T10 (TOP10), the highest-level auto enterprise alliance organization in China, held the 2012 summit in Changbai Mountain this week. It is understood that this summit of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Minister Miao Wei and the helm of the major auto groups to discuss the "building a strong strategy for the development of the car", and for the first time clearly defined the future development of the automotive industry planning to the national strategic level.

The core of this strategic plan will be the development of self-owned brand cars. If this plan is to be landed in the future, it will be expected to form a substantial support for the development of self-owned brands and promote the development of Chinese auto brands from the national strategic level to the car companies.

The programmatic document for automobile power is released

The summit held in Changbai Mountain included Minister of MII Miao Wei, Executive Vice Chairman Dong Yang of China Automotive Industry Association, Xu Jianyi, Chairman of FAW Group, Chen Hong, President of SAIC Motor Corporation, Xu Ping, Chairman of Dongfeng Corporation, and Zou Wenchao, President of China Chang'an, Beijing Automotive Group Chairman Xu Heyi, Chery Chairman Yin Tongyue, Huachen Chairman Yu Yumin, Anhui Chairman An Jin, China National Heavy Duty Truck Chairman Ma Chunji and other industry helmsman are all present.

T10 is the “Electric Vehicle Industry Alliance” established by two of China's top 10 automotive groups two years ago. It has been promoting the development of domestic new energy vehicles. The T10 summit in 2012, for the first time, extended the main topics to the strategy of the entire automobile power country.

The summit discussed a "Strategic Strategy for Building a Powerful Automobile Country" (discussion draft). It is understood that the core content of this strategic plan is to stand at the national strategic height and build the overall framework of the strategy for building a powerful country in the automobile to ensure that the independent brands become stronger and bigger.

This is the first time the automotive industry development plan has risen to the national strategic level. In 2009, when the annual domestic automobile production and sales volume exceeded 10 million vehicles for the first time, the person in charge of the automobile industry department and the helm of the major groups also gathered in Changchun, proposing the “transition from a big automobile country to a powerful automobile country” and the Changbai Mountain Summit. The strategic plan for building a strong country in the automobile industry should be the first written programmatic document for automobile power projects.

At the summit, the head of each major car company stated that it was the first time to discuss the development plan of the automobile industry as a strategy, and it was significant at the national strategic level.

Stronger focus <br> <br> own brand cars FAW Group Chairman Xu Jian said at the meeting, "Building auto power development strategy of China's automobile industry will rise to the national strategic level, fit the needs of national economic development, in line with the development of China's automobile industry Actually, it is especially important for the development of autonomous car brands."

It is understood that this plan puts forward the overall framework, strategic objectives, key tasks, and policy measures for the development of a strategy for the development of automobile powers with clear goals, clear tasks, and strong forward-looking, scientific, pertinent, and guidance.

“The key to building a strong automobile country lies in strengthening independent innovation. The key lies in strengthening independent brands.” According to a report from China FAW's official website, Xu Jianyi proposed to further strengthen independent innovation, strengthen independent brand construction, and focus on solving key assemblies, core components, and upgrading automobiles. The level of development and application of electronics; and the construction of automobile power government should play a leading role.

Xu Jianyi believes that the strategy for the development of automobile powers will have a huge role in promoting the healthy and sustainable development of self-owned brands.

Miao Wei re-items the merger and reorganization

As the minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the automotive industry, Miao Miao also put forward specific 6-point suggestions on the strategy of building an auto power in this summit.

Miao Wei believes that under the premise of limited growth of new vehicles, it is necessary to increase the speed of retiring old scrapped cars and gain space for growth in production and sales; to use exports as a strategy; to seize the opportunities for new energy development in the country and to attach importance to new energy sources The key assembly and technology of the automobile; Grasping the opportunity for the country to develop energy-saving automobiles, accelerating the research and development speed of alternative fuel vehicles; Accelerating strategic mergers and reorganizations to become an auto enterprise group with international competitiveness; Encouraging and supporting the rapid development of local auto parts enterprises for autonomy The vehicle provides support to solve the bottleneck problem that restricts the development of the vehicle. We must also strengthen cooperation between the automotive industry and other companies.

Judging from the statement, these six measures are not new, but every point is the crux of the current development of the automotive industry. For car companies, they are all more real challenges.

The current brunt of domestic auto companies is the establishment of the “micro-growth” era and the enormous challenges it poses. At the recent Chengdu Global Automotive Forum (Weibo), the "micro-growth" that Dongfeng General Manager Zhu Fushou has thrown out has attracted widespread attention and resonance, indicating that the industry faces a common "post-golden age" challenge.

Zhu Fushou believes that the average growth rate of the market in the next decade will not exceed 10%. The biggest "change" in the current Chinese auto society is the transition from emerging markets to mature markets. The most significant feature of the industry is that the industry has entered the "micro-growth" era. The micro-market growth will have a profound impact on the industry.

In the era of “micro-growth”, the merger and reorganization of automobiles that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has focused on in recent years will also have a better climate. Recently, Dongfeng actively seeks to reorganize the blessing bus, which is expected to set off a new wave of industry restructuring. On the policy front, the government work report of the “two sessions” this year has clearly stated that “the promotion of mergers and reorganization of enterprises focused on the automobile, steel, shipbuilding, cement, and other industries, increase industrial concentration and economies of scale”, ranking the automotive industry The first major industry.

The integration of domestic auto industry resources through mergers and acquisitions will be a gateway to realizing a strong automobile country. M & A is actually the integration of independent brands. As a result of SAIC's reorganization of NAC, Roewe and MG have developed two brands. GAC reorganized Changfeng and will retain “Cheetah” as the second independent brand; Chang’an will be responsible for Hafei and Changhe. In the restructuring, the most important challenge is to integrate micro-resources; there is also a newly-recognized Dongfeng restructuring of Fuqi, which will also focus on integrating its own brand resources.

The expansion of the international market is a major strategy currently being pursued by the automotive conglomerate. In the case of a slowdown in the growth of the domestic market, the vigorous development of the international market will be able to better support the self-owned brand car companies to go through the winter.

Two years ago, the country had implemented a car export strategy, promoted car manufacturers to build factories overseas, and gradually completed the transition from "guerrilla warfare" to "position warfare." Wei Luxun, deputy director of the Department of Mechanical and Electrical Industry of the Ministry of Commerce, said that at present, China’s automotive products have achieved internationalization, but the industry is not internationalized. So far, most of the Chinese auto companies’ export strategic planning is very lacking. It is necessary to "go out" and "go in."

The trend of car companies to jointly develop into a climate T10 is due to the development of new energy vehicles and formed a loose alliance of car companies. This alliance of major domestic auto groups now appears to be exerting greater energy on the industry.

Prior to this, T10 had successfully promoted changes in the strategic line of new energy vehicles, including the development of traditional internal combustion engine energy-saving technologies, hybrid power technologies, and the development of pure electric vehicles. It is believed that in the short term, hybrid power is a technology that could not be bypassed. T10 has released a technical guideline for new energy vehicles, which has played a role in pushing the country’s “energy-saving and new-energy automotive industry development plan” back to a rational technological route.

This time T10 has thrown out the development strategy of the automobile power country, and rises to the level of national strategy, it reflects the influence of the large automobile group alliance on the national automobile strategy.

In the post-joint venture era, alliances and alliances from domestic car companies are expected to become a major force in promoting the competitiveness of the entire industry, market, independent brands and enterprises.

Electric vehicle R & D combined first

In addition to the big groups that promote the development of the automotive industry to the national strategy in the way of alliances, at the micro level, the most important thing at present is the joint development of enterprises in key technologies. This has now become a climate, and will be a major positive energy for the development of self-owned brands.

Last year, T10 reached a consensus that backbone enterprises should strengthen cooperation in key components and parts, including the feasibility study of T10 companies in cooperating with key components and assemblies in non-competitive sectors; discussing the establishment of key components for electric vehicles and The assessment method for the comprehensive capabilities of component suppliers; the CAAC takes the lead, T10 companies provide relevant information, and establishes information sharing platforms for key components suppliers and products for new energy vehicles.

In March of this year, T10 proposed the alliance company's electric vehicle battery and motor cooperation model and cooperation proposal, and officially promoted the joint development of the core components of electric vehicles at the specific level.

Due to the huge investment in research and development of new energy vehicles, the practice of joint development of enterprises has also been adopted in the international community. Prior to this, there have been blind investment in new energy vehicles in China. Some national competent authorities have pointed out that each company is difficult to form a climate when it comes to the development of complex new energy vehicles. Only joint efforts can pool resources and jointly break key technologies.

"China-China Joint" or New Model

In the automotive industry, domestic car companies have a wide range of cooperation. However, large groups were busy with joint ventures with multinational giants. Chery, Geely, Great Wall and other car companies have independently developed their own brands. Therefore, they have been maintaining "Chinese and foreign" joint ventures and "China-China" difficult cooperation.

At the recent Chengdu Global Automobile Forum, Mao Hai, vice president of Beijing Automotive, proposed that Chinese auto companies should not look outwards completely, but should adopt an outward mentality to adopt a Sino-Chinese joint approach and choose the key to common needs. The joint development of technology and the sharing of development results will not only reduce costs, but also improve the team's ability.

Dong Yang, secretary general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, also believes that in the post-joint venture era, domestic companies should follow the example of international giants. For example, the self-owned brands jointly develop and apply one or two engines, develop one or two transmissions, reduce dispersion and duplication, and use partnerships. "Now the big international corporations are doing this, and there are many more alliances than Chinese companies. The cooperation between Toyota and BMW is particularly worthy of attention."

Nicholas Ghosn, CEO of Nissan-Reynolds Alliance, was the present at the Beijing Auto Show this year. He believes that if car manufacturers do not take the road to the alliance and go it alone, it is very difficult to survive, because car manufacturers have to do a lot of investment, have to produce and sell in various countries, and it is a different investment. With new technologies and the development of different models of products, for a car company, his power is always limited, especially if his own cash flow is not enough.

Domestic Alliance Thinking Awakening

This kind of alliance thinking is now awakening in domestic car companies.

Also at the recent Chengdu Global Automobile Forum, Yuan Zhongrong, executive deputy general manager of GAC Group, proposed that an industry is intensified in competition and should be adjusted strategically. Industrial development has entered a platform period. At this point, each company must redeploy resources for the next round of development. Based on the model of endogenous power development in the past, due to its high cost and long cycle, it cannot adapt to the ever-changing market environment under highly competitive conditions. Therefore, companies must look for new development models that are based on their own core competitiveness. Through restructuring, integration, and strategic alliances, they will complement each other's strengths, make up for their respective shortcomings, increase their competitiveness, and lay the foundation for a new round of development.

Yuan Zhongrong also gave four principles that must be followed for strategic cooperation: First, proceed from the strategic needs of the company itself. Second, adhering to the principle of complementary advantages. Third, pay attention to cultural integration in cooperative alliances. Fourth, we must implement standardized operations.

The maverick Geely boss Li Shufu also admitted that different companies and different stages of development are different. Whether different companies have synergistic effects or not can bring opportunities for both parties' development. They are the key points for cooperation or integration and must be analyzed according to actual conditions.

Rely on endogenous power to realize automobile power

The T10's strategy of developing a strong country in automobiles is expected to become a major positive energy for the development of self-owned brands, not only because it has raised the development plan for the automotive industry to the level of national strategy for the first time, but also because it has spontaneously From the alliance's point of view, relying on endogenous forces to promote the development of self-owned brand cars, and ultimately achieving the transition from a large automobile country to a powerful automobile country.

In the impression, the person in charge of the car company had previously proposed to upgrade the overseas strategy of China's autos into a national strategy and promote the orderly development of the overseas markets of Chinese auto brands.

However, this program is one-sided. Although the international market has a broad space for development, it can also ease the enormous survival and growth pressures faced by auto brands in China. However, fundamentally speaking, if self-owned brand cars cannot hold onto the local market and cannot make a difference on the largest domestic market in the world, then they will not be far behind in the international market.

Therefore, first of all, the automobile strategy should pay more attention to the technological innovation of self-owned brand cars and the ultimate growth of the brand in the domestic market. In fact, China’s automobile market is also the most international market. Almost all multinational giants form market forces in the Chinese market. This is the most realistic challenge and the best training for the growth of independent brands.

After many years of “market-for-technology” model, domestic car companies should also wake up from this dream and rely more on endogenous forces instead of external forces to achieve their own strength. From the general "Chinese-foreign cooperation" to more "China-China cooperation," and jointly promote the growth of Chinese auto brands. An independent car company and independent brand can survive, and the two cooperating companies and brands are entirely likely to survive better and grow faster. This is actually stronger than the "market for technology" hypothesis.

Finally, at the national policy level, it is also necessary to introduce systemic and substantive support measures for the future development of self-owned brand cars, and in particular to stimulate the endogenous power of car companies.