GoKawiilAI signage at the Robert Bosch booth at the Beijing Auto Show in Beijing, China, on Saturday, April 25, 2026.
BEIJING — Electric carmakers in China are layering on more of the same artificial intelligence features as they try to survive a prolonged price war in the world's largest auto market.
The competition has shifted over the last few years, from extending battery range to rolling out driver-assist systems and using more powerful automotive chips. Now, automakers are focusing on a suite of in-car AI features.
More than 50 car brands now use ByteDance's Doubao AI model, the company's cloud platform Volcano Engine announced last Friday at the Beijing auto show, where the tech unit had a booth next to robotaxi company Pony.ai.
That means Doubao is in 145 car models and over 7 million vehicles, Volcano Engine said. Besides domestic vehicles, Doubao AI has also been integrated in new foreign-branded models, such as the all-electric Mercedes-Benz GLC, the SAIC Audi E7X and the SAIC Volkswagen ID. ERA 9X.
"We will keep on integrating new features faster," Fermín Soneira, CEO of the Audi and SAIC Cooperation Project, told reporters this month ahead of the auto show. He noted how automakers can quickly deploy tech updates remotely, or "over-the-air."
Despite the rapid rollout of new features, automakers face persistent pressure on sales.
"It's going to remain tough, because the capacity is there," he said. "This price war is not going to really stop in the next month."