Beijing Signs Off China’s First 120 km/h L3 Test Permit — Stelato G9 Takes It First

Beijing’s municipal transport regulator has issued China’s first Level-3 autonomous-driving road-test permit valid at speeds up to 120 km/h — and it went to the Stelato G9, the full-size flagship SUV from the BAIC × Huawei premium joint brand. Announced on 15 July 2026, the permit is a regulatory watershed: every previous Chinese L3 test authorisation has been capped at 60-80 km/h for urban corridors. Clearing the expressway band is the concrete step Chinese OEMs have circled for two years but never crossed. For full technical background on the perception stack, MIIT filing and HIMA line-up, see iEVChina’s full coverage of the Stelato G9 Beijing L3 permit.

Key Highlights of the 15 July Announcement

Three items stand out from Stelato’s disclosure. First, the G9 is the first vehicle certified for a Beijing L3 road-test permit valid at speeds up to 120 km/h — a step-change from the 60 km/h ceiling that has bound every prior permit issued to Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, IM and select Zeekr models inside Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing and Shenzhen. Second, the G9’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) type-approval filing is complete, meaning the last national-level paperwork before showroom launch is now on file. Third, every trim ships with the same 8-camera, 4-radar, 3-LiDAR perception suite as standard hardware — anchored by Huawei’s flagship 896-line long-range LiDAR, the same generation deployed on the Avatr 07L.

Why the 120 km/h Ceiling Matters

The regulator gap between 60 km/h and 120 km/h is deliberate. An L3 fault at expressway speed leaves the driver only 3-5 seconds to take over versus roughly 8-10 seconds at urban speed. Certifying a stack for the higher band demands stricter perception redundancy, faster fallback control and demonstrable safe-stop behaviour without human input. Beijing granting Stelato the 120 km/h authorisation signals that regulators now view Huawei’s Qiankun ADS 5 platform as expressway-safe on closing-speed physics. That is a stronger endorsement than any prior L3 test permit issued anywhere in China — and, at 120 km/h, higher than the 95 km/h Mercedes Drive Pilot ceiling cleared in Germany in 2024.

What’s Next for Chinese L3 Rollout

Retail L3 activation for private G9 owners still needs a separate national-level certification and a mapped-expressway corridor list, both of which remain in preparation — industry consensus places production-vehicle L3 for private buyers inside H1 2027. The G9 itself is expected to open pre-orders before the end of July, with a showroom launch inside August 2026 and a starting price above RMB 500,000 (about USD 68,970). Maextro S800 GD is the near-term watch-list item for the next 120 km/h L3 permit; BYD Yangwang U9 Track and IM L6 EREV are the most likely non-HIMA candidates behind it.

Source: autohome.com.cn / 36kr.com / sina.com.cn