China’s automobile market has become an arena for global car companies. As we all know, automobiles will gather a large number of advanced technologies for the next generation and become the biggest carrier, leader and grasp of the new round of scientific and technological revolution. At present, from new energy to intelligence, from sharing to networking, the “new four modernizations” of automobiles that have formed a global consensus are booming in China.
China is the world’s largest automobile market, with the world’s strongest automobile support policy and the world’s largest automobile travel application environment. The global automobile technology road map is competing for victory or defeat in China, and has become an inevitable choice for the development of the automobile industry.
China’s automobile market forces overseas car companies to show their “unusual skills”
Overseas automobile manufacturers have vigorously laid out the new energy vehicle market this year, reflecting the determination to seize the Chinese market in terms of technological research and development, upgrading production lines, and launching new cars. Industry insiders predict that since China will also be the world’s largest new energy vehicle market, overseas car companies will strengthen localization cooperation and the application of new technologies and models.
German cars increase localized production
Since the beginning of this year, German automobile manufacturers have strengthened the layout of China’s new energy market through research and development, cooperative production and other means, on the one hand, to improve their own production efficiency, on the other hand, to show the importance attached to the Chinese market.
Deutsche Welle column pointed out that because China is the world’s most advanced electric vehicle market, German car companies are increasing the layout of the Chinese market.
The article said that Volkswagen has announced that it is going to enter a new era of “fully electric”. By 2024, Volkswagen will invest 15 billion euros in the development of electric vehicles in China and will launch 15 new electric vehicles to the market with Chinese partner companies in the next five years. At present, one-fifth of the Volkswagen models produced in China are pure electric or partially electric.
In Europe, Volkswagen is still far from this goal. In terms of quality, endurance, price, and charging infrastructure, China’s electric vehicle market is the most advanced in the world.
FAW-Volkswagen’s first pure electric SUV ID.4 CROZZ recently appeared at the Guangzhou Auto Show. Previously, ID.4 CROZZ has been pre-sold and will be officially launched early next year.
With the arrival of ID.4 CROZZ, the FAW-Volkswagen electrification strategy will also be accelerated. According to the plan, new energy models will account for 25% of FAW-Volkswagen’s total production by 2025.
In the face of the wave of electrification, FAW-Volkswagen hopes to realize the strategic upgrading of electric products and meet new opportunities in the electric age by building a new NEV ecosystem.
It is reported that FAW-Volkswagen will comprehensively build a NEV ecosystem through the technological innovation of MEB platform, the new E3 electronic and electrical architecture, FAW-Volkswagen Foshan MEB smart factory, 360° full-scene charging service, and agency marketing model innovation.
According to the McKinsey report, by 2024, there will be as many as 600 new electric vehicles worldwide, of which China will rank first with 169; Japan will be followed by 145; and Germany will rank third with 102.
German car manufacturer Daimler also said recently that it will cooperate with China Geely to build the next generation of engines for hybrid vehicles.
“The two companies plan to develop an efficient modular engine.” A Daimler spokesman said that the engine will be made in Europe and China for hybrid vehicles.
The German Business Daily quoted companies and industry sources as saying that most of the engine will be produced in China, and Geely owns 9.69% of Daimler.
In addition, Conlinson, chairman of the board of directors of Daimler AG and chairman of the board of directors of Mercedes-Benz AG, publicly said that Daimler will accelerate the transition to electrification and self-driving, focusing on obtaining recurrent revenue through software services.
Mercedes-Benz will accelerate the “electric first” strategy and make full efforts in 48-volt intelligent motor technology, plug-in hybrid vehicles, pure electric vehicles and other fields. Mercedes-Benz will launch a large-scale pure electric vehicle architecture (EVA) platform in 2021 to produce new pure electric vehicles.
Mercedes-Benz plans to achieve more than 25% of sales of pure electric vehicles by 2025; plug-in hybrid and pure electric vehicles will account for more than 50% of global sales by 2030.
The Maybach S-Class model, which best represents Mercedes-Benz’s luxury attributes, is also being electrified. According to the plan, the new Mercedes-Maybach S-Class will launch plug-in hybrid and pure electric versions.
Industry insiders say that it is expected to get rid of the label of “polluting” and “waste” to a certain extent, and have both green characteristics on the basis of luxury attributes.
Mercedes-Benz’s “electric first” strategy attaches great importance to the Chinese market. The Mercedes-Benz EQC pure electric SUV launched last year is the first luxury pure electric model produced locally in China. It is equipped with power batteries produced at the Beijing Mercedes-Benz power battery factory.
This year, Mercedes-Benz continued to deepen its business relationship with Chinese battery manufacturers, further improving its professional capabilities in the field of power batteries. In the future, Mercedes-Benz will introduce more luxury new energy products to the Chinese market and achieve local production.
American new cars attach importance to market demand
Under the trend of increasing investment in electric vehicle technology and production, American auto manufacturers pay special attention to the demand of the Chinese market.
GM recently announced that it will increase its investment in electric vehicles and self-driving, with a planned investment of 27 billion US dollars over the next five years, surpassing its fuel vehicle project. By the end of 2025, the company will launch 30 pure electric vehicles worldwide.
In the next five years, GM will launch 30 electric vehicles around the world, covering all global brands such as Cadillac, GMC, Buick and Chevrolet, to meet different consumer needs and usage scenarios. Among them, GM will account for more than 40% of the new models launched in China.
Thanks to the flexibility of the Ultraium battery and electric drive technology platform, and the mature application of virtual development tools, GM will complete the development of 12 global electric vehicles ahead of schedule.
Among them, the research and development cycle of GMC Hummer pure electric pickup truck has been shortened from 50 months to 26 months, and will be put into production by the end of 2021. Cadillac’s first electric car, LYRIQ luxury all-electric SUV, will be launched in the first quarter of 2022, nine months ahead of schedule. It is reported that the company plans to recruit 3,000 engineering, design and information technology experts by the first quarter of 2021 to improve the company’s software capabilities and support the research and development of electric vehicle products.
At present, GM has launched more than 10 new energy models in the Chinese market, including the recently released Buick Micro Blue 7 pure electric SUV, Buick Micro Blue 6 plug-in hybrid MAV and Wuling Hongguang MINI EV.
Among them, Hongguang MINI EV was officially launched in July and once surpassed Tesla Model 3 on the top of China’s new energy vehicle sales list. Today, China has become GM’s largest overseas market for many consecutive years.
Fiat Chrysler, another American manufacturer, recently signed a memorandum of strategic cooperation with GAC Group. The two sides will further strengthen cooperation in the Chinese market, accelerate the rapid introduction of products, and improve the market performance of Jeep brand.
At present, there are 7 models on sale under the GAC Fick Jeep brand. According to the plan, Jeep brand will launch 10 plug-in hybrid models and 4 pure electric vehicles by 2022.
Ford Motor’s electrified Mustang Mach-E was officially released in North America at the end of 2019. This pioneering pure electric SUV based on Ford’s world’s first high-performance pure electric platform inherits the Mustang family’s genes for 56 years.
Global automotive technology roadmap competes for victory or defeat in China
In September this year, in North China It debuted in China at the Beijing Auto Show and will officially enter the Chinese market in 2021.
Ford also released the “Ford China 2.0” plan, striving to fulfill the promise of “more Ford and China”. Ford said that it is deepening the Chinese market and promoting the rapid transformation of Ford’s business strategy and business operations into a “consumer-centered” model.
Japanese enterprises are closely watching fuel cell opportunities
As China is further accelerating the development of environmentally friendly cars, Japanese car manufacturers expect China to accelerate the process of transforming fuel vehicles into hybrid vehicles, and even eventually ban the sale of traditional fuel vehicles. Vigorously developing new energy vehicles such as electric vehicles has become the top priority of the development of China’s automobile market.
Japanese car companies are strengthening the sales of new electric vehicle models in the Chinese market, and many car companies choose China as the starting point of some electric vehicles. At the Beijing International Automobile Exhibition held not long ago, Japanese enterprises carefully displayed their electric vehicles.
Toyota shows Lexus’s first electric car that has been sold in China in the spring of 2020. Honda Motors has unveiled a sports utility vehicle (SUV) prototype for the first time in the world, becoming the first Honda brand electric car to be sold in China.
Nissan announced its new electric vehicle abroad for the first time and plans to start selling in the Chinese market in 2021.
According to the financial report released by Toyota Motor Company of Japan, due to the strong recovery of sales in China, North America and other overseas markets, the company’s net profit in this fiscal year (April 2020 to March 2021) will increase from the previously forecast of 7.3 billion yen ($1 USD or about 103 yen) to 1.42 trillion days. The picture shows the Toyota logo taken on the car on display in a Toyota exhibition hall in Tokyo, Japan. Xinhua News Agency/AFP
For a long time, Japan has been leading in the field of hybrid vehicle technology. Japanese hybrid vehicles, represented by Toyota Prius, occupy an important position in the global low-emission vehicle market.
Japanese car companies generally regard the shift from the Chinese market to hybrid vehicles as good, hoping to continue to expand sales in the Chinese market relying on previous results. In late September, Toyota announced that its cumulative sales of hybrid vehicles in China exceeded 1 million.
At the same time, Japan is also focusing on fuel cell vehicle technology. Fuel cell vehicles are regarded as one of the most environmentally friendly technical solutions by reacting hydrogen with oxygen in the air to generate electricity, and only water is emitted during driving. However, due to lack of infrastructure, it will take time for fuel cell vehicles to be popularized.
In June, Toyota announced the establishment of a joint venture fuel cell system research and development company in China. According to the website of Japan Economic News, Toyota will establish a joint venture with five large Chinese automakers to promote the development of hydrogen fuel cells and plan to use it in Toyota’s upcoming fuel cell vehicles.
Toyota hopes to promote infrastructure construction while improving fuel cell performance through cooperation.
Many Japanese car companies plan to increase production capacity in China. According to a recent report by Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun, Nissan Motor Company plans to increase its production capacity in China by about 30% in 2021, from the current about 1.4 million vehicles per year to about 1.8 million vehicles per year.
According to the report, Nissan’s joint venture partners, China Dongfeng Automobile Group’s factories in Wuhan, Hubei Province and Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, will open Nissan’s special production lines, and Nissan’s automobile production bases in China will increase from four to six.
When completed, Nissan’s production capacity will greatly exceed Honda’s production capacity of about 1.49 million vehicles in China and Toyota’s production capacity of about 1.27 million vehicles.
In addition, Toyota began to set up factories in Tianjin and Guangzhou this summer to produce electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles.
Honda’s two factories in Wuhan and Guangzhou this year are expected to increase production capacity by 240,000 vehicles by adding production lines. ( Reporter Yan Lei and Wang Jing Comprehensive Report)
Car companies compete for the new heights of intelligent network connection
At present, the world has entered a period of rapid development of intelligent network connection. Intelligent network connection is not only the transformation of industrial ecology, but also one of the strategic cores of future competition.
Intelligent networking and self-driving are also becoming hot spots for global automobile enterprises and the development trend of automobiles in the future. As the world’s largest new energy vehicle market, China has become a highland for overseas car companies to occupy in the field of intelligent network technology.
In July this year, Ford China announced that it will carry out vehicle-road collaboration based on C-V2X technology on the open test road of intelligent networked vehicles in Changsha, Hunan Province, becoming the first vehicle enterprise to carry out mass-oriented “vehicle-road collaboration” functional testing and commercial applications in Changsha.
Ford expects to push these functions to trial owners through the OTA of SYNC+ Zhixing Information Entertainment System at the end of this year. At that time, car owners can apply for these functions through SYNC+, so that they can take the lead in experiencing the convenience of vehicle-road collaboration for travel on specific open roads in Wuxi and Changsha. Easy and efficient. Ford will continue to optimize the road coordination function according to the feedback of trial owners, so as to prepare for the first model equipped with C-V2X function in China in 2021.
As an advanced vehicle wireless communication technology, C-V2X “vehicle-road collaboration” enables vehicles, signal lights, traffic signs, cyclists and pedestrian communication equipment to be connected, and helps the city create a safe and smooth travel network, which is an important part of intelligent transportation.
Vehicles equipped with C-V2X are like installing “Housands of miles of eyes” can enable car owners to accurately and timely obtain the road information in front of them, improve the perception of vehicles in the blind area of sight, thus reducing collision risk and improving road congestion.
GM pays more attention to introducing the most advanced intelligent network technology in the Chinese market to increase its competitive advantage. It is reported that GM in China will adhere to the development path of dual-line parallel intelligent network connection, and promote the application of mature intelligent driving technology and the research and development of intelligent networked vehicles. In the past 10 years, GM has achieved the leading scale of Internet of Vehicles services in China and established a highly localized R&D capacity and supply chain system.
In the future, GM will gradually promote and upgrade the Super CruiseTM super intelligent driving system in China. Two Cadillac CT6 models equipped with Super CruiseTM super intelligent driving system were launched in China at the end of July.
In the next five years, the system will achieve full coverage of Cadillac brand models and gradually apply them to Buick and Chevrolet brand models. At the same time, GM will accelerate the research and development of intelligent networked vehicles in response to the needs of the Chinese market. The first Buick GL8 equipped with V2X car connection technology will also be launched this year.
Moreover, GM will standardize the Internet of Vehicles for almost all models of Cadillac, Buick and Chevrolet brands. GM will also actively explore 5G, artificial intelligence, smart city and big data and other technologies to create first-class Internet of Vehicles service capabilities. From 2022, 5G functions will be installed in the whole series of Cadillac products and most models of the Buick and Chevrolet brands.
GM will provide higher-quality and more innovative Internet of Vehicles services based on massive Internet of Vehicles user analysis and combined with the latest technological trends.
At the same time, BMW also jointly creates the development and application of intelligent networked vehicles through cooperation with Alibaba Cloud. In July this year, Alibaba Cloud, BMW China, a cloud computing service platform, and the Management Committee of Shanghai Jinqiao Economic and Technological Development Zone and Jinqiao Group signed a four-way strategic cooperation, announcing that the project of “Alibaba Cloud Innovation Center BMW Start-up Garage Joint Innovation Base” officially landed in Pudong Jinqiao.
Gao Le, president and CEO of BMW Group Greater China, said that the automobile industry is currently facing a major transformation driven by technological progress. Multi-party cooperation will incubate the latest innovations together.
Ren Geng, president of Alibaba Cloud Intelligent General Business Group, said that the cooperation between BMW and Alibaba represents the driving force of innovation in the field of intelligent vehicles in the future. The new digital infrastructure will comprehensively lower the threshold of innovation for entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs can use advanced cloud computing, artificial intelligence, big data and other infrastructure at a low cost. Therefore, Alibaba and BMW will cross-border integration and open the ecology through large enterprises, so that small enterprises can accelerate innovation based on large platforms.
In addition, Nissan’s development plan in the Chinese market mainly focuses on four aspects: intelligent power, intelligent driving, intelligent interconnection and shared travel.
In terms of intelligent power, Nissan will launch nine electrified models in China by 2025, including Nissan Ariya and core models equipped with Nissan e-POWER. In terms of intelligent driving, Nissan ProPILOT ultra-intelligent driving technology will be installed on five models by 2022, and pre- 70% of models will have this function. In terms of intelligent interconnection, Nissan plans to carry 6 million Nissan vehicles with intelligent network technology by 2024, achieving 90% user coverage. In terms of shared travel, Nissan Automobile will cooperate with Didi, Dongfeng Travel, T3 and other enterprises through Lianyou Technology to develop shared travel services.
At present, the application scenarios of intelligent networked vehicles in the Chinese market are more abundant. Shanghai Lingang Intelligent Network Automobile Comprehensive Test Demonstration Zone officially opened in August 2019.
This self-driving test base with the longest rain and fog test road in China, the longest GPS signal isolation tunnel and other facilities has become the “arna” of domestic “unmanned vehicle” technology. In September this year, Beijing announced the construction of the world’s first high-level self-driving demonstration zone; in October, Beijing’s limited area self-driving taxis were tested and operated.
Recently, IDC, an international data company, said that compared with the global market, China’s economic environment is relatively favorable. National policies support innovation in the intelligent automobile industry.
5G technology and intelligent network technology are rapidly promoted, and consumers’ acceptance of automobile intelligence are higher. It is expected that China’s intelligent networked automobile market will have Broader space for development. ( Reporter Qin Tianhong Comprehensive Report)
China’s automobile market attracts global auto companies to release potential
Since China’s reform and opening up, multinational auto giants have begun to pay attention to the Chinese market. From the initial wait-and-see, to the active search for partners and investment and factory construction, the scale of cooperation in China has been continuously expanded.
Among them, the huge development potential of the Chinese market and the persistent rich returns play a key role.
In the development of decades, the entry of multinational automobile enterprises has, on the one hand, brought more choices to Chinese consumers, accelerated the development of China’s automobile industry, and brought a certain impetus to China’s national automobile industry. On the other hand, the entry of multinational automobile enterprises is also reorganizing local production factors to China’s people.
The formation of competition among national automobile brands sometimes slows down the growth pace of domestic automobile enterprises and the formation of industrial clusters.
It is under the background of “Dancing with the wolf” that China’s automobile industry has been constantly developing, from small to large, from weak to strong. Chinese consumers have also strengthened their discernment and taste and demand in the process of constantly going to the world and broadening their horizons.
When Chinese auto companies step by step “go out” and gradually gain more recognition, when products that are close to elimination abroad no longer become high-quality and high-priced products in the eyes of Chinese people, when the competition among overseas auto companies that rely more and more on the Chinese market becomes more and more fierce, forcing them to push better products and technologies to the market, China’s automobiles The car market is also quietly changing qualitatively.
In this process, the scale of China’s automobile market is still expanding, and the attraction of China’s automobile market to foreign investment has never faded. After China became the world’s largest automobile producer, it quickly became the largest automobile market.
Now, China has ranked first in the world in automobile production and sales for 11 consecutive years.
At the same time, some overseas car companies are increasingly dependent on the Chinese market, and this trend is expected to continue. For some overseas car companies, if they lose the Chinese market, they will become second-rate car companies.
For example, since 2012, the Chinese market has become the largest single retail market in the world for General Motors in the United States. China is also the largest single market of German Volkswagen Group in the world, contributing nearly 40% of sales. Among them, Volkswagen accounted for 50.38% of the brand’s total global sales in China in 2019.
Audi’s sales in China also account for 37.4% of the total global sales. For Toyota, although the United States is its largest automobile market, China has surpassed Japan as its second largest market.
In the technological transformation and transformation and upgrading of the global automobile industry, realizing the “new four modernizations” is the consensus gradually formed by the automobile industry of various countries, and also the key and breakthrough to win in the transformation and transformation.
Among them, new energy vehicles will become the main carrier of automobiles in the future, integrating breakthroughs in intelligent technology, improving and improving the ecological environment of the automotive industry with the help of perfect network technology and environment, and improving through cross-border integration.
In China’s vast automobile market, the new market opportunities brought about by the transformation and upgrading of automobile technology and industry transformation and upgrading are just beginning.
In the face of such a period of strategic opportunities, domestic car companies have long begun to lay out new energy and intelligent vehicles, and the research and development of key core and common technologies has also been paid enough attention. The automobile market is very sensitive to the policy environment, and China’s policy environment also has advantages. Whether it is new energy or intelligent networking, it has become the strategic focus of China’s automobile industry’s future development, and the construction of a standard system is also accelerating.
All these changes are also very important for overseas car companies that hope to succeed in China. Overseas car companies may never pay attention to the changes in the Chinese market and the investment needs of the Chinese market.
These overseas car companies still have their own competitive advantages, but they also need to consider how to establish a strategy that can better meet the needs of the Chinese market and policy changes, so as to “live better” in this huge market. Although there are still enterprises that may delay the investment in the most advanced technology, it may not be easy to be invincible in the Chinese market with outdated and generalized technologies and products in their own countries.
With the transformation and upgrading of China’s automobile industry, the strengthening of the strength of automobile enterprises, and the improvement of the level of competition in the whole industrial chain of Chinese automobile enterprises, it can be expected that in the face of the huge potential of the Chinese market, overseas automobile enterprises will make more global debuts and debuts in the Chinese market, as well as greater investment, more technological openness, more Quality strategic cooperation.
In this sense, only Chinese and foreign car companies can achieve real win-win cooperation.
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