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Human geographers are increasingly concerned with how 'futures' are imagined and rendered governable, yet mostly their methods lack the sensitivity to explore the functioning of complex relations between heterogeneous actors across places. The world's electric vehicle (EV) sector is booming, presaging a widely expected decarbonised future, associated with a restructuring of the automobile industry as anticipated by proactive players. This paper interrogates the spatiality and politics of the EV future‐making through disentangling the translocal practices involved in realising Tesla's Gigafactory in Shanghai (TGS) as assemblage. Informed by interviews with industrial insiders and opensource information in Chinese and English, the article finds that, first, TGS's imagined future embodies a multiplicity of interdependent but divergent expectations, the coherence of which underlies the formation and operation of the TGS assemblage by virtue of the concerted actions of its member‐actors. Second, such coherence is conditional as designed by TGS's central planners—namely, Tesla and Chinese government agencies at central and local levels—for their differentiated but overlapping interests. The TGS's imagined future is rendered actionable, enrolling other agents at certain moments, through anticipatory practices of regulatory changes, strategic arrangements interweaving land and financing, firm acquisition and intra‐firm reorganisation linking up places in and outside China, as well as the selection of key suppliers and technological use of critical raw materials. Concluding after a sketch on the TGS's 'possible futures' and broader implications, the paper contributes an assemblage‐informed approach to disentangle futuremaking practices and generates timely insights into the 'future‐oriented' restructuring of the automobile industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how latecomer firms manage to achieve industrial upgrading through strategic coupling with global lead firms in automotive production networks. Drawing upon the example of the Guangzhou Automotive Corporation in southern China, this paper theorizes 'cross‐scalar tension' as a key factor to explain why the four cases of strategic coupling between lead firms, the same domestic firm and state ended in different results, from decoupling to a sustainable coupling with local upgrading. This paper contributes to the pertinent literature by demonstrating that cross‐scalar tension is inherent to the nature of global production networks, and unreconciled tension concerning different corporate strategies on technological transfer, localization and product development could lead to decoupling. Importantly, good coordination and matching on corporate strategies between lead and domestic firms could relieve cross‐scalar tensions, thus fostering local industrial upgrading and sustainable strategic coupling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Implementing industrial policies to develop the new energy vehicle industry and improve technological innovation related to new energy vehicles is essential for countries dealing with environmental pollution and climate change. This paper first examines the impact of a demand-side industry policy related to new energy vehicles on the technological innovation level of supply-side vehicle enterprises. Regarding the new energy vehicle purchase tax exemption policy implemented by the Chinese government in 2014 as a quasi-experiment, this paper constructs a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) model to identify the impact of the demand-side preferential tax policy on the technological innovation level of vehicle enterprises. In our DID design, 178 enterprises are in the treatment group and 166 enterprises in the control group, with 3,440 balanced panel data of observations. The results show that this policy can significantly promote the technological innovation of new energy vehicle enterprises. This promotion effect is greater in magnitude in large-scale enterprises, high-tech enterprises, and enterprises producing passenger vehicles. Theoretically, we believe that the demand-side tax exemption policy mainly indirectly promotes the technological innovation level of automobile enterprises through the signal channel and profit channel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The use of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is an important way to achieve carbon emission reduction in China's commercial vehicle field. The development of the hydrogen automobile industry needs policy guidance. To determine the characteristics and effects of China's hydrogen automobile industrial policy, this paper first uses a text mining method to analyze policy characteristics from three aspects: potency rank, policy subject and policy objectives. Then, from the perspective of policy tools, a policy quantitative system and standards are constructed to quantify the policy. Then, the sales data of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles from August 2018 to December 2022 were collected to empirically analyze the effect of the policy. The results showed that policy comprehensiveness significantly promoted the use of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, but the effects of the different policy tools differed. Finally, some policy suggestions are proposed for the development of the hydrogen automobile industry. • China's hydrogen vehicle industry policy focuses on technology upgrading and application demonstration. • The use of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is the most concerned industrial chain link in the policy. • Policy comprehensiveness has a significant positive effect on the promotion of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in China. • Different policy tools play different roles, with supply-based policy tools and demand-based playing a more prominent role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to contribute to the exploration of the ways through which Malaysia—the fourth largest economy in Southeast Asia—has engaged Chinese investment to pursue industrialization. It does so by comparing and contrasting the different approaches by which two of the most important Chinese-financed automobile projects, Chery Automobile's assembly operations in 2008 and Zhejiang Geely's partial acquisition of local producer Proton in 2017, have been embedded into the Malaysian political economy. While Chery Automobile ended up with a conundrum of extremely low local sales, Zhejiang Geely has fostered mutually beneficial partnerships with Proton and its cohort of suppliers that are shaped by the industry's ethnopolitical directives. More recently, Zhejiang Geely has exported an increasingly larger proportion of vehicles from its Malaysian operations. The contrasting fate of these projects illustrates that while they are driven by Chinese money and technological know-how, they are not necessarily Chinese-dominated. It is domestic politics—the establishment of a functional politico-commercial coalition in particular—that matters in shaping the outcome and impact of Chinese investment in Malaysia. More importantly, the paper highlights how foreign direct investment and the supposed (positive and negative) externalities are intimately tied to local factors such as political institutions and ethnocentric directives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the role of research and development (R&D) collaboration in the race to set standards in the Chinese automotive industry. We unravel how different properties of R&D collaboration provide firms with social capital that contributes to their involvement in formal standard setting. To test our hypotheses, we use a sample of 508 firms involved in collaborative R&D and standardization from 1987 to 2010. Our results show that firms with stronger and more efficient connections to R&D partners are more likely to set (domestic) standards. Furthermore, firms are more likely to set collaborative standards as a principal editor or non-collaborative standards when they possess stronger connections to their R&D partners. This relationship becomes more pronounced when the proportion of Chinese state-owned enterprises in the firm's R&D network increases. These findings provide valuable insights for both managers and policymakers, as collaborative partnerships are primary strategic assets that can be leveraged for lobbying and hence, drive competitive advantage in standard competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research is to assess the economic growth and sustainable development of Ethiopia. To what extent does the Chinese investment contribute to the overall economic development of Ethiopia after the Belt Road Initiative (BRI)? What are the main focus areas for development in the region and how does the BRI initiative connect people in the country? This research examines the development process through the use of a case study and discursive analysis to know the result of the investigation. The study is deeply elaborated and the technique adds analytical and qualitative methods. Furthermore, this research attempts to highlight the key approaches and concepts of Chinese engagement in Ethiopia as it attains development in several sectors through the BRI. The BRI is successfully pioneering transport systems, roads, railways, small industries, automotive sectors, and health development programs in Ethiopia. As result, the Chinese investments bring changes to the country after the successful launch of the BRI. Furthermore, the study concludes that there is a need to initiate numerous projects to improve human, social, and economic life in Ethiopia because the country is suffering from many internal problems and China has to work to eradicate recurring problems in the country. As an external actor, the role of China gains importance in Ethiopia in the context of the New Silk Road economic engagement in the African Continent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For several decades, China tried to catch up in the automotive industry, yet until recently with little success. Now, the paradigm shift from internal combustion to electric driving has opened a window of opportunity to catch up with global competitors. The Chinese government provided a strong policy push to become a lead market, allowing firms to accumulate technological capabilities and increasingly turn into lead manufacturers. This paper combines patent data and qualitative analyses of subsector trends to assess the technological capabilities and the international competitiveness of the Chinese industry in electromobility. We find that the country is indeed leapfrogging ahead in some domains (electric buses, lithium batteries) and rapidly catching up in others, including passenger vehicles. Ambitious green transformation policies can thus spur catch-up and competitiveness. • China has used the paradigm change to electromobility to catch up technologically. • The share in global patents has increasing, while patent quality is improving. • The technological gap vis-à-vis global leaders in electric passenger cars decreases. • Chinese producers are among global leaders in lithium batteries and electric buses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the knowledge-based view of the firm, we examine the role of supply chain integration and firm relative positional advantage (FRPA) in mediating the main effects of product modularity on firm performance. We use data collected from module suppliers to the Chinese automobile industry to empirically test the model. The findings reveal the mediating roles of supply chain integration and FRPA as well as the joint effects of supply chain integration and FRPA on the product modularity-firm performance relationship. The study also tests the application of the mirroring hypothesis in the context of the Chinese auto industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the rise of labor dispatch – a fast-growing form of precarious work – and its regulation politics in post-socialist China. Drawing on qualitative research, the author argues that rather than generalized deregulation and state retrenchment, the development of labor dispatch in China is shaped by the intertwined dynamics of precarization and dualization, with the state playing a predominant role in uneven regulation and institutionalized dualism. Through a case study of the automobile industry, the article investigates agency workers' social composition, subjective workplace experiences, and struggles. It highlights the boundary-drawing strategy pursued by the state and employers to strike a balance between increasing labor flexibility and profitability and maintaining certain stability and legitimacy with a core workforce. However, this strategy has also generated new terrains of contradiction and resistance by agency workers. The state re-regulation to limit labor dispatch in the face of rising labor disputes and agency workers' discontents channeled by the official trade union, suggests that labor politics in post-socialist China is a contested process. These findings advance a contextualized, dynamic approach to the study of precarious work that emphasizes the contradictions of capitalism, the historical and national contexts, boundary-drawing dynamics, and key actors in shaping the contours of precarious work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]