MPV wars flare up again as multiple automakers play the smart driving card.

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Author | Zhou Zhiyu

In March, the new energy MPV track welcomes a "super launch month".

The pure electric version of Xpeng X9, Voyah Dreamer Champion Edition, Mercedes-Benz VLE make intensive appearances, and the Zhijie V9, Arcfox WENDAO V9, Leapmotor D99 are gearing up. The 300,000-level household MPV market is once again ignited.

In the past three years, domestic brands have launched fierce attacks on joint venture fuel MPVs, using new energy as the spear and intelligence as the shield. The 2025 new energy MPV sales ranking shows that Denza D9, Voyah Dreamer, and WEY Gaoshan take the top three spots. The high-end MPV market once dominated by GL8, Odyssey, and Sienna has fundamentally changed.

Now, joint venture brands are starting to fight back, and intelligent driving has become the key to victory in this melee.

Wallstreetcn learned that several automakers including Voyah, Xpeng, GAC are accelerating the mass production of L3-level intelligent driving. Voyah Automobile's Chairman Lu Fang revealed to Wallstreetcn that Voyah's L3 test car has completed over 110,000 km of actual road tests, "Cars with L3-level architectures will be launched soon."

From the competition for space to the intelligent driving arms race, the MPV track is undergoing a fundamental shift in competitive dimensions. The second half of the Red Sea elimination game, and the reshuffle is far from over.

Changes in Offensive and Defensive Dynamics between Domestic and Joint Venture Brands

The Chinese MPV market is experiencing a profound power shift.

In 2000, SAIC-GM introduced the Buick GL8, which opened the 1.0 era of the Chinese MPV market. For more than 20 years, the GL8 has almost become synonymous with "business MPV", and joint venture brands firmly held the pricing and discourse power of high-end MPVs.

The turning point came in 2022. In that year, domestic brands leveraged new energy to launch direct attacks on joint venture fuel MPVs. According to the "New Energy MPV Market Insights Report" released by China Automotive Evaluation CCRT, the penetration rate of new energy in MPVs jumped from 9% in 2022 to 49% in 2025. In just three years, new energy MPVs have grown from a fringe category to the mainstream market.

Once king Buick GL8, even adding the Land Supreme PHEV and Land Shang models, still maintains over 110,000 units, but fuel version sales have declined for two consecutive years.

"When we developed Voyah Dreamer, we felt the Chinese new energy vehicle market lacked an MPV. We wanted to use Chinese independent high-end new energy MPVs to gain a foothold, rather than users only relying on joint venture fuel MPVs," recalls Lu Fang to Wallstreetcn.

Now, this goal has been achieved in stages. Lu Fang gives a more macro judgement: "'The fifteenth five-year plan' will be the year when the proportion of new energy cars and traditional fuel vehicles undergoes profound change, and also a year when the status between domestic brands and foreign luxury brands shifts significantly."

In his view, foreign luxury brands are already behind domestic leading models in both product quality and features. "We can compete with foreign brand cars, and we must seize this opportunity."

But joint venture brands will not surrender easily.

Data from the Passenger Car Association shows that sales of fuel MPVs declined 13.9% year-on-year. Faced with this trend, the joint venture camp is accelerating its electrification transition. The Buick GL8 ES was launched at the end of last year, priced from 439,900 yuan, directly targeting high-end versions of Denza D9 and Voyah Dreamer. The pure electric version of Buick GL8 ES also started pre-sales in early March and will feature a 900V architecture. The brand new pure electric Mercedes-Benz VLE had its global debut on March 10, and the Toyota Sienna range extender version is also in preparation.

Meanwhile, the entry of the Huawei ecosystem is reshaping the competitive landscape. The first MPV from HarmonyOS Auto, Zhijie V9, is positioned as a 500,000 yuan mid-large luxury new energy MPV, to be launched this Spring.

The high-end new energy MPV market in 2026 will face unprecedented internal competition. "Buy top spec for 300,000; 350,000 with no compromise; 400,000 for flagship products with a full overhaul," will be the new market shape.

Voyah Automobile CBO Shao Mingfeng is very clear about this. He told Wallstreetcn that Voyah's strategy is to "draw the track"—"Because those who draw the track know when to turn faster."

This battle of shifting offense and defense is entering its most intense stage.

L3 Battle Begins

As space, comfort, and configurations gradually begin to look alike, intelligent driving is becoming the new variable in MPV competition.

Shao Mingfeng summed up the logic for this round of competition in one sentence: "Previously, MPVs were driven by drivers and the bosses sat in the back. Now, more families have the father driving and the whole family sitting. We want to achieve equal comfort and tech, so that fathers no longer sacrifice themselves."

This means the product definition of MPVs is extending from a "passenger perspective" to a "driver perspective". Advanced intelligent driving is no longer just a bonus feature, but a necessity for tackling long-distance driving fatigue. Shao Mingfeng shared his personal experience: "This time when I returned home for the New Year, driving 1400 km in about 16 hours, I didn't feel tired at all driving alone."

Under this logic, various automakers are betting on intelligent driving. The 2026 Xpeng X9 pure electric version comes standard with the Turing chip, with maximum effective computing power of 2250 TOPS, and AEB top speed boosted to 130km/h. Voyah Dreamer Champion Edition becomes the only 300,000-level MPV equipped with Huawei Qiankun Intelligent Driving ADS 4. Zhijie V9 is equipped with four lidar units, including a main radar with 500 lines high precision.

But the bigger variable is L3.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has for the first time approved L3-level autonomous driving for commercial operation. The two models that passed the admission application are Changan Deep Blue SL03 and Arcfox Alpha S6, marking the first time cars in China are allowed to have systems undertake driving tasks under specific conditions. 2026 will truly be the "first year of mass production" of L3-level autonomous driving.

Xpeng has obtained road test licenses for L3-level autonomous driving in Guangzhou and has announced that in 2026, it will launch mass production models with both hardware and software at L4 level. Li Auto released its new generation autonomous driving architecture MindVLA last year and plans to apply it to mass production this year.

Wallstreetcn learned from Voyah that Voyah in April last year released its first vehicle architecture designed for conditional L3 autonomous driving. The L3 test car is already operating massively on Wuhan roads, with over 110,000 km actual road tests and more than 900,000 km simulated tests.

Lu Fang described his experience test-driving the L3 test car to Wallstreetcn: "I was testing this car, but it felt like I wasn’t actually driving it. Wherever I want to go, I just say it, and it drives from the parking spot to the next place and can even return—it's at that level."

He revealed that Voyah will soon launch models with L3-level architectures, including the upcoming Taishan Ultra and future new car codenamed "Everest". "Its software, hardware, including five major safety redundancies, already have such an architecture."

Huawei ADS 4.0 will also further expand to large-scale commercial use for highway and urban L3, which means MPV models equipped with Huawei intelligent driving will take the lead in gaining L3 capabilities.

"Industry competition truly begins at the L3 stage." Zhang Yongwei, chairman of China Electric Vehicle 100, emphasized that whoever occupies the L3 intelligence advantage will grasp the initiative in the future competition of the automotive industry.

The MPV intelligent driving war has just begun. From the perspective of institutions, 2026 will be the key year for conditional L3 autonomous driving to break through from 0 to 1. Dongxing Securities predicts L3-level and above assisted driving penetration rate will reach 11%. As L3 moves from concept to mass production, and advanced intelligent driving shifts from top spec to standard spec, players lacking intelligent driving layout will accelerate exiting.

No one can afford to stop in this intelligent driving arms race.

Risk Warning and DisclaimerThe market has risks, and investment needs caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice, nor does it take into account the specific investment objectives, financial situation, or needs of individual users. Users should consider whether any opinions, views, or conclusions in this article fit their particular circumstances. Investing accordingly is at your own risk. ```