Setting Out Again from Cologne: Foton and TÜV Rheinland Launch a New Phase of Global Strategic Cooperation
Recently, BAIC Foton Automobile Co., Ltd. ("Foton Motor") and Germany's TÜV Rheinland Group ("TÜV Rheinland") signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement in Cologne, the home of TÜV Rheinland's global headquarters. The two parties will establish a regular communication mechanism covering complete vehicles, systems, components and extended industries, and will deepen cooperation in key areas including intelligent connected vehicles and data security, new energy vehicle testing and certification, multi-market access for complete vehicles and components, supply chain quality assurance, carbon footprint and other sustainability services. This marks a new stage in a partnership that has now endured for more than two decades.
Representatives from both sides attended the signing ceremony, including Liu Xuguang, Executive Vice President of Foton Motor, and Wu Zongtian, President of its Overseas Business Division; and Thomas Quernheim, Senior Vice President Global Engineering and Type Approval, Mobility Services of TÜV Rheinland, together with Sergey Amirkhanov, Senior Vice President Mobility Services for Central & Eastern Europe.
The signing took place on the occasion of the 2026 IAA TRANSPORTATION show in Hanover. During the exhibition, Foton Motor held a dedicated launch event, officially releasing its Europe strategy, completing the delivery of its 13,000,000th vehicle worldwide — an Auman Galaxy 9 — to the European market, and achieving the overseas premiere of the CAVAN BEACON heavy truck.
Aimed at the vision of "becoming a world-class commercial vehicle enterprise," Foton Motor has set development targets of a 50% share of new energy sales and a 40% internationalization rate by 2030. As the core hub market of Foton Motor's globalization strategy, Europe will be the key battleground for the company's brand upgrading toward the high end and its international advancement. TÜV Rheinland will continue to act as a long-term, dependable partner, supporting Foton Motor in accelerating its integration into the European market and reaching new heights of globalization.
"For more than twenty years, TÜV Rheinland has been a trusted partner of Foton Motor in the fields of engineering and type approval," said Thomas Quernheim. "This signing reflects not only the depth of our cooperation, but also the enormous room for development ahead. As Foton Motor advances its Europe strategy, TÜV Rheinland is ready to leverage its global network, regulatory expertise and testing and certification capabilities to help Foton enter Europe and other global markets more safely, more efficiently and more swiftly."
Liu Xuguang stated: "This in-depth exchange with TÜV Rheinland has given us a further understanding of the latest trends in European whole-vehicle type approval, regulatory differences among member states, in-service vehicle emission conformity testing, autonomous driving approval and vehicle data compliance, providing valuable references for Foton Motor to refine its European business layout. In the future, Foton Motor will continue to deepen localization in the European market. Relying on its own products, technology and global operating capabilities, and working more closely with TÜV Rheinland, we will expand the depth of cooperation in regulatory certification, technical compliance, intelligent driving and data security, and localized services — jointly enabling Chinese commercial vehicle enterprises to enter Europe and integrate into Europe with higher standards of products and services, and achieve long-term sustainable development."
The cooperation between TÜV Rheinland and Foton Motor began in 2005, with the first strategic cooperation agreement concluded in 2017. Over more than twenty years the two sides have continuously deepened collaboration in the field of global market access. TÜV Rheinland has to date supported more than one hundred Foton Motor models in completing testing and certification, covering numerous countries and regions worldwide. During this period, Foton Motor's Key Laboratory of Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction gained TÜV Rheinland accreditation, and the Electromagnetic Compatibility Laboratory of Foton Motor's Testing Center also obtained the status of a TÜV Rheinland witness laboratory for E-mark certification.
In addition, TÜV Rheinland helped the Foton Blue智 M4 — Foton's Zhilan M4 electric truck — obtain EU Whole Vehicle Type Approval (WVTA), achieving an important breakthrough in access to the EU market. It also supported a subsidiary's Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) product in obtaining a Separate Technical Unit (STU) type approval certificate, delivering further cost reduction and efficiency gains. In 2025, TÜV Rheinland was awarded the "Best Business Support Award" at the Foton Motor Global Partner Conference, becoming the only technical service institution partner to receive this honour.
From the first handshake in 2005 to today, more than twenty years of accumulated mutual trust is being converted into strategic synergy for the future. Taking this signing as an opportunity, the two parties will achieve collaboration and win-win outcomes at a deeper level and across a wider range of fields, helping Foton Motor accelerate its integration into Europe and its advance onto the global stage, and jointly writing a new chapter in the internationalization of China's commercial vehicle industry.