"Future vehicles" represented by intelligent connected vehicles and new energy vehicles are key industries in Shanghai and also one of the representative industries of new quality productivity.
On the afternoon of March 29th, 2024, the Intelligent Connected Vehicle Industry Chain Investment Promotion Conference of Shanghai Global Investment Promotion Conference was held in Jiading. Zhang Hongtao, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology, said at the meeting, "Currently, the development of Shanghai's automotive industry is in an important strategic opportunity period. We will accelerate the development of new productive forces, use technological innovation as the driving force, achieve industrial leaps and upgrades, and inject sustained momentum into the high-quality development of Shanghai's intelligent connected vehicle industry chain."
During the event, the Jiading District Intelligent Network Intermodal Operation and Maintenance Platform was officially unveiled, AutoCity Group signed a data commercial agreement with Baidu, and 17 new intelligent network connected vehicle projects including ZF Asia Pacific and Mushroom Car Union were successfully signed, with a total investment of up to 3.24 billion yuan.
As the region with the largest scale, most complete automotive industry chain, and most prominent industrial agglomeration in China, Jiading District achieved a total output of 718.2 billion yuan in the automotive industry in 2023. Among them, SAIC Volkswagen has played an important driving role as the "chain master" of the industrial chain.
As a chain owner, SAIC Volkswagen actively seeks local cooperation while transforming itself, driving the integration and development of the industrial chain. At the event, 5 newly introduced projects in the SAIC Volkswagen industry chain, including Ningbo Huaxiang and Huizhou Huayang, signed contracts; At the same time, SAIC Volkswagen has also signed cooperation intention partner agreements with seven companies, including Hesai Technology, Sinan Navigation, and Chuzhen Intelligence.
In an interview with The Paper, several supply chain companies mentioned that Shanghai's leading automotive industry chain has a strong attraction to intelligent connected vehicle industry chain enterprises, and more enterprise leaders used words such as "smooth" and "efficient" to describe the process of settling down in the sea.
When it comes to establishing the Shanghai R&D sub center, Yang Luowei, Vice President of Mushroom Car Association, an autonomous driving enterprise, revealed to a reporter from Pengpai News, "I have actually traveled to many cities before and are negotiating cooperation and settlement with other cities. In comparison, Shanghai gives me the feeling of being very efficient, and the government is more like a butler to enterprises, taking into account all possible problems that enterprises may encounter, including talent issues, industrial funds, and funding issues. This has given me a deep impression, which is a great advantage of Shanghai."
Han Guohua, General Manager of Baidu Group's Intelligent Connected Products Department, said in an interview with The Paper, "Shanghai can be said to be the most complete region in the national automotive industry chain. Coupled with the driving force of absolute leading enterprises like SAIC, this complete industry chain undoubtedly has huge advantages for enterprises."
The advantages of the automotive industry chain are deeply rooted
"Going upstairs and downstairs is the upstream and downstream," Yang Luowei told a reporter from Pengpai News. This sentence is the most vivid interpretation of the automotive industry chain in Shanghai. The perfect automotive industry chain in Shanghai is the biggest foundation and advantage for developing the intelligent connected vehicle industry.
Zhang Hongtao, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology, pointed out at the Investment Promotion Conference on the Intelligent Connected Vehicle Industry Chain that automobiles are the largest pillar industry of Shanghai's manufacturing industry, and the development of intelligent connected vehicles is an important lever for Shanghai to deeply promote new industrialization and build new quality productivity. In recent years, Shanghai has achieved good results in new energy and intelligent connected vehicles.
He introduced that in 2023, the local vehicle production in Shanghai reached 2.156 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 4.8%, accounting for 7.1% of the national total; The production of new energy vehicles reached 1.28 million units, a year-on-year increase of 35%, accounting for 13.4% of the national total.
According to the 2023 Shanghai National Economic and Social Development Statistics Bulletin, the total output value of new energy vehicles in Shanghai has reached 387.63 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 32.1%.
Shanghai is the main production base for new energy vehicles and an important market for new energy vehicles. As of the end of 2023, Shanghai has promoted a total of 1.367 million new energy vehicles, ranking first among major cities worldwide.
Zhang Hongtao stated that on the basis of the rapid growth of the automotive industry scale, Shanghai has also achieved comprehensive layout in key links of the industrial chain, including Huada Semiconductor, Horizon, Xinwangda, Gatlan and other enterprises launching 158 more mature automotive chip products, while Puhua Software, Zhongchuangda, Zebra Zhixing and other enterprises have laid out automotive software such as in car operating systems.
As an intelligent connected vehicle supply chain enterprise that has grown and grown in Shanghai, Hesai Technology's LiDAR has a carrying capacity of over 37% in the Chinese market, ranking first in the industry. Xiaomi, Ideal, and others are Hesai's customers.
When it comes to settling in Shanghai, Li Yifan, co-founder and CEO of Shanghai Hesai Technology Co., Ltd., told Pengpai News that LiDAR requires a large number of professional talents and strong resources such as the automotive industry chain. Shanghai has unique geographical advantages and a strong industrial chain foundation, which can provide high-end manufacturing supply chain and industrial cluster capabilities for enterprises like Hesai Technology. "Many of our customers and suppliers are within two to three hours of driving, and many of our innovations form a closed loop within a few hours."
Policies and regulations provide protection for intelligent connected vehicles
Han Guohua, general manager of Baidu Group's Intelligent Connected Product Department, said that the first challenge facing the development of the intelligent connected automobile industry is the policy and regulatory environment. In the view of Han Guohua, there is no specific legislation on the development of intelligent connected vehicles at the national level, and Pudong New Area has been granted local legislative power, which is also one of the major advantages of Shanghai becoming a highland of intelligent connected vehicles.
2023 is the first year for the comprehensive implementation of regulations and policies related to intelligent connected vehicles in Shanghai.
At present, Shanghai has issued the "Implementation Plan for Testing and Demonstrating Intelligent Connected Vehicles on High Speed Expressways in Shanghai", "Implementation Rules for Promoting Innovative Applications of Intelligent Connected Vehicles without Drivers in Pudong New Area of Shanghai", "Implementation Rules for Promoting Innovative Applications of Intelligent Connected Vehicles without Drivers in Lingang New Area of China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone (Trial)", "Several Provisions for Promoting Innovative Applications of Autonomous Driving Equipment in Pudong New Area", etc., to help accelerate the development of intelligent connected vehicles.
As policy benefits continue to emerge, the testing scenarios for intelligent connected vehicles are also constantly expanding.
Zhang Hongtao introduced that Jiading, Pudong, Lingang, and Fengxian are actively promoting the demonstration application of intelligent connected vehicles.
Recently, the Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission, Municipal Economic and Information Commission, and Municipal Public Security Bureau jointly released the "Shanghai Intelligent Connected Vehicle Development Report (2023)", which shows that as of the end of 2023, the total area of autonomous driving open testing in Shanghai has reached 912 square kilometers, of which 464 square kilometers in Jiading and 386 square kilometers in Lingang (386 blocks) have been fully opened. A total of 774 vehicles from 32 enterprises have been granted road testing and demonstration application licenses. The level of enterprise participation, scene richness, and testing activity ranks among the top in the country. The total test mileage was 9.633 million kilometers, of which 7.437 million kilometers were tested for autonomous driving (functional testing), an increase of 25% and 43% respectively compared to 2022; The total test duration is 1.15 million hours, of which the autonomous driving test (functional test) duration is 650000 hours, an increase of 190% and 200% respectively compared to 2022.
It is worth noting that Shanghai has also spared no effort in promoting the commercial application of intelligent connected vehicles.
As mentioned in the previous report, as of the end of 2023, Shanghai has issued demonstration operation certificates to 160 vehicles of 8 enterprise consortia, with an annual travel service of over 154000 people and an annual freight volume of 66000 TEU. 30 vehicles from 7 enterprises were issued driver free licenses, and driver free testing was carried out in an orderly manner on open roads in the Lingang New Area and Jinqiao Area, with a total testing mileage of 94700 kilometers.
Just last month, Shanghai issued the Implementation Plan for the Comprehensive Integration of International High Standard Economic and Trade Rules and the Promotion of High level Institutional Opening of China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, which mentioned the need to encourage the exploration of business models in the demonstration application process of intelligent connected vehicles and accelerate the commercialization of intelligent connected vehicles.
It is worth mentioning that Shanghai not only ensures the protection of intelligent connected vehicles through policies, but also uses policies to promote enterprises to move forward with light equipment.
Li Yifan said, "The entire environment in Shanghai encourages innovation, and both industrial policies and talent policies have a huge attraction for enterprises and talents."
"The high-quality and rapid development of enterprises cannot be achieved without the support of local governments. In the past decade, Hesai has grown from a startup to a leading enterprise in the global LiDAR industry. The rapid and high-quality development has strongly confirmed the correctness of Hesai's decision to take root in Shanghai." He added.