Former MIIT minister: Chinese companies shall cooperate to overcome chip shortage

Beijing (Gasgoo)- The chip shortage situation should be dealt with domestically by promoting collaborations between local auto companies and ICT enterprises, said Miao Wei, former minister of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, during a conference.

The Journey 5 chips; photo credit: Horizon Robotics

At the 2021 Global NEV Supply Chain Innovation Conference, the former minister pointed out that chip manufacturing, as a crucial part of vehicle digitalization, requires Chinese companies’ utmost attention. When facing the current mature international onboard OS, namely Android, Linux, and QNX, local companies should be confident in the future of China-made automotive OS, including AliOS, Banma, and HarmonyOS.

In 2020, global new energy vehicle (NEV) sales amounted to 3.07 million vehicles, up to 4% in market share. By 2020, there were over 10 million NEVs on the road, 67% of which are battery-electric vehicles, further proving the ongoing NEV reformation worldwide.

Data showed that NEV sales grew to over 1.8 million vehicles in China in the first eight months this year, accounting for 10.9% of the market. However, Miao Wei believed that NEVs are merely the beginning of the auto industry reformation, as intelligent connected vehicles will be the key to competition.

In 2020, $46 billion worth of auto-grade chips were sold across the world, down 1.1% year on year. China consumed roughly 30% of the global auto-grade chips, while domestic supply was less than 10%.

This year, several automakers such as BYD and Great Wall Motor and ICT firms, including HUAWEI and Nexperia, started to invest in auto-grade chips. Domestic advanced technology developers such as Horizon Robotics, Black Sesame, and NavInfo all have AI chip products for vehicles.