China's automobile core parts seek breakthrough

In recent years, due to the impact of many factors such as the rising price of auto parts and raw materials in China and rising labor costs, the cost of domestic auto parts manufacturing has been rising. As a result, international automakers have shifted their procurement centers from China to India to reduce the cost of parts procurement. Does a foreign car company increase its share of purchases of auto parts in India, does it mean that China will lose its position as a global auto parts procurement center in the next 10 years?

In response, industry insiders stated that the parts and components that international automobile and parts and components companies purchase in China are mainly labor-intensive, raw-material-intensive and energy-intensive products. In these areas, China’s advantages are more pronounced. The export will continue to maintain its strong competitiveness. In contrast, the lack of purchasing power in the Indian market is a small, inexpensive car similar to Alto in the streets of India. Most of these buyers do not participate in inspections for many years, and the demand for spare parts is huge. While bringing about a significant increase in the number of parts and components, the quality of auto parts products has been reduced.

Although there is still a gap between the research and development capabilities of domestic parts and components companies and foreign parts giants, the progress is obvious. Among them, the promotion of simultaneous development capabilities is a highlight of local component companies. Since the 1980s, although many joint venture brand cars have entered the country one after another, they still carry their own engines because this core technology belongs to the non-transfer category.

It is gratifying that these issues have gradually been resolved in the past two years. It is the brand's own brand engine of our own brand automobile manufacturer that has made this breakthrough. In detail, more than 50 domestic auto companies have their own research and development engine technology. It can be seen that the independent innovation of China's auto industry has been extended to key components such as engines. The gap between the recently put engine and foreign advanced level is continuously narrowing.

Chery launched the "Chery Power" strategy in 2001 and released China's first high-performance engine brand "ACTECO" on October 31, 2005. SAIC's engine research and development is equally impressive. Since the prototype of the first Roewe KV6 engine went offline, SAIC Motor's engine production line in Baoshan has gradually increased its capacity to produce 80,000 sets of engines each year. The advancement of the engine has made the products of self-owned brand auto manufacturers more competitive. While satisfying the domestic market, the export will be a matter of course. The acceptance of the self-owned brand engine by foreign manufacturers also signifies that the core technology level of the Chinese auto industry has begun to align with the world.

The engine is one of the vehicles for various technologies of the automobile. Its export itself means that China's auto parts industry has reached a considerable level. We can make extra profits on the parts of world-famous parts and components suppliers. It is also a big breakthrough for the Chinese auto parts industry, which has been condemned to have low grades of export products and low added value. It can be seen that the self-owned brand engine can land overseas first, and it can be said that it has assumed the responsibility for the export of auto parts in China.

Although local parts manufacturers have made progress, some of the key components of the chassis, engine, and transmission are still dependent on imports, such as the fuel injection system in the engine. The reasons for this gap include, first, the lack of relevant technical personnel, and the second is the lack of experimental data. To enhance the R&D and manufacturing capabilities of parts and components, in addition to insisting on the introduction of relevant technical talents, it is also necessary to rely on government forces. Relevant government agencies should vigorously promote the independent enterprise technology alliance as soon as possible, which will be very helpful for the rapid and effective accumulation of experimental data.