Technological innovation, as the primary driving force for the development of China’s digital economy, plays an important role in triggering industrial transformation and giving birth to emerging industries.An empirical analysis on the mechanism and path of the impact of panel data from Chinese new energy vehicle listed companies from 2012 to 2022 were conducted. Research has found that the digital economy significantly enhances the technological innovation capability of the new energy vehicle industry. The digital economy drives innovation in state-owned new energy vehicle enterprises more strongly than in private enterprises. Compared to western cities, the digital economy has greater innovation in new energy vehicle technology in eastern cities. Therefore, in the field of new energy vehicles, fully leveraging its big data resources and information advantages is an inevitable trend to lead the development of the new energy vehicle industry.