San Francisco Frontiers - Chinese EVs, flying cars take centre stage at world's biggest auto show

Rows of influencers posed in front of gleaming models at the capital's cavernous international exhibition centre, darting to suitcases stuffed with outfit changes, while animated CEOs worked the crowds in front of massive LED screens.

Legacy overseas brands such as Volkswagen, Toyota and BMW once dominated in China, but have lost market share in past years to domestic firms that beat them to the electric vehicle revolution and undercut them on price.

Chinese manufacturers including BYD, Xiaomi and XPeng are now also at the forefront of integrating AI software and autonomous driving technology into their EVs.

The Auto China exhibition, hosted at two side-by-side venues, spans 380,000 square metres (four million square feet), according to organisers -- more than 50 football pitches.

More than 1,400 vehicles from hundreds of Chinese and foreign companies are on display from Friday, when the show opened to industry professionals and the media, and later to the public from April 28 until May 3.

While traditional leading brands like Germany's BMW and Mercedes held sweeping areas of the vast halls, most of the event's mega stages were dominated by Chinese brands including BYD and battery giant CATL.

- Robots, flying cars -

At the sprawling expo, crowds cheered as XPeng chief executive He Xiaopeng unveiled the company's new GX, a six‑seat electric SUV.

The imposing 5.2-metre vehicle incorporates AI technology and is aimed at breaking into the luxury market, He said.

It would soon be followed by humanoid robots this year, He promised, and eventually by flying cars, which XPeng hopes to mass-produce.

Foreign automakers are increasingly collaborating with Chinese firms to stay competitive.

BMW has partnered with CATL, while Audi is using Huawei's driving assistance systems and Volkswagen is co-developing EVs with Guangzhou-based XPeng.

XPeng President Brian Gu said companies were "leveraging their respective strength to collaborate with China" a trend he said would continue.

Gu has his eyes set on export markets including the Gulf and Europe, where he anticipates growth to accelerate.

"In the last year, we started local production, and this year we are going to launch even more new products for the European market" which he said was responsible for half of XPeng's global sales in 2025.

Asked by AFP how Trump's tariffs were affecting XPeng, he said only that the US market remained an important one.

- Fierce competition -

This year, companies are also jostling to sell space, analysts say, with roomy SUVs' new growth area targeting customers prioritising seating and comfort.

China "has become a customer retention and replacement/upgrade-driven market, and these big SUVs address that need," independent analyst Lei Xing wrote in a blog this week.

Firms have flooded the domestic market in recent years with trade-in schemes, offering huge discounts to customers to give up their old car for a new one.

The fierce price war led Chinese officials last year to call for tighter price monitoring and improving long-term regulation of competition.

But newcomers appear unfazed, Lei wrote, naming at least eight EV brands from Chinese automakers that have cropped up over the last two years.

Electric vehicles, an area China dominates, are also gaining traction as rising global oil prices linked to the Middle East war push drivers away from fossil fuel-powered models.

Chinese tech on display Friday went beyond the road.

Dozens of people queued to clamber into an enormous air taxi, a 10-seater from Chinese aviation startup AutoFlight, part of China's wider push to dominate the low-attitude economy.

For Chinese auto enthusiast Dai, domestic EVs were the expo's clear main characters.

"In comparison, foreign brands seem to have a weaker presence and less visibility," the 30-year-old influencer, who gave only his surname, said.

J.Peterson--SFF