“Driven by a new round of global scientific and technological revolution and industrial reform, the transformation of the automobile industry has accelerated, and an upsurge of investment in automobile industry projects has been set off in many places. However, with the fierce competition in the market, the utilization of automobile production capacity has shown a development trend that the stronger the strong and the weaker the weak.”
At the two sessions of this year, Wang Fengying, deputy to the National People’s Congress and President of Great Wall Motor Company Limited(601633) group, proposed to pay more attention to the capacity utilization of China’s automobile industry and avoid idle capacity due to fierce competition.
At the same time, based on the in-depth research and practice of the automotive industry, Wang Fengying also put forward proposals on the safety of power batteries and promoting the rapid development of domestic chips.
encourage mergers and acquisitions , strengthen capacity utilization
Driven by a new round of global scientific and technological revolution and industrial reform, the automotive industry is accelerating its transformation. Electrification, intelligence and networking have added more possibilities and imagination to the automotive industry. Based on the continuous optimism about the future development of the automobile industry, there has been an upsurge of project investment in the automobile industry in many parts of the country. Multinational automobile enterprises are also actively expanding their production capacity and investment layout in China, and even take China’s production and manufacturing base as an important window for their overseas exports.
Relevant data show that at present, enterprises with production qualifications are expected to have tens of millions of production capacity under construction, which will be completed and put into operation, and most of these production capacity are new energy vehicles.
Wang Fengying analyzed that under the background of the deepening electrification and intellectualization of the automobile industry, the automobile industry presents a development trend of the stronger and the weaker in the utilization of production capacity, including a large number of idle production capacity.
According to the data of China Automobile Industry Association, among the 98 automobile production enterprises counted by the association in 2021, more than 50 enterprises produced less than 1000 vehicles per month, of which nearly 20 were in suspension and produced 0 vehicles per month. The total sales volume of the top ten enterprise groups accounts for about 90% of the total automobile sales, and the productivity utilization efficiency is much higher than the industry average level, or even 100%.
Wang Fengying believes that the scattered and unbalanced production capacity layout of the automobile industry will constitute the loss of resources such as capital, land and talents, hinder the coordinated development of the automobile industry chain and affect the high-quality development of China’s automobile industry. At the same time, in the process of solving the problem of overcapacity of traditional vehicles, the automobile industry should also prevent overcapacity of new energy vehicles.
She therefore made four recommendations. First, we can give full play to the advantages of regional agglomeration and make full use of the existing production capacity to expand and strengthen the national automobile industry. It is suggested to focus on building internationally competitive automobile industry clusters in Beijing Tianjin Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and other regions, and layout a number of characteristic industrial clusters in emerging sub sectors such as power batteries, semiconductors and lidar.
Secondly, it is suggested that the state should comprehensively develop idle production capacity, encourage traditional fuel automobile enterprises to actively adjust product structure, increase R & D investment in pure electric technology, encourage qualified advantageous enterprises to merge and reorganize enterprises with low capacity utilization or special publicity, and fully develop and utilize the existing production capacity in the form of upgrading and transforming into smart factories.
Thirdly, it is suggested to strengthen supervision, strictly control the new vehicle production capacity, curb blind investment, avoid inefficient repeated construction, and establish an exit mechanism to avoid resource waste.
China’s China China auto enterprises one belt, one road China, will finally be encouraged to take the initiative to encourage the Chinese enterprises to actively connect to the market along the “one belt” along the way, further expand the international automobile market, and drive the overall export volume of China’s automobiles to increase to digest China’s capacity. Wang Fengying suggested that the government and relevant departments should give priority to the government and related departments in order to “encourage the Chinese enterprises to go out” with independent innovation strength.
pay attention to the safety of power battery
In recent years, the thermal runaway problem of power battery in the use of new energy vehicles has attracted extensive attention from the society.
According to the data, in 2021, the number of Shanxi Guoxin Energy Corporation Limited(600617) vehicles in China reached 7.84 million, and about 3000 new energy vehicle fire accidents occurred nationwide. Among them, power battery related safety accidents account for a large proportion.
“It is an urgent problem to prevent the thermal runaway of power battery, improve the safety performance of power battery and promote the healthy development of the industry”. Wang Fengying told the securities times that in 2021, many car companies have launched relevant technologies in the field of thermal runaway protection of power battery, but due to the lack of understanding in the industry, the promotion and application of new technologies are not as expected.
At the same time, the current technology of power battery thermal runaway management has not been incorporated into the legal compulsory configuration system, resulting in difficulties in its promotion.
It is reported that by the end of 2021, 7.84 million new energy vehicles that have been licensed nationwide have not been equipped with the most cutting-edge power battery thermal runaway protection technology, and there is still a risk of power battery thermal runaway events.
Therefore, Wang Fengying suggested that top-level planning should be carried out at the national level to promote the thermal runaway protection technology of power battery to become a necessary configuration for the delivery of new energy vehicles; It is suggested that the industry association should build a platform to arouse the wide awareness of all sectors of society and the industry, and jointly promote the application of thermal runaway protection technology of power battery. At the same time, she also called for the gradual replacement of power batteries matching thermal runaway protection technology for existing stock models in batches, and the establishment of an exit mechanism for old new energy vehicles to ensure that all new energy models on the market are included in the thermal runaway protection technology protection system of power batteries.
