THE 2021 Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area International Auto Show opened to the public Saturday at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center in Futian District. Electric vehicles are no doubt the showstoppers. XPeng Motors’ P5 brings Navigation Guided Pilot (NGP) capabilities to city roads for the first time in a production vehicle with its double-prism LiDAR units; the Marvel R, SAIC’s high-end electric vehicle brand, is an electric vehicle with 5G connectivity; the SERES SF5 Huawei Smart Selection uses ICT smart car solutions provided by Huawei; and traditional fuel car enterprise FAW-Volkswagen has brought eight new energy cars among its 12 car models at the exhibition. The auto show which runs until this Sunday is showcasing more than 1,000 sedan models from 100 domestic and international brands, as well as the latest car operating systems. The new car models reflect an accelerating momentum toward electrification and autonomous driving. According to Shenzhen Economic Daily, there are about 800 Shenzhen companies developing autonomous driving technologies, such as Huawei, ZTE, Tencent, BYD and DJI, accounting for 20 percent in the country. Young and ambitious brands like Xpeng Motors, Pony.ai, DeepRoute and RoboSense all have set up branches or research and development centers in Shenzhen. Sales of electric vehicles in China nearly tripled in the first three months of 2021 over a year earlier to 515,000 units, according to China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. (Cao Zhen) | 