China Electric Vehicle 100 will release the project report of "Cross-border Integration and New Strength of the Automobile Industry"

In the era of the automotive revolution 2.0 characterized by intelligence and networking, technology giants in the fields of the Internet and consumer electronics have entered the automotive industry in a big way, and are expected to become the main force to promote the in-depth transformation of the automotive industry. In the face of the new situation, the China Electric Vehicle 100 Association Car 100 Think Tank Research Institute set up a special research group, and after multi-party research, consultation and discussion, formed a research report on "Cross-border Integration and New Strength of the Automobile Industry" (hereinafter referred to as the report). On February 25, the report was officially released at the media communication meeting of the 100 Forum (2022).

The report deeply studies the advantages and challenges of cross-border integration of the mainland automobile industry, explores how to better integrate new cross-border forces into the automotive industry chain, and how to deal with important issues such as how to deal with vehicle enterprises under the new situation. The following is a summary of the report's core findings.

First, the mainland cross-border integration advantages of the industry in the field of ICT

With the changes in the form and attributes of automotive products, AI, 5G, cloud computing, big data, etc. have become the key technologies of automotive intelligence, and these technologies happen to be the advantages of the mainland. First, the mainland has accumulated a number of world-leading ICT enterprises, and its years of technology and ecological accumulation are expected to enhance the competitiveness of intelligent networked vehicles. Second, the penetration of new applications and new services in the mainland is very fast, and domestic technology companies can better grasp and adapt to the active and changeable demands of local consumers. Third, the mainland's new infrastructure has ushered in a new round of rapid development, which can better support the landing of new technologies and new products for smart vehicles.

Second, similar technologies and ecological cultivation capabilities have become the "foothold" of new forces across borders

Just as the mobile phone follows the path of "interactive innovation - architecture upgrade - ecological development", it is upgraded from a single communication tool to a universal scenario tool. The car will reproduce the intelligent evolution path of mobile phones, starting from the human-computer interaction transformation in the cockpit, superimposed on the wave of automatic driving, which is transforming from a travel tool into a next-generation intelligent terminal. Similar architecture iteration and interaction technology, as well as ecological cultivation capabilities, have become the foothold of new forces in the field of cross-border automobiles.

Third, the "multi-path" of cross-border new forces has entered the game and empowered a new round of development of the automobile industry

Based on the advantages of existing thinking, technology, products and business, cross-border new forces such as the Internet and ICT are entering the automotive industry along the three paths of auto brand owners, auto suppliers and automobile manufacturers, and promoting the technological transformation and upgrading of the mainland automotive industry.

First, new car brand owners accelerate the transformation of automotive product forms and travel modes. Based on the needs of users, new brands are creating customized products and services, relying on rich intelligent hardware ecology, service ecology and a large amount of data accumulation, which are promoting further changes in the form of automobile products and traffic travel modes, and accelerating the transformation of automobile attributes into the third space of mobile.

Second, new auto suppliers accelerate the iterative process of software and hardware for intelligent and connected vehicles. The new supplier has more advantages in the original software business ecosystem, the existing precision hardware process, and the software and hardware collaboration capabilities, driving the landing of in-vehicle software, incremental hardware, and service ecology, and driving the iteration and progress of intelligent vehicles.

Third, new automobile manufacturers promote the transformation of the production mode of the automobile industry. New car manufacturers bring their original OEM production experience and innovative technologies into the field of car manufacturing, which will help promote the transformation of automobile production to a highly specialized division of labor and keep up with the rapid iteration rhythm of intelligent and connected vehicles.

These enterprises have a better understanding of customer needs, more capital power, information technology accumulation and software talent reserves are more abundant, business models are more flexible, will become a new force in the car can not be ignored.

Source: Compiled by the Hundred Talents Association Intelligent Network Research Institute

Fourth, vehicle enterprises respond to the new situation of the industry through investment, cooperation and self-research

Under the new situation of the automobile industry, the automobile consumer market has changed from generation to generation, the user demand has changed to focus on pleasant and intelligent functions, the automobile supply chain has evolved to cross-collaboration, and the automobile sales model has become more direct to consumers. In this context, the adjustment of vehicle companies themselves is "imminent".

According to their own strength, development and strategic goals, global vehicle companies are making up for their lack of capabilities through investment, cooperation and self-research to cope with new changes and challenges in the automotive industry.

First, investment and acquisition, more suitable for sales volume, profits in the head car companies. Head car companies with high sales volume and revenue tend to quickly make up for the lack of new technologies in intelligent networking through large-scale investment and mergers and acquisitions, but they will also face cost pressures and challenges that technology does not meet expectations. At present, foreign head car companies choose this method more, and investment and mergers are mainly in the fields of batteries, chips, automatic driving, and travel services.

The second is cooperative research and development, and domestic car companies focus more on cooperation with local technology companies. For technology areas that rely on data, algorithm updates and require continuous iteration, car companies generally tend to cooperate with technology companies in research and development to accelerate the mass production of smart cars. Among them, enterprises with strong self-research capabilities are more inclined to cooperate with single or multiple technology-leading technology companies, and car companies with relatively weak self-research capabilities are more inclined to carry out comprehensive cooperation and research and development with technology enterprises with strong technical capabilities. Domestic car companies cooperate with local technology companies to develop automotive products that are suitable for the habits of local consumers, while foreign car companies are based on the world, with more choices and are not restricted by geographical technical barriers.

The third is independent research and development, and the new forces of car manufacturing mostly use full-stack self-research. Traditional vehicle enterprises with high profits, strong capital reserves, and the accumulation of certain research and development capabilities tend to choose core technology self-research in order to grasp the initiative, while the new forces of car manufacturing with concentrated R&D resources and high efficiency are more inclined to full-stack self-research.

Fifth, countermeasures and suggestions for the cross-border integration and development of the automobile industry

Finally, from the perspective of policy, industry and enterprise, the report puts forward countermeasures and suggestions for the cross-border integration and development of the automobile industry.

At the policy level, one is to suggest learning from the development of new energy vehicles, and also to give full play to the institutional advantages of the mainland in the field of intelligent vehicles to concentrate on major events; the second is to propose the establishment or improvement of the automotive post-event supervision mechanism and the withdrawal mechanism of idle production capacity of vehicle manufacturers to optimize the mainland's pre-entry regulatory environment.

At the industry level, it is recommended that vehicle companies and technology companies join forces to jointly accelerate industrial innovation and upgrading, such as jointly building a shared R&D and manufacturing platform, and transforming the advantages of a single body into a system advantage.

At the enterprise level, the first is to suggest that new forces use capital or join alliances to accelerate the integration of automotive industry resources, and constantly explore the integration direction of existing advantages and the automotive industry; second, it is recommended that traditional car companies innovate in organizational structure, management model, development model, talent structure, sales model and other aspects.