The 19 most exciting cars at the 2026 Beijing Auto Show

While the main engine Shows in Europe and the US are being forced to downsize or change their format, and shows in China continue to expand.

With 1,451 cars on display, including 181 world premieres, the 2026 Beijing International Auto Show (also known as China Auto Show 2026) became the largest auto show in history – both in terms of exhibition space and number of vehicles on display.

This fact in itself reflects a shift in the center of gravity of the automotive industry, but that is not all. A much greater structural transformation is taking place in China today.

Previously, the focus was on low-priced electric car models, but now price is no longer the primary point of competition. At the show, there were not only many high-end electric cars and large SUVs from Chinese manufacturers equipped with advanced driver assistance technologies and artificial intelligence functions, but these technologies are also rapidly spreading to the lower price range.

Cars of Chinese manufacturers offer many technologically impressive features. Lidar sensors, which use lasers for advanced driver assistance, are now being integrated into electric vehicles that cost less than 100,000 yuan (about $14,500). Models featuring “drive-by-wire” technology, which replaces mechanical steering linkages and hydraulic brake lines with electrical signals, feature prominently. Even domestic Toyota models use Huawei engines and the Intelligent Cockpit Operating System.

The simplistic dichotomy of “cheap Chinese cars versus high-end European cars” no longer holds any weight. While Chinese manufacturers remain competitive in the low-priced market, they are also gaining leadership in areas such as artificial intelligence, driver assistance systems, in-car chips, smart cockpits, and high-performance electric vehicles.

These 19 particularly noteworthy models from the 2026 Beijing Motor Show best embody this evolution.

Xping JX

Courtesy of Xpeng

There is a fundamental difference between a car designed for self-driving and an existing car that has self-driving technology added to it. XPeng Motors’ GX is the first model, one in which sensors, computing infrastructure and AI models were designed with Level 4 autonomous driving in mind first, then integrated into a new SUV headed to the commercial market.

Equipped with up to four of its own AI chips, it has a total computing power of up to 3,000 tera operations per second – nearly 12 times the 254 TOPS operations that a single Nvidia Orin device can handle. The latest model of in-car AI can recognize spoken commands as well as images captured by car cameras, and can understand and adapt to current driving conditions.

Volkswagen has adopted the XPeng chip for artificial intelligence and driver assistance technology in its electric vehicles, meaning that XPeng is no longer just an electric vehicle manufacturer. It has become a provider of the platform that supplies the brains behind autonomous driving to Europe’s largest automaker. The price is 399,800 yuan (about $58,000).