At the State Council Information Office press conference on September 9, Xin Guobin, Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology, talked about the status of my country's new energy vehicle industry. (Photo by Zhao Lixin, The Paper)
At 10 a.m. on September 9, the State Council Information Office held a press conference on the theme of "High-quality Completion of the 14th Five-Year Plan". Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Lecheng, Vice Ministers Xin Guobin and Zhang Yunming introduced the situation of vigorously promoting new industrialization and consolidating and strengthening the foundation of the real economy during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, and answered questions from reporters.
A media reporter asked: How do you evaluate the development of the new energy vehicle industry in the past few years?
Xin Guobin responded in three sentences.
The first sentence is "more common." New energy vehicle production will jump from approximately 1.4 million units in 2020 to around 13 million units in 2024, with sales also increasing over the same period. The market size has more than tripled. The sales share of new energy vehicles has increased from 5.4% in 2020 to 40.9%, a remarkably rapid growth rate. We can all see that not only are new energy vehicles increasingly common around us, but Chinese-branded new energy vehicles are also increasingly common on the streets of many countries, including some automotive powerhouses. This demonstrates that Chinese brands are steadily gaining global recognition and injecting strong momentum into the global automotive industry's electrification transformation.
The second sentence is "easier to drive." Industry companies have increased their investment, overcome a number of technical challenges, and significantly improved product quality and performance. For example, the average driving range of pure electric passenger vehicles is approaching 500 kilometers. The cost of power battery cells has decreased by 30%, while the lifespan has increased by 40%. The charging rate has also increased by more than three times. The proportion of new passenger cars with integrated assisted driving functions has increased from 16.2% in 2020 to 62.1% in the first half of this year. With the improvement of infrastructure such as charging stations and battery swap stations, new energy vehicles are increasingly popular with consumers, especially our young consumers.
The third sentence is "their contribution has become even more significant." Over the past five years, my country has seized the opportunities presented by the electrification and intelligent development of the automotive industry, significantly enhancing the overall competitiveness of the industry. By 2024, my country's consumption of new energy vehicles will exceed 2 trillion yuan, effectively driving the rapid development of upstream and downstream industries and related sectors, generating significant economic and social benefits and making a significant contribution to high-quality economic development.
"However, we must also see that there are still some problems in the current industrial development that cannot be ignored, such as the shortcomings of high-end process automotive high-computing power chips, and the prominent problem of irrational competition in the industry. In the next step, we will further improve support policies, strengthen breakthroughs in key core technologies, standardize industrial competition order, and continuously promote high-quality development of the industry," he said.
