How can Foton Motor break through the dual competition?

Four major strategies send a strong signal, and Foton Motor continues to accelerate its lead in the automotive industry, which is at a critical period of change and is accelerating industry reshuffling. This not only brings unprecedented opportunities for enterprises but also intensifies challenges. For commercial vehicle companies, the situation is even more urgent. On the one hand, they have to deal with the pressure from long-term rivals, and on the other hand, they must face new players. Under dual competition, how to maintain their own advantages and successfully cross the new cycle has become the key to determining the future fate of all commercial vehicle companies. As an industry giant, Foton Motor is also treading on thin ice. Especially in the new stage of development, and under the background of clearly proposing "striving to become an international enterprise leading in green technology and market", every move of Foton Motor is more eye-catching.

Just as commercial vehicles represent the barometer of the economic environment, Foton Motor represents the weathervane of the entire industry.

How many strategic reserves does this company have now, and where will it point next? At the Foton Motor 828 Brand Night, we found the answer.

Under dual pressure, Foton Motor breaks through with momentum.

The price war of passenger cars has eased, and the competition for the market share of commercial vehicles is still in the deep water area. Behind this, there is anxiety brought by changes in market structure, and it highlights the pain of the industry's transformation period. The root of all this is closely related to the deep changes in user needs.

How to break the situation? It is also a common pain point faced by all commercial vehicle companies. The solution of Foton Motor is simple and clear - transformation. It seems to be a simple recipe, but it is a test of a car company's comprehensive innovation strength from production to research and development, from service to system capabilities. At the same time, it also puts higher requirements on whether the company can accurately grasp the pulse of the times under the wave of new energy and intelligent networking.

At the just-held 2024 China Automotive Industry Development (Taida) International Forum, experts from the China Automotive Technology and Research Center pointed out that at present, China's automotive industry is at a critical period of industrial transformation, the conversion of old and new kinetic energy, and global development. With new quality productivity as the leader, accelerating the transformation and upgrading of the industry, and promoting the innovative application of new concepts, new technologies, and new models, will be the internal requirement to accelerate the high-quality development of the automotive industry.

And commercial vehicles, which are regarded as the driving wheels of the economy and society, are facing more complex and arduous challenges. This includes not only the pressure brought by the economic cycle, but also the threat of strong entry by new players such as Geely, Chery, BYD, and Great Wall in the passenger car market.Opportunities often coexist with crises. Looking at the experiences of top international companies that have traversed business cycles, analysis institutions generally have a positive outlook on the future development of China's commercial vehicle industry. FAW Group, which has achieved leapfrog development four times at an ultra-high speed, still stands at the forefront, leveraging its first-mover advantage to take the lead in navigating the new cycle.

On August 28, 2023, FAW Group completed a brand renewal and announced that it would enter a new stage of high-quality, low-carbon development, committed to providing green solutions for the energy revolution and becoming an international enterprise leading in green technology and market.

A year later, on the same date of August 28, during the brand night, FAW Group announced a more detailed strategic plan and the path to achieve it. From the four dimensions of new energy, intelligence, globalization, and ecologicalization, FAW Group's technological accumulation and strategic vision were presented in a three-dimensional manner.

Four major strategies signal a comprehensive lead

Unlike the grand "carnival" held at the foot of the Great Wall last year, this year, FAW Group wants to attract more attention to its research and development and technical strength. Therefore, it moved the brand night event to the FAW Group X Laboratory, which also facilitated more employees to participate in the celebration.

According to the strategic deployment of the above four dimensions, each link is closely related to this large laboratory with many cutting-edge technologies, and above this is FAW Group's positive response to industrial transformation.

According to the plan, by 2025, FAW Group will take the lead in mass-producing L2++ products; by 2028, it will achieve the commercialization of L4 autonomous driving products; by 2030, the proportion of new energy products under its umbrella will exceed 50%, becoming a world-class new energy commercial vehicle enterprise; at the same time, the overseas market will achieve sales of 300,000 vehicles, and the proportion of new energy products will reach 30%; and continuously improve and enhance the brand's unique "2+12N" new ecological model.

Roland Berger predicts that by 2030, the penetration rate of new energy commercial vehicles (including pure electricity and hydrogen fuel) will reach more than 25% for medium and heavy trucks, and more than 30% for light trucks. FAW Group's requirements for itself are obviously higher. In order to achieve the above goals, FAW Group has formulated a practical path to achieve them.

This includes adhering to the "pure electricity + hybrid + fuel cell" three-pronged approach in the new energy technology route, deploying core modules and key technologies of new energy, "FAW + Kavin" dual business operations; and in terms of intelligence, firmly grasping core software technologies such as perception and control algorithms, building core hardware capabilities such as domain controllers and line-controlled chassis, and building an intelligent driving ecosystem. Obviously, green technology has become the new background color of FAW Group.From the outside, 28-year-old Foton Motor has seemingly had a smooth journey, constantly overtaking. In 1999, just three years after its establishment, it completed the shareholding system reform and successfully went public. Subsequently, it won the national light truck sales championship at the fastest pace in the industry. In 2009, Foton Motor completed the full series layout of commercial vehicles and became the world's number one selling Chinese commercial vehicle brand. Since then, Foton Motor has officially become an industry benchmark and entered the stage of global development. In 2021, Foton Motor broke through the milestone of 10 million global cumulative sales in the shortest time in the industry.

All the past is just the prologue. Standing at a new starting point, Foton Motor has decided to start a second entrepreneurship.

Comprehensive transformation to make the movement of all things more free.

It is important to understand that the era of new energy and intelligent networking has brought significant changes to products, technology, and markets. The golden decade of commercial vehicles was set against the backdrop of large-scale infrastructure construction, and the rapid growth period of Foton Motor was also inseparable from the opportunities given by the times. Currently, the main battlefield for commercial vehicles has shifted to the logistics market, which poses new challenges for the industry chain.

Analysts point out that while it is correct to build vehicles according to scenarios, blindly catering to the market can easily lead to elimination. Especially with the promulgation of the latest emission regulations for heavy vehicles both domestically and internationally, the pressure on companies is unimaginable. With keen insight into the market and users, Foton Motor has been prepared for this.

In 2005, when most car companies were still watching the development of new energy vehicles, Foton Motor had already launched the first batch of domestic fuel cell buses and trucks. This move not only established Foton Motor's first-mover advantage in the field of new energy commercial vehicles but also laid a solid foundation for its subsequent technological accumulation and market development.

If new energy is the starting point of Foton Motor's transformation, then intelligence is the wings of its takeoff. As early as 2016, Foton Motor took the lead in launching the first intelligent connected light truck, starting the intelligent transformation. Since then, Foton has continued to invest in R&D resources, continuously improving its intelligent driving technology system, and gradually forming an intelligent driving product matrix covering light trucks, VANs, buses, and heavy trucks.

According to the latest semi-annual report released by Foton Motor, in terms of vehicle and mobile equipment layout, the company already has about 1,000 product resources, covering pure electric, hydrogen fuel, and hybrid multiple technical routes, covering 253 scenarios. At the same time, globally, Foton Motor has laid out 16 technological innovation R&D centers, has 10 complete vehicle bases, 6 parts bases, and 23 overseas KD factories, with a sales network covering more than 130 countries and regions.

All of this will continue to grow, expand, and improve in the next five years, providing a foundation for the freer movement of all things, which is the goal of Foton Motor's transformation.As Liu Gang, the Vice President of R&D at Foton Motor's Auman Business Unit, said at the Brand Night: "In the competition of the intelligent new energy era, the comprehensive strength of the product is fundamental."

At this Brand Night, the Auman Galaxy 9 made its global debut. When explaining this product, Liu Gang was clearly more excited than ever before. In his view, this vehicle is not only the flagship heavy truck built on Foton Motor's new intelligent architecture platform, concentrating the company's most cutting-edge technology, but also its arrival marks the first time a Chinese commercial vehicle enterprise has reshaped the global benchmark for heavy trucks, which is of extraordinary significance.

Returning to the essence, fully forward development, and equipped with the industry's first Galaxy intelligent architecture are the important product labels of the Auman Galaxy 9.

With a brand-new interior and exterior design, architectural design, and comprehensively leading intelligent technology, Auman has formed five major family series. The differentiated product matrix enables it to cover all road and engineering scenarios, as well as domestic and international markets, and all energy sources including oil, electricity, hydrogen, gas, and hybrids.

In terms of intelligentization, the Auman Galaxy 9 series of models take the lead in providing users with a higher level of intelligent driving configuration list. It is reported that the first batch of intelligent models is equipped with 10 cameras, 5 millimeter-wave radars, 1 lidar, and 1 high-computing power domain controller, achieving 28+ intelligent driving functions such as HWP high-speed navigation for the vehicle.

At the same time, the Auman Galaxy 9 also features the industry's top intelligent cockpit system, covering more than 800 infotainment functions, more than 400 vehicle cloud networking information, and more than 500 information security protection measures, comprehensively covering the three major application scenarios of commercial vehicles: "driving," "resting," and "vehicle management," achieving comprehensive interaction and control between the driver and the vehicle.

Gong Haidong, Deputy General Manager and spokesperson of Foton Motor, predicts that the commercialization process of commercial vehicle intelligence will be very fast. It is expected that the penetration rate of L2-level intelligent driving will exceed 40% in the next two years, and L2+ level will also increase to more than 30%. For Foton Motor, the best era may have just begun.