Auto industry shifts into high gear

Jiading District, which has the largest and most advanced automobile industry chain in China, has set out to take the next industrial high ground, according to Shanghai’s latest governmental work report.

Last year, the auto industry in Jiading was able to grow rapidly and achieve an industrial output of 436 billion yuan (US$69 billion), up 12 percent from the previous year.

It is hoped the automobile industry will lead the new energy and intelligent and connected vehicle areas.

A pillar economy of Shanghai, the automobile industry gathers 30,000 auto professionals working in over 300 vehicle and component enterprises and more than 100 R&D companies in the district.

“We will continue to develop new business mode and market for cars, and further urge reform in quality and efficiency in the industry,” said a district official.

China’s first generation of cars were born in Jiading. Over the past 30 years, the industry has largely shaped Jiading into what it is today. But now the district will lead the industry to make breakthroughs.

Emerging technologies 

Intelligent connection and new energies fuel car development are such emerging technologies.

A batch of smart car brands such as NIO and Alibaba have been introduced into Jiading. NIO, for example, spent 5 billion yuan developing its first EV, and its latest super car ES9 is able to reach a speed of 200kph in just 7 seconds.

Besides, breakthroughs in technology and development in the car industry provide much convenience in daily application.

EVCARD, the shared car that began with 50 spots in the district, has expanded to 60 cities in China with 26,000 shared EVs and 1.8 million registered users by the end of last year, covering schools, scenic sites, business areas and transport hubs where mobility is the most needed.

To boost smart car development, Jiading held a China Intelligent Vehicle Championship with categories that included unmanned driving and safety information.

A “Kunlun Project,” which accumulates smart driving scenarios, kicked off last June. It has stored 4,000 traffic accident occasions and over 1.5 million kilometers of natural driving scenarios. It will play a significant role in testing a car’s unmanned capacity in the championship as well as in vehicle development.

Smart parking

A smart parking project is being researched that largely promotes parking efficiency. With industrial base, academic and policy support and huge amount of data, the Anting Index was published at the Chinese Car Enterprise Innovation Conference last December.

Innovation input, economic output and technical structure are included to measure a car enterprise’s overall creativity. The index is deemed an indicator to build an ecosystem for intelligent automobile industry development.