29 Sep 21
News

Chinese ‘intelligent vehicles’ rack up 5 million km

China’s ‘intelligent connected vehicle’ (ICV) prototypes have accumulated over 5 million km of testing mileage, in a testing area of 5,000 km2 that is still being expanded, China’s Minister of Industry and Information Xiao Yaqing announced in Beijing (pictured) at the 2021 World Intelligent Connected Vehicles Conference.

Mr. Yaqing stated that thanks to the boom in both quality and quantity of intelligent connectivity, Level-2 ICVs now make up 20% of China’s new-car sales. There are currently more than 5 million ICVs on the road in China, and more than 3,500 km of China’s roads have been adapted to V2X (vehicle-to-everything) technology. 

China wants to accelerate the deployment of ICVs, in conjunction with the rollout of new-energy vehicles (NEVs), which made up 9.2% of new-vehicle sales in 2021 so far, at 1.87 million (with a total of 6.78 million NEVs already on the road). 

Beijing plans to accelerate the digitalisation of traffic and the building and upgrading of ‘intelligent roads’, aiming to achieve full “car-road synergy”. 

Image: Shutterstock

Authored by: Frank Jacobs