Focusing on the big chess game, China's auto industry is more accurate

In 2021, China's economy is breaking through the waves of risk challenges, and China's auto market has handed over a remarkable development answer.

Recently, the data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers shows that in 2021, the production and sales of mainland automobiles reached 26.082 million units and 26.275 million units, respectively, an increase of 3.4% and 3.8% year-on-year, ending the downward trend for three consecutive years, and contributing an important force to the sustained recovery and development of the mainland's industrial economy and stable macroeconomic growth.

"In the face of adverse factors such as chip shortage and continuous high raw material prices, the automotive industry has risen to the challenge and taken the initiative to show a steady and increasing development trend in automobile production and sales throughout the year, showing strong development resilience and development momentum." Fu Bingfeng, executive vice president and secretary general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, stressed that new energy vehicles in particular have become the biggest bright spot, and have shifted from policy-driven to market-driven new development stages, showing a good development situation of both market scale and development quality, laying a solid foundation for the high-quality development of the "14th Five-Year Plan" automobile industry.

In the opening year of the "14th Five-Year Plan", as a concentrated representative of the pursuit of the goal of "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality" and the construction of a high-quality development pattern, the automobile industry has once again become a pioneer of change. There is an increasingly accepted consensus that to become a manufacturing power, you must become an automobile power.

The production and sales of new energy vehicles have reached a new high, and The confidence of Chinese automobiles to lead the world is even stronger

As Fu Bingfeng said, new energy vehicles have maintained a booming development situation in production and marketing throughout 2021. Since March 2021, the monthly sales of new energy vehicles have exceeded 200,000 units, more than 300,000 units in August, more than 400,000 units in November, and more than 530,000 units in December, showing a sustained growth momentum.

In 2021, the production and sales of new energy vehicles totaled 3.545 million units and 3.521 million units, respectively, ranking first in the world for seven consecutive years. According to statistics, the production and sales of new energy vehicles increased by 1.6 times year-on-year, and the market share reached 13.4%, 8 percentage points higher than that of the previous year

Among them, the production and sales of pure electric vehicles reached 2.942 million units and 2.916 million units, respectively, an increase of 1.7 times and 1.6 times year-on-year, respectively; Production and sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles totaled 601,000 units and 603,000 units, up 1.3 times and 1.4 times, respectively, year-on-year; The production and sales of fuel cell vehicles reached 0.2 million units, showing a year-on-year increase.

"New energy vehicles are an important direction for the green development and low-carbon transformation of the global automotive industry, and also a strategic choice for the high-quality development of the mainland automobile industry." Guo Shougang, deputy director of the First Department of Equipment Industry of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, analyzed that in 2021, the new energy vehicle market presents a good momentum of "double improvement" in market scale and development quality, and industrial development can be summarized as "three rapids": first, the rapid growth of production and marketing scale, second, rapid improvement of quality brands, third, rapid growth of product exports, and the annual export of new energy vehicles was 310,000 vehicles, an increase of more than 3 times year-on-year, exceeding the total historical cumulative exports.

It is worth noting that in 2021, China's new energy vehicle market not only created the fastest growth rate since 2016, but also accounted for nearly 80% of private consumption. This means that its sustainable development capacity has been further enhanced.

In fact, as an important part of the unprecedented changes in the global automotive industry in a hundred years, China's new energy vehicle market has always attracted the attention of all players, including new car-making forces, independent brands, joint venture brands, and foreign-funded enterprises. Some analysts believe that the proportion of private consumption of new energy vehicles has increased significantly, thanks to the full competition in the market and forcing related enterprises to continuously improve their technical level.

Taking pure electric passenger cars as an example, some data show that the average mileage of pure electric vehicles in 2016 was only 253 kilometers, and in 2021, it reached more than 400 kilometers. At the same time, a number of market research reports show that consumers' satisfaction with the quality of new energy vehicles is roughly the same as that of fuel vehicles.

At the same time, with the production and sales of new energy vehicles reaching new highs, the layout of supporting facilities such as charging piles and substations has accelerated, and the industrial development environment has been further optimized. The reporter learned from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology that by the end of 2021, a total of 75,000 charging stations, 2.617 million charging piles, 1,298 replacement power stations, and more than 10,000 power battery recycling service outlets have been set up in 31 provinces and municipalities across the country.

"Overall, mainland new energy vehicles have entered a new stage of accelerated development, and the leading role in the electrification transformation of the global automotive industry has been further enhanced." Guo Shougang reminded that at the same time, it should be noted that the development of the automobile industry is facing new requirements for the goal of "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality", and the new situation and new problems such as increasing pressure of international competition and security risks in the industrial chain supply chain also urgently need the joint efforts of all parties.

Intriguingly, in 2021, when the wind of electrification is blowing, many new faces have quietly appeared in the automotive circle. From Huawei, which has repeatedly reiterated that "no car" but has stolen the limelight, to the latest entry of DJI and Xiaomi, the combination of "electrification + intelligence" seems to make the car track more lively than ever.

"Just as the popularity of smart phones has knocked on the door of the mobile Internet economy, smart electric vehicles will also bring greater imagination space for the integration of the traditional industrial economy and the digital economy." Pan Helin, executive dean of the Digital Economy Research Institute of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, told reporters that due to the strong relevance of the automotive industry, emerging technologies such as new energy, artificial intelligence, and 5G will get greater application space and deeper service penetration after entering the automotive industry.

"In 2022, China's auto market will continue to grow." Fu Bingfeng said that based on the prediction of major vehicle companies, mathematical model analysis and the research results of various relevant institutions, the China Automobile Association predicts that the total sales of mainland vehicles in 2022 are expected to reach 27.5 million units, an increase of about 5% year-on-year. Among them, passenger cars were 23 million units, an increase of 7% year-on-year; 4.5 million commercial vehicles, down 6% year-on-year; The new energy vehicles will reach 5 million, an increase of 42% year-on-year, and the market share is expected to exceed 18%.

In addition, according to the forecast of the International Data Corporation (IDC), the global intelligent driving car industry will exceed 1.2 trillion US dollars in 2035, while the scale of China's intelligent driving car will exceed 200 billion US dollars.

Borrowing from the east wind of industrial transformation, Chinese brands have broken out of the new way of "upward"

Thanks to the strong momentum of the production and sales of new energy vehicles, China's brand industry has ushered in a historic opportunity to ride the wind and waves and sail out to sea.

According to the statistics of the China Automobile Association, in 2021, Chinese brand passenger cars sold 9.543 million units, an increase of 23.1% year-on-year, and the market share reached 44.4%, an increase of 6 percentage points year-on-year. Among them, The sales of New Energy Passenger Vehicles of Chinese Brands were 2.476 million units, an increase of 1.7 times year-on-year, accounting for 74.3% of the total sales of new energy passenger vehicles.

In terms of exports, according to the export statistics caliber of vehicle enterprises, the mainland's automobile exports in 2021 will be 2.015 million units, an increase of 1 times year-on-year, accounting for 7.7% of total automobile sales, an increase of 3.7 percentage points over the previous year. Among them, the performance of new energy vehicles is outstanding, with a total of 310,000 exports in 2021, an increase of 3 times year-on-year.

"For the first time, mainland automobile exports exceeded 2 million units, achieving a breakthrough that has been hovering around 1 million vehicles for many years." Fu Bingfeng said that not only has China's total automobile production and sales ranked first in the world for 13 consecutive years, but also made great progress in "electrification, networking and intelligence". "The mainland's position as an automobile power has been further consolidated and it is moving towards an automobile power."

In this regard, Zhu Huarong, rotating president of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers and chairman of Changan Automobile, was deeply touched.

In his view, China's mainstream automobile brands have made great progress, first, technical capabilities have been fully built, from the vehicle, body, chassis, engine to transmission and other core components have fully equipped with independent research and development capabilities; Second, product innovation continues, and Chinese brands have formed brand characteristics such as beautiful shape, high appearance, high technical configuration, and new technology applications, which meet the needs of consumer upgrading in the Chinese market; Third, the quality of Chinese brand cars has reached or even exceeded that of some international brands, and the failure rate of mainstream brands has exceeded the average level of international brands.

Some industry experts told reporters that compared with foreign brands, Chinese car companies have made efforts earlier in the field of new energy, especially pure electric vehicles, and have obvious advantages in product research and development, quality verification and power battery and other industrial chain layout.

Especially with the advancement of new energy vehicle technology and the improvement of mileage, consumers' acceptance of new energy vehicle products is getting higher and higher, and the new energy vehicle market has entered a truly market-oriented stage. At the same time that terminal consumption is becoming more and more active, more and more independent brands have broken out a new path of "rising sales and rising brands" with new energy vehicles.

"Chinese brands should seize the opportunity period of development in the next 3-5 years, accelerate breakthroughs and innovations on new tracks, help brands move upward through the value of products and services, and promote the healthy competition and development of the automobile industry." I believe that in the next 10 years, world-class Chinese brands will be born. Zhu Huarong confidently said that Chinese auto brands have high efficiency and good service, and have obvious advantages in many aspects.

Zhu Huarong suggested that first of all, Chinese brands should accelerate strategic transformation or capacity reshaping from a strategic perspective, and grasp strategic transformation opportunities such as intelligence, electrification, low carbon, travel services, and technology companies; Secondly, products should accelerate the development of intelligent, electrified, networked, lightweight and healthy; Then we must accelerate the brand marketing reform and march into the high-end market; Finally, Chinese auto brands should strengthen the "going out" strategy and accelerate the development of markets to developed countries such as Europe and the United States.

In order to promote the upward development of Chinese automobile brands and accelerate the pace of building an automobile power, under the guidance and support of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the 2021 China Automobile Association organized the "See Chinese Automobile" - 2021 Chinese automobile brand upward development special action. It is understood that the "2022 Special Action for the Upward Development of Chinese Auto Brands" will take "technological breakthroughs and innovations" as the main line, select the representative traditional and new brands of the industry and the industry to participate, and comprehensively display the technological innovation and technological breakthroughs of Chinese auto brands in the new track.

Some analysts believe that joint venture brands and foreign-funded enterprises will collectively increase their product offensive next year, and as new energy vehicle subsidies will decline in 2022, the new energy vehicle market may usher in a new round of reshuffle. This also means that Chinese brand cars need to further improve product competitiveness, strive to make the brand image and premium ability higher and stronger, and further establish and consolidate consumers' positive cognition and confidence in Chinese car brands.

As a pillar industry of the national economy, how the automobile industry continues to overcome many unfavorable conditions and achieve steady progress and stability is destined to be an important point of view throughout 2022. Fu Bingfeng said that there are 5 positive factors to support the sustained and stable growth situation: "First, the long-term macroeconomic fundamentals of the mainland will not change, ensuring the sustained growth of the automobile market; Second, the automobile market has great potential and the demand is still strong; Third, the normalization of epidemic prevention and control measures, the market impact brought about by the epidemic has gradually weakened; Fourth, with the gradual easing of chip shortages, the supply capacity of automobiles will be further released; Fifth, the market demand for new energy vehicles is strong, which further promotes the steady growth of automobile sales. The planning target of 20% of new energy vehicles in mainland China in 2025 is likely to be achieved ahead of schedule. ”

"Automobile is an important pillar industry of the national economy, with a long industrial chain, a wide range of involvement and a high degree of internationalization. At present, it is in a critical period of technological change and ecological reshaping, and the task of ensuring stable operation and promoting transformation and upgrading is extremely arduous and heavy. As Wang Weiming, director of the First Department of Equipment Industry of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said, the external environment for the development of the mainland automobile industry will become more complex and severe and unstable in 2022, and the difficulties and challenges we face are also increasing, "we need to further strengthen confidence, innovate ideas and promote development."

"Big rivers have water and small rivers are full, and small rivers have water and big rivers are full." For the average consumer, with more high-quality new cars to choose from, they can embrace a better life with hope; For China's auto industry, especially independent brands, creating new cars that consumers prefer to buy and use with more confidence will not only directly determine the success or failure of industrial upgrading and enterprise transformation, but also drive the continuous accumulation of the foundation and "advancement" factors of China's auto industry and even China's economy, and accelerate the formation of a big chess game of high-quality development.

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