New Mobility in China (2025) I

Autonomous Vehicles & Charging Stations & Micromobility /.

Among the key players in advancing mobility technologies, China is rolling out a nationwide implementation of various new mobility services. With pilot projects and road tests underway, major cities like Beijing and Hangzhou have introduced legislation to regulate autonomous vehicles.

To better understand the latest developments in new mobility across China, I embarked on a series of trips in early 2025 to observe these technological advancements in several major cities. This included Wuhan, which boasts the largest robotaxi service in China, and Hangzhou, the first city to adopt autonomous delivery robots. My observations focused not only on the technologies themselves but also on how they integrate with the built environment. Here are some key insights from my observations.

Autonomous Vehicles (AVs): Autonomous Driving or Remote Driving or Both?

Apollo Go, the Chinese robotaxi service owned by Baidu, has begun road testing its fleet in several Chinese cities (Figure 1), including Wuhan, which has the largest fleet and operational scope. In terms of service area, Apollo Go’s coverage in Wuhan is even larger than Waymo’s in Phoenix, the U.S. city with the largest robotaxi service scope. However, unlike Waymo, which allows summoning from almost any point within its service area, Apollo Go’s robotaxis are limited to designated pick-up and drop-off points, many of which are currently non-functional.

Figure 1.

Surprisingly, unlike Waymo, Apollo Go does not rely solely on full autonomy. Instead, it uses a combined approach with both autonomous driving and remote driving. Although it’s difficult to distinguish when the vehicle is operating autonomously versus under remote control, the idea is that, when the vehicle encounters complex conditions, an operator can take over remotely to ensure safety (Figure 2). This technology is made possible by the high-speed 5G network in China. While this may appear to be a step away from full autonomy, the combined mode of autonomous and remote driving could offer a practical transition pathway to fully autonomous vehicles (AVs). A recent survey conducted by McKinsey in January 2025 also explored these two modes and found that more respondents preferred remote driving over full autonomy.

Figure 2.

A common challenge faced by both Chinese and American cities in integrating autonomous vehicles is that the built environments have lagged behind technological advancements, leading to a lack of necessary infrastructure to support universal access to these emerging mobility technologies. For example, during my trip using Apollo Go, I was dropped off in the middle of a designated bus lane next to a public sewer cover, rather than at a designated passenger loading zone (Figure 3, right).

Figure 3.

Charging Stations

The rising penetration rate of electric vehicles (EVs) in China has sparked the widespread implementation of EV charging stations. Meanwhile, despite the decade-long prevalence of e-bikes, public charging stations for e-bikes have only recently started to emerge.

Electric Vehicle Charging Station

Several large-scale EV charging stations were observed during my trips. Due to the growing, yet still relatively low penetration rate of EVs in China, these stations are often located in areas with lower real estate values but relatively high accessibility, such as remote locations near subway stations or parking lots of underperforming commercial complexes (Figure 4).

Compared to the sparsely distributed large-scale EV charging stations, small-scale neighborhood charging stalls are more common and are increasingly becoming essential infrastructure for residential developments in China.

Figure 4.

Micromobility Charging Station

One unexpected observation from my trip was the implementation of public shared micromobility charging stations, despite e-bikes having been prevalent in China for over a decade. Interestingly, a key driving force behind this initiative, aside from better organizing micromobility, is the need to prevent fire accidents caused by indoor micromobility charging, which have resulted in several fatal incidents nationwide (Figure 5, left). To address this, each charging station is equipped with firefighting facilities (Figure 5, right).

Figure 5.

To address this, each charging station is equipped with firefighting facilities (Figure 5), and some stations also feature shaded structures and vegetation (Figure 6, left). In addition to conventional charging stations, another type of station has emerged (Figure 6, right), offering battery-swapping services that allow electrified micromobility users to recharge quickly without waiting for an extended period. However, this service is currently limited to a few micromobility brands.

Figure 6.