From Xpeng Motors to contemporary Amperex Technology Limited, how does this city attract automobile head enterprises to settle in?

Introduce independent brand enterprises and give full play to the advantages of latecomers.

At 8: 30 in the morning, the focus group drove from Guangzhou Avenue to Dawang High-tech Zone in Zhaoqing, which took less than two hours, reflecting Zhaoqing's important location advantage in Guangfozhao metropolitan area.

Xpeng automobile factory

Without manual operation, the tall mechanical arm can easily lift and install the panoramic skylight on the roof in less than 1 minute. As the first stop of the investigation, the task force saw that 264 industrial robots were tirelessly assembling Tucki P7 in Xpeng Motors Intelligent Networking Science and Technology Industrial Park in Zhaoqing High-tech Zone. It is understood that since the delivery of this model began in June 2020, the cumulative delivery volume in June 2020+065438+10,000 units has exceeded10,000 units, ranking among the best in the delivery volume of new power independent brand models.

The industrial park was officially put into operation in May 2020. Combined with the high growth data of Zhaoqing automobile industry in the first three quarters of 2020 and the introduction of relevant staff in Zhaoqing High-tech Zone, this smart automobile manufacturing base with an annual production capacity of 654.38+10,000 vehicles has just brought considerable economic benefits to Zhaoqing High-tech Zone. In 20021year, Zhaoqing Tucki Base will not only produce the already listed Tucki p7, but also produce the newly released Tucki p5. It is estimated that the annual output will reach 70,000 vehicles, a further substantial increase compared with 2020.

Xpeng automobile factory

20 17 and 12 were laid in Zhaoqing High-tech Zone, and mass production was delivered in less than three years. On February/February/2002 1 day, Zhaoqing ushered in another major project in the field of new energy vehicles: Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd., a leading enterprise in the power battery industry, officially settled in Zhaoqing High-tech Zone, and will invest1200 million yuan to build a production base. According to reports, this is the largest industrial project invested by Zhaoqing since its establishment. Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. will build a new energy industry chain in Zhaoqing, including power battery cells, lithium battery materials, energy storage applications, battery recycling and other fields. The announcement of listed companies issued by Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. shows that the total area of the project is about 1 1,000 mu, and the construction period of the project does not exceed 24 months.

With the embedding of contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd., Xpeng Motors and other "chain owners" with strong control and power, Zhaoqing's new energy automobile and auto parts industry will further promote "chain building, extension, chain supplement and strong chain". It is understood that at present, Zhaoqing has regarded the new energy vehicle and auto parts industry as the "first leading industry" in its "4+4" manufacturing development pattern, and has taken Zhaoqing High-tech Zone and Zhaoqing New District as the main battlefields, aiming at building the whole industrial chain of new energy vehicles and building a 100 billion-level new energy vehicle industrial cluster.

Compared with established automobile manufacturing bases such as Guangzhou and Shanghai, Zhaoqing has paid more attention to introducing leading enterprises with independent brands in recent years, and joined hands with the government to create an industrial ecology. "The idea of developing the automobile industry in Zhaoqing is to change lanes and overtake." A staff member of Zhaoqing High-tech Zone said that this also means that Zhaoqing does not want to rely on imported brands to develop the automobile industry, but should focus on building its own brands and independent and controllable key parts supporting systems.

The cluster form is emerging, and the bright spot of differentiation is taking shape.

"When I came here four years ago, there were not many industrial facilities in the area. (Xpeng Motors) mainly considers geographical advantages (settled in Zhaoqing). " According to reports, the automobile industry chain in Zhaoqing's traditional industrial structure did not have obvious advantages in the past. In recent years, driven by key leading enterprises in this field, more and more parts enterprises in the upstream of the industrial chain have also settled in Zhaoqing High-tech Zone, contributing to the initial formation of new energy vehicles, intelligent networking and auto parts industrial clusters in Zhaoqing.

Panorama of Zhaoqing New Energy Automobile and Parts Industry Chain.

At present, in Peng automobile manufacturing base, there are many parts enterprises serving Peng automobile manufacturing. "Localized spare parts enterprises are very meaningful for vehicle manufacturers." According to the relevant staff of Xpeng Automobile, under normal circumstances, the matching of localized spare parts enterprises can not only reduce the economic cost of logistics and transportation, but more importantly, reduce the logistics and transportation time, thus speeding up the production and delivery of products. Under special circumstances, such as the initial outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, which led to the impassability of logistics, localized parts matching became more important.

According to the previous investigation, the traditional automobile industry in Guangdong Province is dominated by joint venture brands, especially Japanese brands, and the industrial chain is relatively closed. The scale of the whole vehicle links in the middle reaches of the automobile industry in Guangdong Province does not match the scale of the upstream parts for a long time, and the parts required for the production of independent brand automobile enterprises depend largely on the supply from other provinces. The Action Plan for Developing Strategic Pillar Industry Clusters of Automobile in Guangdong Province (202 1-2025) also points out that the development of automobile parts industry in Guangdong is relatively weak, which is the focus of making up the shortcomings during the Tenth Five-Year Plan period.

Vehicle sensor is an important part of smart car.

"Look at these small round blocks around the body, and this car also has them." Liang, deputy general manager of Guangdong Audi Sensing Technology Co., Ltd., took the task force around the employee parking lot, where many cars with ultrasonic sensors were parked. From the installation of the oldest model, to the installation of the front and rear corners, to the installation around the car body, newer and smarter models have installed more sensors. "Many of these ultrasonic sensors are independently developed and produced by Audi, including each sensor chip which is independently developed and designed by us." Liang proudly said.

According to Liang, Audi has been concentrating on the research and development of sensor technology in its early years, and its earliest application market was mainly in the field of home appliances and overseas automotive electronics markets. Its various automobile sensor products, such as sensor equipment that can automatically detect children and pets left in cars, have become "safety parts" of automobile standards in South Korea and other countries, and have a leading share in many fields in overseas markets. A few years before this round of smart car revolution, Audi has completed the technical accumulation of vehicle-mounted ultrasonic sensors through independent research and development. Now, Audi's application in the smart car market has reached a new level. On the newly released Tucki P5, * * * is equipped with 32 sensor devices to support its automatic assisted driving system, including as many as 12 ultrasonic sensors. "In the future, people may look at the sensor configuration of smart cars like comparing the configuration parameters of smart phones." Liang said.

Mi Kai, general manager of Zhihua (Guangdong) Intelligent Network Research Institute, said that before Guangdong put forward the requirements of "chain length system" and drawing relevant industrial chain maps, Zhaoqing conducted a thorough analysis of global automobile industry chain suppliers and Zhaoqing automobile industry chain, and used this as an important basis for attracting investment.

In the panorama of Zhaoqing automobile industry chain, automobile parts chain accounts for more than half, which is divided into four parts: new energy automobile core parts, traditional automobile core parts, automobile electronics and automobile lightweight. Each link lists the local development level and development direction. Among them, the development level of power battery was general before the introduction of Contemporary Amp Technology Co., Ltd., especially lithium battery was blank. The development level of driving motor is relatively high, but there is no IGBT manufacturer for vehicles at present. The development level of control system, automobile electronics and automobile lightweight has just started, but some representative enterprises have emerged, including Beili Huachuang, Xpeng Motors, Audi, Fenghua Hi-Tech, and Asia-Pacific New Materials.

At the same time, this industrial map also shows Zhaoqing's "chain-mending" consciousness, and includes key components such as power battery, automobile IGBT, automobile information system, electromechanical coupling device, automobile sensor, and intelligent networked components into the future development direction. The signing of the contract with Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. this year is an important step for Zhaoqing to "repair the chain" of the core power battery of new energy vehicles.

At present, there are 64 automobile manufacturing and auto parts enterprises above designated size in Zhaoqing. Except for five automakers, most of them are independent parts companies. In the future, the core components of new energy vehicles and the core electronic intelligent components of smart cars will become the differentiated highlights of Zhaoqing's automobile industry development and the key to participating in the cooperation of the province's automobile industry clusters.

In addition, in order to get smart cars on the road and meet the closed test requirements of smart car autonomous driving technology, Zhaoqing has also become a bright spot of industrial differentiation by opening municipal road test land. According to the relevant person in charge of the Frontier Dezhi Company, which is responsible for using the road test, at present, more than 80% of the self-driving cars in Guangdong Province are tested in Zhaoqing Demonstration Zone, including many self-driving innovation companies such as Wen Yuan Zhixing, Ma Xiao Zhixing and AutoX, passenger cars such as Volkswagen and Hongqi, and commercial vehicles such as buses and heavy trucks.

Regional industry observation

The high-end industries and cluster effects supported by high-end talents need to be improved.

In recent years, Zhaoqing City has focused on developing new energy vehicles and parts industries around the smart car market trend. Driven by key investments and leading enterprises, the independent lane-changing overtaking route has achieved initial results, which is also in line with the direction of Guangdong Province's "14 th Five-Year Plan".

However, on the whole, Zhaoqing's industrial clusters are still in the process of formation and will still face challenges. For example, at present, Zhaoqing's smart car projects are mainly concentrated in the manufacturing industry, and the R&D centers of Xpeng Automobile, Audi Wei and other enterprises are still located in first-tier cities such as Guangzhou, which is a realistic situation that Zhaoqing needs to solve when it joins hands with enterprises to build an intelligent industry ecology.

In terms of basic conditions, Zhaoqing's universities, research institutes and other scientific research resources are weak, and there are deficiencies in major scientific devices, source innovation and high-end talents. Therefore, for Zhaoqing, it is particularly important to participate more actively in regional cooperation in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and fill in the shortcomings of innovation.

In fact, there have been many such cases in recent years, such as Songshan Lake in Dongguan. Taking advantage of the industrial spillover effect of Shenzhen, some industrial shortcomings have been effectively made up by introducing relevant intelligent enterprises and R&D institutions. Similarly, what Zhaoqing needs to do is to continuously improve the high-quality industrial development level, enhance the cluster effect, build a clear urban industrial ecological brand, and attract more high-end talents and scientific research achievements to Zhaoqing through location advantages and urban synergy mechanism, so as to make Zhaoqing an important smart car application city in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

In this regard, Zou, deputy general manager of the National New Energy Vehicle Technology Innovation Center, shared the idea of "innovation mode reform of new energy smart vehicle technology" with the special group, which may be worth learning. Zou believes that automobile technology innovation can be divided into three stages: laboratory, engineering and industrialization. The process of engineering determines whether innovative technology can be transformed into real goods. However, China's traditional automobile industry has been faced with huge conflicts and contradictions in three stages for a long time, which leads to the failure of engineering innovation or ideas and the failure to meet the requirements of industrialization. Therefore, Zhaoqing may be able to find its own strength in promoting engineering and industrialization.

According to Zou, the National New Energy Vehicle Technology Innovation Center put forward its own ideas after investigating and summarizing foreign institutions, concentrating innovative resources from all walks of life, breaking through core key technologies, and realizing four accelerations with an open operation mechanism of * * * building, * * enjoying, * * using and mutual benefit: speeding up the solution of industrial basic problems, speeding up the establishment of cutting-edge technical services, and speeding up. To this end, Guochuang Center has built four platforms: vehicle technology development platform, cutting-edge technology testing and verification platform, intellectual property operation platform and incubation venture capital cultivation platform, and carried out technical research in nine technical fields.

In fact, engineering participation in innovation has been explored spontaneously in Zhaoqing. In Zhaoqing Audi factory, a single engineering training center has been established. According to Liang, this training center is very important for Audi. Every newly recruited talent, including engineers from Guangzhou Automobile R&D Center, must go to Zhaoqing Audi production line for engineering training, so as to better carry out independent research and development.

Similarly, the automated smart factory does not mean that it does not need talents, but needs high-end talents. According to the official information provided by Zhaoqing, Xpeng Motors Zhaoqing Factory currently has more than 600 efficient and high-quality members, 78% of whom are from mainstream OEMs, 74% have more than five years of working experience, and more than 97% are engineers with bachelor degree or above. To this end, the expert group believes that in the case of shortcomings in scientific research resources, Zhaoqing may need to pay more attention to marketization and industrialization as in the early days of Shenzhen, and continue to inject innovation into high-end industries.

Produced by Du Nan Intelligent Automobile Industry Ecological Research Center.

Coordinator: Zhen Qin Ren Xianbo.