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AMA at CES 2026

AutoMobility Advisors, AutoMobility Advisors
January 25, 2026
Event RecapCESChina

Chinese OEMs and their technology partners showed up at CES 2026 with big, coordinated displays that made their intent easy to read. You didn’t have to stitch the story together across multiple booths. Vehicle platforms, autonomy approaches, sensors, and compute partners were…

AMA at CES 2026

Chinese OEMs and their technology partners showed up at CES 2026 with big, coordinated displays that made their intent easy to read. You didn’t have to stitch the story together across multiple booths. Vehicle platforms, autonomy approaches, sensors, and compute partners were often presented side by side, with a clear sense of who is building with whom.

The Las Vegas Convention Center West Hall at CES 2026, with a large AFEELA by Sony Honda Mobility banner above the entrance
Outside the West Hall at CES 2026. Photography by Mariestella
GWM’s stand at CES 2026, with a large screen showing hands-free driving
GWM’s stand at CES 2026. Photography by Mariestella

That visibility is what made the contrast so noticeable. US OEMs weren’t completely absent, but their public footprint was lighter, and people commented on it constantly. The question wasn’t about spectacle. It was about signaling. CES is one of the few venues where a brand can show momentum in public, and this year the loudest momentum on the floor skewed heavily toward China.

A green Longbow electric roadster on a turntable at CES 2026
Longbow’s electric roadster drew steady crowds. Photography by Mariestella
The Clarios and Geely stand at CES 2026, lit in purple
Clarios and Geely shared a stand on the show floor. Photography by Mariestella

Western OEM activity showed up more indirectly, through suppliers and private meetings, with tighter, more program specific messaging. That approach may reflect real constraints, including cost pressure, uneven demand signals, and policy uncertainty, but it comes with a tradeoff. When one group presents a joined up story in public and another stays quiet, the market starts to fill in the blanks.

The Schaeffler stand at CES 2026 with a vehicle technology display wall
Schaeffler’s vehicle technology display. Photography by Mariestella
Hyundai’s IONIQ 5 robotaxi connected to an automatic charging arm
Hyundai’s IONIQ 5 robotaxi with automated charging. Photography by Mariestella
Attendees filming a large screen during a CES 2026 keynote
Keynote crowds at CES 2026. Photography by Mariestella
A Boston Dynamics presentation showing Spot, Atlas and Stretch robots
Boston Dynamics presented Spot, Atlas and Stretch. Photography by Mariestella
Kubota’s autonomous agricultural concept vehicle at CES 2026
Kubota’s smart agriculture concept. Photography by Mariestella

AutoMobility Advisors’ CES 2026 report, The New Architecture of Mobility, walks through the show and surfaces a clear shift from isolated feature demos to systems that can be deployed and repeated at scale. It also reflects how Chinese OEMs and suppliers are setting the pace through tighter integration and faster execution. Featuring autonomy and robotics, the report looks across the wider mobility stack, from the core vehicle technologies that make platforms work to the infrastructure and industrial systems that are raising the bar for what “ready” really means.

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George Ayres, Denise Barfuss, Chip Goetzinger, and Allen Levenson of AutoMobility Advisors at MOVE America.