From Stage to Strategy: How Major Auto Shows Interpret China's Auto Industry Transition (2013-2025)

Abstract

China’s transition to new energy vehicles (NEVs) is typically examined from the perspectives of policy design, market acceptance, and corporate-level innovation. However, little attention has been paid to the process by which policy signals are publicly displayed, interpreted, and translated into competitive strategies through meso-level mechanisms. This study examines major auto shows held during China’s automotive electrification transition from 2013 to 2025 as intermediary platforms. Focusing on the “Beijing International Automobile Exhibition” (Auto China) and the “Shanghai International Automobile Exhibition” (Auto Shanghai), the study constructs a structured evidence base that integrates show-level characteristics, representative vehicle signals, policy timelines, and selected monthly sales trajectories. Through three case studies anchored in distinct phases, the 2014 Auto China, the 2019 Auto Shanghai, and the 2024 Auto China, this study analyzes how auto shows interact with evolving policy narratives and market conditions during the early policy-driven phase, the competitive acceleration phase, and the mature differentiation phase of China’s new energy vehicle transition. The findings indicate that while auto shows do not directly determine market outcomes, they function as amplifiers at the meso-level of industrial transformation. In the early stage, auto shows enhanced the visibility and legitimacy of new energy technologies; in the intermediate stage, they served as a stage for competitive benchmarking and visible learning; and in the mature stage, they helped redefine competitive boundaries around intelligent features, high-end positioning, and ecosystem integration. By revealing how public exhibition platforms organize and amplify technological signals under the conditions of policy guidance and market competition, this study offers new perspectives for academic research in the fields of industrial transformation, temporary clusters, and policy-market interactions.