✎ Editor's note
The transformation and upgrading of China's automobile industry is entering a new stage of development, and it is necessary to seize new strategic opportunities to consolidate and expand the first-mover advantage of intelligent networked new energy vehicles, and transform it into a comprehensive leading edge in the industry to reshape the entire value chain. Adhere to innovation-driven, sustainable development and open cooperation, rely on new quality productivity, strengthen the main position of enterprise innovation, take advantage of the situation to seek new breakthroughs, and lead the new transformation of the global automotive industry to achieve a win-win new future. Focusing on the 2024 China Automotive Forum, which exports ideas and wisdom to the industry, "Auto Vertical" has made a special report on the "Cover Story" of this issue. There are a total of 14 articles in this special report, and the second article will be released today, so stay tuned.
New energy and intelligent networked vehicles have become the consensus of the development of the global automotive industry, and technological innovation and industrial application promotion, as the core driving force to lead the change, are leading a new round of transformation of the automotive industry to develop in depth.
From July 11 to 13, 2024, the 2024 China Automotive Forum was held in Shanghai. On the afternoon of July 12, at the theme forum of the "6th Global Automotive Technology Development Leaders Summit", industry leaders, top experts, chief technology officers (CTOs) of vehicle and parts companies and other industry elites from all over the world gathered together to carry out a profound and fruitful discussion and exchange on cutting-edge technologies such as solid-state batteries, hybrid power, and high-level autonomous driving.
The summit was presided over by Fu Bingfeng, executive vice president and secretary general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. In his opening speech, he emphasized that in the face of profound changes in the global automotive industry, technological innovation and industrialization have become the first driving force to lead the change. The summit aims to build a high-end exchange platform, gather industry consensus, form guiding development plans and achievements, and provide impetus for the formulation of industrial policies and the process of marketization.
Fu Bingfeng, Executive Vice President and Secretary-General of China Association of Automobile Manufacturers
In the introductory speech, Zhu Yanfeng, former Chairman and Secretary of the Party Committee of Dongfeng Motor Group Co., Ltd., Qiu Jie, Vice President of R&D Institute of SAIC Motor Co., Ltd., Wu Xuebin, Deputy General Manager of Chery Automobile Co., Ltd., and Jin Yuzhi, CEO of Huawei Intelligent Vehicle Solution BU, each made a profound analysis of the current situation and future trends of automotive technology based on their profound industry experience and unique perspectives, and put forward unique insights.
From "positive mixing" to "reverse mixing",
Exploration of powertrain diversity
When talking about the future development trend of hybrid power, Zhu Yanfeng said that cost performance determines the direction of technology. The traditional "positive hybrid" mode is to add electric hybrid to the fuel engine, but now the performance improvement of the fuel engine is close to the bottleneck, and further research and development of high-efficiency fuel engine is costly and cost-effective. In the context of the current dominance of electric drive technology, Zhu Yanfeng believes that exploring the possibility of combining fuel engines to achieve "anti-hybrid" technology, such as implanting fuel engines into electric vehicles, may open up new product innovation paths to meet more product needs.
Zhu Yanfeng, former chairman and secretary of the Party Committee of Dongfeng Motor Group Co., Ltd
Qiu Jie studied and judged the development trend of solid-state batteries. He pointed out that solid-state batteries show significant advantages over traditional lithium batteries, including but not limited to better performance in low-temperature environments, higher discharge rates, and better price-performance ratio. Therefore, in the next stage of development, solid-state batteries will not only play a vital role in the field of electric vehicles, but also for hybrid vehicles and even fuel cell vehicles, their importance cannot be ignored, and there may be a greater focus in the future.
Qiu Jie, Vice President of the R&D Institute of SAIC Motor Co., Ltd
In the discussion and keynote speech session, a number of guests expressed their views on the above content. Osamu Yuda, senior technical officer of Toyota Motor (China) Investment Co., Ltd., said that the most important thing to achieve carbon neutrality is to focus on the future energy form, provide diversified choices, and promote the reduction of carbon emissions. As with pure electric technology, hybrid technology, including technology for internal combustion engines, is one of many paths. With the development of electrified vehicles in the future, it is also necessary to pursue new value in the drivetrain, to promote the development of the above technologies, and to adapt to the future demand for energy.
Osamu Yuda, Senior Technical Officer of Toyota Motor (China) Investment Co., Ltd
Based on the idea of "attaching the engine to the electrical control unit," he said that it is indeed possible to achieve higher efficiency by utilizing the fields where the electric motor and the engine are in their respective fields. In the process of electrification, the engine structure will also be more compact and efficient, which will improve the overall hybrid performance. It is worth mentioning that at present, Toyota is committed to the research and development of two forms of natural aspiration and turbocharging technology, and expects to achieve a 12% increase in fuel efficiency through the innovation of combustion technology. Dehn Johannes, Senior Vice President of Bosch Powertrain GmbH, pointed out that the overall cost of current fuel technology has been highly optimized and has reached parity, especially in the Chinese market. In the face of a huge market, he said that in the next ten years, Bosch will further optimize the internal combustion engine technology and form solutions for the commercial vehicle industry to achieve a truly efficient energy system and reduce carbon emissions. At the same time, Bosch will continue to make efforts in intelligence and provide consumers with more solutions based on its expertise.
Dehn Johannes, Senior Vice President of Bosch Powertrain GmbH
Yang Yanding, President of the R&D Institute of Dongfeng Motor Group Co., Ltd., added to this topic. He said that behind the development of hybrid technology is actually the improvement of engine thermal efficiency. When the thermal efficiency of the engine is improved, how to ensure that every drop of oil can be converted into more electrical energy is an important challenge today. Only by doing deeply, finely, and meticulously can we expect to achieve more technological innovation.
Yang Yanding, President of the R&D Institute of Dongfeng Motor Group Co., Ltd
Shen Yuan, senior vice president of Geely Holding Group, believes that the core of electrification needs to meet two things, one is energy self-sufficiency, and the other is zero carbon emissions. For the second half of new energy, the ultimate goal must be a solution based on carbon emissions. After the in-depth development of electrification, the application and promotion of zero-carbon fuels will become an important topic. The combustion of methanol produced from carbon dioxide as fuel in an internal combustion engine will not only help to reduce costs, but will also bring significant social benefits and make driving more fun for users.
Shen Yuan, Senior Vice President of Geely Holding Group
Industrial synergy to balance cost and efficiency challenges
In addition, in Zhu Yanfeng's view, further extending the cost advantages of hybrid technology and electric vehicles to the commercial vehicle field is also a potential development direction, which is expected to bring significant cost-effectiveness to the commercial vehicle industry. This also led to an in-depth discussion on how the new technology can further optimize the cost of the whole vehicle. Shen Yuan pointed out that cost and technology are essentially a pair of contradictory unity. In the evolution of the automotive industry, the significant reduction in costs does not come from the breakthrough of a single technology, but more from how enterprises meet the needs of users through a reasonable combination of technologies. The scale of the product is up, and then through the scale to produce synergies, this is the fundamental way to reduce costs and increase efficiency. "Reducing costs and increasing efficiency is an essential common pain point for all car companies and parts companies. With the continuous emergence of new technologies in the automotive industry, automotive operating systems also face cost and efficiency challenges. Zhang Xiaoxian, deputy general manager of Puhua Basic Software and president of the Strategic Research Institute, said that under the current situation of the industry, vehicle companies need lower and lower costs, faster and faster research and development speed to form more innovation. Automobile is a strong ecological industry, a good ecology can improve the efficiency of the industry, and a good ecology has three success factors: one is the division of labor, each enterprise to do the right thing. The second is the standard, how to do things well. The third is value, which all participants in the ecosystem must obtain, such as market expansion, cost reduction, and faster innovation.
Zhang Xiaoxian, Deputy General Manager of PwC Basic Software and President of the Strategic Research Institute
Du Qiang, President and CTO of Neusoft Reach Automotive Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., also expressed a similar view. Like hardware, he said, the cost of software depends on scale. In the field of automotive software, cost and efficiency are also issues that must be balanced and solved. The standardization of software interfaces, architectures and key components, allowing the whole industry to share a single software standard, will solve the problem of software scale effect.
Du Qiang, President and CTO of Neusoft Reach Automotive Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd
Use hard-core technology to cope with intelligent changes
Wu Xuebin pointed out that in the new automotive era, the automotive industry will undergo profound changes, and technology will also evolve. To this end, he predicts that the future of automobiles will develop in five directions: safety, energy consumption, space, intelligent cabin and intelligent driving. Among them, safety is always the core, and it is also the biggest luxury of the car; Energy consumption is the responsibility of enterprises and needs to be considered throughout the life cycle; In the future, the car will gradually evolve into a mobile "home", bringing users a more warm and comfortable experience. Smart Class will become a user partner and be absolutely loyal; Intelligent driving is an inevitable trend in the future development of automobiles, and it is also the key to whether car companies can gain a foothold in the market, which needs to be paid great attention to.
Wu Xuebin, deputy general manager of Chery Automobile Co., Ltd
Jin Yuzhi also expressed a similar view. He believes that with the reshuffle and change of the industry, the automobile industry will enter a knockout stage, and eventually a market pattern dominated by a small number of leading automobile manufacturers will be formed. In the era of software-defined vehicles, intelligent driving will become the core driving force for the development of automobiles in the future, and intelligence will become the key point of competition in the automotive industry.
Jin Yuzhi, CEO of Huawei Intelligent Vehicle Solution BU
How to build the "black soil" of China's automobile industry with hard-core technology and help China's automobile industry cope with intelligent changes? In response to this topic, Jin Yuzhi shared his own insights. He said that helping car companies build good cars has always been one of Huawei's important strategic directions. "In the future, the high-end of luxury cars will be more reflected in technology and intelligence, and Huawei will introduce large models on the car side this year, moving from a person to a car that 'understands' the car in the era of intelligent cockpit. At the same time, based on the end-to-end architecture, Huawei ADS 3.0 will also be officially launched, which will ultimately bring a more accurate decision-making experience, more efficient access, and a more human-like experience. Jin Yuzhi said that at present, Huawei is actively promoting the inclusiveness of autonomous driving, helping car companies apply intelligent driving to models of 15-200,000 yuan, so that more consumers can experience the value brought by intelligent driving. With the rapid development of the new energy vehicle industry in mainland China, the number of electric vehicles has increased sharply, and large-scale new energy vehicle charging activities have posed a pressure on the power grid that cannot be ignored. Wu Kai, Chief Scientist of CATL, pointed out that the current development of vehicle-to-network interaction (V2G) in mainland China is still in the early stage of promotion and experimental demonstration, and faces many challenges and difficulties. The innovative business model of "battery bank" will be used as a breakthrough to solve the development problems of the V2G industry.
Wu Kai, Chief Scientist of CATL
According to Wu Kai, the "battery bank" can be jointly established by battery manufacturers, OEMs, charging and swapping operators, and power grid companies, and the whole life cycle management of batteries through the separation of vehicle and electricity values. This model can not only accurately respond to the needs of the power grid through centralized management of battery and user data, but also enhance the stability of the power grid; It can also extend the service life of the battery and improve safety by optimizing the charging and discharging strategy. At the same time, this model can also effectively lower the threshold for car purchase, and users only need to pay battery rent, thereby promoting the popularization of new energy vehicles; In addition, users' participation in vehicle-network interaction can also further enhance economic benefits and achieve a win-win situation. In the face of the rapid development of quantum computing in the world, Du Qiang pointed out that quantum computing, with its matrix characteristics, has great potential for AI computing, and it is estimated that it can bring tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of times improvement, especially in the cloud. Although it requires huge space and special equipment support, it will be the first to unleash the advantages of powerful computing power in the cloud. Looking ahead, quantum computing is expected to mature in the cloud first, and then gradually penetrate into end markets such as automobiles, driving technological innovation and application expansion.
Technological tools are innovative to match the development of new technologies
He Gang, general manager of Changan Automobile Intelligent Research Institute, believes that digital new vehicles and intelligent new vehicles are the future trend, and the path to achieve them lies in: first, technological tool innovation to match the development of new technologies; The second is to adjust the talent strategy and adopt more flexible incentive mechanisms, such as options and stocks, to stimulate the vitality of the team; The third is the reform of cooperation and integration mode, from a single transaction to vertical integration of technology and horizontal division of labor, OEMs need to pull through the technology chain, and at the same time cooperate deeply with suppliers to achieve large-scale production to reduce costs, learn from the efficient production model of the mobile phone industry, and enhance the competitiveness of the automobile industry.
He Gang, general manager of Changan Automobile Intelligent Research Institute
Liu Junfeng, Vice President of iFLYTEK Co., Ltd. and General Manager of iFLYTEK Automotive Division, emphasized that artificial intelligence is accelerating its integration into life, and large-scale model technology is developing rapidly, especially in the field of autonomous driving. He proposed that the combination of large models and automobiles requires systematic planning of AI engineering links to ensure the efficient use of algorithms and future upgrade space. In the face of the innovation needs of OEMs, he called for planning in advance, actively embracing technological changes, and jointly exploring more possibilities for the integration of AI large models and automobiles, so as to create a better future for intelligent vehicles.
Vice President of iFLYTEK Co., Ltd.,
Liu Junfeng, General Manager of iFLYTEK Automotive Division
Chen Liming, President of Horizon Robotics, further analyzed that in the field of autonomous driving technology, end-to-end large models are expected to become the ultimate solution. Its core elements include algorithms, data, computing power, and engineering capabilities. Although Tesla and other companies have made significant progress, it will still take time for autonomous driving to be fully implemented, which requires OEMs and technology companies to strengthen cooperation and communication, solve the adaptation of hardware and software, realize data exchange and sharing, and do a good job of security.
Chen Liming, President of Horizon
Yang Yanding said that for the electrification system of automobiles, its ultimate value is not only reflected in the advanced technology, but also needs to be fully integrated and optimized into the integrated design of the whole vehicle. The electronic and electrical architecture is the foundation of future automotive intelligence, and only by doing a good job in the electronic and electrical architecture can there be end-to-end intelligent driving. In the future, with the continuous advancement of technology, the entire automotive industry will enter a new era of millisecond response to achieve a smoother, more efficient and safer driving experience. As an industry-leading R&D enterprise of high-performance automotive-grade chips, Jiang Hanping, vice president and general manager of product planning department of Hubei Xinqing Technology Co., Ltd., also shared unique insights in his own field. He said that chips, as the base of computing power, must ensure information security, functional safety, reliability and durability for intelligent networked vehicles. At the same time, the chip ecosystem should be fully opened, not only to systems and third-party applications, but also to algorithms and OEMs, so as to promote the healthy development of the intelligent networked vehicle industry. In addition, in the face of the high cost of adaptation to technological changes, chip companies should also set clear standards, regulations and demand boundaries to avoid resource preemption.
Jiang Hanping, vice president and general manager of product planning department of Hubei Xinqing Technology Co., Ltd
Pull through the technology chain and work together to create a new industrial pattern
"Change doesn't happen in isolation, it requires all parties to work together to achieve a win-win situation." Yang Feng, Executive Director of Hyundai Motor Group and General Manager of Hyundai Motor China's Advanced Digital R&D Center, pointed out at the meeting that the cooperation between OEMs and technology companies can integrate the superior resources of both parties, accelerate the breakthrough and application of new technologies, and thus stand out from the competition. The collaborative innovation of parts suppliers and OEMs can ensure the quality and stability of parts and supply, improve the efficiency of the entire production system, and enhance the competitiveness of products.
Managing Director of Hyundai Motor Group
Yang Feng, General Manager of Hyundai Motor China's Advanced Digital R&D Center
"The automotive industry chain is long and complex, covering all aspects from R&D, production to sales and after-sales, and in this process, OEMs, parts suppliers, technology companies, dealers and other parties can only face the challenges and fierce competition brought about by the change by working closely together." Yang Feng said. Su Ling, chief engineer of China Changan Automobile Group Co., Ltd., believes that although the mainland's new energy auto parts industry has led the world, it still needs to deepen innovation, promote lightweight and green transformation, and strengthen the localized security of the supply chain. To this end, he proposed three major strategies: first, to promote the collaborative development of parts and vehicles, and enhance competitiveness through vertical integration of technology and horizontal division of labor; the second is to accelerate the localization process of components, especially chips, combining internal training and external research and development; The third is to deepen school-enterprise cooperation, solve the problem of mismatched professional talents, and jointly cultivate high-quality talents that meet the needs of the industry, so as to provide solid support for the sustainable and healthy development of the new energy vehicle industry.
Su Ling, Chief Engineer of China Changan Automobile Group Co., Ltd
Olivier Fontaine·, Technical Director of the World Automotive Organization (OICA), also attended the summit as a special guest and delivered a speech on the theme of "The beauty and challenges of the Regulations harmonization". He said that OICA plays the role of regulatory coordinator in the global automotive industry. With the acceleration of globalization and the rapid development of automotive technology, the harmonization of international automotive laws and regulations has become the key to promoting the sustainable development of the industry and promoting international trade facilitation. If vehicles are to be exported globally, they need to meet the requirements of United Nations regulations as much as possible.
Technical Director of the World Automobile Organization (OICA).
Olivier Fontaine (奥利维尔·方坦)
In this regard, Fu Bingfeng said that the passport for internationalization in the future is the mutual recognition of laws and regulations and products. At present, China's exports are at an all-time high, so it is particularly important to ensure that China's innovations are in line with international standards in terms of harmonizing standards and regulations, especially in the fields of new energy and intelligent networking. This requires the entire industry to work together to harmonize international standards.
Note: This article was first published in the "Cover Story" column of the August 2024 issue of Auto Magazine. Related Reports:
Cover Story (1): Rely on endogenous power to promote the comprehensive upgrading of the automobile industry
Image: From the forum
Article: Car Vertical
Typesetting: Car vertical
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