A senior executive at SAIC Volkswagen and deputy to China’s National People’s Congress has urged Beijing to stop treating internal combustion and electric vehicles as separate policy categories and to pursue a twin‑track revival of both markets. Liu Yiyan framed the proposal as a pragmatic response to the government’s renewed emphasis on boosting domestic demand, arguing that setting identical subsidy rules for fuel‑burning cars and new energy vehicles (NEVs) would unlock immediate consumer spending while continuing to mine demand for electrified models.
Liu’s recommendations cover several levers. She wants new subsidy decisions to apply equally to conventional and electric cars, deeper deployment of NEV promotion into rural and lower‑tier markets, faster expansion of vehicle purchase loan interest subsidies and their conversion into a longer‑term or permanent measure, and the inclusion of car loans in individual income tax deductions. Taken together, these measures are intended to lower cost barriers and mobilise savings into auto purchases at a moment when trade‑in and replacement incentives are judged particularly potent.
Beyond short‑term demand stimulus, Liu pressed for faster legal and regulatory foundations for automated driving. She called for national legislation to define road rules and accident liability for autonomous vehicles, and recommended that pilot zones such as Shanghai’s Pudong district and Shenzhen be empowered to trial systems and standards. Her proposals also stress the need for cross‑department and cross‑regional enforcement mechanisms, stricter oversight of marketing claims and tighter mandatory product standards to shore up safety and consumer confidence.
The SAIC Volkswagen executive also sketched a supply‑side agenda: an “AI+auto” talent pipeline co‑built by government, industry and universities. Liu urged the creation of project repositories and industry mentorship to integrate real commercial tasks into AI curricula, and for vocational and university programmes to train engineers who understand vehicle dynamics and can apply artificial intelligence tools in development, manufacturing and operations.
Her interventions should be seen against the backdrop of Beijing’s latest Government Work Report, which again put expanding domestic consumption at the top of the agenda, and China’s broader industrial goals under the 15th Five‑Year framework that prioritises intelligent, green and integrated development. The auto sector remains a major pillar of domestic manufacturing: it is both a consumption anchor and an avenue for exporting higher value‑added products. At the same time, China’s NEV boom—led by domestic champions such as BYD—has raised questions about how quickly the country will phase out fuel cars and how policy can balance decarbonisation with short‑term industrial stability.
If Beijing adopts Liu’s recommendations it would signal a temporary rebalancing of industrial policy to favour immediate economic stimulus over rapid technological transitions. For multinational automakers and parts suppliers, parity in subsidies would ease demand pressure across the board and preserve a broader market for combustion‑engine platforms and hybrid models. For policymakers, however, the trade‑off is clear: supporting fuel vehicles now may sustain production, dealership employment and second‑hand markets, but it risks complicating longer‑term climate commitments and slowing the structural shift to electrification.
Finally, Liu’s push for clearer autonomous driving laws and expanded pilots reflects a wider industry imperative: companies need legal certainty before they scale costly safety, data and localisation investments. Greater regulatory clarity and coordinated pilot programmes would reduce business risk, accelerate commercial deployment in controlled environments and help establish standards that other countries will watch closely as China seeks to export both vehicles and autonomous technologies.