An ES8 on display at the Nio F2 factory in January 2026. Credit: CnEVPost
- Inspectors randomly took sample vehicles and battery packs on site, sending them to institutions for national standard compliance testing.
- The MIIT went to Guangdong last week for similar inspections at GAC Aion and Xpeng.
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has carried out on-site inspections at Nio Inc (NYSE: NIO), Chery (HKEX: 9973) and Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Corp (JAC), extending its auto industry quality and safety review to three major carmakers with plants in Anhui.
The MIIT’s equipment industry development department I visited Chery, Nio and JAC on July 30-31 to inspect their product safety assurance capabilities and production consistency, according to a statement on Friday.
The inspections focused on how well the companies maintain production access conditions, including safety assurance capabilities for intelligent connected vehicles, design, development and manufacturing capabilities, and production consistency assurance, the MIIT said.
Inspectors randomly took sample vehicles and battery packs on site and sent them to relevant institutions for testing on national standard compliance, according to the statement.
The move comes a week after the previous round of inspections. On July 24, the same MIIT department went to Guangdong for similar checks at GAC Aion and Xpeng (NYSE: XPEV), issuing a similar statement.
The MIIT said it will work with relevant departments to deepen a campaign on production consistency and quality improvement for road motor vehicle products, and further strengthen access reviews and test verification management for “radical” innovative designs in automotive products.
The regulator also told car and motorcycle makers to thoroughly investigate product safety risks, strengthen product testing, verification and safety assessments, and regulate their marketing practices.
All three of the latest companies inspected have plants in Anhui. Chery is headquartered in Wuhu, while JAC and Nio both have vehicle plants in Hefei.
JAC previously built vehicles for Nio, whose global headquarters is in Shanghai, and Nio acquired the related production assets in 2023.
The inspections continue the MIIT’s recent push to tighten industry oversight. On July 17, the ministry held a symposium with key vehicle makers, urging them to resist irrational competition and strengthen product testing, verification and safety assessments.
That meeting specifically cited safety assessments for combined driving assistance and autonomous driving functions, as well as assurance capabilities in functional safety, cybersecurity, data security and software updates.
Competition in China’s car market remains fierce, and regulators have repeatedly vowed this year to curb irrational competition, while rolling out a series of mandatory national standards covering power batteries, door handles and driver-assistance systems.
Inspectors randomly selected sample vehicles and power batteries on-site and sent them for testing to verify compliance with national standards.
