IAUTO
Speed Depth Attitude
Introduction |
2021/12/29
Co-promotion and mutual benefit and win-win results are another expression of BMW's confidence and commitment to the Chinese market
Author 丨 Poinko
Responsible editor 丨 Yang Jing
Editor 丨Zhu Jinbin
"Every time I come to this great country, I feel like I'm coming home."
On December 16, at the 2022 "New Year Online Annual Meeting" held by the BMW Group, Dr. Peter, Global Finance Director of the Group, said so. Although at the moment, he was in Munich.
2021 is quite special for BMW. The first is the re-strengthening of the Group's global performance: with the end of the global auto sales trough triggered by the new crown epidemic, the BMW Group's sales volume worldwide has rebounded significantly.
Behind this achievement, it is inseparable from the strong pull effect of the Chinese market. In fact, as early as 2020, when global car companies were deeply involved in the epidemic, it was also orders from the Chinese market that supported BMW's global sales. And in 2021, this pull is equally important.
In fact, as early as 2013, the Chinese market has grown into BMW's largest single market in the world. Coinciding with the unprecedented changes in the automotive industry in a hundred years, how to stand firm in this market and grow and develop together with one has become the top priority of bmw group strategy.
As Dr. Peter declared at the orientation meeting —
We (the BMW Group) have comprehensively upgraded the "China Strategy 2025": adhering to the principle of "China First", we will maintain synergy between our corporate strategy and China's development goals, give priority to the needs of the Chinese market in the development of new products, and continuously strengthen the co-creation of win-win results with Chinese partners. Looking ahead to 2025, the BMW Group will accelerate electrification, digitalization and sustainable development in China, keeping pace with China.
Create a win-win situation and move towards the goal of "double carbon"
12345-2025-2/1.5
The BMW Group's Strategic Upgrade in China can actually be simplified to this string of numbers:
"1" refers to the "China First" principle;
"2" means that both BMW and MINI brands should be rooted in China;
The "3" symbolizes a determined transformation along the three directions of electrification, digitalization and sustainability;
"4" is four R&D and digitalization bases in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang and Nanjing;
"5" indicates five BMW pure electric models that will be presented to Chinese customers in 2022;
"2025" represents the upcoming "new generation" of models in 2025;
"200 million" and "1.5" represent the BMW Group's carbon reduction targets to 2030 and its commitment to the 1.5 degree temperature control target of the Paris Agreement, respectively.
Easier said than done, planning is always easy. So, what about BMW's actual efforts?
In fact, in order to achieve many of the above "figures", BMW has been quietly building in China for many years, especially the final emission reduction part.
Earlier this month, the solar photovoltaic upgrade system at BMW's Shenyang Dadong plant was officially launched. This move will not only further accelerate the sustainable development strategy promoted by BMW Brilliance in China, but also the "double carbon" emission reduction target achieved through the photovoltaic system, and will also strongly support the annual emission reduction target of Shenyang.
On the 14th of last month, the second phase of the photovoltaic project of BMW's Shenyang Tiexi plant was also connected to the grid as scheduled. The project, combined with the first phase of the project located at the top of the plant, will constitute the largest photovoltaic power generation system in China. Among them, the second phase of the photovoltaic carport project completed last month alone has a total area of 139,100 square meters and a total installed capacity of 16MWp.
In China, the government has shifted from simply pursuing GDP growth to demanding high-quality (low energy, environmentally friendly) GDP growth years ago.
For many years, the BMW Group has also been promoting green plans for its Chinese factories. Its core is the self-sufficiency rate of factory energy, which also means that the energy consumption ratio of related factories is continuously optimized, and the "gold content" of its GDP creation is constantly improved.
According to the plan, from 2021, all BMW production sites in China will achieve renewable energy supply production, and by 2030, the carbon footprint of all the Group's production lines in China will be reduced by 80% compared with the current level. Making China's local economic growth more qualitative is exactly what BMW can do.
In addition, not only is it setting strict "double carbon" targets for the production process and the industrial chain itself, but also the products BMW sells in China are also making great strides towards electrification.
In 2022, BMW will launch five pure electric vehicles in China; by 2025, the group's sales of pure electric vehicles will account for a quarter of the models delivered in China. The Group's global goal is to reduce the average full-life cycle carbon emissions of all delivered vehicles by 40% compared to 2019 by 2030, reducing carbon emissions by at least 200 million tons.
"Start-up garage", a precious gift from BMW
BMW's full investment in the Chinese market is not only reflected in the active cooperation with China's national sustainable development strategy, but also in the support and cultivation of China's high-tech enterprises.
The famous "BMW Start-up Garage" project, which began in 2015, is a gift from the BMW Group for start-up technology companies around the world. The main appeal of the project is to find high-potential startups through the project and select objects that match their own development direction or business. Its fundamental purpose is to help innovative companies with potential to enter the automotive market smoothly through this project, so that BMW's various business segments can access cutting-edge technology companies.
Of course, this "start-up garage" is not a venture capital in the traditional sense, and its cooperation model is not to invest in startups to obtain equity for long-term profits.
Unlike VCs, which tend to intervene in startup equity or even management, "startup garages" often choose to provide a commercial platform to companies in the early stages of their products, services or technologies that are not yet mature, and provide them with a platform to commercialize their products or services, validating and optimizing their products or solutions while helping these companies obtain the funds they desperately need to operate and grow.
Therefore, the "start-up garage" will not endanger the control and operating rights and interests of the nascent enterprise, and it is BMW's real pursuit to seek mutual benefit and win-win results between enterprises with the longest-term vision. It is precisely because of this open and inclusive attitude that the BMW Group has quickly built an innovation ecosystem around the company through this project.
Such an important corporate strategy naturally does not ignore the vital Chinese market. In fact, innovation incubation is an important part of BMW's strategy in China.
At present, well-known domestic technology innovation enterprises, such as Mekamande Robot, Suzhou Galatek Power Co., Ltd., Suzhou DDB Electronic Technology, Beijing Keyi Power Technology Co., Ltd., as well as Shenzhen Jiatui Technology, SenseTime, Heshan Technology, Yanshi Technology, etc., are the beneficiaries of the "Start-up Garage" project.
At present, these enterprises have made considerable achievements in their respective fields.
Taking Derivative Technology as an example, the AR-HUD solution of its in-vehicle 3D holographic system takes the on-board holographic transparent display technology as the starting point and integrates emerging technologies including AR-HUD, holographic robot, V2X, and new multimedia platforms for vehicle mobility.
For automotive intelligence, this technology is essential to create a new ecosystem with intelligent driving and human-computer interaction at its core.
SenseTime's intelligent cockpit solution based on computer vision technology is the key to building the next generation of automotive intelligent cockpit system. The scheme uses an infrared camera to achieve a variety of functions, including gesture recognition, fatigue detection, distraction detection, line of sight tracking, driver dangerous behavior recognition, etc., which greatly improves the level of intelligence of human-computer interaction and also helps to improve driving safety.
The four-layer sensing technology jointly developed by Tashan Technology and BMW with the seat backpallet as the medium can respond to the user's gesture wake-up and operation instructions such as suspension, multi-finger sliding touch, and pressing, which not only helps to improve the user's operating experience, but also helps to provide more cockpit control interfaces for the next generation of vehicles.
Of course, the "start-up garage" doesn't just focus on the car itself. For example, the new robot developed by Mekamande Robotics is a typical industrial robot, relying on 3D vision, intelligent path planning and other technologies, with deep learning to train AI, can adapt to a variety of tasks. Whether it is palletizing, feeding, positioning, sorting, and other common scenarios, or assembly, screw tightening and other workshop scenarios, the robot can be more than competent. If the product can be successfully put into commercial use, it is expected to save a lot of hardware costs for various unmanned workshop projects.
At present, the automotive industry is facing a major transformation driven by technological progress, and if companies want to gain a development opportunity in the process of automotive industry change, they must move towards openness and cooperation. This is one of the important reasons why BMW has built an "open and innovative" circle of friends in China.
Stand on the threshold of the next generation
"We will be prepared for any fuel vehicle ban that begins in 2030. If a region, a city or a country has the idea of banning the sale of fuel vehicles, we will provide corresponding (electric vehicles) products. BMW is not worried about this (banning the sale of fuel vehicles). Whether this is a good idea or not is another matter, but we can provide (the corresponding product) if necessary. ”
In October, BMW GROUP CEO Chiptzer said this at a conference in Niertingen, Germany.
BMW is accelerating its transition to electrification, digitalization and sustainability. For the group as a whole, the last time such a massive transformation was in the early 1960s, a full 60 years ago.
At that time, the BMW Group, through a thorough innovation in product direction, laid the foundation for this huge change called "rediscovery of sports mid-size cars" and ushered in a period of upward mobility for the entire group that lasted for half a century.
"In 2022, the Group will welcome three new plants in Shenyang and Zhangjiagang, and put into operation the second BMW pure electric vehicle in Shenyang, the pure electric 3 series car, further enhancing China's position as one of the bmw group's three major new energy vehicle production bases in the world."
Dr. Peter announced this at the orientation meeting. As the BMW Group's largest car series in terms of sales volume, the 3 Series' plan to electrify itself has a very significant vane significance.
Of course, BMW's determination to transform new energy does not stop there. In addition to the new energy of the 3 Series, there is also a symbolic pure electric flagship model, which is also about to be launched in 2022.
From historical experience, BMW is not afraid of this change. As Chiptzer said not long ago: "The most valuable thing about the last transformation was a firm attitude and determination to change." Today, the BMW Group should have the same courage and guts. ”
Sportiness is the most brilliant part of BMW's brand value. But whether it is the regular sense of jitter when the cylinder is moving, or the sharp roar issued by the engine when the vehicle accelerates, these core markers that once represented the sense of motor movement will inevitably disappear with the passing era under the sweep of the wave of electrification.
But BMW is ready for the day. After all, if we want to care for the world we love, we have to give something. Abandoning everything it is proud of in the fuel era and resolutely embracing the era of new energy is the most direct embodiment of the company's responsibility for the world.
In the third decade of the 21st century, China's auto market is booming and the auto industry is growing and developing. In this era when the engine sound is fading away, the BMW Group is not worried about its future, because it has seen the hope of the future in the east of the world.
Cultivating this market and growing together with China will usher in a brilliant future for this century-old enterprise. This is the same moment as it was sixty years ago. After all, the co-creation and win-win situation advocated by the BMW Group has a common core with the mutual benefit and win-win situation that China has upheld since the reform and opening up.
｜Poinko｜
We really don't call it a "crispy parrot"!