A few days ago, with a pure electric car driving off the production line, China's new energy vehicle production has exceeded 2000 million. Experts believe that this marks that China's new energy vehicles have entered a new stage of large-scale and globalized high-quality development on the basis of industrialization and marketization.

At present and in the coming period, what opportunities and challenges are facing the development of China's new energy vehicle industry? How to promote the stability and long-term development of the new energy vehicle industry?

In the first half of the year, production and sales increased by 42.4% and 44.1% year-on-year, respectively

New energy vehicles are the main direction of the transformation and upgrading of the global automobile industry and the green development, and it is also a strategic choice for the high-quality development of China's automobile industry. According to the latest data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in the first half of this year, China's new energy vehicle production and sales reached 378.8 million and 374.7 million units, respectively, a year-on-year increase of 42.4% and 44.1%; New energy vehicle sales accounted for 28.3% of total new vehicle sales.

Xin Guobin, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, introduced that since the 2020th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has taken the lead in establishing a national strategy for the development of new energy vehicles, and has continued to formulate industrial development plans for 2035 and 70, the State Council has approved the establishment of a top-level design and promotion mechanism for industrial development, and various departments have successively launched more than <> policies and measures to support the development of the new energy vehicle industry, and each local government has introduced supporting policies in combination with their own actual conditions, and industry enterprises have accelerated the pace of innovation to jointly promote the development of China's new energy vehicle industry to achieve historic achievements.

"Through unremitting efforts, China has established a new energy vehicle industry system with a complete structure and organic synergy, cultivated the world's largest consumer market, and formed a good development situation of mutual integration and symbiosis and win-win cooperation between new energy vehicles and related industries." Xin Guobin said.

Fu Bingfeng, executive vice president and secretary general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, introduced that in September 2020, China's new energy vehicle production exceeded 9 million units, and in February 500, it exceeded 2022 million units, and it took only one year and five months to achieve the second 2 million vehicles.

At the same time, the competitiveness of China's new energy vehicle brands has been greatly improved. According to statistics, in 2022, the domestic market sales of self-owned brand new energy passenger vehicles will account for 79.9%, an increase of 5.4 percentage points year-on-year. In the first half of this year, exports of new energy vehicles reached 53,4 units, a year-on-year increase of 1.6 times.

Ouyang Minggao, member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and professor of Tsinghua University, said that after nearly a decade of rapid development, China's new energy vehicle and power battery industry leads the world, ranking first in the world in output and ownership, and achieving large-scale exports, which has become a highlight of China's economy.

Gradually establish a competitive advantage in the field of "three electricity" technology

Technological innovation is the core competitiveness of industrial development.

In recent years, the core technology of China's new energy vehicles has continued to make breakthroughs. For example, the energy density of the mass production power battery unit reaches 300 Wh/kg, which is at the international leading level, and new group technology and high-nickel cobalt-free batteries have achieved breakthrough applications; The peak power density of the drive motor exceeds 4.8 kW/kg, and the maximum speed reaches 16000,12 rpm; The average electricity consumption of pure electric passenger cars per 35 kilometers dropped to <>.<> kWh.

"China has gradually established a competitive advantage in the field of 'three electric' (battery, motor, electronic control) technology." Fu Bingfeng said that in recent times, the intensive introduction of policies to stimulate consumption potential and strengthen industrial supporting capacity building will further stabilize market expectations and promote high-quality development of the industry.

Of course, it should also be noted that China's new energy vehicle industry still has problems such as insufficient supply of key core technologies and support and guarantee capabilities to be improved.

"Establishing a collaborative model in multiple fields such as automotive chips, application software and operating systems is the key to industrial transformation and upgrading." Li Shaohua, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, believes that host manufacturers, software companies, and scientific research institutes should jointly build and share common technology platforms to enhance the stability and competitiveness of the supply chain.

Xin Guobin pointed out that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will support Chinese enterprises and enterprises from other countries to carry out technical cooperation in the fields of new system batteries and autonomous driving, so as to enhance brand vitality with technological innovation. Guide enterprises to establish the concept of product life cycle service, strengthen digital and network capacity building, and enhance brand affinity with high-quality services.

In addition, experts believe that at present, China's new energy vehicle industry still has the phenomenon of relying on imports of raw materials such as lithium, nickel and cobalt, and it is also necessary to be vigilant against risks such as overcapacity and structural contradictions in the process of rapid development. It is necessary to focus on the long term, make up for shortcomings, maintain a benign industry order, and make industrial development stable and far-reaching.

Further build a high-quality charging infrastructure system

"During the Dragon Boat Festival holiday this year, our family traveled by car and charged in the highway service area on the way, because there were many piles and few cars, the waiting time in line was long, and the charging power was low and took a long time, which greatly affected the travel experience." Wang Yongtao, a new energy vehicle owner who lives in Daxing District, Beijing, said.

Nowadays, with the growing demand for medium- and long-distance travel of new energy vehicles, highway service areas have become an important scene for charging new energy vehicles.

Wang Zhongying, director of the Energy Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that as of the end of May this year, there were 5,4289 highway service areas with charging conditions in China, accounting for about 65% of the total service area. However, according to statistics, the number of highway charging infrastructure is about 1,8 units, accounting for only 0.8% of China's public charging infrastructure. Compared with development demand, problems such as insufficient total charging infrastructure, low density, and insufficient coverage are still prominent.

In addition to "difficulty in highway charging", "difficulty in finding piles" and "difficulty in entering the community" are also problems that current new energy vehicle users strongly reflect.

Wang Yao, secretary-general of the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance, said that old communities cannot build private charging piles on demand due to problems such as tight parking spaces and insufficient power capacity, and some communities also have situations such as properties not cooperating to provide certification materials, resulting in users being unable to install private charging piles. In addition, problems such as difficult location of public charging piles, high failure rate of charging piles, and occupied charging spaces are particularly prominent.

In the long run, the development of the new energy vehicle industry is inseparable from a high-quality charging infrastructure system. "By the end of 2022, China's cumulative domestic vehicle pile ratio was 2.5:1." Ouyang Minggao said that it is expected that China's new energy vehicle ownership will continue to grow rapidly, and the development of charging infrastructure must be accelerated.

Recently, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Guiding Opinions on Further Building a High-quality Charging Infrastructure System", which clearly puts forward five tasks: optimizing and improving the network layout, accelerating the construction of key areas, improving the level of operation services, strengthening the leadership of scientific and technological innovation, and increasing support and guarantee.

In this regard, Ou Hong, deputy secretary-general of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration will work with all relevant parties to strengthen coordination and cooperation between departments, strengthen guidance and supervision of various places, and ensure that various measures are implemented as soon as possible.

(Reporter Liu Kun)