China’s Guangzhou to set up 10-billion-yuan fund for ICV, NEV development

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- China's Guangzhou plans to build a 10-billion-yuan ($1.481 billion) fund to promote the development of local intelligent-connected vehicle (“ICV”) and new energy vehicle (“NEV”) industries, according to a document on which the Guangzhou Municipal Industry and Information Technology Bureau is soliciting public opinions.

Per the document, the fund will be used to support complete vehicle manufacturers and the upstream and downstream enterprises along the auto industrial chain in ramping up production scale, and attract high-quality out-of-town companies and projects to the city.

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Besides, a special sub-fund will be set up to invest in the projects focusing on making breakthroughs in automobile and core auto parts technologies.

For the sake of innovation synergy, local government will further support companies in designing, testing, and producing automotive-grade chips, and stepping up the R&D of core technologies related to intelligent driving, smart cockpit, and vehicle controlling platforms, as well as NEV core systems of electric motor, battery, and electric control.

For this purpose, the city's science and technology departments will prepare at most 500 million yuan ($74.041 million) per year of budget for the R&D of core auto parts and key technologies jointly conducted by the companies along the automotive industrial chain. Each R&D project will receive no more than 100 million yuan ($14.808 million) of fiscal support.

To bolster the reform of “both software and hardware-defined vehicle”, automakers in Guangzhou will be encouraged to build their full-stack R&D systems that embrace electrical/electronic architecture, basic vehicle software, intelligent cockpit software, and autonomous driving software, pre-install more cutting-edge hardware, and continuously create added value for software services through online upgrades.

According to the document, complete vehicle companies will be rewarded with 10 million yuan ($1.481 million) per model for the development of Level 3 and above autonomous driving vehicles that comply with the standards set by China's MIIT. The award amount for each company shall not exceed 30 million yuan ($4.442 million).