[By Zhou Tao/Shanghai Daily]

The indigenous auto industry in China is a fascinating topic for those studying national technology development and industrial policies.

And the auto show in Shanghai provides a rare glimpse into how China's automobile technology has been advancing vis-a-vis its competing global giants.

To many experts in the industry, the very definition of "indigenous" is an emotionally charged word subject to controversies.

Overall, domestically developed automobiles come from two camps, one that I call the Greenfield camp, consisting of companies that are indigenous from the very beginning, such as Chery, BYD, and Geely, and the other that I call the "Derivative" camp, consisting of companies that started off as joint venture (JV) partners with global giants, but are now starting to roll off cars under their own brand names.

I won't take sides on the "indigenous" definition war, as in my opinion, all roads lead to Rome. In this piece, I will talk just about the Greenfield indigenous companies, which I call the three musketeers including Chery, BYD and Geely.

Behind the glitzy new concept cars on display, my largest impression of the Shanghai Auto Show lies in the technology area - the three musketeers are catching up rapidly with their global giant competitors in powertrain technologies and new alternative power technologies.