TAKE ME IN BEIJING
17 HALLS, 252 NEW CARS - AND WHY THE REAL STORY IN BEIJING WASN’T CARS AT ALL
Article by David Hunter Take Me Group CEO
https://takeme.taxi
As Chris Thalha and I walked through the vast halls of Beijing’s motor show, it would have been easy to be distracted by the usual theatre: concept cars, super-saloons, flying prototypes and enough digital dashboards to light a city.
But after two days here, I’m convinced the biggest story wasn’t about cars at all.
It was about the quiet disappearance of the driver.
While Western shows still tend to frame autonomy as an experimental add-on, Beijing presented it as an industrial certainty. Robotaxis were not tucked away as futuristic curiosities; they were embedded in the thinking of the industry.
Across dozens of brands unfamiliar in Europe, one theme kept repeating: these are software-led products first, cars second.
In many cases, the Chinese consumer offering feels a decade ahead of legacy Western manufacturers. Not just in batteries or screens, but in user interface, voice integration, autonomy features, digital ecosystems and the sheer pace of iteration.
Even revered marques such as BMW and Mercedes, when walking these halls, can feel surprisingly legacy by comparison. Because increasingly the competitive battle appears less about brand heritage … and more about software.
Geely’s Caocao unit has openly discussed a pathway to large-scale robotaxi deployment by 2030. That isn’t concept-car bravado; that is industrial planning.
And that was the theme of the show. Cars are becoming nodes in a network.
And that changes everything.
The real eye-opener wasn’t another electric saloon or luxury SUV. It was how Chinese manufacturers - especially groups such as Geely and partners around Baidu - are treating autonomous mobility as a scalable transport system, not a science project.
But equally striking was the quality of the mainstream consumer vehicles themselves.
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Historically, motor shows celebrated ownership: performance, luxury, freedom. Beijing often felt more like a glimpse into a post-ownership world - where vehicles are increasingly designed not for drivers, but for fleets.
Purpose-built autonomous pods. AI-driven dispatch systems. Battery
ecosystems designed around utilisation rates, not retail buyers. MAY 2026 PHTM
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