By Dai Qi
China's auto industry has undergone a deep transformation as experts put it.
In May, the central government announced that tariffs on imported cars would be slashed to 13.8 percent on average, and investments on cars would see stricter regulations at the same time, which means that the whole industry is expected to embrace more openness and higher quality.
Policies have pointed towards the direction for the whole industry, but how to get there? What needs to be addressed?
Crossover and integration
The auto industry is a technology and fund-intensive in nature.
"As a new round of scientific and technical revolutions comes in, integration, which is driven by electrification, intelligentization, internet of things and a sharing economy, is certain to occur in the auto industry and it would bring the whole industry to a new era," said the China Automotive News Editor-in-Chief Gui Junsong at a news conference of the upcoming International Forum (TEDA) on Chinese Automotive Industry Development last Tuesday.
From his point of view, China's auto industry should open its heart to a more innovative development and integration with other industries like the internet.
"China's auto industry should break up industrial barriers and boundaries, as well as introduce more innovations to upgrade the whole industrial chain," he said.
Shi Jianhua, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, held a similar view that products and technologies would witness profound changes due to the ongoing integration of new-generation telecommunications, new energy, and artificial intelligence within the auto industry.
Self-driven development
According to Shi, China's auto industry has on one hand seen a rapid growth in recent years, but on the other hand, been faced with challenges like a lack of abilities in independent innovations and critical technologies.
He said that it was imperative for a Chinese auto enterprise to develop core technologies, and it would be a virtual trend to combine different technologies and make innovations through their combinations.
"Auto enterprises should insist on innovations, improve their innovative internal systems, strive to make breakthroughs in core technologies, increase their abilities to provide services and enhance self-driven development," he noted.
New business model to cooperate
New businesses models, such as sharing Chuxing, mobile payments and individual-tailored services, have emerged through a deeper integration of the auto industry with technological and internet enterprises.
"Under these circumstances, auto enterprises need to forge a stronger cooperation with each other to establish a new ecosphere for the whole industry and explore a new business model together," Shi said.
Gui predicted that the new era would nurture innovative ways of cooperation between Chinese auto enterprises and foreign ones.
"For one thing, transnational corporations are faced with huge challenges with the transformation of the whole industry, and they need cooperation to get through this. For another, local Chinese companies have made great progress in core technologies, research and development (R&D), and brand-building among others. Thus, they will need to work together to find new ways to cooperate due to those inevitable changes," Gui said.
Yu Kai, president of the China Automotive Technology and Research Center, said that the aim of the 2018 International Forum (TEDA) on Chinese Automotive Industry Development, which will be held from Aug. 31 to Sept.2 this year, is to gather thoughts and ideas from the whole auto industry to promote development.
