"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." On December 16, BMW held the 2022 "New Year Online Annual Meeting", and Dr. Peter, Global Finance Director of bmw group, expressed his feelings for China to Chinese consumers through video.
Dr. Peter, Director of Global Finance of the BMW Group
At the annual meeting of the network with the theme of "Home in China", a number of BMW Group executives conveyed in a very emotional way BMW's intention to upgrade its China strategy: to maintain synergy between the corporate strategy and China's development goals, uphold the principle of "China first", give priority to the needs of the Chinese market in new product development, and continuously strengthen the co-creation of win-win results with Chinese partners.
In Dr. Peter's view, "China's movement 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 announced in the video: "In 2022, the BMW Group will welcome the opening of three new or upgraded plants in Shenyang and Zhangjiagang, and put into production the second BMW pure electric vehicle in Shenyang, the Pure Electric 3 Series, further enhancing China's position as one of the three major new energy vehicle production bases of the BMW Group in the world." ”
In the context of the transformation of the global automotive industry to electrification and intelligence, BMW, as the leader of luxury car companies, how to deal with the changes in China, the world's largest automobile market, is not only concerned by consumers, but also by competitors in the automotive industry.
At the annual meeting, the BMW Group described its China strategy with 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" is the four R&D and digital bases in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang and Nanjing; "5" refers to the five BMW pure electric models that will be presented to Chinese customers in 2022; "2025" represents the "new generation" model that will arrive in 2025; "200 million" and "1.5" represent bmw group carbon reduction targets by 2030 and commitment to the 1.5 degree temperature control target of the Paris Agreement, respectively.
1
Adhere to "China First" and Accelerate "Electrification"
"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 validated this idea, and in the process of electrification, BMW will continue to deepen the "China first" strategy.
First, BMW will accelerate the pace of electrification in China: in 2021, the BMW iX3 is expected to sell up to 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, BMW will strengthen its 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 its comprehensive strength in electric vehicle research and development, production and service. Since 2017, BMW Brilliance was the first among high-end car brands to establish a power battery center in China, and in 2020, the second phase of the project has been completed, and more than 100,000 power batteries have been produced so far. By the end of 2021, 360,000 public charging piles have been networked by BMW.
Secondly, BMW will continue to promote the upgrading of the national sales and service network. At present, more than 500 BMW has completed BMW i business certification in about 600 dealer outlets nationwide. 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.
In BMW's China strategy, 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.
02
Join the chinese innovation wave and 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 a seamless digital journey for customers. 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.
03
Adhere to sustainable development and win-win results with China's economy
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 has always insisted on fulfilling its corporate social responsibility with practical actions, such as 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.