This year, new productive forces were included for the first time in the Government Work Report. In this report, the first task of the government's work in 2024 is to vigorously promote the construction of a modern industrial system and accelerate the development of new productive forces.

　　Looking at the present, new quality productivity has become a hot topic that various industries are paying attention to.

　　The automotive industry plays a crucial role

　　What is new quality productivity?

　　The central government has provided a relatively clear definition. New productive forces play a leading role in innovation, breaking away from traditional economic growth methods and development paths of productive forces. They possess advanced productive forces with characteristics of high technology, high efficiency, and high quality, and are in line with the new development concept.

　　Specifically, it has emerged from revolutionary breakthroughs in technology, innovative allocation of production factors, and deep industrial transformation and upgrading. Its basic connotation is the leap of workers, means of labor, labor objects, and their optimized combinations, with a significant increase in total factor productivity as the core symbol. Its characteristic is innovation, the key is quality, and its essence is advanced productivity.

　　Recently, various industries have been discussing new quality productivity, and the automotive industry is no exception. In fact, in the process of developing new quality productive forces, the automotive industry is destined to play an important role.

　　This year's government work report has repeatedly mentioned automobiles, which also indicates that the automotive industry plays a crucial role in accelerating the development of new quality productivity and achieving high-quality development.

　　At the recently held China Electric Vehicle Hundred People Conference (2024) International Forum, multiple guests discussed new quality productivity and unanimously agreed that intelligent connected new energy vehicles are expected to become a key driving force for the development of new quality productivity.

　　"Intelligent connected new energy vehicles are the best representative of contemporary new quality productivity," said Wu Yanyan, Vice President of BMW Group. Currently, intelligent connected new energy vehicles, representing innovation driven and industrial integration such as electrification, intelligence, and networking, have become an important lever for the development of new quality productivity in the automotive industry and promoting the transformation and upgrading of the automotive industry.

　　Li Shufu, Chairman of Geely Holding Group, once mentioned during the Two Sessions that automobiles are carriers of high-tech applications, and there is innovation space in every component and every link of the upstream and downstream industrial chain. In the process of transforming the automotive industry from traditional cars to intelligent electric vehicles, there is a lot of room for innovation and development.

　　An Conghui, President of Geely Holding Group and CEO of Jike Intelligent Technology, also pointed out at the forum of the Hundred People Conference that intelligent connected new energy vehicles represent more advanced new quality productivity, and their relationship with traditional fuel vehicles is not a simple replacement, but a comprehensive evolution. "For example, electric cars may appear to have thousands of fewer parts than traditional gasoline cars, but in fact, they have at least one billion lines of code and contain infinite and diverse demand scenarios waiting for us to explore."

　　Xiaopeng Motors Chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng stated that this year, we strongly feel that everyone is talking about developing new quality productivity according to local conditions. "New quality productivity has three characteristics: first, high technology; second, high quality; and third, high efficiency. Fortunately, our new energy vehicle industry has all stepped on these three requirements, and tailored to local conditions can go global based on Chinese characteristics."

　　Changan Automobile President Wang Jun believes that currently, the global new energy vehicle industry is advancing rapidly, accelerating development, and the achievements of industries such as new energy vehicles and power batteries are also rapidly popularizing. In this round of transformation and upgrading, China has explored a successful path for the development of the global new energy vehicle industry. It has not only cultivated the world's largest new energy vehicle consumption market, but also continuously cultivated new quality productivity through continuous technological innovation.

　　He also mentioned the need to accelerate the application and promotion of new quality productivity in the automotive industry, accelerate the process of globalization, and further reduce costs and improve efficiency through technological progress and industrial scale development.

　　There are many landing points, with a focus on greening and intelligence

　　As far as the automotive industry is concerned, this is also a key direction.

　　"We combine solar energy and methanol into electronic fuel, and combine pollutants in the air, carbon dioxide, wind energy, and solar energy into green methanol, turning it into energy and replacing crude oil." Recently, Li Shufu, Chairman of Geely Holding Group, stated in an interview with Securities Daily that this is a very typical project of new quality productivity.

　　It is also worth noting that on March 9th, Geely Holding Group signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Sinopec. According to the agreement, both parties will leverage their respective strengths to engage in strategic cooperation in areas such as green and low-carbon transformation, methanol industry, new energy, and new materials, jointly promoting the optimization and upgrading of industrial and supply chains, and promoting high-quality development for both sides. This is also a major manifestation of its development of new quality productive forces.

　　Undoubtedly, the new energy vehicle industry is an important strategic measure to promote green development.

　　As for how to accelerate the formation of new productive forces in this industry, industry insiders have stated that industrial enterprises need to integrate various transformative technologies, focus on filling gaps, elongating long plates, forging new plates, especially in battery technology, electric drive systems, charging infrastructure, etc., to achieve integrated innovation and improve vehicle endurance, charging efficiency, and user experience. At the same time, optimize the production process, reduce production costs, and improve the competitiveness and profitability of the industry.

　　GAC Motor has noticed that SAIC's subsidiary, Zhiji Automobile, recently announced that the upcoming Zhiji L6 will be the first in the industry to be equipped with the industry's first mass-produced ultra fast charging solid-state battery. According to official information, the Zhiji L6 will soon be equipped with a super 130kWh ultra fast charging solid-state battery. The positive electrode is coated with a patented nanoscale solid electrolyte coated with ultra-high nickel material, and the negative electrode is made of a new generation of high specific energy composite silicon carbon material. By using high-tech materials and processes, the energy density of batteries is significantly improved, endowing vehicles with ultra long endurance performance.

　　Zhiji Automobile stated that this battery is also the first mass-produced solid-state battery in the industry with ultra fast charging capacity. By adopting self-developed "high ion conductivity, high-temperature resistant solid electrolyte" and "dry method solid electrolyte layer integrated molding" technology, the overall internal resistance of the battery cell is significantly reduced, achieving ultra fast charging performance. High technology has also solved the problem of high expansion of silicon-based materials and ensured the stability, cycling performance, and safety performance of solid-state batteries.

　　In fact, in terms of battery, electric drive and other technologies, not only some old car companies or supply chain enterprises such as SAIC and BYD are constantly innovating, but even Xiaomi, a new entrant, is making great use of revolutionary technologies. It is understood that the upcoming Xiaomi SU7 will apply Xiaomi's self-developed and produced super motor HyperEngine V8s, self-developed CTB integrated battery technology, as well as new product technologies such as "9100 ton super large die-casting cluster" and die-casting alloy material "Xiaomi Titan alloy".

　　Moreover, the development of the new energy vehicle industry also requires a variety of revolutionary technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet, intelligent driving, big data, etc.

　　At the Hundred People Forum, regarding the development of new quality productivity, Changan Automobile President Wang Jun not only mentioned the need to strengthen battery technology research and accelerate the improvement of the layout of new energy vehicle energy supplement infrastructure, but also expressed the need to attach great importance to and increase investment in artificial intelligence, semiconductors, advanced communication, advanced materials, and other areas.

　　Zhou Hongyi, founder of 360 Group, also stated during the Two Sessions that the current trend of enterprises towards all in AI is an important manifestation of new quality productivity. The utilization of technological innovation in new productive forces has brought tremendous impetus to productivity, and an important lever is to use digital technology to achieve the transformation of old and new kinetic energy, promoting the high-quality development of traditional industries.

　　Feng Xingya, General Manager of GAC Group, pointed out at the same time that in the next step, GAC will actively layout a three-dimensional transportation business model, promote the construction of smart transportation in the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area, strive to achieve the commercialization of unmanned driving as soon as possible, create a new mobile transportation ecosystem for the future, and accelerate the cultivation of emerging industries that are suitable for new quality productivity.

　　Deng Zhidong, Chief Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of the Department of Computer Science at Tsinghua University, and Director of the Visual Intelligence Research Center at Tsinghua University's Institute of Artificial Intelligence, also stated at the Hundred People Conference forum that true autonomous driving is a disruptive technology, a typical representative of high-value industrial evolution and new productivity.

　　There are many bottlenecks, and the problem of talent shortage urgently needs to be solved

　　Developing new quality productivity is not an easy task, at least there are still many bottlenecks to be overcome.

　　Recently, Economic Daily published five articles signed by Jin Guanping to explain how to develop new quality productivity. It is mentioned that we need to break through the bottlenecks that hinder the development of new quality productive forces.

　　He stated that the characteristic of new quality productivity is innovation. At present, there are still some prominent shortcomings in China's science and technology system, and some deep-seated institutional obstacles have not been overcome, making it difficult to adapt to the requirements of the development of new quality productive forces.

　　In response to this, he pointed out the need to leverage the advantages of the new national system, strengthen the national strategic scientific and technological strength, and optimize the allocation of innovative resources. Adhere to the integration of educational development, technological innovation, and talent cultivation, and form a virtuous cycle; Adhere to the integrated deployment of innovation chain, industry chain, and talent chain, and promote deep integration. Deepen the reform of talent management and utilization system, optimize the use, management methods, and technology evaluation system of scientific research funds, and fully tap into the innovative potential of scientific researchers.

　　In terms of the automotive industry, there are naturally many difficulties.

　　For example, in terms of technological innovation, the core competitiveness of the new energy vehicle industry lies in technological innovation, including the improvement of battery range, the improvement of charging facilities, and the application of intelligent driving technology. The innovation and breakthrough of these technologies are the key to driving industry development, but also the difficulty.

　　In terms of industrial chain upgrading, the development of the new energy vehicle industry requires synchronous upgrading of the entire industrial chain, including upstream raw material supply, midstream manufacturing and processing, downstream sales and services, etc. Each link in the industrial chain requires corresponding technological innovation and market adaptation, which is a complex and lengthy process.

　　In terms of talent cultivation, with the development of the new energy vehicle industry, the demand for talents is also changing. A large number of talents with new technological capabilities are needed to support multiple aspects such as research and development, production, and management, and talent cultivation in this area is a long-term process.

　　The shortage of talent may be a key bottleneck. Since March, many industry insiders have mentioned this point when discussing new quality productivity.

　　During the Two Sessions, Zhang Tianren, Chairman of Tianneng Holdings Group, stated that high-quality talents are needed to support new productive forces. However, in certain fields, the supply of high-quality talents is insufficient, which requires enterprises to solve the problem of talent shortage through training, introduction, and other means.

　　At the same time, Liu Yiyan, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of SAIC Group's Zero Beam Technology, also pointed out that enterprises should be the main body of innovation, and enterprises and universities should benchmark against industry pain points, jointly create an important carrier for the mass production and application transformation of technological achievements in the field of intelligent automobiles, and a joint innovation highland for industry academia research and application, promote the deep integration of the innovation chain, industry chain, capital chain, and talent chain in the intelligent automobile industry, and assist in the rapid verification, iteration, and transformation of technological research and development achievements in cutting-edge science and technology fields.