From Technology Competition to Ecosystem Competition: Cao Cao Mobility’s Full-Element Breakthrough Path in the China robotaxi market

Accelerated iteration of autonomous driving technology combined with the implementation of urban transportation digitalization has led domestic Robotaxi to gradually move beyond closed-scenario testing and enter the real-road scaled operational cycle, with China also growing into the world’s most active application market for autonomous driving commercialization. The industry’s competitive logic has simultaneously undergone a qualitative change, with sector competition moving beyond single autonomous driving technology breakthroughs to comprehensive strength contests integrating operational dispatching, cost control, and business model coupling.

As the most important commercialization vehicle for Geely Holding Group’s Robotaxi business, Cao Cao Mobility leverages its tripartite full-element closed-loop ecosystem of “smart customized vehicles + intelligent driving technology + intelligent operations” to enter the autonomous driving sector, deeply participating in the domestic Robotaxi industrial transformation within the China robotaxi market.

Currently, technology-oriented enterprises such as Baidu Apollo, Pony.ai, and WeRide continue to expand their multi-city trial operational footprints, continuously accumulating real-road test data. Unlike technology-origin peers, Cao Cao Mobility advances autonomous driving pilot deployment based on its mature shared mobility network, driving the industry away from fragmented demonstration operational models and accelerating the industry’s entry into the scaled implementation cycle. Industry consensus is already clear: the core competitiveness of the Robotaxi industry is no longer whether technology can be implemented, but whether the business can operate long-term. Balancing driving safety, capacity operational efficiency, and full-link costs has become the core proposition for industry breakthrough.

As of December 31, 2025, Cao Cao Mobility’s service network covers 195 cities nationwide, with over 1.9 billion completed ride fulfillment orders, annual revenue of RMB 20.2 billion, up 38% year-on-year, gross margin of 9.4%, monthly active users of 41.3 million and monthly active drivers of 631,000, with Q4 adjusted net profit turning positive, entering a profitable growth channel. The positive profitability of the core mobility business provides Cao Cao Mobility’s Robotaxi business with stable cash flow, massive mobility data, and a dispatching algorithm foundation.

Currently, Cao Cao Mobility has deployed over 100 Robotaxi vehicles for regular operations in Binjiang District and Xiaoshan central area, while simultaneously deploying Green Smart Transit Islands adapted to Robotaxi operational scenarios, integrating automatic battery swapping, vehicle cleaning, interior management, cloud dispatching, and automatic settlement, with a complete standardized construction and maintenance plan that can be rapidly replicated nationwide, building a domestically unique capacity-plus-infrastructure integrated operational model.

Persistently high full-cycle operational costs have always been the core challenge constraining domestic Robotaxi scaled deployment. Autonomous driving vehicles carry high-precision sensors and onboard computing hardware, combined with cumbersome maintenance and inefficient energy replenishment, significantly extending the industry’s profitability cycle. Currently, purpose-built development appears to be the optimal solution for reducing Robotaxi total cost of ownership.

The Eva Cab, with Cao Cao Mobility’s deep participation in product definition and R&D, is China’s first purpose-built Robotaxi, with the model eliminating the steering wheel and front passenger seat structures, adapted for 7×24 high-frequency operational scenarios, and will enter mass production in 2027, with plans to deploy 100,000 Robotaxi vehicles cumulatively by 2030. The vehicle’s design life can reach 2-3 times that of ordinary passenger vehicles, with key component lifespans also exceeding ordinary passenger vehicles, significantly extended maintenance cycles, and dual-low procurement and maintenance costs, ensuring fleet asset returns with extremely low TCO and paving the way for scaled profitability.

The globalization dimension simultaneously broadens Robotaxi’s commercialization space. In 2026, Cao Cao Mobility successively advanced multiple cross-border cooperations, linking with Abu Dhabi’s K2 Group to launch Middle East road testing within the year, and partnering with May Mobility to implement European autonomous driving operational projects, exporting its entire mature operational system outward, becoming a key element for winning the competitive race.

Overall, the domestic Robotaxi industry has bid farewell to conceptual technology validation and entered a substantive commercialization deepening cycle, with industrial technology difficulty and operational complexity simultaneously rising, and autonomous driving mobility also gradually being incorporated into new urban transportation systems.

Positioned in the industry transformation cycle, Cao Cao Mobility leverages its profitable existing mobility foundation, purpose-built customized vehicle R&D capabilities, and global collaborative layout to continuously refine its tripartite closed-loop ecosystem, steadily advancing Robotaxi’s scaled, market-oriented, and global implementation, providing a practical, replicable, and exportable industry model for domestic smart mobility industrialization development in the China robotaxi market.