2026 International Forum (TEDA) on Chinese Automotive Industry Development Opening Soon in TEDA

The 2026 International Forum (TEDA) on Chinese Automotive Industry Development is scheduled to be held in TEDA from September 17 to September 20, 2026. Centering on the annual theme of "Smart & Green Foundations, Ecological Momentum, Co-creation & Win-Win", this year's forum will connect upstream and downstream resources across the global automotive value chain, fostering in-depth dialogues on key dimensions such as mid-to-long-term policy orientations, forward-looking technology deployment, and sustainable ecosystem planning.

This Year's Forum: Four Innovative Initiatives to Deliver a Premier "17+N" Think Tank Feast

The International Forum (TEDA) on Chinese Automotive Industry Development, one of the automotive sector's premier annual summits, is set to convene its 22nd session. Upholding its high-end think tank positioning and closely tracking hot-button industry issues, the forum has long served as an industry bellwether, widely hailed as the "Davos" of the automotive world. Building upon past success, this year's forum introduces four major innovations—spanning thematic framework, think tank achievements, dual-market ecosystems, and all-media outreach—while staging a "17+N" lineup of themed conferences and concurrent events to fully reinforce its value as a premier decision-making think tank.

Highlight 1: Innovatively Establishing Four Thematic Days

For the first time, the forum will introduce four thematic days—Scenario, Technology, Policy, and Industry—opening cross-sector collaboration channels to foster deep integration between the automotive sector and diverse fields such as artificial intelligence, aviation, energy, and consumption, thereby building momentum to empower the industrial ecosystem.

Highlight 2: Building a "Flagship Report + Thematic Report" Think Tank Matrix

To enhance the output value of the think tank, this year's forum develops a "Flagship Report + Thematic Report" think tank matrix to systematically deliver industry research findings, covering mid-to-long-term industrial forecasts, frontier technology evaluations, market consumption insights, globalization risk analyses, and dual-carbon pathway calculations.

Highlight 3: Optimizing the Government-Enterprise Dialogue Model

The forum establishes an equal dialogue platform. Building on past collaborative discussions among government, enterprises, and think tanks, it invites regulatory authorities from emerging sectors linked to the automotive industry—such as intelligent connected vehicles, the low-altitude economy, and cross-border trade—covering the full-chain regulatory and guidance system of the automotive industry to close the loop of communication from policy formulation to implementation.

Highlight 4: Focusing on New Cross-Sector Tracks

This year's forum greatly expands its guest circle. Beyond representatives from car and auto parts enterprises, it has not only extensively invited professional guests from fields including next-generation batteries, artificial intelligence, embodied intelligence, the low-altitude economy, resource recycling, digital mobility, and cross-border services to participate in keynote speeches and panel dialogues, but also invited more international guests to lead forward-looking industrial layouts with a global vision.

Highlight 5: Focusing on High-Quality Industrial Development during the 15th Five-Year Plan Period

As a bellwether for the development of the automotive industry, the International Forum (TEDA) on Chinese Automotive Industry Development organizes three high-end dialogue sessions: the Opening Ceremony, High-End Intellectual Insights, and the High-End Think Tank Closed-Door Meeting, gathering government departments, industry elites, and senior executives from both Chinese and foreign enterprises to jointly contribute ideas and suggestions.

Highlight 6: Deeply Cultivating New Technologies, New Tracks, and New Scenarios

The forum features six dedicated ecosystem sessions focusing on three core directions—new technologies, new tracks, and new scenarios—to tap into new development momentum around topics such as automotive batteries, automotive big data, the low-altitude economy, embodied intelligence, vehicle modification, and smart mobility.

Highlight 7: Exploring Industrial Transformation Pathways around Green, Intelligent, Upgraded, and Innovative Directions

Centering on four main themes of "Moving Towards Green", "Integrating Towards Intelligence", "Advancing Upward", and "Venturing Towards Innovation", the forum features eight dedicated thematic sessions spanning the entire industrial chain to address real-world challenges in the transformation process.

In addition, this year's forum arranges a number of concurrent featured events, including cutting-edge technological achievement experience exhibitions, releases of original advanced technologies, releases of industrial think tank reports, and government-enterprise matchmaking sessions.

TEDA: Deeply Engaging in Multiple Sub-Forums to Forge a 100-Billion-Yuan Automotive Industrial Cluster

The International Forum (TEDA) on Chinese Automotive Industry Development has partnered with TEDA for years. While providing valuable insights for the transformation and upgrading of China's automotive industry, it has also injected forward-looking concepts and innovative thinking into TEDA's local automotive sector, effectively fostering its development. TEDA's continued in-depth participation has not only offered fertile ground of industrial practice for the forum, but also contributed regional strength to propelling China's automotive industry forward, epitomizing mutual empowerment and shared growth. In this year's forum, TEDA actively engages in three ecosystem sessions—New Technologies, New Tracks, and New Scenarios—as well as the "Venturing Towards Innovation" thematic session, dedicated to driving high-quality development in the automotive industry.

TEDA stands as a national automotive and auto parts export base, and one of the China's first demonstration bases for new industrialization in the automotive sector. As a major automotive hub in China, TEDA has brought leading car manufacturers together such as FAW Toyota, FAW-Volkswagen, and Great Wall Motor, alongside more than 200 supporting auto parts companies, to forge a comprehensive and highly efficient industrial ecosystem. In 2025, TEDA's automotive industrial output value reached RMB145.7 billion, with car production reaching 679,000 units, accounting for 86% of Tianjin's total, continuously consolidating the foundation of its 100-billion-yuan industrial cluster.

Since the beginning of this year, three major car plants have accomplished their transition to shared production lines for fuel and electric vehicles, as evidenced by the launch of FAW-Volkswagen's first pure electric project, FAW Toyota's 800D plug-in hybrid sedan production line transformation, and the mass production of Great Wall Motor's new vehicle model developed on "GWM One"—the world's first native AI-powered full-powertrain vehicle platform. Driven by these leading enterprises, a batch of core parts projects such as the Mind Tianjin Plant have successively commenced operations, and the Great Wall Motor Tianjin R&D Center has officially landed in, achieving a significant leap in TEDA's automotive manufacturing and R&D capabilities.

As electrification, intelligence, and connectivity continue to advance in the automotive industry, TEDA's comprehensive strength in the automotive sector keeps growing. Moving forward, the International Forum (TEDA) on Chinese Automotive Industry Development will continue to rely on TEDA's industrial foundation to steadily elevate its platform capacity, while TEDA will leverage the forum as a bridge to attract more cross-industry innovation resources to land locally, constructing a more competitive automotive industrial ecosystem and jointly driving the high-quality development of China's automotive industry.