ABB eyes on China's surging EV product market

ABB Group, the Swiss technology conglomerate, said China's new round of economic reform and ongoing consumption upgrading boom will generate more demand for industrial robots, digitalization solutions and new energy vehicles.

Many opportunities also come from China's effort to adopt more environmental friendly products, and encouraging policies to support regional development and initiatives, such as Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Belt and Road Initiative.

The Swiss company has not only expanded its market share in electrical vehicle charging infrastructure in the Chinese mainland, but also became official charging partner of the Jaguar I-PACE eTROPHY, which races with the ABB Formula E championship in Hong Kong on the side of Wan Chai Bay earlier in March.

"It is very clear that the new energy vehicle is part of the country's strategy in China, and China is obviously the biggest market for electrical cars in the world," said Gu Chunyuan, president for Asia, the Middle East and Africa at ABB Group and an economic adviser to the governor of Guangdong province.

"The fast charging and the battery capacity has also been the biggest difficulties in the industry," Gu said, adding that the potential market of EV in China would certainly bring considerable growth to the corporation's business. "From the market reaction, we can see the number of EVs has been growing faster than traditional fuel-powered ones."

Despite the overall chill in the automobile market, new energy vehicles continued to see solid growth. The sale of electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids and fuel cell cars totaled 53,000 units, up 53.6 percent. In the first two months, their sales reached 148,000 units, almost double the number in the same period a year ago, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

ABB set up the its first search and development center for solar power and EV charging facility in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong province in 2017.

"Guangdong is already the province with the biggest GDP in China," said Gu. "Even a single digital growth on such a base will be incredible. "

Apart from the EV sector, Gu also said he thinks there is much potential to dig in the country's market for industrial robots.

"The production capacity for robots is falling behind the growing demand in China," said Gu, as he added he expects to see the group's robot business in China double in the future.

Last year ABB invested $150 million in a robot factory in Shanghai, another step ABB took to secure market share. During the project, Gu said the company has benefited largely from the support of the local administration.

The future generation of intelligent robots can be used in a variety of ways and connect to other intelligent devices to share information, which requires the support of AI algorithms, cloud computing, and big data technology, said Sun Fuquan, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development in Beijing.

According to HIS Markit, a London-based global information provider, the market for cooperative robots will increase from $108 million in 2015 to $570 million in 2020 and the market for professional service robots will increase from $2.6 billion in 2015 to $12.8 billion in 2020.