Automobile City: The Journey to Challenge the World

Translation/Peng Hui

In 2001, the construction of Shanghai international automobile city was launched. Rong Wenwei witnessed the whole process of the automobile city from scratch to perfection. Now, seventeen years have passed. If you come to Shanghai International Automobile City, you will feel the automotive elements everywhere, the people are mostly engaged in the automobile industry, and they are talking about automobiles.

Rong said, “we are no longer satisfied with filling the gaps at home. Now, we are challenging the industry and the world. We have overcome all kinds of difficulties and transformed a piece of farmland into a favorite city with beautiful ecological environment and sound infrastructure. We are proud of the humanity and the future-oriented technology here.”

Automobile City’s Aerial Image

Let the automobile industry become a strong one

In the 1980s, Shanghai Automobile Factory cooperated with German Volkswagen in Anting town,where the large-scale production of Chinese automobiles started, laying the foundation for the positioning of the “automobile city”. At the Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress in February, 2001, the strategic layout for the development of Shanghai in the new century was formulated, which is abbreviated as “east, south, west and north” strategy. The “west” here is the establishment of the International Automobile City in Anting town, which is the “west gate” of Shanghai. In April, 2001, the concept of Shanghai International Automobile City was launched.

In Rong’s view, it is the balance of the industry and the opportunity of Jiading to place the International Automobile City in Anting town.At that time, Shanghai had already begun the transformation. As one of the four major industrial bases, automobile industry just enjoyed the widespread popularity of automobiles. “I also came to Jiading and Anting town at this time.” Rong recalled, “At the time, we set a requirement that 80 percent of our energy should be put into the pre-planning and verification of each project. The construction was a process from scratch, and the hardship of that time was still fresh in my memory.”

After rounds of argumentation and discussion, the concept of the whole industry chain was formed, which focused on the development of automobile research and development, production and manufacturing, education and training, trade exhibition, sports events, cultural expo, etc. The Overall Planning on Shanghai International Automobile City was completed and the overall orientation and the function design of Shanghai International Automobile City were further clarified.

Bold attempt on the Multi-development System

Through the 300 million yuan invested by the government during the initial period, Jiading has promoted the participation of municipal-level weight enterprise groups such as SAIC, Jiushi Group, New Hongqiao and Bailian Group. With a total investment of 60 billion yuan, a large number of functional projects, such as Jiading Campus of Tongji University, National Motor Product Vehicle Quality Supervision and Testing Center, Automobile Museum, F1 Racing Circuit and Automobile Expo Park, have been completed successively and put into use.

High efficiency originated from the innovation of system and mechanism. At the beginning, the automobile city did not follow the traditional model of centralized construction and management in the economic development zone, but implemented the multi-development system of urban cooperation, government guidance and market operation.

With the completion of many major projects, a complete industrial chain connected by cars has been gradually launched in Shanghai International Automobile City from manufacture, trade to leisure and sports. Each link in the chain represents the first-class both home and abroad, which has played a beautiful “world card”.

The integration development of industry and city

With the gradual improvement of the automobile city’s industrial functions, all kinds of talents have further gathered. At present, more than 30,000 R&D personnel in the automobile field have been attracted.

So, Anting became one of the important functional projects. Designed by the German designer Professor Albert Speer, the German contemporary building technology standard was used to provide the city with a high-quality core living area.

“At that time, the concept of sponge city was not mentioned, but now what has been built is a city that meets that requirement.” Rong recalled, “For example, the thermal insulation technology standards in the first phase of construction occupied domestic leading level. Instead of learning the style of German towns, we need to learn the advanced concepts of German towns. The building of Anting was a combination of German technology and art, and of course we would learn how to manage it in the next step.”

Anting, with the greening rate reaching 60%, electric poles were not visible on the road; the advanced technologies such as utility tunnel, centralized power supply, solar energy and external thermal insulation were integrated to pursue the unification of ecology and comfort. At present, about 60 percent of the residents, including nearly 400 foreigners from 15 countries, worked in Shanghai International Automobile City just across the river.

The automobile Silicon Valley dream is within reach

After more than a decade of development, the city has built an automobile industry base with the most complete domestic industrial chain, the highest level of research and development, and the strongest comprehensive strength.

In 2007, Xi Jinping, then the Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee, visited Shanghai International Automobile City after inspecting many foreign automobile industry bases. While highly evaluating the construction achievements of city, he also put forward higher requirements for Jiading: “There were few regions where automobile industry chains are fully concentrated in foreign countries let alone in China. You have done the best. I hope that you would base yourselves on the overall situation, accelerate development and strive to occupy the commanding heights at home and a place in the international arena.”

“I have been relished these words. What is the meaning of commanding height? Shanghai should be a pioneer in reform and opening up, as well as in innovation and development. For the automobile city, from the front-end R&D and design, personnel training, to the back-end automobile culture, exhibition and exposition, all of them can lead the consumption fashion of Chinese automobile culture, and the development trend of automobile products, which is the mission.” Rong said.

Fortunately, the city once again got an opportunity. In July, 2010, at the G20 International Clean Energy Ministers’ Meeting, eight countries including China and the United States jointly proposed an initiative to develop an international demonstration city of electric vehicles. This is undoubtedly a major opportunity for China’s new energy vehicles to keep pace with the development trend of new energy automobile industry in the world.

In April 2011, Shanghai was confirmed as an international demonstration city of electric vehicles by the Ministry of Science and Technology. Jiading became the only international demonstration area of electric vehicles in China and the city took the lead. In 2015, the city got another new opportunity. It was approved by Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to apply for the intelligent network vehicle demonstration pilot project, and Jiading formally became the first national pilot demonstration area of smart network. In June 2016, the closed testing area of the Shanghai demonstration area of the National Intelligent Network was officially opened. At present, the scene expansion construction has been completed, and more than 200 test scenarios have been formed. It has become a window with the richest test scene, the most advanced technology and the greatest influence in the National Intelligent Network.

According to the developmental plan of the core area of the city, it will basically establish a high-quality international community with reasonable interaction of the whole automobile industry chain, outstanding leading advantages in industrial innovation, strong automobile culture atmosphere, distinctive urban cultural characteristics and international influence. At that time, the annual production value is expected to reach 74 billion yuan; the output value of new energy, vehicle networking, intelligent network automobile industry will reach 100 billion yuan; the number of enterprise technology centers will exceed 100, and the investment in R&D and innovation will reach about 40 billion yuan.

In the future, following the devel-opment path of precise transformation and exquisite growth, the industrial and urban development of the city will be further optimized to form a spatial layout of “one axis, two circles, three belts and four zones”. That is, the development axis of Cao’an Highway; “Circular Park” platform and urban service circle and “circular Tongji” knowledge and innovation economic circle; Rail Transit Belt, Moyu South Road Belt and Boyuan Road Belt; Automobile Innovation Port, Tongji Science and Technology Park, core area of CBD District, and the New Anting Town (Phase II).

In the past three decades, it was the automobile that had changed Jiading. In the next three decades, Jiading will contribute to the transformation of the automobile and building a world-class automobile industry center, which has always been the goal. Before the end of the interview, Rong gave all of us a dream that was within reach: “I hope we can build a Silicon Valley in the automobile industry in Jiading town, Shanghai.”