After dropping out of the "one-million-unit sales track" for three years, this major northern city is making a comeback.

The top ten provinces in national automobile production have reshuffled again.

In 2025, Anhui's automobile production exceeded that of Guangdong and ranked first; Jilin, a traditional automobile hub, dropped out of the top ten, and Hubei also fell to the 10th place; Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hunan and other provinces moved up.

This is the first time Shandong has crossed the 2 million - vehicle mark. With an annual output of 2.6122 million vehicles, it surpassed Jiangsu and took the fourth place in the country. Among them, Qingdao contributed about 40% of the output. In 2025, the industrial added - value of Qingdao's automobile manufacturing industry increased by 25.9% year - on - year, and the output value of complete vehicles exceeded 100 billion yuan; the output of complete vehicles reached 1.022 million, a year - on - year increase of 44.1%.

As early as 2018, Qingdao's automobile production first exceeded the 1 million - vehicle mark, with a total production of 1.03 million various types of vehicles, setting a historical record. In the following years, Qingdao's automobile production was once stable at around 1 million vehicles, reaching nearly 1.2 million at its peak, until it declined in 2022. For three consecutive years, Qingdao's annual output of complete vehicles remained at 700,000 - 800,000 vehicles.

Now that it has returned to the "one - million - vehicle track", Qingdao is further aiming for the "world - class level". Previously, Neolix's driverless vehicles, in cooperation with Didi for delivery services, had more than 1,200 driverless delivery vehicles in operation in Qingdao, making Qingdao the "world's first city for driverless vehicles" with the densest vehicle deployment, the most diverse operation scenarios, and the largest order volume, 50% more than the number of driverless vehicles deployed by Waymo in San Francisco. The last city labeled as the "first city for driverless vehicles" by the outside world was Shenzhen.

Looking back over the past few years, almost every year, a city has "moved up" due to new - energy vehicles. Is it finally Qingdao's turn to be the "leading role" this year?

One million vehicles

For a city in automobile manufacturing, "one million vehicles" is a threshold.

Judging from the data of 2025 currently announced by various cities, cities such as Chongqing, Hefei, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou, with automobile production exceeding 2 million vehicles, form the first echelon; closely following them, cities such as Shanghai, Liuzhou, and Beijing, with production between 1 million and 2 million vehicles, support the "neck" of the automobile - manufacturing pyramid; and the emerging automobile - manufacturing "new forces" such as Zhengzhou and Changsha, which have "taken off" in recent years, mostly have production around one million vehicles.

Qingdao is not crossing the line for the first time. At its peak in 2020, Qingdao's automobile production reached nearly 1.2 million vehicles. The added - value of the automobile industry increased by more than 20% throughout the year, contributing more than 45% to the industrial growth of the whole city of Qingdao, and becoming the largest industry in the city. The production of new - energy vehicles reached nearly 130,000, accounting for nearly 10% of the total national production of new - energy vehicles. Local media said, "One out of every ten new - energy vehicles in the country is made in Qingdao."

However, subsequently, local new - energy automobile brands represented by BAIC New Energy lost their momentum, and Qingdao's automobile production also fluctuated and declined. Meanwhile, the national production of new - energy vehicles skyrocketed, increasing from 1.366 million vehicles that year to 16.626 million vehicles, an 11 - fold increase.

Why can Qingdao return to the "one - million - level" again? New energy is the answer again. Last year, the booming new - energy automobile industry became a major "growth pole" for Qingdao's manufacturing. In terms of structure, compared with less than 10% five years ago, the proportion of new - energy vehicle production in Qingdao reached 40% last year, and a turning point is approaching.

If BYD was the "creator" of emerging automobile cities in the past few years, then Wuling is the "key player" in Qingdao.

Last year, the output of complete vehicles of SAIC - GM - Wuling's Qingdao branch was 499,000, with an output value exceeding 20 billion yuan, including 302,000 new - energy vehicles. SAIC - GM - Wuling settled in Qingdao as early as 2005, mainly producing fuel - powered commercial vehicles in the past. In January last year, two new products, the four - door version of Wuling Hongguang MINIEV and Wuling Zhiguang EV, were launched, and the electric drive and battery project was put into production, becoming the "catfish" that stirred up Qingdao's automobile - manufacturing pattern.

Wuling itself was regarded as a new - energy "dark horse" last year. Data shows that by June last year, the cumulative sales of SAIC - GM - Wuling's new - energy vehicles had maintained a year - on - year high growth rate of more than 50% for six consecutive months, and its sales volume in the first half of the year ranked among the top three in the world, making it the mainstream automobile enterprise that transformed to new - energy the fastest, breaking to some extent the embarrassment of traditional automobile enterprises being "too big to turn around" in the new - energy era.

In a sense, this "collaboration" between Qingdao and Wuling also provides new ideas for more cities' "automobile dreams": BYD is not the only "game - changer" in the new - energy era, and there are still opportunities for "latecomers" to "move up".

The contrarian

However, the "explosion" of a single brand is not enough to explain Qingdao's leapfrog. Looking back over a longer time frame, Qingdao's comeback was already written in the history of the city's development.

SAIC - GM - Wuling marked the starting point of Qingdao's automobile industry development. In the mid - 1990s, Rover, a British veteran automobile company, was in decline and eager to sell off various assets to pay off debts. Wuhu and Qingdao were the first two Chinese cities to introduce its production line. Yizhong Automobile, which started "making cars" in Qingdao because of this, also became the predecessor of SAIC - GM - Wuling's Qingdao branch.

At that time, home appliances were a more prominent industrial calling card for Qingdao. However, the manufacturing pattern dominated by the light textile industry also planted hidden worries for Qingdao. The automobile industry, which requires large investment, occupies less land, has a long industrial chain, and has a large comprehensive driving effect, came into Qingdao's vision.

In terms of figures, in 2008, Qingdao reached its historical high of the 9th place in the country, but was then continuously overtaken and now only ranks 13th in the country.

Guided by the "automobile dream" from scratch, Qingdao has taken a completely different path from the development of the home - appliance industry. Compared with the "five golden flowers" cultivated locally, Qingdao's automobile industry has mainly been developed through investment promotion. Large - scale projects such as FAW Jiefang, SAIC - GM - Wuling, BAIC New Energy, FAW - Volkswagen, and Chery have been launched, continuously driving up Qingdao's automobile output value.

The consistent automobile development strategy over a long period, especially the continuously updated project reserves, have laid the groundwork for Qingdao's automobile industry to break through. The last policy "boost" occurred in 2022. Even facing the decline in automobile production, Qingdao still decided to integrate and build an international automobile city and set the production target for 2025 at 1.3 million vehicles, showing great ambition.

This development strategy of "importing" also reveals another side of Qingdao's automobile industry: lacking the support of local automobile brands, it is easy to become a "processing factory" for automobile brands, and it is also difficult to form the city's own industrial brand.

Wang Yuhai, the dean of the Jilin University Qingdao Automobile Research Institute, once pointed out in an interview with the media that the automobile projects introduced through investment promotion are all production capacities arranged according to the strategic needs of major automobile manufacturers, but the truly core R & D links, high - end models, and key components are rarely relocated. Although the automobile industry has become a 100 - billion - yuan industry in Qingdao, the outside world rarely associates Qingdao with "automobiles".

The new breakthrough in data is still not enough to support Qingdao's "automobile - manufacturing dream". In the eyes of the outside world, Wuling mainly targets the low - end market with low profit margins. Facing the competition in the new - energy automobile field, Qingdao still needs a representative automobile brand.

The uncharted area

"Driverless vehicles" may be the next "breakthrough point" for Qingdao to seek the development of the automobile industry.

When being interviewed by the media, a local official in Qingdao once pointed out that the importance of the automobile industry lies not only in its connection with the processing and manufacturing industry but also in its future close combination with big data, artificial intelligence, and the new - energy industry. And the "supporting" in the electronic information field has a "connection point" with Qingdao's traditional advantages in home appliances.

If we look deeper into the starting point of Qingdao's automobile - manufacturing, a "reverse" development path from supporting parts to complete vehicles has attracted attention. One view is that different from the general development path where complete vehicles drive parts production, Qingdao had the production capacity of engines and various accessories when it lacked the ability to manufacture complete cars, which "went against the grain" and provided convenient conditions for automobile - manufacturing.

Facing the opportunity of intelligent vehicles, the model of breaking through with "supporting" is staged again. For example, as an established TV enterprise, Hisense not only participates in in - vehicle display but also conducts technology output in the directions of intelligent cockpit display and cockpit entertainment systems. And Goertek, once a company in the "Apple supply chain", its subsidiary Goertek Microelectronics has launched solutions in the fields of automobile electronic interactive touch and intelligent acoustics to enhance the intelligent experience of automobiles...

Compared with "starting early but arriving late" in the new - energy era, Qingdao is taking faster steps in the transformation to intelligent vehicles.

As early as January last year, Qingdao wasted no time in issuing a development plan for intelligent connected new - energy vehicles. In last year's government work report, the mention of "new - energy vehicles" in the previous year's report was gone. Qingdao decisively regarded intelligent connected new - energy vehicles as one of the five emerging industries to be scaled up.

Lacking complete - vehicle manufacturing enterprises, Qingdao chose to open up "scenarios" and take the lead in creating an environment suitable for industrial development. It is often mentioned that since March 2024, Qingdao has issued relevant regulations allowing low - speed driverless vehicles to be on the road, giving the "green light" at the policy level. In August of that year, the first batch of low - speed driverless delivery vehicles were issued road test notices.

The official opening of "road rights" also became the "lead" to attract Neolix to deploy. By the end of last year, the number of driverless delivery vehicles operated by Neolix in Qingdao reached 1,200. Behind the "world - first" data is the strategy of "trading quantity for intelligence", accumulating a large amount of data resources for the construction of smart cities and intelligent connected systems.

There are also many cities eyeing this opportunity. Luobo Kuaipao, which just deployed driverless passenger - carrying vehicles in Qingdao at the beginning of this year, had already captured markets in cities such as Wuhan and Shenzhen before. In December last year, Shenzhen also announced data: the total number of functional driverless vehicles put into use reached 1,218, ranking first among first - tier cities in the country.

This time, how long can Qingdao maintain its advantages in the field of "vehicles"?

This article is from the WeChat public account "Urban Evolution Theory", author: Yang Qifei, published by 36Kr with permission.