2022: The pattern of China's auto industry is expected to reshape

At present, in the critical period of transformation under the background of "dual carbon", China's automobile industry is accelerating the transformation from traditional industry to digital and intelligent, and the overall industrial pattern is expected to be reshaped in 2022.

According to the statistics of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, by the end of 2021, China's car ownership exceeded the 300 million mark, and it is expected that the "14th Five-Year Plan" period will continue to maintain an average annual growth rate of 4%.

At present, in the critical period of transformation under the background of "dual carbon", China's automobile industry is accelerating the transformation from traditional industry to digital and intelligent, and the overall industrial pattern is expected to be reshaped in 2022.

The development of digital intelligence has accelerated

At this stage, China's passenger car market has entered the overall negative growth and stock market competition situation, while new energy vehicles maintain positive and stable growth, the penetration rate continues to increase, in this context, efficient completion of digital intelligent transformation and upgrading is a powerful measure to meet the stock market transformation.

In addition, with the emergence of the concept of consumption upgrading, a new vehicle ecology needs to be built urgently to adapt to the transformation of consumers from longing to own a car to having a full chain of travel ecological service experience, and the automotive industry can only carry out a full-dimensional bottom construction through the transformation of digital intelligence, as Yan Jianlai, deputy secretary-general of the China Automotive Engineering Society, said in the "2021 Automotive digital Intelligence Future Development Conference" : "As the largest and most complex product in the field of people's livelihood, the attributes of the automobile industry and products have evolved into the 'carrier and traction' of technological change and technological integration, and the automobile will surely become the testing ground for the future development of technological integration."

Therefore, insiders believe that the new development trend of the automobile industry must grasp the three stages, which are characterized by "digitalization", "digitalization" and "digitalization". That is, through the accumulation of digitalization and digitalization, the final digitalization application is formed, the data is closely related to the business scenario through the digitalization application, and the in-depth insight is achieved through the analysis of the data. On this basis, we can make more scientific decisions.

Taking FAW Red Flag brand as an example, by accelerating the construction of digital intelligent user operation business, New Red Flag has established the Red Flag "digital intelligent vision" with video platform as the carrier, Red Flag Zhilink with App as the platform, Red Flag micro store with mini program as the platform and other systems. With the support of digital intelligent efficient operation brought by the new system, it has gradually improved its brand ecology as the core. Ecological layout covering entertainment, travel, culture, services and other dimensions.

Chen Xu, general manager of China FAW Red Flag Sales Co., LTD., said that Red Flag will deeply integrate digital intelligence technology with brand development, and then create service surprise moments, strive to provide users with the ultimate service, and ultimately bring customers a wonderful new experience of green travel.

Smart manufacturing is progressing in an orderly manner

As another important application of the development of digital intelligence, the intelligent manufacturing industry will play a crucial role in reshaping the new pattern of China's automotive industry.

First of all, through the innovation drive to strengthen the independent supply capacity of intelligent manufacturing core equipment, China's automotive industry has continuously improved the intelligent manufacturing standard system, and gradually consolidated the basic support capacity such as industrial software.

In recent years, China's automotive industry has made positive progress in promoting intelligent manufacturing. For example, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has launched a special campaign of intelligent manufacturing pilot demonstration. In the four years since the implementation of the special action, the pilot demonstration project covers the traditional and new energy passenger cars, commercial vehicles, intelligent connected vehicles and other vehicles, as well as the engine, transmission, chassis system, power battery and other key parts, and the results are remarkable, and the demonstration drive and integrated application radiation amplification is very prominent.

Secondly, from the development of "industry 1.0- machinery manufacturing" to the new stage of "Industry 4.0- networked production", marking that China's automobile manufacturing industry will move from traditional manufacturing to large-scale personalized customization, from centralized control to decentralized enhanced control, and some new automobile factories with intelligent manufacturing capabilities will achieve networked and distributed production.

Saic passenger car is a typical representative. Saic Passenger Car focuses on the core business scenario, by building an efficient, pragmatic and accurate intelligent manufacturing system, and based on IPv6+, 5G network, IoT and other technologies, to create an efficient and collaborative digital factory, can achieve a 38.4% reduction in research and development cycle, product defect rate decreased 7.5%, production efficiency increased 22%, and promote the all-round upgrading of products and services.

Taking SAIC Lingang Factory as an example, the unmanned body workshop demonstration production line built by it realizes 100% automation of welding, comprehensive automation of gluing, unmanned distribution, unmanned production, online monitoring and so on.

The deep integration of digital intelligence technology and intelligent equipment has made SAIC Passenger Cars a leading intelligent benchmarking enterprise in the industry. At the "2021 World Intelligent Manufacturing Conference" held on December 8, 2021, SAIC Passenger Cars won the title of "intelligent Manufacturing Benchmarking Enterprise" at the national level, and it is also the only Chinese independent brand car enterprise to win this honor.

New energy vehicles have accumulated steadily

With the joint efforts of the whole industry, China's new energy automobile industry has ranked first in the world in terms of production and sales for six consecutive years, and the technical level of key components is in the forefront of the world. It can be said that the rapid development of the new energy automobile industry is becoming an important driver in reshaping the pattern of China's automobile industry.

"At present, only from a technical point of view, Chinese brands have achieved comprehensive transcendence in the field of new energy, whether it is styling design or battery, motor, electronic control and other core technologies, as well as intelligent networking, intelligent cabin and other intelligent technologies, have surpassed the mainstream level of foreign brands, we are leading the development trend of global new energy vehicles."

According to data released by South Korean market Research institution SNE Research, from January to October 2021, the total use of electric vehicle batteries registered in 80 countries/regions around the world reached 216.2 gigawatt hours (GWh), and Chinese companies occupied 6 of the top 10 battery suppliers. They are Ningde Times, BYD, AVIC Lithium, Guoxen High-tech, AESC Vision Power and Beehive Energy.

Measured by the number of batteries installed, China is in a dominant position in the supply chain of new energy vehicle batteries, but it must be pointed out that China still plays a "catch-up" role in the frontier technology of batteries. "Automotive power battery companies from Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea are five years ahead of us in the independent research and development of next-generation solid-state battery technology," said Ouyang Minggao, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and vice chairman of the China Electric Vehicle 100 Association.

Compared with the current mainstream ternary lithium batteries and lithium iron phosphate batteries, the new generation of solid-state batteries using solid electrolyte has the characteristics of non-combustible, non-corrosive, non-volatile and non-leaking. Its energy density and charge and discharge performance are also more than 1 times higher than the current ternary lithium battery. Traditional auto companies such as Toyota, Volkswagen and Nissan have said that they will mass-produce new energy models equipped with solid-state batteries in the next five to 10 years.

Due to the shortcomings of basic science and new materials research and development, China's research and development of solid-state battery technology has a certain lag, although many domestic companies, including Ningde era, have also carried out research in related fields, but from the current available patent technology is still significantly weaker than Japanese and Korean companies. According to the survey results jointly released by the European Patent Office and the International Energy Agency, Japan has been the country with the highest number of patent applications related to battery technology in recent years, and seven of the top ten companies in the number of applications are from Japan.

The relevant technicians of Chinese battery companies have also clarified this gap: "The difficulty of solid-state batteries is the research and development of composite electrolytes, electrode materials, and nanoscale coating processes, which belong to the basic science category, and China has not been competitive in this area." In this regard, Ouyang Minggao explained: "Do not rush the material, the need is to calm down to long-term accumulation, only to consolidate the foundation to achieve accumulation, and technology research and development is not a constant value, in the process of 'you fight for my catch', we are still expected to achieve subversive breakthroughs."