Source: People's Daily

Accelerated development of global new energy vehicle industry (international perspective)

China is increasingly becoming an important force in industry transformation and upgrading

Our reporter Shang Kaiyuan

Core reading

At present, the development of the global new energy vehicle industry has entered a fast lane, new products and technologies have been accelerated in research and development, and technological innovation has driven the continuous upgrading of the industry. As an important force leading the transformation and upgrading of the global automotive industry, China actively participates in international cooperation in the field of new energy vehicles and contributes to the development of the new energy vehicle industry.

At the 2022 Paris International Auto Show held recently, nearly 100 enterprises in the field of new energy vehicles, from electrification and hydrogen fuel to vehicle technology and intelligent travel, showed their latest products. Grasping the opportunity of new energy development has become the common choice of world famous automobile enterprises. According to the analysis, the international community should continue to work together to accelerate the low-carbon transformation of the automobile industry and build a more secure and stable industrial ecology with win-win cooperation.

Rapid increase in market share

During the G20 Bali Summit, SAIC GM Wuling launched the new energy vehicle Air ev as the official vehicle of the Summit to protect green travel. It is estimated that within the 12 day summit guarantee period, 300 Air evs can reduce about 33 tons of carbon emissions in total.

Air ev is the first Chinese new energy vehicle on the Indonesian market. It was officially launched in the Wuling Automobile Industrial Park in Indonesia in August this year. Since its listing, the order has exceeded 4500 units, becoming the new energy vehicle with the highest monthly sales volume in Indonesia. Ellanga Haltato, Minister of Economic Planning of Indonesia, said: "Wuling will bring the latest products and technologies to Indonesia, promote the reform of the entire Indonesian automobile industry chain from product research and development, manufacturing, market and other aspects, and lead the new concept of automobile travel in Indonesia."

The market competitiveness of global new energy vehicles continues to improve with longer endurance mileage, more model choices, and more innovative intelligent networking and automatic driving functions. According to the statistics of the International Energy Agency, in 2021, the global sales of electric vehicles will be 6.6 million, nearly doubling year on year, accounting for 10% of all newly sold vehicles; In 2021, the number of electric vehicle models available for purchase in the market will be five times higher than that in 2015. At present, there are about 450 electric vehicle models. The latest data from the website CleanTechnica shows that in September 2022, the number of new energy vehicles registered in the world will reach 1.04 million, with a year-on-year growth of 51%, which is the first time this indicator has exceeded 1 million; From January to September, the cumulative sales volume of electric vehicles in the world exceeded 6.8 million, with a market share of 13%.

China's new energy vehicle industry has developed rapidly, with its production and sales volume ranking first in the world for seven consecutive years. According to the latest data of China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in the first three quarters of 2022 reached 4.717 million and 4.567 million respectively, with a year-on-year growth of 120% and 110% and a market share of 23.5%. Over the same period, China exported 389000 new energy vehicles, a year-on-year increase of more than twice.

In the European market, due to adverse factors such as inflation, energy crisis, and poor supply chain, the sales of vehicles in the first half of this year fell by 14%, but the sales of new energy vehicles in the same period were 1.12 million, up 8.7% year on year, showing a bright market performance. In the U.S. market, the proportion of electric vehicles in total vehicle sales increased from about 2.2% in the third quarter of 2020 to 6.1% in the third quarter of 2022. In South Korea, the export of new energy vehicles in the third quarter increased 42.3% year on year to USD 4.047 billion; The import volume increased by 29.3% year-on-year to US $1.791 billion, a record high.

McKinsey, a consulting firm, said: "In the past 10 years, the new energy vehicle industry has attracted more than 400 billion dollars of investment. All these funds are targeted at companies and start-ups related to electric transportation, Internet vehicles and autonomous driving technology." Reuters estimates that the investment of major global automobile manufacturers in electric vehicles will reach 1.2 trillion dollars by 2030.

Sustained efforts in supporting policies

The report of the International Energy Agency points out that the rapid development of new energy vehicles benefits from a variety of factors, among which the sustained policy support of countries is the main reason. Under the urgent climate goals, many countries have issued policy signals to strengthen green transportation. Statistics show that in 2021, the global relevant subsidies and public incentive funds will be about 30 billion dollars, doubling year on year.

The European Parliament recently adopted the "Carbon Reduction 55" package, which stipulates that the sale of new fuel vehicles, including hybrid vehicles, will be stopped in the EU from 2035. Norway plans to stop selling fuel vehicles in 2025, becoming the first country to completely ban the sale of fuel vehicles. The French government recently announced that it would increase the subsidy for low-income families to buy electric vehicles from 6000 euros to 7000 euros, and it is also planning an electric vehicle rental subsidy program. In September, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, and Resources of the Republic of Korea held a round table meeting on auto industry strategy, proposing a series of goals for the development of new energy vehicles, such as the production of 3.3 million new energy vehicles by 2030, the investment in the auto industry from 2022 to 2026 of more than 95 trillion won (1 yuan is about 185.03 won), and the training of 30,000 future auto professionals by 2030.

Emerging market countries also continue to increase the promotion of new energy vehicles. The Thai government proposed that by 2025, government agencies and public fleets should purchase zero emission vehicles, and 15% of new cars produced locally should be zero emission vehicles; By 2030, 30% of new vehicles will be zero emission vehicles; By 2035, all new cars will have zero emissions. The Indonesian government proposed to accelerate the electrification process of official vehicles of central and local government departments, and increase the number of electric vehicles in official vehicles to more than 100000 by the end of this year. The Ethiopian government announced that the imported and assembled electric vehicles will be exempted from value-added tax, consumption tax and additional tax, and import tariffs will be further reduced.

The infrastructure construction of new energy vehicles in various countries is also continuing to follow up. As of August, China has built 3.98 million charging piles and 1625 power stations, forming the world's largest charging and changing network. By the end of this year, China plans to achieve full coverage of basic charging services in expressway service areas except in cold and high altitude areas; By the end of next year, qualified national and provincial trunk highway service areas (stations) can provide basic charging services.

The British government released the EV Infrastructure Strategy in March, proposing to invest at least 1.6 billion pounds to expand the charging network, and plans to increase the number of EV charging stations by 10 times to 300000 by 2030. The German government announced that it would continue to provide 5.5 billion euros in subsidies for the construction of electric vehicle charging infrastructure by 2024.

Strengthen international exchanges and cooperation

According to the latest Global Electric Vehicle Outlook 2022 issued by the International Energy Agency, on the basis of adhering to the current climate policy, the global sales of electric vehicles will account for more than 30% of the global total sales of vehicles in 2030. Although the market outlook is optimistic, there is still a gap with the climate target. "We urgently need to launch the most advanced low-carbon transport solutions. We should use the strength of regional and international cooperation to promote the global popularization of low-carbon transport initiatives." The head of the United Nations Development Programme, Achim Steiner, said.

The analysis points out that with the accelerated development of the global automotive industry towards electrification, intelligence and networking, cross-border integration with new technologies, new materials, electronic power, advanced manufacturing and other fields is required, and countries need to strengthen technological innovation cooperation to promote the coordinated development of the industrial chain supply chain.

In April this year, the first overseas factory of Ningde Times, a Chinese enterprise, in Thuringia, Germany, officially obtained the 8 GWh cell production license. Not long ago, Ningde Times announced that it would cooperate with Mercedes Benz to build a second European factory in Hungary. Hegang Group signed an agreement with BMW Group to introduce the "green steel" technology with lower carbon emissions into the automotive field. The person in charge of BMW Group said: "China is a hot spot to promote the large-scale application of emerging technologies. If a technology is scaled up in China, it can be applied in the world. We have witnessed this in the development of new energy vehicles."

From Europe to the Middle East and Latin America, Chinese new energy vehicles have emerged in more and more countries and regions, not only promoting local energy conservation and emission reduction, but also providing opportunities for the automobile industry to exchange and learn from each other. In Bogota, Colombia, 1480 BYD electric buses will be put into operation by the end of this year, which means that 94300 tons of carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced each year, equivalent to the annual emissions of 42000 private cars. Claudia Lopez, mayor of Bogota, said, "China's electric buses have made important contributions to the construction of clean and sustainable Bogota and the modernization of local transportation." (People's Daily)