Shanghai's auto industry is stronger than the new map: competing for global discourse power

Near 10 p.m., the interior of Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory in Shanghai's Lingang New Area is still brightly lit, and every few minutes, trucks loaded with domestic Model 3s drive out of the factory one after another. This is the scene that the reporter of China Business Daily saw when he visited Tesla's gigafactory on the ground a few days ago.

Recalling the "Tesla speed" of "starting construction, putting into production that year, and delivering that year" jointly created by Shanghai and Tesla in 2019, Han Dadong, director of the Intelligent Manufacturing Division of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology (hereinafter referred to as "Shanghai Economic and Information Commission"), recalled to reporters: "This is indeed a very challenging task, and there is no such record in the industry. At that time, we set up a WeChat work group, the group name is 'the beginning is the sprint, the beginning is the decisive battle', the past three years we are in the state of 'every day in the decisive battle'. ”

At the same time, the local automobile brands represented by the Shanghai Automobile Group have further stimulated the development of Shanghai's automobile industry, forming a multi-level industrial cluster represented by The Anting area, Lingang New Area, Jinqiao and Zhangjiang areas. According to the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Advanced Manufacturing in Shanghai" previously issued by the General Office of the Shanghai Municipal Government, by 2025, Shanghai will strive to enhance the global discourse power and market share of automobiles, and the scale of the vehicle and parts industry will reach 1 trillion yuan.

The relevant person in charge of the Shanghai Economic and Information Commission told reporters: "In the early years, Tesla's entry detonated the domestic new energy industry chain; in recent years, the Shanghai Municipal Government has promoted the transformation of traditional car companies, supported SAIC Group and other enterprises, and cultivated local high-end new energy vehicle brands." ”

Tesla's "Catfish Effect"

"The negotiation of the introduction of the Tesla project is a long process. Mainly because Tesla planned to build a wholly-owned factory in Shanghai, and at that time, the domestic automobile manufacturing industry had foreign ownership restrictions, and we were all in the landing of relevant policies. Han Dadong recalled to reporters.

It is understood that on June 28, 2018, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce issued the Special Administrative Measures for Foreign Investment Access (Negative List) (2018 Edition), which clarifies that the restrictions on foreign ownership of special vehicles and new energy vehicles will be abolished from July 28 of that year. On July 10 of that year, Tesla signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Shanghai Municipal Government, and signed an investment agreement for pure electric vehicle projects with the Shanghai Lingang Management Committee and Lingang Group.

According to the agreement, Tesla will build a Tesla gigafactory integrating R&D, manufacturing, sales and other functions in the Lingang area of Shanghai. Since then, Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory has been rapidly completed in Shanghai Lingang New Area, and has become the first wholly foreign-owned vehicle manufacturing project after China's automotive industry has relaxed the restrictions on foreign ownership.

With the huge production capacity released by the Shanghai Gigafactory, Tesla's sales in China and the world have rapidly "blown out", consolidating its international position as the first echelon of new energy vehicles. Tesla recently told reporters: "In 2021, the delivery volume of Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory exceeded 480,000 units, an increase of 235% year-on-year, while Tesla's global delivery volume in 2021 was 936,000 vehicles." This also means that the delivery volume of Tesla's Shanghai factory has accounted for more than 50%, occupying half of the country. ”

Tesla, on the other hand, is considering building a new factory in China. In October 2021, Tesla CEO Musk said at the annual shareholders' meeting that the new factory may start to select sites in 2022 and make a decision in 2023. However, Tesla told reporters: "At present, the site selection work has not yet begun. ”

According to reports, when the Tesla project was introduced, the Shanghai Municipal Government said that it will boost the development of Shanghai's high-end manufacturing industry, accelerate the construction of a world-class automobile industry center, and provide strong support for Shanghai to become an excellent global city. The relevant person in charge of the Shanghai Economic and Information Commission pointed out to reporters that the development results of about 3 years have proved that Tesla is like a "catfish", which not only triggers the transformation of Shanghai's automobile industry, but also promotes the national new energy automobile industry to enter the "fast lane" of development.

"Tesla's entry has generally improved the acceptance of new energy vehicles by domestic consumers, and has also broadened the development space of the domestic new energy automobile industry." Han Dadong also told reporters that Tesla's current localization rate has reached 90%, which has brought development opportunities for domestic enterprises, improved the overall development level of the domestic automotive industry chain, and driven more than 100,000 people to work.

Strengthen the automotive industry cluster

As one of the largest local automobile enterprises in China, SAIC Motor has been placed high hopes by the Shanghai Municipal Government to build an independent high-end new energy vehicle brand.

It is understood that SAIC Motor has set up two major brands in the field of new energy, namely Zhiji Automobile and Feifan Automobile, and promoted the independent operation of the two major brands. Among them, Zhiji Automobile is positioned as a high-end new energy brand, and Feifan Automobile is mainly engaged in high-end new energy intelligent products.

Han Dadong revealed to reporters: "Zhiji Automobile and Feifan Automobile are independently operating companies, and the production and manufacturing bases are in Lingang New Area, which are two independent high-end new energy vehicle brands that SAIC Group focuses on building, and are also a sample of the Shanghai Municipal Government to promote the transformation of traditional car companies." ”

SAIC Motor also told reporters: "The company will R brand through Feifan Automobile as an independent brand, independent company way to market operation, explore a new model of data-driven and industrial co-creation, will help accelerate the development of high-end intelligent electric vehicle market." ”

According to the above-mentioned "Shanghai Municipal Implementation Plan for Accelerating the Development of new Energy Vehicle Industry (2021-2025)", Shanghai will support the development of ecologically-led enterprises, "support SAIC To develop new energy vehicles, by 2025, the sales of new energy vehicles of independent brands will account for more than 30%, and the sales of new energy vehicles of the Group will account for more than 20%, so as to achieve core technology autonomy and controllability, and the comprehensive strength is leading in China." ”

At present, Shanghai has formed three major automobile industry clusters. Among them, the Anting area located in Jiading District has made breakthroughs in the core technology research and development of new energy vehicles, the industrialization of key components, and demonstration applications; the Lingang New Area has accelerated the layout of the whole industrial chain, continued to expand the production capacity of high-end new energy vehicles, and promoted the export of complete vehicles; Jinqiao and Zhangjiang areas have given full play to the advantages of integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, software, and communication equipment industries, and accelerated the layout in the fields of visual recognition, vehicle operating systems, and vehicle-grade chips.

It is understood that Shanghai is building a world-class automobile industry center core bearing area in Jiading District, and has established an international demonstration zone for electric vehicles, an intelligent networked vehicle demonstration zone, a stationary hydrogen refueling station, and a Jiading hydrogen energy port, Shanghai's first high-tech park featuring hydrogen energy industry.

According to the data, as of now, Jiading District of Shanghai has gathered more than 340 enterprises related to the "new four modernizations" of automobiles such as Weilai Automobile, Ideal Automobile, Xiaoma Zhixing, Horizon and Reshaping Technology, of which 88 are enterprises on a large scale. From January to November 2021, the total output of the "new four modernizations" of automobiles reached 111.7 billion yuan.

The Lingang New Area also relies on Tesla and other head enterprises to increase the upstream and downstream layout of the new energy intelligent networked vehicle industry chain, and the related enterprises in the automotive field have exceeded 60, and the industrial scale will exceed 60 billion yuan in 2020. According to the plan, by 2025, the total output value of the intelligent new energy automobile industry in the Lingang New Area will be 120 billion yuan, which is the first industrial cluster in the new area that is expected to break through the 100 billion level.

Seize the new energy outlet

The layout of vehicle companies such as Tesla and SAIC Motor group for the "new four modernizations" (electrification, networking, intelligence, and sharing) has also driven the development of Shanghai's new energy automobile industry chain.

According to the "Implementation Plan for Accelerating the Development of the New Energy Vehicle Industry in Shanghai (2021-2025)" issued by the General Office of the Shanghai Municipal Government in February 2021, by 2025, the annual output of local new energy vehicles will exceed 1.2 million; the output value of new energy vehicles will exceed 350 billion yuan, accounting for more than 35% of the output value of the city's automobile manufacturing industry.

In Han Dadong's view, the primary reason why Shanghai can attract new car manufacturers and related parts and components enterprises to enter is Shanghai's local superior business environment and industrial ecology: "The government departments have high-speed efficiency, and dare to try first, dare to bite the 'hard bones'." ”

Shanghai is also vigorously laying out the new energy vehicle industry chain and seizing the opportunity for the development of new energy vehicles. In August 2021, the Shanghai Municipal Government signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with CATL New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "CATL", 300750.SZ).

"The settlement of the Ningde era was invited by us on our own initiative." A person in charge of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology told reporters that Zeng Yuqun, the chairman of the Ningde Times at that time, wanted to donate a fee to his alma mater, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, to establish the Future Energy Research Institute. After the Shanghai Commission of Economy and Information Technology learned of this news, the relevant person in charge organized a 45-minute breakfast meeting between Ningde Times and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Han Dadong said: "After several months of negotiations, the promises made at the breakfast meeting were all fulfilled. At present, several projects in the Ningde era are all advancing synchronously, of which the battery factory has the fastest speed. At present, CATL has begun to lease factories for production, and it is expected that the factory will achieve an output value of 20 to 30 billion yuan in 2022. ”

In terms of hydrogen energy development, the Shanghai Economic and Information Commission stressed to reporters: "Hydrogen fuel is becoming one of the key points of the development of Shanghai's new energy automobile industry. According to the plan, Shanghai is actively expanding the demonstration application of fuel cell vehicles, supporting the demonstration application of fuel cell vehicles in qualified suburban public transportation, heavy cargo, cold chain transportation, sanitation, non-road mobile vehicles and other fields, and promoting the implementation of a number of demonstration application projects in transportation hubs such as airports, ports, and railways."

"At present, in order to promote hydrogen energy, Shanghai has introduced support policies such as subsidies for the construction of hydrogen refueling stations and operating subsidies." According to relevant people close to the market, in September 2021, the "Implementation Plan for Building High-quality Hydrogen Energy Demonstration Application Scenarios in Lingang New Area (2021-2025)" was released, and pointed out that by 2025, The Lingang New Area will be built into a pilot area, comprehensive demonstration area and industrial leading area for hydrogen energy development in Shanghai.

At the end of December 2021, the Action Plan for Accelerating the Development of Hydrogen Energy and Fuel Cell Vehicle Industry in Jiading District (2021-2025) was officially released, and it was proposed that by 2025, the total output of the whole industrial chain of hydrogen energy and fuel cell vehicles in Jiading District should strive to exceed 100 billion yuan; the total number of fuel cell vehicle industry headquarters enterprises, high-tech enterprises, and enterprise technology centers should exceed 100; and the total number of fuel cell demonstration application vehicles should not be less than 3500.

According to the plan, Shanghai will seize the window period and opportunity period of transformation and adjustment of the global automobile industry, support the city's leading automobile enterprises to accelerate strategic transformation, enhance the core competitiveness of independent brands, expand the international mainstream market, cultivate and expand new car companies; by 2025, achieve trillion-level industrial scale, and strive to build a world-class automobile industry center.