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Chapter 1 · 26 to 30 October 2026

On the ground

Nine organisations were visited: eight companies and a university. Public benchmarks may differ from what the companies presented during the visits. The "Public benchmarks" boxes only include published figures, which are scarce for unlisted companies such as Shein. The other figures were presented during the visits (see the status of the figures).

In brief

Everywhere, we found the same drivers: machines designed in-house at Honor, BYD and XPENG, operators who deploy AI themselves at XPENG, suppliers managed in real time at Shein and Vipshop, and automation chosen case by case, where it pays off, at Honor, AION and Huawei.

The lead also shows in the products: the Blade Battery and flash charging at BYD, the Turing chip, the IRON humanoid robot and the flying car at XPENG, in-house chips and a data centre tracking more than 2.1 million connected vehicles at AION.

Inside the factories
Car assembly hall seen from a walkway
A car assembly hall, seen from the walkway, in Guangzhou. Video by the delegation.
Operators in white on a car assembly line
Operators on a car assembly line, in Guangzhou. Video by the delegation.
End-of-line inspection tunnel, doors open
The end-of-line inspection tunnel, in Guangzhou. Video by the delegation.
Mobile robots moving shelves in a warehouse
Mobile robots move the shelves of Honor's warehouse, in Shenzhen. Video by the delegation.
Videos by the delegation and company films, filmed during the visits. Original music.
The delegation in lab coats at Honor, Shenzhen
Smartphones
Honor
Designs 75% of its critical machines.
See the visit
The delegation welcomed at H&T
Electronic controllers
H&T
Electronic controllers for home appliances, tools, automotive and energy storage.
See the visit
BYD extreme-cold flash charging test chamber
Electric vehicles and batteries
BYD
Near-total vertical integration: according to the company, only tyres and windscreens are outsourced, and chips are still bought in.
See the visit
The delegation in the GAC AION showroom
Electric vehicles
AION
200,000 cars a year with close to 2,000 people, 90% of processes automated outside assembly.
See the visit
The delegation at the XPENG entrance, Guangzhou
Electric vehicles, driver assistance, robotics
XPENG
No-code platform on which operators create some forty AI applications.
See the visit
28 days
from design to customer
On-demand online fashion
Shein
Allocates orders in real time across 6,500 suppliers connected to its software.
See the visit
View over the Pearl River from Vipshop headquarters, Guangzhou
Online sales of discounted brands
Vipshop
Planning developed in house in two years by fewer than ten people.
See the visit
View over Huawei's industrial campus
Telecoms, devices, cloud
Huawei
Lean is the foundation of the plant, and productivity gains are rewarded.
See the visit
The SCUT library in Guangzhou
Engineering university
SCUT
12,000 companies created, 10,000 contracts with companies in five years, 300 joint laboratories.
See the visit