Author: Wang Yunpeng
After the internet era began, it seems that God suddenly sped up the clock. Looking back at the past decade of technological development is like catching a glimpse of a miraculous bird in flight. Cloud technology, big data, artificial intelligence, blockchain… the endless stream of technology constantly refreshes our understanding and brings unprecedented challenges.
If the past decade was a proliferation of new technologies and innovative business models in the consumer market that were almost overwhelming, then the next decade is likely to be one of accelerated technological integration and digital transformation.
Of course, standing at the crossroads of epochal change, it seems difficult to imagine the overall contours of social life in ten years. So, let’s shorten the timeframe to five years and focus on the automotive sector, which is closely related to our lives.
From the current perspective, a new era of the automotive industry has already begun, with new energy and intelligence as the new driving forces. In other words, in the automotive battlefield of the next five years, core elements such as autonomous driving, intelligent network connection, new energy, and digital transformation are all key.
In the wind of industrial change, how can Chinese auto brands grasp the key window period of industry restructuring and respond to the much-anticipated “year of the big battle,” 2025?
To be frank, looking at the situation where many multinational car companies are still at the turning point of electrification and technological transformation, it seems that every transformation slogan of traditional automakers is hard to arouse market nerves. The concept of “the elephant is hard to turn around” has always been deeply ingrained in stereotypical thinking.
However, there are always people who are not content with mediocrity and lead the way in the process of progress. In the automotive industry, Geely is one of them. On the last day of October, Ningbo Hangzhou Bay, Geely Automotive released the global power technology brand “Thunder Power” and the “Intelligent Geely 2025” strategy.
This was a press conference full of information, not just rhetoric, but rather detailed interpretations ranging from strategic planning to action paths, specific technical support, and some specific performance parameters of core technologies.
“The ‘Intelligent Geely 2025’ strategy and the launch of the ‘Thunder Power’ brand will accelerate Geely’s transformation into the intelligent era, enabling it to become a technology-led global automotive enterprise. We will build a full-stack self-developed ecological system in the core technology fields of new energy, autonomous driving, intelligent network connection, and intelligent cockpit, and lead Chinese brands into the intelligent terminal era.” said Li Donghui, CEO of Geely Automotive.
From a series of professional and pioneering technology terms, a string of impressive and excellent data, and a series of loud action plans, it’s easy to see that this was a well-prepared and long-planned press conference, and it was also a crucial turning point for Geely to lead the Chinese automotive industry into the global industrial system.
Initiate a New Era of Chinese Hybrid Power
Every time energy “decarbonizes,” it changes the development process of human civilization, and every energy conversion is accompanied by the rebirth or rise of a great country.In the 19th century, the conversion from firewood to coal started the industrial revolution in Great Britain, also signaling the rise of the “empire on which the sun never sets”; in the 20th century, the substitution of coal by oil and gas kicked off the electrical age, propelling the US to become the world’s No.1 industrial powerhouse and economy; in the 21st century, the unstoppable new energy revolution gave China the opportunity to catch up and overtake. In particular, the “carbon peak” and “carbon neutrality” triggered a new round of energy and material revolution, becoming one of the few big breakthrough opportunities at the present stage. A decarbonization race around the twin carbon goals has already begun, and China has been in it for decades, with every step well-marked. As a leader of Chinese automobile brands in the midst of the upheaval, Geely must shoulder this responsibility, which goes beyond the honor and life and death of a single enterprise, and encroaches upon the future of Chinese brands, and even the Chinese automobile industry.
However, on the path from traditional fuel-driven to fully decarbonized pure electric driving, there are thorns and doubts, failure and negation. In this situation, how to stay on the right course all along? Today, Geely has provided its own answer: the Thunder Power brand and the world-class modular intelligent hybrid platform – “Thunder Power Smart Engine Hi-X”.
“The Thunder Power brand is positioned globally high-end, oriented to the global market, committed to providing the world’s leading efficient and intelligent power solutions, and realizing China’s power supply to the world,” said Wang Ruiping, Senior Vice President of Geely Group.
Specifically, the Thunder Power product matrix released this time includes Thunder Power Smart Engine Hi-X, efficient transmission, efficient engine, and E-drive. Among them, the Thunder Power Smart Engine Hi-X is a world-class modular intelligent hybrid platform, consisting of a 1.5TD/2.0TD hybrid-specific engine, as well as a DHT (1-gear transmission)/DHT Pro (3-gear transmission) hybrid-specific transmission, supporting a full coverage of A0-C-grade models, with various hybrid technology strengths covering HEV, PHEV, and REEV, and having full domain FOTA.
In other words, the Thunder Power Smart Engine Hi-X has achieved global leadership in terms of performance, fuel consumption, and intelligence, and its core technology is comprehensively superior to Japanese brands, not only establishing a new benchmark for global hybrids, but also ushering in a new era of Chinese hybrids.
As part of Geely Automobile’s “Intelligent Geely 2025” strategy layout and the practice of two “Blue Geely Action Plans”, Geely Thunder Power, a global power technology brand created by integrating global technical resources, has also enabled Geely to fully enter into the new era of Power 4.0 technology and electrification.Twenty years ago, Li Shufu, the Chairman of Geely Holding Group, said, “It’s unforgivable for a car company to not be able to produce engines, just like a fisherman who cannot weave nets to catch fish.” This statement set Geely on a path of self-developed power systems. And today, as Geely hoped, LI Power has reached the top of global power technology, with the goal to provide everyone with the ultimate intelligent and low-carbon travel experience.
Breaking through the industry’s “critical point”
Since the first batch of 12 liberation CA10 trucks produced by FAW rolled off the assembly line on July 14, 1956, China’s automobile industry has experienced 65 years of ups and downs. And with the overall national strength on the rise, today’s Chinese automobile industry has reached a “critical point.”
In terms of specific brands, Geely is the best example. In recent years, while maintaining stable sales, Geely has been advancing on its journey of exploration, such as exploring satellite technology, launching the pure electric SEA vast intelligent architecture, Lynk & Co exploring the “subscription” model in Europe, and releasing the battery swapping mode.
“Geely ranked ninth in China’s 2021 corporate R&D investment ranking, and is the only automaker in the top ten,” announced Gan Jiayue at a press conference.
Continuous investment and technological innovation mean what? The answer is the “critical point.” “Geely has reached a new ‘smart travel technology enterprise’ transformation critical point through early-stage efforts,” said Gan Jiayue.
How to cross this critical point and make the wish of “Smart Geely 2025 strategy is to create an intelligent travel experience that exceeds user expectations, build a technology-led global automobile enterprise, and become the most competitive and respected Chinese automobile brand” come true?
Gan Jiayue’s answer is the “One Net, Three Systems,” which includes the “Smart Geely Technology Ecosystem” and the three major systems composed of “Smart Energy, Smart Manufacturing, and Smart Services.” Among them, the “Smart Geely Technology Ecosystem” is a self-developed system and an ecological alliance built around chips, software operating systems, data, and satellite networks with the intelligent architecture as the “new infrastructure,” driving users’ experience to continuously evolve in intelligent driving and intelligent cabins.It is worth mentioning that the ecological technology network is connecting Geely’s dispersed technology layout into a clear and complete blueprint for future core competitiveness of the enterprise. “New Infrastructure” is Geely’s self-developed electronic electrical architecture. In the future, Geely’s intelligent architecture will evolve to the GEEA 3.0 central computing platform architecture, leading intelligent vehicles to evolve from “domain control” to “central super brain”.
On the chip, software operating system, data, and satellite network construction, Geely’s intelligent cockpit chip SE1000 with 7nm process technology for vehicle regulation will be mass-produced next year after passing vehicle regulation certification. By 2025, Geely will achieve at least 1-2 vehicle OTA upgrades every quarter, enabling intelligent vehicles to evolve from “manufacturer-defined” to “user software co-creation”, and fully entering the era of software-defined vehicles. The ground-orbit satellite high-precision navigation system has deployed 305 high-precision time-space benchmark stations, and the high-precision map will cover the entire country by 2023. By 2026, the communication and centimeter-level high-precision positioning coverage will achieve a “global no-blind-spot” coverage.
From the global power technology brand “Leyi Power”, “an intelligent Geely technology ecological network” and “three major intelligent systems”, looking at the self-developed full-stack core technology of intelligent vehicles, Geely is not only planning a new technology reform road for itself but also exploring the next round of advanced journey for Chinese automotive brands.
However, the road to the summit is bound to be full of thorns. Therefore, Geely announced the “Nine Longwan Actions” at the press conference, including investing 150 billion yuan in R&D for five years to continue to maintain China’s automotive brand as the top R&D investment, achieving self-developed full-stack autonomous driving, launching more than 25 new intelligent new energy products in five years, the total sales of the group reaching 3.65 million vehicles in 2025, and the sales of new energy vehicles (including Zeekry) accounting for over 40%. The overseas sales will reach 600,000 vehicles in 2025, and the total carbon emissions will be reduced by 25%. The 100% full-scenario digitized value chain will be achieved, and the EBIT will exceed 8% in 2025, with the first batch of incentives for 100 million shares of equity rewarding 10,000 employees.This is an era of constant changes and infinite opportunities. Changes make it difficult for us to accurately predict future trends, but opportunities enable those who are prepared to seize them and make contributions to the era, leading others to advance. Therefore, our era not only needs a disruptor, but also a leader. In the Chinese automotive industry, the answer to who is this leader is already clear on paper.
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.