Six Problems Constrain Automotive Industry and Improve Innovation

After more than 50 years of growth, China's auto industry has ranked fourth and third in the world in terms of production and sales volume in 2004. It has become a world-renowned automobile industry. However, it has not yet become a powerful automobile industry due to weak independent innovation capabilities. . In September of this year, Hunan University was commissioned by the Ministry of Science and Technology to conduct an extensive investigation and analysis of the independent innovation of China's auto industry, and proposed problems and obstacles to the improvement of China's auto industry's innovation capability.

1. Insufficient policy guidance and support

The main reason for the low self-innovation capability of China's auto industry is the result of poor industrial policy guidance and inadequate support. At the beginning of reform and opening up, the policies adopted to encourage joint ventures and cooperation have long been out of line with the new situation in the development of the auto industry today, but they have not been adjusted and amended in a timely manner. On the other hand, the policy of “supporting foreigners” has made the living environment of domestically-funded enterprises that are already in a weak position extremely difficult. For example, in the current tax system in China, the income tax for state-owned auto companies and domestic-funded auto companies is 33%, and only 17% for joint ventures. . The government provides foreign capital taxation, land and other "super-national treatment", while supporting the domestic-funded enterprises is almost zero.

2. The construction of independent brands

Automobile independent brands are the carriers for independent innovation. However, at present, most auto brands in China are small in scale, low in technological content, and lack international competitiveness. In particular, some large auto companies even abandoned the original brand building platform in joint ventures and cooperation.

3. The problem of national independent development system

Due to the domestic automotive technology strength and resource scores, it is an inevitable choice to improve the independent innovation capability of the automotive industry in China by combining all the advantages of resources and independently developing scientific and technological innovation systems. However, at present, the national government's scientific and technological innovation system that the Chinese government attaches great importance to this type of developed country has not attracted enough attention, and it has failed to give full play to the advantages of China's "concentrated efforts to do big things", making the company's own development efficiency too low and the cost too high.

4. R & D funds and insufficient talent

The annual cost of R&D used by Chinese auto companies only accounts for 1% or even less of sales, while foreign auto companies generally account for 3%~5%. For example, General Motors Corporation of the United States spends 5 billion to 6 billion U.S. dollars for the development of new varieties each year, and China's auto industry spends only 2 billion U.S. dollars for a one-year total development. In contrast, both China and the United States, Japan, South Korea and other countries cannot compare with each other, regardless of the ratio of investment in R&D funding or the total amount.

In addition, the shortage of R&D talent in the automotive industry in China is a serious problem. Take FAW as an example. Its technical development personnel only account for 2.6% of the total number of employees, and Japan’s Toyota Corporation accounts for 9.8%. With the continuous development of the automotive industry, the shortage of automotive R&D talent in China will become increasingly prominent.

5. The development of auto parts lags behind

The automotive industry is closely related to the innovative capabilities of auto parts. China’s auto parts technology base is poor, and long-term investment is seriously insufficient, lagging behind the development of the vehicle. For example, the ratio of auto parts and vehicle input during the “July 5” to “Ninth Five-year” period was only 23.0%, 27.8%, and 27.3%. In addition, the irrational industrial structure of auto parts and the weak product development ability have severely hampered the development of the auto parts industry. In particular, multinational corporations have been controlling the procurement of high-tech and high-value-added parts, making parts with core technologies Has been imported from abroad, and the import price is far higher than the international market price.

6. Be cautious and not dare to "go in the water" practice

At present, due to lack of database support for automotive product development activities and insufficient integration of design, process, and manufacturing databases, automotive engineers in large-scale joint ventures are cautious about improving product structure, processes, and materials, and are not able to easily perform the same on existing products. Change, the act of being afraid to “go in the water” directly led to excessive reliance on foreign technology.

We only have a rational analysis of the status quo of the auto industry, and take measures to overcome obstacles, accelerate the improvement of the auto industry's ability for independent innovation, and the days of realizing China's auto industry's dream of becoming a strong country will become closer and closer.