The autonomous driving sector has recently witnessed a major breakthrough: Tesla's first Cybercab has officially rolled off the production line at its Texas Gigafactory. This marks a significant step towards mass production preparation for the world's first purpose-built driverless taxi, which features no steering wheel or pedals. The commercialization of Level 4 and above autonomous driving is transitioning from vision to reality.
As a key indicator of accelerated industry commercialization, the global autonomous driving sector has been gaining momentum since 2026, driven by policy support, technological breakthroughs, and application deployment. On the policy front, draft national standards such as the "Security Requirements for Automated Driving Systems of Intelligent Connected Vehicles" provide a regulatory framework for the large-scale application of high-level autonomous driving. From an industry perspective, the performance of the A-share autonomous driving segment also reflects this upward trend. As of February 24, 2026, over 50 stocks related to autonomous driving have released performance reports for 2025, with more than 20 reporting net profits attributable to shareholders exceeding 100 million yuan, indicating steady improvement in the sector's overall profitability.
The continuous improvement in industry fundamentals has further boosted market appetite for allocating to this high-growth sector. Notably, the Smart Driving ETF (516520) has continued to attract capital inflows since 2026, accumulating net inflows of 590 million yuan during the period. This amount is already 1.8 times the total net inflows for the entire year of 2025. The sustained capital influx has driven both the fund's net asset value and shares outstanding to record highs since its inception, reaching 1.257 billion yuan and 936 million shares, respectively. It is currently the only ETF in the smart vehicle sector across the market with a scale exceeding 800 million yuan.
The Smart Driving ETF (516520) closely tracks the CSI Smart Vehicle Theme Index. This index selects companies that provide terminal perception and platform applications for smart vehicles, as well as other representative companies benefiting from the smart vehicle trend, to reflect the overall performance of the smart vehicle industry. Its top five sectors by Shenwan secondary industry classification are Semiconductors (23.0%), Auto Parts (22.5%), Passenger Vehicles (12.6%), Software Development (12.3%), and Communication Equipment (7.0%), covering multiple segments of the smart vehicle industry chain. It may serve as an important tool for investors seeking exposure to the new wave of smart vehicle development. As of the latest data, the index's price-to-earnings ratio stands at 32.44 times, residing in a relatively low historical percentile of just 7.48% over the past five years.
The fund manager of the Smart Driving ETF (516520), Huatai-PineBridge Fund, is one of China's first ETF managers. For years, it has been committed to providing investors with index tool products characterized by transparent targeting, convenient trading, and low fees. Two of its major ETF products—the Huatai-PineBridge CSI 300 ETF (510300) and the Huatai-PineBridge CSI 500 ETF (563360)—are highly popular in the market and currently rank first in scale among their respective ETF categories. Their management fee rate is 0.15% per annum, and their custody fee rate is 0.05% per annum, both representing the lowest tier of fee levels currently available for equity index funds in the market.
Risk Warning: Funds carry risks, and investment requires caution.
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