Xinhua News Agency, Shenyang, May 9 (Reporter Sun Renbin, Yu Yitong, Liu Yichun) On the evening of the 8th, on the final assembly line of BMW Dadong Factory in Shenyang Brilliance, Liaoning, a frosted pure gray innovative pure electric BMW i5 slowly drove out, and the words "6 million vehicles" flashed on the sapphire blue electronic screen, causing thunderous applause.
In the 30th year of the German BMW Group's entry into the Chinese market, BMW Brilliance Automotive Co., Ltd. ushered in the launch of the 6th complete vehicle.
Not long ago, BMW Group just announced an additional investment of 20 billion yuan to upgrade its production base in Shenyang, and announced that in 2026, BMW's "new generation" models aimed at digitalization and electrification will be launched in Shenyang.
"China's trends today will determine the direction of the world in the future," said Jack Zipce, chairman of BMW Group.
Volkswagen Group has set up the largest R&D center outside the German headquarters in China, focusing on the R&D of intelligent connected vehicles; Tesla Shanghai Super Factory has become Tesla's major export center in the world, accounting for more than half of its global production capacity in 2023... Recently, many foreign car enterprises in China have been increasing their weight in China, sharing more opportunities in China.
The "vote of confidence" cast by real gold and silver is behind China's super large market. Statistics show that in 2023, China's automobile production and sales will reach 30.161 million and 30.094 million, respectively, with an increase of 11.6% and 12%. Among them, the production and sales of new energy vehicles reached 9.587 million and 9.495 million, up 35.8% and 37.9% respectively.
Ferdinand Dudenhefel, an authoritative German expert in automotive economics and president of Bohong Automotive Research Institute, said that from a global perspective, consumers' pursuit of green and low-carbon has led to huge demand in the new energy vehicle market. China's electric vehicle market is far from saturated, and will continue to maintain a faster and stronger growth momentum than the European and American markets.
China's automobile production and sales have ranked first in the world for 15 consecutive years, and the production and sales of new energy vehicles have ranked first in the world for 9 consecutive years. The export volume reached a new high last year.
BMW Group's financial report shows that in 2023, BMW Group will deliver more than 375000 pure electric vehicles to global customers, including about 100000 pure electric vehicles to China, accounting for more than 25%. In 2023, Volkswagen Group will deliver about 191800 pure electric vehicles in the Chinese market, with a year-on-year growth of 23.2%. Mercedes Benz also stressed that the delivery of pure trams in China will be "more than doubled" by 2023.
With the continuous optimization and upgrading of China's industrial structure, the rapid development of new quality productivity characterized by high-end, intelligent and green has brought new opportunities to China's automobile market. Many local sci-tech innovation enterprises have struck a new spark with the automobile industry, promoting the intelligent transformation of the automobile industry.
"The integration of electrification, intelligence and networking of the automotive industry is accelerating, leading to global industrial change." Fu Bingfeng, executive vice president and secretary-general of the China Automobile Association, said that under the empowerment of electrification and digitalization, new industrial ecology and competition pattern will be formed at an accelerated pace.
In the field of new energy vehicles, China's rapidly developing consumer market, perfect supply chain system, innovative R&D environment and excellent talent training have brought a new round of opportunities for foreign investment in China.
"China vigorously develops new quality productivity, which is very consistent with BMW Group's core strategy, and provides broad space for further deepening China Germany cooperation," said Zipse.
It took BMW Brilliance 7 years from the 100000th vehicle to the 1000000th vehicle; It only took 15 months for the 5th to 6th complete vehicles to go offline.
The distance between millions of finished vehicles getting off the production line is constantly shortened, behind which is the largest R&D and digital system established by BMW Group outside Germany in China. At present, Shenyang has become the largest production base and one of the most important new energy vehicle centers of BMW Group in the world.
Like BMW, more and more foreign auto companies have increased their local R&D and innovation capabilities and new energy vehicle manufacturing capabilities by expanding their investment in China to cope with market competition and seize opportunities in China.
Volkswagen (China) Science and Technology Co., Ltd. is becoming the center for Volkswagen to implement the localization of its products in China. It will work closely with Volkswagen's joint ventures in China to undertake core development tasks. The company is developing Volkswagen's first electric vehicle architecture specifically for the Chinese market. From 2026, Volkswagen Group will rely on this platform to develop at least four compact entry-level electric vehicles.
In Changchun, Jilin Province, in the intelligent workshop of Audi FAW New Energy Vehicle Co., Ltd., the assembly of new models was accelerated to offline. Around the project, batteries, electric drives, whole vehicles... New energy vehicle R&D and manufacturing projects gathered, and industrial clusters gathered rapidly.
As the first factory set up by the German Audi brand in China to produce pure electric vehicles, the Audi FAW new energy vehicle project with a planned investment of more than 30 billion yuan is stepping up construction. It is expected to be put into production by the end of 2024, with an annual capacity of more than 150000 vehicles.
China has always been steadfast in sharing development opportunities with the world, and has also taken "reassurance" for foreign-funded enterprises to take root in China and achieve long-term development.
"We believe that the Chinese market will continue to grow and play a leading role in industry innovation." Kang Linsong, chairman of the board of directors of Mercedes Benz Group, said that China is not only the largest new energy vehicle market, but also has an industry leading enterprise and an innovation center of a mature new energy supply chain.
"The new 20 billion yuan investment plan further highlights China's core position in the BMW Group's path to intelligent connected vehicles, not only demonstrates our successful development in China in the past 30 years, but also expresses our firm confidence in the future," said Qi Puce.
