With the automobile market converging on leading companies, new car-making forces rising, the cold winter in the automobile market continuing, and foreign capital beginning to establish wholly-owned enterprises in China, China's automobile industry has entered a new era. The original policies Regulations can no longer adapt to new market developments. Starting from 2018, the automobile industry policy has entered a period of rapid adjustment, and every change in the policy has attracted close attention from industry insiders.
As major car companies resume work in 2020, the automobile industry has ushered in policy changes: the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has issued the "Decision to Amend the Management Regulations on New Energy Vehicle Manufacturing Enterprises and Product Access" (Draft for Comments) )" (hereinafter referred to as the "Revised Draft"), and publicly solicit comments.
Figure 1? The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Decision to Revise the Regulations on the Access Management of New Energy Vehicle Manufacturers and Products (Draft for Comments)"
What has been modified in the revised draft?
The most obvious change in the revision of the "Administrative Regulations on the Access of New Energy Vehicle Manufacturing Enterprises and Products" is to combine Article 3 of Paragraph 5 of the original document with Annex 1 "Admission of New Energy Vehicle Manufacturing Enterprises" In the first item of "Review Requirements", "design and development capabilities" were changed to "technical support capabilities." Correspondingly, the requirements for design and development capabilities in Articles 29, 30, and 31 have also been deleted.
The meaning of the modification is very obvious. New energy vehicle manufacturers do not need to have design and development capabilities, but instead emphasize technical support capabilities and the quality and testing capabilities of production products. In other words, the "New Energy Vehicle Manufacturing Enterprises and Product Access Management Regulations" have begun to live up to their name, focusing only on production and not on design and development.
This is a typical requirement for pure manufacturing companies, or foundries. It is also aimed at the separation of design and manufacturing in the context of the restructuring of domestic automobile production capacity, the rise of new car-making forces, and the entry of foreign brands into China. adjustments to the situation.
It is worth noting that the spirit of this policy actually conflicts with the new version of the "Automotive Industry Investment Management Regulations".
In the new version of the "Automotive Industry Investment Management Regulations", there are the following provisions for pure electric vehicle investment projects.
Figure 2? The requirements of the "Automotive Industry Investment Management Regulations" for new pure electric projects
In the "Automotive Industry Investment Management Regulations", the company's R&D team and R&D strength are still emphasized. In the "Revised Draft", the requirement for corporate R&D capabilities is completely abandoned. This shows that there have been certain adjustments and changes in policy formulation over the past year.
Not only OEM, the "Revised Draft" plays a positive role in the industry
This is an important policy signal, which means that the design, development and production of automobiles can be separated. The new energy automobile industry in the future may be like today's mobile phone industry, with brands and manufacturers generally separated, and the automobile industry pattern will undergo tremendous changes.
Therefore, many people believe that the "Revised Draft" is likely to be the outpost of the automobile OEM system. Previously, in the "Administrative Measures for Road Motor Vehicle Manufacturing Enterprises and Product Access", the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recognized the legal status of "automotive OEM", so the new "Revised Draft" is to review the automobile OEM system from the perspective of new enterprises. Complete.
Figure 3? "Administrative Measures for Road Motor Vehicle Manufacturers and Product Access"
In this context, this "Revised Draft" plays multiple roles and affects the manufacturing industry. Different industry participants such as new automotive forces, foreign brands, and enterprises with backward production capacity have had different impacts.
Lucky stars for the new car-making forces
The first congratulations are to the new car-making forces and the high-tech companies that want to enter the automotive industry.
In recent years, a large number of employees from technology companies have entered the automobile industry, becoming the so-called "new force in car manufacturing" and introducing a large number of industrial thinking from technology companies. "Automotive OEM" is one of them. kind. It is difficult for many new car-making forces to obtain production qualifications. At the same time, the automobile manufacturing industry is an asset-heavy industry. It requires a large amount of resources to build factories and production lines. Using the OEM method can not only bypass the production qualification restrictions, but also avoid heavy assets. The burden is very attractive to new car-making forces with limited funds.
On the other hand, with the development of the automobile industry, platformization and modularization have become the trends in the automobile industry, and the soil for large-scale OEM in the automobile industry has begun to take shape.
In the future, new car-making forces may play the role of brand owners, and manufacturing and even R&D design may be outsourced.
The issuance of the "Revised Draft" means the recognition of the legal identity of pure automobile manufacturing companies. Another implication is the recognition of the legal identity of pure solution designers and brands. Huawei, Tencent, Alibaba, and Baidu can openly join the ranks of "new car-making forces" and launch their own brand cars without having to invest heavily in building factories and production lines. This will greatly benefit the inflow of social capital and other fields. Enterprises cross-border into the automotive field.
Figure 4? Smile Curve
The reminder of backward production capacity
So, who will assume the role of this foundry?
At present, the first choice is traditional car companies whose production capacity utilization rate is too low or even on the verge of bankruptcy.
But this creates a contradiction: According to the spirit of the "Automobile Industry Investment Management Regulations", backward automobile production capacity must be eliminated and production capacity should be concentrated in advantageous areas. These automobile companies with too low capacity utilization rates will be eliminated to a certain extent. "Backward production capacity".
On the other hand, the reason for low capacity utilization is naturally poor market performance. In China, a large part of the reason for poor market performance is poor product quality and poor production management. Why would a new car-making force choose a company with poor production management and backward production equipment to serve as a foundry to produce its own products?
Enterprises that can enter the OEM system must have advanced equipment, production, and management. Instead of spending a lot of effort to transform an old enterprise, it may be better to establish a new enterprise that meets market requirements. Therefore, the "New Energy Vehicle Manufacturing Enterprises and Product Access Management Regulations" and the foundry system behind it are definitely not a life-saving straw for backward production capacity that will be eliminated, but a life-saving talisman! The established route for clearing production capacity will not change. Instead, new companies will be used to speed up the replacement of production capacity.
The "birth certificate" of wholly foreign-owned brands
In addition to the new car-making forces, there is another profiteer, and that is the foreign-owned brands.
For a long time, the domestic automobile industry’s policy of “market exchange for technology” has been criticized. The market was taken away, but the technology was not exchanged. The story that "Chinese engineers cannot change a screw without the permission of German engineers" has also been widely circulated and made a joke. Hidden behind the story is that foreign manufacturers are not willing to transfer technology to China easily. After all, who would want to add another competitor to the already crowded market? There are not that many Soviet big brothers in the world who can provide their country's entire industrial system with unreserved assistance to other countries.
Faced with Chinese partners who are hungry for technology, it is difficult for foreign brands not to have a few more concerns. With the further opening up of the domestic automobile industry, the shareholding restriction policy is gradually lifted according to the schedule. Foreign car companies are facing new problems: After the shareholding restriction is completely lifted, how deep should they invest in the Chinese market? According to the original regulations, the establishment of a new wholly-owned enterprise requires a supporting R&D team. Will this increase the risk of leakage of various technical secrets?
At present, there are already wholly foreign-owned automobile companies in China: Tesla is the first wholly foreign-owned new energy vehicle company, and Sichuan Hyundai is the first wholly foreign-owned commercial vehicle company. Whether or not to follow up has become a headache for other foreign manufacturers.
The revised draft of the "New Energy Vehicle Manufacturing Enterprises and Product Access Management Regulations" solves this problem. Foreign-funded manufacturers only need to establish domestic manufacturing plants without supporting technology development teams. This protects the intellectual property interests of foreign-funded manufacturers to the greatest extent. It can be said that this is the “birth certificate” for wholly foreign-owned new energy vehicle brands.
We do not rule out that this revised draft solicited opinions from foreign parties, and it is even possible that foreign parties promoted the introduction of this revised draft, but this does not prevent this revised draft from being more beneficial to China's new energy automobile industry.
The further development of China's new energy vehicle market requires the assistance of foreign brand products. At present, the domestic new energy vehicle market is mainly dominated by the operating market. More than 80% of new energy vehicles are used for operational purposes, and the private car market accounts for a small proportion. The large-scale entry of foreign brands into the domestic market is conducive to using the brand effect of foreign brands to open up the private new energy vehicle market.
Chinese new energy vehicle companies are not afraid of foreign brands. Ever since Boatman "built Tesla in minutes", Chinese new energy vehicle companies have been full of confidence. China's new energy vehicle market accounts for 50% of the global market, and China's new energy independent brands account for more than 80% of the domestic market share. This is the confidence that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology dares to relax policy restrictions.
In short, the release of the "Revised Draft" will vigorously promote the development and prosperity of pure manufacturing companies, help promote the rational reorganization of production capacity, promote the development of automobiles towards modular design and manufacturing, and accelerate the further refinement of industrial division of labor. ization, which is conducive to the integration of the automobile industry and other industries.
This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.