Chongqing - On March 3, the Chongqing delegation submitted a suggestion on supporting Chongqing's acceleration in building a world-class intelligent connected new energy vehicle industry cluster.

The suggestion highlights Chongqing's responsibility and capability to support the national strategy as a major automotive R&D and manufacturing hub. It calls for addressing gaps in key areas like automotive electronics, raw materials, high-end equipment, software, and AI and tackling challenges in car-grade chips and core operating system technologies. 

Bridging News recently spoke with Jiang Qian, Vice President of Avatr Technology, Changan Auto's brand. He said that DeepSeek's lower computing power requirement would speed up the development of intelligent driving for fuel vehicles by enabling high-performance AI integration without major changes to the vehicle architecture, accelerating the shift to smart connected NEVs.

Jiang added that they initially focused on battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in the new energy sector. However, traditional fuel vehicles are now rapidly transitioning to range-extended electric vehicles (REEVs). With more advanced AI models, fuel vehicles can adopt the latest intelligent technologies without undergoing a full transformation, accelerating their shift towards electrification.

The brand's models feature L2 intelligent driving, enabling smooth navigation through parking spots and handling scenarios like roundabouts, U-turns, and parking barriers, enhancing urban mobility. Beyond Avatr, the suggestion highlights Chongqing's auto industry's 3.1% R&D investment—1.3 points above the national average—with most vehicles reaching L2 or higher in autonomous driving.

The Avatr 06 with intelligent driving will be launched in the second quarter of 2025. (Photo/Avatr)

Avatr is bridging the AI-automotive gap, with Jiang confirming DeepSeek's integration overseas, testing in April, and product rollouts in May.

Jiang also said that market conditions and driving environments vary across global regions, and the intelligent driving technologies in smart connected NEVs must be adapted to these regional conditions.

For instance, in Thailand, Avatr launched the right-hand drive version of the Avatr 11. However, due to the different road conditions and driving habits in Thailand, Avatr deployed a large number of test vehicles to collect traffic data and sent numerous staff to the country to handle local operations, ensuring a good, intelligent driving experience for Thai market users.

(Huan Ran, as an intern, also contributed to the report)