Tech steals the stage at Beijing auto show

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By Katrina HamlinThe Beijing auto show, which opens to the public on Tuesday, stars some 1500 cars including 181 world premieres at a site roughly the size of 50 soccer pitches. While overseas marques from Toyota to BMW XETR:BMW are vying to compete with Chinese brands like Geely and Nio NYSE:NIO, the real blockbusters of this year's gathering are the technology suppliers helping both groups to get ahead.Competition looks set to intensify in the world's largest car market. Although car sales in China fell by a fifth in the first quarter of the year, compared with 2025, automakers appear to be doubling down on the vast domestic market, rather than giving up. In addition to the premieres at the show, over 80 new models launched last month – more than the total number of reveals in the U.S. over an entire year, per analysts at Omdia. Even so, the most impressive exhibitors at the show aren’t automakers at all.On the eve of the show, Huawei's intelligent car business took over a nearby stadium to celebrate its new assisted driving system, which the company reckons can reduce collisions by 50% compared with its predecessor. It also introduced an in-car voice-activated AI agent dubbed Celia, capable of turning even the vaguest descriptions of potential destinations, such as the restaurant the driver visited last Tuesday, into precise itineraries and routes.The $301 billion Contemporary Amperex Technology's SZSE:300750 stand drew eyeballs with a flying car mounted on a towering podium. Days earlier, the world's largest battery maker which supplies Tesla NASDAQ:TSLA, Nissan Motors TSE:7201 and many more showed off a lighter-weight product offering over 1000 km range, another that can charge from 10% capacity to 98% in under seven minutes, and a plan to begin mass-delivering sodium ion batteries later this year.Battery and car maker BYD SZSE:002594 placed a giant freezer at the centre of its stand, which attracted more attention than its flashy new sports cars. Inside, a car dripping with icicles advertised the $127 billion company's new fast-charging system’s ability to power up a battery even in temperatures of minus 30 degrees Celsius.While carmakers face the prospect of consolidation in China due to brutal price wars and overcapacity, technology suppliers, including vertically integrated carmakers like BYD, look well positioned to capitalise by working with bo...

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