OEM Trends

• At Xiaomi’s Investor Day today, President Lu Weibing outlined the company’s global roadmap for its automotive division. The priority this year is securing 550,000 deliveries in China. Once that domestic foothold is solid, Xiaomi EV is expected to officially launch its globalization process in the second half of 2027, targeting Europe first, before entering right-hand drive markets in the first half of 2028.

• On April 27, Nissan released production, sales, and export figures for March 2026 and the fiscal year ending March 2026. In production terms, Nissan’s global output for March 2026 reached 257,432 units, up 5.4% year-on-year; for the period from April 2025 to March 2026, global production totaled 2.9 million units, a decline of 3.7%. On the sales front, global sales for March 2026 fell 7% year-on-year, while the fiscal period saw a 4.2% drop. As for exports, Japan’s exports in March slid 12.4%; from April 2025 to March 2026, export volumes were down 12.9% compared to the previous year.

• Reports from the 2026 Beijing Auto Show indicate that Leapmotor founder Zhu Jiangming revealed that orders for the A10 and D19 models have far exceeded expectations. Zhu stated, “Given our progress in April, we remain confident in hitting our sales target of one million units.“

• Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group recently signed a joint innovation agreement with Huawei Device Co. in Beijing. The deal marks a deepening of their strategic partnership, focusing on co-developing technology, integrating supply chains, and co-branding to accelerate the *Maextro* brand’s rise as a leader in China’s ultra-luxury intelligent EV sector.

• Data from Tianyancha shows the recent establishment of Guangzhou Pengyan Technology Co., Ltd., with Chen Zhiyuan as legal representative and a registered capital of 600 million yuan. Its business scope includes R&D for intelligent robots, consumer robot manufacturing, wearable smart devices, VR equipment, and computer peripherals. The entity is wholly owned by Guangzhou XPeng Automotive Technology Co., Ltd.

• Kia is actively narrowing the price gap with Chinese automakers in Europe. CEO Song Ho-sung revealed that Kia has already compressed the price differential this year, signaling that the price war in the European market is heating up. Meanwhile, as growth slows in their home market, Chinese automakers are accelerating their offensive into Europe, a key overseas battleground. Speaking at an investor event earlier this month, Song noted that this strategy has helped Kia expand global revenue and withstand the pressure of a broader market downturn.

Supply Chain News

• Apollo Global Management announced on April 27 that it has agreed to acquire Forvia’s automotive interiors business for an enterprise value of 1.82 billion euros ($2.1 billion). The deal, subject to regulatory approvals and other conditions, is expected to close in the second half of this year.

• Black Sesame Technologies officially announced it has joined Li Auto’s Star Ring OS open-source ecosystem. The two will collaborate deeply on open-source development, adapting and optimizing Star Ring OS for Black Sesame’s full lineup of chip platforms. Under the partnership, development boards for the Li Auto Star Ring OS ecosystem will utilize Black Sesame’s chip platforms, and Black Sesame will open-source its software across its chip series to co-build and share resources with the Star Ring OS community.

• Pony.ai founder James Peng stated in a recent interview that Level 3 autonomy in the industry’s classification system may never be truly realized. Despite industry marketing, he argues it is essentially a repackaging of Level 2 driver assistance, not genuine L3 autonomous driving. Peng was blunt, calling the current L1-L3 standards—drafted in the U.S. over two decades ago—”nonsensical” due to irresolvable conflicts in liability definition. Peng believes autonomous driving doesn’t require complex grading: there are only two essential states. In L2 and below, the driver is always liable; in L4 and above, the vehicle system assumes responsibility.

Industrial Economy

• The National Energy Administration released data on China’s EV charging infrastructure for March 2026. According to the national monitoring platform, as of the end of March 2026, the total number of EV charging connectors reached 21.48 million, up 46.9% year-on-year. Of these, public chargers totaled 4.86 million, up 28.1%, with a combined rated power of 234 million kilowatts and an average power of roughly 48.06 kilowatts. Private charging installations reached 16.62 million, surging 53.5%, with installed capacity hitting 147 million kilovolt-amperes.

• On April 27, general embodied intelligence robot maker Anyverse Dynamics announced the completion of an Angel++ financing round. The capital raised will be used to accelerate R&D for a “native world model + reinforcement learning” paradigm and build technical infrastructure, including efficient data pipelines.

• Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the CPCA, wrote that despite a low base in January 2025 and shipping disruptions caused by conflict between the U.S. and Iran dragging down March imports, imported vehicle volume still climbed 3% to 100,000 units in the first quarter of 2026. This represents rare growth for the January-March period, driven largely by the low base at the end of 2025. However, with the rise of domestic brands and accelerated localization by international automakers, auto imports have remained sluggish for three years running—or eight years if volatility is smoothed out.

• ROBOTERA recently closed a new funding round exceeding $200 million. The round was led by SF Express, with participation from top financial institutions including Sequoia China, IDG Capital, and CICC Capital. Market interest reportedly far exceeded the original fundraising target.

Personnel Changes

• On April 27, ZF Group announced that its Supervisory Board has appointed Dr. Peter Holdmann as the company’s first Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Centralizing global technology management at the Board level aims to make R&D across divisions more efficient and precisely aligned with customer needs. Dr. Holdmann previously served as a Board member responsible for overall R&D.