Hefei emerges as key hub for NEV production

The new energy vehicle industry in Hefei, capital of East China's Anhui province, has shown significant growth, according to recently released data on its economic performance in the first half.

Hefei produced 515,000 NEVs in the first half, a year-on-year increase of 67.3 percent, while total automobile production in the province surpassed 1.5 million, a year-on-year increase of 46.7 percent, accounting for 10.8 percent of the national total.

Currently, Hefei is home to a number of leading companies in the NEV sector, such as JAC Motors, BYD, NIO, Volkswagen Anhui, Chang'an and Ankai, along with over 500 upstream and downstream industry chain enterprises.

The local support ratio for NEVs in Hefei has reached 35 percent, with the industry attracting over 100,000 talented people, according to the local government.

The Hefei government has set an ambitious target to grow the sector. The development plan for the NEV industry in Hefei during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25) shows that by 2025, the scale of the city's NEV industry will exceed 700 billion yuan ($98 billion).

Wang Ya, founder and president of Kuai EDian, a Hefei-based manufacturer of NEV charging facilities, said the company has seen market orders for such facilities increase rapidly over the past few years.

He said the company's sustained development has been partly due to Hefei's complete industrial chain and strong talent pool.

Wang, who established the company in 2020, said the company's growth is inseparable from that of Hefei University of Technology.

Wang used to encounter technological bottlenecks and sought help frequently. Eventually, he turned to the university's Intelligent Manufacturing Technology Research Institute.

"They patiently listened to my description of market resources, business models, and technological needs. Two days later, the institute organized a technology team composed of professors and PhDs to collaborate with me," Wang said.

Among the alumni that HUT is most proud of, many entrepreneurs have become leaders in China's new energy and NEV industries.

For example, there are Yin Tongyue, chairman of Chery Automobile; Li Zhen, chairman of NEV battery maker Gotion; and Cao Renxian, chairman of new energy power equipment maker Sungrow Power Supply.

By jointly increasing R&D investments, Wang's firm and the institute have rapidly made breakthroughs in wireless charging technology and industrialization, accumulating a series of high-tech product reserves that have enabled the company to develop quickly.

"The future regional industrial competition is not only at the level of the industrial chain, but more about the competition of industrial ecology," said Ren Linjie, executive secretary-general of the strategic advisory committee for Anhui's NEV industry cluster.

Experts said that in order to consolidate the advantages already made in the early stage of the new energy transformation, the province and the city must seize the opportunities from rapid evolution of intelligently connected technologies and accelerate the industrial footprint to gain a favorable position in the new sector.

In early June, the Hefei Public Transport Group opened a distinctive bus route along an avenue in the urban Baohe district, equipped with unmanned buses and roadside smart devices, featuring Level-3 or above advanced autonomous driving and intelligent networked interaction functions.

On July 3, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology included Hefei in a list of 20 pilot cities for the integrated application of intelligently connected vehicles.

Prior to this, Hefei had already been designated by multiple ministries as a pilot city for the coordinated development of smart city infrastructure and intelligently connected vehicles by the end of 2021.