Country racing ahead in boosting autonomous driving development

Consultancy says more electric cars, better government policies are helping China to stand out

China is speeding up its development of autonomous driving and is expected to become the leader in the technology, which is believed key to the future of the automotive industry, according to consultancy Roland Berger.

In a report released in October, China topped a list of 14 countries with a score of 75 points out of 130, calculated with a number of indices to measure which country will be the first to introduce autonomous mobility.

In half a year, China had expanded its lead over its closest rival, Singapore, to five points, while Germany ranked eighth and the United States ninth. Six months ago, China led by only one point.

The advantage China enjoys is the result of several factors, mainly its leading position in electrified vehicles and favorable government policies, Roland Berger said in the report.

Ron Zheng, a partner and vice-president of the consultancy's China business, explained that electric vehicles have the natural advantage in terms of autonomous driving, because electric motors are easier to control than gasoline cars' engines and transmissions.

"So China's advantage in new energy vehicles has laid a solid foundation for the application of autonomous driving," Zheng said.

China overtook the US in 2015 as the world's largest new energy vehicle market.

Electric passenger car sales totaled 451,000 in the first three quarters of the year in the country, up 75 percent year-on-year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Roland Berger's survey found that 65 percent of Chinese respondents say they would consider buying electric cars.

Chinese authorities are now becoming open to the autonomous vehicle business, another factor that helped it grow its lead over other countries.

In August, China rolled out a set of national standards for testing smart autonomous cars on roads. Before that, a dozen regional authorities had issued their own guidelines, with the first released in Beijing in December 2017, a sign of China's eagerness for the new technology.

China expects smart cars with some autonomous functions to account for 50 percent of new vehicles sold in the country by 2020, according to a blueprint released in January by the National Development and Reform Commission.

It is part of the country's campaign to become a global power in smart car development and production by 2035.

Chinese technology companies are becoming stars in the field. Baidu did not unveil its Apollo self-driving platform until early 2017, but now it has attracted about 100 partners, including Ford, Daimler and Honda.

Volvo joined the consortium earlier this month, announcing that it will develop electric robo-taxis with Baidu primarily for China. The vehicles will come out in three years, Volvo President and CEO Hakan Samuelsson said.

"There is a strong development in autonomous driving in China, where Baidu is a leading player, and the market there offers huge opportunities for us as the supplier of choice for autonomous fleets," Samuelsson said.

Other Chinese technology companies are working on autonomous driving, as well. Huawei is partnering with Audi on autonomous and connected technologies in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, where the German carmaker has received its second permit in China to test autonomous vehicles.

"No country is moving as aggressively as China in all aspects. With this pace ongoing, China will soon become the leading auto-tech nation," Roland Berger said in its report.

Many other consulting companies are also optimistic about the prospects of autonomous driving in China.

Earlier this year, IHS Markit predicted that around 14.5 million autonomous cars will be sold in China by 2040, on a total global volume of around 33 million.

McKinsey & Company gave a similar estimate in April, saying that 49 percent of Chinese consumers think autonomous driving is very important, a higher figure than the 16 percent in Germany and the US.