The Chinese government announced it will scrap foreign ownership limits on local auto firms by 2022, boosting companies such as Tesla which may wish to have a wholly-owned subsidiary in the world’s largest auto market. The timetable of wider market access for foreign auto markers was published after President Xi Jinping told the Boao Forum that China would cut import tariffs and relax foreign ownership restrictions. Currently, foreign carmakers are required to set up a joint venture with a local firm in which there is a 50% investment cap. The cap will be scrapped for new energy vehicle manufacturers this year, for commercial car producers in 2020, and for passenger car producers starting from 2022. Foreign carmakers will be allowed to have more than two Chinese joint ventures as well in 2022. Passenger cars are the largest automotive segment, accounting for around 85% of the 28.9 million new vehicles sold in China last year.

The first to benefit from the relaxation are expected to be new energy carmakers that wish to expand in China. “The growth of traditional carmakers has been pretty stable under the mixed ownership model,” said Toliver Ma, Auto Analyst at Guotai Junan Securities in Hong Kong, adding that the fast growing electric vehicle market will become more competitive as a result of the relaxation. But it will still be some time before a wholly-owned foreign auto manufacturer is set up in China regardless of the implementation time frame by the government, according to Peter Chen, Shanghai-based Engineer with U.S. component maker TRW.

“Nearly all the major global brands have set up their joint-ventures with Chinese partners and it will be unreasonable for them to add many new production lines in the market,” Chen said. General Motors said it would continue to work with existing Chinese partners, suggesting it is in no hurry to set up fully-owned plants in the near future. In November, Tesla’s Chief Executive Elon Musk said the company was three years away from making cars in China. But the ownership structure has proven to be a stumbling block, with Chinese authorities insisting that the plant be set up through a joint venture with local partners, while Musk wanted it to be fully owned by Tesla. China imported 17,000 Tesla vehicles in 2017, up 51.6% from a year earlier, according to the China Automobile Dealers Association (CADA). Passenger cars from Chinese brands accounted for around 44% of the total sold in the country in 2017. China is now the world’s biggest electric vehicles (EV) market, outselling both the U.S. and Europe.

China will also lift shareholding limits in the shipbuilding and aircraft manufacturing industries for foreign investors this year.

(photo by Eric Demurie, Volvo Car Gent)

Volvo Cars, the premium car maker, will produce cars for the new car brand Lynk & Co in Volvo Cars’ manufacturing plant in Ghent, Belgium from late 2019.

The announcement represents a closer collaboration between the two companies, following Volvo Cars’ acquisition of a 30 per cent stake in Lynk & Co last year. Lynk & Co was launched as a new volume brand by Zhejiang Geely Holding, the owner of Volvo Cars, in 2015.

By providing Lynk & Co with production capacity at its Ghent plant, Volvo Cars is backing the expansion of the new car brand in Europe and further diversifying its business.

“We see a big potential for this new brand entering the European market and we are happy to give Lynk & Co the support of Volvo’s technological and industrial expertise,” said Håkan Samuelsson, president and CEO of Volvo Cars.

Joint production with Lynk & Co will also have a positive effect on cost levels, employment and production volumes at the Ghent plant, while generating further economies of scale related to the Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) used by both Volvo Cars and Lynk & Co.

“Our Ghent plant is one of the most efficient car manufacturing plants in Europe with a highly skilled workforce,” said Javier Varela, senior vice president for manufacturing and logistics at Volvo Cars. “Lynk & Co’s decision to pick Ghent for their European production demonstrates the high levels of quality control that underpin Volvo’s global manufacturing strategy.”

The closer collaboration between Volvo Cars and its sister brand comes as the company is entering a phase of global growth following the complete transformation of its business in recent years.

Volvo Cars is creating a diversified, modern car company that includes an electrified performance arm, a software start-up, a car subscription business, the stake in Lynk & Co and a technology-sharing joint venture that creates synergies within the wider Volvo Car Group and the Zhejiang Geely Holding group.

Ghent is one of two car manufacturing plants operated by Volvo Cars in Europe and has produced Volvos since 1965. At the moment it employs around 5,000 people.

The Ghent plant currently builds the XC40, Volvo’s first entry in the fast-growing small SUV segment, which was named 2018 European Car of the Year last month at the Geneva Motor Show. Ghent also builds the V40 and V40 Cross Country hatchbacks as well as the S60 sedan, and will soon start producing the all-new V60 five-door, mid-size estate revealed in February this year.

Besides Volvo Cars’ holding of 30 per cent of the shares in Lynk & Co, Geely Auto owns 50 per cent and Zhejiang Geely Holding 20 per cent in Lynk & Co.

A press conference was held with Belgian Vice-Premier Mr Kris Peeters and Flanders Minister of Labor Mr Philippe Muyters, together with the top-level managers of the three companies, Mr Alain Visser (Senior Vice President Lynk&Co), Mr An (President of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group), Mr Javier Varela (Senior Vice President Production & Logistics Volvo Cars), and Mr Eric Van Landeghem, MD & Plant Manager.

The Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce was represented by Gwenn Sonck, Executive Director, at the launch of the Lynk & Co brand.

China’s car market, the world’s biggest, is changing fast. With “new energy”, “connected” and “autonomous” among the industry’s buzzwords, tech-savvy start-ups have drawn inspiration from Tesla Motors and are determined to be the next disruptor of traditional carmakers like Volkswagen and GM. The South China Morning Post identified 10 newcomers that are looking to shake up the auto industry.

Byton: Co-founded by two former BMW executives, the company has built manufacturing facilities in Nanjing, and unveiled its electric SUV, featuring an edge-to-edge dashboard display, a tablet device on the steering wheel, facial recognition access, hand-gesture control and cloud-based data storage. It also announced a tie-up with autonomous technology start-up Aurora in deploying level 4 self-driving capabilities into its vehicles.

NIO: The company unveiled its first production model, a seven-seater high-performance electric SUV, in December, to compete with U.S. carmaker Tesla. At half the price of Tesla’s Model X, it boasts such driver-assistance features as highway pilot, automatic emergency brakes and a smart in-car system with voice control and automatic adjustment of temperature and light.

Xpeng: Xiaopeng Motor unveiled its first production model, the G3 electric SUV, featuring a windscreen that extends all the way back to mid-roof, giving occupants a sky view, Star Wars-inspired headlights, and a contour that the company said resembles a shark. It is in the same price bracket as Audi’s Q3, Mercedes-Benz’s GLA and BMW’s X1.

WM Motor: The Shanghai-based start-up’s full-electric SUV, will go into production in the first quarter. Founded by former Volvo and Geely executives, the company has raised funds from Baidu and Tencent Holdings. The model will have level-two autonomous driving capabilities.

Singulato Motor: Targeting the full-electric battery car market with a direct-sales model, Singulato Motor is another Tesla challenger in China. With investment from the municipal government of Tongling, Anhui province, the city will host its major production plant capable of producing 200,000 cars a year by around 2020. Singulato Motor opened its first experimental store in Beijing in January, and aims to expand to 200 stores in three years in major Chinese cities.

CHJ Automotive: The company expects to introduce its first two production models this year, a full-electric SUV and an ultra-compact car. The models will have a swappable battery and utilize Google’s Android Auto operating system. CHJ Automotive’s two manufacturing facilities in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, are 90% automated and have an annual production capacity of 80 million battery cells.

JingChi: Co-founded by Baidu’s former autonomous chief Wang Jing, the company launched a three-month public test ride program in January as part of its goal to be the first company to achieve large-scale, commercial deployment of Level 4 autonomous vehicles in China. However, Baidu has sued the company and Wang for alleged theft of intellectual property related to self-driving technology.

Pony.ai: Founded by former Baidu executives and having re-located from Silicon Valley to Guangzhou, Pony.ai launched test rides of its autonomous cars in the city. Pony.ai plans to introduce a fleet of 200 self-driving cars in Guangzhou by the end of the year, where users will be able to hail an autonomous ride through a booking app like Didi or Uber.

Roadstar.ai: The Shenzhen-based company is another artificial intelligence start-up focused on level 4 autonomous driving. The multi-sensor fusion technology it provides can support real-time data analysis of multiple sensors and will become a key solution to go with solid state laser radars that will significantly bring down the cost of autonomous cars.

TuSimple: Headquartered in Beijing and San Diego, TuSimple aims to create the world’s first commercially viable autonomous truck driving platform, with a goal to “redefine the logistics industry”. The start-up has already begun tests of the system in Arizona and in China, and plans to move to commercial operation of cargo trucks later this year.

Baidu, which bills itself as “China’s Google”, has leapfrogged Tesla, Uber and Apple in the global race to build self-driving cars, according to a study. The Beijing-based company, which has invested heavily in developing artificial intelligence and applications for autonomous driving, outranks the U.S. trio in a study conducted by Navigant Research, which recently released its 2018 leader board report on automated driving vehicles. In the annual report, the U.S.-based research company ranked 19 companies involved in developing self-driving cars, scoring them on 10 criteria, from the company’s technology and vision to its strategy to commercialize products and their quality. Based on the score, companies are divided into four categories.

Baidu was rated among “contenders” along with companies such as Toyota, Jaguar Land Rover and Hyundai Motor. The Chinese company had moved up from the “challengers” section, leaving Tesla, Uber and Apple to the lowest-ranked category. The traditional automotive giants General Motors, Volkswagen and Ford dominated the top tier, together with Google’s Waymo self-driving unit.

As part of China’s hand picked champions for artificial intelligence (AI), Baidu has been charged to develop autonomous driving. At the CES technology show in Las Vegas earlier this month, Baidu Chief Operating Officer Lu Qi said that China is closing the gap with the U.S. rapidly in AI, thanks to strong government support and the country’s huge population size, which are key factors in promoting the development of the technology, the South China Morning Post reports.

China expects smart cars with partial or fully autonomous functions to account for 50% of new vehicles sold in the country by 2020 — one of the most ambitious plans worldwide to push forward self-driving technologies. The blueprint, released by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), is part of the country’s efforts to become a global power in smart car development and production by 2035. In order to perfect the legal system for self-driving technologies, the government will speed up the drafting of regulations for public road tests of autonomous driving and revise the current road safety regulations “when conditions are mature”, according to the plan.

The NDRC also expects China to basically finish a framework of smart car standards – ranging from technological innovation and infrastructure to legislation, production supervision and information safety – by 2020. “Developing such cars is of great significance, which would create new economic growth points, alleviate traffic-related problems and enhance China’s competitive edge,” said the Commission. Private capital is invited to join the efforts. The NDRC also suggests favorable tax and other financial policies for small and medium-sized companies and startups in smart cars and encourages international cooperation to introduce advanced technologies. The NDRC also called on Chinese companies to expand their global presence through mergers and joint ventures.

Several global car manufacturers are already cooperating with Chinese companies and organizations in the development of self-driving cars. General Motors Co has demonstrated a vehicle-to-infrastructure communication application on public roads based on a standard it developed with Tsinghua University and China’s Changan Automobile. Baidu’s self-driving program, Apollo, has attracted a large number of Chinese and international partners, including Ford Motor and Daimler. A total of 21 Chinese companies are planning a CNY1 billion joint venture that will specialize in research and development of such cars. Among investors are FAW Group Corp, Dongfeng Motor Corp, China Mobile, China Unicom and Didi Chuxing’s parent company, Beijing Xiaoju Technology, the China Daily reports.

In actual numbers of electric cars sold, China is the clear leader, with more than half the world market of about 1 million cars and light trucks. Chinese companies are preparing to export electric cars to the U.S. and Europe and to build car plants in Western markets. Moreover, Chinese capital is behind niche electric carmakers in the U.S., including Lucid Motors, Faraday Future and SF Motors, all based in California.