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:
- Challenges: User demand for smart cars is growing, prompting Great Wall Motor to enhance user feedback and collaboration with partners, focusing on agile development and over-the-air upgrades to improve customer satisfaction and experience.
- Developments: China's automotive brands have advanced in core technologies, with Great Wall Motor leading in vehicle manufacturing, low-carbon solutions, and a comprehensive energy system integrating solar, battery and hydrogen power.
- Outlook for 2025: Intelligent vehicles will drive diversified business models and OTA capabilities, enhancing lifecycle management and revenue streams while improving safety and efficiency in urban transportation through infrastructure communication.
- Emerging issues: Great Wall Motor will enhance vehicle intelligence through Coffee AI and human-computer interaction technologies while investing in new energy vehicles and collaborating with partners to improve sustainability and supply chain resilience.
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.
