China's New Energy Vehicle Industry Sees Significant Leap Forward

Recently, JAC Motors has officially begun mass production of the luxury new energy sedan, the Zun Jie S800, in collaboration with Huawei, drawing considerable attention. Industry insiders view this as a microcosm of the Chinese automotive industry advancing towards the high end of the value chain, and it vividly illustrates the sector's drive for industrial integration through open and win-win cooperation. Currently, the global automotive industry is undergoing profound changes, with electrification, intelligence, and connectivity leading the transformation and upgrade of industries, which in turn is pushing China's automotive sector towards quality enhancement. In Hefei, Anhui, the JAC Zun Jie S800 super factory features an automatic welding line that monitors 5,714 connection points in real-time, while the painting workshop employs AI technology to restructure its paint process, with dual-color automatic sorting robots maintaining color line precision within 0.3 mm. In Wuhan, Hubei, Dongfeng Lantu's smart factory leverages 5G and big data technologies to create a world-class digital factory characterized by customization, digitalization, and flexibility, enabling mixed production of various models such as sedans, MPVs, and SUVs on the same line, allowing for on-demand switching between different configurations, achieving both production efficiency and product quality. In Huzhou, Zhejiang, the Geely Automobile Changxing production base is bustling with activity across its stamping, welding, painting, and assembly lines, where nearly 1,000 industrial robots work in an orderly manner, achieving 100% automation and producing a vehicle in less than a minute. Amidst a growing consensus in the industry on open cooperation, complementary advantages, and collaborative development, an increasing number of automotive companies are choosing technological innovation as their engine to accelerate their ascent towards higher positions in the industrial and value chain. During visits to various new energy vehicle enterprises, reporters observed that deep integration of production, education, and research serves as a 'fast track' for transforming technological research and development into market value, with automakers establishing in-depth cooperation mechanisms with universities to tackle cutting-edge technological challenges in multiple areas, continuously breaking through core technological bottlenecks such as battery range and intelligent driving, thereby significantly enhancing the global competitiveness of Chinese new energy vehicles. Currently, China's new energy vehicle industry system not only encompasses complete vehicle manufacturing but also gathers a vast number of suppliers—from core component manufacturers to innovative technology solution providers—supporting the entire industrial chain of China's intelligent connected new energy vehicles. Traditional automakers like JAC and BAIC are accelerating their embrace of new energy transformation while expanding towards the high end; new force automakers like NIO and Li Auto are restructuring industry competition logic with internet thinking; overseas brands like BMW and Audi are collaborating with local high-tech firms to speed up their intelligent transformation. Battery supplier CATL expects to achieve small-scale production of all-solid-state batteries by 2027, while steel supplier Baosteel has developed ultra-high-strength Jipa steel for automotive lightweighting, and seating supplier Yanfeng International is closely following the industrial transformation to develop intelligent cockpits. As the industrial chain becomes increasingly complete, upstream and downstream sectors are accelerating integration, with continuous breakthroughs in technology, processes, and quality driving upgrades in the automotive industry. Demonstrations of new technologies, products, and application scenarios are continually emerging, also driving various regions to integrate into the intelligent transformation of the automotive industry through differentiated paths—Beijing is creating a national model for 'vehicle-road-cloud integration'; Wuhan is constructing the world's largest autonomous driving operation zone; and Hefei's Luogang Park features a super scenario center that has launched over 150 new technologies and products across more than 50 large-scale application scenarios. 'With a robust top-level design and strong policy support, backed by innovative enterprises, open-minded consumers, and a vast market, China's intelligent connected new energy vehicle industry has achieved rapid development, establishing a complete industrial system and supply chain cost advantages,' said Fu Bingfeng, Executive Vice President and Secretary-General of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. The boundaries of the automotive industry chain are continuously expanding, gradually forming a new ecological system of cross-industry integration. By insisting on technological innovation as the engine and continuously striving for higher positions in the industrial and value chain, China's new energy vehicle industry is set to sail towards a broader universe.