'The growth is too fast.' On March 6th, Chen Xueqin, executive vice president of Chongqing Automobile Business Association, said with emotion that four years ago, out of every 100 cars sold in Chongqing, only five were new energy vehicles.

China's and even the world's automobile industry is welcoming an unprecedented change.

'We must seize the opportunity!' At this year's two sessions, Zhu Huarong, deputy of the National People's Congress, party secretary and chairman of Chang 'an Automobile Co., Ltd., spoke on behalf of the industry: promote the high-quality development of the automobile industry with new energy intelligence, and realize the industry's 'lane change and overtaking'.

If 'lane change overtaking' is visualized, the market is undoubtedly the steering wheel, the manufacturing is the engine, and the basic support is the chassis. In these three aspects, what kind of confidence does Chongqing have, and what kind of trajectory will it take in the future?

Frequent new cars

And increasingly 'high-end'

On March 5th, AITO, a high-end smart car brand of Xiaokang's Cyrus and Huawei, started the delivery of its first product, the Q-world M5, in more than 100 user centers in 36 cities across the country. Since its release at the end of last year, the M5 has been widely praised by the market for its bright spots such as high-value design, HarmonyOS intelligent cockpit, advanced pure electric drive extended range platform, etc. After its release, the order volume reached 8,000 vehicles in just one week.

Following the M5, the first model of the brand new high-end intelligent electric vehicle brand created by Changan's Aouita Technology in cooperation with Huawei and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited is also planned to be listed in the third quarter of this year.

The Geely Polar Star high-end new energy vehicle project in Liangjiang New District is planned to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year, and the price of bicycles put into operation will not be less than 600,000 yuan.

Ford's high-end new energy model Mustang Mach-E has been confirmed to be produced in Changan Ford;

Frequent new cars and increasingly 'high-end' are becoming a distinctive feature of Chongqing's new energy passenger car sector.

In the new energy commercial vehicle market, 'Made in Chongqing' has the same bright spot. Recently, SAIC Hongyan electric heavy trucks have been put into commercial operation in Hebei, Shanxi, Henan, Guizhou and Erdos, Inner Mongolia, covering steel mills, power plants, coal mines, ports and other usage scenarios. In addition, SAIC Hongyan's first batch of hydrogen heavy trucks also successfully rolled off the assembly line a few days ago.

Qingling, another commercial vehicle enterprise in Chongqing, has also achieved 'double leadership' in the 'electricity' and 'hydrogen' markets. Besides electric products covering all light, medium and heavy trucks, Qingling recently launched a hydrogen fuel cell logistics vehicle jointly developed with Bosch. The key parameters of the vehicle such as power density and maximum efficiency have reached the 2025 index of China's technical roadmap, representing the advanced technical level of domestic fuel cell commercial vehicles.

'Chongqing-made new energy automobile products are constantly innovating, optimizing and upgrading, and there is a clear market logic behind them.' Qu Yunchao, an industry observer, pointed out that in recent years, personal consumption has begun to occupy more than 70% of the new energy vehicle market, among which the high-end models have soared from less than 5% to around 25%. The commercial vehicle sector is affected by the national 'double reduction' policy, and the demand for new energy products is also increasing.

On March 5th, a news that shocked the industry came: SAIC Volkswagen, which has long been at the top of China's automobile sales list, was overtaken by BYD, which focuses on new energy for the first time. For Chongqing's automobile enterprises, the signal to replace the 'track' has become extremely clear and the situation is extremely urgent.

Zhu Huarong said that Changan Automobile will firmly implement a plan: by 2025, Changan brand sales will reach 3 million vehicles, of which 35% will be new energy vehicles, and by 2030, 60% will be new energy vehicles.

Relevant persons of the Municipal Economic and Information Committee said that Chongqing plans to achieve the output of more than 1 million smart new energy vehicles by 2025, accounting for more than 40% of the automobile output.

taking all things into consideration

Forced supply chain upgrade

'Changing lanes and overtaking' takes the lead. For an automobile manufacturing center like Chongqing, the huge volume and long supply chain will inevitably lead to the problem of 'turning difficulty'.

BBA and other international giants such as Volkswagen, Toyota and General Motors can't avoid the same problem. Compared with traditional car companies, Tesla, Weilai, Ideality, Tucki and other 'new car-making forces' undoubtedly have the advantages of supporting facilities and more flexible channels.

Considering the overall industrial layout, Chongqing is exploring an effective transformation path that suits its own characteristics.

In January this year, Chongqing Chezhiyu Automobile Industry Co., Ltd., which is 100% owned by LI, took the land in Longxing, Liangjiang New Area at a price of 431 million yuan. Soon after, LI set up a wholly-owned subsidiary with a registered capital of 1.2 billion yuan in Chongqing. People in the industry generally believe that it is 'certain' that LI will build the third factory in Chongqing.

'On the surface,' new forces of making cars' will bring challenges to traditional car companies and even the supply chain, but they can better promote the industrial integration and development by giving full play to the advantages of technology, capital and business models, and accelerate the process of local industries turning to new energy sources.' Qu Yunchao said that Chongqing's vigorous introduction of new energy vehicle enterprises also shows that it will inevitably put forward higher requirements for local facilities, thus forcing the supply chain to upgrade.

In order to make the industry 'lane change overtaking' have a more efficient engine, Chongqing has also tried every means to introduce supporting enterprises and R&D institutions.

On the basis of the introduction of BYD's 'Blade Battery' project, Chongqing recently introduced battery supporting projects such as Rongsheng League Guli and Ganfeng Lithium Battery. At the end of last year, Delta Electronics (Chongqing) Co., Ltd. was established in Chongqing Economic Development Zone to produce electronic parts for new energy vehicles and power parts for electronic equipment. Guangting Information set up the second national headquarters in Chongqing, Bosch Qingling hydrogen fuel cell engine project started, NXP built China Automotive Electronics Application and Development Center in Chongqing ... Chongqing gathered related supporting enterprises and R&D institutions constantly.

According to the relevant person in charge of the Municipal Economic and Information Committee, by 2023, Chongqing will gather 5 well-known new energy power battery enterprises, 5 motor enterprises and 5 electric control enterprises at home and abroad. The annual production capacity of power battery is 8 billion watt-hours, the annual production capacity of motor and electronic control is 1 million sets, and the localization matching rate of the three electric systems exceeds 50%.