The major western city for "car manufacturing" has upgraded its goals.
On May 11th, the Xi'an Municipal Government website released the "Implementation Plan for Promoting the High - quality Development of the Intelligent Connected New Energy Vehicle Industry Chain in Xi'an", clarifying the overall requirements: Keep up with the development trends of automobile intelligence, electrification, networking, and sharing. With new energy vehicles and intelligent connected vehicles as the core, promote the high - end, green, and clustered development of the industry. Dig deep into the potential of complete vehicles, increase the scale of supporting industries, promote inter - chain integration, accelerate technological innovation, and optimize the industrial ecosystem, so as to enhance the supporting capacity and expand the scale of the intelligent connected new energy vehicle industry chain in Xi'an.
Strive to build Xi'an into a first - class national production, R & D, and application base for intelligent connected new energy vehicles by 2030, with the output value of the industry chain exceeding 310 billion yuan. The production of intelligent connected new energy vehicles in the city will exceed 1.55 million, ranking among the top in the country; the output value of the power battery industry in the city will reach 40 billion yuan, ranking among the top in the industry; the output value of traditional auto parts in the city will exceed 35 billion yuan, and the output value of new - type auto parts will exceed 18 billion yuan.
Not long ago, the outline of Xi'an's 15th Five - Year Plan was announced, with the goal of reaching a regional GDP of 1.8 trillion yuan by 2030, striving to exceed 2 trillion yuan. A strong industrial sector leads to a strong economy. Looking at the cities with an economic level of 2 trillion yuan, all of them are "strong manufacturing cities". For example, in Chengdu, the electronic information and equipment manufacturing industries, and in Hangzhou, the software and information service industries, their industrial bases are all worth over one trillion yuan.
Focusing on the real economy for economic development, Xi'an proposes to implement a new round of industrial doubling plan to improve the quality and proportion of the manufacturing industry. As one of the key pillar industries in the city, the automobile industry is an important means for Xi'an to strive for greater development. In 2025, the production of BYD's Xi'an base was 1.003 million vehicles, and that of Geely's Xi'an base was 304,000 vehicles. The added value of the above - scale automobile manufacturing industry in the city increased by 20.1%.
However, since this year, the automobile industry in Xi'an has faced adjustments. In the first quarter, the added value of the automobile manufacturing industry in Xi'an decreased by 11.2%. As industry experts pointed out, the era of simple vehicle manufacturing has passed, and now it is the era of integrated development of "vehicle - road - cloud".
Xi'an proposed in the outline of the 15th Five - Year Plan to focus on intelligent connected new energy vehicles, carry out research on core technologies such as vehicle - grade chips, power batteries, and intelligent driving, and promote the improvement of the supporting capacity of the industry chain. Strive to achieve an industrial chain scale of over 300 billion yuan for intelligent connected new energy vehicles by 2030. Now, the "Implementation Plan" raises the target to 310 billion yuan.
As early as 2022, Xi'an opened a 24.94 - kilometer autonomous driving test section in the Xixian New Area and issued the first batch of 5 autonomous driving road test licenses. As of 2025, the effective test duration of autonomous vehicles in Xi'an exceeded 9,400 hours, and the total mileage exceeded 267,000 kilometers.
The "Implementation Plan" mentioned that in terms of seeking breakthroughs in intelligent connected vehicles, Xi'an should build an application system for intelligent connected vehicles that is deeply integrated with industries such as electronic information and new materials and develops in synergy with intelligent transportation. By 2030, the construction of the "vehicle - road - cloud integration" application demonstration area for intelligent connected vehicles in the Xixian New Area will achieve practical results, and vehicles with L3 - level and above autonomous driving capabilities will be commercially applied in limited areas and specific scenarios.
In addition, Xi'an also proposes to take enterprises as the main body, jointly with scientific research institutions, universities, and upstream and downstream enterprises, to build an industrial innovation center integrating model innovation, technological research, talent gathering, product development, common technology services, and enterprise incubation, so as to promote the R & D of new technologies and new products and incubate a number of innovative enterprises. Support complete vehicle enterprises to jointly build new energy vehicle laboratories (provincial - level) with universities and other institutions, continuously expand R & D capabilities, and build a globally leading scientific and technological innovation platform.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Urban Evolution Theory", author: Yang Huan. Republished by 36Kr with permission.