At present, driven by four major factors such as science and technology, consumer behavior, policies and regulations, and infrastructure, the product form, travel mode, energy consumption structure of automobiles, and the composition and division of labor of the entire automotive industry chain are in a period of rapid change characterized by innovation, and we must re-examine the development of the automobile industry with new thinking. For car companies that want to achieve results in the local market and apply their technological advantages to the world, formulating the right strategy and seizing the opportunity can achieve new breakthroughs faster.
"Change" should "change"
For China's automotive industry, the industry generally believes that whether it is a new car-making force or a traditional head car company, it is facing the challenges and changes of the "new four modernizations". This represents the market's expectations for future mobility, and also represents the development direction of China's automotive industry.
Embracing the "New Four Modernizations"
Laying the foundation for digitalization. The development of big data and cloud technology has changed the traditional operating model of enterprises, and also made related decisions based on data analysis more intelligent and efficient. Driving business with data and letting massive amounts of data circulate is the only way for industrial upgrading. As China's leading car company, China FAW accurately grasps this trend, in the early stage of the industry's digital transformation, it set the vision of "data-driven wonderful travel", and adhered to the data as the engine, with the three main processes of product birth, order delivery, and customer service as the main line, fully promoted the digital transformation process of the enterprise, and realized the digitization, value and innovation of the core business, supported the enterprise operation "real-time online, timely analysis, intelligent management", and deepened the digital management to achieve phased results.
China FAW Digital Production Control Center
Digitalization itself is not the goal, but more importantly, by consolidating the foundation of digitalization, we can improve information efficiency internally and better reach the market externally. In order to achieve this goal, China FAW has launched the FAW Easy platform internally to realize real-time online work, including real-time online problems, real-time online planning nodes, and real-time online task management; externally, China FAW has created a customer ecological cloud platform to cover the digital touchpoints of the whole journey of customer consumption, so as to reach customers and empower dealers. Customers can immerse themselves in understanding the brand, feeling the products and enjoying the service through the official account and mini program. Dealers can grasp vehicle travel data and listen to customers. After the vehicle was sold, China FAW used digital twin real-time modeling to dynamically calculate tens of billions of vehicle networking data to escort safe travel.
On July 15 this year, at the press conference of China FAW's "14th Five-Year Plan" development plan and technological innovation strategy, Xu Liuping, secretary of the party committee and chairman of China FAW, said that FAW will accelerate the full-link digital intelligence goal of technology and products, research and development and management based on digital twins, with data-driven as the key, people, things and information fusion as the core, and all the perceptual interactions of the process as the core.
Xu Liuping, Party Secretary and Chairman of China FAW
Speak at the press conference of China FAW's "14th Five-Year Plan" development plan and technological innovation strategy
From December 2 to 5 this year, at the 2021 China Entrepreneur Boao Forum, Liu Yigong, member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and deputy general manager of China FAW, delivered a keynote speech with the theme of "Grasping New Opportunities for Digital Transformation and Opening Up New Paths for Green Development", once again pointing out the importance of Chinese car companies grasping the opportunities of digital transformation. Liu Yigong said that in the four major areas of research and development, manufacturing, marketing and management, China FAW has focused on promoting digital and intelligent transformation, promoting technological innovation and management innovation, and achieving a significant improvement in business operation efficiency.
Liu Yigong, member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and deputy general manager of China FAW
Speak at the 2021 China Entrepreneur Boao Forum
Improve the electrification carrier. Since the Industrial Revolution, due to the limitations of the mode of power, the function of the automobile has been limited to the means of travel. Compared with the traditional automobile with the internal combustion engine as the driving force, electrification itself is part of the industrial change, which has triggered a new round of industry change, and also broken the single travel function of the car, making the electric vehicle the best carrier for the transformation of the Internet of Everything. To this end, in the "14th Five-Year Plan" technology innovation planning outline of the enterprise, China FAW has focused on strengthening capacity building in many key technologies such as new energy, implementing three new energy technology routes of pure electric, hybrid and fuel cells, and successively launching new energy products such as Hongqi E-HS3, E-HS9, E-QM5, Besturn NAT, and Jiefang J6F pure electric. In September this year, The Hongqi E-HS9 was also exported to Europe, and won praise in Norway, where the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in the world is extremely high.
Not only that, China FAW is more active in mastering the key technologies of new energy and continues to build its own innovation system. While realizing more than 20 core technology breakthroughs such as new energy "three electric" system integration technology and control software and hardware technology, lightweight technology, efficient dual-motor hybrid system, and new 100 megabit Ethernet bus technology, China FAW also brought a series of new energy vehicle technologies such as the newly developed next-generation advanced electrification and intelligent vehicle platform New Hongqi HEi2.0 platform at the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show, with five global leading technologies hydrogen energy engine, and the original 300-kilowatt high-power electric drive system Hm3.
Grasp the direction of intelligent networking. In the relationship of the "new four modernizations", digitalization is the means, without digitalization, it is impossible to generate and process data, networking is the foundation, without network connection, it is impossible to make data flow, and intelligence is the ultimate goal. In the field of intelligent networking, China FAW focuses on controlling key core technologies and stepping up the construction of a new energy intelligent network innovation test base. Formulate and implement the "Flag Kai" intelligent network technology strategy, build three major technology platforms of L3 level, L4 level and L5 level, and accelerate the formation of 5 core capabilities such as intelligent system, wire control chassis, and all-thing link.
In terms of technology landing, Hongqi brand has achieved L3 level automatic driving, and the first L4 level autonomous driving car in China, Hongqi E-HS3, has been demonstrated and operated in Changchun City; Jiefang brand L4 automatic driving heavy truck has achieved port field operations for the first time in China; Pentium T77 equipped with artificial intelligence and 3D hologram technology has also been listed; in January 2021, at the Changchun (International) Driverless Car Ice and Snow Challenge in China, Faw-hongqi L4 intelligent driving minibus and Faw-hongqi EV-L4 two models won three awards, once again highlighting FAW's accumulated strength in intelligent networking.
Gradually promote the shared picture. In the era of digital economy, the original linear automobile chain is changing to a networked ecosystem, and the core construction of the ecosystem is centered on customer data and usage scenarios, so sharing will become a major trend in future travel modes. In response to this trend, China FAW and changchun, Jilin, Foshan, Hainan and other governments to promote smart travel services, and to create a new energy intelligent vehicle industry chain as the core chain, the integration of new consumption chain, intelligent green transportation travel chain, smart energy chain, new infrastructure chain and other "five chains" as one of the future smart green city automotive ecosystem - EcoLin5, to create a "suitable for creation, work, livability" of the beautiful city, beautiful travel to make a forward-looking layout.
In November this year, FAW Hongqi E-QM5 new energy tram was put into operation in Changchun, and it is reported that as of the end of November, 2,000 Hongqi new energy trams will be put into operation in Changchun. In the future, China FAW will take The Hongqi E-QM5 as the link to build a new business model for the integrated development of "car, station and battery bank" through the combination of government and enterprise and enterprise, and accelerate the construction of a future-oriented smart green city automobile ecosystem. At the same time, China FAW's "Qizhi Spring City" project is also exploring the co-construction and sharing of smart cities in the process of smart travel, and gradually realizing the six dimensions of "smart cars, smart roads, convenient clouds, seamless networks, high-precision maps, and pleasant lines".
In the future, the car is not only a travel tool, but also a terminal carrier of intelligent life, and car companies need not only to undertake car manufacturing functions, but also to have digital innovation capabilities. Through the realization of the transformation and innovation of the industrial chain, product research and development and travel services, China FAW is vividly practicing the "new four modernizations" of automobiles with practical actions, which not only provides a value reference for the transformation and upgrading of other car companies, sets up a new model for "changing" and "changing", but also injects new vitality into the development of China's automobile industry.
Sun Yan | Wen
Yan Sun is the editor of the Chinese edition of the Harvard Business Review