PUBLISHER: ResearchInChina | PRODUCT CODE: 2064029
PUBLISHER: ResearchInChina | PRODUCT CODE: 2064029
AIDV Research: Deployment Strategies of 22 OEMs
The AI-Defined Vehicle (AIDV) OEMs' Deployment Strategies Research Report, 2026, released by ResearchInChina, analyzes the AI deployment strategies of 22 OEMs such as Li Auto, NIO, XPeng, Xiaomi Auto, and Geely, involving the application of AI data, cloud computing power, automotive computing power, self-developed chips, AI operating systems and AI foundation models in intelligent driving, intelligent cockpits, and other fields, as well as automotive AI chip configuration strategies and planning.
Currently, the intelligence of China's new energy vehicles is entering the next stage, and AI technology has become a core variable in the competition among OEMs.
At the Qualcomm China Automotive Summit in early June 2026, NIO founder Li Bin clearly stated that today's automotive companies must become AI companies, and today's intelligent cockpits must turn into AI cockpits. NIO divides the intelligent cockpit evolution into three stages: "functional cockpits", "intelligent cockpits" and "cognitive cockpits".
In January 2026, Li Xiang made three assertions at an internal staff meeting: First, 2026 marks the last window of opportunity for enterprises aiming to become top players in the AI industry; second, L4 intelligent driving will definitely be applied as late as 2028; third, there will be no more than three companies in the world that can deploy foundation models, chips, operating systems, and EAI at the same time, and Li Auto will strive to become one of them.
In November 2025, XPeng announced at the AI Day that it would comprehensively upgrade its positioning to "a mobility explorer in the physical AI world and a global EAI company".
There is no doubt that AI agents, one of the buzzwords in the automotive industry in 2026. Many industry experts have started to call for cooling down the AI hype. But this does not affect the emergence of OEMs as the most radical practitioners of AIDVs. Compared with traditional OEMs and international brands, emerging OEMs have made a comprehensive layout in the fields of AI computing power, AI chips, AI foundation models, EAI and other fields.
Traditional independent brands represented by Geely, Great Wall Motor, Changan, BYD, and Chery are relying on their deep understanding of vehicle manufacturing to tacitly embark on a "vehicle intelligence" path. They have transformed AI from a concept into a concrete technological breakthrough, and from a grand vision into perceived user value.
BYD has released a vehicle intelligent architecture called "Xuanji", which relies on scale effects to offer inclusive technology. It uses the "vehicle intelligent" architecture to promote the deep integration of electrification and intelligence, emphasizing cost optimization and global adaptability.
Geely has chosen the "AI centralization" path and is committed to building a unified "vehicle universal cerebrum" to deeply penetrate AI capabilities into cockpit, intelligent driving, powertrain and other fields to achieve cross-domain collaboration and intelligent evolution.
With decades of expertise in vehicle manufacturing, traditional OEMs have a deep understanding of vehicle mechanical structure, powertrain system, chassis tuning, material technology and other AI carriers, and mature engineering implementation capabilities. They use AI to link the intelligent driving domain, cockpit domain, powertrain domain, chassis domain and connectivity domain to achieve a vehicle intelligent architecture with cross-domain integration.
International auto brands have adopted distinct two-pronged strategies: dual-track parallel development for the Chinese market and global markets; dual-line progress through cooperation with local supply chains and independent R&D of core technologies; and two-wheel driven growth by promoting new energy vehicles and traditional fuel vehicles simultaneously.
In March 2026, the CEO of the BMW Group announced that it would temporarily lower the R&D priority of the L3 project in the global market; at the same time, in the Chinese market, the BMW Group released a "360-degree full-chain AI strategy" and joined hands with the Chinese technology company Momenta to jointly develop an all-scenario intelligent driving system for the Chinese market. Besides, based on Alibaba's AI large language model and DeepSeek's deep thinking capabilities, the BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant was upgraded to an "AI Personal Assistant";
In January 2026, overseas media reported that Mercedes-Benz had temporarily shelved its L3 intelligent driving system promotion plan in the global market and instead focused on the L2+ intelligent driving system. In the Chinese market, Mercedes-Benz has continued to invest in the project in cooperation with Momenta since 2017. The high-level intelligent driving system developed by the two parties has been implemented in the battery-electric CLA, GLC SUV and next-generation S-class sedan.
The Volkswagen Group adopts the "In China, for China" strategy. Starting from the second half of 2026. New vehicle models based on the CEA (China Electronic Architecture) will gradually be equipped with full-domain AI agents. The first model CO-developed by Volkswagen and XPeng, UNYX 08, is equipped with two XPeng Turing AI chips (totaling 1500 TOPS of computing power). Their cooperative CEA and Turing chips will be applied to more Volkswagen-branded models in the future.
Tesla is an outlier among international automotive brands. Its AI deployment strategy is more similar to that of emerging OEMs in China, exhibiting a distinct characteristic of "AI enables everything". Tesla sees cars as "wheeled robots" and humanoid robots as "wheelless cars", and develops its own chips and AI foundation models, making cars and EAI share the same AI technology stack.
Definitions