China — the infrastructure was built, and the vehicles did not follow.
China allocated spectrum in 2018, built more than eleven thousand roadside units, ran twenty pilot cities and issued a full national standards stack. As of 2025, C-V2X penetration in Chinese vehicles was around four percent, across fewer than thirty mass-production models. This is the most important natural experiment in the field, and its lesson is uncomfortable for infrastructure-first strategies.
Spectrum in 2018, pilots from 2024, and a full national standards stack.
Spectrum. MIIT released direct-communication regulations for 5905–5925 MHz — 20 MHz — for intelligent connected vehicles on 21 October 2018. LTE-V2X (PC5) only; no DSRC path. This is the narrowest major allocation in the world, which constrains the LTE-to-NR migration. The announcement number, commonly cited as No. 46 of 2018, could not be confirmed and is not stated here; the date and band are confirmed. The allocation in context →
Pilots. Seven national connected-vehicle pilot areas and sixteen smart-city / ICV pilot cities in earlier waves. In November 2023 MIIT launched L3/L4 access and road-use pilots; in January 2024 it launched the “vehicle-road-cloud integration” pilot, running 2024–2026. In July 2024 twenty pilot cities were approved: Beijing, Ordos, Shenyang, Changchun, Jinan, Wuhan, Shiyan, Hefei, Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Hangzhou–Tongxiang–Deqing, Fuzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing, Changsha, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Haikou–Sanya–Qionghai.
Scale. More than 5,000 km of roads opened for C-V2X pilot demonstration; perception facilities at more than 2,000 key intersections across the pilot cities. City examples: Wuxi around 5,000 km of connected roads; Beijing around 600 km²; Tianjin Xiqing with more than 200 roadside installations over 48 km; Shanghai Jiading with more than 800 intelligent vehicles including robotaxis and connected buses.
Standards. National GB/T work under NTCAS SC34, including GB 44495-2024 as a mandatory cybersecurity standard; industry-level V2I, MEC and roadside standards in CCSA TC10 WG5; and the T/CSAE series from China SAE covering application layer (53, 157), V2X warning applications (246-2022), vehicle-road-cloud architecture (295 series) and LTE-V2X RSU requirements (159-2024). MIIT's National V2X Industry Standard System Construction Guide and V2X Industry Development Action Plan are the framing documents.
Credential management. YD/T 3957-2021, developed with CAICT. A Trusted Root Certificate List Authority maintains a Trusted Root Certificate List across multiple authorised root CAs, plus Trusted Domain CA Certificate Lists. Centralised and state-supervised. The four trust models compared →
Around four percent penetration, after six years of continuous policy support.
TechInsights' 2025 analysis found C-V2X penetration of about 4% in Chinese vehicles, with fewer than 30 mass-production models equipped — despite six years of continuous policy support, twenty cities with complete coverage and over eleven thousand roadside units. Their forecast is roughly 25% by 2030, contingent on mandates tightening, particularly V2X fitment requirements for L3-and-above models.
Verified factory-fitted C-V2X models include Hongqi E-HS9, HiPhi X, NIO ET7, Ford Mondeo, Ford EVOS, Mustang Mach-E China, Ford Edge PLUS, Buick GL8 Avenir, Lincoln Aviator, and from January 2025 the BMW 5 Series long-wheelbase. The typical feature set is traffic-light signal push, green-wave speed advisory, green-light start reminder and red-light-running warning — V2I convenience features, not safety-critical V2V. Why that is the pattern everywhere →
No hard national C-V2X fitment mandate has been issued. Policy encourages L2+ vehicles to carry C-V2X terminals within the pilot programme. China's mandatory national standards issued in July and August 2026 for combined driver assistance and autonomous driving safety are ADAS-focused, not V2X mandates.
The strategic read. The government built the infrastructure and the standards; the OEMs largely did not follow, because Chinese manufacturers are competing on onboard ADAS and AI capability, and C-V2X does not differentiate at low penetration. China is the strongest available evidence that infrastructure-first V2X does not automatically pull vehicle fitment — and therefore the strongest available argument for India's vehicle-side mandate approach. India's approach →
The documents, one record each.
Each identifier links to its canonical record in the V2X standards library, where the edition, dates, band, access conditions and verification note are held once. Status and binding effect are separate: a published document is not automatically a legal requirement.
| Document | Title | Type | Status | Binding effect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MIIT 5905–5925 MHz LTE-V2X direct communication management rules | Management rules for the use of 5905–5925 MHz for LTE-V2X direct communication | Spectrum | Published final | Mandatory |
| GB/T 45315-2025 | Technical requirements and test methods of vehicular information interactive systems based on LTE-V2X direct communication | Conformance | Published final | Voluntary |
| 国无办函〔2024〕113号 | Notice further clarifying the technical requirements for V2X direct communication radio transmitting equipment | Radio and access | Published final | Mandatory |
Where this fits.
The OEM landscape
The Chinese models with verified factory C-V2X, and the ones without.
India regulation
The mandate-first strategy China's result argues for.
V2V
The penetration mathematics behind the four percent.
Last reviewed: 17 August 2026. The vehicle-road-cloud integration pilot concludes at the end of 2026.
Last updated 2026-09-30 · Technical reference maintained by Ambimat Electronics, Ahmedabad, India. Corrections: v2x@ambimat.com