EV and New Energy Study Tour in China: Which Companies to Visit

An EV study tour China itinerary lives or dies on the visit list. Here is who is worth a slot, who is harder to reach than people assume, and how to put the week in the right order.

• 📍 Shanghai · Changzhou · Shenzhen
• 📅 5 days typical
• 🔋 Vehicles · Batteries · Charging
• 👥 8–25 delegates
• ✍ Updated August 2026

Why China for EV and New Energy Study Tours

You can read about vertical integration or you can stand next to it. That is the honest case for an EV study tour China program over another consultancy deck.

Three things are hard to grasp from a distance:

• Depth of the supply chain. Cells, cathode material, motors, power electronics and software often sit within a two-hour drive. Sourcing teams see the implication immediately.
• Speed of iteration. Model cycles here are measured against a different clock than in Europe or North America. Ask any host how long from program approval to start of production, then watch your engineers' faces.
• Charging as infrastructure. Battery swap stations and megawatt charging run at commercial scale, not in pilots. Visitors rarely plan to care about this, then talk about it all week.

Top Companies to Visit on an EV Study Tour

Pick for the layer of the industry each one explains, not for name recognition. Access varies by company, by season and by group. Any serious operator confirms hosts in writing before you book flights.

BYD (Shenzhen)

The anchor visit for most groups, and the clearest case of vertical integration in the sector. BYD builds its own batteries, motors, electronic controls and IGBT chips. That is how a battery company ended up leading in vehicles. At the Shenzhen headquarters, groups walk the museum complex and showroom, with a look into automated production where the schedule allows. Our BYD company visit guide covers the format, the booking window and the test-drive rule that catches groups out.

CATL (Ningde and the Yangtze Delta)

The world's largest battery maker, and the name every board asks about. One practical caveat: the headquarters sits in Ningde, Fujian, a long way from anywhere else on a normal itinerary. Groups that insist on Ningde give up a full day to travel. Most teams get more out of a battery visit in the Changzhou and Liyang cluster, where cell production, module assembly and materials suppliers sit close together. See the Changzhou destination guide for what else is in reach there.

NIO, XPeng and Li Auto

The newer brands are where you see software-defined vehicles and direct-to-consumer retail up close. NIO is built around battery swap, worth seeing in operation before you form an opinion about it. XPeng sits in Guangzhou, close enough to Shenzhen to pair in the same leg. Li Auto's manufacturing base is in Changzhou, in the same cluster as the battery visits. Delivery centers and showrooms are far easier to arrange than assembly plants, and commercial teams often get more out of them.

EV Supply Chain Visits: Batteries, Components, Charging

A week of nothing but car plants gets repetitive by day three. The supply chain is what makes the trip a study tour instead of a factory crawl:

• Cell and pack manufacturing — where cost per kilowatt-hour gets decided, and where LFP versus ternary chemistry stops being a slide.
• Cathode and materials — the upstream layer procurement teams keep asking about. Most itineraries skip it.
• Power electronics and motors — inverters, e-axles and thermal systems, usually clustered around Suzhou and Wuxi.
• Charging and swap networks — operators running tens of thousands of connectors. Swap stations turn a refuel into a five-minute stop.
• Recycling and second life — the question every ESG committee sends with the delegation. China's recyclers are further along than most visitors expect.

Groups with an automation mandate should also see our robotics and manufacturing tours, since EV plants are the most automated production environments in the country. Sustainability-focused groups often add a stop from the green economy program.

Sample 5-Day EV-Focused Itinerary

Most EV study tour China programs run the Yangtze Delta first and the Pearl River Delta second. The supply chain builds context for the vehicle maker at the end, and the outbound flight is easier from Shenzhen.

Seven-day versions add Beijing for the policy layer or Hefei for a second vehicle plant. Three-day versions stay in one delta and drop to two anchor visits. The full week-long structure is laid out in our sample 7-day itinerary.

How to Structure an EV Study Tour China Program

Five rules hold across almost every EV study tour China program we run:

• Three layers, not three logos. One vehicle maker, one battery or component supplier, one charging operator. That beats three car plants.
• Cluster, don't crisscross. Each delta is dense enough to fill two days. Chasing one famous name across the country costs a working day each way.
• Send technical questions ahead. Cost per kilowatt-hour, line takt time, supplier qualification cycles. Hosts bring the right engineer when they know what's coming.
• Put the plant visit before the strategy session. Groups ask better questions after they've stood on the floor.
• Book eight to twelve weeks out. EV hosts are the most requested category in the country right now, and the good slots go early.

The standing program formats are on our EV and new energy tours page, and how to organize an executive delegation covers the process end to end.

Frequently Asked Questions

More on company visits: BYD company visit · Alibaba company visit · Shenzhen · Shanghai · Corporate visit FAQ · Client reviews · Contact

Background on the rise of public EV factory tours in China: Autoblog.