October 22, 2026 – SERES Group has been named to both Forbes China’s “2026 Best Employers” and “2026 Best ESG Practice Employers” lists, the company’s vice president Kang Bo announced on social media. He said SERES has firmly integrated talent development and ESG principles into every aspect of its operations to create long-term value.
The Forbes China Best Employers selection, now in its sixth year, took four months to complete and evaluated companies from both employer and employee perspectives through public applications and anonymous surveys. The program includes a main “Best Employer” award and three sub-categories: Best AI Practice Employer, Best ESG Practice Employer, and Most Popular Employer Among Staff.
The assessment framework is built on three pillars: employer questionnaires accounting for 40 percent, covering organizational effectiveness, AI innovation, employee development and corporate social responsibility; employee voting at 40 percent through anonymous scoring by current staff; and public opinion evaluation plus corporate qualification review at 20 percent, requiring that applicants have no major labor safety incidents or disputes during the year.
The dual recognition adds to a growing list of ESG honors for SERES. In May 2026, the company was included on Fortune China’s ESG Impact List, one of the few new-energy vehicle makers to make the cut. It has also earned the highest AAA rating from MSCI, making it the only A-share listed automaker to achieve that grade. The company targets carbon peak by 2030, carbon neutrality in its own operations by 2045, and near-zero emissions across its full value chain by the same year. In 2025, its per-vehicle carbon emission intensity fell 18.92 percent year on year, and renewable energy already accounted for 36.14 percent of manufacturing power use, ahead of its own 2030 target.
On the talent front, SERES has built a diversified compensation system and long-term incentive mechanisms to retain core contributors. Senior management and key team members increased their shareholdings during 2025, reflecting strong alignment with the company’s culture and direction. The AITO brand, jointly developed with Huawei, made its debut on Brand Finance’s Global Auto Brand Value Top 100 in 2026, valued at $3.448 billion and ranked as the number-one Chinese luxury automotive brand.
Kang Bo has been a frequent public voice for SERES in 2026, appearing at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Sustainable Global Leaders Conference in Shanghai, the People’s Daily China Brand Forum, and the Summer Davos in Dalian. His messaging has consistently centered on three themes: open collaboration as the company’s DNA, AI as the engine driving the next phase of automotive innovation, and ESG as a strategic investment rather than a compliance cost.
The Forbes recognition underscores how Chinese new-energy automakers are increasingly competing not just on product and price, but on how they treat their people and manage their environmental footprint. For SERES, the dual listing signals that its four-decade evolution, from a spring factory founded in 1986 to a premium EV maker with over a million users, is being measured by the same sustainability standards applied to global peers.
