People's Daily: The construction of an automobile power has reached a new level

In Chongqing, two new brands, four new energy models, and a number of innovative technologies have made the 2022 Changan Automobile Global Partner Conference attract the world's top suppliers.

In Oslo, Norway, 175 Hongqi E-HS9 units were officially delivered to customers a few days ago, and the Oslo display space of Lantu Automobile is under intense construction.

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that the development of new energy vehicles is the only way for the mainland to move from an automobile power to an automobile power, and it is necessary to increase research and development efforts, seriously study the market, make good use of live policies, and develop products that meet various needs, making it a strong growth point.

Since the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the mainland automobile industry has seized the opportunity of electrification, intelligence and networking transformation, strengthened the top-level design, focused on promoting technological innovation, product innovation, market innovation, and cultivated new growth points, a number of core technologies have made breakthroughs, new energy vehicles have been the world's first in production and sales for 7 consecutive years, last year's automobile exports exceeded 2 million, and the construction of an automobile power has reached a new level.

The new energy automobile industry is growing rapidly

For seven consecutive years, its sales volume ranked first in the world, and last year's patents accounted for 70% of the world's total

Wang Jian, head of SAIC's intelligent electric drive transmission team, still clearly remembers that 8 years ago, he and his team optimized and upgraded the Roewe e950 equipped with the first generation of plug-in hybrid transmissions.

Today, SAIC's intelligent electric drive transmission team has expanded to 120 people, mastering all key technologies such as motors, inverters, and motor control software. Wang Jian introduced that it is expected that in the third quarter of next year, the third-generation plug-in strong hybrid transmission with faster gear change, stronger power and lower fuel consumption will be loaded in batches.

In Mohe, Heilongjiang, about 3,300 kilometers from Shanghai, on April 11, at 5:30 a.m., the temperature dropped to minus 14 degrees Celsius, and Zhou Jinlong, the leader of Changan Automobile's three-high test team, and six other people had gotten up in the dark and began the last set of tests simulating user use scenarios under low temperature conditions.

"This year's extremely cold test is more than a month longer than in previous years, and the main focus of the test is Changan's new pure electric coupe C385 with additional test items." Zhou Jinlong introduced that in the environment of minus 30 degrees Celsius, the new car is equipped with the world's first new generation of "super set" electric drive and high-frequency pulse heating technology, which can heat the battery to 20 degrees Celsius in only 5 minutes, and the low temperature fast charging time and acceleration capacity are increased by 10% and 50% respectively.

"The development of new energy vehicles is the only way for the mainland to move from an automobile power to an automobile power." The important instructions of the general secretary have pointed out the direction for the development of China's automobile industry and the acceleration of transformation and upgrading and high-quality development of Chinese car companies. Chen Hong, chairman of SAIC, said.

In 2014, the automotive industry was debating the direction of traditional cars and new energy vehicles. Zu Xiangjie, chief engineer of SAIC Motor, believes that "new energy vehicles are the strategic direction of the development of the automobile industry. Increasing research and development efforts, carefully studying the market, making good use of active policies, and developing products that meet various needs to make it a strong growth point depict a roadmap towards an automotive powerhouse. ”

In the past 10 years, the mainland new energy automobile industry has strengthened top-level design, enhanced innovation capabilities, seized new opportunities for profound changes in the global automotive industry driven by the energy revolution and information revolution, promoted promotion and application, strengthened safety supervision, and achieved a leap from small to large and from large to strong.

-- New progress has been made in key core technologies. Power battery technology is the world's leading, and the average driving range of pure electric passenger cars has increased to more than 400 kilometers. The energy density of the new semi-solid-state battery cells reaches 360 Wh per kilogram, and the service life of the fuel cell system exceeds 10,000 hours. In 2021, Chinese companies will obtain more than 30,000 patents related to new energy vehicles, accounting for 70% of the world's total.

-- The market scale has achieved a new breakthrough. In 2021, the cumulative sales of new energy vehicles in the mainland reached 3.521 million units, ranking first in the world for seven consecutive years, of which private consumption accounted for nearly 80%, realizing the transformation from policy-driven to policy-driven and market-driven. In the first quarter of this year, the production and sales of new energy vehicles increased by 1.4 times year-on-year, with a cumulative promotion of more than 10 million vehicles, and the market penetration rate increased to 19.3%.

-- Comprehensive benefits see new results. By the end of 2021, the cumulative consumption of new energy vehicles in the mainland 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 reducing carbon dioxide emissions by more than 100 million tons, making positive contributions to the reduction of emissions in the industrial and transportation fields.

In the past 10 years, multinational car companies have continued to increase capital investment in China, accelerated the introduction of new products, new technologies and new standards, vigorously promoted supply chain and R&D localization, and continued to share the growth dividends of China's auto market while also effectively promoting market competition. The introduction of Tesla's "catfish effect" and the gradual abolition of foreign equity restrictions have forced Chinese brand car companies to dig deep into the needs of local consumers, seize the market opportunities for the rapid development of intelligent networking and new energy models, continuously accelerate the launch of new products, and jointly promote the high-quality development of the industry.

Breakthroughs in core technology

The R&D strength of powertrain is in line with international standards, and the development of intelligent network software leads the international trend

On April 12, in the five-motor powertrain noise and vibration laboratory of Ningbo Hangzhou Bay Geely Power Research Institute, senior chief engineer Deng Xiaolong and his team were finely tuning the upcoming new oil-electric hybrid vehicle.

"In order to thoroughly optimize the driving experience of the hybrid system before mass production, we have carried out more than 148 key optimizations in the areas of noise and vibration alone." Deng Xiaolong said.

Wang Ruiping, senior vice president of Geely Automobile Group and president of the Powertrain Research Institute, introduced that in October last year, Geely released the Lei Shen Zhi Qing Hi · X hybrid system, using the original 3-speed dual motor electromechanical coupling hybrid transmission, thermal efficiency of 43.32% engine, can achieve the overall hybrid system 40% fuel saving rate and full power domain cloud upgrade, in terms of power, fuel consumption, intelligence have reached the international advanced level.

"The Geely Xingyue L Hybrid Version equipped with this system has been launched, and according to the plan, 9 gasoline-electric hybrid and super hybrid products will be launched this year, and there will be more than 20 models in the future." Wang Ruiping said that the development of the next generation of hybrid systems has also been put on the agenda, when the thermal efficiency of the engine will be increased to 45%, and the system efficiency will be better.

In the field of electromechanical coupling transmissions, chinese car companies such as SAIC, BYD, Changan, Great Wall, Chery, and Dongfeng have achieved core technology breakthroughs.

"When developing hybrid transmissions 10 years ago, the product configuration was 'stuck neck' by foreign patents, and the theoretical basis and data accumulation were seriously insufficient, and it was impossible to find a ready-made domestic supplier." Wang Jian sighed that thanks to thousands of experiments and data analysis, a group of domestic suppliers were united, and finally this "hard bone" was gnawed down.

To promote the high-quality development of the mainland automobile manufacturing industry, it is necessary to strengthen the independent research and development of key core technologies and key components, realize technological self-reliance and self-improvement, and strengthen and expand national brands. Since the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the mainland has made breakthroughs in the fields of automobile powertrain, platform architecture, intelligent network software and other fields, and the core technology of the industry has reached a new level of autonomy and controllability.

——The R&D and manufacturing strength of engine and transmission powertrain is in line with international standards.

Geely's self-developed 7DCT wet dual-clutch transmission has been delivered to European luxury car companies in batches, with an annual export volume of more than 100,000 units; the hybrid engine jointly developed with another European luxury car brand is also stepping up. The thermal efficiency of changan blue whale NE series engines is 40%, and the self-developed DCT transmission has been loaded into more than one million units. Chery Kunpeng series fourth generation engine, thermal efficiency of 38% - 43%...... In the past 10 years, the core technology of Continental's automobile powertrain has initially caught up with the international advanced level.

——New progress has been made in the development of vehicle platforms and modular architectures.

SAIC Pure Electric's exclusive "Yi" architecture and oil-electric hybrid Sigma architecture, Geely CMA super matrix and Haohan pure electric architecture, Great Wall Lemon modular platform, Chang'an Ark architecture, Chery Mars architecture... In recent years, Chinese brand car companies have successively completed the evolution from "platformization" to "modularity". "From the chassis to imitate, to enter a new era of architecture car manufacturing, is a huge progress in China's auto industry in the past 10 years." Wang Ruiping said that the architecture of cars not only helps car companies improve the universality rate of parts and reduce research and development costs, but also greatly improves the speed of new cars launched by Chinese brand car companies.

——Intelligent network software development and application lead the international trend.

Important breakthroughs have been made in a series of technologies such as automotive solid-state lidar, 4D millimeter-wave radar, high-computing autonomous driving platforms and chips, and intelligent cockpits, and the penetration rate of new passenger cars equipped with combined driving assistance systems has increased to about 20%. In the field of cutting-edge technology of automatic driving, the mainland-led LTE-V2X communication standard has achieved international leadership, as of now, the country has opened the intelligent network test road mileage of more than 5,000 kilometers, safety test mileage of more than 10 million kilometers.

Chinese brands are bigger and stronger

Brand satisfaction continues to improve, the pace of going out continues to accelerate, and promote the high-quality development of the industry

"Eight years ago, it was an important node for the two brands of Roewe and MG to achieve strategic transformation, and it was also a critical period for building the design concept and design language of the two brands." Shao Jingfeng, deputy chief designer and executive director of global design of SAIC's Innovation Research and Development Institute, recalled.

With the strength of not accepting defeat, the team enhanced the competitiveness of the brand with design, created two explosive models of Roewe RX5 and second-generation MG6, and SAIC achieved the grand slam of the world's three top design awards such as Red Dot and iF.

At present, the Roewe RX5 has helped SAIC Passenger Cars achieve a breakthrough from 170,000 to 800,000 units per year; the second-generation MG6 has become the champion of overseas sales of a single brand in China.

Nowadays, relying on the project collaboration between the design aboriginal base and overseas studios, as well as the introduction of virtual reality technology into the modeling review process, many designers of SAIC Design HEADQUARTERS are immersed in work, and the styling design work of several new energy vehicles is smoothly advancing.

China's original automobile design, intelligent cockpit, intelligent assisted driving and other intelligent network applications, product quality improvement brought by intelligent manufacturing, and brand attempts such as high-end and internationalization have jointly promoted Chinese auto brands to become bigger and stronger.

——The market share has increased significantly.

Statistics show that in 2021, Chinese brand passenger cars sold 9.543 million units in the whole year, an increase of 23.1% year-on-year, accounting for 44.4% of the total sales of passenger cars, an increase of 6 percentage points over the previous year. In the first quarter of this year, Chinese brand passenger cars sold 2.547 million units, an increase of 21% year-on-year, and the market share reached 45.9%, up 4.6 percentage points from the same period last year.

——The quality of passenger cars has improved significantly.

Geely Automobile Changxing "Future Factory", FAW Hongqi Changchun Smart Factory, JiKr Hangzhou Bay Smart Factory, Chery Wuhu "Future Factory"... In recent years, a number of world-class automotive intelligent factories have risen from the ground, and the industrial Internet has boosted the continuous improvement of the quality of Chinese brand passenger car products. According to the "2021 China Automobile User Satisfaction Evaluation" report of the China Association for Quality, The satisfaction of Chinese brands has continued to improve, and the quality of products has reached or even surpassed the joint venture brands of the same level.

——Brand sales have achieved new results.

In 2021, FAW Hongqi's annual sales exceeded 300,000 units, an increase of 63 times in four years; Lynk & Co's annual sales exceeded 220,000 units, with an average weighted transaction price of 165,000 yuan; Changan's high-end brand UNI series sold more than 120,000 vehicles a year; BYD Han became the first Chinese brand medium and large sedan with annual sales of more than 100,000 units... An eye-catching report card shows the good performance of China's passenger car brand in high-end.

——The annual export of automobiles exceeded 2 million units for the first time.

Chery Group exported 269,000 units, up 136.3% year-on-year; SAIC Motor's overseas sales reached 697,000 units, up 626% compared to 2012... In 2021, Mainland China exported 2.015 million vehicles, an increase of 1.0 times year-on-year.

"China's annual automobile exports exceeded 2 million for the first time, achieving a historic leap." Fu Bingfeng, executive vice president and secretary general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said that the new achievements in the construction of an automobile power have benefited from the upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain seizing the major opportunities of electrification and intelligent networking reform, vigorously innovating in the fields of technology, products, markets, management and other fields, and also benefiting from the further acceleration of the pace of opening up to the outside world.

In the past 10 years, the restrictions on foreign ownership of special vehicles and new energy vehicles have been abolished, the restrictions on foreign ownership of commercial vehicles have been abolished, and the restrictions on foreign ownership of passenger cars have been abolished. The door to the opening of the Chinese market is opening wider and wider.

In the past 10 years, Chinese car companies have accelerated the pace of going global, acquisitions, restructurings, equity investment, joint development, and access to the markets of developed countries. Exchanges and cooperation with the international automotive industry have been deepening.

Looking forward to the "14th Five-Year Plan", the mainland automobile industry will accelerate the short board, strengthen the foundation, forge the long board, and continuously improve the level of industrial development and international competitiveness, and the pace of building an automobile power will surely become more and more solid.

Pictured: The first mass-produced model of the smart electric vehicle brand Avita is undergoing extreme cold tests. Profile picture

Pictured: At GAC Toyota's first plant, employees conduct vehicle off-line inspections. Profile picture

Source: People's Daily

Reporter: Wang Zheng