The three-day 2026 18th China Auto Blue-Book Forum (CABF2026) concluded in Guangzhou on the afternoon of May 17.
Themed "Inflection," this edition of the forum featured over a hundred industry leaders, experts, scholars, and heads of OEMs and supply chain companies sharing insights. Participants represented six major automotive groups, five leading new energy vehicle (NEV) makers, and dozens of top global supply chain and technology firms.
The forum hosted 11 JackTok Peak Dialogues hosted by Dr. Jia Ke, 12 peak debates, and 27 keynote speeches. These sessions covered six core topics: energy, globalization, design, scenarios, marketing, and cross-industry integration, each directly addressing the industry's current pain points and potential variables.
Held in the first year of China's 15th Five-Year Plan, a year when AI is being fully integrated into the industry, and a crucial year for the global expansion of Chinese automakers, the choice of "Inflection" as the 2026 forum theme is significant.
On the opening day, Dr. Jia Ke, CEO/Editor-in-Chief of the Xuanyuan Matrix, President of the Xuanyuan School, and Chairman of the World New Automotive Ecosystem Association, delivered a keynote speech titled "Ten Inflection Points Occurring in China's Auto Industry." Dr. Jia stated: "Inflection is not simple change; it is a breakthrough based on a firm grasp of the industry's essence. Inflection is not repeating yesterday's story; it is opening a new, global narrative era that belongs to China's auto industry."
Dr. Jia proposed that China's auto industry is undergoing ten major inflection points in 2026, including: Market logic shifting from "scale expansion" to "stock competition." Globalization models shifting from "selling globally" to "producing globally." Autonomous driving transitioning from small models to the era of large models. Smart cockpits evolving from app accumulation to Agent intelligence. Automotive design moving from "visual originality" towards "cultural subjectivity." Autonomous taxis rewriting the logic of mobility within the travel ecosystem. Brand value moving beyond one-dimensional competition. The "gimmick era" of marketing paradigms coming to a definitive end. The powertrain engine becoming an independent, platform-based resource. Automakers being redefined as physical AI platforms, mobile operators, or robotics service providers. Also noteworthy, the 11th Lingxuan Awards, recognizing annual contributions from Chinese auto parts suppliers, was announced during the forum.
Case submissions will close on August 15, 2026. After evaluation, review, and final judging, the results will be announced at the 11th Lingxuan Awards Ceremony in December 2026.
Additionally, the forum hosted events such as the 2026 Xuanyuan School Night, the graduation ceremony for the 5th Lingxuan class, and the official album presentation for the 5th Julang class. Over 1,000 guests attended in person, collectively witnessing the historic transition of China's auto industry from a "follower" to a "leader."
**JackTok Peak Dialogues Occupy the Intellectual High Ground** Differing from the past seventeen editions, the 2026 18th China Auto Blue-Book Forum made a bold format adjustment: all morning sessions across the three days consisted of JackTok Peak Dialogues personally hosted by Dr. Jia Ke.
This was not merely a formal innovation but a "dimensional reduction strike" on the traditional industry forum model.
The 11 JackTok Peak Dialogues became the intellectual high ground of this forum. Leaders from automakers, supply chains, and tech companies, including He Xiaopeng, Li Bin, Wei Jianjun, Yu Kai, Shen Shaojie, Feng Xingya, Zhang Guofu, and Liu Guanqiao, expressed clear views on strategic choices under the "inflection."
He Xiaopeng, Chairman and CEO of XPeng, shared thoughts on autonomous driving: "At this time last year, I thought L5 might be unattainable in my lifetime. But now, I judge the probability of achieving L4 software capability by 2028 is extremely high; a considerable prototype of L5 is very likely to appear by 2030. The progress of the entire model is too fierce, with huge changes every week."
Li Bin, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of NIO Inc., summarized how NIO opened the market: "Regarding the necessary full-process experience for building a premium brand—whether service, stores, or community—it must be worthy of the car's price. Previously, Chinese brands didn't pay much attention to these things. Now, many brands are catching up on this lesson for brand elevation. No one had truly started selling from over 400,000 yuan before; NIO opened the market this way from the beginning."
Wei Jianjun, Chairman of Great Wall Motor Company Limited, reiterated the spirit of contract: "We should not whitewash or engage in high-flown talk. Fundamentally, we must make users trust us and make stakeholders feel that Great Wall Motor is reliable. A contract is not a marketing slogan; the spirit of contract is a company's bottom-line thinking, its long-term survival strategy, and its lifeline."
Yu Kai, Founder and CEO of Horizon Robotics, emphasized details and accumulation: "Steve Jobs said Apple's victory was not due to one idea but five thousand ideas. The number isn't important; the key is the refinement of countless details. Relying on a buzzword wins for a short time; accumulating thousands of ideas builds a real moat."
Shen Shaojie, Founder and CEO of Zhuoyu Technology, spoke about his understanding of a moat: "It's not that others can't do it; often, it's a matter of timing in business. Being able to enter a space where there is temporarily no competition at a faster speed—that is the moat."
Feng Xingya, Chairman of GAC Group, discussed GAC's strategic reform centered on the "Panyu Action": "It can be summarized in three steps: first, break down corporate barriers and integrate resources through unified reform to build the 'One GAC' platform; second, use Business Unit (BU) construction as a lever to form frontline units facing the market, achieving agile authorization and rapid response; finally, promote IPD, IPMS, and ITR process reforms to connect the value loop from customer insight to customer satisfaction, systematically building a customer-centric process-oriented organization."
Zhang Guofu, Vice President of BAIC Group and Chairman of BAIC Motor, stated that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) should possess an entrepreneurial spirit: "SOEs especially need entrepreneurial thinking. Entrepreneurship is tiring and tough, but also very interesting. The 'wolf spirit' of modern new SOEs is already fully reflected in the entrepreneurial team of BAIC BluePark New Energy: we focus on goals, user experience, and product behavior, determined to see entrepreneurship through to the end."
Liu Guanqiao, Chairman of BAIC BluePark New Energy, discussed corporate decision-making: "We always emphasize five words: pragmatic, extreme, win. 'Win' means we must win in battle. How do we achieve this? Especially with changes happening so fast now, decision-making speed for a company must be very fast. In this regard, we have performed relatively well over the past two years. People often say the new automakers are the fastest, but I think our efficiency is now no lower than theirs."
Through these intellectual exchanges, the JackTok Peak Dialogues have become a branded symbol. Dr. Jia Ke was not merely hosting but conducting a "serial interview" about the fate of China's auto industry.
This structure greatly enhanced the forum's coherence and logic. By continuously questioning industry giants, it effectively wove a strategic panorama, proving more dynamic than scattered speeches.
**Peak Debates Comprehensively Deconstruct the "Inflection" Implementation Path** The afternoon sessions of the 18th China Auto Blue-Book Forum over three days were a feast of ideas, interweaving 12 peak debates and 27 keynote speeches.
Centered on the six agendas of energy, globalization, design, scenarios, marketing, and cross-industry integration, the afternoon sessions did not engage in vague "industry trend" talk. Instead, they precisely targeted the five deep-interest zones causing the most anxiety and controversy among practitioners in 2026, plus one potential variable.
The energy session focused on two frontier issues. In the peak debate on "Integrated Wind-Solar-Hydrogen-Ammonia-Methanol," guests agreed that although current costs remain high and the chain is long, this closed loop spanning energy, chemicals, power, and automobiles represents the true energy revolution.
In the debate on "Reshaping the Competitive Landscape of the Engine Industry," participants noted that engines are evolving from internal departments of OEMs into independent, cross-brand, cross-border platform resources, entering an era of "utility-ization." Future competition will no longer be about proprietary technology but platform scale and compatibility.
The globalization session directly confronted "The Ceiling for Chinese Automakers' Global Market Share." Debate participants engaged in fierce exchanges around the "25% hypothesis," generally agreeing that tariff walls and the inversion of localization rates are core bottlenecks. The shift from "selling globally" to "producing globally" requires systematic product adaptation, regulatory adaptation, and cultural adaptation.
Another debate, "How Should China's New Vehicles Adapt Globally," delved deeper. Guests deconstructed the "landing costs" for Chinese automakers in different markets like Southeast Asia, Europe, and Latin America, layer by layer, from product definition and regulatory certification to user habits and after-sales service systems.
The core debate in the design session was "Constructing the Cultural Subjectivity of Chinese Automotive Design." Design leaders unanimously agreed that Chinese design has moved past copying and imitation, and original breakthroughs, and must now answer "what is the soul." It cannot only pursue launching a car in 12 months; aesthetics need sedimentation, and cultural subjectivity must grow from proportion, stance, space, and materials.
Another debate, "Pressure of Ultra-Fast Iteration and Improving Design Efficiency," explored balancing speed and depth. Guests acknowledged that a 12-month launch cycle is survival pressure, but design cannot be reduced to a "facelift assembly line."
The scenarios session revolved around "The Smart Cockpit as an AI Agent." Guests pointed out that the APP era is ending, and the Agent intelligence era is beginning. The cockpit is shifting from "click-driven" to "intent-driven," from isolated apps to a technology shelf, and from in-cabin entertainment to integrated cabin and driving.
Another peak debate, "New Vehicle Product Definition and Brand Rebuilding," explored how to rebuild brand faith through scenario insights when configurations become homogenized. Participants believed future product definition will no longer be a spec-sheet competition but "scene slicing" based on real user journeys.
Furthermore, the marketing and cross-industry integration sessions contributed high-density insights.
Two debates in the marketing session focused on "Marketing Strategies in the AI Era" and "The Era of Automotive Marketing Gimmicks is Over"—the former explored how AI changes user reach, while the latter declared the bursting of the traffic bubble and the disappearance of information asymmetry, forcing automakers to return to product and technology itself.
The cross-industry integration session also featured two debates: one discussed "Choices in the Era of the Embodied Intelligence Leap," revealing the identity shift of automakers towards robotics service providers and physical AI platforms; the other, "Investment Trends in the New Automotive Industry in the AI Era," questioned from a capital perspective: when hardware gross margin is no longer the sole metric, data closed-loop capability and scenario operational efficiency will become new investment anchors.
If the JackTok Peak Dialogues set the direction, then the 12 peak debates around the six core topics delved into the details, deconstructing the ten inflection points into specific, debatable, contestable, and implementable issues.
**Recording the Industry's Temperature, Witnessing China's Auto Industry Full Cycle** Since its inaugural session in 2009, each theme of the China Auto Blue-Book Forum has recorded the industry's temperature, witnessing the full cycle of China's auto industry from growth to transformation, from electrification to intelligence, and from domestic competition to globalization.
In its early stages, the forum set themes like "Determination and Perseverance," "Role Model," and "Courage," reflecting an era when China's auto industry was groping in the dark and bolstering its own morale. Later themes like "Four Modernizations of Automobiles," "First Mover," "Refresh," "Live Up To," and "Imagine" marked the days when electrification and intelligence grew from sprouts into waves, with everyone racing to get ahead. By 2025's theme "Decision," the elimination race had truly arrived, and everyone reached a point where immediate prioritization and letting go were necessary.
Entering 2026, the situation is clearer. China's auto industry can no longer engage in cutthroat internal competition: competition is shifting from price wars to value competition, from domestic consumption to global head-to-head confrontation. Simultaneously, for the first time, AI is truly penetrating every corner of the automobile.
Hence, the theme "Inflection" for the 2026 18th China Auto Blue-Book Forum was born.
As a highly influential annual comprehensive intellectual event in China's auto industry, CABF2026 remains a deep analysis of the industry's development context and a joint exploration of future directions.
From "Decision" to "Inflection," the 18th China Auto Blue-Book Forum completed a panoramic diagnosis and forward-looking assessment of China's auto industry over three days.
Inflection is painful because it means shedding old feathers; inflection is also fascinating because it is nurturing new species. As Dr. Jia Ke remarked on the eve of the closing: "The question is not whether the inflection will come; the question is whether you have turned the corner."
Now that Chinese automakers stand atop the global sales peak, the real test has just begun. The signal from this forum is clear and firm: the inflection is already happening, and action is the answer.
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