Guangzhou sets out auto industry strategy

Guangzhou municipal government officially began to implement the Guangzhou Automobile Industry 2025 Strategic Plan last week. The plan states that Guangzhou aims to be top among Chinese auto manufacturing bases by 2025 in terms of production and sales, with annual production capacity and sales revenues reaching 5 million vehicles and 1 trillion yuan ($159 billion) respectively.

Strategic positioning of Guangzhou's auto industry

The plan summarizes the strategy for the city's auto industry and stresses the importance of developing national brands, intelligent vehicles, and perfecting a system for innovation. The city aims for its auto industry to have global influence, and to build "Two Zones, One Highland".

"Two Zones" refers to the pilot zone for Chinese auto brands and the pilot zone for the industrialization of intelligent and new energy vehicles.

"One Highland" refers to the highland for innovation, openness, and sharing. Guangzhou plans to encourage cooperation between traditional auto enterprises, emerging auto enterprises, and internet companies, to push forward coordinated development along the complete industrial chain, and to build an international innovation center for the auto industry, exploring new modes of cooperation with foreign investors in new energy and intelligent vehicles.

Build internationally-renowned Chinese brands

A key part of the plan is to "breed Chinese brands". Guangzhou has set a goal of building one to two internationally-renowned Chinese brands by 2025. Trumpchi, a car brand owned by Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC Group), will be fully supported in this regard.

Statistics reveal that auto production capacity in Guangzhou was 2,360,000 vehicles in 2017, with a plan to hit 5 million by 2025. And half of them will be vehicles made by Chinese brands.

To achieve this goal, Guangzhou municipal government will encourage the creative cooperation of capital, technology, and other factors within and outside the auto industrial chain, and support the strategic partnership between top companies to constantly raise the industrial concentration ratio.

Robots assemble windshields at a GAC factory in Hualong town in Guangzhou's Panyu district. [Photo/gzdaily.dayoo.com]

New energy and autonomous-driving vehicles

The plan highly values the growth of new energy and autonomous-driving vehicles. Guangzhou aims to develop highly-advanced intelligent interconnection of things vehicles, with 80 percent of them equipped with autonomous-driving technology.

The marketization of new energy vehicles will be accelerated in the coming years. Guangzhou will make heavier R&D and infrastructure investment on pure electric vehicles and improve the supporting services for new energy vehicles.

The industrial layout in the future

The auto industry in Guangzhou will be divided into three industrial clusters in the future.

The eastern cluster will consist of Zengcheng auto industrial base, Huangpu auto industrial base, and BAIC Group's South China Production Base, featuring Guangqi Honda and BAIC  

The northern cluster will comprise of Huadu Auto City and Conghua Mingzhu Industrial Park, featuring Dongfeng Nissan, Guangqi Hino, and Guangqi BYD.

The southern cluster will include GAC Panyu Auto City and Nansha International Auto Industrial Base, highlighting GAC Toyota, GAC Fiat, and vehicles made under Chinese brands.