Tesla has signed a cooperation agreement with Alipay to bring the payment platform’s in-car assistant to its vehicles in China, starting with a smart parking payment service, Chinese outlet Jiemian reported on Tuesday.
Tesla plans to add the Alipay in-car assistant’s smart parking service to its infotainment system in China, allowing owners to pay parking fees quickly and securely on the car’s screen after a future software update.
“More convenience features for in-car lifestyle scenarios are under development,” Tesla said.
Jiemian said it had learned that the two companies “formally signed” a cooperation agreement for an in-car assistant project.
The reports also did not say when the update would arrive, which models it would cover, how many parking lots would accept the payments.
Owners will be able to pay without taking out their phones to scan a code or use a ‘Mini Program’ from WeChat.
Alipay’s Push Into the Cabin
Alipay, which is operated by Ant Group, launched an in-car product called Alipay Co-Driver in May 2024.
The product combined in-car payment and mini programs, and Alipay already offered more than 40 car-related services, including charging, refueling, parking and highway tolls.
In July 2025, Alipay and Li Auto announced that the Alipay in-car assistant app had gone live in Li Auto’s app center, letting drivers order coffee or pay fees by voice.
Payments on Li Auto cars required owners to activate face payment, verified through a cabin camera above the front seats.
Li Auto’s i6 SUV, launched in September 2025, added a feature that uses the car’s cameras to find and scan a parking lot’s payment QR code as the vehicle drives.
At the time, the assistant had been deployed in 66 models from 16 brands, covering more than 10 million vehicles, including cars from BYD, Xpeng, Nio, Geely and Dongfeng.
Abao Takes the Wheel
On June 16, Alipay launched Abao, an AI assistant built into its app.
At Ant Group’s Inclusion Bund Conference in Shanghai in September, Alipay said its Abao in-car services covered 17 major automakers and more than 16 million smart vehicles, with more than 60 new automakers signed as designated partners, according to state broadcaster CNR.
Drivers can say “help me pay the parking fee” or “buy me a movie ticket” to their car’s voice assistant, which then calls up Abao to complete the task.
Alipay also added highway toll payments, in-car movie ticket orders and one-tap refueling at the event.
In mid September, Alipay linked Abao with BYD’s own AI agent on the Denza N8L, letting owners pay parking fees and order coffee by voice, with payments completed after voiceprint verification.
Tesla Opens Up in China
The Alipay deal adds payments to a growing list of Chinese tech partners in Tesla’s cars in the country.
In February, Tencent said it had worked with Tesla to add “WeChat Connect” and “Destination Services” features through an over-the-air update covering more than 1 million Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in China.
The features let owners send locations from WeChat and map apps straight to the car’s navigation and call up merchants’ WeChat mini programs on a phone on arrival.
Tesla began rolling out software update 2026.14.13 in China on July 31, adding ByteDance’s Doubao large language model to the Model 3, Model Y, Model S and Model X.
Doubao requires a Premium Connectivity subscription of 9.99 yuan ($1.48) a month and cannot yet control vehicle functions, the outlet said.
ByteDance’s cloud unit Volcano Engine formally announced the integration on August 19, Jiemian reported, calling it the first time Tesla had built a third-party large model into its cars in China.
Tesla’s terms of service for the Model Y L, launched in August 2025, said it would use both Doubao and DeepSeek, with Doubao handling voice commands and DeepSeek handling AI chat.
In the US, Tesla’s cars use Grok, developed by Elon Musk’s xAI.
Tesla also filed trademark applications for “Tesla Intelligence” in China in December 2025.
Domestic Sales Under Pressure
The localization push comes as Tesla’s sales in China decline while exports from its Shanghai factory surge.
Tesla sold 64,837 vehicles in China in September, down 9.4% from a year earlier and its fourth straight year-over-year monthly decline, according to China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) data.
Giga Shanghai’s wholesale volume, which includes exports, rose 5.0% to 95,366, as exports climbed 58.3% to 30,529.
In the first nine months, Tesla’s domestic sales in China fell 11.9% to 381,088, while exports more than doubled, rising 108.4% to 361,972.
Exports made up 48.7% of the plant’s 743,060 wholesale units in the period, which rose 22.5% from a year earlier.
