Fuel vehicles are no longer popular, and these major traditional automotive provinces are taking steps to save themselves

Facing the challenges brought by the rapid development of new energy vehicles, traditional automobile - producing provinces are accelerating their transformation.

In June this year, as the core of Jilin Province's automobile industry, Changchun City released the "15th Five - Year Plan for the Development of the Automobile Industry (Draft for Comments)", proposing a series of development measures such as fully supporting the transformation and upgrading of vehicle enterprises, building world - class vehicle enterprise groups, encouraging cross - regional mergers and acquisitions, and attracting innovative new energy vehicle enterprises to settle.

Changchun in Jilin is not an isolated case. With the accelerated popularization of new energy vehicles and the pressure on the fuel vehicle market, traditional automobile - producing provinces are facing the pressure of transformation and upgrading. In the "15th Five - Year Plans" recently disclosed by many traditional automobile - producing cities, the transformation and development of the automobile industry are regarded as key tasks.

For example, Hubei proposes to promote the development of fuel vehicles in Wuhan, Xiangyang, Yichang and other places towards low - carbon and high - efficiency hybrid technology, and accelerate the R & D and application of key components such as power batteries; Guangdong proposes to build a trillion - level automobile industry cluster, promote the in - depth reform of GAC Group, strengthen the R & D of new automobile products and the synergy of the industrial chain.

In the new round of automobile industry transformation, traditional automobile - producing provinces are collectively seeking new growth paths.

New energy vehicles are rewriting the competitive landscape

In May this year, the top ten list of retail sales of passenger cars was entirely occupied by new energy vehicles, and the presence of traditional fuel vehicles continued to weaken.

Behind the change in consumer preferences is the in - depth reconstruction of the national automobile industry map. For some traditional automobile - producing provinces that were once extremely prosperous, they are facing an unprecedented transformation test, and the pressure of industrial transformation is further increasing.

In the era of fuel vehicles, old - fashioned automobile cities such as Changchun, Wuhan, and Shanghai supported half of the country's automobile manufacturing industry, driving automobile - producing provinces such as Jilin and Hubei to rank among the top in automobile production for a long time.

With the rapid rise of the new energy vehicle industry, the national automobile industry map is being reshaped.

In recent years, a number of regions that have grasped the development of the new energy vehicle industry have risen rapidly. Take Anhui as an example. Relying on local automobile enterprises such as Chery and with the successive implementation of projects such as NIO and BYD, Anhui has accelerated the layout of the industrial chain in areas such as vehicle manufacturing, power batteries, and intelligent networking. The automobile production in Anhui has risen from the eighth in the country in 2020 to the first in 2025.

Shaanxi is also one of the representative provinces with rapid development of the new energy vehicle industry in recent years.

Data shows that during the "14th Five - Year Plan" period, Shaanxi's automobile production increased by an average of 27.2% annually, and its national ranking rose from the 16th in 2020 to the 8th. Among them, the production of new energy vehicles exceeded one million for four consecutive years, with an average annual growth rate of 88.6%, and the added value of the automobile manufacturing industry increased by an average of 19.8% annually.

In sharp contrast to the rapid rise of emerging automobile - producing provinces, the rankings of some traditional automobile - producing provinces are declining.

In 2022, Jilin's automobile production was 2.1558 million vehicles, ranking third in the country. By 2023, the production decreased to 1.5589 million vehicles, and the ranking dropped to the eighth. In 2025, affected by factors such as the adjustment of statistical caliber and the continuous shrinkage of the fuel vehicle market, Jilin's automobile production dropped out of the top ten in the country and fell to the 13th.

Similar situations also occur in traditional automobile - producing provinces such as Hubei, Guangxi, and Hebei.

The automobile industry has always been an important pillar of the local economy. Behind a single automobile, it is connected to many industries such as steel, chemical industry, electronic information, software development, and logistics transportation. It is not only related to industrial growth but also to employment, fiscal revenue, and the agglomeration of innovation resources.

In the past few years, the rapid rise of the new energy vehicle industry has promoted the industrial upgrading of cities such as Hefei and Xi'an and their provinces, and also brought significant economic increments. As new energy vehicles gradually become the main driving force for the growth of the automobile industry, traditional automobile - producing provinces obviously cannot stay out of it.

In this context, accelerating the layout of new energy vehicles and cultivating new industrial growth points have become an inevitable choice for the transformation and development of traditional automobile - producing provinces.

For these provinces, if they cannot complete the transformation from fuel vehicles to new energy vehicles in a timely manner, and cultivate new competitive advantages while maintaining the original industrial foundation, what they may lose is not only the ranking of automobile production but also the right to speak in the entire automobile industrial chain and the advantageous position in the new round of regional economic competition.

Traditional automobile - producing provinces are collectively seeking change

Facing the accelerated reconstruction of the competitive landscape by the new energy vehicle industry, traditional automobile - producing provinces are accelerating their transformation pace.

Judging from the disclosed "15th Five - Year Plan" outlines, many places still regard the automobile industry as a key industry development direction, take electrification, intelligence, and networking as the main lines of transformation, and explore differentiated development paths based on their own industrial foundations.

Bringing into play the leading role of leading enterprises is a common idea for many traditional automobile - producing provinces.

Take Jilin as an example. It chooses the model of "integration of leading enterprises + cross - border cooperation".

Changchun, the provincial capital, proposes to support FAW Group to integrate innovation resources, deepen cooperation with enterprises such as Huawei, Leapmotor, and DJI, and focus on the layout of new energy vehicles, intelligent networking and other fields. At the same time, it supports vehicle enterprises to integrate resources through mergers and acquisitions, technological cooperation and other means, and introduce new brands and projects with market competitiveness to form a multi - level vehicle industrial ecosystem. The core logic is to rely on FAW, the industrial leader, to cultivate new driving forces such as new energy and intelligent networking vehicles while stabilizing traditional advantages.

Guangdong's development idea is similar. In the "15th Five - Year Plan" outline, Guangdong proposes to build a trillion - level automobile industry cluster, promote GAC Group to innovate its management system and mechanism, strengthen cooperation with strategic partners, strengthen the R & D of new automobile products, make full use of the existing production capacity, and further enhance the market competitiveness and reputation of self - owned brand automobiles.

For these traditional automobile - producing provinces with large - scale vehicle enterprises, leading automobile enterprises are not only the basic market for industrial development but also an important support for driving the development of parts, R & D innovation, and market expansion.

However, relying solely on leading enterprises is no longer sufficient to support the new round of competition. More and more regions are beginning to focus on industrial chain synergy and regional coordinated development.

Hubei proposes to build a trillion - level new energy and intelligent networking automobile industry corridor in the "Wuhan - Xiaogan - Suizhou - Xiangyang - Shiyan" area, with Wuhan as the core, driving the coordinated development of cities such as Xiangyang, Shiyan, Suizhou, and Xiaogan.

Among them, Wuhan focuses on R & D and vehicle manufacturing, Shiyan develops the commercial vehicle industry, Suizhou develops special vehicles, and Xiaogan strengthens the supporting of parts. Through the division of labor and cooperation among different cities, Hubei hopes to further integrate industrial resources and form a development pattern of combining passenger and commercial vehicles and coordinating vehicle and parts production.

Shandong focuses on strengthening the new energy vehicle industrial chain.

In addition to the industrial foundation of CNHTC and Weichai, Shandong has also attracted new energy projects such as BYD. During the "15th Five - Year Plan" period, Shandong proposes to build two new energy vehicle bases in Jinan and Qingdao, and at the same time accelerate the layout of key links such as power batteries, and cultivate new battery manufacturing bases in Jinan, Zaozhuang, Dongying, Yantai and other places to further improve the new energy vehicle industrial chain.

Compared with the common transformation goal, it is worth noting that different regions are forming their own unique development paths.

Relying on the advantages of scientific research resources and industrial foundation, Shanghai mentions in the "15th Five - Year Plan" outline that it will focus on the breakthrough of core technologies such as intelligent driving, intelligent cockpit, intelligent chassis, and solid - state batteries in the development of the automobile industry, and proposes to strengthen the leading role of intelligent networking new energy vehicles in vehicle manufacturing, support the development of core parts and supporting services, and promote the commercial operation of autonomous driving.

Guangxi focuses on consolidating its advantages, promoting the extension of the industrial chain to the middle and high ends, further expanding the advantages of micro - new energy vehicles, developing middle and high - end products that meet market demand, and strengthening key links such as the "three - electric" system, power assembly, automotive chips, intelligent networking core parts, and lightweight bodies, aiming to reach an output value of 350 billion yuan by 2030.

Chongqing takes automotive chips and intelligent driving as important breakthrough directions. It proposes to improve the R & D and industrialization capabilities of automotive chips, accelerate the research on key technologies such as solid - state batteries, automotive operating systems, and intelligent driving, and promote the upgrade of automobiles from traditional means of transportation to intelligent terminals.

The industrial competition in the era of new energy vehicles is no longer limited to the single competition of vehicle production and assembly capacity, but has shifted to a comprehensive competition of technological innovation, industrial chain synergy, and industrial ecosystem construction.

For traditional automobile - producing provinces, the industrial foundation and manufacturing capabilities accumulated in the past are still important advantages. However, whether they can rely on these advantages to complete industrial upgrading and build a modern industrial system covering vehicles, parts, power batteries, and intelligent networking technologies will determine whether they can regain the initiative in the new round of automobile industry transformation.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Reading City Notes Studio", written by Li Hang, and published by 36Kr with authorization.