Auto Spring Featured by CMG as BOTIX Drives the Transformation of Inland Shipping Through Technology Innovation

“Her Chinese name is Jingzhe, and after Jingzhe comes spring.” During an interview with China Media Group (CMG), Chen Hao, Party Secretary of Huzhou, highlighted Auto Spring, BOTIX’s purpose-designed, next-generation green intelligent vessel, as a prime example of Huzhou opening a new chapter through practical innovation.

The interview was part of Innovative Zhejiang: Dialogue 2026 — Interviews with Party Secretaries and Mayors of Zhejiang’s 11 Cities, a special series produced by CMG’s Zhejiang Station during the 2026 Zhejiang Provincial Two Sessions. The series showcased the province’s progress in pursuing high-quality development, advancing its demonstration zone for common prosperity, and moving toward basic modernization during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.

“Last year, Huzhou began developing Zhejiang Province’s first green vessel manufacturing base,” Chen said. “By 2030, the city plans to deploy 1,800 electric vessels in the 1,000-tonne class and build a RMB 50 billion green vessel manufacturing industry. These efforts are closely aligned with the development of Innovative Zhejiang, Beautiful Zhejiang and Shipping Zhejiang.”

To support the high-quality development of the Shipping Zhejiang initiative and national transportation development pilot projects, Huzhou has opened Zhejiang’s first new energy vessel demonstration route as part of a green shipping corridor. The deployment of Auto Spring and other new energy vessels marks Huzhou’s transition from zero-emission electric shipping toward the deeper integration of green and intelligent technologies.

Auto Spring has already demonstrated significant benefits in reducing inland shipping energy consumption and carbon emissions. On a comparable voyage, a conventional diesel-powered vessel incurs an energy cost of approximately RMB 3,000, while Auto Spring requires only around RMB 1,500. It also reduces carbon dioxide emissions by approximately nine tonnes, reportedly equivalent to the amount absorbed by 150,000 trees in one day.

BOTIX is also accelerating the green and intelligent transformation of inland shipping. Auto Spring is equipped with BOTIX’s fully in-house-developed autonomous navigation system, designed to support berth-to-berth, end-to-end autonomous navigation. Its scalable architecture can be adapted to inland vessels with different propulsion systems, helping improve navigational safety and operational efficiency.

As the system’s end-to-end autonomous navigation capabilities mature and applicable operational and regulatory requirements are met, onboard staffing could potentially be reduced from two or three crew members to one. Intelligent route optimization and decision-and-control capabilities are also expected to deliver energy savings of at least 5%.

BOTIX has pioneered an integrated vessel-shore-cloud architecture for maritime autonomy. As the technology evolves from individual vessel autonomy toward coordinated fleet operations, BOTIX projects that fleetwide crew requirements could be reduced by 80%, while overall energy consumption could be lowered by 10%.

As China enters the 15th Five-Year Plan period, BOTIX will continue supporting the high-quality development of Shipping Zhejiang and inland shipping. Driven by real-world applications, the company will strengthen investment in research and development, consolidate its capabilities in artificial intelligence and maritime autonomy, and advance the core technologies required for the green and intelligent transformation of shipping.

Through continued innovation, BOTIX aims to provide robust technological support for the arrival of a safer, more efficient and more intelligent era of inland shipping.