On June 28th, Great Wall Motor held the 8th Great Wall Technology Festival in Baoding, which streamed the content of the event on the official website. The technology festival showcased not only the technology of Great Wall Motor, but also demonstrated their development prospects and national policies using data.
Wei Jianjun, Chairman of Great Wall Motor Company Limited, said: Currently, the automotive industry is facing two major challenges. One is carbon peak and carbon neutrality. China has proposed the “3060” dual-carbon goal. Completing this goal and accelerating the transformation towards green and sustainable development is the responsibility and challenge of every enterprise. The second is key core technology. Our overall scientific and technological innovation ability is weak, and some bottlenecks in key core technology areas have not yet been overcome. This is not only a challenge, but also an opportunity.
China’s sales of new energy vehicles have been ranked first globally for six consecutive years. In the field of new energy, the overall level of Chinese cars has taken the lead. With the vigorous promotion of national policies and relying on the advantages of 5G and AI technology, Chinese car brands have caught up with, and even surpassed, the overall level of foreign brands in the field of intelligence.
New energy and intelligent vehicles are becoming new engines for the development of the automotive industry. We have already had certain advantages in these two areas, but the window period is very short and fleeting. We have seen foreign brands begin to accelerate their layout globally. Chinese car brands can only truly achieve surpassing others by quickly expanding their advantages in the next three to five years, in order to take the lead in this new field of new energy and intelligence. Moreover, Chinese car brands only have one chance for globalization. Globalization is the most important, and even the only, development path in the automotive industry. In order to realize Great Wall Motor’s global strategy, we have not only laid out global R&D, production and sales, but also continuously deepened the globalization of brands, technology and talent. In terms of R&D, Great Wall Motor has built a “seven countries, ten places” R&D network covering Asia, Europe and North America with China at its core, and in terms of production, we have established nine complete vehicle production bases in China, and three complete vehicle factories and five KD factories overseas in Russia, India, and Thailand.
Great Wall Motor’s Lemon, Tank, and Coffee intelligent technology brands have spawned dozens of global vehicle models. Today, the third-generation Haval H6 HEV version based on the Lemon platform, produced at Great Wall Motor’s Thai factory, has been launched. This is not only the first vehicle model we have launched in Thailand, but also the latest achievement of Great Wall Motor’s global research, production, and sales.In addition, Haval has been the best-selling SUV brand in China for 11 consecutive years; Great Wall Pickup has been the top domestic sales and export pickup brand for 23 consecutive years; Ora, as the “world’s first car brand that loves women the most,” is loved by female users; Tank, positioned as a “trendy off-road SUV” has become a hit since its launch, leading the global trend of intelligent off-road vehicles.
By 2025, we aim to achieve an annual global sales target of 4 million units, of which 80% will be new energy vehicles, with revenue exceeding RMB 600 billion. To achieve this goal, we will continue to invest heavily in research and development, and our cumulative R&D investment will reach RMB 100 billion in the next five years. These investments will focus on new energy fields such as pure electric, hydrogen, and hybrid, enhance the application of “green energy,” and accelerate the pace from low-carbon to zero-carbon. We will also focus on the third-generation semiconductor key core technologies such as low-power, high-performance chips and silicon carbide, and modern sensing, information fusion, and artificial intelligence, to ensure the interaction and integration of software and hardware, and ensure our technological leading edge in the new energy and intelligent fields, and thus create greener, smarter, and safer products for global users.
As the Great Wall Automotive Technology Festival kicks off, we will share our latest technological innovations, including cobalt-free batteries, DHT hybrid technology, 3.0 engine + 9AT / 9HAT P2 powertrain, wire-controlled chassis, intelligent cockpit, high-performance automatic driving technology, hydrogen energy technology, hydrogen engine, and the leading calcium titanium photovoltaic technology. The next five years will be the key period for the restructuring of the automotive industry and the only opportunity for China to lead the new track of the automotive industry. Great Wall Motor will accelerate forward on this new track, steadfastly implement global strategic planning, continue to invest heavily in research and development, deepen corporate transformation, and innovate in user operations.
At the scene, renowned Chinese economist Ren Zeping stated that China must promote a new round of reform and opening up, and fortunately, this judgement has been made by the central leadership since 2012. General Secretary Xi Jinping’s three-phase theory of overlapping growth rate replacement period, early-stage stimulus policy, digestion period, and structural adjustment pain period, is exactly how it is.
By 2015, following a great ideological debate, it became a defining moment for Chinese public policy wherein the national approach to economic growth is driven by supply-side reforms and innovation and by increasing our Total Factor Productivity. China’s enterprise – encompassing entrepreneurs and individuals – is a powerful source of wealth creation. For example, the world’s best performing “unicorns” (a term for privately held start-up companies with a value of over $1 billion) can be found in China. In fact, the combined total of the world’s top unicorns is 70% Chinese. Therefore, the best investment opportunity is in China, which is now entering a new cycle of economic growth.
China has become a key manufacturing point in the grand competition of great powers. Benefiting from advanced infrastructure, which has largely reduced transportation costs across its vast population, China has become the world’s factory and a manufacturing hub. Meanwhile, the development of new generation technologies – such as Artificial Intelligence, Information Technology, and New Energy Vehicles – has become a high point of competition within the scientific community.
Over the past two decades, China has benefited from significant infrastructure investment in railway, road, bridge, and airport development; however, it is now imperative that the new economic infrastructure, which is spearheaded by 5G, Artificial Intelligence, Data Centres, the Internet, New Energy Vehicles, and charging stations, be developed in order for China’s economy to prosper. This infrastructure also includes education and healthcare services, as well as new regional and institutional approaches and means. For example, the next generation of information technology will determine the future production and lifestyle of all humanity, where 5G emerging technologies are essential for autonomous driving and shared mobility.
Also included in the new infrastructure plan is New Energy Vehicles (NEVs), representing the integration of novel technologies into transportation “smart grid,” “smart roads,” and “smart cities.” Following China’s fourfold approach to upgrade cars: electrification, artificial intelligence, interconnectivity, and sharing, the automobile industry is undergoing its most significant transformation in decades, bringing long-sought opportunities to major domestic companies, especially to Great Wall Auto. Finally, the third point is ensuring that automobile products become increasingly diverse.# Future Software Comes First, Intelligent Terminals for Vehicles
It is our main view that the new infrastructure represented by new energy vehicles should be promoted to guide electrification transformation. We encourage and support core research and development, strengthen the construction of battery safety system, support the second-hand new energy vehicle market, accelerate the construction of private charging piles, and promote smart community charging.
We firmly believe that the concept of market economy has been demonstrated by the collective leadership of the new central leadership at all levels of the country to promote reform with courage and determination. We also believe that with the landing space of new energy reform and the release of future dividends, the best investment opportunities for the future are in China.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.