As the "double carbon" goal has become one of the important strategic goals for China's next stage to achieve high-quality and sustainable economic and social development, the automobile industry has accelerated its development towards sustainability and electrification. In the new stage of the development of the automotive industry, bmw group that has been deeply involved in China for nearly 30 years will align its corporate strategy with China's development goals and firmly align itself with its Chinese counterparts.
At the end of 2021, the BMW Group held the 2022 "New Year Online Annual Meeting" in the form of a "cloud party", describing the STRATEGIC upgrade of the BMW Group in China with the emotional theme of "Home in China": maintaining a high degree of synergy between the company's strategy and China's development goals, giving priority to the needs of the Chinese market in the development of new products, and continuously strengthening the co-creation of win-win results with Chinese partners.
2022 BMW "New Year Online Annual Meeting"
Dr. Peter, Global Finance Director of the BMW Group, said, "China has become a global leader in electric vehicles and a key driver of digitalization. Now that China is unswervingly promoting high-quality growth and advocating a circular economy, we believe that China's movements will lead the direction of the world, and the BMW Group will firmly walk with China. "Looking ahead to 2025, the BMW Group will accelerate its electrification, digitalization and sustainable development in China, and maintain the same frequency with China.
Promote carbon reduction and sustainable development, and create the greenest electric vehicle
With the confirmation of the double carbon target, China is unswervingly taking the road of green and low-carbon high-quality development, and the automotive industry is one of the key areas to achieve carbon emission reduction and sustainable development; among them, the development of new energy vehicles has become a key part of achieving the double carbon goal.
As a leader in China's automotive market, the BMW Group is accelerating its transformation in three directions: electrification, digitalization and sustainability. According to the data, in the first 11 months of this year, the BMW Group delivered more than 42,000 new energy vehicles in the Chinese market, an increase of nearly 66% year-on-year; since 2014, the BMW Group has delivered more than 130,000 new energy vehicles in the Chinese market. It is worth mentioning that the new BMW iX3 is expected to sell up to 20,000 units this year.
New BMW iX3
Bmw Group said that it will continue to implement the "China first" strategy in the electrification process, which means that BMW's China strategy has sufficient independence while maintaining strategic synergy with the world to quickly respond to changes in the Chinese market. According to the BMW Group's pure electric vehicle launch plan in the Chinese market, the BMW brand will present 5 pure electric vehicle models in the Chinese market in 2022; by the end of 2023, about 13 pure electric vehicle models will be available in the Chinese market; by 2025, the sales of pure electric vehicles will account for 25% of the BMW Group's total sales in China.
In addition to accelerating the layout of electrified products, the BMW Group also pays attention to the carbon emission reduction of the whole industrial chain such as product manufacturing, parts and components, and raw materials. In June this year, at the first BMW Group Sustainable Development China Summit, the BMW Group, together with partners and suppliers, launched the "Green Transformation Initiative for the Industrial Chain", calling for accelerating technological innovation to promote green transformation.
It is reported that in 2019, BMW Group's Shenyang production base has achieved 100% renewable electricity power production; in 2020, BMW Brilliance was awarded the "2020 Enterprise Best Practice Award for Achieving sustainable development goals" by the United Nations Global Compact China Network, and won the title of "National Green Demonstration Factory" for four consecutive years; in September this year, BMW Brilliance also traded 2.78 billion kWh of green electricity to ensure the vast majority of green power demand in Shenyang's production base in the next four years. This procurement volume accounted for 35% of the total number of first green electricity transactions in the country, ranking first in the country.
BMW Brilliance Digital Factory
In addition, the BMW Group also revealed that from this year, all production bases of the BMW Group, including the Shenyang production base, will realize renewable energy power supply production. Not only that, in terms of batteries, BMW Brilliance and the primary and secondary suppliers of high-voltage batteries jointly promise that BMW's fifth-generation high-voltage power battery production uses 100% green energy, 100% uses recycled aluminum, and at least 50% uses reused cobalt and nickel; at the same time, BMW Group is working with partners to establish a power battery management system to achieve traceable battery recycling.
Mr. Chiptze, Chairman of the BMW Group, once said that to evaluate how an automobile company responds to climate challenges, it is necessary to observe the carbon reduction results of its car's entire life cycle. The sustainable development of the BMW Group is to run through the entire life cycle of the car, in order to create a real "greenest electric vehicle" and successfully proof the green transformation and upgrading of the automotive industry.
Build an innovation chain and create a win-win situation with China
In the electrification transformation stage of the automotive industry, digitalization and technological innovation have become key factors. For the BMW Group, which has always adhered to the concept of open innovation, it is turning the advantages of scientific and technological innovation into an important competitive advantage for future development.
At present, the BMW Group has set up the largest R&D and digital system outside Germany in the Chinese market, with four innovative R&D bases in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang and Nanjing, of which the Beijing R&D center focuses on vehicle engineering, testing and certification; the Shanghai R&D center focuses on digital products, software development and the connection with China's digital ecology and innovation circle; the Shenyang R&D center focuses on local electric vehicle development and R&D work after mass production of domestic models; BMW ArcherMind Information Technology Co., Ltd. and Lingyue Nanjing Branch established in Nanjing , focus on the development of vehicle-machine software, and enterprise IT system development.
BMW Group Shanghai R&D Center
At the same time, the BMW Group is also actively exploring cooperation with Chinese technology companies, and has signed contracts with a number of Chinese companies focusing on the digital content of vehicles and machines. This year, the "Alibaba Cloud Innovation Center - BMW Startup Garage Joint Innovation Base", co-founded by BMW Group and Alibaba, started operation in Shanghai, which will further develop local innovation and empower Chinese science and technology innovation enterprises.
In fact, as early as 2015, the BMW Group began to establish a "BMW start-up garage" around the world, looking for high-potential startups to provide them with a commercial platform, and more than 60 companies have successfully "graduated". Gao Le, President and CEO of the BMW Group Greater China, said, "The BMW Group's innovation base in China aims to translate the wishes and needs of its customers into competitive products while tapping the potential of Chinese technology. In the industry's view, this is in line with the BMW Group's localization strategic development concept of "in China, for China, and for the world".
Fulfill the promise of "taking China as home" and set an example of Sino-German cooperation
Deeply rooted in the Chinese market for many years, China has long become the "second hometown" of the BMW Group. In the first three quarters of this year, the BMW Group delivered 669637 BMW and MINI vehicles in the Chinese market, an increase of 19.6% year-on-year. While achieving remarkable results in China, the BMW Group has also fulfilled its commitment to make China its home and firmly walk with China.
At present, BMW Brilliance has become a model for BMW Group to create a win-win situation with China's economy and society: BMW Brilliance Shenyang production base has received a total investment of more than 73 billion yuan since 2010; BMW Brilliance has become the largest taxpayer in Shenyang for 15 consecutive years, paying 38 billion yuan in taxes in 2020 alone, and BMW Group has also trained a large number of industrial workers in China to promote local labor employment.
At the end of last year, the second phase of BMW Brilliance's power battery plant was completed and put into operation, becoming the world's first factory to produce BMW's fifth-generation power battery. According to the BMW Group's plan, in 2022, three new or upgraded plants will be opened in Shenyang and Zhangjiagang, and the second BMW pure electric vehicle BMW 3 series will be put into operation in Shenyang, further enhancing China's position as one of the bmw group's three major new energy vehicle production bases in the world.
Innovative BMW iX
Not only that, the BMW Group has about 600 dealers and more than 460 parts suppliers in China, and BMW Brilliance alone will purchase more than 33 billion yuan from local suppliers in Shenyang in 2020, which has strongly driven the development of the local economy.
For the BMW Group, it is accelerating the pace of electrification, digitalization and sustainable development, leading the transformation and upgrading of the domestic luxury car market and even the entire automotive industry. In the past three decades of deep ploughing in the Chinese market, BMW Group has always been firmly committed to working with China, and with the upgrading of BMW Group's China strategy, it will also better integrate into the tide of innovation and green development in China to achieve win-win results with partners.
Text/Linlin Wang Edited by Song Yuting Proofreader Li Ming Chen Diyan