Catena-X, CAAM and VDA Launch First China Pilot with 50 Companies, Advancing Global Data Collaboration
The event follows the strategic Memorandum of Understanding signed in April
Shanghai, July 23, 2025 – Catena-X, in partnership with the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) and the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), successfully hosted its first dedicated pilot event in China to onboard 50 Chinese companies. The event follows the strategic Memorandum of Understanding signed in April and marks a significant step in implementing a trusted, interoperable data ecosystem in one of the world’s most important automotive markets.
The event introduced the Catena-X China Pilot Program, attracting significant interest from Chinese OEMs, suppliers and ecosystem partners. This was the first time that Catena-X had been at the center of a full-scale event in China, presenting its vision and the concrete path to technical onboarding and business impact.
“This pilot shows that Catena-X is a truly global initiative. It demonstrates our commitment to co-develop a global and trusted data space together with strong partners in China,” said Claus Cremers, Member of the Board at Catena-X. “We aim to onboard at least 50 Chinese companies to the pilot by IAA in September, starting with practical use cases like Certificate and Quality Management that demonstrate value with minimal complexity.”
The pilot runs until the end of 2025 and focuses on two core use cases: Certificate Management and Quality Management. These were chosen because they are relevant to the business and easy to implement. At the event, Bosch demonstrated the advantages of data-driven quality collaboration, such as the ability to detect defects earlier and enable cross-company traceability. The presentation demonstrated how Catena-X enhances responsiveness, mitigates risk and facilitates compliance throughout the supply chain.
Frank Göller, Catena-X’s VP of Internationalisation, presented the company’s overarching vision and the technical foundation that enables Catena-X to serve as a scalable, standards-based framework for global data exchange. Meanwhile, Managing Director Michael Hahn outlined the pilot’s plan. Contributions were also made by CAAM on China’s data space strategy and by local OEM Chery, who offered perspectives on early adoption and cross-border potential.
Next Milestone: IAA Mobility 2025
The shared goal is to present the first results of the Catena-X China Pilot at IAA Mobility in Munich. The pilot offers a free test environment, simplified onboarding via local partners, and full guidance in Chinese. It is designed to lower the barrier to entry while laying the groundwork for scalable international collaboration.
About Catena-X
Catena-X is the first end-to-end, collaborative and open data ecosystem for the automotive industry, connecting all players along the value chain. The Catena-X association acts as a neutral governance to enable standardized, interoperable and data-sovereign collaboration and drive innovation, increase efficiency and compliance across the entire data ecosystem. Catena-X is compliant with international data space standards and serves as a model for all Manufacturing-X initiatives by shaping the development of standardized data ecosystems in other industries. Founded in 2021, the association has hubs in the USA, China, Spain, Sweden and France and more than 300 individuals from various players in the automotive industry working in more than 40 expert groups to develop future standards.