China's auto market in 2023 will show new vitality in the competition pattern of new energy vehicles.
The fast-growing new car-making forces have joined hands with leading independent brands to bring earth-shaking changes to the domestic new energy vehicle market. Various joint venture car companies have also begun to transform and change, among which the more successful joint venture car company is SAIC-GM.
In 2023, SAIC-GM's annual sales of new energy vehicles will exceed 100,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 104%, hitting a record high, and becoming a joint venture new energy force that should not be underestimated.
Electrification is accelerating across the board.
Under the general trend of new energy, the joint venture car companies that have been one step slower have collectively muted the fire, and even many car companies have been opportunistic on platforms or models such as "oil-to-electricity" and "oil-electricity symbiosis", while SAIC-GM has always adhered to the positive research and development of pure electric platforms, and successfully launched the new energy breakthrough war of joint venture car companies with the hard-core Autoneng intelligent electric platform.
In the era of traditional fuel vehicles, SAIC-GM, as a car company that "only sells cars", is like a science and engineering man who is very good at doing technology and does not know how to brag at all. In the new energy era, SAIC-GM is also silently at the forefront of technology research and development, and launched the world's largest electric platform, the Ultium electric vehicle platform, in 2021, and accelerated the transformation of electrification with the support of the new platform.
The Ultium electric vehicle platform embodies GM's more than 26 years of electrification experience and forward-looking technology advantages, and SAIC-GM has also relied on it to open a new era of electrification. The platform has three advantages: "safety", "intelligence" and "performance".
In terms of safety, the battery of the platform has the characteristics of high thermal stability, low attenuation and long life, and also has a number of safety patent technologies such as cell separation thermal wall, multiple thermal runaway protection technology, new battery collision safety architecture, integrated liquid cooling system, etc., which meets the highest level of ASIL-D of the "Road Vehicle Functional Safety Standard".
In terms of intelligence, the automation rate of the Wuhan super factory is quite high, and the Otene platform adopts the industry's first wireless battery management system, which simplifies the production process of the battery pack, reduces the risk of short circuit and line aging, and also realizes the intelligent monitoring of battery health at both ends of the "vehicle-cloud", real-time monitoring of the health status of the battery around the clock, and analyzes the life cycle data of the battery through the sports data platform, bringing more intelligent and active preventive management.
As for the performance, the Autoneng intelligent electric platform adopts an efficient modular drive system, integrating three highly modular electric drives: front motor, rear motor and rear drive auxiliary motor, which can support four different power forms of front drive, rear drive, economic four-wheel drive and performance four-wheel drive, and the motor and reducer of the platform are oil-cooled, which can achieve better overall system efficiency.
As the first model of the Autoneng platform, Cadillac Ruige is positioned as a pure electric luxury medium and large SUV, meeting a variety of needs such as luxury, intelligence, performance, and brand power, and has huge market sales potential.
The Buick E5, which is also from the Autoneng platform, is positioned as a five-seater SUV of Zhidian, which can be said to be a representative model that has opened a new era of 200,000 yuan pure electric SUVs.
The Buick E4 is positioned as a smart electric coupe SUV, and has outstanding advantages such as large space, high configuration, and high battery life in the pure electric SUV market below 200,000 yuanThe starting price is only 9The 980,000 yuan Buick Micro Blue 6 is a pure electric sedan with ultra-high cost performance and ultra-high practicality.
Based on the current electrification technology reserves, SAIC-GM's electric products have covered most of the new energy market of 10-400,000 yuan, and the product performance is excellent and balanced, with no obvious shortcomings. According to the official plan, it is expected that by 2025, the Autoneng platform will create more than 10 pure electric models for the three major brands of SAIC-GM platform: Cadillac, Chevrolet and Buick, and comprehensively accelerate electrification.
A firm bet on intelligence.
Driven by the new four modernizations of automobiles, the intelligence of automobiles has become an important competitiveness of products, and strengthening the reserve of intelligent technology has become a mandatory topic for car companies. Only SAIC-GM has the courage to innovate independently, set up a new software and digital center, and fully and firmly bet on intelligence, becoming an excellent model for the intelligent transformation of joint venture car companies.
As one of the earliest joint venture car companies to lay out the intelligent track, SAIC-GM has been running wild in the direction of intelligence for a long time.
In 2009, SAIC-GM launched OnStar in-vehicle service, which created a precedent for domestic Internet of Vehicles servicesIn 2017, SAIC-GM released the Enterprise Internet of Vehicles 2025 Strategy, which is committed to fully opening up the Internet of Vehicles ecology of "people, vehicles and life".
In 2018, the introduction of the Super Cruise driver assistance system became the first hands-free driver assistance technology in Korea to enable hands-free driving on closed roads such as highways.
Today, SAIC-GM's intelligent level has been at the forefront of joint venture brands, starting from Cadillac LYRIQ Ruige, SAIC-GM's new generation of VCS intelligent cockpit, a new generation of Super Cruise super assisted driving system and other intelligent emerging technologies have been installed on a number of SAIC-GM's models, and the intelligent level of the new models has also been well received.
At the 2022 General Motors Technology Outlook Day, SAIC-GM announced that it will invest 70 billion yuan in new technologies for electrification and intelligent networking by 2025. On November 8, 2023, SAIC-GM's new software and digitalization center was established in Jinqiao, Pudong, Shanghai. With the completion of SAIC-GM's software and digitalization center, SAIC-GM's competitiveness in intelligence will be further enhanced in the future.
All greatness comes from a brave beginning", SAIC-GM, which is fully betting on intelligence, has confirmed the slogan of its brand Cadillac with practical actions.
Three major brand differentiations.
In the face of China's extremely involuted new energy vehicle market, SAIC-GM reshaped its brand matrix and adhered to the differentiated development route of the three major brands.
As a brand that will carry the banner of new energy sales in 2023, Buick will continue to focus on the cost-effective mass market, continue to improve the perception, experience and value of products, promote electrification, electric drive and intelligent networking, continuously improve user satisfaction and reputation, and fight a bloody way in the involution.
Cadillac, the flagship luxury brand of SAIC-GM, adheres to the performance and luxury labels, continues to make efforts in technological innovation and product research and development, accelerates the transformation of electrification, and is committed to providing users with a luxury product experience with excellent performance and becoming a benchmark for intelligent electrification.
Chevrolet is the only brand among the three major SAIC-GM brands that has not yet launched a pure electric vehicle product based on the Auton platform, and it is also one of the most difficult to transform. According to the official statement, Chevrolet will continue the value charm of the originator of SUVs and develop towards personalized and electric SUVs.
To promote the development of product hard power with technical soft power, SAIC-GM has clearly depicted a product development map.
Management rose to the challenge.
When words such as "far ahead", "unique in the same class" and "industry-first" are monopolized by independent brands, new forces, and cross-border car manufacturers such as Huawei and Xiaomi, the cards in the hands of joint venture brands are not optimistic.
2023 has been a mixed year for SAIC-GM. Although the sales of new energy increased significantly, the overall sales volume decreased compared to last year. As the head of SAIC-GM, Zhuang Jingxiong gave the six-word tasks of "breaking the game", "layout" and "implementation".
Zhuang Jingxiong, general manager of SAIC-GM).
Zhuang Jingxiong said that there are too many "first-class war" players in the market, and SAIC-GM wants to fight a "value war", which is bound to require a long development process. At present, SAIC-GM's new energy layout has reached 2025 and 2027, and the current new energy technology route and product spectrum have also been recognized by both management and shareholders.
With the implementation of the strategy and the investment of resources, SAIC-GM's presence on the new energy track has gradually improved. It is believed that with the support of new technology and resources, SAIC-GM will usher in new energy vehicle market opportunities.
There is something to say:
Adhering to the self-research of technology to accelerate electrification, spending huge sums of money to build its own R&D team to bet on intelligence, and comprehensively laying out new energy products, SAIC-GM will fully demonstrate the determination and actions of new energy transformation and development in front of consumers, and is bound to become an indispensable backbone of the new energy market, and its development potential should not be underestimated.
It remains to be seen whether SAIC-GM's electrification can be taken to the next level.