With the blessing of Internet thinking, the performance of new car-making forces in terms of electrification and intelligence can be said to have earned enough attention. Among them, the new force represented by "Wei Xiaoli" has long occupied the focus of public opinion with its

With the blessing of Internet thinking, the performance of new car-making forces in terms of electrification and intelligence can be said to have earned enough attention. Among them, the new force represented by "Wei Xiaoli" has long occupied the focus of public opinion with its high-end brand image and gimmicky product selling points.

In contrast, the progress of traditional car companies in new energy was once described as a "difficult elephant turn" by the outside world. Obviously, in the first round of competition, the new car-making forces were one step ahead.

However, when the development of new energy enters the second half, problems have gradually become apparent for many new car-making forces that are not from a professional background. As powerful as and Tesla , safety issues are still frequently questioned; even Ziyoujia announced its withdrawal due to qualification issues in its cooperative factories when they first entered the game.

It can be seen that the current new energy vehicle market has passed the "early adopter" stage and entered a more rational "popularization period." At this stage, safety, quality, and reliability have become the most important needs for new energy consumption, and this is precisely the innate advantage of traditional car companies.

However, if you want to create a electric vehicle that is safe, reliable, stable in quality, and reasonably cost-effective, you need to "station troops and accumulate resources" in the manufacturing system. At the same time, you need to do a lot of upstream and downstream layout of the industrial chain , and have a complete new energy full-link system. Looking at the domestic joint venture car companies, there is actually one company that has already taken the lead in these aspects, and it is SAIC-GM.

Two super factories have been put into operation to improve the local manufacturing system.

As the first domestically produced Ultra-powerful electric model, the Cadillac LYRIQ Ruige is produced by the Cadillac Factory in Pudong, Shanghai, and has been gradually delivered since October this year. After a few months, the second product of the Autono platform in the Chinese market, the trial vehicle of the Electra E5, the first Autono pure electric SUV of and Buick , has also rolled off the production line. The new car will be unveiled at the end of this year and delivered in the first half of next year.

Pure Design design concept, 2954mm ultra-long wheelbase, five-seater layout, and motor with maximum power of 180kW. These product information all reveal an important signal to the outside world: Buick will build a five-seater smart electric SUV on the Autoneng platform and officially enter the mainstream electric vehicle market. Another noteworthy detail is the place of production: Wuhan.

This also means that in addition to the current Autoneng Gigafactory located in Pudong, Shanghai, the Autoneng Gigafactory located in Wuhan has also been officially completed and put into production. Under the guarantee of the production capacity of the two Autonavi super factories, SAIC-GM will further improve the local manufacturing system strength of the company's new energy core components, promote the implementation of Autoneng platform products in the Chinese market, and press the "accelerator button" for electrification transformation.

In addition, through the expansion of production capacity, SAIC-GM will take advantage of the "scale effect" of the manufacturing industry to further spread manufacturing expenses and reduce vehicle manufacturing costs, thereby gaining long-term development capabilities. The "slow" investment in the early stage and the "fast" investment in the later stage are exactly the reflection of SAIC-GM's accumulated experience in electrification transformation.

"Three High" manufacturing standards to ensure the high quality of products

As one of the key projects invested by SAIC General Motors with 70 billion yuan, Wuhan Autoneng Gigafactory has the world's leading high-precision processing and assembly technology, high-standard quality control management, and highly flexible collinear production capabilities, which can be called "Three High" manufacturing. According to SAIC-GM’s layout, the Wuhan Autononic Gigafactory will work with the Shanghai Autononic Gigafactory to produce batteries and electric drive systems for domestically produced Autononic electric vehicles.

In terms of battery production, the process accuracy and quality have reached the industry-leading level. The gluing, closing and tightening processes of the battery pack are all automatically completed by robots. The installation process achieves a measurement accuracy of less than 0.1mm.Consistent with and universal North America, wireless communication technology is used to detect battery performance to ensure product quality consistency. In addition, the Autoneng factory also adopts the industry's most stringent battery pack sealing test standards and conducts 100% air tightness testing on incoming materials, processes and assemblies to ensure the stability of the battery module working environment.

For the production of electric drives, it is processed according to micron-level ultra-high precision standards. For the assembly of the stator and rotor of the motor, the Autoneng factory adopts the industry's first adaptive floating guide design to control the assembly accuracy within 50 microns. At the same time, Wuhan Autoneng Gigafactory is the first to create a modular and flexible press-fitting unit. Eight pieces of equipment can achieve high-precision automatic press-fitting of 54 parts to meet the diverse needs of Autoneng platform models.

The intelligent manufacturing technology of Autoneng factory will provide a strong guarantee for the high-quality production of Autoneng platform batteries and electric drive systems, and bring consumers a "safer, smarter, and better performance" product experience.

95% parts are localized, mature supply chain layout

In order to ensure the large-scale mass production of electric vehicles, SAIC-GM has gone deep into the upstream and set out to establish a supply chain system with the highest degree of vertical integration in the industry to ensure a stable supply of raw materials.

Relying on a highly localized business chain system, SAIC-GM has achieved domestic production of Autoneng platform models and localized procurement of up to 95% of parts. What is this concept? For comparison, Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory's parts localization has reached 80%, which has allowed Model 3 to cut prices multiple times in two years.

Therefore, SAIC-GM has the absolute initiative in pricing of Autoneng products in the future, thus bringing a more competitive price advantage. Of course, the addition of local suppliers can also quickly increase the production capacity of the Autono Gigafactory and accelerate the launch of Autono models under GM's three major brands: Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac .

written at the end

New energy transformation requires continued strategic investment for any automobile brand, and General Group is no exception. If the electrification transformation of the automobile market can be compared to a marathon, SAIC-GM has only focused more on its "strength reserve" in the first half of the race.

In addition to the two Autono super factories, SAIC-GM also owns the Pan-Asia Automotive Technology Center New Energy Test Building and the Guangde Battery Safety Laboratory, which completely covers the full-link new energy capabilities from R&D, testing to manufacturing, and is highly competitive among domestic OEMs.

For SAIC-GM, it is a painful, long and arduous process to practice hard in the early stage and lay a solid foundation, because the market cannot see the products and results, and the outside world will continue to speculate and question. But once the practice is completed, the launch of new cars in the second half will be a matter of course. At the same time, it can also avoid the problems of production capacity drag, price fluctuation , product error and other problems that some new power brands are experiencing at this stage.

Compared with new forces, a century of car-making experience has given SAIC-GM more confidence in safety and quality. We have reason to believe that in the second half of new energy, the joint venture represented by SAIC-GM will further accelerate the industry reshuffle and provide better transformation paths and industry samples. What do you think about this? Welcome to follow "Cars Without Borders" and leave a message in the comment area below to share your views.