Toward 2040:
From Value-Added to Value-Expansive,
Redefining China's Automotive
Value Horizon

Dec 18, 2025

Across the boundless chessboard of industry, fueled by self-driven innovation and guided by the pursuit of higher value,representing the future growth paradigms of Chinese automakers.

As the 15th Five-Year Plan unfolds, China’s automotive industry enters a new epoch powered by New Productive Forces.
The elevation of total factor productivity now rests on technological self-reliance and breakthrough innovation, the dual pillars of regenerative industrial momentum.
Only by uniting intelligence with innovation can the industry achieve a qualitative leap in productivity, establish sovereign value strongholds, and recalibrate China’s position within the global value chain.

Growth is no longer defined by speed, but measured by value.

Against this backdrop, Premier introduces the High Value-Added Industry Development Series under the theme “Value Horizon”, envisioning a roadmap for China’s automotive transformation toward higher-order value creation, driving structural optimization, capability reinvention, and competitive transcendence.

Through a systematic re-delineation of value creation sources, Premier constructs a Value Framework of Four Profit Pool Archetypes:

1. Hardware Platform Archetype: Achieving economies of scale through modular architecture and platform reutilization.
2. Software-Defined Archetype: Extending enterprise value through central computing, algorithmic intelligence, and service-oriented operations.
3. Service Ecosystem Archetype: Recasting lifecycle value through data capitalization and immersive experiential loops.
4. Mobility Evolution Archetype: Defining pluralistic mobility futures through intelligent orchestration and cross-scenario convergence.

Together, these archetypes chart the evolutionary continuum from value-added to value-expansive, marking the industry’s metamorphosis from discrete profit nodes to holistic value orchestration, from fragmented breakthroughs to systemic ascendancy, and guiding enterprises toward their 2040 value zenith.

When value-added no longer lingers as a footnote of surplus,
but stands as the dawn of ascent,
the value horizon emerges — a new law of growth.

China’s automakers advance on twin engines of intellect and craft,
rebalancing efficiency with imagination,
and driving, unyielding, toward an open horizon.