Dialogue with China Automobile Association: Interpretation of hot spots and pain points related to chip shortages and data security

The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (hereinafter referred to as CAAM), which has moved to its new office address, welcomed its first group of guests: more than 40 automotive media professionals from mainstream media in the market. Led by Fu Bingfeng, Executive Vice President and Secretary General of CAAM, experts from various fields of CAAM had a conversation with the media for more than three hours.

As a bridge and link between the government and enterprises, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers has been committed to creating a favorable environment for the development of the automobile industry.

Taking the shortage of automotive chips as an example, first, we went to the Semiconductor Association, domestic and foreign chip and automobile companies to investigate the automotive semiconductor industry chain. Second, we established a regular reporting mechanism for chip problems, and cooperated with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission and other competent departments to promptly understand the chip shortage situation of enterprises. Third, we spoke out in the media and industry conferences to correctly guide public opinion.

Topics discussed in this summer salon also include the "dual carbon" goals, information security of smart connected vehicles, accident liability assessment of smart electric vehicles, the impact of the dual-point policy, the scrapping of new energy vehicle batteries, the impact of a new round of cross-border car manufacturing on the industry, special events for brand upgrading, and a preview of the China Automotive Forum.

The upward trend of Chinese brands is unstoppable. From January to April this year, the sales volume of Chinese brand passenger cars reached 2.828 million units, a year-on-year increase of 66.9%, and the market share reached 41.6%, an increase of 3.4 percentage points, with a significant increase in market share.

New energy vehicles and automobile exports also performed well. In the first four months of this year, the production and sales of new energy vehicles reached 750,000 and 732,000 respectively, up 2.6 times and 2.5 times year-on-year respectively. The production and sales in April set a new monthly record. The cumulative automobile exports exceeded 514,000, setting a new historical high.

According to the plan of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the media salon will be held every quarter in the future to regularly communicate current hot topics, respond to industry concerns, create a good public opinion environment for the upward development of Chinese auto brands, and promote the high-quality development of the auto industry.　　　　    

The topics of this exchange involved chip shortages, "dual carbon" goals, data security, dual-point policy, battery scrapping, a new round of cross-border car manufacturing, brand upgrading and the China Automotive Forum preview. The two sides had in-depth communication on the current pain points, hot spots and key points of the automotive industry.

Domestic auto sales rebounded steadily

"my country's auto market continues to show a stable and positive development trend." Xu Haidong, deputy chief engineer of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, analyzed that due to the gradual recovery of automobile production and sales in April 2020, the high growth impact brought by the low base has been significantly weakened. For this reason, Xu Haidong chose to compare with the production and sales data in 2019. From this perspective, sales from January to April this year increased by 4.5% compared with 2019, and the entire auto market is still in a gratifying recovery period.

In terms of passenger car data, the growth rate in April reached 10.8%. From January to April, the sales volume of passenger cars increased by 22.4%. Even more exciting is the performance of Chinese brands in the first few months of this year. In April, the sales volume accounted for 42.2%, and the sales volume accounted for the first four months increased from 38.2% to 41.6%.

At the same time, commercial vehicle sales were also encouraging. Sales of commercial vehicles from January to April increased by nearly 30% compared to 2019, with trucks performing particularly well, accounting for more than 90% of commercial vehicle sales.

In addition, the new energy market, which the industry has high expectations for, also performed well, with a monthly growth of 18%. Among them, the sales in March and April this year have exceeded the data in November last year. "Many people in the industry believe that it should be no problem to exceed 2 million units this year." Xu Haidong told reporters that with the increase in sales of new energy vehicles, the installed capacity of power batteries is also increasing. It is a bit regrettable that although the sales of new energy vehicles in 2020 increased by more than 100,000 units compared with 2019, the installed capacity of power batteries has only increased by more than 1GWh. The reason is that although the sales of models such as Wuling MINIEV are growing rapidly, the power battery capacity of a single vehicle is very small.

Xu Haidong believes that the total sales data of my country's auto market in the first four months exceeded expectations. The forecast for China's total auto sales data in 2021 may be adjusted upward from the previous expected growth of 6.5%, and the forecast results will be announced in the mid-year report.

Multiple measures to promote the upward development of the industry

As a bridge and link between the government and enterprises, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers has been committed to creating an environment conducive to the development of the automobile industry and working hard for the development of the automobile industry.

Since the shortage of automotive chips occurred, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers has visited the Semiconductor Association, domestic and foreign chip and automobile companies, etc. to conduct in-depth research on the automotive semiconductor industry chain; established a regular reporting mechanism for chip problems, and cooperated with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission and other competent departments to promptly understand the chip shortage situation of enterprises; spoke out in the media and industry conferences to correctly guide public opinion; compiled and released 6 consecutive automotive semiconductor situation briefings to help companies objectively understand the industry situation and carry out short-term and long-term development and policy research on automotive chips.

The association has also done a lot of work on the issue of information security of intelligent connected vehicles, which has received widespread attention recently. Regarding how to manage data, whether data is transmitted overseas, and how to establish a secure data exchange system, the association has put forward a lot of useful suggestions at the level of laws, regulations and systems, and put forward suggestions and specific adjustment suggestions on the "Draft Guidelines for the Management of Access of Intelligent Connected Vehicle Manufacturers and Products" to promote the improvement of relevant laws and regulations as soon as possible.

In order to help the country achieve the goal of "carbon peak and carbon neutrality", the China Automobile Association is also actively conducting relevant research on carbon emissions in the automotive industry's manufacturing and product fields, and cooperating with government departments to do a good job in carbon quota trading, carbon tax and vehicle low-carbon technology. And actively promote the implementation of relevant policies and regulations. For example, on March 19, the China Automobile Association organized C8 to hold a heavy-duty vehicle National VI switch preparation exchange meeting to steadily promote the full implementation of heavy-duty diesel vehicles.

Focus on the pain points and hot spots of the automotive industry

Regarding the hotly debated issue of battery swapping in the industry in the past two years, Shi Jianhua, deputy secretary general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said in an interview with reporters that my country's new energy vehicle industry plan clearly states that it is necessary to actively promote intelligent and orderly slow charging services in residential areas, increase the construction of expressways and urban and rural public charging networks dominated by fast charging, and encourage the application of battery swapping. Battery swapping may be a supplement to the charging of new energy vehicles in the future.

"At present, the battery swap model is only one direction, especially for operating vehicles, such as taxis, the last mile in the city, logistics vehicles and environmentally friendly vehicles. This promotion may be better." Xu Haidong believes that for private cars, it depends on the choice of consumers. Judging from the current development of new energy vehicles, battery swap is more of a commercial direction.

Talking about the "dual carbon" goal, Fu Bingfeng said that the carbon peak process in the automotive industry is very complicated, and the current boundaries and prerequisites of the carbon peak are still vague. It is incomplete, unsafe and unsystematic to express your views too hastily. The carbon peak has raised new issues for the automotive industry. The power and pressure coexist. It will not only drive scientific and technological progress and promote innovation, but the pressure is also obvious. He also called on all sectors to leave some space for the automotive industry to achieve the carbon peak goal, so that the automobile industry, a pillar industry of the national economy, can play a stable social and economic benefit. Acting too hastily can easily bring twists and turns to the normal operation of the industry.