Gasgoo Munich-On October 23, the 14th Automotive and Environment Innovation Forum was held in Shanghai. Zhao Chunlai, Deputy Chief Engineer at Dongfeng Motor Group's R&D Institute, delivered a keynote speech titled "From Products to Systems: The Next Chapter in China's Technology Leadership."
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Looking back, Zhao noted that a decade ago, China’s auto industry was still grappling with the question of mere availability. The first electric vehicle he helped develop managed a range of just 170 kilometers, while the unit price of an electric drive assembly once hit 35,000 yuan. Today, the focus has shifted to speed, quality, and stability. CATL now leads the global power battery market, and silicon carbide controllers have become standard equipment in vehicles priced around 200,000 yuan. However, Zhao cautioned that leading in individual components does not equate to leadership in user experience. Intelligent driving is a systematic engineering feat involving perception, decision-making, execution, and data loops. Only system-level leadership can open up a generational gap.
Zhao argued that system leadership is evident in three dimensions. First is the intelligent chassis. Citing the "15th Five-Year Plan" for the intelligent connected new energy vehicle industry released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other departments, he noted that the technical system is evolving from coordination among the core electric components—battery, motor, and control—toward a co-creation ecosystem integrating energy, chassis, and connectivity full-stack architectures. Second is the system architecture capability of software-defined vehicles. A vehicle’s intelligence depends not merely on chip computing power, but on systems engineering. Third is the integration of architecture, algorithms, data, and the supply chain. Leveraging the world’s largest new energy market and most complete industrial chain, China creates irreplaceable verification scenarios.
Zhao stated that the next phase of competition will hinge on the speed of system evolution and ecosystem adaptation. Chinese technology must transition from breakthroughs in individual components to winning through systems, solidifying the industry’s foundation through full-chain independent innovation.
