This year's Shanghai auto show has a clear message for visitors: China is now a global leader in innovation, and it wants the world to know.
The massive, thrumming exhibition that took place in the country's financial capital over the past two weeks boasted over 60 football fields of floorspace, packed full of carmakers using the event to unveil a raft of new models with curtain-pulling reveals.
To a soundtrack of bass-thumping music, big brands showed off everything from electric batteries that can run for hundreds of miles on a five-minute charge to flying vehicles and cars with cutting-edge assisted driving, while armies of live streamers broadcast the specs to viewers across the country and crowds thronged to check out the new tech.
And unlike in decades past, when cars from legacy makers like GM, Volkswagen or BMW were the showpieces, this year it was China's electric vehicle (EV) vanguard that were the ones to watch.
