The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has convened a high-level meeting with key automobile producers, outlining new regulatory requirements that extend compliance obligations from product conformity to the reliability of the entire manufacturing system.

For automobile manufacturers, this signifies that the threshold for compliance has expanded from merely producing qualified products to ensuring the dependability of their operational systems.

On July 17, the MIIT held a symposium with major automobile manufacturers, explicitly demanding that companies investigate production consistency issues within their own operations and those of their key component suppliers. The ministry also emphasized strengthening safety assessments for combined driving assistance and autonomous driving functions and resolutely opposing irrational market competition.

Regulatory oversight of production consistency is now extending from product sampling inspections to comprehensive reviews of corporate systems, marking a significant escalation in regulatory intensity.

Regulatory Scope Expands to Supply Chain and Software Safety

The recent symposium represents another high-profile industry meeting organized by the MIIT in the past three years focusing on automotive production consistency.

Analysis reveals that, unlike previous annual inspections centered on product sampling, the July 2026 meeting introduced new requirements across three key areas.

First, companies are mandated to conduct in-depth investigations into product safety risks, systematically identifying issues in production consistency, reliability, durability, and new technology testing and verification—both within their own operations and at their key component suppliers. They must implement corrective actions, comprehensively strengthen supply chain management, and enhance their production consistency assurance capabilities. This indicates that regulatory oversight now extends from vehicle manufacturers to their parts suppliers.

Second, companies must bolster innovation design, testing, and verification of products, thoroughly assessing associated safety risks. The application of new technologies in vehicles must be advanced prudently to ensure compliance with national standards and requirements for protecting human health, personal safety, and property. Companies are required to strictly fulfill their disclosure obligations and must not engage in exaggerated or false advertising. This point directly addresses the non-compliant promotional practices observed among some manufacturers regarding new products.

Third, companies are required to enhance safety assessments for combined driving assistance and autonomous driving functions. They must further strengthen their safety assurance capabilities in areas such as functional safety, safety of the intended functionality, cybersecurity, data security, and software updates, while also improving the monitoring and handling of safety incidents. As intelligent driving features are rapidly integrated into vehicles, software-related safety issues are being elevated to a position of equal importance as hardware.

The meeting also clarified that, moving forward, the MIIT will collaborate with relevant departments to deepen actions aimed at improving production consistency and quality for road motor vehicles. This initiative will focus on addressing prominent issues, further strengthening the review and testing verification processes for innovative vehicle design approvals, conducting inspections of manufacturers' product safety assurance and production consistency capabilities, and enhancing the management of road motor vehicle inspection and testing institutions. Manufacturers and testing agencies found to have problems will face serious legal and regulatory consequences, with the goal of firmly safeguarding the safety baseline for automotive products.

Intensity of Production Consistency Oversight Increases Annually

Reviewing inspection practices over the past three years shows that the MIIT has progressively intensified its supervision of production consistency. Regulatory focus is shifting from product sampling to system audits and from problem identification to risk prevention.

In 2024, inspections covered all road motor vehicle manufacturers and products that had obtained market access permits, with a particular focus on the safety management mechanisms and operational monitoring capabilities of new energy vehicles.

In June 2025, the MIIT further specified that inspection work should "adhere to a problem-oriented approach," highlighting key areas for inspection such as vehicle structural parameter verification, frontal crash tests, electric vehicle safety requirements, safety requirements for power battery packs or systems, and braking systems. The notice called for increased sampling of vehicle models that attract significant public attention or pose substantial quality and safety risks, incorporating public opinion and market feedback as key considerations for inspections.

Entering 2026, the regulatory framework has been further refined.

The annual inspection notice issued in May 2026 called for increased sampling of vehicle models from companies with numerous complaints regarding irrational competition or those exhibiting higher risks related to production consistency and quality safety. This inspection was divided into two sections: corporate production consistency and product production consistency. It explicitly stated that penalties—including public notification, suspension of the product announcement for relevant models, and suspension of new product applications—would be applied to manufacturers whose production consistency assurance capabilities significantly deteriorated or who could no longer maintain production access conditions, as well as to those whose products failed to meet national standards and production consistency management requirements through testing.

It is noted that the May notice expanded the inspection scope to cover procured raw materials, component assemblies, and their suppliers. The MIIT specifically stated that "after samples are sealed, road motor vehicle manufacturers are prohibited from illegally altering any vehicle technical parameters through over-the-air (OTA) software updates."

Concentrated Upgrade of Safety Standards

2026 is a year of concentrated upgrades for automotive safety standards. From January to July, multiple mandatory national standards have been successively issued or implemented, covering areas such as door handles, power batteries, combined driving assistance, side-impact collisions, information security, and software updates.

In January, the Safety Technical Requirements for Automobile Door Handles (GB 48001-2026) was released, prohibiting fully concealed pop-out handles and fully electronic handles. Each door must be equipped with an independent mechanical external handle and an internal handle to ensure they can be opened manually after a power failure or collision.

On July 1, the Safety Requirements for Electric Vehicles (GB 18384-2025) and the Safety Requirements for Power Batteries for Electric Vehicles (GB 38031-2025) officially came into effect. The requirement for battery thermal runaway was elevated from "providing a warning five minutes before fire or explosion" to "no fire, no explosion." New tests for underbody impact and post-fast-charging cycle safety were added.

In the field of intelligent driving, the Safety Requirements for Combined Driving Assistance Systems for Intelligent and Connected Vehicles (GB 47955-2026) was approved for release in July, covering basic single-lane, basic multi-lane, and navigation driving assistance systems, with implementation scheduled for January 2027. Mandatory national standards such as the Safety Requirements for Automated Driving Systems for Intelligent and Connected Vehicles (draft for approval) were also published for comment in June. This new national standard is proposed to take effect on July 1, 2027. This draft represents the first revision of the 2024 version, involving 18 major technical changes and clarifying two core requirements: the safety level of the Automated Driving System (ADS) must be no lower than that of a qualified human driver, and manufacturers must provide users with detailed instructions for use.

Regarding information security, three mandatory national standards for vehicle information security, software updates, and automated driving data recording took effect on January 1, 2026. In March, new OTA regulations explicitly prohibited silent forced updates and practices like locking battery capacity or downgrading configurations.

Concerning validation standards, the National Technical Committee of Auto Standardization recently issued an announcement soliciting public comments on the first amendments to three recommended national standards for electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, and fuel cell electric vehicles. The total mileage for reliability road tests for pure electric, hybrid, and fuel cell vehicles will be uniformly increased from the current standards to no less than 30,000 kilometers, aligning with the standards for internal combustion engine vehicles.

At a special press conference on February 4, Guo Shougang, Deputy Director-General and First-Level Inspector of the First Department of Equipment Industry at the MIIT, stated that China had cumulatively released 88 mandatory national standards directly related to automobile safety. From the current perspective, the total number of mandatory national standards related to automotive safety has far exceeded the "88 items" mentioned at the beginning of the year.

From the perspective of the automotive safety standard system, the regulatory scope is comprehensively expanding from traditional passive safety to a broader concept of "comprehensive safety," encompassing active safety, functional safety, information security, and data security. Industry observers believe that the continuous elevation of automotive safety standards will also accelerate the phase-out of low-end production capacity, compelling manufacturers to abandon rapid new model launch strategies in favor of long-term, forward-oriented development.