Source: Getty Images/Olivier Le Moal

Q&A with Great Wall Motor

Great Wall Motor Co. Ltd., (GWM) is a Chinese vehicle manufacturer based in Baoding, Hebei Province. GWM is a global intelligent technology company, whose business includes vehicle and parts design, R&D, production, sales and service. Its brands include HAVAL, WEY, ORA, TANK and GWM Pickup.

We spoke to Wu Huixiao, chief technology officer of GWM.

(Image source: GWM)

Key takeaways:

The following is an edited transcript of the conversation.

S&P Global Mobility: What were the most significant challenges your business encountered this year? 

Wu Huixiao: Through the Hi-4 power system and Coffee AI intelligent system, Great Wall Motors has basically completed the technological layout for electrification and intelligence. We have also built a user-centered product development system and maintained the quality baseline during the transformative era through a unique quality culture, achieving stable operations and laying a foundation for better future development. The biggest challenge is how to clearly and multidimensionally express oneself (technology-enabled automotive brand value) and understand the external world in the era of big data and fragmented information dissemination, which is becoming increasingly difficult for both individuals and companies.

What is the most positive development you witnessed in the industry in 2024?

The [Chinese automotive industry] has basically transitioned from an automotive manufacturing industry to an AI technology enterprise. The construction of the electrification, intelligence and comprehensive DTC (direct-to-customer) systems has also transformed into market-delivered products, receiving widespread praise from users.

Looking ahead to 2025, how do you view future business prospects and overall outlook?

With the rapid development of intelligent technology, intelligent vehicles are gradually becoming the new benchmark for future mobility. The business models and technologies of future intelligent vehicles will show more diversified and innovative development trends. The application of a series of new technologies will impact the development of vehicle EE architecture, promoting software-defined vehicles, OTA, and other more open and efficient systems. The popularization of OTA technology will enable OEMs to remotely push software updates, which will include not only security patches and performance improvements but also entirely new functions and applications. This capability will make the life-cycle management of vehicles more flexible and efficient, while also providing manufacturers with new revenue sources, such as value-added services and function subscriptions offered through OTA.

OEMs will actively participate in the construction of a new ecosystem for the transportation industry, including intelligent transportation, smart cities, shared mobility, and on-demand services. With the development of autonomous driving technology, intelligent vehicles will be able to provide higher levels of safety and convenience, thus changing people's travel habits and the landscape of urban transportation. Vehicles will be able to communicate with traffic lights, other vehicles and road infrastructure to achieve smoother and more efficient traffic flow.

Do you have any other specific concerns or new industry issues you would like to emphasize?

GWM will continue to optimize Coffee AI, enhancing user experience and personalized design around intelligent driving and smart cockpits, and exploring more human-machine interaction technologies, such as using augmented reality, virtual reality, and natural language processing to expand the user experience from outside the vehicle to inside. We will also optimize product design, manufacturing processes, and after-sales services based on big data analysis technology.

We will increase investment in technologies related to new energy vehicles, supporting the company's sustainable development in globalization and reducing carbon emissions. Together with partners, we will develop new materials and processes, establishing a resilient and flexible global supply chain system.

In addition, I am concerned about the development of embodied intelligent robots and Agent AI. Embodied intelligent robots emphasize the interaction between agents and the physical world, perceiving the environment through their bodies and executing actions to achieve deeper understanding and more flexible adaptation for more complex human-machine interaction scenarios. Collaboration between multiple agents is an important direction for future development; through collaboration, agents can solve more complex problems and achieve higher levels of intelligence.

Contacts

Copyright © 2024 S&P Global Inc. All rights reserved.

These materials, including any software, data, processing technology, index data, ratings, credit-related analysis, research, model, software or other application or output described herein, or any part thereof (collectively the “Property”) constitute the proprietary and confidential information of S&P Global Inc its affiliates (each and together “S&P Global”) and/or its third party provider licensors. S&P Global on behalf of itself and its third-party licensors reserves all rights in and to the Property. These materials have been prepared solely for information purposes based upon information generally available to the public and from sources believed to be reliable.
Any copying, reproduction, reverse-engineering, modification, distribution, transmission or disclosure of the Property, in any form or by any means, is strictly prohibited without the prior written consent of S&P Global. The Property shall not be used for any unauthorized or unlawful purposes. S&P Global’s opinions, statements, estimates, projections, quotes and credit-related and other analyses are statements of opinion as of the date they are expressed and not statements of fact or recommendations to purchase, hold, or sell any securities or to make any investment decisions, and do not address the suitability of any security, and there is no obligation on S&P Global to update the foregoing or any other element of the Property. S&P Global may provide index data. Direct investment in an index is not possible. Exposure to an asset class represented by an index is available through investable instruments based on that index. The Property and its composition and content are subject to change without notice.

THE PROPERTY IS PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” BASIS. NEITHER S&P GLOBAL NOR ANY THIRD PARTY PROVIDERS (TOGETHER, “S&P GLOBAL PARTIES”) MAKE ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, FREEDOM FROM BUGS, SOFTWARE ERRORS OR DEFECTS, THAT THE PROPERTY’S FUNCTIONING WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR THAT THE PROPERTY WILL OPERATE IN ANY SOFTWARE OR HARDWARE CONFIGURATION, NOR ANY WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AS TO ITS ACCURACY, AVAILABILITY, COMPLETENESS OR TIMELINESS, OR TO THE RESULTS TO BE OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF THE PROPERTY. S&P GLOBAL PARTIES SHALL NOT IN ANY WAY BE LIABLE TO ANY RECIPIENT FOR ANY INACCURACIES, ERRORS OR OMISSIONS REGARDLESS OF THE CAUSE. Without limiting the foregoing, S&P Global Parties shall have no liability whatsoever to any recipient, whether in contract, in tort (including negligence), under warranty, under statute or otherwise, in respect of any loss or damage suffered by any recipient as a result of or in connection with the Property, or any course of action determined, by it or any third party, whether or not based on or relating to the Property. In no event shall S&P Global be liable to any party for any direct, indirect, incidental, exemplary, compensatory, punitive, special or consequential damages, costs, expenses, legal fees or losses (including without limitation lost income or lost profits and opportunity costs or losses caused by negligence) in connection with any use of the Property even if advised of the possibility of such damages. The Property should not be relied on and is not a substitute for the skill, judgment and experience of the user, its management, employees, advisors and/or clients when making investment and other business decisions.

The S&P Global logo is a registered trademark of S&P Global, and the trademarks of S&P Global used within this document or materials are protected by international laws. Any other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

The inclusion of a link to an external website by S&P Global should not be understood to be an endorsement of that website or the website's owners (or their products/services). S&P Global is not responsible for either the content or output of external websites. S&P Global keeps certain activities of its divisions separate from each other in order to preserve the independence and objectivity of their respective activities. As a result, certain divisions of S&P Global may have information that is not available to other S&P Global divisions. S&P Global has established policies and procedures to maintain the confidentiality of certain nonpublic information received in connection with each analytical process. S&P Global may receive compensation for its ratings and certain analyses, normally from issuers or underwriters of securities or from obligors. S&P Global reserves the right to disseminate its opinions and analyses. S&P Global Ratings’ public ratings and analyses are made available on its sites, www.spglobal.com/ratings (free of charge) and www.capitaliq.com (subscription), and may be distributed through other means, including via S&P Global publications and third party redistributors.