China, the world’s largest electric vehicle market, has set a goal to fill more than 85% of new passenger cars with new energy vehicles (NEVs) by 2040. The new energy vehicles are electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs), and hydrogen electric vehicles. The proportion of new energy vehicles in China’s new car sales was 40.9% last year, and it aims to more than double this in about 15 years, revealing its ambition to solidify global electric vehicle hegemony.
On the 8th, the Korea Automobile Research Institute made the announcement in the «Chinese Automobile Technology Development Roadmap 3.0» that analyzed the «Energy Saving and New Energy Vehicle Technology Roadmap 3.0» report released by the China Automobile Industry Association in October. The roadmap will be announced under the leadership of the Ministry of Industry and Information, the Chinese government’s department in charge of industry.
The key point of the report is to dominate the new energy vehicle market and advance autonomous driving technology. China has set its overall goal of the roadmap as ‘achieving an automobile powerhouse by 2040’ and decided to reduce carbon emissions by more than 60% compared to the peak (2028). During the same period, the market penetration rate of new energy vehicles is aimed at achieving 80% combined with passenger cars and commercial vehicles.
In the meantime, specific targets have been set every five years, and the company aims to increase the proportion of new energy vehicles sold among passenger cars to more than 70% in 2030, 80% in 2035, and 85% in 2040. Of the total 31.43 million new cars sold in China last year, 12.86 million new energy vehicles accounted for 40.9%, which means that they are quickly doubled. In October this year, the proportion was 51.9%, exceeding half for the first time on a monthly basis.
It also announced a plan to solidify its hegemony in electric vehicles and to conduct a speed war in autonomous driving technology. By 2040, it has decided to fully distribute Level 4 technology, in which the system fully leads the driving, to most new cars with drivers on board. Level 5 autonomous driving technology, which is capable of fully autonomous driving under any road and condition, has also set a goal to enter the market at this time. Depending on the level, autonomous driving technology is divided from level 0 to level 5.
The plan is to advance autonomous driving software to preempt the next-generation service ecosystem where vehicles, roads, and clouds are combined with OS standards for vehicles in their hands. «The value chain and transportation model of the automobile industry will be fundamentally reorganized,» the report said. «China aims to lead the world by implementing hardware such as body and chassis in a fully integrated structure with autonomous driving software in 2040.
China is rapidly growing its global EV influence. According to SNE Research, a market research firm, the number of newly registered electric vehicles worldwide between January and October this year was 17.102 million, up 25.5% from the same period last year. Among them, six were Chinese brands among the top 10 global electric vehicle sales.
South Korea is one of the main targets of the Chinese electric vehicle industry. It does not have high tariff barriers like the United States and the European Union (EU), but it has a charging infrastructure and is geographically close. BYD officially entered the Korean market in January this year and has been cruising since March. In September, six months later, it surpassed 1,000 monthly sales, ranking second in the number of new monthly registrations among imported electric vehicles. Zicker, a premium electric car brand of China’s Geely Automobile, officially announced its entry into Korea on the 2nd, and Xpeng is also preparing to establish a Korean subsidiary.
[Reporter Han Jiyeon]
This article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.
