This year also marks the 25th anniversary of Continental Group's entry into the China market. Looking back over the past 25 years, the mainland's total investment in China exceeded 25 billion yuan. At present, how has the strategic deployment of this century-old German supplier changed in China? What are the layouts for the current market? We found the answer at the media online communication meeting held by Continental Group on June 30th.
■202 1 China auto market will recover, and important projects will not slow down.
"Affected by the epidemic, it is expected that the global light vehicle production will drop sharply in 2020. Compared with 20 19, the global output will decrease by 24%, in Central and North America by 32% and in Europe by 24%, but the forecast for the China market is only 15%. " Tang En, president of Continental China, made such a prediction on the global and China market trends this year.
"Considering the positive factors such as China government's stimulus policy, falling oil prices, and uncertain negative factors such as epidemic situation, we predict that China's automobile market will grow moderately and slightly in the medium and long term. At the same time, China's auto market sales will account for 25%-30% of the world. " Tony said.
Because of this, Dunn said that Continental's investment commitment in the China market remains unchanged. Just the day before yesterday, Continental held a groundbreaking ceremony for the new factory of electronic air suspension system in Changshu, which is expected to be put into production in the second quarter of 2002/KLOC-0. Today, Continental has grown to 28 production bases and 65,438+08 R&D centers in China, with about 24,000 employees.
"Because we took appropriate epidemic prevention measures, there were no cases of infection among employees in China during the epidemic. At present, Continental's factory in China is basically operating at full capacity, and about 90% of our suppliers in China and around the world have resumed production. " Tony said.
As we all know, in times of crisis, ensuring sufficient cash flow is the key to whether an enterprise can go on. At the financial report meeting in the first quarter, Continental Airlines said that it was cutting costs, optimizing working capital and delaying projects and investments that were not urgently needed. Compared with last year, the investment of Continental Airlines will be reduced by at least 20% this fiscal year. In addition, Continental has also recently sent out relevant "salary reduction" information, but it is not passive, but active. The executive board of directors of the company decided to voluntarily give up 65,438+00% of the income from April to July.
In fact, in 20 19, Continental discussed the restructuring plan of "changing 20 19-2029", and planned to reduce the total cost by about 500 million euros (about 3.9 billion yuan) every year from 2023. However, Continental also made it clear that "for important development projects, the company will continue to go all out." This also means that although Continental has taken measures to cut expenditure, its investment and development in future important projects will not slow down. These important development projects are also obvious, and the sword refers to new electrification, autonomous driving, intelligent network connection and other businesses.
■ Traditional engine development will be suspended and electrification business will be listed independently.
Continental's declaration of transformation may not be new to the industry. After all, in the past two years, multinational parts giants have made frequent moves on the road of transformation. No matter Bosch, ZF, Delphi, Faurecia, Magna, etc. They are all restructuring their business non-stop. Only in the past year, the industry reform of Continental Group has become more vigorous.
20 19 In the second quarter, Continental announced that four production bases around the world had stopped production or closed their factories, most of which stopped producing and developing gasoline and diesel engines, affecting about 3,450 jobs. At the same time, Continental said it would stop developing gasoline engines and diesel engines by 2030.
As part of the group reorganization, Continental announced on 20 19 that it would separate the powertrain business and set up Vitesco? Technologies "(this year's Chinese name is" Weipai Technology "). However, the sudden epidemic disrupted the listing plan of Weipai Technology, and Continental Group temporarily pushed the IPO time to early next year.
"Although it is an' emerging' enterprise, Weipai Technology actually has a technical reserve of 10 years. The accumulated investment in electrification reached 5.3 billion euros (about 42 billion yuan). " Gu Ruihua, President of Weipai Technology in China, said, "In the China market, Weipai Technology will establish a brand-new R&D center in Tianjin, which is expected to be completed in 20021year. Two-thirds of our products come from electrification, and it will become a research and development base for hybrid and electrified powertrain technology. "
It is worth mentioning that the third generation electric drive system was put into production in Tianjin factory on 20 19 and 10. Developed by China team, the system integrates motor, electric control and reducer, with more compact structure and lower cost. It is reported that the third generation electric drive system has been first applied to Peugeot e-208 and Opel Corsa-e, and the power system is also used in Beijing Hyundai Onsino pure electric vehicle and Fista pure electric vehicle.
"Design of Tianjin R&D Center of Weipai Technology"
■ It takes 10 years to realize fully automatic driving, and it is necessary to adhere to the overall layout.
Compared with the rapid development of electrification, self-driving cars tend to develop more calmly after entering 2020. Automobile manufacturers and parts suppliers are "turning around", relying on the sale of new cars and software and hardware products equipped with advanced driver assistance systems to bring considerable income.
Huo Bin, vice president of Continental Automotive Autopilot and Safety Group and general manager of China District, believes that autonomous driving is a complex system engineering, with high research and development costs and high requirements for hardware and software, especially limited by imperfect laws and regulations. In the next 5- 10 years, the industry will promote the popularization of L2 driver assistance system (ADAS).
In the advanced driver assistance system, Continental's "strength" is first reflected in the perception layer, with cameras, radar systems, high-resolution laser imaging radar and other products. In the field of vehicle-borne millimeter-wave radar, Continental Group and parts giant Bosch are the top two in the industry. At the decision-making level, Continental has provided a high-performance computing unit, which is being applied to the vehicle application server of Volkswagen ID.3 (ICAS 1) based on MEB platform. It also supports the separation of software and hardware, and can realize the integration and update of application programs and third-party software. At the implementation level, the mainland also has product layout in longitudinal braking system and lateral steering system.
"Volkswagen ID.3"
"In the field of autonomous driving, our strategy is to walk on two legs. In addition to focusing on induction, decision-making and execution, we will also do forward-looking testing and development. For example, the self-driving cruise, self-parking service and self-driving car Rubik's Cube developed in China constitute Continental Group's' seamless driving' travel solution, and landed in the China market in 20 19. " Huo Bin said.
On the competitive landscape, Huo Bin pointed out, "In the field of autonomous driving, almost no traditional OEM automobile factory can complete all the technical research and development alone. Both OEM and component companies have their own longboards, which can gain a competitive advantage in a certain segment. Therefore, Continental Group actively explores ecological cooperation. "
"autonomous vehicle cube"
In fact, the formation of industrial technology alliances has become the mainstream trend for traditional OEMs to get tickets for autonomous driving. As early as 20 16, BMW took the lead in building an open platform for autonomous driving with Intel and Mobileye, and then introduced the alliance of suppliers such as mainland China, Delphi and Magna. In 20 18, Volkswagen and the mainland, NVIDIA, Bosch and Aquantia formed a self-driving car alliance network. It can be seen that traditional OEMs clearly realize that to realize the layout of autonomous driving, they must rely on external technical forces.
At present, mainland China has laid out many auxiliary driving functions in urban road driving. In the future, if laws and regulations allow and infrastructure keeps up, the application of V2X technology in urban roads can be gradually expanded to better help drivers drive in complex urban road environments. It is reported that Continental Airlines' hybrid 5G? V2X platform has taken the lead in global development projects, and it is planned to realize mass production in China in 20021year.
■ Conclusion:
Although the epidemic has had a certain impact on the whole industry in a short time, in the long run, the whole industry is returning to a healthy and sustainable development model, paving the way for the realization of electric and fully commercialized autonomous driving technology in the future. Continental's drastic reform plan may also provide a good reference for China parts manufacturers. In the direction of "the new four modernizations", should China spare parts enterprises be campers (to maintain immediate interests) or climbers (to seize the opportunity with a strong man's broken wrist)? It is worthy of further consideration by the whole industry. (Text/car home? Peng Fei)