Industrial policy is an important tool for developing countries to protect their own industries and improve innovation capabilities. This paper takes China’s new energy vehicle industry as an example, and uses the number of invention patents as a measure of independent innovation capability in order to analyze the impact mechanism of industrial policy on innovation. The estimation results of difference-in-differences and propensity score matching estimations show that the “Ten Cities Thousand Vehicles Project” for promoting the new energy vehicle industry has indeed increased the number of invention patents filed in new energy automobile manufacturers, as compared with traditional automakers. This paper also provides empirical evidence and statistical support for the implementation of industrial policies.