Auto & Transportation

With the continuous development of China's automobile market and the rapid improvement of new energy, intelligence and other technologies, from the import of products, to the opening of research and development centers in China, to the cooperation and innovation in the field of new energy and intelligent networking, transnational automobile enterprises are deeply integrating into the Chinese market, Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

Multinational automobile enterprises expand the scope of investment

In recent years, the reform of China's automobile market has accelerated, and the production and sales of new energy vehicles have continued to grow significantly. In this context, the localization process of the Chinese market of transnational automobile enterprises has also entered a new stage. They have actively adjusted their strategies, actively deployed the Chinese market, and constantly expanded their business depth and breadth.

According to the Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report, since this year, German car companies have listed investment projects in the Chinese market with a total amount of 100 billion yuan. In June this year, the large-scale upgrading and reconstruction project of BMW Brilliance's production base with an investment of more than 2 billion euros was completed, and the new iFactory Lida factory was officially opened, which is the largest single investment of BMW Group in China so far.

The beam car factory, a joint venture of BMW Group and Great Wall Motors, has also entered the trial production stage. This is the first pure electric vehicle joint venture project of BMW Group in the world, with a planned capacity of 160000 vehicles per year.

At the same time, Audi FAW New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd., with a total investment of 2.6 billion euros and a planned annual production capacity of 150000 vehicles, also laid a foundation in Changchun, Jilin Province, which is Audi's first factory to produce luxury pure electric vehicles in the Chinese market.

In October this year, CARIAD, a software company under Volkswagen Group, and Horizon, a Chinese smart chip company, announced the establishment of a joint venture. Volkswagen Group plans to invest about 2.4 billion euros in this cooperation, which is also the largest single investment of Volkswagen Group in the Chinese market in 40 years. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

Not only the automobile enterprises, but also the enterprises in the whole industry chain are expanding their business in the Chinese market while the Chinese and foreign automobile industries continue to expand new cooperation.

At the China International Import Expo (hereinafter referred to as "the Expo") held a while ago, Faurecia, an international auto parts giant, said that localization has been the cornerstone of Faurecia's rapid development for many years.

Faced with the vigorous development of China's new energy vehicle market, Faurecia began to accelerate its layout and established an open innovation ecosystem. At present, Faurecia has 6 technology centers, 11 R&D centers, more than 1300 professional engineers in China, and has established very perfect world-class laboratories and R&D facilities in Shanghai, Wuhan and other places. Its multi-mode human-computer interaction system applied in the automobile cockpit is researched and developed together with Chinese enterprises.

Co creation has become a new trend

With the rapid development of the automobile industry towards electrification, intelligence and networking, China has also started to become the innovation center of the global automobile industry from the global automobile manufacturing center, and cooperative innovation has become a new trend for multinational automobile enterprises to invest and cooperate in China.

According to the plan, by 2024, Volkswagen Group will jointly invest about 15 billion euros in the field of electric travel with its joint venture partners in China, and fully promote the electric transformation process of Volkswagen Group. By 2030, the proportion of new energy vehicles of all brands under Volkswagen Group is expected to exceed 40%, Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation reported.

Hyundai Motor plans to launch a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle NEXO China version this year. At present, the first overseas hydrogen fuel cell system R&D, production and sales base of Hyundai Motor, "HTWO Guangzhou", is about to be completed and put into operation. After being put into operation, it will provide hydrogen fuel cell systems for automobiles, ships, rail transit, power generation and other fields.

Similarly, Honda's new concept car e: N2 Concept was also developed and built by the Chinese team. Not only that, its upgraded safe driving assistance system "Honda SENSING 360" also benefits from the effective integration of China's intelligent technology and resources.

In addition, BMW has established the largest R&D and digital innovation system in China other than Germany, and cooperated with Chinese high-tech enterprises such as Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent to actively join the innovation ecosystem in China. At the same time, BMW also cooperates with Chinese enterprises to try to realize the closed-loop recycling of power battery raw materials in China, and together with Hegang Group to build a green low-carbon automotive steel supply chain.

Mercedes Benz, another German auto giant, has been strengthening its localization R&D capability in the Chinese market in the past 17 years. In 2009, Mercedes Benz became the first German luxury car manufacturer to open a senior design center in China; In 2021, the China R&D Technology Center with a total investment of more than 1.1 billion yuan will be officially put into operation in Beijing; In March this year, Mercedes Benz announced the establishment of a research and development center in Shanghai, focusing on automatic driving and intelligent Internet technology, to strengthen its local innovation strength.

The industry believes that, after years of development, China currently has unique advantages in automotive intelligent design and electrification technology. The Chinese and foreign automotive industry has entered the stage of in-depth cooperation, and cooperation and co creation are increasingly becoming the mainstream.

Change brings new opportunities

At present, the automobile industry is facing unprecedented changes. Intelligence, networking and electrification are the trend of the times, and the change of playing methods also brings new opportunities.

Volkswagen Group said that the cooperation of CARIAD Horizon will enhance its local R&D capability and competitiveness, so that the Chinese market will continue to play a central role in Volkswagen Group's global business.

It can be seen from the recent joint venture and cooperation projects between many multinational automobile enterprises and domestic enterprises that the logic of the new round of joint venture has been fundamentally changed. It is hard to see the shadow of "market for technology" in the past, and pay more attention to technological innovation, new market breakthrough, and cooperation support in the supply chain.

Recently, Geely Automobile announced that it has signed a framework agreement with Renault Group, an old European car giant, to establish a new company. Industry insiders said that the cooperation between Geely and Renault could better promote its entry into Europe and even the global market.

Different from the past practice of introducing models into the Chinese market, Toyota now emphasizes joint research and development with Chinese enterprises in the field of intelligent electric vehicles to build Toyota branded electric vehicles. At present, the bZ3 model jointly developed by Toyota and BYD has been officially launched.

Industry insiders believe that China has changed from the world's largest auto market to the world's largest new technology testing ground, and the cooperation between the Chinese and foreign auto industries has also been upgraded from simple exchange of needed goods and interests to complementary advantages and co creation of interests. The cooperation field has changed from the past manufacturing oriented to all-round, all factor, all chain cooperation, Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation reported.

Experts said that China is the world's largest automobile production and marketing market, with a perfect industrial chain system, rich application scenarios and the most forward-looking technology. Chinese consumers also pay great attention to new technologies, new designs, new functions and new experiences. These demands will have a profound impact on the global automobile market, especially in the new energy vehicle track, the trend of electrification, networking, intelligence and sharing of the Chinese automobile market, It is driving the rapid transformation of global auto enterprises.