AS evening fell over Xiatang Township in eastern China, a local night market was bustling with activity. Restaurants and open-air food stalls were filled with diners, a majority of them from the nearby factory of China’s leading new energy vehicle (NEV) giant BYD.
A popular local saying captures the transformation of this small township in Changfeng County in Hefei, capital of Anhui Province: In the past, one sesame seed cake was made every one minute. Today, one NEV rolls off the production line every minute.
Driven by the rapid growth of China’s NEV industry, the once-impoverished county has undergone a dramatic industrial revival. Changfeng County was removed from China’s poverty list in 2012. Currently, it ranks among Anhui’s leading county-level economies, driven largely by the rapid expansion of the NEV sector. The county has played a significant role in Anhui’s automotive success. In 2025, the province reported the largest automobile and NEV production volume among all provincial regions across China, with Changfeng alone producing 810,000 NEVs, accounting for 45 percent of the total NEV output in Anhui Province.
Xinhua
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