Leading industry players are ramping up their efforts once again. Is Xi'an making a strong comeback?

According to a September 29 report from "Xi'an Release", the BYD new energy vehicle power battery project (Xixian Base) located in Qinhan New City, Xixian New Area, has been fully completed and put into operation recently.

According to public information, the project covers an area of 1333 mu, with a total investment of 7 billion yuan, and an annual production capacity of 16GWh, which is sufficient to support about 700,000 new energy vehicles. After being put into operation, the annual output value will reach 8 billion yuan.

As the core battery hub of BYD's layout in northwest China, the first line of cells at the Xixian Base was successfully rolled off the production line in October 2025; in March 2026, BYD officially released the second-generation Blade Battery and flash charging technology, and the Xixian Base was selected as one of the first batch of production bases for the second-generation Blade Battery and realized trial production.

The full operation of the project provides localized core battery supporting facilities for BYD's complete vehicle manufacturing in Xi'an, and further improves the regional new energy vehicle industry chain.

As the birthplace of BYD's automobile manufacturing business, Xi'an occupies an important position in its production capacity layout. It is BYD's largest single automobile production base across the country, with an annual production capacity of 1.5 million vehicles.

For Xi'an, BYD is equally crucial.

Over the past five years, the output of new energy vehicles in Xi'an has soared from less than 300,000 to more than 1 million, with an average annual growth rate of over 30%, making it one of the cities with the fastest growing new energy industry in China.

In 2022, the output of new energy vehicles in Xi'an exceeded the 1 million mark for the first time, reaching 1.015 million units, surpassing Shanghai to claim the title of "No.1 New Energy Vehicle City" in China. Among them, BYD is the absolute main force, accounting for 97.9% of the total output.

However, this kind of "deeply bound" relationship is also a double-edged sword.

In the first half of 2026, affected by multiple factors such as the production line transition of the second-generation Blade Battery, the iteration of old and new models, and the overall pressure on national automobile sales, the production scheduling of multiple models at the Xi'an Base was restricted, leading to a significant decline in output.

Reflected in economic data, in the first seven months of this year, Shaanxi's automobile output dropped by nearly 50% year-on-year. Data from the Xi'an Municipal Bureau of Statistics shows that the added value of industries above designated size in the city fell by 0.9% year-on-year in the first half of the year, of which the added value of the automobile manufacturing industry above designated size dropped by 6.3%.

At present, Xi'an is expected to usher in a rebound trend.

Not long ago, BYD Xi'an went against the trend and launched a large-scale recruitment involving multiple business divisions, with the number of recruits exceeding 8,000, which has attracted widespread attention. The general public analysis believes that this large-scale recruitment is mainly due to the fact that BYD has completed the adjustment and transition of production lines in the first half of the year and entered the current stage of rapid production capacity ramp-up.

The full completion and commissioning of the aforementioned power battery project is the key. In June this year, Wang Chuanfu, Chairman of BYD, revealed at BYD's 2025 Annual General Meeting that "this year's automobile sales depend on battery output", and BYD will strive to increase the production capacity of the second-generation Blade Battery.

The leading automaker's additional investment is more than just a replenishment of production capacity for Xi'an — it means that the city's automobile industry is bidding farewell to the first half of the stage of scale expansion and entering the second half of in-depth integration of the industrial chain.

In May this year, Xi'an released the "Implementation Plan for Promoting the High-quality Development of the Intelligent Connected New Energy Vehicle Industry Chain in Xi'an", which clearly aims to promote the improvement of the supporting capacity and scale expansion of the intelligent connected new energy vehicle industry chain.

According to the latest plan, while expanding and optimizing the scale of complete vehicles, Xi'an will also build component industry clusters, promote the development of intelligent connected vehicle components, and promote chain integration. It will strive to build Xi'an into a national first-class production, R&D and application base for intelligent connected new energy vehicles by 2030, with the industrial chain output value exceeding 310 billion yuan.

This article is from the WeChat official account "City Evolution", written by Liu Yanmei, and published with authorization by 36Kr.