Recently, Sony Honda President Izumi Kawanishi said in an interview with Japanese media, "Although the development speed of Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers is strong, in terms of information technology, it is just like the icons of smartphones, and there are no technical surprises at present." ”
Is it really as Izumi Kawanishi said?China's electric vehicles only play a role in "styling", but there are no bright spots at the actual technical level
The answer is clearly noJudging from the survey results, Chinese brands are striving to seize the opportunity and have gradually walked in the forefront of industrial development and become the main force in the development of new energy vehicles in China. Traditional car companies have actively embraced new energy vehicles and rapidly transformed, opening the way for the rise of Chinese brands. The brand influence of new EV manufacturers has been continuously improved, and new products, new technologies, new models and new ideas have been brought to the industry.
As netizens said, "It's really nothing to watch, how can Chinese cars attract the attention of the president of Honda".
From the era of fuel to the age of electric cars, there has also been a polar reversal between China and foreign countries
In the era of fuel vehicles, imported cars, foreign-funded vehicles, and joint ventures of the same model were once the leading representatives in China. It is reported that the first batch of Santana parts were imported from overseas, so it is also considered an "imported car". At that time, the price of Santana overseas was more than 20,000 yuan, but in China** it rose from 40,000 yuan to 80,000 yuan, and even soared to 180,000 yuan at one time.
To this day, many pure imported fuel vehicles, especially luxury cars, are still strong in China, higher than the same model abroad. For example, the price of the 2024 BMW X5 in the U.S. market is equivalent to about 44 yuan890,000-61230,000 yuan. The recent release of a domestic dealer is 770,000 yuan, and the ** released by another dealer is the current car 9180,000 yuan. Mercedes-Benz GLC is sold overseas** about RMB 39270,000 yuan, while the minimum price of the imported model released by domestic Mercedes-Benz dealers is 470,000 yuan. The overseas price of Toyota Sena starts at about 240,000 yuan, while the domestic parallel import car** is nearly 600,000 yuan.
It is gratifying that in the new energy era, Chinese and foreign automobiles have finally ushered in a "polar reversal".
In the first half of the year, the new round of "** war" in the domestic auto market, not only the news of price reductions appeared one after another, but also the magnitude of price reductions was not small. According to China Automotive News, in this round of price cuts, SAIC Volkswagen fired the first shot. SAIC Volkswagen officially announced that the Volkswagen ID3 Limited Time Maximum Offer 370,000 yuan, after the price reduction3. The starting price is only 12590,000 yuan. And in Germany, the home country of Volkswagen ID, the price is at least 40,000 euros, almost the same ID3 Prices in China start at 15,000 euros.
There is also a Tesla with a different price for the same car. Previously, Tesla China once again officially announced a price cutThe Model Y Long Range starts at 31390,000 yuan was adjusted to 29990,000 yuan, directly into the 300,000 range;The Model Y Performance Edition is from 36390,000 yuan was adjusted to 34990,000 yuan. Judging from the price of Tesla's official website in the United States, the price of the Model Y long-range version is 50,490 US dollars (about 367653 yuan), and the price of the Model Y high-performance version is 54,490 US dollars (about 396779 yuan). BMW and Mercedes-Benz's electric vehicles have also achieved lower prices in China than overseas. The price of the BMW ix3 in the German market is about 540,000 yuan, while the price of the Chinese dealer is about 320,000 yuan after the discount**. The overseas price of the Mercedes-Benz EQC is about 510,000 yuan, while the starting price in China is about 430,000 yuan**.
Chinese and foreign automobiles finally ushered in the "polar reversal" Cao Guangping, an independent researcher of new energy and intelligent networked vehicles, said, "China's auto market has not only entered the first depression, but will enter the era of parity in a certain stage.
The successive introduction of policies has become the key to promoting the development of new energy
It is reported that in order to promote the consumption of new energy vehicles, China issued the "Energy Saving and New Energy Vehicle Industry Planning (2012-2020)" on the basis of the "Ten Cities and Thousand Vehicles" project of new energy vehicles in 2009It clarifies a number of important contents such as pure electric drive, the use of subsidies and comprehensive preferential policy support, as well as the cooperation of various industries to promote the marketization of new energy vehicles, and financial subsidies, license plates and other policies have vigorously promoted the development of the new energy vehicle market.
Thanks to the importance of automobile consumption, China's automobile industry has shown rapid growth. For example, China provides subsidies for consumers, manufacturers, and infrastructure. Consumer subsidies: Previously, a 10-year new energy vehicle purchase subsidy policy that could give electric vehicles a discount of up to 60,000 yuan**, the plan was terminated in 2022. However, many localities** continue to issue subsidies of up to 10,000 yuan;Manufacturer subsidy: This subsidy spawned more than 500 EV manufacturers, driving the growth and subsequent massive consolidation of China's EV industryInfrastructure subsidies: Subsidized charging stations are widely used in China, and they use standardized plugs, reducing costs for car owners and alleviating range anxiety.
As of the end of May 2023, China has 6.36 million EV charging stations. Policies such as exemption from vehicle purchase tax, opening up of electric vehicle production qualifications, and special financial subsidies for charging infrastructure have been introduced, which have become the key to the further development of new energy vehicles.
Key technology areas are moving from catching up to surpassing
According to Xinhua News Agency, Germany's Wirtschaftscom wrote in an Oct. 5 report that more than 15 Chinese auto brands are ready to conquer the European market. The article quoted Frank Visham, who has been the CEO of Volkswagen Group (China) for many years, as saying"In some of Hyundai's key technology areas, China's catch-up is turning into overtaking"。
The battery of new energy vehicles accounts for about 40% to 60% of the cost of the car, which is equivalent to the engine of a traditional vehicle, so its importance is self-evident, and China has the most obvious advantage in this regard.
It is understood that more than 80% of the current electric vehicle battery cells are made in China. Moreover, the ** chain of Chinese manufacturers is increasingly taking the mining and processing of component minerals such as lithium, cobalt, manganese and rare earth metals into their own hands. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the weighted average volume of battery packs in China is $127 per kWh, compared to 24% and 33% higher in North America and Europe, respectively. At the same time, Chinese manufacturers have released a new generation of batteries that rely on the element sodium metal. Sodium is more abundant than lithium, which is currently used in electric vehicle batteries, and is less prone to ignition.
According to Xinhua News Agency, in 2011, China's power battery technology is still far from the world's leading Panasonic, Samsung, SK, LG Chemical and other enterprisesBut from today's point of view, China has also cultivated several globally competitive power battery companies, the technical gap in the field of traditional fuel vehicles is narrowing, and our comprehensive technical indicators in the field of electric vehicles have also achieved a leading edge, such as cruising range, energy density, including the cost performance of our bicycles, etc., are all leading in the world.
China has made pioneering explorations in the market landing and promotion
According to relevant reports, on the basis of improving the safety performance of batteries, China has also strengthened the safety exploration of charging and other use links, and the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain have worked together to innovate and jointly improve the product safety and use safety of new energy vehicles. It is a pioneering initiative in China to test the safety of vehicles during the charging process to improve the safety of new energy vehicles。Generally speaking, the critical point of full charge of electric vehicles is also the critical point of high incidence of safety accidents, the usual practice in other countries is that the data monitoring ends after the vehicle is fully charged, while China has adopted a continuous form of data monitoring to continuously monitor the safety of the vehicle and escort the use of new energy vehicles.
Taking special chassis technology as an example, according to Xinhua ** news, before the emergence of special chassis for new energy vehicles, car companies generally choose the form of "oil to electricity", subject to this, the driving range of electric vehicles is usually only 200 300 kilometers. Later, with the advent of the special chassis for electric vehicles, the driving range of electric vehicles quickly increased to 400 600 kilometers. At the same time, in the process of rapid development of the industry, the safety and cost problems of electric vehicles have also been solvedAmong them, China has made pioneering explorations in many aspects, and has achieved remarkable results, and is at the forefront of the global automotive industry.
Taking battery swapping as an example, China is not the first country to explore the battery swap modeHowever, thanks to the large-scale market application of new energy vehicles in China, the battery swap mode was the first to land in China. Taking extended-range electric as an example, although foreign products have certain electric functions, the range is less than 50 kilometers, which cannot meet the needs of pure electric use, and the role of reducing carbon emissions is even more general. Based on the big data of user needs, Li Auto has put forward the technical route of "urban electricity consumption and long-distance power generation", and mass-produced the world's first extended-range electric vehicle with a range of more than 150 kilometers, Li ONE. BYD, which is also rooted in the hybrid track, also came up with the latest hybrid technology - DM-i in 2021. EHS electromechanical coupling unit, hybrid blade battery pack, Xiaoyun-plug-in hybrid special 15T engine, 12V lithium iron phosphate battery ......BYD's complete hybrid system broke the monopoly of Japanese brands on high-end hybrid technology, and drove the popularity of plug-in hybrid models with affordable pricing. How to solve the problem of lithium battery charging time too long?The idea given by NIO is - battery swapping. 10 special bolts are fixed, intelligent automatic loading and unloading, and the time mileage of a song is "resurrected with full blood". At the same time, the modular design leaves the possibility of upgrading the vehicle battery.
From following the standard, to "understanding through" the standard, and then to tackling the "future standard", the "lateg" is redoubling its efforts towards "catching up".
The light boat has not crossed the ten thousand mountains, and calmness and solidity are still the main tone
There are many upstream and downstream supporting industries for electric vehicles and a long industrial chain, which tests the strength of the entire basic industry and industrial chain。In recent years, after the rapid development of domestic trams, there have also been some problems, which need to be solved urgently. For example, the problem of insufficient profitability, in addition to a few car companies such as BYD, the performance is relatively bright, there are many brands with low sales, no profit, and even the more they sell, the more they lose;For example, the problem of disorderly expansion and vicious competition has rushed forward in a short period of time, the problem of involution is more prominent, and the cultivation of well-known enterprises, strong brands and high-quality markets is not enough. In particular, some enterprises whose main business is not related to automobiles have also joined in, and this aspect needs to be regulated and guided, and so on.
China has been in a weak position for a long time, and although the rise of new car-making forces has gradually reversed this momentum, the rise of China is not something that can be done in the short term. At present, we have to have more "cold thinking", can not immediately hold the domestic tram too high, China is far from the day of "the light boat has passed the ten thousand mountains", or to calm down, solid car building.
The best reply to Sony Honda President Izumi Kawanishi, as the Global Times said"The simple truth is that if you can't face up to the advantages of your competitors, you can't talk about surpassing."