At the Intelligent Electric Vehicle Development High-Level Forum (2026) held at the China National Convention Center Phase II in Beijing on April 11-12, Cao Yanfei, Senior Vice President and Head of Automotive Business for Greater China at Infineon Technologies, delivered a speech. The forum's theme focused on advancing the intelligent, green, integrated, and international development of new energy vehicles.
Cao Yanfei stated that the automotive industry is accelerating its transition from the "first half of electrification" into the "second half of intelligence." He observed that automakers' core competencies are now extending into new fields such as humanoid robotics and flying cars.
He analyzed that the automotive sector currently faces challenges of increasing volume but decreasing profits, making cost reduction and efficiency improvement long-term priorities. Industry consolidation is accelerating, with the market share of the top five automakers projected to rise to 50% by 2030. Concurrently, the automotive semiconductor market is also becoming more concentrated.
Cao pointed out that unlike the powertrain market, which is experiencing single-digit growth, segments related to intelligentization—such as domain controllers—are expected to surge at a compound annual growth rate of 16%, with a market size twice that of powertrains. This indicates a substantive shift in the industry's focus.
He noted that many automakers are strategically expanding into what he termed the "new trio": smart cars, humanoid robots, and flying cars. Cao emphasized that this expansion is not indiscriminate diversification but is supported by a reuse rate of over 70% across supply chains, software, and hardware components like electronic control units and sensors. He concluded that Chinese automakers have evolved into significant "capability centers."
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