On September 1, 2026, according to the No. 316 monthly filing notice of sector standard of China (No. 8 of 2026), five standards on the accreditation and certification of automotive chips have been published for implementation (hereinafter referred to as “the Five Standards”).

The Five Standards are approved by the National Certification and Accreditation Administration of China (CNCA), and is considered as the first competence evaluation standard system that is applicable to relevant bodies of full industrial chain of automotive chips.

Automotive chips are considered as the central nervous system of intelligent connected vehicles (ICV) in China, and the core strategic resource. The issues of the application of locally made automotive chips have been identified as high market access threshold and low credibility in the market etc., making them difficult to be used on a larger scale. The formulation of the Five Standards intends to create a standard system that:

• Establish an evaluation framework for institutional capabilities in the automotive chip sector;

• Define general assessment requirements for certification reviews of automotive chip organizations;

• Provide professional guidance and operational standards for various institutions involved in design, certification, testing, computing power, and other areas.

The implementation date of the Five Standards is announced as October 1 of 2026, and the full texts haven’t been publicized as of the date of this article. The basic information is summarized as below:

For foreign stakeholders, the publication of these standards may be used as a general criteria for the corresponding certification bodies in the China market, and form a unified evaluation and assessment for automotive chips in the country. So it may be necessary to understand the contents and technical requirements if such products aim to be sold in China.