Enhancement of EV Core Technologies

　　Editor’s Notes: On December 12, 50 Elites of China Automobile Forum was established in Beijing. Initiated by Sohu Auto, the forum consists of top experts in China's auto industry, leaders of industry bodies and heads of automobile manufacturers. Currently the forum has 40 members, all of whom play an important role in China's automotive industry. 26 members were present at the founding ceremony.

　　50 Elites of China Automobile Forum aims at building a communication platform for high-end members in automotive industry. Through the ongoing communication, the forum can provide the most valuable recommendations for managers, and offer advice and theoretical guidance for China's industry from a strategic point of view. Therefore the forum will enhance the comprehensive development of China's automotive industry, propelling China to become a real giant in terms of production and sales of vehicles. The following is the speech made by Guo Konghui, academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering and honorary dean of School of Automotive Engineering of Jilin University.

　　Guo Konghui: Today I want to talk about the issue of China calling for China top brands. There are a lot of brands, but China is lack of top brands. Some taxi drivers ask me when China’s own brands can make better cars, which propels me to think about this issue. As industry people, it is known to all that China’s auto industry made a great progress in recent years, though many core technologies are still owned by foreign countries.

　　Gap between own brands’ cars and foreign cars is still large, for instance, own brands’ cars have a lot of small problems such as restlessness loud and loose sun visor. These small problems are hindering China’s own brands to become world top brands. The most important reason is China’s own brands don’t pay great attention to the whole process of technologies and manufacturing. In other words, some China’s own brands are not inclined to be serious about creating top brands.

　　As far as I am concerned, several links will be combined for China creating world top brands.

　　The first is joint effort of OEMs and suppliers. Some OEMs I have been observing have insufficient awareness of coexistence and win-win. OEMs will fail if they eventually crumble suppliers.

　　Independent suppliers must improve the innovation capability involving synchronous development so that achieve win-win. Talents are needed to enhance the development capability of core technologies. Talents can be divided into external sources and internal sources, and talents training depends on practice under guidance of theory.

　　Close combination of production, education& research is the main channel to cultivate talents. The key factors to the successful combination of production, education& research include high-level vision and awareness of the overall situation, which are able to lure more talents.

　　Joint effort of endogenous and exogenous forces is also essential. Currently, constrained by domestic technologies, considerable companies are highly dependant on foreign countries. In view of corporate purchasing products, I think it is necessary for OEMs to improve level of own auto parts &components, for it matters the whole system and the overall situation.

　　Government procurement of vehicles has been around 70 billion RMB since 2006 with the high percentage of foreign brands. Some people hold the opinion that technology gap leads to the low percentage of government procurement. I think this argument is not an overall view, and on this point we should learn from South Korea.