Text: Reporter Wang Lili.
With the deep integration of the Internet, big data, artificial intelligence, 5G and other technologies with the automotive industry, the relationship between people and vehicles has been fundamentally changed, from people-oriented and car-supplemented to car-based and human-assisted, which contains a large number of technological innovations and market opportunities. In particular, the entry of non-traditional car companies such as Huawei and Xiaomi shows that China's auto industry has already started the second half of the global automotive revolution.
A new track for high-level autonomous driving.
According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in the first half of 2023, 42% of new passenger car sales in China with combined driver assistance functions (Level 2) will reach 424％。In particular, the "Notice on Carrying out the Pilot Program of Intelligent Connected Vehicle Access and Road Access" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice") issued in November 2023 indicates that China's L3 and L4 autonomous vehicles are about to be legally on the road, and many car companies already have the mass production capacity of L3 autonomous vehicles.
Since the issuance of the "Notice", Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Changan Automobile, Jihu Automobile, Deep Blue Automobile, AVATR and other domestic and foreign auto brands have also recently announced that they have successfully obtained L3 test licenses. Since then, the industrialization process of intelligent networked vehicles has been further accelerated.
In December last year, the BMW Group announced that its vehicles equipped with Level 3 autonomous driving functions were officially licensed for autonomous driving on highways in Shanghai. Mercedes-Benz also announced that it has become one of the first companies to be approved for the road test license of the conditional autonomous driving highway in Beijing, and officially launched the conditional autonomous driving system test on the designated highway in Beijing.
Zhiji Auto announced that it has officially obtained a license for autonomous driving test on high-speed roads in Shanghai for vehicles equipped with Level 3 autonomous driving functions. At the same time, Zhiji Auto revealed that it is applying for the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's L3 autonomous driving announcement access pilot, and is expected to become the first batch of models to enter the L3 autonomous driving access pilot.
According to official sources, JiHu has also recently become one of the first car companies to be approved for the road test license of L3 highway in Beijing, and will officially carry out actual road tests of conditional autonomous driving systems on designated roads in Beijing.
As the earliest and most single-batch enterprise in China to obtain relevant licenses, up to now, Chang'an's Shenlan has successfully obtained 17 road test licenses. According to reports, the 17 L3 autonomous driving vehicles are currently being tested, and Changan will bring the L3 autonomous driving function to the market at an appropriate time under the premise of policy and regulatory support.
With the L3 test license obtained by Deep Blue Automobile, AVATAR, which is also a Changan department, also announced that it has become one of the first companies to be approved for a conditional autonomous driving test license for high-speed roads, and has recently successfully passed the L3 autonomous driving test in the high-speed section of Chongqing, and obtained the test report certified by the China Automotive Research Institute.
Up to now, three cities in China, Beijing, Shanghai, and Chongqing, have opened L3 autonomous driving road tests, and a total of 6 brands have obtained test licenses.
It is not difficult to foresee that under the joint promotion of policies and industries, the development of high-level autonomous driving is expected to usher in a real "qualitative change" from the moment the autonomous driving road test license is released.
2024 will become an important moment for intelligent driving to move from cognition to purchase conversion on the consumer side. The era of autonomous driving has come, and the leading car companies that can identify differentiated selling points and lead intelligent driving technology will form differentiation in the next few years. Cui Yan, an analyst at Minsheng, said.
A number of core technologies are leading the world.
In fact, China's progress in smart cars is obvious to all around the world.
In the field of "three electrics", China's power battery technology has reached a new level. In 2023, CATL's first-generation sodium-ion battery cells will be launched for the first time; The condensed matter battery with a single energy density of 500 Wh per kilogram has mass production capacity in its automotive-grade version. Qingtao Technology, invested by SAIC, is the first in the world to achieve the development and mass production of semi-solid-state batteries, and this year, the first Zhiji brand pure electric car equipped with semi-solid battery cells with a range of more than 1,000 kilometers will be put on sale. The peak power density of China's drive motor exceeds 48 kW per kg, mass production of the maximum speed of 210,000 rpm, among the top in the world.
In the field of intelligent driving, domestic automotive-grade lidar has grown from scratch and from weak to strong. The cumulative delivery volume of Shanghai Hesai Technology's vehicle-mounted lidar exceeded 300,000 units, and the monthly delivery volume exceeded 50,000 units in December 2023. Shenzhen Suteng Juchuang is cooperating with 21 OEMs around the world, with 61 designated models, and the cumulative sales of on-board lidar from January to October 2023 are 1220,000 units.
In addition, domestic automotive-grade chips are catching up. With nearly 4 million chips shipped and 25 car companies cooperating with 25 car companies, the new generation of on-board intelligent computing solutions Journey 6 series will be officially released in April this year and the first batch of mass-produced models will be delivered in the fourth quarter. Chip manufacturers such as Black Sesame and ECARX have also launched competitive automotive-grade chips and solutions.
The adoption of intelligent assisted driving applications is also accelerating. Huawei ADS20. Xpeng XNGP and other intelligent driving systems have realized intelligent assisted driving in urban areas that do not rely on high-precision maps. Among them, Xpeng has opened 243 cities with XNGP intelligent assisted driving.
Gan Jiayue, CEO of Geely Automobile Group, said: "In the past, we have also targeted Chinese brand car companies. ”
Explore a new mode of going overseas.
China's new energy vehicle export data shows that the average export price has increased from 1$950,000, up to $2. in 2023$380,000. That is to say, in recent years, China's new energy vehicles have "gone to sea", which is to truly achieve "both volume and price rise".
In this regard, Tu Xinquan, dean of the China World Organization Research Institute of the University of International Business and Economics, said: "Whether in technology or in terms of chain integrity, it can be said that China's new energy vehicles have occupied a dominant position in the world. This is directly related to the fact that our country, especially the first country, attaches great importance to the new energy industry; On the other hand, the automotive field has been for a long time, and our competitors have occupied a very strong first-mover advantage, but our company has seen such a market opportunity for new energy vehicles, and has invested boldly, whether it is in the creation of the brand, or in the research and development of technology, and at the same time relying on some of our basic advantages in the field of electronic information industry, we have seized the electric vehicle outlet. ”
New energy vehicles are the main direction of the transformation and upgrading of the global automobile industry and green development, and China's new energy vehicle industry has firmly focused on this field and grasped this opportunity before the tide rises. In the final analysis, the more fundamental reason why new energy vehicles have won a place in the fiercely competitive international market lies in product strength and the endogenous force of Chinese enterprises' continuous pursuit of innovation.
Chen Shihua, deputy secretary-general of the China National Association, also believes: "From a global point of view, the latest models of the new generation of electric vehicles are basically the first to be launched in China, and the world's new generation of automobile-related technologies are often the first to be applied in the products launched in China. ”
Since 2023, several Chinese automakers have signed joint venture and cooperation agreements with multinational companies in the nature of global strategic cooperation. On October 26, 2023, European auto giant Stellantis Group announced that it will invest 1.5 billion euros in Zhejiang Leapmotor, and the world's leading automaker and China's new electric vehicle companies have cooperated globally, establishing a new model for Chinese car companies to "go global".
On January 12, Great Wall Motor's pure electric vehicle rolled off the assembly line at its Thai plant, which is the first locally manufactured mass-produced electric vehicle in Thailand's history.
From the former "market for technology" to the "reverse joint venture" of Sino-foreign cooperation, Chinese car companies are actively building international brands and launching new cooperation models with foreign car companies. In addition to the new method of "reverse joint venture", it has become a mandatory choice to take root overseas and build factories overseas, which also brings new opportunities for the development of the global automotive industry.