Dongfeng Motor Global Innovation Center in WEDZ. [Photo/WeChat account: whkfq]
The Wuhan Economic & Technological Development Zone (WEDZ), known as "China Auto Valley", is flourishing due to its strong automotive foundation.
The zone's GDP exceeded 220 billion yuan ($30.93 billion) in 2024, establishing a robust automotive industrial chain that includes 10 vehicle manufacturers, 14 assembly plants, and over 1,000 component companies.
Central to this growth is technological innovation, with the Dongfeng Motor Global Innovation Center leading the charge. This center exemplifies WEDZ's commitment to technology-driven progress and serves as a model for innovation in China's automotive sector.
A key competitive edge for automakers is powertrain technology. In a spacious first-floor showroom, Li Jia, an engineer at Dongfeng Motor's R&D Institute, presents the "Mach E" power system.
This groundbreaking system features the industry's first dual-motor, two-speed electric drive assembly, and a 10-in-one ultra-high-speed electric drive system with a rotation speed of 34,417 RPM, setting a new industry benchmark.
Li's research team developed an electromagnetic compatibility simulation model from scratch, addressing compatibility challenges in new energy vehicle development. This innovation has reduced single test costs by 400,000 yuan, saving nearly 1 million yuan in R&D expenses.
Dongfeng's premium smart electric vehicle brand, Voyah, has leveraged cutting-edge technology to expand into markets such as Norway, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Voyah employs high-voltage shielded cables and metal shielding layers to minimize emissions, ensuring components function without interference.
Dongfeng Motor collaborated with five universities in 2023, including Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Fudan University, to launch an engineering master's and doctoral program focusing on AI and new materials, selecting 48 candidates.
Dongfeng opened the AI Joint Innovation Center in 2024, which by 2025 had expanded to include 12 new member units and over 100 AI experts from various fields within the group.
Dongfeng also released the industry's largest open-source dataset, comprising 1.25 million high-quality end-to-end autonomous driving data sets, setting a new benchmark for standardization and ecosystem development in autonomous driving technology.
