The 18th Wuhan Motor Show is underway in the capital of central China's Hubei province. Apart from being the most influential auto show in central China, it's also serves as a platform for industry players and experts to share insights on the latest developments. CGTN's Luo Yu has more.

 

Chinese authorities have told automakers in the country that, if they want to continue to manufacture fossil fuel-powered cars, they have to dedicate 10% or more of their total production to electric vehicles starting from 2019. Car makers in China will also be required to obtain a minimum new-energy vehicle credit score from that year.

 

LIU JIANGUO, SECRETARY GENERAL HUBEI MACHINERY INDUSTRY FEDERATION "It's hard to phase out fossil-fuel vehicles quickly. Meanwhile, we have to promote the development of renewable energy cars. Under such circumstances, the credit-score system is a good policy."

 

LUO YU At the 2017 Wuhan Motor Show, experts and industry players are optimistic about the development of artificial intelligence and renewable energy cars. They say China is playing a leading role in these areas.

 

RONG HUI, VICE PRESIDENT BAIC GROUP NEW TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE "For AI technology, you can see that from all over the world, only two countries have the top level research results. One is China, the other is the U.S. 42% of the top articles related to AI technology are written by Chinese people. And not only traditional car makers, a lot of internet companies, such as Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent have put a lot of resources on the AI technology."

 

Although China has made great advances technically, much more needs to be done if the country's industry leaders want to make a dint in overseas markets.

 

STANLEY NG, CEO MAPKING INTERNATIONAL LIMITED "China will be one of the top countries together with the US in car technology but we need to look at the ecosystem building. That will be a challenge for Chinese car manufacturers to sell overseas. When you go overseas, you need to look for the local adoption; you need to look for local partners. To make friends with local counterparts is important. That may be local IT companies. That may be local traders. That may be local government. And even electricity companies that would support your EV car infrastructure. That may be telecommunication companies that have good IOT, or the Internet of Things connection that can talk to China cars."

 

Experts say, although the competition between the traditional car makers and internet giants in developing smart vehicles is fierce, both have a chance to win and their individual efforts will converge at some point in the future. But who will emerge on top? Only time will tell. Luo Yu, CGTN, Wuhan, HubeiProvince.