APAC Mobility Trends 

Executive Summary

This session covered key mobility trends across Southeast Asia (SEA), Japan, and China. The region is the fastest-growing mobility market globally, but it is also highly heterogeneous, with each sub-region pursuing distinct strategies shaped by local economic conditions, demographics, and policy priorities.

1. Regional Overviews

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia is evolving from a traditional manufacturing hub into an “Intelligence Hub.”

Strategies vary significantly by country:

• Thailand is focused on defending its long-standing automotive manufacturing leadership.

• Singapore is positioning itself as an AI orchestration hub, leveraging its strong digital infrastructure.

• Indonesia is capitalizing on its abundant raw materials to build a competitive battery and EV supply chain.
  
  

Japan

Japan’s mobility strategy is primarily driven by a severe labor shortage and rapidly aging population. The country is increasingly relying on advanced technologies—particularly physical AI, robotics, and autonomous driving—to maintain critical social infrastructure, including logistics, transportation, and elderly care.

China

China is shifting from simply deploying robots at scale to building a “Data Firewall” strategy. This involves collecting vast amounts of real-world operational data to train and refine foundation models, ultimately enabling the deployment of more capable embodied AI systems.

2. Key Technology Pillars

Pillar 1: General-Purpose Physical AI & Robotics

Southeast Asia

Adoption is currently focused on collaborative robots (cobots) rather than humanoids, largely due to cost considerations relative to Japan. However, adoption is accelerating rapidly. For example, physical AI adoption in Singapore is projected to increase from 53% to 84% by 2026.

Japan

Japan is transitioning from highly specialized industrial machines toward general-purpose humanoid robots capable of performing complex tasks in areas such as logistics and eldercare. Japanese companies are aiming to differentiate through precision, delicateness, and tactile capabilities, including technologies such as remote tactile sensing.

China

China is aggressively deploying humanoid robots in automotive factories, including pilots at manufacturers such as NIO and Volkswagen. A key technological focus is visual-tactile fusion, including electronic skin and dynamic grasping systems, which aim to enable robots to achieve human-level dexterity.

Pillar 2: Software-Defined Vehicles (SDV) & AI

Southeast Asia

The SDV market in Southeast Asia is projected to grow rapidly, with an estimated 21% CAGR, driven by the presence of major automotive manufacturers such as Toyota and VinFast, as well as supportive government policies.

Japan

Traditional Japanese OEMs—including Toyota, Nissan, and Honda—have formed the ASRA association to jointly develop high-performance computing (HPC) SoCs to remain competitive globally. In parallel, they are building proprietary vehicle operating systems, including Toyota’s Arene and Honda’s OS platforms.

China

China is rapidly shifting toward map-less, end-to-end autonomous driving architectures. Due to the cost and fragility of HD mapping systems, Chinese OEMs such as XPeng, Huawei, and Li Auto are deploying Bird’s Eye View (BEV) perception combined with transformer models to enable autonomous navigation without pre-mapped environments.

Pillar 3: Circular Mobility & Economy

Southeast Asia

Battery recycling is still in the early adoption phase and often depends on international partnerships due to high capital requirements. An example is VinFast’s collaboration with Li-Cycle to develop battery recycling capabilities.

Japan

In Japan, Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) is increasingly being designed to address social isolation and rural mobility challenges. For example:

• Suzuki is developing “Mokuba,” modular quadruped mobility platforms aimed at elderly users.

• Toyota’s Woven City serves as a living testbed for future mobility systems, infrastructure, and integrated services.
  
  

China

China is leveraging AI-driven battery health prediction and blockchain-based traceability systems—often referred to as Battery Passports—to support supply chain transparency. These initiatives are partly driven by EU regulatory requirements and China’s 2030/2060 carbon neutrality goals.

Pillar 4: Energy Integration & Smart Infrastructure

Southeast Asia

Countries across the region are prioritizing interoperability across EV charging networks and standardization of Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technologies, enabling cross-border EV charging and energy exchange.

Japan

Japan is developing the Uranus Ecosystem, a data-sharing initiative designed to interconnect with Europe’s Catena-X network. The ecosystem also leverages high-precision 3D mapping technologies to improve disaster resilience and infrastructure planning.

China

China is developing Net-Zero Smart Ports, integrating V2G systems, hydrogen energy infrastructure, and autonomous logistics networks. 2026 is expected to be a pivotal year for the large-scale commercialization of V2G technologies.

3. Q&A and Closing Insights

Collaboration Styles

In both Japan and China, large traditional corporations remain relatively conservative in their approach to innovation. As a result, collaboration with startups often proves faster and more effective than traditional corporate-to-corporate partnerships, particularly when rapid experimentation and agility are required.

Blockchain in China

China’s blockchain strategy has shifted away from private chains toward government-backed public infrastructure, particularly the Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN). This approach aims to ensure regulatory compliance, interoperability, and trusted digital infrastructure across industries.