The annual market share of automatic transmissions has triggered multinational companies

On August 28, 2009, the signing ceremony for the strategic cooperation between Beijing Automotive Group and Bosch CVT was held in Beijing. At this point, several of the world's top automatic transmission manufacturers have their own lives in the Chinese market, and China's automatic transmission market has officially started.

At present, China’s demand for automatic transmissions is mainly met by imported products. Although domestic companies have conducted a lot of research and development, the results are limited. The import figures in recent years show that the annual import volume of automatic transmissions is as high as 10 billion yuan or more. According to statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, about 80% of the domestic auto-passenger passenger cars are equipped with imported automatic transmissions, and the remaining 20% ​​are mainly from foreign-owned joint ventures. This has led to many autonomous vehicles in China. In the automatic transmission matching either lack of partners, or high prices, auto transmission has become a bottleneck restricting the development of China's auto industry.

In fact, the thirst for the development and production of automatic transmissions in the Chinese market has long attracted many international automatic transmission companies. The gap in the core components of the Chinese auto market has always been the focus of international companies.

As early as 2006, the British auto gearbox giant Antonov and Geely had signed a contract, agreed to start production of TX6 transmissions from the beginning of 2009, unfortunately the cooperation in 2007 ended without results. After negotiations with the OEMs fell, Antonov adjusted his direction and decided to bypass the automaker first, choose a partner independent of the automaker, and then promote the product to the automaker to win. A broader market. Under the guidance of such thinking, in 2008 Antonov signed a contract with Chongqing Longxin Group and announced the establishment of a joint venture to start production of the TX6 transmission. However, Antonov’s Chinese dream suffered another miscarriage and Loncin finally withdrew from the co-production of TX6. .

Until June 20, 2009, Antonov established a joint venture company with Chongqing Blue Dragon Industrial Co., Ltd. to produce a six-speed automatic transmission. Antonov invested 30 million euros in technology and shares. The shares of the assets, each holding 50% of the shares, jointly set up factories to develop passenger car transmissions. It is reported that Lifan 620 will be the first to use its 6-speed automatic transmission. The vehicle companies currently in contact with them also include Chang'an, Jianghuai, BYD, GAC, and Haima Motors.

Prior to the strategic cooperation with BAIC, Bosch Corporation, which possesses the world's top automatic transmission technology, held a CVT promotion meeting during the 2008 China Automotive Industry International Forum and threw out an olive branch of the CVT (CVT) to the Chinese automobile industry. Help Chinese auto companies develop their own CVTs. At the conference, a low-cost CVT-P070 (ie, a project that began in 2007) was developed specifically for emerging markets such as China and India.

"The market for technology" became a "secondary straw" for the second time

On the one hand, international companies are eager to open up the Chinese market. On the other hand, Chinese auto companies’ reliance on imported key components has also caused the Chinese government to be in a hurry. The “market-for-technology” has for the second time become China’s automobile industry’s “resume”. The second is focusing on the core components such as powertrains.

On July 13, 1995, Zhonglian Automotive Electronics Co., Ltd. and Robert Bosch GmbH signed a joint venture contract in Bonn, Germany, to establish Joint Automotive Electronics Co., Ltd. The total investment of the project is 2.668 billion yuan. Both China and Germany share 50% of the shares and produce gasoline engine management systems (EMS). Zhonglian Automotive Electronics Co., Ltd. was jointly funded and established by 10 domestic companies including SAIC, FAW, Dongfeng, Beiqi and Wuxi Weifu Co., Ltd. At that time, the government also hoped that the introduction of advanced technologies for the production and sale of gasoline engine management systems for precise control of gasoline engine injection and ignition could help Chinese companies obtain technological upgrades. However, the 40% share of China's gasoline engine market now comes from this company. However, Chinese local auto companies still have little to do with engine electrical control.

On November 25, 2008, under the impetus of the Chinese government, the signing ceremony of China Development Investment Co., Ltd. and Borg Warner Dual Clutch Drive System Co., Ltd. was held. The total investment is about 200 million U.S. dollars. It is planned to start construction in 2009 and put into production in 2011. It will produce and develop the core products in the double-clutch automatic transmission. This is the world’s most widely-connected top automatic transmission project (FAW, SAIC, Dongfeng, Chang’an, Chery, Jinbei, Changfeng, GAC, Zhongshun, Jianghuai, Great Wall, Geely, FAW and SAIC each occupy 20% of China’s shares, Chang’an , Dongfeng, and Chery each accounted for 10%, except for 2% of the Great Wall and 3% of Zhongshun, the remaining five were 5%. Although the Chinese company did not plan to strive for the largest stake in capital investment, the final result was a ratio of 66:34. The weakness of the Chinese company in the equity ratio has greatly reduced the possibility that this cooperation project will “change the market for technology”.

The relevant person of BorgWarner expects that by 2020, 80% of the automatic transmission models produced by the 12 shareholders of the company will use the DCT transmission. From whatever perspective, BorgWarner will be the biggest beneficiary of this project.

Is multi-leg walking M&A a new opportunity?

In fact, what Chinese auto makers lack is not just the technology of the core components of their own domestic brands. For the accurate understanding of the market of China's core parts and components and market estimates, domestic companies have even gone after foreign companies. At a related forum held recently, the precise data for the Chinese automatic transmission market came from a Japanese transmission company. According to the data provided by Japan Gutco Automatic Transmission Co., Ltd., the output of the dual pedal car (automatic car) market in China in 2008 was 2.1 million units, accounting for 37% of the market; by 2015, the output of dual pedal car will be It reached 4.5 million vehicles, accounting for 47% of the market.

The market prospects of China's automatic transmission market are worth more attention from vehicle manufacturers. Fortunately, some independent companies have begun to use various methods to compete for advanced core components and technologies.

After acquiring a 5% stake in Zhongfang United and BorgWarner's top-tier automatic transmission project in 2008, Geely Automobile continued to look for greater opportunities for cooperation. On March 27th, 2009, Geely Automobile purchased 100% Australian dollar (1 USD = 1.25 Australian Dollars) wholly-owned subsidiary of Australia's DSI Automatic Transmission Company, the world's second-largest independent manufacturer of automotive automatic transmissions. The company has more than 80 years of history and has strong technical accumulation and industrial experience. The world-famous automatic transmission parts company Borg Warner once owned the company for 30 years. Its products cover four-speed and six-speed front-to-back and full-drive high-torque automatic transmissions, supporting world famous automobile companies such as Ford, Chrysler and Shuanglong. They are currently developing advanced eight-speed front-to-back drive automatic transmissions and DCT dual clutches. Transmission and CVT continuously variable transmission. After being acquired by Geely, DSI is expected to resume production of 200,000 sets of auto transmissions within two years, and will set up factories in China to supply China and other Asian markets. Through the acquisition of DSI, Geely has further enriched its product line based on the independent intellectual property rights of the original small torque automatic transmission, and strengthened the research and development and production capabilities of Geely's automatic transmission.

Chery, a big brother of independent brands, not only participated in China United Development, but also developed CVT technology and purchased pressure steel belts from Bosch.

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