On December 30, 1968, the successful trial production of the SX250 heavy-duty vehicle prototype by Shaanxi Automobile Manufacturing Factory marked the official start of the Shaanxi automobile industry. After more than 50 years of development, by 2022, Shaanxi's automobile industry has ushered in a new qualitative change, with the automobile production breaking through the million level for the first time, reaching 1.338 million units, an increase of 67%, ranking first in China. The production ranking has jumped from 13th to 8th, continuously surpassing five provinces and cities including Liaoning, Beijing, Hebei, Zhejiang, and Shandong. Among them, Xi'an's production of new energy vehicles surpassed that of Shanghai, becoming the city with the highest production of new energy vehicles in China in 2022. From an unknown small role in the history of the traditional automotive industry to a dominant player in the new energy vehicle industry, what has Xi'an done right?

Xi'an tops the new energy vehicle race

One of the biggest contributions to Xi'an's successful achievement of overtaking on curves is its early deep integration with leading car companies such as BYD, Shaanxi Automobile, and Geely, especially by betting on BYD's ace. BYD's successive leaps cannot bypass the city of Xi'an. In 2022, out of the 1015200 new energy vehicles produced in Xi'an, BYD contributed 995000, accounting for 98% of the total production of new energy vehicles in Xi'an. According to Mr. Zhou, a resident of Xi'an, if you take a turn on the streets of Xi'an, 8 out of 10 new energy electric vehicles are BYD.

As early as 20 years ago, BYD acquired Xi'an Qinchuan Automobile Co., Ltd. and settled in Xi'an. After 20 years of accumulation and innovative breakthroughs, BYD has fully exploded in recent years, driving the emergence of Xi'an's new energy vehicle industry. In the first quarter of 2023, BYD, with its sales volume of 440800 vehicles, rolled over Volkswagen (427300 vehicles), which ranked second in the list, and a large number of international old car companies, and officially became China's top selling passenger car brand Top1, which shocked the market again by once again. In the words of BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu, Xi'an is currently the city with the most comprehensive layout and widest business cooperation besides its headquarters in Shenzhen.

Before introducing BYD, Shaanxi Automobile Group had always been a business card of the Shaanxi automotive industry. Shaanxi Automobile Group seized the historical opportunity and accelerated the core technological breakthroughs of different technological routes such as pure electricity, hybrid, and hydrogen energy. It has mastered the core technologies of new energy commercial vehicles, especially new energy heavy and light trucks, and established a leading advantage in the industry. In the first quarter, Shaanxi Automobile Group sold nearly 700 new energy heavy-duty trucks, ranking among the forefront of mainstream enterprises. It is worth mentioning that in the field of new energy vehicle autonomous driving, Shaanxi Automobile Group is one of the few enterprises that insists on fully independent research and development.

Geely Automobile, which is also located in the Xi'an Economic and Technological Development Zone with Shaanxi Automobile Group, is also a driving force for the development of the Xi'an automotive industry. At present, Geely Automobile Xi'an factory has built the world's first fully structured, all energy, and all vehicle series super intelligent "black light factory", which means that the production process can be completed in an unmanned environment. The factory is handed over to machines and has obtained a five-star certification for a zero carbon factory. It has become the first zero carbon factory for a domestic vehicle enterprise, with a maximum annual production capacity of 360000 vehicles.

In addition to BYD, Shaanxi Automobile Group, and Geely, Xi'an also has supporting enterprises for heavy-duty vehicle transmission suppliers such as FASTER, Zhongdi Battery, and Samsung Huanxin Power Battery, as well as key production projects such as the R&D of Tuopu Automobile's interior and exterior decorations and Henghui Ruitai Automobile's interior and exterior decorations. Among them, the annual production and sales volume of the Faster heavy-duty vehicle transmission has been the world's first for 17 consecutive years. Its independently developed latest generation of integrated electronic mechanical automatic transmission for commercial vehicles has been widely adapted to traditional commercial vehicles and new energy commercial vehicles.

In cutting-edge fields such as intelligent connected vehicles and intelligent transportation systems, Xi'an is also accelerating its layout. Xi'an has established research and development platforms such as the Intelligent Connected Vehicle Research Institute, the Intelligent Connected Vehicle Innovation Center, the Cross Information Core Technology Research Institute, and the Xi'an Silk Road Brain Science Research Institute, focusing on tackling key core technologies of artificial intelligence vehicles and intelligent connected vehicles. The automobile industry chain is long, covers a wide range, and has numerous upstream and downstream related industries. The good development of these enterprise institutions continuously strengthens the strength of the Xi'an automobile industry chain.

Building a trillion yuan automobile industry cluster in the western region

On February 17, 2023, under the guidance of the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, the Xi'an Automotive Industry Chain Conference was jointly organized by the Xi'an Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology and the Xi'an Economic and Technological Development Zone in Xi'an. Experts and representatives of chain owners from the automotive industry in Shaanxi Province gathered in Xi'an to jointly explore the collaborative development of the automotive industry chain supply chain, exchange excellent experience in enterprise development, and promote the agglomeration development of the automotive industry in Xi'an. Zeng Zhaoning, a member of the Shaanxi Provincial Decision Advisory Committee and a professor at Xi'an Petroleum University, stated that the rapid development of Shaanxi's automotive industry is mainly focused on heavy trucks and new energy vehicles. In the field of heavy trucks, an industrial cluster has formed, and Shaanxi Heavy Duty Truck's supporting rate in this province has reached 40%; In the field of new energy vehicles, industrial clusters are formed through vehicle manufacturing, final assembly, and component matching.

The automobile industry is a modern industry with high industrial correlation, wide industrial chain coverage, and strong technological concentration. It is a key pillar industry in Shaanxi. In recent years, the scale of Shaanxi's automobile industry has rapidly increased, and the automobile production in Shaanxi Province has increased from 420000 units in 2016 to 1.338 million units in 2022, with the fastest growth rate in China, 64 percentage points higher than China. It has driven up the industrial economy of Shaanxi Province by nearly 1 percentage point, driving significant growth in related industries. Zeng Zhaoning stated that in the future, Shaanxi will further leverage its advantages in the fields of heavy trucks and new energy vehicles. At that time, Shaanxi's position in China's automotive industry will also be further consolidated and enhanced.

In recent years, significant breakthroughs have been made in the construction of Shaanxi's complete vehicle production capacity. Major projects such as the Shaanxi Automobile Pure Electric Heavy Truck Base, BYD New Energy Vehicle Phase III and Phase IV Capacity Expansion, and Xi'an Geely Project have been successively implemented and constructed. The current and ongoing complete vehicle production capacity in Shaanxi Province has exceeded 3 million vehicles, which will support the automotive industry in Shaanxi Province to enter a new round of rapid growth.

At the Xi'an Automobile Industry Chain Conference, the main chain enterprises such as Shaanxi Automobile, BYD, Xi'an Geely, and Faster respectively introduced the promotion of the industry chain and the local supporting needs. Supply chain enterprises conducted on-site promotion. In order to further promote the development of the automotive industry in the Economic Development Zone, the Automotive Industry Alliance of the Economic Development Zone was unveiled and established at this meeting. In addition, the conference also commended and awarded special contribution enterprises, innovative breakthrough enterprises, and advantageous support units to the improvement of the Xi'an automotive industry chain in 2022. By establishing industry benchmarks and images, we aim to stimulate the automotive industry chain enterprises to step up, gather strength, and add vitality.

Xi'an, as a major industrial town in the northwest, adheres to making automobiles a pillar industry. We strongly support leading enterprises such as Shaanxi Automobile, BYD, and FASTER in increasing production and expanding capacity, actively introducing well-known enterprises and advanced production technologies such as Geely, Zhongdi, Cummins, and Samsung Huanxin, forming an automotive industry cluster that integrates the research and development, production, application, and testing of new automotive technologies. In 2017, the automobile manufacturing industry broke through the 100 billion mark for the first time, becoming the first industry in Xi'an to reach the 100 billion level. In 2021, Xi'an produced 1.2563 million complete vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 96.7%, accounting for 4.6% of China's total production and 94% of Shaanxi Province's total production. The automotive industry as a whole has shown a good situation of improving quality, efficiency, and high-speed development. In 2022, the automotive industry in Xi'an achieved an output value of 217.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 56%. In 2022, new energy vehicles are a major highlight of the automotive industry in Xi'an. Among the total vehicles produced in Xi'an, the number of new energy vehicles reached 1.0152 million, a year-on-year increase of 277.7%, accounting for 80.8% of the total vehicle production in Xi'an, 99.5% of the total new energy vehicle production in Shaanxi Province, and 14.38% of China. Xi'an has become an important production base for new energy vehicles in China. By 2026, Xi'an will focus on building itself into an important automotive industry base in China and a first-class new energy vehicle industry base in China.

Drawing on the experience of a strong province in the automotive industry

Compared with some strong provinces in the domestic automotive industry, the low local matching rate and small scale of component enterprises in Shaanxi's automotive industry still constrain the development of automotive enterprises. Increasing the connection between automotive component enterprises and vehicle enterprises, continuously consolidating the industrial chain, continuously improving local matching rates, and drawing on the successful experience of advanced provinces will become the key to Shaanxi's automotive industry in the future.

Senior Chief Expert of China Automotive Technology Research Center Co., Ltd Huang Yonghe, Deputy Director of the Organization Office, said at the 6th the Belt and Road Automotive Industry Cooperation Conference: "Governments at all levels actively promote the system of industrial chain leader, set up promotion groups, promote the characteristic clusters of the automotive industry chain, coordinate and cooperate with each other through government policy guidance and market development, and the pattern of local automotive industry cluster development will be gradually clear, and the combination of policy and market will be more suitable for high-quality development of the automotive industry." In the future, To build an independent, controllable, safe and efficient supply chain, it is necessary to combine guidance from government management departments at all levels and market leadership to promote the creation of high-quality automotive industry clusters.

It is worth noting that in building the automotive industry chain, local government management departments present different characteristics. Jilin, a strong province in the automotive industry, mainly focuses on policy guidance and promotion, focusing on the advantages of FAW Group's entire vehicle industry. It has established a relatively complete industrial chain ecosystem, formed a relatively sound automotive industry chain, and achieved a large-scale cluster of complete vehicle and component industries, However, there is a market lag in the field of new energy and intelligent networking core devices. Driven by market dominance and taking the opportunity to undertake the migration of non core component industries in Shanghai, Zhejiang Province has formed a strong industrial foundation with a wide coverage of the industrial chain, and has cultivated a group of high-quality leading enterprises. In the field of forward-looking technology such as artificial intelligence and intelligent networking, Zhejiang Province has a nationally leading layout. In addition, Guangdong Province is compatible with both, combining policies and markets, especially in the Pearl River Delta region. Due to the relatively developed economy and strong foundation of the automotive industry, traditional and new vehicle manufacturers including GAC, GAC Honda, GAC Toyota, BYD, and Xiaopeng have gathered together.

In addition to its own economic advantages, policy openness, especially in terms of flexible innovation mechanisms, has created a very good environment for cultivating the development of the local automotive industry. Currently, through the joint venture and independent parallel development of the automotive industry cluster, a high-quality development situation of highly integrated policies and markets has been achieved, "said Huang Yonghe.

The automotive industry, as an important force in the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, and a typical representative of advanced manufacturing industry, is one of the pillar industries that Shaanxi has been striving to build in recent years as a top priority. Zhang Zongke, Director of the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, said that BYD is currently accelerating the construction of the largest new energy full industry chain base in China. Geely Volvo's technology platforms, Super Hybrid Star Yue L and Boyue L, have also been fully introduced, and Mercedes Benz Smart electric vehicles have formed mass production. Shaanxi Automobile's electric heavy truck and hydrogen energy heavy truck technologies are leading the industry, and the exploration of industrial business models has entered the forefront of the industry. In the future, Shaanxi will rely on a group of key component enterprises such as Samsung Battery, Zhongdi Battery, Fast Transmission, and Hande Axle to gather and develop. It will expand the entire vehicle, strengthen supporting facilities, provide excellent services, break through key points, and fully promote the automotive industry to a new level.

The five Central Asian countries are the first countries to publicly support the the Belt and Road Initiative, and are also pioneers in jointly building the Belt and Road cooperation. In the past 10 years, the five Central Asian countries have actively participated in the construction of the the Belt and Road, and have significantly strengthened their policy communication, facility connectivity, smooth trade, financial integration, and people to people connectivity with China. The high-quality joint construction of the the Belt and Road has yielded fruitful results in Central Asia. Shaanxi, as the frontier of China's opening up to the west, seizes the opportunity, plays an important role as a node of the the Belt and Road, builds a platform, unblocks the channel, amplifies the regional advantages, and closely exchanges and cooperation with the five Central Asian countries. In the past two years, Shaanxi and the five Central Asian countries have shown a rapid growth trend in foreign trade imports and exports, with an average annual growth rate of 31.1%.

Central Asia is a traditional advantageous market for Shaanxi Automobile. In 2010, Shaanxi Automobile entered the Tajikistan market. At that time, the market share of Shaanxi Automobile products in Tajikistan's imported heavy trucks was only 20%. Now, this proportion has increased to 80%. Shaanxi Automobile has basically established a marketing network covering its main sales areas and operating efficiently in the Central Asian region. The five Central Asian countries have become important partners for Shaanxi's foreign investment and cooperation. Sun Dongbo, the regional general manager of Shaanxi Automobile in Tajikistan's marketing area, said, "Currently, Shaanxi Automobile Heavy Truck holds a dominant position in the Tajikistan market." Taking advantage of the East Wind of the China China Asia Summit held in Xi'an, Shaanxi. Shaanxi will, as always, firmly grasp the opportunities of the times, work together with Central Asian countries, continue to deepen economic and trade cooperation, and expand high-quality development space. (Reprinted please indicate www.seetao. com) Editor of the engineering column of seetao. com/He Yuting