CINEVE | The Global Expansion of the New Energy Vehicle Supply Chain: From 'Going Out' to 'Going In

1. The Significance of Going Global: From "Selling Overseas" to "Integrating Globally"

At the "2026 China International New Energy Vehicle Supply Chain Conference and Supply Chain Going Global Forum" (ICV Supply Chain 4.0 Conference), a strong consensus emerged: when discussing going global today, it is no longer just about export numbers, but about how the Chinese supply chain can integrate into global industrial organizations.

Vice President Wei Jinglin made it clear in his opening speech that China’s new energy vehicle industry has already made the leap from leading in scale to leading comprehensively in technology, standards, and branding. Going global is also evolving from a product-based "going out" to a "going out" in terms of technology, standards, and services.

This, in fact, stretches the theme of today's discussion: In the past, going global was mainly about selling products overseas, relying on manufacturing capabilities, cost-effectiveness, and scale advantages. But now, going global has become a more complex global restructuring. Enterprises must not only sell cars abroad but also take their R&D, supply chains, standards, and service systems with them, even establishing a sustainable industrial presence locally.

Former Director Ren Xingzhou added another dimension from the perspectives of policies and market trends: industrial upgrading, intelligent development, and high-quality globalization have already become clear national directions. New energy vehicles are no longer just transportation tools; they are also important carriers for the intelligent economy, new productive forces, and global layout.

For this reason, "going out" is no longer just a market action but a shift in China’s position within the global value chain. It’s not just about delivering goods overseas; it’s about answering a bigger question: As the global automotive industry enters a new stage of electrification, intelligence, and deep integration, what role will China’s supply chain play in this transformation?

2. The True Watershed Moment: Shifting from Trade Logic to Industrial Logic

If the previous phase of going global still had distinct trade attributes, then the second key insight conveyed by this conference is that the Chinese supply chain is entering a new stage of "industrial globalization."

In his speech, Xie Yu highlighted three key words: Openness, Connection, and Trust. He summarized the significance of the conference as building trust between people, rather than merely creating a transactional platform.

He also pointed out that new energy vehicles are not just cars; they are also codes and information flows—carriers that enable every link in the global supply chain to make a profit. By 2026, the number of new energy vehicles in China is expected to exceed 50 million, and the supply chain can no longer be understood in the old "small and scattered" way.

Xie Yu candidly stated that the number of companies solely focused on the electric vehicle supply chain is still far from enough. The industry is in its early growth stages, and many companies are entering and exiting repeatedly amidst fluctuations, which indicates that the maturity of the supply chain has not yet truly kept pace with the development speed of the complete vehicle sector. This highlights that "going in" is not about making a one-time sale in a particular country, but rather about embedding products into local usage scenarios, maintenance systems, training systems, and after-sales systems for validation, testing, and maturation.

Zhang Yongwei explained this transformation more straightforwardly: the most discussed topic in the global automotive industry today is how to link and cooperate with China's automotive industry. Over the past two years, the core change in going global has shifted from trade and sales to building global operational capabilities, including production layouts, technological cooperation, and localized operations.

He mentioned that in the future, the localization rate of supply chains in Europe will gradually increase. This, in turn, means that the real opportunity for Chinese supply chain companies is not just to follow vehicle exports, but to follow the demand for global industrial localization and become part of the local industrial chain.

3. From "Going Abroad" to "Settling Down": The Key is Finding Locally Acceptable Cooperation Models

One of the most noteworthy points from the conference was that overseas markets are not simply "welcoming" or "rejecting" the Chinese supply chain; rather, they are redefining the rules of cooperation.

Dr. Johann Wieland, drawing from his multinational automotive career, emphasized that consumers should be the strategic core. The globalization of the automotive industry is inevitable because consumers demand the best technology and quality.

The truly sustainable path, according to Dr. Johann Wieland, is through win-win cooperation and multilateral partnerships, where both technological and market values are created simultaneously.

He specifically mentioned that the industry has undergone significant turbulence in the past two years, including price wars, profit margins, and pressure on suppliers and distributors. Looking back today, many large companies have started adjusting their strategies, refocusing on profitability, cash flow, and long-term competitiveness.

This aligns with Zhang Yongwei's judgment: Today’s global expansion is no longer solely reliant on cost advantages but requires finding a new balance between trade, investment, technological cooperation, and localized manufacturing. 

Dr. David Chen's presentation elaborated on this balance more concretely, stating that the European market has entered a "new rules" phase. The global expansion strategy has shifted from merely selling products to building global operational capabilities. The regulatory environment has also extended beyond traditional safety certifications to encompass more comprehensive systemic requirements such as OTA, cybersecurity, data compliance, and carbon footprints.

He further pointed out that the truly feasible path is not a "nomadic" short-term arbitrage strategy, but an "agrarian" approach to ecological rooting. This means shifting from product exports to establishing an ecosystem, by advancing the supply chain, investing in local production capacity, partnering with joint ventures, and reshaping the brand, to create a long-term presence in the local market.

This signifies that going global is not about running faster, but about standing more firmly; it’s not about short-term market capture, but about building long-term trust.

4. The Next Stage of Victory: It's Not About "Who Runs Faster," but "Who Understands This World Better"

The final key takeaway from the conference was a more important insight than "going global": the real factor that will determine success in the future is not whether a company has the courage to go abroad, but whether it can truly connect the global market, technological evolution, and local demands into a single network.

Wang Fang, from the perspective of power battery safety and innovation, reminded everyone that battery technology has already moved from the early-stage thermal diffusion control to more complex systems, such as fast charging, ultra-fast charging, and solid-state technology. Safety boundaries, mechanical reliability, thermal management, and vehicle collaboration will all become hard thresholds that global products must face in the future.

Li Yin took this shift to a higher level, relating it to the logic of innovation: Innovation is not about individual breakthroughs; it's a long-term project with high fixed costs, low marginal returns, and strong collaborative attributes. The company that bears the costs, reaps the rewards, and can organize long-term investments will be the one that stands firm in global competition.

Patrick Müller, from the BMW system, further validated this point from another angle: He emphasized that BMW will not compromise on safety and quality. The future core of a supplier's DNA will be modularity, sustainable materials, compliant cooperation, and global collaboration. He even directly stated that the large won't eat the small, but the fast will eat the slow. This statement, when placed in the context of China's supply chain going global today, is particularly meaningful — what truly matters is not whether a company is large enough, but whether it is agile enough, understands the rules well enough, and can enter the scenarios that others truly need.

In other words, today's Chinese new energy vehicle supply chain has already completed the first step of "going out." The next, more difficult and crucial step is "going in": entering the local market, understanding local regulations, engaging with local users, integrating into the local industrial chain, and embracing the real logic of global cooperation. Only by achieving this can China's supply chain's global expansion become not just a geographical journey, but a true global integration.

It is precisely within this context that the 2026 ICV Supply Chain 4.0 Conference is not just a discussion platform, but the starting point for a new round of industry collaboration.

To facilitate the globalization of the new energy vehicle supply chain, a series of in-depth projects will follow, including a competition for repair and training institutions aimed at enhancing after-market capabilities, the "Going into Changan" industry linkage action to enter OEM systems, a closed-door meeting focused on intelligentization and AI applications, and multiple specialized events focusing on service and talent systems.

The core objective of these projects is simple: to ensure that truly capable enterprises don’t just "hear the trends," but actively enter, participate in, and secure a position within those trends!

Additionally, the April Finland Overseas Trade Cooperation Seminar is opening soon, with hot registrations now open!