The Storm is Brewing: The Undercurrents and Awakening of Intelligent Driving

Recently, the large six-seater flagship SUV has become the focus of the battle for hot-selling models in the automotive market.

On October 13th, the Chery Fengyun T11, positioned as a "smart and luxurious large six-seater flagship SUV", also joined the fray. With 11 standard features across all models, including the Falcon Advanced Driver Assistance System, it achieved remarkable results. Within 48 hours of pre-sale, the number of firm orders exceeded 20,000.

Coincidentally, its sibling model, the flagship sedan Fengyun A9L, also performed outstandingly. Not only did it receive over 50,000 orders within 24 hours of its launch, but its monthly sales have also remained stable at over 10,000 units since August.

Two cars with different models, powertrains, prices, and positioning have both received high attention from the market during the pre-sale stage.

The commonality behind this is that, in addition to their superior performance in terms of space and comfort, intelligence, especially the excellent performance of the intelligent driver assistance system, has become the key factor in igniting market enthusiasm. Both models are equipped with the Falcon Intelligent Driving Solution jointly developed by Chery and Momenta, which can achieve full-scenario intelligent driver assistance functions covering urban NOA, highway NOA, and valet parking.

In fact, since the beginning of this year, automotive industry leaders have frequently spoken out about intelligent driving: Wang Chuanfu proposed that "2025 will be the year when intelligent driving technology becomes popular in the Chinese automotive industry"; Geely Auto CEO Gan Jiayue said that the "Thousand-Li Vast" intelligent driving solution will cover all models; Changan Automobile Chairman Zhu Huarong predicted that "2025 will see a commercial turning point for high-level intelligent driving"...

It can be said that throughout 2025, almost all mainstream automotive companies have spared no effort in spreading the call for "equal access to intelligent driving" across the market and into the ears and hearts of consumers.

Despite different expressions, the goals are surprisingly consistent: to quickly introduce high-level intelligent driving functions, which were once limited to high-end models, into the mainstream price range of 100,000 - 200,000 yuan - regardless of the model or powertrain, achieving "more features without a price increase".

So, after a year, has the market really entered the stage of "No intelligent driving, no hot-selling model"?

From "Range Anxiety" to "Driving Fatigue"

The development path of intelligent electric vehicles is becoming increasingly clear: the first half focused on electrification, while the second half has shifted towards intelligence.

In the early stage of the industry's development, "range anxiety" was the biggest obstacle preventing fuel vehicle users from switching to new energy vehicles. Plug-in hybrid and extended-range electric vehicles, which can run on both electricity and fuel, served as a compromise solution. They could provide a driving experience similar to that of pure electric vehicles while eliminating users' concerns about range and charging convenience through fuel replenishment, thus well meeting the transitional needs from fuel vehicles to pure electric vehicles.

Hybrid vehicles became the key for new energy automotive companies to increase sales at that time. Many automotive companies, represented by Li Auto, AITO, and Leapmotor, precisely grasped this pain point and achieved soaring sales. Among them, Li Auto even achieved tens of billions in revenue with its L series, becoming the first domestic new energy vehicle startup to turn a profit.

With the rapid progress of battery technology and the increasing density of charging networks, the hybrid vehicle market has expanded rapidly, and "range anxiety" has been alleviated. As a result, consumers' core pain points have begun to shift.

"Driving fatigue" - including congestion during daily commuting, tiredness during long-distance highway driving, and the hassle of parking - is replacing "range anxiety" as the new pain point.

Urban NOA and intelligent parking were once the "show-off highlights" on press conference PPTs, and users thought "it's good to have them, but it doesn't matter if not". Now, these functions have become "must-haves" - a recent user survey showed that over 60% of potential car buyers listed "whether the vehicle has a good urban intelligent driving function" as an important decision-making factor, and some even said bluntly, "If there's no urban NOA, I won't consider this car."

Multiple perspectives, including sales volume, market trends, and industry observations, have all confirmed this change:

The SAIC-Huawei deeply cooperated Shangjie H5 has lowered the threshold of Huawei's high-level intelligent driving ADS 4.0 to below 200,000 yuan. With its pilot assist (urban NCA/highway NCA) and multi-scenario intelligent parking functions, it achieved over 10,000 firm orders within an hour.

The GAC Toyota Bozhi 3X, based on Momenta's "one-step end-to-end" high-level intelligent driving large model, features high-level intelligent driving solutions in its 140,000-yuan-class models. It delivered nearly 10,000 units in September and has seen a month-on-month increase for five consecutive months.

The leading intelligent driver assistance system in its price range has helped the Bozhi 3X become a hot-selling model.

The new-generation IM LS6 under SAIC, equipped with the IM AD 3.0 system jointly developed with Momenta, can achieve high-speed and urban NOA available nationwide without relying on high-precision maps. It received over 50,000 small pre-orders and over 10,000 firm orders within 27 minutes of its launch, achieving remarkable results.

At the market level, from January to July 2025, the cumulative sales volume of passenger vehicles with L2-level driver assistance functions in China reached 7.7599 million, with a penetration rate exceeding 62.58%. In other words, for every 10 new cars sold in the current market, more than 6 are equipped with different levels of intelligent driver assistance systems.

Industry reports also confirm this. According to a survey by the Autohome Research Institute, only 16% of users said they could do without intelligent driving functions, while 66% of users are no longer satisfied with L2-level driver assistance.

Intelligent driving models account for a prominent proportion in automotive companies' planning and are highly sought after by consumers in the market. Therefore, it's easy to conclude that the core of competition in the automotive industry has changed: in the first half, sales depended on powertrain, which addressed the peace of mind of "being able to go anywhere"; in the second half, sales depend on intelligent driving, which meets the advanced need of "driving more easily".

Once you've tasted the sweetness of "intelligent driving", it's hard to endure the hardship of "manual driving". Intelligence, especially intelligent driving, has officially taken over from electrification as the new code for automotive companies to increase sales.

The "Behind-the-Scenes Promoter" of Affordable Intelligent Driving

The answer is obvious. But it's one thing for automotive companies to be aware of it, and another to make the right choice.

Currently, there are roughly three implementation paths in the domestic intelligent driving field. Moreover, as market demand upgrades, basic assistance solutions are no longer sufficient, and high-level intelligent driving is the future development direction, which also makes the advantages and disadvantages of different paths more prominent.

Traditional outsourcing, represented by Mobileye's highly integrated black-box model, can achieve basic L2-level functions such as automatic following and lane keeping. It was favored by automotive companies in the early stage of intelligent driving development - reliable quality, controllable cost, and hassle-free.

However, as competition intensifies, this approach of "regarding intelligent driving as an ordinary option on the configuration list" has gradually become inadequate - automotive companies neither master the core technology nor can they meet the mainstream demand. Product homogenization is severe, and it's difficult to form their own advantages.

Full self-research, directly targeting high-level intelligent driving, is the choice of most new energy vehicle startups.

However, its characteristics of high investment, long time consumption, and low fault tolerance rate can easily put new energy vehicle startups in a dilemma of "success and failure depending on the same factor" - that is, they can quickly capture users' minds with self-developed intelligent driving and establish themselves as pioneers in intelligence, but they may also be criticized by conservative users for their overly "radical and pioneering" intelligent driving functions.

Moreover, in the rapid iteration of high-level intelligent driving, the R & D speed of a single automotive company is difficult to keep up with the market rhythm, and it's also easy to fall into the dilemma of being caught in an public opinion storm after exaggerating the function's effectiveness.

Therefore, the cooperative development model that combines the advantages of both has become the optimal solution for many automotive companies to "take the essence of both and discard the dross" - it's neither as restricted as traditional outsourcing nor does it need to bear all the risks and investments like full self-research.

Under the cooperative model, automotive companies can still grasp the brand tone and user demand, while leveraging the power of professional partners to deliver high-level intelligent driving to users quickly and steadily. This is especially suitable for automotive companies that don't want to fall behind in core technology, hope to quickly keep up with the market rhythm, and adhere to a steady style.

Huawei's Qiankun follows the "full package" route, providing a full-stack solution from chips, domain controllers to algorithms. This in-depth cooperation model can ensure the consistency and integrity of technology implementation and also enables high-level intelligent driving to be quickly installed in vehicles and launched into the market. The "Five Realms" jointly developed with five major traditional automotive companies, which rank among the top in the sales lists of different models, are the best evidence.

Momenta, also highly regarded in terms of technology, has chosen to focus on the To B end and actually occupies 60% of the domestic intelligent driving market. It has cooperated with 20 brands and 160 models, and its technology has been installed in over 400,000 mass-produced vehicles.

Its R6 reinforcement learning large model is trained based on a large amount of actual driving data. Through repeated trial and error, training, and optimization, it can smoothly follow the vehicle in congested roads, accurately park in narrow spaces, smoothly pass through toll stations on highways, and provide a seamless urban NOA experience... making the system more "experienced" in real road conditions.

This cooperative model of "automotive company leadership + technology empowerment" is the behind-the-scenes promoter of high-level intelligent driving moving out of the high-price range. It retains the individuality of automotive companies and incorporates the wisdom of professional solutions, and may be the most practical path for automotive companies at the current stage.

Make Cars "Smarter"

Entering the fourth quarter, the "sales completion rate" is like a public report card. Whether to be punished or praised depends on it, which affects the nerves of every automotive company.

This year, against the background of the technological transformation of the "Year of Intelligent Driving", the significance of the sales completion rate is even more important and valuable. It not only reflects an automotive company's ability in traditional business operations but also directly tests its strategic vision, technology implementation speed, and product competitiveness in the second half of the intelligent era.

A bright report card means that an automotive company has successfully converted "intelligent driving" into real purchasing power; while failing to achieve the target may indicate that the model has fallen behind.

This has added a lot of pressure to the ongoing "Golden September and Silver October" end-game - this is no longer just a simple sales sprint but a "final exam" to test whether automotive companies can stand firm on the intelligent driving track.

By analyzing the sales completion rates of the top ten domestic automotive companies from January to September, it's clear how the rapid popularity of intelligent driving directly drives sales growth and helps automotive companies achieve their annual goals.

BYD is a typical example of intelligent driving driving sales.

Since the release of the "Heavenly God's Eye" intelligent driving system in February 2025, the sales proportion of BYD's intelligent driving models has increased significantly. It has risen from about 71% in the initial stage (as of the end of April) and by August 2025, the sales volume of models equipped with the "Heavenly God's Eye" had exceeded 1.4 million, and in August alone, the sales proportion of intelligent driving models had reached 90%.

Other automotive companies with relatively high annual completion rates are also those that laid out in the intelligent driving field early.

Geely Auto, with a completion rate of 72%, ranks among the top, which is inseparable from its active investment in the intelligent driving field. Its ZEEKR brand has maintained high market popularity with its good intelligent driving experience, providing support for overall sales.

Chery Automobile has achieved a more comprehensive layout in the intelligent driving field, covering a wider price range and powertrain market. Based on the one-step end-to-end flywheel large model jointly developed with Momenta, Chery has launched intelligent driving solutions such as Falcon 500 and Falcon 700, and has extended high-level intelligent driving functions to the 60,000-yuan-class Chery Ant, effectively promoting the implementation of "intelligent driving for all".

SAIC Group has also made in-depth layout. Its IM Motors, which has a deep cooperation with Momenta, is equipped with the advanced "one-step end-to-end" large model across all models. The rapid implementation of this cutting-edge technology has provided important support for the group to achieve its annual sales target of 4.5 million vehicles.