On June 4, 2024, four national ministries of China, namely the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MoHURD), and the Ministry of Transport (MOT) announced the first batch of ICV product list and their on-road traffic pilot areas, together with an FAQ on ICV pilot program of access and on road traffic.

The ICV here refers to the automation driving system level 3 (conditionally automated driving) and level 4 (highly automated driving) defined in national standard GB/T 40429-2021 Taxonomy of driving automation for vehicles.

The information disclosed in the list of the first batch ICV vehicles and on-road traffic contains 9 vehicle manufacturers, each manufacturer’s product is matched with main vehicle using entity (the one who actually uses and carry out the ICV test), operation city and vehicle type. Specifically, all nine manufacturers are Chinese enterprises. The approved pilot regions covering Chinese mega cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and other three other big cities (Chongqing, Danzhou of Hainan Province, and Zhengzhou of Henan Province), whereas not only passenger cars are permitted in this first batch, but also van and bus.

It is a major step on the country’s ICV development and implementation, which is in accordance with a document called the Guidelines of Implementing the Pilot Program of Access and On-road Traffic of Intelligent Connected Vehicles (hereinafter referred to “the Guidelines”) issued by the same four ministries aforementioned on November 17, 2023. The issuance of the Guidelines and the notice to announce it actually kicking off the procedure where relevant manufacturers are allowed to apply for the ICV pilot in specific regions. Then on January 15, 2024, the four ministries, jointly with the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), issued Notice on Implementing the Pilot Program of Applying “Vehicle-Road-Cloud Integration” to Intelligent Connected Vehicles (hereinafter referred to “the Notice on Vehicle-Road-Cloud Integration”), which is setting up one of the most important platforms for the actual ICV pilot testing in China.

The latest data shows that by the end of April 2024, China has opened more than 29,000 kilometers of ICV test roads, issued more than 6,800 test demonstration licenses, and the total mileage of road tests exceeds 88 million kilometers. According to information disclosed by MIIT, at present, some ICV products have certain conditions for mass production applications. In the next step, under the premise of ensuring safety, the country will promote the function and performance improvement of ICV products, iterative optimization on its sector ecology, and promote the high-quality development of China's ICV sector.

Foreign manufacturers and stakeholders are advised to notice that the pilot process will systematically carry out product testing and safety assessment. It will also explore the improvement of intelligent connected vehicle production access management and road traffic safety management system. Such practice may accelerate China’s ICV development. What’s more important is that, there should be more approved manufacturers and regions for the ICV testing, and MNCs and foreign stakeholders are advised to look into the criteria and requirements to participate or observe relevant progress of any major ICV practical progress out of such actions.

BESTAO will provide further information on the FAQ which clarifies details on application procedure, applying approach, next steps and the next batch, please stay tuned, and contact us at: info@bestao-consulting.com if any question you may have on the topic.