle city,” adding bricks and mortar to high-quality development of China’s manufacturing industry. (From Xinhua News Agency)