Recently, BMW held the 2022 "New Year Online Annual Meeting", with the emotional theme of "home in China" to describe the company's China strategic upgrade: to maintain synergy between corporate strategy and China's development goals, uphold the "China first" principle, give priority to the needs of the Chinese market in new product development, and continuously strengthen the co-creation and win-win situation with Chinese partners. Looking ahead to 2025, the BMW Group will accelerate electrification, digitalization and sustainable development in China, keeping pace with China.
Director of the BMW Group Dr. Peter
Dr Peter, BMW Group's Director of Global Finance, said: "Every time I come to this great country, I feel like I'm coming home, because it's full of energy and countless family-like partners. We believe that China's movements will lead the direction of the world. Here is the ideal environment and excellent partner to promote the transformation, and the BMW Group will firmly go with its Chinese counterparts. He also announced: "In 2022, the BMW Group will welcome the opening of three new or upgraded plants in Shenyang and Zhangjiagang, and put into operation the second BMW pure electric vehicle in Shenyang, the Pure Electric 3 Series, further enhancing China's position as one of the bmw group's three major new energy vehicle production bases in the world." ”
President and CEO of the BMW Group greater China Mr. Gao Le
The BMW Group's Strategic Upgrade in China can be described by a string of "simple" numbers: "1" refers to the "China First" principle; "2" refers to the fact that both BMW and MINI brands are rooted in China; "3" refers to the firm transformation along the three directions of electrification, digitalization and sustainability; "4" refers to the four R&D and digital bases in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang and Nanjing; and "5" refers to the five BMW pure electric models that will be presented to Chinese customers in 2022; " "2025" represents the "new generation" models that will arrive in 2025; "200 million" and "1.5" represent bmw group carbon reduction targets to 2030 and commitment to the 1.5 degree temperature control target of the Paris Agreement, respectively.
Dr. Wei Lande, President and CEO of BMW Brilliance Automotive Co., Ltd
"Home in China": BMW implements the "China First" strategy and accelerates the electrification process
"China first" means maintaining strategic synergy with the world while maintaining sufficient independence to respond quickly to market changes, especially at the product concept stage, taking into account the expectations of Chinese customers. BMW's success in the field of fuel vehicles has confirmed this idea, and it will continue to deepen the "China first" strategy in the process of electrification.
First, accelerate the pace of electrification in China: in 2021, the BMW iX3 is expected to sell 20,000 units in its first full sales year. In 2022, the BMW brand will present five pure electric models to Chinese users, including the innovative BMW iX, the innovative BMW i4, and the pure electric BMW 3 Series produced in Shenyang. In addition, a pure electric flagship model will also be unveiled in the next year. By the end of 2023, the BMW Group will offer around 13 pure electric products in the Chinese market.
At the same time, we will strengthen the partnership with domestic outstanding battery companies, energy companies and high-tech enterprises, jointly develop the upstream and downstream industrial chain of green electric mobility, and enhance our comprehensive strength in electric vehicle research and development, production and service. In 2017, the joint venture BMW Brilliance was the first to establish a power battery center among high-end car brands, and completed the second phase of the project in 2020, with a total production of more than 100,000 power batteries so far. By the end of 2021, 360,000 public charging piles will be networked by BMW.
In addition, we will continue to promote the upgrading of the national sales and service network. More than 500 of BMW's approximately 600 dealer outlets across the country have completed BMW i business certification. In 2022, BMW will work with dealers to pilot the "BMW i Experience Store" in the city center, echoing the growing demand for new energy and new experiences from Chinese consumers.
2025 will be an important node in BMW's strategic transformation. At that time, the BMW Group will unveil a "new generation" of models with a completely redesigned IT and software architecture, a new generation of high-performance electric drive systems and batteries, and a new sustainable concept throughout the entire vehicle life cycle. In the development of the "new generation", the specific needs of the Chinese market will still be placed in the first place. By 2025, a quarter of the BMW Group's sales in the Chinese market will be pure electric vehicles.
Innovative BMW iX
"Home in China": BMW joins the Chinese innovation wave and works with Chinese partners to promote digital innovation
The BMW Group's digital innovation in China covers all relevant areas such as R&D, production, vehicle intelligence and digital services. The BMW Group has built the largest R&D and digital system outside of Germany in China, with a team of more than 1,650 people, including around 600 software developers.
The earliest R&D center in Beijing is mainly responsible for vehicle engineering, testing and certification. The Shanghai R&D center focuses on digital products, software development, and connections to the local digital ecosystem and innovation community; there is also a BMW Group DesignWorks design team in Shanghai that takes a closer look at the aesthetics and needs of younger generation customers. Shenyang R&D center focuses on the development of local electric vehicles and the research and development of domestic models after mass production.
In terms of digital development, in 2019 BMW established Lingyue Digital in Beijing, focusing on creating seamless customer digital journeys. At present, the My BMW App, jointly developed by Lingyue and BMW's R&D department, has attracted 3.4 million registered users, of which more than 1.4 million are monthly active users. At the same time, in order to open up the online and offline user experience, BMW is promoting the "BMW Network Leadership Project" to about 600 dealers across the country to optimize the customer's brand experience through software and hardware upgrades and digital transformation. More than a third of dealers have completed this upgrade.
In 2021, BMW's innovative layout will be expanded to Nanjing. First of all, the joint venture established BMW ArcherMind Information Technology Co., Ltd., using China's local software strength to deepen the development of in-vehicle software, and BMW also set up the Lingyue Nanjing Branch in Nanjing, aiming to provide agile and efficient IT R&D and technical solution services for the production and service of BMW operating enterprises in China. In addition, the BMW Group is also actively exploring cooperation with Chinese technology companies, and has signed cooperation with more than 80 Chinese companies focusing on the digital content of vehicles and machines.
In the field of production, BMW Brilliance's digital factory is a model for the application of "Industry 4.0" technology, and next-generation production technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence are widely used, taking the lead in achieving full coverage of 5G networks in the world.
Solar photovoltaic system at BMW Brilliance's Shenyang plant
"Home in China": BMW firmly supports the sustainable development of China's economy, society and environment
As a model for the BMW Group to create a win-win situation with the Chinese economy, BMW Brilliance's Shenyang production site has received a total investment of more than 73 billion yuan since 2010. BMW Brilliance has been the largest taxpayer in Shenyang for 15 consecutive years, paying 38 billion yuan in taxes in 2020 alone. On the other hand, the BMW Group has about 600 dealers and more than 460 parts suppliers in China; BMW Brilliance alone has purchased more than 33 billion yuan from local suppliers in Shenyang in 2020, which has strongly driven the development of the local economy.
Sustainable development is the cornerstone of BMW Group's corporate strategy and another direction for bmw's coordinated development with China's environment. The BMW Group firmly supports the 1.5-degree temperature control target set out in the Paris Agreement and proposes to reduce the average life cycle carbon emissions of bicycles by 40% compared with 2019 by 2030, reducing carbon emissions by 200 million tons. The BMW Group sees electrification as an important way to achieve carbon neutrality. But the BMW Group's sustainability strategy goes far beyond electric vehicles. In fact, the BMW Group is concerned with reducing carbon emissions throughout the life cycle of vehicles – from supply chain, production, use to recycling.
For example, BMW Brilliance was awarded the "2020 Corporate Best Practice Award for Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals" by the United Nations Global Compact China Network for its achievements in sustainable management of the supply chain, making it the only automotive company among the 20 awardees. On the production side, BMW Brilliance has released the Sustainability Report for eight consecutive years since 2014, disclosing its sustainability footprint to the public. In 2021, BMW Brilliance once again ranked first in the "Green Development Index of Automobile Enterprises" and won the honor of "National Green Demonstration Factory" for the fourth consecutive year.
BMW Brilliance Digital Factory
BMW has also been committed to fulfilling its corporate social responsibility with practical actions. The "BMW Children's Delight Home" project has been carried out for 10 years, and the "BMW Chinese Culture Tour" project has gone through 15 years. Recently, BMW's CSR program has added "environmental protection" to the "cultural protection" and "social development" on the basis of "cultural protection" and launched the "BMW Beautiful Home Action". The first phase of the project will take the lead in establishing a public education base for biodiversity conservation in the Liaohekou National Nature Reserve in Liaoning Province, and donate relevant equipment such as monitoring and bird rescue to the protected area to directly help local biodiversity conservation.
Looking forward to 2025, with the arrival of the "new generation" and even longer in the future, BMW's voice is self-confidence and commitment: always uphold "home in China", and always maintain the same frequency, coordinated development and win-win situation with China's economy and society.