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Source: Global Times

[Global Times special correspondents to Guangdong Wang Dong, Chen Zishuai, Tu Lei, Zhang Weilan] "From a piece of steel plate to the whole car rolling off the assembly line, all processes can be completed in 16 hours." In Guangdong, China's largest province for new energy vehicle production, the Global Times reporter has a real experience of this. In 2023, Guangdong's new energy vehicle production will reach 2.53 million vehicles, and on average, one out of every four new energy vehicles in the country will be "made in Guangdong." At present, the world's automotive industry is accelerating from electrification to intelligence. Relying on mature industrial clusters and a complete ecosystem, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is building a smart and efficient collaborative industrial chain. In late July, the Global Times reporter went to the Greater Bay Area to explore and understand the "Bay Area imprint" of new energy vehicles from production to intelligent driving.

“A customized new car rolls off the production line every 53 seconds”

In Panyu District, Guangzhou, industrial robots are waving their mechanical arms swiftly and accurately in the GAC Aion Smart Ecological Factory. Multiple assembly lines are arranged vertically, and workers are installing parts in the car in an orderly manner. New energy vehicles of different models are assembled here one after another. In 2023, this place was selected as a global "Lighthouse Factory" by the World Economic Forum.

The Global Times reporter learned that the fully automated production line of GAC Aion Factory supports the mixed production of customized products and spot products, and a customized new car can be rolled off the line every 53 seconds. "The four major processes of automobile manufacturing include stamping, welding, painting and assembly. Before it came to us, the stamping, welding and painting of a new car had basically achieved 100% automated assembly, which means that the first three processes basically do not require workers to operate, realizing a 'dark factory'." The person in charge of the factory assembly said, "The next step is that the factory will further explore intelligent digitalization. We are currently preparing for the second phase of the construction of the smart factory. In the first phase, we mainly focus on the application and analysis of big data. In the second phase, we can make independent decisions and analysis, with an additional decision-making function, and the data collected will be richer in dimensions."

In Guangzhou, more than 600 robots are working in an orderly manner according to the set programs in the GAC Aion smart ecological factory. (Visual China)

"The domestic new energy vehicle industry is iterating very fast, and the innovation speed of many products is no longer suitable for the original standard process of the industry. This requires us to take the initiative to establish and innovate industry standards." The person in charge of the factory assembly told the Global Times reporter, "For example, one or two months after a product is mass-produced, a new set of process flows will be issued, and there are various new derivatives, which are constantly iterating, from small design changes to large direct replacements. New models are almost constantly being improved and optimized in the factory." He also mentioned, "The first-mover advantage of products brought by this rapid feedback is conducive to enterprises to have the right to speak in the industry, and many standards can be formulated by ourselves. When foreign manufacturers come to conduct research and exchanges, they will pay more attention to the assembly standards of our frameless doors, such as the gap difference of frameless doors, the interference of rubber strips, and the standards for rainproof and water leakage control and noise control. We have formulated a set of standards based on the quality benchmarks we have explored. In the era of fuel vehicles, such a situation is unimaginable."

A Global Times reporter learned that in the key links of the industrial chain, Guangdong's new energy vehicle industry has covered vehicle production, three-electric (batteries, motors, and electronic controls), other components and key materials, and has established a complete industrial system. Leading power battery companies such as BYD and Yiwei Lithium Energy have laid the foundation for the battery industry chain. The industrial chain has basically achieved independent control, the self-sufficiency rate of key components in the province exceeds 80%, and the industry has shown strong resilience.

The “Heart of the Bay Area” and the “Core” of the Bay Area

Nansha District, adjacent to Panyu District, stretches from the land to the Lingdingyang like a sword, facing Shenzhen across the sea. Going south along the highway from Guangzhou city, semiconductor factories appear in the flat fields. A Global Times reporter visited the chip industry cluster in Nansha District, Guangzhou, and found that many of these companies are closely linked to the upstream industrial chain of new energy vehicles.

"When the company was founded in Nansha, Guangzhou in 2019, it was basically farmland and transportation was very inconvenient, but my friends in investment promotion told me that the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link was under construction and would be open to traffic in five years. In the future, it will only take about 30 minutes to get from the factory to Shenzhen Airport... Although many people did not quite believe in such a blueprint at first, as a person who 'went into business' in the 1990s and experienced the 'one year one change and a big change in three years' in Shanghai Pudong, I am full of confidence and hope for this place and the Greater Bay Area based on my intuition!" Zhou Xiaoyang, president of Core Energy Semiconductor, wrote on his WeChat public account.

Zhou Xiaoyang took reporters to visit the factory workshop. He told reporters that in the five years since its establishment, the company's silicon carbide power modules have been used in a number of new energy vehicles, and its cooperative enterprises include major domestic new energy vehicle manufacturers.

The pull of the local market is becoming a favorable factor for the rise of domestic automotive semiconductor companies. Industry data shows that China's registered automotive chip companies are mainly distributed in coastal provinces. As of the beginning of 2024, the number of automotive chip manufacturers in Guangdong Province has exceeded 1,200.

"Being in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, we attach great importance to making good use of the talent resources here. The convenient transportation has greatly facilitated our exchanges with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University." Zhou Xiaoyang told reporters that now, global silicon carbide companies are actively exploring the automotive market, and the Greater Bay Area has a complete and well-equipped new energy vehicle industry chain and talent chain. As one of Guangdong's automobile production and manufacturing bases, Nansha has formed a unique advantage in the development of automotive-grade semiconductors and integrated circuit industries. Because it is located at the geometric center of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in space, Nansha District is called the "Heart of the Bay Area". With the opportunity of Guangdong Province's vigorous construction of the "third pole" of China's integrated circuit industry, Nansha District has deployed key enterprises in key links such as chip design, materials, equipment, manufacturing, packaging and testing, and application ends, and has initially formed a complete semiconductor industry chain. Nansha has planned an integrated circuit industrial park of about 2 square kilometers in the Wanqingsha area. At present, enterprises in chip materials, equipment and manufacturing have gathered in the area, initially forming a chip "street" situation. In the future, the "Heart of the Bay Area" will produce more and more "cores" of the Bay Area.

Industry insiders said that the current global silicon carbide industry is dominated by the United States, Europe and Japan, and Chinese companies are working hard to narrow the gap. "I graduated from graduate school in 1987. At that time, China was far behind foreign countries, but now we have risen in all aspects." Zhou Xiaoyang told reporters that in the field of chips, China's industrial chain is now relatively complete and the self-sufficiency rate has greatly increased. "At present, Nansha has gathered many automotive chip 'chain leader' companies. In the future, we hope that more chip design companies will come here." Zhou Xiaoyang told reporters that in his mind, Nansha will be the highland of China's third-generation semiconductors in the future.

Talent and industry support the Bay Area's "smart travel"

Yuanrong Qixing Technology Co., Ltd., located in Futian District, Shenzhen, is a national high-tech artificial intelligence enterprise that mainly provides automobile companies with full-stack high-end intelligent driving solutions.

Liu Nianqiu, technical partner and vice president of Yuanrong Qixing, told the Global Times that the company was chosen to set up in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area because of several major advantages here. On the one hand, there is talent. Shenzhen is adjacent to Hong Kong and can attract many international talents, which is convenient for maintaining close talent ties with Hong Kong universities. In 2023, Yuanrong Qixing signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Intelligent Unmanned Driving Center of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The two sides will carry out in-depth cooperation in the fields of autonomous driving scientific research and autonomous driving talent training. On the other hand, Shenzhen has a rich industrial chain system, which brings together many companies with technological strength and a large amount of innovative capital, all of which are keen to invest in hard technology. "Take intelligent driving as an example. Shenzhen has leading companies in upstream sensors such as lidar and other fields. The Greater Bay Area is an area with a high concentration of car companies. We think the Greater Bay Area is a very suitable area for the development of the industry." Liu Nianqiu said.

At present, Guangdong has initially formed an intelligent connected vehicle industry development pattern with Guangzhou and Shenzhen as the "dual intelligence pilot" leaders and Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhaoqing and other surrounding cities as "multi-point coordination", covering a complete intelligent connected vehicle industry chain including vehicle manufacturers, key supporting suppliers such as autonomous driving technology companies, innovation platform institutions, connected technology service providers, and third-party industry organizations.

Toyota China told the Global Times that the Greater Bay Area has good policy and regulatory support for the development of intelligent networking, and is actively expanding the demonstration area of ​​intelligent connected vehicles, laying the foundation for future large-scale applications. On April 26 this year, Toyota and its partners Pony.ai and GAC Toyota jointly established a joint venture company for autonomous taxis (Robotaxi) related businesses - "Zhuifeng Intelligent Technology (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd.". In fact, since 2019, Toyota has cooperated with Pony.ai to jointly promote the commercialization of L4 unmanned Robotaxi. Toyota said that it plans to put more than 1,000 L4 mass-produced fully unmanned autonomous driving vehicles on the market next year.

As pioneers of L3 intelligent driving, Guangzhou and Shenzhen have continuously expanded the scope of test roads, test scales and types, and have increasingly standardized industry supervision and operations, promoting the rapid development of autonomous driving. On July 29, the "2024 Guangzhou Smart City Infrastructure and Intelligent Connected Vehicle Collaborative Development White Paper" was released. As of June 2024, Guangzhou has opened 827 test roads with a two-way mileage of 3,327.87 kilometers, and the cumulative test mileage ranks among the top in the country. On July 30, the "Shenzhen Action Plan to Accelerate the Creation of an Artificial Intelligence Pioneer City" was officially issued, which mentioned that Shenzhen will build a national demonstration zone for intelligent driving, including optimizing the layout of integrated facilities for light storage and supercharging networks, and building a world-class "supercharging city"; creating online and offline intelligent connected vehicle test sites to accelerate the verification of technology products; strengthening the promotion of intelligent driving, expanding the intelligent driving consumer market, and cultivating a distinctive culture of intelligent driving.