CIIE reflects the attractiveness of China's auto market

Source: Economic Information Daily Zhou Wuying

With the theme of "Dual Carbon Accelerates Change, Innovation Leads the Future", the Auto Exhibition Area of the 5th China International Import Expo brings together high-quality enterprises in the global automotive industry, with more than 50 exhibitors, including more than 30 of the world's top 500 companies and industry giants. The exhibits cover five categories: complete vehicles, smart mobility products and technologies, auto parts and electronics, auto supporting products and maintenance supplies, and auto culture and design. The Smart Mobility Zone focuses on cutting-edge automotive fields such as autonomous driving, intelligent networking, new energy, smart transportation, and future mobility, while the Innovation Incubation Zone brings many China's first "black technologies" from overseas automotive start-ups. Industry insiders said that with the continuous upgrading and development of China's new energy vehicle market, overseas car companies have long been optimistic about the Chinese market.

Two major tracks of new energy vehicles have emerged

New energy vehicles should not be the protagonists of this CIIE auto exhibition, which can be seen from the fact that about 8 to 90% of the exhibition vehicles are new energy vehicles on site. The concept of hydrogen energy has obviously attracted attention, the two major tracks of electric and hydrogen energy are on the same stage, and the pattern of walking on two legs in the field of new energy seems to be taking shape. However, from the scene, the focus of the exhibition of American and German car companies is on electric models, while the new energy concept of Korean and Japanese models further covers hydrogen fuel power systems.

The Volkswagen Group's booth area has been expanded. The Volkswagen brand, the Audi brand and the Porsche brand all exhibited all-electric models. In addition to the Volkswagen ID.AERO Concept, Audi RS e-tron GT and Audi Q5 e-tron, Porsche also brought the Mission R concept and the first all-electric crossover utility vehicle, the Taycan Cross Turismo, which made its Asian debut.

BMW exhibited pure electric models including iX, i4 and i7, and BMW iX3 and i3 were launched in the Chinese market. By 2023, BMW's all-electric products in China will increase to 13 models.

Mercedes-Benz, General Motors, and Ford Motor are also competing to demonstrate their strength in electrification and intelligent transformation. Mercedes-Benz's seven exhibition cars cover four brands, three of which are new energy models. GM's exhibited models include the Cadillac all-electric model CELESTIQ, the GMC Hummer all-electric SUV and the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 Roadster, of which the Cadillac CELESTIQ and GMC Hummer all-electric SUV made their debut in China. Ford Motor exhibited the F-150 Lightning pure electric pickup truck and the off-road SUV Bronco for the first time in China.

Tesla's booth featured all product matrices of the S3XY family. The Economic Information Daily reporter noted that Tesla exhibited a V3 supercharging station integrating optical storage and charging, which can supplement the cruising range of up to 250 kilometers after charging for 15 minutes.

Stefan Poetzl, head of sales and marketing at Audi (China) Enterprise Management Co., Ltd., mentioned that Audi has implemented innovative charging projects in Germany and Switzerland, using waste batteries as energy storage devices without connecting to high-voltage grids, and Audi is also developing high-end charging solutions for China.

Among Asian automakers, the size of the booths of Toyota and Hyundai is very eye-catching.

Toyota's booth featured three major themes: comprehensive electrification, autonomous driving, and welfare. FAW Toyota's first pure electric midsize SUV, bZ4X, and bZ3, the first pure electric midsize sedan, were unveiled at the same time, demonstrating Toyota's determination to enter full electrification. The hydrogen fuel cell vehicle MIRAI will be unveiled again after the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, and the first batch of MIRAI II will be imported in limited quantities of 50 units, which will be sold through GAC Toyota.

Hideki Kimata, vice president of Nissan Motor Company and general manager of Nissan (China) Investment Co., Ltd., introduced at the press conference that Nissan Motor exhibited technology, products and services in the field of CASE (Connectivity, Autonomous Driving, Shared Mobility Services, Electrification) with the theme of "Creating the Future Together", including pure electric crossover SUV models ARIYA, Xuanyi · The electric e-POWER, the new CMF-EV platform, the global all-solid-state battery (ASSB) technology, and autonomous driving technology have been or will soon be introduced into the Chinese market. It is reported that the introduction of Aria is an important step in the implementation of Nissan's electrification strategy in the Chinese market. Nissan will accelerate the introduction of electric models in the coming years.

Hyundai Motor's all-round hydrogen energy solutions were unveiled at this year's CIIE, exhibiting hydrogen energy products, technologies and ecology such as the NEXO China version developed in accordance with Chinese regulations and standards, the world's first mass-produced hydrogen fuel cell heavy truck XCIENT Fuel Cell, and the HTWO brand hydrogen fuel cell system. The NEXO China version, a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle that is expected to be launched in China this year, has a cruising range of 550 km (CLTC) when fully charged with hydrogen, and it takes only 5 minutes to fully charge hydrogen fuel at a time. XCIENT Fuel Cell has driven more than 5 million kilometers worldwide. The vehicle is equipped with a 180kW-class fuel cell system consisting of two hydrogen fuel cell stacks, with a cruising range of up to 400km, and has been commercially deployed in Switzerland, Germany, the United States and other markets.

The Economic Information Daily reporter also saw at Hyundai's media conference that as a key product for Hyundai Motor to accelerate its transition to electrification, IONIQ (Anikr) 6 also made its debut in China.

"It is expected that by 2030, new energy will achieve 50% penetration of the passenger car market ahead of schedule." Li Zhonghua, senior director of market research and new business at SAIC Volkswagen, said.

China has become at the forefront of industry transformation

CIIE has become a centralized display place, interactive experience place and new product launch place for the world's automotive science and technology innovation products. In the exhibition hall of more than 30,000 square meters, overseas exhibitors fully display the development achievements and trends of the "New Four Modernizations" of automobiles. The intensity of automobile debut and debut products reached the highest level since the fifth CIIE, including 3 global premieres, 7 Asian premieres, and 22 Chinese premieres. With the increasing competitiveness of China's local new energy vehicles and the continuous upgrading and development of China's new energy vehicle market, overseas car companies have long been optimistic about the Chinese market.

"For Mercedes-Benz, China has become a very important market and the forefront of new energy transformation." Tang Shikai, member of the board of directors of Mercedes-Benz Group AG and responsible for the Greater China region, said.

Chinese consumers' acceptance and demand for advanced products and technologies is also one of the reasons why overseas car companies attach importance to the Chinese market. The younger consumers in China's auto market, the increase in new spending power, and the diversification of brands are all new advantages.

Xiang Xiaofang, vice president of government affairs of Ford Motor Company Greater China, bluntly said that Chinese consumers' pursuit of intelligent cockpit experience with scientific and technological power is at the forefront of the world, and if the designed new energy vehicles cannot meet the needs of Chinese consumers, they cannot succeed in the world.

For century-old traditional automakers in transition, Ford has become a big issue to adapt to China, the world's largest market, in the face of challenges such as the epidemic, intensifying competition, and shortage of raw materials.

Such a problem is not actually the problem of Ford, an overseas auto giant. Hideki Kimata said that under the "Nissan NEXT Corporate Transformation Plan" and "Nissan Vision 2030", Nissan will further accelerate the full implementation of Nissan Intelligent Mobility in China, help the industry recover and achieve corporate development.

Stefan Poetzl, senior director of retail business development and customer service at Audi China, believes that China's high-end car market has great growth potential. Audi previously predicted that by 2030, China's high-end car market sales will grow from about 4.2 million units a year to 5.8 million units, of which electric vehicles will increase from the current 600,000 to 3.1 million.

At the Toyota booth, the Economic Information Daily reporter learned that the BZ3 model is the result of joint research and development with BYD, and has been listed in China, and Toyota has worked with BYD as early as two years ago to jointly develop models for the Chinese market; The Toyota hydrogen fuel cell TL Power80 installed in the huge hydrogen fuel cell light truck at the booth was jointly produced with domestic vehicle manufacturers; The result of the cooperation between Tsinghua University and Toyota is an intelligent mobile hospital.

Dong Changzheng, senior executive deputy general manager of Toyota Motor (China) Investment Co., Ltd., believes that Toyota's chosen strategy in the field of electric intelligence is "local R&D and production in China with Chinese partners".

CIIE not only provides a stage for overseas auto exhibitors to showcase their latest achievements, but also provides an opportunity for them to strengthen cooperation with Chinese auto companies. Perhaps, the production of cars with "Chinese origin" will be the strategy of multinational car companies in the Chinese market in the future.

Global car companies accelerate comprehensive transformation

The four industry forums held at the same time as the Expo are undoubtedly the best positions for industry professionals to enjoy unique industry insights, listen to authoritative policy interpretations, and think about future trends. At the "Fourth Industrial Revolution and Smart Mobility Forum", "Intelligent Transportation Shanghai Forum", "China Automotive Industry Development Forum" and "Global Automotive Industry Development Trend Forum", automotive industry professionals more clearly depicted the competitive outline of today's automotive industry. Participants pointed out that global car companies are accelerating comprehensive transformation in many fields.

At the "China Automotive Industry Development Forum", Toyota, GM, Jaguar Land Rover, Ford, SAIC Volkswagen and other car companies said that the trend of electrification and intelligence in the automotive industry has leveraged a new track, and global car companies are accelerating the comprehensive transformation of brands, technologies and products. At the same time, technological change has brought challenges to the supply chain.

Huang Jian, Vice President of JPMorgan Chase Bank (China) Co., Ltd. and President of Global Corporate Bank China, said that in the current era of smart mobility, the two development directions of new energy and intelligence are leading a new round of reshuffling of the automotive industry. The financial sector should also seize the opportunity. According to JPMorgan's forecast, by 2025, the cost per kilowatt hour of battery manufacturing may drop to $100 or less, with the decline in battery costs and the continuous improvement of charging facilities, as well as strong policy support, JPMorgan Chase is optimistic about the development of new energy vehicles in China.

Jim Casey, chief commercial officer of Qualcomm, said at the "Fourth Industrial Revolution and Smart Mobility Forum" that the data generated by edge-side devices is driving the growth of cloud services, which will empower new mobile experiences and drive digital transformation. The automotive industry exemplifies the scale and speed of innovation that is taking place at the connected edge. Cars are becoming "networked computers on wheels." The new multi-user in-vehicle experience enabled by 5G will not only help create the next generation of transportation networks, cars and services, but also pave the way for autonomous driving. In addition, Qualcomm will also work with Chinese automotive industry partners to accelerate the practice of digital transformation.

At the "Global Automotive Industry Development Trend Forum", industry experts and business people believe that in the medium and long term, autonomous driving is the trend of the times, but there is a long way to go, not only the guidance of cutting-edge technology, but also the support of the government and the improvement of regulations.

Sheng Qiuping, vice minister of the Ministry of Commerce, also said when looking forward to the prospects of the automobile industry, the integration of digital technology and the automobile industry is accelerating, the automobile industry is accelerating the development in the direction of clean, lightweight and intelligent, and the role of automobiles is changing from transportation to large-scale mobile intelligent terminals. At the same time, the transformation and upgrading of the automobile industry can not only effectively alleviate the pressure on energy and environment, but also promote the innovation and upgrading of high-tech industries, with great development potential.