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The lack of self-owned auto technology has been haunting China’s auto industry for a long time. Can the “help” from the foreign partners be a cure to the pain?
In years, the foreign auto companies have been committing themselves to the market development and always avoided to get engaged in the provision of technological help for their Chinese partners. However, things began to change in recent years. Is that enough to cure the pain of China’s auto technology caused by the lack of technology?
Technology is always the pain of China’s auto industry
Some people say that China’s auto industry has been on the way of exchanging market with technology for more than 20 years. However, the technological progress is very slow. The foreign companies seemed not to like providing their technologies for their Chinese partners. Fortunately, their attitudes towards research and development (R&D) seem to have fundamental changes in these years.
The world famous auto consulting company Mercer Oliver Wyman issued a research report saying that the investment in the offshore R&D projects of the global auto industry will increase from 600 million euros in 2005 to 4.5 billion euros in 2015. The R&D centers of the main automakers will be moved to China, India and East Europe to lower the cost. China will be the most important destination for these companies.
According to the report, the average price of new cars will see a tiny increase in the year of 2015. Most of the technological innovations increase the cost of cars. And in order to make each car see the profits, the automakers and suppliers have to reduce the cost of 1,500 euros for each car.
At least there are some phenomena telling the intensive R&D activities of the foreign auto companies in China.
In 2008, Delphi Corporation started the construction of the second project of its R&D center in Shanghai. ArvinMeritor set up its R&D center as well as the headquarters of Asia in Shanghai. In that year, Bosch, Visteon and some other auto components giants also established its R&D center in China.
In October 2008, Bob Lutz, vice board chairman of GM, said in Shanghai that GM would make bigger investment in the R&D projects in Shanghai. One year later, GM built the world-leading auto safety R&D center – Auto Safety Laboratory of Pan-Asia Technical Automotive Center. It also founded the GM-China Institute of Auto Sciences. In addition, GM’s auto R&D and testing center in Guangde, Anhui, has officially been started and will be finished at the end of 2011. A series of R&D investments proved the importance of Chinese R&D market for GM.
This march, BorgWarner Inc’s China Technology Center was opened in Shanghai. This center will be the largest technology center of BorgWarner Inc in the world in 2012. BorgWarner plans to make use of its global marketing strategies to quintuple the sale in China in the next five years.
However, here comes out a problem. Why do the foreign auto companies change their attitudes completely? What’s behind the wave of investment in R&D? Can the Chinese auto companies get rid of the predicament of lacking core technology?
“Ten years ago, the Germans kept their technologies unknown to Chinese partners. But now things are different,” said a Chinese worker in the research department of Shanghai Volkswagen. It is affirmative that the foreign companies have already changed from simply committing themselves to market development to paying attention to the R&D in China. It is a kind of progress. But if you study into the R&D frenzy, you can find that the R&D centers of foreign companies in China are usually branches of their global R&D systems. After the financial crisis, many original equipments manufacturers transfer the large R&D jobs to the offshore countries, such as China, due to the cost stress. The main reason is that the Chinese R&D workers have lower salary requirements compared with the ones in the developed countries, which can save a lot of R&D cost for the companies.
Lei Yucheng, head of Tongjie Auto Design Engineer Institute of Tongji University, said that the auto companies’ R&D centers in China, as branches of their global centers, only play quite a minor role. When the auto companies know that “localization” is an effective way of developing the Chinese market, the localized R&D is just a part of the foreign companies to get used to the market condition of China, same as the localized assembly, localized operation and localized distribution which these companies have done for years. Therefore, most of the jobs in these localized R&D centers are to redesign the models of imported vehicles to make them more popular in China and to supervise the quality of these cars. A senior professor who has been studying the auto industry for several years say that Lavida from Shanghai Volkswagen and New Bora from FAW Volkswagen are these kinds of cars based on the redesign of imported cars. The two kinds of cars are both developed based on the PQ34 platform of Volkswagen in Germany. The core technology of Everus from Guangzhou Honda also comes from Honda in Japan.
In the auto industry, R&D is usually divided into six levels. The sixth level represents the highest one meaning the development of a new car or a new platform. The joint ventures’ development in the past only meant remodeling such as lengthening the body, changing the shape of lights and so on. These are just the first or second level of R&D jobs. As analyzed by Pang Jian, deputy dean of Chongqing Chang’an Auto Engineer Institute, the Lavida and Everus cars also come from remodeling and belong to the third level.
Therefore, the Chinese should not feel that the technological problem can be solved with the foreign auto companies setting up their R&D centers in China.
A typical example is that Pan-Asia Technical Automotive Center – the first joint venture auto R&D center in China – have made significant R&D results in China, but the Chinese side has known quite a few key technologies.
Pan-Asia Technical Automotive Center is founded by GM and Shanghai Automotive Group in 1997. After years’ development, the workers in this center have already finished the design and manufacturing of two concept vehicles and also have taken over the remodeling of Sail and Buick Regal. It is a pity that this R&D center has seen quite a few fruits in the design of core components and new vehicle model. Most of the R&D jobs were remodeling cars and changing inside decoration, so the Chinese side mastered quite a few R&D abilities related with core technologies.
In addition, the results don’t look quite satisfactory from the investment fees of these companies. According to the data, the cost of designing an integrated ordinary passenger car reaches 100 million of US dollars. But the investment in the R&D centers of Dongfeng, Daimler-Chrysler, Toyota or Honda in China is about 500 million yuan (USD 73.8 million). Compared with the foreign R&D centers, the domestic centers is much smaller in scale and the amount of investments. Therefore, it is a problem whether the R&D centers in China have the ability of designing and developing an integrated car. “The foreign companies’ intensive R&D activities seem to correspond with China’s policies of encouraging self development. It is unknown how many core technologies can the Chinese learn from their foreign partners,” says Lei Yucheng.
Prof. Ni Jimin from the Automotive School of Tongji University shares the same opinion with Lei Yucheng. He says that the foreign companies’ R&D strength in China didn’t see great improvement in these years. “The Chinese R&D workers have indeed improved their skills but the decision rights are still held by the foreigners,” says Ni Jimin. In his opinion, the foreign companies’ R&D center in China is at the end of the development of a product. “It is very rare for a foreign auto company to have the ability of testing products in China. Even the remodeled products have to be taken back to undergo the test there.”
Meanwhile, Guangzhou Honda and Shanghai Volkswagen admit that the core technologies are still in the hands of foreign companies. Du Fangci, deputy secretary-general of China Automotive Industrial Association say that the Korean auto companies are the most conservative in sharing technology, followed by the companies in Japan, Germany and the USA. Though the foreign companies have already founded joint ventures in China, the component suppliers are still exclusively owned by them.
An obvious factor is that foreign companies’ setting up R&D centers is based on their own interests. Reversely, it is somewhat helpful for the development of China’s auto industry. Guo Kongkui, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering says that it is still very hard for the Chinese to learn the core technologies from the R&D centers founded by the foreign auto companies. But the Chinese auto industry is featured with fast development, which enables the Chinese auto companies to learn the foreign peers’ advanced technologies, concepts and management.
For example, GM invests 2.1 billion yuan (USD 309.9 million) in the Pan-Asia Technical Automotive Center in building the largest professional skid pad in China, which has the complete functions and conforms to the international standard. Meanwhile, GM moved its headquarters of Asia from Singapore to Shanghai. In addition, the first virtual R&D center was also built in the Pan-Asia Technical Automotive Center. This system can greatly shorten the R&D period for the company and improve the R&D ability of the Pan-Asia Technical Automotive Center.
Obviously, the era in which the foreign companies’ products were very expensive has gone due to the market competition and the state policies. The international auto giants have to accelerate their pace of localization in China, which is accompanied with the opening of more R&D centers. And the Chinese have more opportunities to know the central technology of foreign companies.
But Chinese can not simply rely on the foreign companies’ offering to cure the pain of technolgoy. The Chinese auto companies should make use of the chances brought by the foreign companies’ changing attitudes towards providing technologies. Only in that way the pain of technology haunting the Chinese auto industry can be removed.
In years, the foreign auto companies have been committing themselves to the market development and always avoided to get engaged in the provision of technological help for their Chinese partners. However, things began to change in recent years. Is that enough to cure the pain of China’s auto technology caused by the lack of technology?
Technology is always the pain of China’s auto industry
Some people say that China’s auto industry has been on the way of exchanging market with technology for more than 20 years. However, the technological progress is very slow. The foreign companies seemed not to like providing their technologies for their Chinese partners. Fortunately, their attitudes towards research and development (R&D) seem to have fundamental changes in these years.
The world famous auto consulting company Mercer Oliver Wyman issued a research report saying that the investment in the offshore R&D projects of the global auto industry will increase from 600 million euros in 2005 to 4.5 billion euros in 2015. The R&D centers of the main automakers will be moved to China, India and East Europe to lower the cost. China will be the most important destination for these companies.
According to the report, the average price of new cars will see a tiny increase in the year of 2015. Most of the technological innovations increase the cost of cars. And in order to make each car see the profits, the automakers and suppliers have to reduce the cost of 1,500 euros for each car.
At least there are some phenomena telling the intensive R&D activities of the foreign auto companies in China.
In 2008, Delphi Corporation started the construction of the second project of its R&D center in Shanghai. ArvinMeritor set up its R&D center as well as the headquarters of Asia in Shanghai. In that year, Bosch, Visteon and some other auto components giants also established its R&D center in China.
In October 2008, Bob Lutz, vice board chairman of GM, said in Shanghai that GM would make bigger investment in the R&D projects in Shanghai. One year later, GM built the world-leading auto safety R&D center – Auto Safety Laboratory of Pan-Asia Technical Automotive Center. It also founded the GM-China Institute of Auto Sciences. In addition, GM’s auto R&D and testing center in Guangde, Anhui, has officially been started and will be finished at the end of 2011. A series of R&D investments proved the importance of Chinese R&D market for GM.
This march, BorgWarner Inc’s China Technology Center was opened in Shanghai. This center will be the largest technology center of BorgWarner Inc in the world in 2012. BorgWarner plans to make use of its global marketing strategies to quintuple the sale in China in the next five years.
However, here comes out a problem. Why do the foreign auto companies change their attitudes completely? What’s behind the wave of investment in R&D? Can the Chinese auto companies get rid of the predicament of lacking core technology?
“Ten years ago, the Germans kept their technologies unknown to Chinese partners. But now things are different,” said a Chinese worker in the research department of Shanghai Volkswagen. It is affirmative that the foreign companies have already changed from simply committing themselves to market development to paying attention to the R&D in China. It is a kind of progress. But if you study into the R&D frenzy, you can find that the R&D centers of foreign companies in China are usually branches of their global R&D systems. After the financial crisis, many original equipments manufacturers transfer the large R&D jobs to the offshore countries, such as China, due to the cost stress. The main reason is that the Chinese R&D workers have lower salary requirements compared with the ones in the developed countries, which can save a lot of R&D cost for the companies.
Lei Yucheng, head of Tongjie Auto Design Engineer Institute of Tongji University, said that the auto companies’ R&D centers in China, as branches of their global centers, only play quite a minor role. When the auto companies know that “localization” is an effective way of developing the Chinese market, the localized R&D is just a part of the foreign companies to get used to the market condition of China, same as the localized assembly, localized operation and localized distribution which these companies have done for years. Therefore, most of the jobs in these localized R&D centers are to redesign the models of imported vehicles to make them more popular in China and to supervise the quality of these cars. A senior professor who has been studying the auto industry for several years say that Lavida from Shanghai Volkswagen and New Bora from FAW Volkswagen are these kinds of cars based on the redesign of imported cars. The two kinds of cars are both developed based on the PQ34 platform of Volkswagen in Germany. The core technology of Everus from Guangzhou Honda also comes from Honda in Japan.
In the auto industry, R&D is usually divided into six levels. The sixth level represents the highest one meaning the development of a new car or a new platform. The joint ventures’ development in the past only meant remodeling such as lengthening the body, changing the shape of lights and so on. These are just the first or second level of R&D jobs. As analyzed by Pang Jian, deputy dean of Chongqing Chang’an Auto Engineer Institute, the Lavida and Everus cars also come from remodeling and belong to the third level.
Therefore, the Chinese should not feel that the technological problem can be solved with the foreign auto companies setting up their R&D centers in China.
A typical example is that Pan-Asia Technical Automotive Center – the first joint venture auto R&D center in China – have made significant R&D results in China, but the Chinese side has known quite a few key technologies.
Pan-Asia Technical Automotive Center is founded by GM and Shanghai Automotive Group in 1997. After years’ development, the workers in this center have already finished the design and manufacturing of two concept vehicles and also have taken over the remodeling of Sail and Buick Regal. It is a pity that this R&D center has seen quite a few fruits in the design of core components and new vehicle model. Most of the R&D jobs were remodeling cars and changing inside decoration, so the Chinese side mastered quite a few R&D abilities related with core technologies.
In addition, the results don’t look quite satisfactory from the investment fees of these companies. According to the data, the cost of designing an integrated ordinary passenger car reaches 100 million of US dollars. But the investment in the R&D centers of Dongfeng, Daimler-Chrysler, Toyota or Honda in China is about 500 million yuan (USD 73.8 million). Compared with the foreign R&D centers, the domestic centers is much smaller in scale and the amount of investments. Therefore, it is a problem whether the R&D centers in China have the ability of designing and developing an integrated car. “The foreign companies’ intensive R&D activities seem to correspond with China’s policies of encouraging self development. It is unknown how many core technologies can the Chinese learn from their foreign partners,” says Lei Yucheng.
Prof. Ni Jimin from the Automotive School of Tongji University shares the same opinion with Lei Yucheng. He says that the foreign companies’ R&D strength in China didn’t see great improvement in these years. “The Chinese R&D workers have indeed improved their skills but the decision rights are still held by the foreigners,” says Ni Jimin. In his opinion, the foreign companies’ R&D center in China is at the end of the development of a product. “It is very rare for a foreign auto company to have the ability of testing products in China. Even the remodeled products have to be taken back to undergo the test there.”
Meanwhile, Guangzhou Honda and Shanghai Volkswagen admit that the core technologies are still in the hands of foreign companies. Du Fangci, deputy secretary-general of China Automotive Industrial Association say that the Korean auto companies are the most conservative in sharing technology, followed by the companies in Japan, Germany and the USA. Though the foreign companies have already founded joint ventures in China, the component suppliers are still exclusively owned by them.
An obvious factor is that foreign companies’ setting up R&D centers is based on their own interests. Reversely, it is somewhat helpful for the development of China’s auto industry. Guo Kongkui, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering says that it is still very hard for the Chinese to learn the core technologies from the R&D centers founded by the foreign auto companies. But the Chinese auto industry is featured with fast development, which enables the Chinese auto companies to learn the foreign peers’ advanced technologies, concepts and management.
For example, GM invests 2.1 billion yuan (USD 309.9 million) in the Pan-Asia Technical Automotive Center in building the largest professional skid pad in China, which has the complete functions and conforms to the international standard. Meanwhile, GM moved its headquarters of Asia from Singapore to Shanghai. In addition, the first virtual R&D center was also built in the Pan-Asia Technical Automotive Center. This system can greatly shorten the R&D period for the company and improve the R&D ability of the Pan-Asia Technical Automotive Center.
Obviously, the era in which the foreign companies’ products were very expensive has gone due to the market competition and the state policies. The international auto giants have to accelerate their pace of localization in China, which is accompanied with the opening of more R&D centers. And the Chinese have more opportunities to know the central technology of foreign companies.
But Chinese can not simply rely on the foreign companies’ offering to cure the pain of technolgoy. The Chinese auto companies should make use of the chances brought by the foreign companies’ changing attitudes towards providing technologies. Only in that way the pain of technology haunting the Chinese auto industry can be removed.