Chang'an leads overseas journey of self-owned brands (2)

Fostering constantly leading R&D capability

Xu Liuping, chairman of Chang'an Auto says to the reporter, "Auto enterprises with self-owned brands must handle properly the relation between technologies, quality and brand and should be fully aware of that technologies are the key foundation for the self-owned brands and without strong technological foundation, self-owned brand and innovation means nothing!" He believes that the auto industry integrates the most advanced technologies of that time. It drives the technological innovation constantly on the basis of demand change. The scope, amount, period and scale in which technologies are involved in the auto industry can not be match by other industries. Based on such a concept, Chang'an Auto takes R&D as the lead and fosters the Chinese strongest and constantly leading R&D capability.

The proportion of R&D investment in sales income is one standard to measure innovation effort all the time. Chang'an Auto's proportion of R&D investment in sales income accounts for 5 percent annually, much higher than the domestic average level. During the early time of independent R&D, such a proportion was even up to 20 percent. Chang'an Auto has spent over RMB 35 billion yuan for the last 10 years in establishing laboratories in 14 fields such as intensity test, vibration noise, collision safety, etc.

After years of untiring efforts, Chang'an Auto makes a series of achievements and improves the key core R&D capability. Among 286 core technical fields acknowledged in the auto industry, Chang'an Auto has mastered 262 and owned all test and verification capabilities except wind tunnel test.

In order to make full use of the global advantageous resources and follow the auto development trend in the world, Chang'an Auto has established R&D centers in Turin of Italy, Yokohama of Japan, Nottingham of the UK, Detroit of the US, Chongqing, Beijing, Shanghai, Harbin and Jingdezhen and formed a 24-hour uninterrupted R&D pattern of "nine places in five countries with their own focuses". Benefiting from R&D capability in "nine places in five countries", the product R&D period of Chang'an Auto is shortened from original 42 months to 32 months with the R&D cost falling by 20 to 30 percent on average.