BizChina

China is set to build a globally competitive automotive industry within 10 years, with new energy vehicles and smart, internet-connected cars taking the lead worldwide, according to an industry guideline released on Tuesday.

Among other goals, it expects sales of electric, plug-in hybrids and fuel cell cars in the nation to reach 2 million by 2020, and such cars are to account for 20 percent of all auto sales by 2025.

Half of new cars in China will feature some driving assistance and low-level autonomous driving functions by 2020, and the number is expected to rise to 80 percent in 2025.

On-demand mobility company Didi Chuxing has added a bike-sharing service from ofo, and will promote it across China.

Didi users will have direct access to ofo's bright yellow bikes in the app through fully connected services in registration, user authentication, deposit, ride payment, and customer support, according to a Didi press release Thursday.

Didi, China's leading car-hailing service, which boasts over 20 million daily orders, made a strategic investment in ofo, one of the country's top bike-sharing services, in September 2016.

The product linkup is a major step towards more extensive collaboration in shared mobility, according to the press release.

Huawei has retained its title of selling the most smartphones in China during the first quarter of this year, according to an industry report.

Samsung dropped out of the top five, accounting for just 5.9 percent of sales in China in the first three months. Apple ranked fourth, according to figures released by mobile data provider Jiguang.

Analysts predicted competition would ramp up as the country's smartphone market becomes saturated. Product updates and replacements will replace sales of new phones as the market's driving force.

Chinese internet giant Baidu has announced a strategic partnership with automobile manufacturers BAIC Motor to expand the smart vehicle sector at CES 2017

Baidu's autonomous driving research and development arm, Baidu Intelligent Vehicle, will work with BAIC on two key projects.

They plan to launch a car model driven by Baidu's telematics solutions in the first half of this year and road test the BAIC's limited self-driving cars by the end of this year.