At the State Council Information Office press conference held on August 26, 2026, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said it has drafted the "15th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Intelligent Connected New Energy Vehicle Industry," signaling a new policy blueprint for the world's largest NEV market over the next five years.
MIIT data shows that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), China's new energy vehicle industry scale jumped from the million-vehicle class to the ten-million-vehicle class. Annual NEV sales rose from 1.367 million units to 16.49 million units, with the share of new vehicles sold rising from 5.4% to 47.9%. China now produces more than 70% of the world's NEVs, power batteries and key materials, and its products are exported to more than 100 countries and regions.
Vice Minister Xin Guobin said the industry still faces outstanding issues, including irrational competition and some aggressive designs being fitted to vehicles before full validation. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, MIIT will strengthen product admission review and production consistency inspections, strictly forbid untested products entering the market, steadily advance pilot programs for intelligent connected vehicle admission and road operation and for vehicle-road-cloud integration, and push forward trade-in policies, NEV rollout in rural areas, and charging and swapping infrastructure upgrades.
Image: Electric vehicle fast charging infrastructure. Source: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0).
