Miao Wei: Improve the new energy industry chain and charging facilities, adhere to V2X vehicle-road coordination.

On March 26, 2022, the first day of the China Electric Vehicle Hundred People Conference, Miao Wei, Deputy Director of the Economic Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, proposed several targeted issues:

• Continuously improve the entire industry chain and charging infrastructure of new energy vehicles
• Grasp the key period of the landing of intelligent connected vehicle technology
• Accelerate the development of intelligent connected vehicles

Since 2015, China’s production and sales of new energy vehicles have ranked first in the world for seven consecutive years, achieving a “curve overtaking” in the Chinese automotive industry. During the development of new energy vehicles, a group of companies with scale and technological leadership in new energy vehicles emerged. Miao Wei commented:

“By seizing the development of new energy vehicles, we have achieved overtaking on the curve in recent years.”

In 2021, Chinese brands had a market share of 44.4% in domestic passenger car sales, with their contribution to the new energy vehicle market being immeasurable. Among pure electric vehicles, Chinese brands had a market share of 81%, and among plug-in hybrid vehicles, Chinese brands had a market share of 78%.

In terms of the industry chain and charging network, China’s “three-electricity” technology is leading, with high pressure on upstream raw materials prices, and the world’s largest scale of high-speed charging network:

From 2017 to 2021, China’s new energy industry chain was in a leading position in the world in terms of motor, battery, and electronic control “three-electricity” technology:

• The energy density of ternary lithium batteries increased from 143Wh/kg to 206Wh/kg;
• The energy density of lithium iron phosphate batteries increased from 117Wh/kg to 167.4Wh/kg;
• The battery system cost decreased from 1.43 RMB/Wh in 2017 to 0.84 RMB/Wh in 2021;
• The peak power of the passenger car electric drive system increased from 71kW in 2017 to 103kW in 2021.

Due to strong market demand in 2021, the prices of upstream raw materials, represented by power batteries, have risen sharply. New car makers have relatively strong ability to bear the cost increase due to the positioning of their product prices, while traditional automakers moving from low to mid-to-high-end are facing greater pressure. The trend of rising international commodity prices is unstoppable. High costs have resulted in a general price increase for new energy vehicles in 2022.

In 2021, China built the world’s largest high-speed highway fast-charging network with “ten vertical and ten horizontal lines and two loops.” As of the end of 2021, there were a total of 2.61 million charging poles nationwide, including 470,000 DC fast-charging poles and 677,000 AC charging poles.

The development of China’s new energy vehicles relies on its huge market volume and willpower. In the future, China should still seize the time window of curve overtaking of new energy vehicles in the traditional internal combustion engine segment, build an innovation system with enterprises as the main body, and the government should continue to guide and support the development of the new energy vehicle industry from top-level design, technological innovation, financial and taxation policies, and other aspects.Regarding autonomous driving, we support AEB as the standard configuration, L2-level assisted driving for mass commercial use, and the implementation of V2X vehicle-road collaborative strategies.

By 2022, L2 level autonomous driving will have achieved large-scale commercial application in passenger vehicles. In 2021, 22.2\% of passenger vehicles already had L2-level or lower autonomous driving systems installed. Promoting the automatic braking system (AEB) as an industry standard configuration can greatly contribute to road traffic safety, especially as AEB technology is mature and has relatively low cost, making it a viable technology for standard vehicle equipment.

Currently, including Tesla, vehicle intelligence relies on individual vehicle intelligence. However, V2X applications, including vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-road, vehicle-to-facility, vehicle-to-cloud, and vehicle-to-human interactions, are essential prerequisites for achieving L3 and higher-level assisted driving. At the current level, single-vehicle intelligence capacity is unable to meet the power consumption and computing requirements of L4-level assisted driving.

The National Manufacturing Powerhouse Construction Leading Group Committee on connected cars’ industrial development was established with State Council approval. The committee will hold an annual meeting to carry out cross-departmental and cross-industry coordination, including the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation, the Ministry of Transport, and the Ministry of Public Security. The policy system is gradually being established, and the “Road Traffic Law” needs to be revised to adapt to the implementation and promotion of L3 level assisted driving functionality.

Vehicle-road collaboration and wider V2X capabilities depend on intelligent vehicles and supporting facilities. Currently, China still faces many challenges, including:

1. Vehicle chips and operating systems are still weak in the Chinese automotive industry.
2. End-to-end communication standards and industrial chains for car networking are immature.
3. The bandwidth of the road system is insufficient to accommodate the data generated by L3 and higher-level assisted driving.
4. National standards for intelligent road system and classification have not yet been established.

Unmanned driving is the ultimate goal of intelligent connected vehicles, and cross-industry cooperation is essential for development:

1. Intelligent vehicle applications and development for specific scenarios can be advanced ahead of the general market.
2. Future cars will be a large intelligent mobile device.
3. The industrial chain of intelligent connected cars already includes vehicle manufacturers, software companies, chip companies, and internet companies
4. Companies in information and communication technology, technology infrastructure construction, transportation, and smart city development will play important roles in the development of intelligent connected vehicles.
5. The central and local governments’ collaborative efforts and institutional advantages will continue to support intelligent automotive development.

The electrification of vehicles has led the industry trend from 2013 until now, while the intelligent and connected vehicles will be the latter half of the industry’s development – a determining factor for China’s auto industry’s success. China’s institutions, industry, and market space have advantages and challenges in the development process. However, the government is confident in achieving high-quality development of the automotive industry within a changing landscape, ultimately aiming to become an automotive powerhouse.

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.