The Belt 
A solid-state battery project with RMB 8 billion of committed capital began production in Kunshan, Jiangsu, on 21 October. The first phase is 10GWh of solid-state power battery capacity, built by Qingtao Power Technology, a joint venture between SAIC’s Huayu Automotive Systems and Qingtao Energy Development Group. The Kunshan plant’s first phase covers 10GWh of … Read more
Volkswagen is considering extending the software it uses in Chinese models to mainstream Volkswagen brand cars sold in Europe, according to Manager Magazin, which cited people familiar with the matter. The move would gradually sideline Rivian, the American partner Volkswagen has spent USD 5.8 billion bringing into its software stack. The China Electronic Architecture was … Read more
Chinese carmakers sold more cars in Europe than their Japanese rivals did in a single quarter for the first time, according to Dataforce figures reported by Bloomberg. The shift is small in absolute share and large in meaning: it is the first time the Japanese industry, present in Europe for six decades, has been displaced … Read more
On the evening of 12 October, the Ministry of Finance and the tax administration published a notice that repriced Chinese car exports: from 1 April 2027 the VAT export rebate on new energy vehicles falls from 13 to 9 per cent. The change covers 67 product lines, taking in battery-electric passenger cars, plug-in hybrids including … Read more
China’s manufacturing heartland released its nine-month economic data on 26 October, and one line in it deserves more attention than the headline growth figure. Guangdong industrial robot output rose 34.2 per cent in the first three quarters of 2026. Illustration: The Robot Belt (Source: Shenzhen News) Guangdong’s GDP reached RMB 11.109 trillion in the first … Read more
Most Chinese robotics money is chasing legs, arms and payload. A company in Kunshan is chasing something smaller and, on the evidence of its investor list, more investable: the monitor on your desk. CyboPal ONE pairs a 27-inch display with a six-axis arm that turns toward the user. Illustration: The Robot Belt (Source: OFweek) CyboPal, … Read more
For two years the Chinese embodied intelligence pitch has been simple: the factory line is expensive, people are expensive, and a machine that replaces both pays for itself. On 23 October, the State Council General Office narrowed that pitch. Beijing has directed robot deployment toward hazardous and labour-shortage roles first. Illustration: The Robot Belt (Source: … Read more
At GTC Berlin, Nvidia and Agile Robots jointly launched Agile ONE SN, a humanoid built for research rather than for a factory floor. The significance is not the machine. It is who is standing next to it. Nvidia and Agile Robots launched Agile ONE SN at GTC Berlin, shipping with Isaac GR00T preinstalled (Source: Gasgoo) … Read more
Embodied intelligence has no shortage of technical routes. It has a shortage of commercial ones, and investors have started paying for the difference. INFIFORCE keeps several body forms as validation platforms for its embodied brain (Source: Gasgoo) Zhejiang Venture Capital Group has completed an investment of close to RMB 100 million in INFIFORCE, a Hangzhou … Read more
The humanoid supply chain has a hierarchy of attention that does not match its hierarchy of difficulty. Actuators and reducers get the conferences. Bearings get the purchase orders. Ultra-micro bearings under 9 millimetres in outer diameter are the hidden constraint in dexterous hands. Illustration: The Robot Belt (Source: OFweek) On a site in Wujiang District, … Read more