The two-year epidemic has accelerated the pace of integration, electrification and digital transformation of the automotive industry, and in this major change in the automotive industry, traditional car companies are very important to this change.
"Yue Family Banquet" is the bmw group's annual media conference, at which we look back on the past and look forward to the future with everyone. I still remember seeing Mr. Gao Le, President and CEO of BMW Group Greater China, dressed in Tang costume, at a family banquet at the yue family banquet. This time, due to the prevention and control of the epidemic, it was changed to an online "cloud gathering", which is still full of dry goods.
BMW with China as its home
In the face of China's rapid development in the field of vehicle intelligence and networking, as well as the huge and highly potential Chinese automotive market, BMW has long realized the importance of "deep ploughing in China".
The BMW Group currently employs more than 25,000 people in China and more than 21,000 at BMW Brilliance's Shenyang site.
The BMW Group has built the largest R&D 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, and also has the only "User Experience Research Institute" outside Of Germany;
The Shanghai R&D center focuses on digital products, software development and links to the local digital ecosystem and innovation community;
There is also a BMW Group DesignWorks design team in Shanghai, which carefully observes the aesthetics and needs of the younger generation of 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 software development:
In 2019, BMW founded Lingyue Digital in Beijing to focus on creating seamless customer digital journeys.
In 2021, BMW and Nanjing ArcherMind cooperated to establish a BMW ArcherMind joint venture to use China's local software power to deepen in-vehicle software development.
In terms of production and sales:
BMW Brilliance's Shenyang production site is the largest in the BMW Group's global production network, with two OEMs in Dadong and Tiexi, a powertrain plant and an R&D center, and about 13,000 BMW models roll off the production line in Shenyang every week.
From January to October this year, BMW Brilliance produced 560,000 units, an increase of 17% over the same period last year, and the output value reached 178.4 billion yuan, an increase of 18% over the same period last year. In 2022, the BMW Group will open three new or upgraded plants in Shenyang and Zhangjiagang.
By the end of 2020, BMW Brilliance has reached 400 local suppliers in the country, including 101 suppliers in Liaoning and 77 suppliers in Shenyang, with a local procurement amount of up to 55 billion yuan, of which nearly 60% is in Shenyang.
And the BMW Group is also constantly expanding its dealer network in China, and now has more than 600 dealer outlets. In the first three quarters of 2021, the BMW Group delivered more than 1.93 million vehicles worldwide, of which around 670,000 were delivered to China.
In other words, one out of every three cars in the BMW Group is delivered to Chinese customers.
Promote the "three directions" China strategy
In the upgrading of the BMW Group's China strategy, it will be firmly transformed in the three directions of electrification, digitalization and sustainability.
Electrification
Although the Chinese market is not the country with the highest penetration rate of electrification in the world, in the face of the increase in the consumption capacity of the Chinese market, the promotion of electrification development and other reasons, China is definitely the most concerned market for the global automotive industry.
Different from its own brands, BMW, as a global car company, has a diversity of consumer groups and a diversified consumer market, and it is difficult to create exclusive models for a single market. However, since BMW has released a "China first" strategy, it means that while maintaining strategic synergy with the world, it must have sufficient independence in the face of the Chinese market, especially in the product concept stage, it must fully consider the Needs of the Chinese market and consumers.
BMW will accelerate BMW's electric mobility journey with the BMW i family.
In 2017, BMW Brilliance was the first in China to establish a power battery center among luxury 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.
The BMW iX3 pure electric SAV is produced by BMW Brilliance's Shenyang production site and sold worldwide. In the first 11 months of this year, the BMW iX3 sold 17,000 units in the Chinese market, with the first full year of sales expected to reach 20,000 units.
In 2022, the BMW Group will present five pure electric models to Chinese users, including the innovative BMW iX that has just been launched this year, the innovation BMW i4 that will be officially launched next year, and the pure electric BMW 3 Series that will be produced in Shenyang.
Not long ago, the prototype of the BMW i7 has been tested on ice and snow at the BMW Group Winter Test Center in Arjeplug, Sweden. As a new model, the BMW i7 combines for the first time the luxury, comfort and all-electric drive system of the BMW brand's large luxury flagship sedan.
According to the BMW Group's plan, by the end of 2023, the BMW Group will provide 13 pure electric products in the Chinese market.
At the same time, BMW is also continuing to strengthen cooperation with domestic battery companies, energy companies and high-tech enterprises to enhance its comprehensive strength in the research and development, production and service of electric vehicles. By the end of 2021, 360,000 public charging piles will be connected by BMW, including around 150,000 DC fast charging piles.
Numbering
The BMW Group's digital innovation in China covers all relevant areas such as R&D, production, vehicle intelligence and digital services.
In the middle of this year, the BMW Group announced that it has upgraded its iDrive 7.0 vehicle system to the latest version through OTAs for more than 1.3 million BMW cars worldwide, including more than 360,000 models in the Chinese market. In the Chinese market, the OTA upgrade has added and optimized the localization of the vehicle light application ecosystem "Tencent Small Scene" and some aspects of automatic driving assistance. This is also the effort of the BMW Group to achieve independence for the Chinese market in the digital development.
Based on the new electrical and electronic architecture, BMW operating system 8.0 begins with the launch of the innovative BMW iX and the innovative BMW i4.
In addition to the digitalization of automobiles, BMW's sales and service are also gradually undergoing digital transformation.
The MY BMW App, jointly developed by Lingyue and BMW's R&D department, already has 3.4 million users, of which more than 1.4 million are monthly active users. With the support of Lingyue, BMW is promoting the "BMW Network Leadership Project" to around 600 dealers across the country to optimize the customer's brand experience through hardware and software upgrades and digital transformation.
Sustainable
In addition to electrification and digitalization, BMW's higher goals are sustainable development, creating sustainable mobility with sustainable production methods. Simply put, the product should be environmentally friendly and the factory should be sustainable.
BMW is the first German car company to join the Paris Agreement's 1.5-degree temperature control target, which aims to reduce the average life cycle carbon emissions of bicycles by 40% by 2030 compared with 2019 and reduce carbon emissions by 200 million tons.
The BMW Group sees electrification as one of the biggest drivers on the road to climate neutrality. But the BMW Group's sustainability strategy goes far beyond electric vehicles. Environmental protection is not only reflected in the product, but also the factory itself is a huge "product". From 2020 onwards, the electricity used in all BMW Group plants worldwide will come from renewable sources.
In fact, the BMW Group is concerned with carbon emission reduction throughout the life cycle of automobiles. In addition to supply chain, production and use, recycling is also in the BMW Group's sustainable planning.
At the Munich Motor Show, the BMW Group unveiled the BMW i Cycle Concept, which uses 100% recycled materials and is 100% recyclable, representing its latest "circular design" concept.
Taking the innovative BMW iX, which has already been mass-produced, as an example, BMW has applied hydroelectric power in production, and rare earth materials are no longer used in development and production, while the amount of secondary nickel used in the high-voltage power battery it is equipped with has reached 50%, and the share of secondary aluminum in the housing is as high as 30%.
At present, the average proportion of recyclable and reusable materials in BMW Group products is nearly 30%, and it is planned to gradually increase it to 50% in the future.
BMW's 2025
2025 will be an important milestone in BMW's strategic transformation.
At that time, the BMW Group will launch 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, the BMW Group plans to deliver around 2 million pure electric vehicles, and a quarter of the BMW Group's sales in the Chinese market will be pure electric vehicles. It is expected that by 2030, at least one in every two cars sold by the BMW Group will be pure electric vehicles.
If you ask me: Can BMW do it?
My answer is: Yes.
As for why, in 2019 I attended a small-scale technology sharing session of the BMW Group, and at that event there were a few Flags worth noting:
In 2021, BMW plans to complete the mass production of the BMW iNEXT;
In 2021, sales of new energy models will reach 1 million;
In 2023, it will improve its new energy product array and will provide 25 new energy vehicles, half of which will be pure electric models.
The production version of the BMW iNEXT, the recently launched innovation BMW iX. On December 6, BMW delivered an innovative BMW iX in Munich, the 1 millionth new energy vehicle in the world delivered by the BMW Group.
In 2023, BMW plans to provide 13 pure electric models in the Chinese market, and the models that we have been able to buy or learn at present include: BMW iX, BMW iX3, BMW i4, BMW 3 Series Pure Electric Edition, BMW i7 and other five models, which are nearly half from the planning, leaving two years for BMW, which is enough time for BMW.
At the end of this year of 2021, looking at the Flag set by BMW in 2019, it is not difficult to find that BMW is proceeding step by step in an orderly manner.
At last
How do traditional car giants respond to industry changes? I think BMW has given its own answer: Sinicization.
China was once considered the most important sales market for global brands, and now China's position is gradually rising from the bottom of the car sales to the top of the production and development, which is a very important change. BMW is undoubtedly the first global brand to understand China's potential and take the lead in opening the layout.
Through this different "family feast" under the epidemic this year, we can see more clearly the speed at which the "elephant" has turned in the face of future changes.
In the eyes of many people, the impression of BMW may still be "the one that is well controlled in the BBA". But in my eyes, BMW has a strong enough product force at the product level, a strong enough innovation at the R&D level, and a high enough localization awareness at the strategic level.
With the development and layout of BMW advancing step by step, perhaps after 2025, we may see a "new" BMW in a new era.
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