Gao Le, President and CEO of the BMW Group Greater China, always has a "family banquet" rain or shine. Even under the pressure of the global epidemic, on December 16, 2022, the BMW Group's "Happy Family Banquet" was still meeting people in the cloud. Peter, Director of Global Finance of BMW Group, Gao Le, President and CEO of BMW Group Greater China, Wei Lande, President and CEO of BMW Brilliance and other senior executives attended the "Family Banquet" in the form of video and online, and brought people a new Chinese localization strategic thinking "Home in China".
The upgraded BMW Group's "China Strategy 2025" clearly proposes to give priority to the needs of the Chinese market in new product development and continue to promote the transformation strategy of electrification, digitalization and sustainable development. At the time of "China's trend leading the direction of the world", "settling" China is also beneficial to the BMW Group to transform the needs of Chinese consumers into competitive products and give full play to the creativity from China in the global strategic transformation.
Settle down: A long confession of a localization strategy
"Home in China" is not only a sentimental outpouring, but also a realistic portrayal of BMW's continuous promotion of localization strategy in China for many years.
Peter, global finance director of BMW Group, said at the "Yue Family Banquet" that since 2010, BMW's total investment in the Shenyang production base has exceeded 73 billion yuan, building the world's largest production base of the BMW Group. In addition, BMW has set up innovative R&D bases in four Chinese cities, forming the largest R&D network outside Of Germany. At present, the BMW Group has more than 25,000 employees in China, with more than 600 dealer outlets and 400 local suppliers.
The Chinese market responded enthusiastically to BMW's dedication. As of the third quarter of 2021, BMW has delivered nearly 670,000 new vehicles in China. "One out of every three cars in the BMW Group is delivered to a Chinese customer." Peter said.
In the field of new energy, China has become the BMW Group's global production center for electrified models. In 2017, BMW Brilliance was the first among high-end car brands to establish a power battery center, and quickly completed the second phase of the project within three years. In the past four years, BMW Brilliance has produced more than 100,000 power batteries.
Today, the BMW Group has not only built Shenyang into one of its three major new energy vehicle production bases in the world, but also fed back to the global market, and the pure electric iX3 produced at the Shenyang plant has supplied the domestic market while also supplying to a number of overseas markets.
More than that, the BMW Group wants to do more in China. Gao Le, president and CEO of BMW Group Greater China, revealed at the "YueJia Banquet" that as the beam project is on the right track, the plant construction and product research and development of the BMW Group's second production base in China, Zhangjiagang Base, are also advancing as scheduled, and the new base will be completed in 2022.
This means that the position of the Chinese market in the global strategy of the BMW Group has once again increased. "We have fully upgraded the 'China 2025 Strategy'," Gao Le said, "while maintaining strategic synergy with the world, we have enough independence to quickly respond to changes in the Chinese market." ”
The rapid response to the Chinese market means that the BMW Group will do a better job of fully considering the expectations and needs of Chinese customers. The leading position among luxury brands in the past two years, as well as the sales performance of nearly 670,000 vehicles in the first three quarters of this year, have proved that the BMW Group has verified this strategy in the field of fuel vehicles, and in the field of electrified models that Are increasingly favored by Chinese consumers, the BMW Group will continue to deepen the "China First" strategy and respond quickly.
Gao Le said that the BMW Group will speed up the pace of listing pure electric products in China. Next year, the BMW brand will present five pure electric models in the Chinese market, including the iX3, iX and i4 that have already met consumers, as well as the pure electric 3 series produced by BMW Brilliance, and will also unveil a flagship electric model. By the end of 2023, the number of pure electric models will jump to 13. In terms of service network, on the basis of the existing more than 500 i-business certification outlets, BMW will also work with dealers to pilot the BMW i city center store concept in 2022 to respond to China's growing demand for new energy and new experience.
Transformation: Based on the Chinese market, "Three wishes with Junfa"
"Make a cup for me, and make three wishes with the king", Bai Juyi wrote a feast and a promise in the poem. Similarly, the BMW Group has "three wishes" in its global strategic transformation: electrification, digitalization and sustainability. As far as the Chinese auto market is concerned, these three visions are also the general trend of future development, and resonate with the three strategic transformations of the BMW Group.
"China's movements will lead the way in the world." At the "Family Feast", peter and Gao Le emphasized this point. This is also an important consideration in the BMW Group's decision-making in the strategic transformation. Just as the luxury car market needs the Chinese market, the strategic transformation of the BMW Group also needs to leverage the Chinese market.
In 2025, 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 lifecycle. As a node of the BMW Group's strategic transformation, the specific needs of the Chinese market will continue to be placed in the first place in the development of "new generation" models.
Wei Lande, President and CEO of BMW Brilliance Automotive Co., Ltd., likened this strategic integration to "the harmony of The Beethoven Symphony and the Guzheng".
As the head of BMW Brilliance, Wei Lande has a deep understanding of the significance of the Chinese market in the global strategy of the BMW Group in recent years.
If bmw brilliance supply iX3 for the global market is also for the BMW Group to export products for the implementation of electrification transformation, then the BMW Group's establishment of a huge R & D institution in China and extensive cooperation with local high-tech enterprises will provide a steady stream of creativity and competitiveness for the three major transformations of the BMW Group.
Gao Le said that BMW's research and development center in Shenyang focuses on the development of local electric vehicles and the research and development of domestic models after mass production. The Shanghai R&D base focuses on digital products, software development and links to China's digital ecosystem. The two companies in Nanjing focus on vehicle-side software development and enterprise IT system development. In addition, the BMW Group is actively exploring cooperation with Chinese technology companies.
"In short, the innovation base in China aims to translate the wishes and needs of customers into competitive products while tapping into the potential of Chinese technology."
Not only the products presented to the market, but also the sustainable strategy of the BMW Group in the process of production and manufacturing needs to be strengthened in China. In China, the BMW Group also regards sustainable development as the core of its strategy and contributes to china's realization of the "double carbon" goal. Since the end of 2019, the Shenyang production site has used 100% renewable electricity. 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.
Home in China. This is the BMW Group's deepest and most "long-term" commitment in the Chinese market so far. Looking ahead to 2025, the BMW Group will continue to promote the transformation of electrification, digitalization and sustainable development in the Chinese market. What one can expect will be a BMW Group that is more independent in decision-making, flexible in its ability to change, and deeper in the Chinese market, and it will bring more electrified, more digital products and services to Chinese consumers and services that are more sustainable.
Text/Yang Zheng