People visit the 2026 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition in Beijing, capital of China, May 2, 2026. (Xinhua/Yin Dongxun)
BEIJING, Oct. 19 (Xinhua Silk Road) -- Chinese automakers have moved swiftly to study and self-check against a newly released draft notice, jointly issued by four departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on Oct. 10.
The notice, centering around tightening regulation of automotive innovation design and R&D testing and verification, puts forward requirements for key structural components such as braking systems, reliability and durability verification, as well as innovative designs such as hidden door handles and zero-gravity seats.
Insiders said that the rules are to precisely correct "pseudo-innovation" that values gimmicks over safety verification.
-- Regulators setting benchmarks for innovation, verification
According to the notice, from Jan. 1, 2027, new products involving innovative designs applying for the "Announcement on Road Motor Vehicle Manufacturers and Products" must include additional technical parameters on those designs, strengthening safety and environmental assessments under relevant technical guidelines for innovative design of automotive products.
51 major technical parameters for vehicle products were added, according to the notice, 41 of which are for innovative design and 10 for R&D testing and verification.
For integrated reliability and durability verification, automakers are required to test vehicles under multi-stress loads on typical roads including ordinary roads, expressways and mountain roads, and conduct no less than 30,000 kilometers of reliability verification tests according to the finalization test rules, covering both traditional and new energy vehicles.
Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the China Passenger Car Association said that the release of the notice upgrades the regulatory logic from "just meeting national standards" to "market access only after full R&D verification," striking precisely at the pain point of fast-track car-making.
Cui also pointed out that the new regulations require upfront risk assessment for designs such as braking controls, door handles and large-angle seats, with mandatory structural reliability and extreme-condition failure verification.
The notice also addresses the previous lack of standards for models such as high-curb-weight MPVs, forcing automakers to prudently set the ultimate loads of key structural components, while repair economy and regulated marketing have been written into new-vehicle market access management for the first time, said Cui.
-- Not restricting innovation, but setting safety baseline
The notice, proceeding from the underlying logic of industrial development, steers the carmaking approach back onto the right track of prioritizing safety and taking quality as the foundation, according to Yuan Shuai, deputy secretary-general of the Z-Park Internet of Things Industry Alliance.
The new rules are not, in essence, intended to restrict innovation in the automotive industry, but rather to establish a solid safety baseline for genuinely valuable innovation and to front-load the safety risk assessment process directly to the earliest stage of R&D and design, Yuan noted.
On the whole, the implementation of the new regulations may raise automakers' testing costs in the short term, but in the long term it will push the industry to a quality-first approach, curb the impetuous tendency of prioritizing marketing over validation, and safeguard the bottom line of vehicle safety, said Cui.
An industry insider with an auto parts manufacturer agreed that the newly issued regulations will be a key measure for promoting high-quality development of the automotive industry, allowing vehicle manufacturers and upstream and downstream parts suppliers ample time for testing, inspection and optimization, and compelling the entire supply chain to shore up weaknesses in extreme-condition validation and attention to design details.
Multiple insiders with auto companies also believed that the new rules were not meant to hold back technological innovation, but to define the safety boundaries within which innovation can smoothly proceed.
-- Automakers start to study, self-check as notice released
Once released, the notice quickly sparked lively responses across the vehicle industry, with multiple automakers immediately organizing internal reviews to self-check existing model development processes against the new rules and assess new product plans.
Deng Chenghao, chairman of Deepal Automobile Technology Co., Ltd., said that the industry-wide reflection on valuing safety and opposing hastily developed cars benefits brands that do solid work and is good for the development of China's smart electric vehicles.
Innovation must be premised on safety, said Lu Fang, chairman of Chinese NEV brand Voyah, noting that the industry should work together to standardize innovative design, strengthen testing and validation, safeguard travel safety, and promote higher-quality development of the industry.
Earlier, auto executives voiced similar stances of opposing hastily developed cars. For instance, Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Holding Group warned against reducing test procedures or taking shortcuts in validation, noting that any new automotive product must follow the objective rules of automotive product R&D.
The core of opposing hastily developed cars is to be clear about what can be fast and what must be slow. The consensus among most automakers has been gradually reached, agreeing that R&D can be further accelerated, but validation cannot be; processes can be efficient, but quality must never be sacrificed. (Edited by Yu Huichen with Xinhua Silk Road, yuhuichen@xinhua.org)
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