Jia Ke is interviewed on July 9 in WEDZ. [Photo provided to en.whkfq.gov.cn]
"This is the second time the 2022 China Automotive Bluebook Forum (CABF) has been held in the Wuhan Economic & Technological Development Zone (WEDZ), and I am deeply impressed by the zone's robust development," said Jia Ke, chief editor of Auto Business Review and president of CABF, in an interview on July 9.
The president said he hopes that the forum can promote more in-depth exchange between WEDZ and global players in the automobile field and encourage more enterprises to invest in the zone.
Jia said he was amazed by the tremendous changes that have taken place in WEDZ. "The zone has undergone a rapid transformation, boasting not only Dongfeng's high-end new energy vehicle (NEV) brands, but also other brands such as Xpeng, Geely and Lotus. WEDZ has NEV makers and has laid out the upstream and downstream enterprises focusing on auto chips, Internet of Vehicles, and autonomous driving," said Jia.
He also highlighted WEDZ's 33 measures promoting innovation and entrepreneurship and eight measures promoting the protection of intelligent property rights, as well as the zone's joint efforts with Wuhan-based universities, including Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan University, and Wuhan University of Technology, which has laid a solid foundation for future automotive innovation.
While acknowledging the rapid growth of the NEV market, Jia also expressed his concerns over problems such as the relatively high price of NEVs and the incomplete charging system. "Although developing NEVs has become an industrial common sense, it is still a new concept that has not yet matured. Therefore, every related breakthrough becomes difficult, partly because old auto-making concepts are still there," said Jia.
Jia also explained the concept of "update", which is also the theme of the CABF this time. "We should update the operation system (of the car), rather than just application software. Although the latter also needs to improve, the old operation system makes a slow connection and lagging inevitable," he added.
Jia encouraged the zone to view its current position realistically, modernize its thinking, and seize opportunities to bring about more possibilities.
