The new energy vehicle market is facing “wolves in front and tigers behind”. What are the latest countermeasures for domestic automakers?

Since 2018, my country's new energy vehicle market has developed rapidly, attracting many forces from traditional car companies, new car manufacturers and multinational car companies to compete for layout. On the one hand, new car manufacturers have challenged traditional car companies and have begun to enter mass production and delivery; on the other hand, with the implementation of the double points policy and the decline of subsidy policies, multinational car companies have also begun to increase the pace of new car launches in this field. As the earliest domestic brand car company to enter the new energy vehicle field, what are the latest responses in the first half of 2018?

BAIC New Energy: Introducing foreign aid to reach high-end

As one of the earliest domestic automakers to develop new energy vehicles, BAIC New Energy proposed the 13th Five-Year Plan "5615" strategy and the "Leading 2025 Strategy" in 2016 and 2017 respectively. The two major strategies take 2020 and 2025 as time nodes respectively, and put forward specific plans for the development of new energy vehicles in terms of technology, products, sales targets, etc. Among them, the 2025 strategy promises that by 2020, BAIC Group will take the lead in completely stopping the sales of traditional fuel passenger cars of its own brand in Beijing, and by 2025, it will completely stop the production and sales of traditional fuel passenger cars of its own brand in China.

Under this plan, by 2018, BAIC New Energy aims to achieve market sales of 150,000 units, target revenue of 19 billion yuan, and become the new energy vehicle company with the largest market share in the industry.

In terms of product launch, BAIC New Energy implements a dual-brand strategy. Currently, BAIC New Energy has five major product series: EC, EU, EX, EH, and EV. The range has grown from the initial 150 kilometers to more than 400 kilometers today, and this year it will launch products with a range of more than 500 kilometers. In addition, ARCFOX, a high-end brand launched by BAIC New Energy in 2016, is expected to launch a series of products in 2020.

In order to prepare for the brand's high-end road, on June 18, BAIC New Energy and parts company Magna signed a cooperation agreement in Nanjing, Jiangsu. The two parties announced that they would establish a joint venture to build an open and shared high-end intelligent pure electric vehicle R&D and manufacturing center. According to the plan, BAIC Group's existing factory in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu will serve as the base for the establishment and operation of the two joint ventures between BAIC New Energy and Magna. Among them, the Zhenjiang factory will be upgraded and transformed into a production base for the manufacturing joint venture. The first batch of mass-produced models is scheduled to be put into production in 2020, with an annual output of 180,000 vehicles. It is planned to first put into production related models of BAIC New Energy's high-end brand ARCFOX.

Geely Auto: Release of new strategy

With the release of "Blue Geely Action" and "2020 Strategy", Geely Auto plans to achieve production and sales of 2 million vehicles by 2020, of which new energy products will account for 90% (PHEV and HEV sales account for 65%, and pure electric vehicle sales account for 35%).

On May 28, 2018, at the Geely Borui GE launch conference, Geely Auto released a new new energy strategy. Geely Auto said that it will launch more than 30 new energy and energy-saving models in the next three years, and launch the "Intelligent Engine" new energy power system, which has four major technical paths, namely hybrid, pure electric, alternative fuel (methanol), and hydrogen fuel cell technology.

In order to welcome the arrival of the new energy vehicle era, in terms of product launch, Geely Auto launched new energy vehicle models such as Emgrand EV450, Borui GE plug-in hybrid version and Emgrand GSe in the first half of 2018, and will also launch a pure electric model in the second half of the year.

At the same time, the construction of Geely's new energy production base also made progress in 2018. In February this year, Geely and Huzhou City signed a cooperation agreement on the Geely New Energy Vehicle Project, and a production base with an investment of 22.4 billion yuan and an annual output of 300,000 new energy vehicles was settled in Changxing, Huzhou. It is reported that the first phase of the project is expected to start construction before the end of October 2018.

GAC New Energy: Innovative Marketing Service Model

GAC has implemented the 13th Five-Year Development Plan (referred to as the "135" plan) in the field of new energy vehicles. "1" means configuring a first-class professional R&D team, R&D facilities and R&D system to form a relatively complete industrial chain; "3" means that in the field of passenger vehicles, plug-in and pure electric products are the key development directions, while hybrid models are taken into consideration to form three new energy brands and product series; "5" means mastering battery technology, mastering the five key core technologies of battery system, electrode system, electrical system, electromechanical coupling system and system integration, and promoting the industrialization of the five key core components. By 2020, GAC's new energy production and sales will exceed 200,000 vehicles, accounting for 10% of the group's total automobile sales.

In July 2017, GAC New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of GAC Group with an investment of 600 million yuan, was registered and established. GAC began to separate the new energy vehicle business in order to better build new energy vehicles. In April of the same year, GAC invested a huge amount of 45 billion yuan to build the "GAC Intelligent Connected New Energy Vehicle Industrial Park".

In April 2018, GAC New Energy participated in the Beijing Auto Show as an independent brand for the first time, released a new brand slogan "Smarter Partner", and created a new channel model - the 25-hour experience center. Together with the GAC New Energy APP launched at the same time, the experience center formed a marketing service model that fully interacts online and offline.

So far, GAC New Energy has launched three models, namely the pure electric GE3, the plug-in hybrid GS4 PHEV and the GA3S PHEV. According to GAC New Energy's plan, the Trumpchi brand will launch more than seven new energy models in the future, covering three major product series: hybrid, extended-range and pure electric, to support GAC Group's sales target of 200,000 new energy vehicles in 2020.

BYD: Breakthrough in power batteries

BYD generally implements the "7+4" strategic plan in the field of new energy vehicles, where "7" represents the seven conventional areas of urban buses, taxis, road passenger transport, urban commodity logistics, urban building logistics, sanitation vehicles, and private cars; and "4" represents the four special areas of warehousing, mining, airports, and ports, achieving electrification coverage of almost all application scenarios.

Thanks to its all-round market layout, BYD's new energy vehicle sales in 2017 exceeded 110,000 units, a year-on-year increase of more than 15%, ranking first in global sales for three consecutive years. In the 2017 annual performance report, BYD's new energy vehicle business revenue was approximately RMB 38.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of approximately 13.06%, and the proportion of its total revenue further increased to 37.55%. In 2017, BYD's automotive business revenue was approximately RMB 54.5 billion.

In 2018, BYD's sales target for new energy vehicles is 200,000 units. At the same time, the number of cities covered globally will be expanded from 200 to 400, further promoting the popularity of new energy vehicles around the world. In addition, BYD will add 30,000 charging facilities in 2018 to form a more convenient and complete charging service network. In the first half of this year, BYD has launched a number of new energy vehicle models, including the 2018 Qin EV450, the 2018 e5 450, the 2018 Song EV400 and the new generation Tang.

In terms of power batteries, BYD has changed its previous closed-door policy and started to actively open up to the outside world and seek cooperation. It is understood that BYD has reached cooperation with OEMs such as Great Wall, BAIC, and GAC in the field of power batteries, and four new car manufacturers including CHJ Automotive and Leapmotor are interested in cooperating with BYD in the battery business. In addition, on June 27, the first phase of BYD's 10Gwh power battery production project at the Nanchuan Battery Plant in Qinghai was officially put into production. The project is scheduled to be fully put into production in 2019, when the annual production capacity can reach 24GWh.

Changan Automobile: Product transformation Nanjing project started

On October 19, 2017, Changan Automobile released a new new energy strategy, the "Shangri-La Plan", announcing that by 2020, Changan Automobile will complete the construction of three new energy-specific platforms; by 2025, it will stop selling traditional fuel vehicles, achieve electrification of the entire product spectrum, and invest 100 billion yuan in the entire new energy vehicle field. By then, Changan will launch 21 new pure electric vehicles and 12 plug-in hybrid vehicles.

In the 1980s, Changan entered the automotive field and started its first business venture; in the early 21st century, Changan entered the Chinese brand passenger car field and started its second business venture; in late April this year, Zhang Baolin, chairman of Changan Automobile, released the "Third Innovation and Entrepreneurship Plan" in Beijing, which pointed out that it will transform from traditional products to intelligent + new energy products.

One of the strategies to promote transformation is to accelerate cooperation with excellent companies with an active and open mind. On April 17 this year, Changan Automobile and BYD Auto reached a strategic cooperation in Chongqing. The two sides will jointly develop the design, matching, testing, and production of new energy vehicle electric drive three-in-one products to achieve mass production approval. According to the cooperation expectations, the product is expected to be launched on a Changan model next year.

In addition to the strong cooperation, the construction of Changan's new energy factory has also made new progress in 2018. On June 19, Changan's Nanjing Jiangning New Energy Vehicle Project with a total investment of 20 billion yuan started. The project is positioned as a medium-to-large new energy vehicle production base with an annual design capacity of 240,000 vehicles. The products include high-performance crossover SUVs, coupes and other pure electric models. It is expected to be completed in June 2020. The construction of this factory is obviously paving the way for Changan Automobile's new energy "Shangri-La Plan".

Great Wall New Energy: Adjusting product structure and promoting vehicle cooperation

As domestic automakers are stepping up their investment in new energy vehicles, Great Wall Motors released its "2020 Strategic Plan" in 2017. In the field of new energy vehicles, Great Wall plans to invest 30 billion yuan in new energy, intelligent and other projects by 2020. By then, Great Wall Motors will build two pure electric exclusive platforms, and develop and launch more than 10 new energy vehicle models based on the new platform, including EV, PHEV and FCV, with vehicle levels ranging from small to large, and categories covering SUVs and sedans.

Compared with Changan, Geely and other automakers, Great Wall has been developing relatively slowly in the new energy sector, as shown in the calculation of average fuel consumption and new energy vehicle credits for passenger vehicles in 2017 released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (Great Wall Motors' fuel consumption credits were -159,859 in 2017). Under pressure from the "double credits" requirement, Great Wall Motors has already started to take action in 2018.

The first is to adjust the product structure. During this year's Beijing Auto Show, Great Wall Motors launched the WEY P8 plug-in hybrid SUV. At the same time, it released its new independent pure electric vehicle brand - ORA. The brand's first pure electric crossover SUV: ORA iQ, is expected to be officially launched in the third quarter of this year.

In terms of vehicle cooperation, after Great Wall Motors acquired a stake in Yujie, a low-speed electric vehicle company, in July last year, Great Wall Motors announced in February this year that it would join hands with BMW to establish a joint venture. According to the plan, the two parties will negotiate on the specific details of the joint venture and the cooperation model. According to the latest news, the cooperation project between Great Wall Motors and BMW will be officially signed in Germany on the afternoon of July 9, Beijing time.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.