In recent years, the new energy vehicle (NEV) industry has witnessed a booming development in the Chinese market, and the market share of NEVs has continuously climbed to around 50%. During this period, many domestic brands have achieved overtaking on curves thanks to their strong performance in the NEV market. However, different from the strong performance of domestic brands, the NEV transformation of many joint - venture brands has not gone smoothly. Neither their brand influence nor product sales are satisfactory. One of the very important reasons is that the intelligent level and intelligent driving assistance solutions of their NEVs are inferior to those of domestic brands. And these product features are exactly what Chinese consumers are keen on. So, while new car - making forces are talking about topics related to intelligence such as intelligent cockpits and autonomous driving assistance, many joint - venture brands still focus their publicity on chassis tuning and engine performance. Coupled with the fact that their global integrated development model can hardly quickly adapt to the special needs of the Chinese market, the differences in consumers' demands for automobile products, and the inefficient decision - making mechanism, the joint - venture camp has almost been collectively labeled as "backward in intelligence". However, after reflecting on their setbacks, joint - venture brands have decided to embrace Chinese consumers.

Facing the short - board in intelligence, they have successively embarked on a diversified technological breakthrough path in their own ways. Some choose to cooperate with Chinese enterprises to develop new cars; some choose to directly adopt the advanced technologies of Chinese enterprises; some choose the longer but more reliable path of self - research. All roads ultimately lead to winning the hearts of Chinese consumers. After several years of development, the joint - venture camp, which is eager to get rid of the label of "backward in intelligence", hopes to let people re - evaluate its real strength and prove itself through the launch of one new model after another. The title of the article is exactly a microcosm of this phenomenon. 01 Joint - venture brands are eager to prove themselves " It's a prejudice to say that joint - venture brands can't do well in intelligence." At the debut event of the first model of Buick's Zhijing series, the Zhijing L7, on September 15th, Xue Haitao, the deputy general manager of SAIC - GM, said so. In his view, the intelligent level of joint - venture brands has been greatly improved. It's time to discard the label of being not intelligent enough, and Buick has even achieved the intelligent and electric experience of the industry's first - tier. Xue Haitao's confidence comes from the Buick Zhijing, a mid - to - large extended - range sedan. As the first flagship sedan of Buick's high - end new - energy sub - brand "Zhijing", the Zhijing L7 is backed by Buick's brand heritage and an investment of tens of billions of resources. The new car is born from the so - called million - level "Xiaoyao" architecture, adopts the "True Dragon" extended - range technology, is equipped with the "Xiaoyao Intelligent Driving" assisted driving system, the Momenta R6 Flywheel large - scale model, and Qualcomm's latest - generation SA8775P chip. A series of product features bring an upgrade in product experience, especially in intelligent and electric experience.

From the architecture to the extended - range technology route, from the assisted driving system to the latest - generation chips... With all these product features integrated, the ultimate experience and end - user performance of the Buick Zhijing L7 are yet to be seen. Just looking at the industry hotspots represented by these product features, it's easy to notice that Buick and even SAIC - GM are making a decisive turn. Take extended - range vehicles for example. Although the performance of the extended - range vehicle market this year is not very optimistic, there are still car - makers flocking to launch new models one after another, including traditional brands, new - energy vehicle startups, and cross - industry car - making forces. As for intelligent driving assistance, it goes without saying that it is an investment area that all competitive car - makers can't bypass. It is also a major consideration for Chinese consumers when buying a car. This is also the important reason why Huawei's ADS solution and Momenta's solution have emerged one after another in recent years. Both Buick and other joint - venture brands are still paying the price for their "lack of attention" a few years ago. The Buick Zhijing L7, or rather, the series of technologies and strategies built around it, is SAIC - GM's way of paying the price. And other joint - venture brands also have their own ways to break through technologically.

Among them, cooperating with technology companies is undoubtedly the fastest solution. For example, Volkswagen Group has cooperated with XPeng Motors to jointly develop an electronic and electrical architecture, which will be integrated into Volkswagen's pure - electric vehicle platforms in China and will also be deployed on Volkswagen's fuel - powered and plug - in hybrid vehicle platforms in the Chinese market. The technical strategic cooperation between the two sides will expand to a broader market. Meanwhile, establishing a local R & D team is another approach. For instance, the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center of SAIC - GM is a typical case focusing on the localization development of intelligent and connected vehicle technologies; Volkswagen has also invested 1 billion euros to establish a digital sales center in Anhui. Some brands choose to acquire technology companies to make up for their own weaknesses. For example, Stellantis Group invested 1.5 billion euros to acquire approximately 20% of the equity of Leapmotor to obtain its intelligent technologies

After a period of "improvement", the once cumbersome car infotainment screens with complex button operations, the slow - reacting voice recognition systems, and the lane - keeping functions that performed poorly... These backward technologies that many Chinese consumers once scoffed at are disappearing. Instead, more advanced technologies are being achieved and models with better user experiences are being launched. 02 Can the "prejudice" be broken? So, with the verification of strength, what is the actual intelligent level of the latest joint - venture new energy vehicles? To test the intelligent and electric capabilities of joint - venture new energy vehicles, we can't ignore traditional joint - venture giants such as Volkswagen, General Motors, and Toyota. Then, what are the achievements of their latest new energy vehicle launches and how do they perform? The Volkswagen ID.7 is equipped with the latest ID.OS 2.0 car infotainment system, which has made a qualitative improvement compared with the early ID series. The response speed of voice recognition has been greatly improved, the interface interaction is more intuitive, and it supports gesture control functions in multiple scenarios. Compared with Volkswagen, which had to delay the launch of models due to system problems a few years ago, it has really impressed people.

The newly unveiled Buick E5 L7 is equipped with the Momenta R6 Flywheel large model assisted driving system, which has currently achieved the urban navigation assisted driving function. Its performance in cities like Shanghai is already approaching the level of mainstream new - energy vehicle startups. Meanwhile, through data - driven flywheel - style evolution, the system continuously optimizes algorithms and user experience. In addition, the T - Pilot intelligent driving assistance system installed in the Toyota bZ4X has accumulated more than 10 billion kilometers of safe driving data globally, and has unique advantages in terms of reliability. The BlueCruise active driving assistance system adopted by the Ford Mustang Mach - E scored higher than Tesla's Autopilot in the evaluation of the U.S. Consumer Reports, demonstrating the profound accumulation of traditional automakers in the field of autonomous driving. Despite making great progress, joint - venture brands still face many challenges on the path to intelligentization. First and foremost, the contradiction between global strategy and local needs still exists. Multinational automakers need to balance the consistency of global products with the special needs of the Chinese market, which often leads to the intelligent configuration of domestic models lagging behind overseas versions. At the same time, the disadvantages in data accumulation and algorithm iteration cannot be ignored. Intelligent systems require a large amount of data for training, and the limited number of intelligent vehicles of joint - venture brands in the Chinese market makes it difficult for the data flywheel to rotate quickly.

In addition, issues such as organizational structure and cultural conflicts, as well as cost - control pressures, are all problems that must be addressed. However, catching up in technology is just the first step. Changing consumers' perception requires more time and greater efforts. Data shows that most consumers still believe that domestic brands lead joint - venture brands in terms of intelligence. This cognitive inertia is difficult to completely reverse in the short term. Joint - venture brands need to strengthen technology dissemination and experiential marketing to let consumers personally experience their progress in intelligence. Xue Haitao, the deputy general manager of SAIC - GM, said bluntly at the debut event of the Buick E5 L7 that "the view that joint - venture brands can't do well in intelligence is a prejudice", which is precisely an indication of such dissemination efforts.

Meanwhile, it is also crucial to establish differential advantages. Joint-venture brands don't have to blindly follow the technological routes of new players. Instead, they should combine their own advantages in safety, reliability and quality control to create unique intelligent labels. As the prices of new energy vehicles of joint-venture brands become more reasonable, more consumers are willing to give their products a try and objectively evaluate their intelligent levels. Generally speaking, the intelligent competition is not a sprint but a marathon. With their global R & D resources, supply-chain advantages and manufacturing experience, joint-venture brands still have a chance to gain a foothold in the long-term competition. In the future intelligent track, there will surely be a pattern of diversified competition and distinct characteristics. Both domestic brands and joint-venture brands will jointly promote the development of the industry through technological innovation. As for now, joint-venture new energy brands are undoubtedly still on the way of catching up.