Located just 10 kilometers northwest of central Shanghai, Jiading stands as a cornerstone of China's automotive industry. More than four decades ago, the first domestically-produced Santana rolled off assembly lines here, igniting the district's journey in automobile manufacturing. Today, Jiading's automotive sector has surpassed the 300 billion yuan milestone in industrial output value from large-scale enterprises, and with new energy and digital technologies fundamentally reshaping the industry, this established automotive powerhouse is navigating a profound transformation.
What lies ahead for Jiading's automotive industry, and how will the entire supply chain evolve? The answers emerge from the district's manufacturing-to-intelligence upgrade. The SAIC Audi AUDI Manufacturing Base, located in western Jiading, serves as a prime example. Inside its 80,000-square-meter assembly workshop, digitalization governs nearly every critical operation: robotic arms install glass sunroofs while vision inspection systems maintain assembly precision within ±0.5 millimeters, and the quality inspection center synchronizes one lidar sensor, 11 cameras, 12 ultrasonic radars, and three millimeter-wave radars simultaneously. Since the base opened in August of last year, its comprehensive vehicle traceability system and AI prediction models have substantially strengthened quality control, achieving industry-leading product consistency.
"Quality has always been our top priority," says Hong Fan, deputy plant manager at the SAIC Audi AUDI Manufacturing Base. "Digitalization allows us to enforce stricter quality standards at manageable costs. Only through lean manufacturing and improved efficiency can we make each vehicle economically competitive without compromising quality, ultimately delivering high-value models to consumers."
Following the intelligent upgrade of SAIC Audi, as industry chain leader, suppliers have rapidly adapted. Yanfeng International Automotive Technology Co., Ltd., a neighboring company specializing in interior and exterior automotive components, now connects directly to SAIC Audi's database, synchronizing production schedules in real time and coordinating its own manufacturing and logistics accordingly. Vehicle assembly involves over a thousand components spanning production planning, scheduling, logistics, and incoming quality inspection—an immensely complex undertaking. Through digital transformation, Yanfeng's response time from order receipt to material delivery has been compressed to mere hours.
Digitalization has made collaboration throughout the automotive supply chain more flexible, responsive, and tightly integrated. Jiading offers numerous similar examples: ZF Automotive Systems (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.'s "dark factory" earned national recognition as a "Model Intelligent Factory 2025," operating with fewer than five production staff while generating nearly 500 million yuan in output per mu. NIO established itself in Jiading in 2015, operating its global business management headquarters and global production vehicle R&D center here, while unicorns including Lightwheel AI and Neusoft Reach have clustered in the district. By the end of 2025, Jiading had attracted over 4,500 automotive supply chain companies, with large-scale industrial output reaching 309.54 billion yuan. Among these, more than 600 enterprises focus on automotive electrification, intelligence, connectivity, and shared mobility, contributing total output of 270.49 billion yuan.
Fostering a Cohesive Innovation Ecosystem
In Jiading, traditional manufacturing is accelerating its shift toward intelligent and green transformation, with contract production yielding ground to R&D. The Shanghai Intelligent Automotive Software Park sits just across a bridge from SAIC Motor's passenger vehicle division, housing innovative supply chain companies such as IM Motors, Thundersoft, and Pony.ai. The park has cultivated a diverse ecosystem combining automakers, tech companies, and core suppliers, attracting over 200 intelligent vehicle and software enterprises. It ranks among Shanghai's most complete automotive ecosystems, mature urban infrastructure, and concentrated automotive talent pools.
Why would a district renowned for automotive hardware manufacturing exert such magnetic appeal to software firms? Leng Weiwei, deputy general manager of the software park, attributes this to the "ecosystem effect" of chain-leading enterprises: "For software companies, technical capability alone isn't enough—they value opportunities to collaborate with industry leaders." The deep partnership between SAIC and Momenta exemplifies this dynamic. In 2021, the two companies formed a technical alliance: Momenta supplies algorithms and its data flywheel, while SAIC contributes vehicle validation platforms and engineering expertise. Together, they developed an advanced driver assistance system based on end-to-end large models, now deployed not only in SAIC's IM-branded vehicles but also expanding into joint venture models like SAIC Volkswagen and SAIC Audi.
The second draw for software companies is Jiading's rich "data and scenario assets." Software firms require vast datasets, prompting Jiading to pioneer data element circulation and cross-regional sharing mechanisms. Through the Shanghai New Energy Vehicle Public Data Collection and Monitoring Research Center, Jiading integrates new energy vehicle data and intelligent connected vehicle data as twin focal points, simultaneously collecting battery lifecycle traceability, fuel cell and hydrogen station information, charging infrastructure, power grid data, and road travel statistics. This consolidated big data foundation undergoes rigorous cleaning, anonymization, tagging, and tiered processing before flowing back into cutting-edge autonomous driving research and industrial applications.
Software products also require small-scale scenario testing before deployment. Leveraging China's first intelligent connected vehicle testing demonstration zone, Jiading constructed a three-tier testing system comprising closed test areas, open roads, and digital twin training grounds. As of July 2026, 727 vehicles from 22 companies have conducted ongoing autonomous driving tests and demonstrations in Jiading, accumulating approximately 30.33 million kilometers of test mileage and 1.82 million hours of testing time.
"Building the nest attracts the phoenix," as the saying goes. A representative from Lightwheel AI, which specializes in AI-simulated synthetic data, notes the company chose Jiading not just for its location but for its strengths in intelligent connected vehicles, automotive components, robotics testing, and manufacturing scenarios. In 2025, Shanghai International Automobile City in Jiading's Anting area launched the "Meta-Ecosystem" Embodied Intelligence Core Capability Open Platform, with Beijing Modelbest AI Technology Co., Ltd. among its founding members. Chen Hao, the company's solutions director, explains that joining the platform provides precise access to automotive supply chain resources, while Jiading's authentic test environments, data assets, and affordable computing power directly address the critical bottlenecks of embodied intelligence R&D.
Cross-Sector Integration Unlocks New Value
With hardware, software, and supply chain companies concentrated together—where neighbors double as partners—what distinctive competitive advantages can Jiading's automotive cluster construct? Driving along Cao'an Highway through Jiading, one passes SAIC's R&D center, Schaeffler's new Greater China headquarters R&D building, and the Audi Innovation Technology Center arrayed along the roadside. In the past, China's automotive industry was often characterized as "exchanging market access for technology." Today, however, Chinese R&D capabilities are increasingly taking center stage in Jiading.
This April, Audi and SAIC formally signed a strategic cooperation agreement, establishing the Audi Innovation Technology Center in Shanghai—Audi's first full-value-chain localized vehicle R&D entity outside Europe and its first intelligent electric technology center overseas. Hong Fan describes this partnership as "harmonious coexistence": the German team leverages its deep brand heritage to lead chassis tuning and design definition, while the Chinese team spearheads intelligent manufacturing and smart connected technology implementation. "This collaborative model delivers remarkable Chinese speed," Hong notes. Previously, a complete German team development cycle from concept to finalization required at least 36 months; now, comparable projects are completed in 24 months without compromising standard testing in corrosion resistance, road trials, or other areas.
Technological advancement has also enabled companies to expand overseas. At Jiading's National Foreign Trade Transformation Base (Automotive and Parts), Sun Jian, a veteran of over 20 years in cross-border automotive commerce, reflects on the shifting landscape: "Historically, due to technological gaps, domestic parts companies engaged primarily in low-value-added 'custom processing' with minimal export capability." Today, however, a growing number of enterprises are actively seeking international market channels. Ningbo Green Manzhou New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., specializing in electric vehicle battery testing, repair, and remanufacturing, is leveraging Jiading's "New Energy Going Global Valley" platform to accelerate worldwide expansion. Shanghai Huandianjia (Shanghai) New Energy Co., Ltd., drawing on the trade base's supply chain resources and overseas networks, entered markets in Malaysia and Thailand within a year and is co-developing a "vehicle-battery integration" business model with a tricycle manufacturer. Leveraging supply chain advantages, the base has signed cooperation framework agreements with overseas industrial parks in over ten countries and regions, establishing coordinated operations across Middle East, Eastern European, and Southeast Asian corridors.
Emerging business forms are quietly sprouting. Lightwheel AI's operations have extended into embodied intelligence, while Shanghai Huaxu Intelligent Technology Group Co., Ltd., initially focused on automotive electronics, has established a humanoid robotics division to pursue embodied intelligent agent business. "Automotive manufacturing demands exceptional precision, which pushes us to cultivate new production advantages applicable across emerging sectors," says Ouyang Hongyu, founder of Shanghai Huaxu Intelligent Technology Group. The company now covers more than 90% of humanoid robotics' core controllers. Notably, the sensor systems, computing platforms, algorithmic capabilities, and data resources developed for intelligent vehicles can serve as crucial infrastructure for the robotics industry.
Addressing this new industrial direction, the Shanghai Intelligent Automotive Software Park has developed a dedicated industry platform—the Embodied Intelligence "Pi Arena." "'Pi Arena' uses physical space as its foundation, integrating computing power, data, scenarios, capital, and talent to construct an innovation ecosystem spanning the full enterprise lifecycle," explains Leng Weiwei.
Rooted in automotive yet extending far beyond it, Jiading's path forward is clear. According to the "Jiading District '15th Five-Year Plan' for Accelerating the Construction of a World-Class Automotive Industry Center Core Carrier Area," the district will pursue high-level autonomous driving demonstration zones as its pathway, driven by data, scenarios, and platforms, empowered by artificial intelligence, to revolutionize manufacturing models and foster cross-sector integration. This comprehensive approach unlocks Jiading's fundamental advantages to build a world-class automotive industry center characterized by "hard technology leadership, soft ecosystem enablement, and strong intelligent manufacturing support." From the intelligent transformation of chain-leading enterprises to deep ecosystem collaboration and expanding cross-sector integration, Jiading's automotive cluster demonstrates a "triple evolution" that vividly illustrates the industry's ongoing transformation and upgrade.
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