(Yicai) April 22 -- The Beijing Auto Show will open this week for the first time since 2020. More than 1,500 carmakers and auto parts producers, including Xiaomi’s electric vehicle arm, will showcase their smartest and greenest technologies at the biennial event.

This year’s Beijing International Automotive Exhibition, to be held from April 25 to May 4, will be very different from the last one in 2020, a rare event that year, because of cut-throat competition in the market for electric vehicles and smart cars.

The Chinese market is becoming electrified, cheaper, and localized. In the first two weeks of this month, the EV penetration rate topped 50 percent for the first time. The combined market share of homegrown brands exceeded 50 percent last year. 

Automakers at the show -- which is expected to be an indicator of the new market -- plan to debut almost 120 new models, and 30 of them will be global, Yicai learned. They will also showcase more than 40 concept cars and nearly 280 EVs.

Visitors are likely to pay close attention to Xiaomi's first vehicle, the SU7. The sedan’s release has been judged a hit so far as buyers had ordered 60,000 of the vehicles between March 28, its launch date, and April 14.

The SU7 has ratcheted up the competition among pure-electric sedans with a length of five meters and a minimum price of CNY200,000 (USD27,600). Before this, a number of rival makers had already cut their prices. Besides Xiaomi’s maiden car, almost 10 new sedans with similar specifications will be on display at the Beijing Auto Show.

The handset giant will be seen among high-profile rivals, as other highlights of the W2 exhibition hall are expected to be Geely Auto, Jiyue, a joint venture between Geely and internet behemoth Baidu, and well as IM Motors, a JV of Alibaba Group Holding and SAIC Motor.

The event will confirm that one of the latest trends in the auto industry is tie-ups between tech companies and carmakers. For example, telecoms equipment giant Huawei Technologies and BAIC Group will launch the Stelato S9, the brand’s first electric smart sedan, priced from CNY500,000 (USD69,030). 

Another trend is the expanding segment of plug-in hybrids amid surging sales. BYD will debut the Qin L and the Seal 06 at the show and the models equipped with fifth-generation tech will reach a range of 2,000 kilometers. Denza, a joint venture between BYD and Mercedes-Benz, Lynk & Co., a JV owned by Geely and Volvo, as well as SAIC General Motors will also each launch new plug-in hybrids and extended-range EV models.

Hybrids are having a moment, as China sold about 2.8 million plug-in hybrids last year, up 85 percent from the previous year after a more than 50 percent increase on 2022. In comparison, sales of pure-electric models reached 25 percent in 2023.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Emmi Laine