在产业技术快速变革背景下，创新驱动对中国汽车产业升级及其价值链重塑的作用机制亟待系统检验。该文以中国汽车制造业为研究对象，基于工业企业数据库、企业工商信息数据库、中国专利数据库、联合国进出口贸易数据库等，从产业演进与空间演化相结合的视角展开分析。首先，系统梳理了改革开放以来中国汽车产业在产业规模扩展、企业主体结构多元化和时空演化方面的特征，进而从全球价值链视角梳理汽车产业由合资主导向新能源与智能网联技术引领的阶段性升级路径。在此基础上，构建回归模型实证检验创新能力对汽车产业出口规模、出口比较优势、生产能力基础以及地区进入汽车产业价值链行为的影响。研究表明，创新能力显著促进汽车产业出口规模扩大与比较优势提升，并通过强化地区生产能力基础，提高地区进入汽车产业链体系的概率，从而推动产业空间扩散与价值链重构；进一步地，应用创新在提升生产能力基础和促进产业进入方面作用更为显著，而基础创新的作用相对有限，表明二者在产业升级中的传导机制存在差异；空间计量结果显示，基础创新具有正向空间溢出效应，而应用创新在竞争性维度上表现出负向溢出，但在生产能力基础方面呈现正向带动作用。研究结论表明，创新已成为连接产业升级与空间重构的重要机制，是推动中国汽车产业由规模扩张向质量提升、由低端嵌入向价值链跃迁转型的关键因素。该文为理解创新驱动下产业升级与空间重构的内在机制提供了经验证据，并为相关产业政策制定提供参考。

Objective: With rapid technological advancements and continuous restructuring of the global automotive industry, innovation has become a central factor in industrial upgrading and value chain repositioning. However, existing studies often focus on industrial growth and technological change separately, overlooking how innovation also affects export performance, production foundations, and regional integration into global value chains. Against this background, this paper investigates the role of innovation in China's automobile manufacturing industry, focusing on its dual effects on industrial evolution and spatial restructuring. It examines whether innovation functions merely as a growth driver or as a structural mechanism linking industrial upgrading and spatial reorganization. Methods: This study constructs a multi-source dataset combining the China Industrial Enterprise Database, firm registration data, the Chinese patent database, and the United Nations Comtrade database. The empirical strategy proceeds as follows. First, a descriptive analysis is conducted to characterize the long-term evolution of China's automobile industry since the reform and opening-up, focusing on changes in production scale, ownership structure, and spatial distribution. Second, the industry's evolution is analyzed through a global value chain framework, highlighting its transition from joint ventures to an innovation-driven structure led by new energy vehicles and intelligent connected technologies. Third, econometric models are used to evaluate how innovation capacity affects export scale, comparative advantages, regional production capacity, and the likelihood of regional entry into the automotive value chain. Innovation is classified into basic and applied innovation types to capture heterogeneous effects, with spatial interaction terms included to consider potential regional spillover effects. Results: The empirical findings suggest several key patterns: First, innovation capacity is positively associated with multiple dimensions of industrial upgrading, leading to stronger export performance and more stable comparative advantages in international markets. Second, innovation boosts regional production capacity, thereby increasing the likelihood of regional participation in the automotive value chain. This suggests that innovation impacts firm-level performance and integrates regions into global production networks. Third, at the spatial level, innovation helps facilitate the diffusion of automotive industry activities across regions, leading to a more dispersed yet increasingly interconnected industrial spatial structure. Fourth, significant heterogeneity exists between types of innovation. Basic innovation tends to generate longer-term and broader spatial spillover effects, whereas applied innovation is more closely associated with short-term improvements in regional performance. Fifth, innovation is closely associated with emerging sectors such as new energy vehicles, where technological advancement and market expansion reinforce each other. Conclusions: Overall, innovation should be understood not only as a driver of industrial growth but also as a structural mechanism connecting industrial upgrading and spatial restructuring. Innovation supports China's automobile industry's transition from extensive expansion to high-quality development and enhances its position in global value chains. The differentiated effects of basic and applied innovation suggest that innovation policy should balance long-term capability building with short-term application support. These findings provide empirical evidence for understanding the trajectory of China's automobile industry and implications for innovation-driven development and value chain optimization.