At this forum, many ministries and commissions spoke out!

◎ Science and Technology Daily reporter Liu Yan

In 2021, under the background of the sharp decline in the new crown epidemic and related subsidies, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in the mainland exceeded 3.5 million units, ranking first in the world for seven consecutive years.

At the high-level forum of the China Electric Vehicle 100 Forum (2022) held on March 26, this data frequently appeared in the speeches of many ministry and commission officials. Focusing on the theme of "Greeting the New Stage of Market-oriented Development of New Energy Vehicles", how to improve the state support policies in the post-subsidy era, and how to continue to exert efforts in scientific and technological innovation, the participants expressed their own views.

Photo courtesy of China's Electric Vehicle 100 People Association

Wan Gang, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology, said that after years of development, scientific and technological progress has led to innovative breakthroughs in China's new energy vehicles, not only the technical level of the whole vehicle has been significantly improved, the core technology of key components has been raised to the next level, and the information security protection of the whole vehicle has also jumped from border defense to active security defense system.

For example, Wan Gang said that the mainland's progress in intelligent thermal management technology has supported the use of new energy vehicles in an environment of minus 30 degrees. The just-concluded Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, the contribution made by new energy vehicles for the world to see, put into use nearly 1200 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, the cumulative carbon reduction of about 220 billion tons.

Wan Gang, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology. Photo courtesy of China's Electric Vehicle 100 People Association

Miao Wei, deputy director of the Economic Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, summarized the experience of the development of the mainland's new energy automobile industry into five points: first, use the socialist system to concentrate on doing big things; second, seize the pure electric drive development opportunity of "changing lanes and overtaking"; third, maintain strategic determination and adhere to a blueprint to the end; fourth, build an innovation system with enterprises as the main body; fifth, the government guides from the aspects of top-level design, technological innovation, standard system, and fiscal and taxation policies.

Numbers say innovation

Advanced industries show their report cards

"Technological innovation has played a core driving role in the process of the new energy automobile industry moving towards marketization." Xiang Libin, vice minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology, pointed out in his speech that in recent years, the technological innovation of new energy vehicles has shown an accelerating trend, which has played a key supporting and leading role in the improvement of the competitiveness of new energy vehicle products.

Vice Minister of Science and Technology Xiang Libin. Photo courtesy of China's Electric Vehicle 100 People Association

A series of technologies such as automotive solid-state lidar, 4D millimeter-wave radar, and high-computing power autonomous driving chips have made important breakthroughs; sodium-ion batteries, high-nickel cobalt-free batteries, modular power exchanges, etc. have made positive progress; artificial intelligence computing power has reached the international advanced level; in 2021, Chinese companies have obtained more than 30,000 patents related to new energy vehicles, accounting for 70% of the global proportion...

Not only has new progress been made in key technologies of new energy vehicles, Xin Guobin, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, has also "counted" new results: by the end of 2021, the cumulative consumption of new energy vehicles will be about 1.6 trillion yuan, driving the output value of the upstream and downstream industrial chains to about 4.8 trillion yuan, and the cumulative reduction of carbon dioxide emissions has exceeded 100 million tons, making positive contributions to carbon emission reduction in the industrial and transportation sectors.

Lin Nianxiu, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that compared with the early stage of the "13th Five-Year Plan", the proportion of private consumption of new energy vehicles has increased from 47% to 78%, and the proportion of private consumption in non-restricted cities has increased from 40% to 70%, "which reflects the significant increase in the recognition of the new energy vehicle market and the continuous emergence of endogenous power for industrial development."

Raw materials skyrocketed

How the state and industry respond

While seeing the achievements, the development of the automobile industry is still facing some new challenges. For example, the safety of the industrial chain and the industrial chain, "the pain point of the world's automobile industry last year was the supply of chips." Wan Gang said bluntly that the problem encountered in the supply chain is the rapid growth of battery material prices, "especially since the second half of last year, it has deviated from the growth of supply and demand, resulting in an abnormal growth, such as lithium carbonate can actually increase 10 times in the past year."

"Now we are facing new problems with rising prices of upstream raw materials. Hoarding of ill-gotten wealth must be cracked down, but no one can stop the upward trend of international bulk raw material prices. Miao Wei said that the current battery factory generally increased prices, and the whole vehicle began to have a trend of price increases. If the price of upstream raw materials cannot be controlled, it will inevitably be transmitted to the middle and lower reaches.

In Xiang Libin's view, the recent sharp rise in the price of lithium, nickel and other metal raw materials, the phenomenon of "lack of core" is still plaguing automobile companies, these marketization processes must be crossed, requiring us to scientific and technological innovation to ask for answers.

"At present, the problem of sharp price increases in power battery raw materials requires high attention and serious study and solution." Xin Guobin revealed that the progress of domestic resource development should be appropriately accelerated, and unfair competition behaviors such as hoarding and speculation should be resolutely cracked down. Guide upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain to strengthen collaboration and common development, and promote the return of key raw material prices to rationality.

Lin Nianxiu pointed out that it is necessary to consolidate the advantages of lithium-ion battery technology and industry, accelerate the development of new battery technologies such as sodium ions, solid-state batteries, and fuel cells, and promote the diversification of battery technology and materials. Build and improve the power battery recycling system, and effectively alleviate the contradiction between the supply of rare metals and scarce metal resources.

Breakthrough bottleneck technology

"Unveiling the commander- and holding the commander" supports enterprises to tackle key problems

"After 2022, the financial subsidies for new energy vehicles will be completely withdrawn, at which time, new energy vehicles will basically stand on the same running line as fuel vehicles." Xiang Libin reminded that in the competition with fuel vehicles, new energy vehicles need to further increase scientific and technological innovation, continuously improve product performance, reduce costs, and improve the convenience of use.

Xiang Libin believes that the scientific and technological innovation of new energy vehicles in the stage of marketization should adhere to market leadership and government guidance, and the market can complete it independently to the market, and the government will support the research of basic frontier and common key technologies.

"Persistently strengthen basic research. Forward-looking layout of all-solid-state batteries, a new generation of electric drive systems based on new materials and new devices and other key core technologies, shaping the core competitiveness of future industrial development. Xiang Libin said that for the inaccurate technical direction, support the parallel promotion of multiple technical routes, and encourage multi-disciplinary and multi-field cross-integration innovation.

Talking about how to break through the bottleneck technology that restricts the development of the industry, Xiang Libin introduced that the use of "unveiling the commander- and other ways to support relevant enterprises to develop high-safety, all-climate power battery system technology, to carry out cobalt-free power batteries, low-weight rare earth permanent magnet material drive motors and other technical research; accelerate the construction of innovation platforms such as the National Key Laboratory in the field of new energy vehicles and the National Technology Innovation Center; strengthen the research and demonstration application of hydrogen energy technologies such as green production, safe storage, efficient transmission and distribution of hydrogen energy, and support the industrialization and development of fuel cell vehicles. Wait a minute.

The overall layout is an objective requirement for the high-quality development of the new energy automobile industry. "Adhere to the national chess game, and strive to optimize the industrial layout." Lin Nianxiu revealed that he will focus on building an internationally competitive industrial cluster in the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and other regions. In addition, it is necessary to strengthen the research and development of key system components and basic common technologies for new energy vehicles and intelligent vehicles, strengthen the innovation of vehicle integration technology, strengthen risk monitoring and judgment in the field of new energy vehicles, and timely warn and properly resolve them.

Xin Guobin said that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will revise and improve the management measures for double points, explore the establishment of a flexible adjustment mechanism, and clarify the requirements for the proportion of points in subsequent years.

"If new energy vehicles are compared to the first half, intelligent and connected vehicles are compared to the second half, China's automotive industry has achieved great results in the first half, but the decision is still in the second half." Miao Wei frankly said that to give full play to the advantages of the mainland in institutional mechanisms, market space, information and communication technology, etc., "We have the confidence and ability to continue to play the second half, achieve high-quality development of the automobile industry in the change, and ultimately achieve the goal of building an automobile power." ”

Source: Science and Technology Daily

Editor: Zhang Qiqi

Review: Yue Liang

Final Judge: He Yi