From January to August, the output value of the intelligent new energy vehicle industry in Shanghai's Lin-gang Special Area reached 96.87 billion yuan ($15.06 billion), and it is expected that the output value in the first three quarters will exceed 100 billion yuan, according to the area's administration.

Lin-gang Special Area currently has two companies with an annual output value of more than 10 billion yuan – Tesla and SAIC, as well as a number of enterprises valued at over 1 billion yuan, such as SAS, Yanfeng and Techstorm.

A slew of new projects – such as the CATL intelligent factory – have been widely anticipated to add new momentum to the development of the area.

The international industrial giant Cummins Inc also signed an agreement with Lin-gang on Sept 27 to build its China headquarters in the area. The project is the first global 500 headquarters integrating R&D, manufacturing, trade and a supply chain to settle in the area.

The supply chain of local vehicle enterprises in Lin-gang has started a trend of localization and agglomeration. The area is home to Tesla and SAIC in the auto sector; SAIC engine and Cummins in the power system; TuSimple and SenseTime in the field of driverless vehicles; and CATL in the battery industry.

Other high-quality enterprises operate in the fields of chassis systems, body systems, automotive electronics, and hydrogen energy.

By 2025, the scale of new energy intelligent vehicle operations in the area is projected to exceed 300 billion yuan, accounting for four fifths of Shanghai's total in the sector.