Going digital, going green: changing production networks in the automotive industry in China

Abstract

The article analyses the changes in production and innovation networks in the automobile industry in China resulting from the transition to new-energy vehicles and digital driving technologies. This transformation is seen as a fundamental break with the present neo-Fordist growth model in the car industry and a rise of new forms of network-based mass production, comparable to the IT industry since the 1990s. The article traces the complex politics of this transition embedded in different modes of regulation in the Chinese automotive sector, its impact on work and regimes of production, and the perspective of a broad-ranging 'Foxconnisation' of car manufacturing.