Gasgoo Daily presents a selection of the latest developments from China's automotive industry. Here are the key stories in this edition.
1. GWM Pickup Post 59,651 Overseas Sales in Jan–Sep, Up 29.5% YoY
Great Wall Motor's pickups recorded cumulative overseas sales of 59,651 units in January–September, up 29.5% year on year, keeping the brand China's No.1 pickup exporter. It ranked first among Chinese pickup brands in key markets including Brazil, Chile and South Africa, led by the Cannon series.
GWM is pushing localization through its Cannon and Shanhai Poer matrix — tailoring configurations to local regulations and habits — while shifting from product export to systematic internationalization covering technology, service and supply chain. The company called the results a phased achievement of its globalization strategy and proof of China's pickup industry strength.
2. INTILION and CATL Sign 5-Year Cooperation on 3 GWh of Sodium Storage
European storage provider INTILION and CATL have signed an MOU to deploy TENER sodium-energy storage systems totaling 3 GWh across Germany, Switzerland and Austria over five years, for grid-level peak shaving and commercial and industrial applications.
TENER, CATL's sodium storage product for high-latitude cold markets, offers a cycle life of up to 15,000 cycles and a designed 25-year operating period, maintaining high discharge power at -20°C. Since 2022, the partners have delivered more than 30 storage projects in Germany; CATL said the 3 GWh framework marks domestic sodium storage accelerating toward scaled commercial deployment in Europe.
3. Hesai Builds Robot Motion and 3D World Data Engines
At its Kosmo AI Day, Hesai announced plans for robot motion and 3D world data engines. Co-founder and CEO Li Yifan said physical AI is moving toward a 2.0 stage centered on general-purpose robots, with hardware performance and high-quality real-world data as key infrastructure.
Hesai's power module cuts size by 37% and triples power density, powering Sharpa's W01 (22 active degrees of freedom, adopted into NVIDIA's Isaac GR00T reference solution) and W02 (21 active DOF, hand about 30% smaller, unveiled at IROS 2026). Its Kosmo system generates 3DGS, Mesh and Depth data in one pass — in DQ ice cream stores, it scans and rebuilds a store in about 15 minutes, lifting robot task success to 99%. With 10,000+ modules delivered by end-Q2 2026 and 2027 shipments expected to reach a six-digit level, Hesai calls the two engines its second growth engine as it evolves from lidar maker to physical AI infrastructure company.
