Hong Kong stock concept tracking|L3 autonomous driving approved, road agencies are optimistic that the smart driving industry will enter a period of rapid development (with concept stocks)

On December 15, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology officially announced the entry permits for China's first batch of L3 conditional autonomous driving models, marking a key step in China's L3 autonomous driving from the testing stage to commercial application.

Great Wall Securities released a research report stating that the first batch of conditional entry permits for L3 class autonomous driving models in China was officially announced. Looking at the industry side, continue to explore L3 smart driving, and the industry is gradually moving towards advanced smart driving. From the policy side, the pilot and subsequent full rollout of L3 level intelligent driving requires top-level guidance on regulatory policies. The bank believes that leading manufacturers at home and abroad continue to make breakthroughs in smart driving and the industry has entered a period of rapid development. As advanced smart driving gradually descends to 100,000 to 200,000 models, smart driving equality will also gradually be realized. The bank continues to be optimistic about investment opportunities in the intelligent driving industry chain.

Changjiang Securities said that L3 autonomous driving was approved, and as a result, China became the second country to release L3 in the true sense of the word after Germany. Since the two released cars have already been released, it also means that China will become the first country in the world to release L3 on a large scale.

Changjiang Securities believes that the first batch of L3 class models has received entry permits, which means that China's intelligent connected vehicles have entered a new stage of mass production and application. As the pilot work progresses gradually, it is expected that the intelligent connected vehicle product entry management and regulatory standard system will continue to be improved, thereby accelerating the large-scale and commercial application of autonomous driving technology, thereby benefiting the entire industry chain. Recommended attention:

1. Intelligent driving algorithm provider;

2. Hardware providers related to intelligent driving;

3. Robotaxi operation platform. Huatai Securities pointed out that the first batch of L3 models will be approved to launch pilot projects, marking the shift of domestic L3 from a “pilot declaration and test evaluation” to a “pilot product entry and road access pilot.” L3 entry and implementation will accelerate the restructuring of the smart driving industry chain. Smart driving is expected to become an important direction for AI applications in 2026. It is recommended to focus on investment opportunities in core areas such as smart vehicles, wire-controlled chassis, domain control chips, and lidar.

Hong Kong stocks involving smart driving-related industry chains:

Joyson Electronics (00699): On December 19, Junlian Zhixing, a subsidiary of Joyson Electronics, officially signed a strategic cooperation agreement with SiNian Smart Driving. Relying on resource advantages in their respective fields, the two sides will carry out in-depth cooperation in core fields such as limited-scenario L4 smart driving solutions, embedded intelligent domain control, and their commercial application. Currently, the smart port digital management platform based on “V2X+L4 smart driving+intelligent cloud dispatch” jointly developed by the two parties has been put into operation at Ningbo Port and is running stably.

Cyrus (09927): The company has successfully launched four models: the Q Q 5, Q M7, Q M8 and Q M9. Achieve market coverage through differentiated positioning, and fully seize the high-end user market with accurate price gradients and scenario-based functional combinations.

Cao Cao Travel (02643): In February 2025, the company's autonomous driving platform “Cao Cao Zhixing” was officially launched, marking that the Robotaxi business has entered the actual promotion stage; in April, deployment of a new generation of Robotaxi began. The model uses Geely's latest redundant architecture design, which deeply integrates Cao Cao Zhixing's automated scheduling and dispatch, remote safety and security capabilities to form an integrated autonomous driving operation platform.

Zero Sports Auto (09863): Zero Sports Lafa5 officially launched nationwide delivery, supporting dual AI large models and lidar sensing systems.

Horizon Robot-W (09660): ZF and Horizon announced the joint development of an L3 intelligent driving system, which is expected to be mass-produced in China in 2026. On October 27, 2025, ZF Group and Horizon jointly announced that they will jointly develop an SAE Level 3 intelligent driving system for the Chinese market. ZF will provide its ProAI platform and system-level architecture design, which is responsible for hardware platform, vehicle integration and safety verification; Horizon will provide the Journey 6P chip (J6P, computing power > 1,000 TOPS) and a complete software algorithm stack. The system has now been designated by major Chinese automakers and is expected to be mass-produced in 2026.

Youjiao Innovation (02431): Recently, Youjiao Innovation launched two unmanned logistics vehicle products, T5 and T8, to complete business expansion. Youjia's innovative L4 unmanned vehicle business has made a huge breakthrough. From unmanned buses to unmanned logistics vehicles, autonomous driving technology is gradually replicated from manned scenarios to cargo delivery scenarios, including business forms such as unmanned traffic, trunk line transportation, and special vehicles for specific scenarios such as airports and mines.

Black Sesame Intelligence (02533): In the field of autonomous driving, the company's Huashan series A1000Pro has excellent computing power, and launched the A2000 to further enrich the product matrix. The company has cooperated with Geely and many other major automobile OEMs and Tier1, and has entered models such as Galaxy E8 and Linker 07; in the field of cross-domain computing, the company launched the industry's first cross-domain computing chip, the Wudang C1200. FAW Hongqi is expected to build a single-chip intelligent vehicle control platform solution based on the C1200 to help the company grow its revenue.

Tudatong (02665): Tudatong is a company that designs, develops and produces automotive-grade lidar solutions. According to Insight Consulting data, the company is the world's first supplier of automotive-grade high-performance lidar solutions to achieve mass production. According to the same source, in 2024, the company delivered a total of about 230,000 automotive-grade lidars, ranking fourth in the world in terms of sales revenue from ADAS lidar solutions, with a market share of 12.8%.

Lidar: Hexai-W (02525), Sagiteng Juchuang (02498)

Nexteer (01316): On November 17, Nexteer Automotive Systems Asia Pacific Intelligent Manufacturing Headquarters Project laid the foundation stone in Suzhou Industrial Park. The project is located in Jinguang Technology Industrial Park and is expected to be completed and put into operation in July 2026. Nexteer has now invested a total of 1 billion yuan in the Suzhou Industrial Park to build the Nexteer Automotive Systems Asia Pacific Intelligent Manufacturing Headquarters project, focusing on fields such as new energy vehicles and autonomous driving, and introducing the latest electric power steering and wire-controlled steering technology to meet the needs of different levels of assisted driving and autonomous driving.