Top-10 Chinese Carmakers in ADAS & Autonomous Driving

This report analyzes the ADAS fitment in 313 models from the Top-10 Chinese Carmakers to provide roadmaps in ADAS Level 2-4, their sensor technology for autonomous driving and their shares in the deployment of ADAS in China.

1. BAIC (Beijing Auto, Arcfox, Beijing Benz, Fujian Benz, Beijing Hyundai);
2. BYD,
3. Changan (Changan Chongqing, Changan Ford, Changan Mazda);
4. Chery (Chery, Jetour, the Cowin, Exeed and JVs with Jaguar Land Rover);
5. Dongfeng Motors (Dongfeng Passenger Vehicle Company, Dongfeng Liuzhou Motor Company, Dongfeng Venucia, Voyah and the joint ventures Dongfeng Nissan, Dongfeng Infiniti, Dongfeng Honda and Dongfeng PSA);
6. FAW (Bestune, Hongqi, Jiefang Trucks, and JVs: FAW-Volkswagen, FAW Toyota, FAW Mazda);
7. GAC (GAC and Aion brands);
8. Geely (Geely, Geometry and Lynk & Co);
9. Great Wall Motors (Haval, WEY, Great Wall Pick-up, ORA)
10. SAIC (Roewe, MG, R-series, Maxus, Yuejin, Wuling, Wagon, Yongyan, Sunwin)

Why You Should Read This Report

Read our report to understand the autonomous driving roadmaps of Chinese Carmakers.

• How leading Chinese carmakers, Tier-1s and new entrants, including tech giants Baidu, Huawei etc., plan to overcome the challenges and commercialize autonomous driving
• What is the availability of key ADAS features, such as
  • Level 0 TSR, LDW, FCW
  • Level 1 AEB, ACC, and LKA
  • Level 2/Level 2+ Traffic Jam Assist, Navigate on Autopilot, Highway Assist, Self-Park, Automated Remote Parking
  • Level 3-4 in China’s leading domestic carmakers
• The strategies and collaborations with Chinese Tech giants, such as Alibaba, Baidu, Huawei, and Tencent.

Table of Contents

1. Executive Summary 
   1. Chinese carmakers lead Lv.3-Parking & catch up with European, Japanese & US rivals
   2. What this report delivers
   3. Methodology: 10 leading Auto Groups & 313 models examined
2. State of the Art: SAE Level 0-3 in China by Top-10 Chinese OEMs
   1. Roadmaps of Chinese Carmakers to Lv.4 Autonomous Driving
   2. SAE Level 3-Driving in China: New car launches, features and penetration
   3. Combined Lv.0-3 Models & Sales by Top-10 Chinese Carmakers
   4. Lv.3-Driving & Parking availability in Top-10 Chinese OEMs’ models
   5. SAE Level 2-D status in China: Penetration & Technology offerings
   6. Level 2-Driving feature description, model fitment and sales
   7. Level 2-Driving Car Sales in China by Chinese Carmaker
   8. Ranking by Lv.2 Sales in Driving & Parking by Chinese Carmakers
   9. Lv.2-D & Lv.2-P availability in China by Top-10 Chinese OEMs
   10. SAE Lv.2 penetration (%) in Top 10 Chinese Carmakers’ brands
   11. Top-10 Chinese Carmakers Lv. (0 to 3) Breakdown by Model and Sales
   12. ADAS Lv.0-Lv.3 Availability in BAIC, BYD, in China
3. Top-10 Chinese Carmakers in Autonomous Driving 
   1. BAIC Motors
      1. BAIC’s position in China’s Passenger Car market
      2. The availability of ADAS Level 0-2 in BAIC’s model Line-up
      3. BAIC’s Strategy and Roadmap to Level-4 Autonomous Driving
      4. BAIC’s Top Investments in Autonomous Driving Technology
   2. BYD
      1. BYD’s Car Sales
      2. Vision & Strategy in ADAS & Autonomous Driving
      3. Key Partnerships and Investments
      4. The availability of Level 0-3 in BYD’s model Line-up in China
   3. CHANGAN
      1. Changan’s Car sales including Joint-Ventures
      2. Changan’s Vision & Roadmaps to Level 4-Autonomous Driving
      3. ADAS Portfolio & Technology Capabilities
      4. Strategy execution and key partnerships
   4. Chery
      1. Chery’s position in the Chinese market
      2. Chery’s Strategy in ADAS & Autonomous Driving
      3. ADAS Portfolio, Feature Penetration & Technology Capabilities
   5. Dongfeng Motors
      1. Dongfeng’s position in the Chinese market
      2. ADAS Portfolio, Feature Penetration & Technology Capabilities
   6. FAW
      1. FAW’s ADAS Portfolio, Feature Penetration & Technology Capabilities
      2. FAW strategies to reach Lv.4 Autonomous Driving
   7. GUANGZHOU AUTOMOBILE GROUP (GAC)
      1. GAC’s Strategy in ADAS & Autonomous Driving
      2. ADAS Portfolio and Feature Penetration in GAC’s line-up
   8. Geely
      1. Geely’s Position in the Automotive Market
      2. Geely’s Vision & Roadmaps to Level 4-Autonomous Driving
      3. Strategy execution including key partnerships
      4. The availability of Level 0-2 in Geely’s model Line-up in 2021 in China
      5. Geely’s market leadership in Lv.2 car sales volume in China
   9. Great Wall Motors (GWM)
      1. GWM Group Structure, Brands and Positioning
      2. GWM’s Strategy in ADAS & Autonomous Driving
      3. The availability of Level 0-2 in GWM’s model Line-up
   10. SAIC
       1. SAIC’s Strategy in ADAS & Autonomous Driving
       2. The availability of Level 0-2 in SAIC’s model Line-up
4. The Evolution of Autonomous Driving in China 
   1. China Automated Driving Forecast: Level 2-Driving to Level 4-Driving features
   2. China’s Regulation & Policy for Intelligent & Connected Vehicles (ICVs)
   3. China’s AD regulatory framework is still under development
   4. Concerns over the regulatory action needed in China.
   5. Investment boom
   6. Player collaboration. 

Chinese carmakers narrow the technological gap between Level-2 and Level-4 Autonomous Driving

8 models in China offered L3-Parking features in 2020 from 4 carmakers (BYD, Changan, Great Wall, and SAIC) but only 1 with Lv.3-Driving from Changan (UNI-T)

Chinese carmakers leverage their strategic partnerships with foreign OEMs and domestic tech pioneers to mass-deploy autonomous parking capabilities that rival Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Tesla.

BYD, Geely and Changan provide point-to-point memory parking by integrating visual SLAM and ultrasonic radars to memorize and learn commonly used parking spaces and driving routes.

• ORA’s full-scene Automatic Parking system,
• BYD’s Vision Fusion Automatic Parking,
• Geely’s FOTA and 5G Autonomous Valet Parking,
• Changan’s APA 5.0 Remote Control Valet Parking;
• Changan’s UNI series is equipped with an Lv.3 Traffic Jam Pilot.
• Geely’s Xingyue is equipped with G-Pilot 4 offering L2+ autonomous driving functions and high-speed AEB-CUI.
• GAC’s Aion series is equipped with ADiGO 3.0 driving assistant package that provides hands-free driving experience under specific scenarios.

Partially-Automated Model offerings Expand to the Premium Smart EV Segment

An increasing number of Chinese carmakers collaborate with domestic tech giants to develop intelligent pure-electric platforms;

• BAIC with its premium smart-EV brand Arcfox,
• Dongfeng with Voyah,
• GWM with ORA and SAIC with IM; among others.

The newly established premium EV brands aim to combine high electric range, robust infotainment in-vehicle systems and autonomous driving capabilities beyond Lv.2.

Driven by its ambition to transform from a production-based to an innovative economy, China has flourishing expectations about its NEVs sector and a vast amount of private-venture capital to invest.

At the same time, China realizes that it will not catch up with Western manufacturers in technology required for higher levels of autonomy without building infrastructure for vital aspects of mapping or embedded software development.

This forces China to adopt a mixed model of AD development that combines conditional autonomous driving technologies (i.e. Lv.2.5) and robust in-vehicle connected infotainment products; with higher levels of autonomy (i.e. Lv.4) concentrating only on smart mobility segments; e.g. robotaxis, ride-hailing services, public transportation sector etc.

“According to the IoV Industrial Development Action Plan issued by the public authorities in late 2018, L2 driving assistant systems and in-vehicle connected information service terminals should be installed into more than 30% and 60% of new cars respectively, by 2020. In recent years Chinese automakers have accelerated the development of in-vehicle connectivity and L2 autonomous driving systems”

The Opportunity in Embedded in-vehicle Smart Connected Systems and ADAS Software

Chinese tech giants, like Baidu, Huawei, Alibaba and Tencent aim to leverage their experience in software and hardware integration to gain a “built-in” competitive advantage in applying smart technologies in newly launched ICV models.

Besides valuable gains from the vast amounts of generated data, ICV deployment could be a tech giant’s first step in leveraging its smart-tech knowledge in the next generation of autonomous vehicles.

Indeed, there is already strong collaboration between Chinese carmakers and tech companies.

• Alibaba’s high-precision maps embedded in AutoX and XPeng smart-driving pilots,
• Baidu’s Xiaodu in-car OS embedded in Chery’s premium SUV brand Exeed,
• GAC’s ADiGO driving assistant package enhanced with Baidu’s cloud computing and intelligent digital marketing solutions,
• Huawei Lidar technology integrated into newly BAIC’s Arcfox S,
• Huawei’s new-generation Balong 5000 5G chipset enables GAC’s new energy vehicles 5G and V2X communication modules;
• Tencent SoC that has been successfully integrated into several Geely models;

China Accelerates Efforts to Establish a Regulatory Framework for ICV deployment

China promotes an ecosystem-centric coordination approach among all regulatory departments, particularly across different spheres of responsibilities, regions and levels of administration; to forestall the legal and liability issues related to ICVs usage and gradually enable their mass deployment.

In February 2020, China’s National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and nine other ministries jointly issued the Innovative Development Strategy of Intelligent Vehicles, an ecosystem-centric regulatory approach that aims to establish a sustainable and comprehensive framework for AV development over the next three decades.

The policy document proposes that by 2025:

• the regulation standards underpinning smart vehicle technology innovation, cybersecurity and the AV industry ecosystem will be formed;
• the capacity of the country’s digital infrastructure, regarding the wireless networks for the full deployment of LTE-V2X and 5G-V2X technologies, will be enhanced;
• and the large-scale production of vehicles capable of conditional autonomous driving (i.e. L3) and the commercialization of highly autonomous vehicles (i.e. L.4) in certain circumstances, will be realized.

China’s public authorities issued the Standards for Road Testing and Demonstration Application of Intelligent Connected Vehicles, a draft regulatory framework that would allow for “road testing and example application of smart connected vehicles” with China’s public highways permitted as a test site.

The draft also aims to support cargo and passenger transportation via autonomous driving vehicles and promote car-sharing and smart-parking business models.