Since the beginning of this year, foreign car companies have accelerated the pace of transformation to full electrification, and many car companies have chosen to cooperate with Chinese car companies.
For example, the most recent Beam Auto is a 50:50 joint venture established by the BMW Group and Great Wall Motor with a total investment of 5.1 billion yuan, focusing on the electrification of the MINI brand. In September this year, BMW announced that the next-generation MINI electric model will be the first to go into production in ChinaAnd the new MINI pure electric model has officially rolled off the assembly line at the Beam Automobile Plant on October 14, and the Beam Automobile is preparing for its official mass production.
In July this year, Zhong Group and Xpeng Motors reached a cooperation framework agreement, and Volkswagen will invest 700 million US dollars (about 5 billion yuan to obtain Xpeng Motors 499% equity. In the initial phase of the partnership, the two companies will jointly develop two B-segment electric models under the Volkswagen brand. According to the latest news, Xpeng announced on December 6 that Volkswagen has completed an investment of more than 5 billion yuan, and the model of the cooperation between the two parties has passed the feasibility study.
In addition to the above two, Audi and SAIC Motor signed a strategic memorandum of understanding, Stellantis and Leapmotor reached a strategic cooperation agreement, Mercedes-Benz and Geely jointly built the electric smart brand, and so on.
In fact, the above-mentioned foreign brands have chosen to cooperate with Chinese automakers in the transformation of full electrification, while Nissan has not taken the usual path and has not looked for Chinese car companies, but has found China's top universities for cooperation.
On December 17, Nissan Motor announced that it has reached a cooperation agreement with Tsinghua University in China to establish a joint research center to accelerate the development of electric vehicles and sell electric vehicles developed in China to the world.
According to Nissan's official website, the two companies will launch a number of joint research projects in 2024, including charging infrastructure, battery recycling, reuse, and energy management.
And Masashi Matsuyama, vice president of Nissan Motor and president of Nissan China, even released a bold statement: Nissan Motor is targeting the market segment of Chinese competitors such as BYD.