In the critical stage of intelligent competition, Mercedes-Benz once again increased the blessing of the Chinese market.
Recently, the Mercedes-Benz Shanghai R&D Center was officially established, further expanding the layout of Mercedes-Benz R&D in China. So far, the Shanghai R&D center has become the second Mercedes-Benz R&D center in China after Beijing.
The China R&D center is equipped with NVH laboratory and overall acoustic performance testing equipment to meet the needs of Chinese customers
Hubertus Troska, a member of the Board of Directors of Mercedes-Benz Group AG and responsible for Greater China, said: "China has become a key technology innovation hub and a major driver of industry transformation. At the same time, the importance and expectation of Chinese customers for innovative technologies is almost unparalleled in the global market. There is no doubt that a strong R&D presence in China will drive us to lead the development of electric drives and automotive software. ”
Compared with the "all-round" displayed by the Beijing R&D Technology Center, the Shanghai R&D Center will focus on cutting-edge areas such as intelligent interconnection and automatic driving, attracting hundreds of scientific and technological talents in the fields of intelligent interconnection and automatic driving, software development, artificial intelligence, cloud technology, data analysis and vehicle testing. According to An erhan, Senior Executive Vice President of Daimler Greater China Investment Co., Ltd. and head of R&D, platform management and supplier management of Mercedes-Benz China, Mercedes-Benz's R&D layout "according to local conditions" will play a greater flexibility, thereby further improving R&D efficiency.
Prof. Anerhan was interviewed in Beijing and announced the establishment of the Mercedes-Benz Shanghai R&D Center
"In terms of testing, we will decide the test site according to the specific test conditions. For example, for self-driving prototypes, or car tests equipped with autonomous driving functions, some partners in Shanghai have corresponding testing grounds, and they also allow high-level autonomous driving tests in regulation, so we may put these tests in Shanghai," Anerhan said, "In addition, for the testing of smart interconnection-related functions, we will carry out in many cities in China." ”
In order to promote The strategic transformation of Mercedes-Benz to "all-electric", that is, to achieve the goal of fully electric by 2030, Mercedes-Benz has previously promised to invest more than 40 billion euros in the research and development of pure electric vehicles in the eight years from the beginning of this year to 2030.
Equally important to capital is "speed", and Annham has mentioned more than once in interviews the significance of "innovation speed" for Mercedes-Benz, especially in the Chinese market. "Speed is one of the key elements of Mercedes-Benz's success in local R&D in China."
It is worth mentioning that from Beijing to Shanghai, the completion of the Mercedes-Benz R&D center is only a few months apart. Even since 2014, mercedes-Benz's R&D team in China has more than tripled in size.
"From an R&D perspective, we always have to stay ahead of the curve and stay ahead of the curve." Annham said, "Mercedes-Benz R&D work has reached a more cutting-edge stage than the models that have already been launched. Models delivered based on the new exclusive pure electric platform already have EQS and upcoming EQE releases. Next, we will have a complete series of pure electric model architecture platforms for passenger cars, light commercial vehicles and high-performance AMG to ensure that the goal of full electric power is achieved by 2030. ”
It is true that in the era of electrification, the faster localization layout has brought many advantages to Mercedes-Benz, whether it is the product development process and logistics time has been greatly shortened, or the pace of new models on the market, Mercedes-Benz has been able to respond to the needs of the Chinese market faster. However, Annham still emphasizes that "a deep understanding of the needs of Chinese customers" is a non-negligible part of Mercedes' research and development work in China.
In the past, this was a long wheelbase model tailored for Chinese users who enjoyed a lot of space. In the future, Mercedes-Benz needs to consider more software-level adaptation.
"We've done a lot of localization development and adaptation for products that are listed in China, especially in terms of user applications. Whatever the form of human-machine interface, our aim is to make it easy for every Mercedes-Benz owner to operate, just as we introduced highly digital hyper-screens, taking into account that customers who have adapted to traditional configurations can easily get started with a variety of in-vehicle applications, including older customers. ”
According to Annham, in the field of speech recognition, Mercedes-Benz also takes into account the regional element of local dialects in China when developing, and to this end, it also cooperates with local partners to discuss future research and development.
From the localization of Mercedes-Benz E-Class vehicles to the landing of two R&D centers, Mercedes-Benz has continued to uphold the R&D strategy of "Drawing Inspiration from China and Innovating for China" and has been deeply engaged in research and development in China for more than 15 years.
As the world's largest new energy market and the largest single market for Mercedes-Benz, Increasing the launch of electric models and accelerating the localization of software have become the development focus of Mercedes-Benz this year, and the addition of Shanghai R&D center also means that Shanghai and Beijing will become mercedes-Benz's research and development in China.
"In addition to our advanced level of intelligence, rapid innovation, and the most appropriate architecture platform, we are committed to bringing our customers superior products, services and experiences to the luxury automotive market. Luxury is the unique advantage of Mercedes-Benz and a key element that we will always stick to. Annham said.