The new energy vehicle industry is experiencing rapid growth; the machine tool sector should seize this critical historical moment, address its shortcomings head-on, and consolidate the industry’s foundations.Promoting collaborative innovation in high-end CNC machine tools at the upstream end of the industrial chain.
1.Establish a platform for the research, development, validation and promotion of common technologies for high-performance machine tools used in the automotive sector. To address the systemic shortcomings in the application of high-end CNC machine tools within the automotive sector, organisations within the industry with the necessary foundations may collaborate with relevant entities from industry, academia, research and end-users to expedite the establishment of a platform for the R&D, validation and promotion of common technologies for high-end CNC machine tools specifically designed for the automotive sector. Through this platform, the strengths of all parties can be harnessed to establish efficient R&D and application synergies between the automotive and machine tool industries, organise collaborative innovation and technical breakthroughs across the entire industrial chain, and establish a new model of industrial chain organisation characterised by division of labour and shared benefits among upstream, midstream and downstream sectors.
2.To establish a service platform for technological innovation and talent exchange between the automotive and machine tool industries. Industry associations, organisations and research institutions—such as the China Society of Automotive Engineers, the China Association of Machine Tool and Tool Industry, and the Strategic Alliance for Technological Innovation in the CNC Machine Tool Industry—should collaborate to create a platform for technical exchange between the automotive and machine tool sectors. By organising a diverse range of technical seminars, they should promote collaborative innovation between the two industries, fully address the automotive sector’s demand for high-end CNC machine tools, and ensure timely understanding, adoption and ongoing application of the latest equipment technologies and achievements in domestic machine tool manufacturing.
3.Enhance standardisation capabilities to develop an evaluation framework for high-end CNC machine tools used in the automotive sector. Collaborate with upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain to expedite the development of an evaluation framework for the application of high-end CNC machine tools in the new energy vehicle sector, and quantify the evaluation indicators for their use during the automotive production phase. Through standardisation measures, shorten the R&D and application cycles for domestically produced high-end CNC machine tools used in the automotive sector, and accelerate the replication and promotion of advanced scientific and technological achievements, experience and models relating to high-performance machine tools for the automotive industry.
4.Taking new energy vehicles and their key components as a starting point, we must strengthen collaborative research and development between the automotive and machine tool industries. The development of domestic new energy vehicles has created new demand and growth momentum for the machine tool sector. Machine tool manufacturers must meet the market’s demand for high-end CNC machine tools through independent innovation. With a focus on key components for new energy vehicles—particularly by taking the lead in achieving breakthroughs in integrated die-casting, ‘three-electric’ systems and other emerging technologies, as well as in the application verification of incremental machine tools—we can drive the machine tool industry to gradually resolve structural bottlenecks and issues relating to performance and reliability. Building on this foundation, we should proceed in stages to increase the proportion of domestic production for traditional technologies and machine tools, swiftly addressing weaknesses whilst leveraging market strengths to build on our strengths. Machine tool R&D enterprises must intensify their research into automotive manufacturing processes, continuously accumulate field-based engineering data, and establish a scientific and technological innovation model centred on forward-looking design and development, thereby accelerating the pace of technological iteration.