Wuhu Sets 15th Five-Year Goal: Auto Industry to Top 1 Trillion Yuan, 2025 GDP at 540.3 Billion

At a recent press conference themed "Setting Sail for the 15th Five-Year Plan and Striving Forward," Wuhu city in Anhui province clarified its development goals for the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030): achieving a major breakthrough in building a modern provincial sub-center, with the city's economic aggregate further increasing its share of the province's total, improving its ranking in the Yangtze River Delta, and rising in national rankings. Among these, the city aims for its automobile industry scale to exceed 1 trillion yuan. In recent years, Wuhu's economic aggregate has continued to climb in national rankings, with its leading industry—automobiles—serving as the core support.

Wuhu Mayor Xu Zhi announced the city's achievements over the past five years: an average annual GDP growth rate of 6.8%, per capita GDP reaching 142,000 yuan in 2025, and the city's GDP ranking among prefecture-level cities rising from 57th to 55th nationally. Total imports and exports grew 2.3 times compared to the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period, with an average annual growth of 26.8%. Wuhu has evolved from "learning from Hefei and catching up with Hefei" to "benchmarking against Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai and catching up with top performers," continuously broadening its development horizons.

In the first half of 2026, China exported 5.096 million vehicles, with Anhui province alone exporting 1.006 million vehicles, ranking first nationally in both export volume and value. Among these, Wuhu exported 763,000 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 118.3%, the fastest growth in the country, accounting for 76% of Anhui's total exports. In 2025, Anhui's automobile production reached 3.687 million vehicles, surpassing Guangdong to top the nation, with Wuhu producing 1.801 million vehicles, nearly half of the province's total. Wuhu's automobile output has already exceeded that of established auto cities such as Shanghai and Changchun, approaching Guangzhou. From 2021 to 2024, Wuhu's automobile production grew by 56.2%, 36.5%, 10.7%, and 35.9% year-on-year respectively; in 2025, it grew by 10.2%, ranking among the fastest-growing cities with output exceeding one million vehicles.

As early as 2023, Wuhu issued an action plan proposing to reach 3 million vehicles in production and 600 billion yuan in industry scale by 2025, and 5 million vehicles and 1 trillion yuan in industry scale by 2027. In 2025, Wuhu's automobile industry revenue exceeded 680 billion yuan, but actual production fell short of the 3 million vehicle target. In the 2026 Wuhu government work report, the timeline for the automobile industry scale to exceed 1 trillion yuan was adjusted to the end of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, and this press conference also incorporated it into the 15th Five-Year Plan development goals.

Since March 2026, leaders of six provinces including Hunan, Anhui, and Henan have held intensive meetings with BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu. More than a month before Anhui's provincial party secretary and governor met with Wang Chuanfu, Wuhu Party Secretary Ningbo visited BYD Group for "door-to-door investment promotion" and held working talks with Wang. Ningbo expressed hope that BYD would leverage its role as a leading enterprise to drive more ecosystem partners into Wuhu's automobile industry chain. Wang stated that BYD would actively promote business layout and project construction to support Wuhu's high-quality development. Ningbo previously noted in an interview that Wuhu's automobile industry still has significant room for improvement in key component supply and ecosystem development.

In 2021, Anhui's 14th Five-Year Plan outline proposed supporting Wuhu in building a provincial sub-center city. In March 2023, the Anhui Provincial Government General Office issued opinions clarifying that Wuhu's GDP should strive to reach 800 billion yuan by 2027 and enter the top 20 in the Yangtze River Delta. In 2025, Wuhu's GDP was 540.3 billion yuan, ranking 21st in the Yangtze River Delta. To achieve the above target, the average annual economic increment over the next two years needs to reach 130 billion yuan.

This press conference further clarified the 15th Five-Year Plan development goals: "One major breakthrough" refers to achieving a major breakthrough in building a modern provincial sub-center, focusing on three further improvements—the share of the province's total economic aggregate, the ranking in the Yangtze River Delta, and the national ranking. "Six new leaps" refer to new leaps in building an innovative city, an automobile city, a smart computing city, a hub city, a happy city, and a joyful city. Around the "automobile city" goal, the local government will promote the leading automobile industry to become stronger and more advanced, focusing on the trinity of "complete vehicles—parts—aftermarket" to extend and strengthen the supply chain, and building a "person·car·home" full-scenario ecological value chain.

Among the 40 pilot cities for automobile circulation and consumption reform announced by the Ministry of Commerce and seven other departments, Hefei and Wuhu were both selected. Hefei focuses on exploring a new model of integrated automobile production-sales management services, while Wuhu focuses on green transformation of automobile consumption and used car circulation. In 2025, Wuhu exported 1.351 million vehicles, up 17.3%, accounting for 82% of Anhui's total and 19% of the national total—meaning one in every five exported vehicles nationwide was made in Wuhu. The export value of complete vehicles and parts exceeded 110 billion yuan. In the same year, Wuhu's total imports and exports exceeded 190 billion yuan, up 32.4%, ranking first among non-provincial-capital cities in central China, with growth rate ranking first among major foreign trade cities nationwide.