On 22 October 2026 China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) opened public comments on a draft decision amending six of its regulations. Two of them govern market access for cars: the measures for road motor vehicle manufacturers and products, and the provisions for new energy vehicle makers. The notice and draft text give the public until 22 November, and the date the changes would take effect is left blank.
The update clause
The headline change is a new Article 30. Suppose a manufacturer changes smart-cockpit, driving-automation or other functions through a software upgrade or a change to cloud-side configuration. Or suppose it upgrades driving-automation hardware such as sensors and controllers. If the change could affect the car's safety, environmental, energy-saving or anti-theft performance, the manufacturer must make sure the car still meets Chinese law and technical standards, and it must file with MIIT before the change is carried out.
China already asks for something similar. A February 2025 notice from MIIT and the market regulator, SAMR, requires carmakers to file over-the-air updates before they roll out. It also requires a permit for changes to main technical parameters and for automated-driving functions, according to a summary by the law firm CMS. The draft writes the filing duty into the access regulation itself, which gives it the force of a ministerial regulation, and it names cloud configuration and hardware next to software.
What else is in the draft
| Change | What the draft says |
|---|---|
| Exterior marking | Trademark, manufacturer name and model name in a prominent place on the outside of the car; details to follow separately |
| Conditional access | Products that miss the access conditions because of new technology, processes or materials may apply for conditional approval; so may small-batch special-purpose vehicles, such as rescue, emergency or competition vehicles |
| Monitoring | The national new energy vehicle monitoring platform becomes the road motor vehicle safety monitoring platform, and carmakers' own platforms must link to it more closely |
| Inspections | MIIT may delegate supervisory checks of manufacturers to provincial authorities |
| Testing | Makers may choose any accredited lab, but whole-vehicle tests need a lab with national-level accreditation |
Why it matters for Tesla
Tesla leans on over-the-air updates more than most carmakers. In August it fixed a Chinese recall of 2,740,642 cars over driver monitoring with a software update. Drive Tesla argues that the extra step could affect how often Chinese owners see new features.
The hardware clause is the newer one. Tesla still has no firm plan for Hardware 3 owners. Under the draft, though, any computer or camera retrofit in China would have to be filed before the first car is touched. Features that Tesla switches on from its servers rather than with a new software build would be covered on the same terms.
This is MIIT's second draft on car rules this month. The first was the four-ministry draft banning fully hidden door handles and folding screens.
How Europe compares
Europe regulates the process rather than each release. UN Regulation No. 156 has applied to every new car registered in the EU since July 2024. Under it, a carmaker needs an approved software-update management system. An update that affects a type-approved system has to be cleared with the approval authority, which for Tesla is the Dutch RDW. China, by contrast, has each qualifying change filed with the ministry, and the draft would put that duty into a ministerial regulation.