VW Gets L3 Road Test Permit in Hefei, Eyes 2027 Readiness

Volkswagen has secured a road test permit for L3 autonomous driving (conditional automation, where the system drives under defined conditions) in Hefei, Anhui province, and has begun real-world testing and data collection in the city. Volkswagen China said in a Monday statement that the permit moves the group toward its target of L3 technology readiness in 2027. The company did not disclose the models covered, the test routes, or the size of the test fleet.

The permit is a testing authorization, not a product approval. A road test permit allows automakers to trial conditional autonomous driving on designated road sections; product approval allows approved vehicles to join road-use pilots on designated sections.

What's the timeline?

Volkswagen has laid out its China L3 schedule before. On April 11, Frank Han, executive vice president of Volkswagen Group China and CEO of Cariad China, told a Beijing forum that Volkswagen would achieve L3 conditional autonomous driving in 2027 and L4 autonomous driving in 2029.

The supplier side backs that timing. On July 22, Volkswagen and Horizon Robotics (HKEX: 9660) said they would deepen collaboration on AI foundation models through their joint venture, Carizon. Under those plans, deliveries of vehicles equipped with Volkswagen's L3 capabilities could begin as early as the second half of 2027.

Carizon, established in December 2023 by Cariad and Horizon Robotics and headquartered in Beijing, will use Horizon Robotics' AI foundation model to build a unified AI driving solution for Volkswagen Group in China. Volkswagen invested about €2.4 billion in the venture and holds a 60% stake. The solution will run on the C7H system-on-chip, still in development, together with the GAIA world model data platform (a simulated-driving data system) to support L3 and L4 deployment.

Where does China's regulatory picture stand?

China is gradually opening the door to commercial L3 applications. In December 2025, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology granted its first conditional L3 product approvals for regular passenger vehicles. The approved models: the Deepal SL03 from Changan Automobile (SZSE: 000625) and the Arcfox Alpha S from BAIC Group.

An MIIT official said on October 22 that work on a second batch of L3 product approval pilots is underway, without naming the automakers or models involved.

What does this change for VW in China?

The Hefei permit gives Volkswagen a legitimate path to collect Chinese road data for a market where local rivals already hold product approvals — a gap the German OEM needs to close before 2027 deliveries. Testing now, two years ahead of target, keeps that schedule credible.

Volkswagen China will hold its first Technology Day in Hefei on Wednesday, October 28, to showcase its latest technology advances.

What to watch next: whether Volkswagen discloses test fleet details or routes, whether any VW model lands in MIIT's second L3 approval batch, and the C7H chip's development milestones toward the second-half 2027 delivery window.