Dialogue with Chen Hong, Chairman of SAIC Motor: Electric intelligent networked vehicles represent the future direction of technological development

Chen Hong, deputy to the National People's Congress, secretary of the party committee and chairman of SAIC Motor.

"Continue to support the consumption of new energy vehicles", recently, Premier Li Keqiang of the State Council made a government work report, once again mentioned new energy vehicles. With the end of the "three consecutive declines" in the mainland auto market, industry confidence has also been boosted.

On March 10, Chen Hong, deputy to the National People's Congress, secretary of the party committee and chairman of SAIC Motor, told the Beijing News Shell financial reporter that "from a longer-term perspective, in the process of deepening the mainland's strategy of manufacturing power, China's automobile industry will also play a greater leading role."

However, at present, new energy vehicles still face many bottlenecks in the development process. Based on this, Chen Hong suggested further increasing support for the use of new energy vehicles. At the same time, Chen Hong also put forward suggestions such as supporting the accelerated development of intelligent and connected vehicles, promoting the localization of vehicle regulation grade and large computing power chips, and supporting the coordinated development of the domestic automotive chip industry chain.

SAIC Motor plans to account for more than 32% of new energy vehicles in 2025

Since last year, in the face of multiple risk challenges such as chip shortages, epidemic sporadic epidemics, and rising raw material prices, the domestic auto market has still stabilized and rebounded, ending the "three consecutive declines". According to data from the China Automobile Association, the vehicle sales volume of China's automobile market in 2021 reached 26.275 million units, an increase of 3.8% year-on-year.

In fact, Xin Guobin, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, also said at the press conference of the State Council Information Office that the development of the mainland's new energy automobile industry has entered a new stage of large-scale and rapid development, and it is expected to maintain a high-speed growth trend this year.

Some insiders pointed out that the automobile industry is an important force to promote a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial change, and has long contributed to promoting economic growth.

It should be pointed out that new energy has played an important role in the automotive market.

When asked about the outbreak time of the new energy vehicle market, Chen Hong said that in the past two years, mainland new energy vehicles have entered an accelerated development stage, and the penetration rate in 2021 has exceeded 13%. It is predicted that new energy vehicles will maintain a rapid growth momentum in 2022.

Chen Hong said that by 2025, SAIC plans to achieve global sales of new energy vehicles of more than 2.7 million, accounting for no less than 32% of SAIC's vehicle sales.

The key to building a manufacturing power lies in accelerating the cultivation and expansion of new momentum for development. The key factor in the cultivation and growth of new kinetic energy lies in the layout of the new track and the drive of the terminal. These two key factors, the developing automobile industry are "fully occupied".

On the one hand, the construction of a new automobile track characterized by electric intelligent networking is accelerating; on the other hand, electric intelligent networked vehicles integrate many high-tech technologies, and the future development direction will be a large terminal that integrates transportation, communication, entertainment, office, social and other functions.

Referring to SAIC, he said that SAIC motor is taking major strategic projects such as Zhiji Automobile, Feifan Automobile, Robotaxi, L4-level smart heavy truck as the starting point to accelerate the creation of intelligent terminal products - electric intelligent networked vehicles. The reporter learned that Zhiji L7 will begin to be delivered to users in March, and many products such as Feifan R7 will also be listed within the year.

The distribution of downstream charging facilities is uneven

However, new energy vehicles still face many difficulties in the development process.

In the past two years, new energy vehicles in the mainland have entered a stage of accelerated development. At the same time as the rapid growth of production and sales, the upstream supply side and downstream service end of the new energy vehicle industry chain are increasingly important to the user's consumption experience and convenience of use.

At present, in the upstream - battery key raw materials and mineral resources, there are hidden dangers of insufficient supply security; in the downstream - charging infrastructure, there are insufficient number of charging piles, uneven distribution and technical standards are not advanced enough. Therefore, it is necessary for the state to plan and lay out in advance to ensure and promote the sustainable development of the mainland new energy automobile industry.

The development of intelligent networked vehicles also faces some bottlenecks.

The industry pointed out that the development of intelligent networked vehicles is not only a technical problem of improving the functions and performance of automobiles, but also involves deeper social issues such as government responsibilities, market order, laws and regulations, and social ethics. Since intelligent networked vehicles are a new thing, the current laws, regulations, rules, technical standards, etc. in the mainland still have direct or indirect restrictions on the development of intelligent networked vehicles to varying degrees.

In view of the above problems, Chen Hong suggested that we should establish and improve policies and measures to support the low-carbon development of the automobile industry; strengthen the layout of the industrial chain and low-carbon technology research and development and innovation; and further increase support for the use of new energy vehicles.

It is recommended to clarify the legal status of the automatic driving system, and formulate standard rules and disposal mechanisms for the division of responsibilities between human drivers and the "automatic driving system"; establish a grade evaluation and certification system and access mechanism for the "automatic driving system". At the same time, it is recommended to further increase the support for core technologies such as operating systems and wire control chassis, accelerate the formation of industry standards, and realize product technology scale as soon as possible.

It is recommended that through policy guidance and multi-party coordination, a unified technical specification and standard for vehicle-grade chips be established, and a third-party testing and certification platform be established; it is recommended that the state take the lead in setting up special funds to encourage chip companies and automobile enterprises to participate together and accelerate the formation of domestic large-scale chip research and development, manufacturing and application capabilities.

The following is a transcript of the conversation:

Beijing News: Do you think that intelligent networked vehicles are the future development direction?

Chen Hong: Electric intelligent networked vehicles are typical applications for the integration and development of automobiles and information and communication technologies, and represent an important direction for the development and application of automotive technology at present and for a long time to come.

Beijing News: How do you see the relationship between the intelligent transformation of automobiles and chips?

Chen Hong: At present, China is already the world's largest new car market, and its products are in the process of upgrading and transforming to intelligence, networking, and electrification, and there is a huge gap in the automotive special chip market with "large computing power, high performance, and vehicle specification level". At the same time, in order to support the functional requirements, driving safety requirements and data security requirements of intelligent driving and intelligent cockpit, large computing chip also needs to support the autonomous and controllable automotive special operating system, and only the soft and hardware integration design can achieve the best performance and achieve safety and reliability.

Beijing News: Did you make suggestions for the development of intelligent and connected vehicles this year?

Chen Hong: Yes, the "Proposal on Revising and Improving Relevant Laws and Regulations and Supporting Policies to Support the Accelerated Development of Intelligent Connected Vehicles" was put forward.

Beijing News shell financial reporter Lin Zi Editor Xu Chao Proofreader Guo Li