Chongqing- With the release of the production and sales bulletins in August, the sales of Chongqing-made new energy vehicles (NEVs) hit a new high, represented by Changan Automobile, Seres, and Lifan Technology.

From January to August this year, the cumulative sales of NEVs from the Seres Group were 73,557 units, with a year-on-year increase of 238.41%. The accumulative sales of Seres Automobile were 39,433 units, with a year-on-year increase of 1211.37%.

Experts believe that the key to NEVs' success lies in intelligence, and the continuous refresh of the sales records reveals the tremendous efforts of major vehicle enterprises in the NEVs field. 

Changan Automobile released a new brand of Zhuge Intelligence and the prototype of CD701 on August 29.

"By 2025, we will invest more than 80 billion yuan in key areas such as new energy, intelligence, and digital transformation, and have more than 10,000 research and development (R&D) personnel in intelligence, software, and new energy," said Zhu Huarong, chairman of Changan Automobile. "We will also launch more than 30 new intelligent connected products. By 2030, we will achieve the sales of 4.5 million Changan intelligent connected vehicles (ICVs)."

Differentiation of the new energy vehicle market

According to the Chongqing Economic and Information Technology Commission, Chongqing has achieved rapid growth in the new energy sector with remarkable results in automobile transformation and upgrading.

In particular, the unit value of cars has increased from 85,000 to 105,000, the production of ICVs has risen from 130,000 to 300,000, and the production of NEVs has increased from 40,000 to 150,000.

Cui Dongshu, Secretary General of the National Passenger Car Information Exchange Association, said that the differentiation of the new energy vehicle market has intensified, and the industry pattern may have quietly changed. With the increasing penetration of new energy, the competition continues to intensify.

He thinks the key to winning the market relies not only on technology and product but also on industrial capacity and ecological pattern.

Cui continued that, regarding overall market trends, the national consumption promotion policy is of great significance to the recovery of the automotive industry, which is conducive to the steady development of the automotive market. He is confident that the market will strengthen in the coming months.

The internal differentiation is gradually evident from the sales volume of various vehicle enterprises. The sales of enterprises such as BYD (Build Your Dreams) are far ahead. As the invested and constructed factories have been put into operation one after another, BYD's vehicle sales continued to rise rapidly this year. 

One reason for the boom of BYD's sales is its whole industry chain and market strategy. Providing one-stop new energy solutions, BYD is the only company in the world that masters the core technologies of electric vehicles, such as batteries, motors, and electric control.

This has won it the opportunity to meet the arrival of the new energy vehicle era and respond to the supply chain crisis caused by the pandemic. 

However, the differentiation of small and medium-sized enterprises of independent brands is seriously sluggish due to the pressure on converting old and new kinetic energy and the continuous loss of NEVs.

Guo Gang, a professor at the College of Mechanical Engineering, Chongqing University, pointed out that Chongqing, as a traditional manufacturing base, must tackle the three major electrical problems of batteries, motors, and electronic control in the short term, which can be solved by local enterprises investing in building factories for example. In the mid-term, chip supply must be met to solve the critical bottleneck area of NEVs. In the long run, the gap must be filled in intelligent connected, intelligent cockpit, and autonomous driving.

In addition, the development of NEVs must be deeply integrated with Information and Communications Technology (ICT) enterprises with advantages in Internet operation and maintenance, artificial intelligence technology, and software technology.

(Zhu Qinzhuo, as an intern, also contributed to this report.)