Significant achievements in empowering new energy vehicles with Industry 4.0 intelligent manufacturing

Currently, with the integration of various revolutionary technologies such as new energy, new materials, and artificial intelligence, the automotive industry has undergone tremendous changes. The manufacturing processes of key components such as complete vehicles and power batteries, motors, and electronic controls are accelerating towards integration and flexibility, and the automotive manufacturing ecosystem is constantly being restructured. In the past industrial 1.0, industrial 2.0, and industrial 3.0 eras, the crown jewel of the automotive industry was won by Ford's assembly line in the United States and Toyota's lean production in Japan. In the era of Industry 4.0, China is catching up and is expected to lead the global trend.
In the latest released list of intelligent manufacturing demonstration factories for the year 2023, Celes Automobile is on the list. With the interconnection of production equipment and data, as well as the collaboration of over 3000 robots, the Selis Smart Factory has achieved a 100% automation rate in key processes. In addition, the 9000T die-casting machine, which was the first to be put into operation, has polished the "Made in Chongqing" brand with intelligent manufacturing. Coincidentally, GAC Aion Intelligent Ecological Factory was recently selected as the "Global Lighthouse Network" of the World Economic Forum (WEF), becoming the only new energy vehicle lighthouse factory in the world. According to the selected comments, the Aian factory has deployed over 40 Industry 4.0 examples, provided over 100000 personalized optional solutions, and customized mixed line production of 25 car colors, achieving a full lifecycle quality management of "research production supply sales" and approaching zero defects. Combining the continuous increase in production and sales of Sailis and GAC Aion terminals, it can be seen that Industry 4.0 intelligent manufacturing has significantly empowered new energy vehicles. In the future, the level of factory manufacturing will to some extent determine the production competitiveness and product quality of new energy vehicles.
At present, the difficulties and challenges in empowering new energy vehicles with Industry 4.0 intelligent manufacturing stem from the complexity and interoperability difficulties of the new energy vehicle industry. Firstly, the new energy vehicle industry chain is complex, highly internationalized, and involves numerous countries and industries. Industrial informatization requires common technologies and knowledge experience across different industries, and it is difficult to achieve cross country, cross industry, and multi type heterogeneous identification interoperability, which increases the difficulty of building cross industry and cross domain industrial informatization platforms. Secondly, the concentration of the new energy vehicle industry is poor, and the size of enterprises varies, which makes it difficult to implement one-stop solutions to meet the specific industrial scenario needs of different small and medium-sized enterprises.
The author believes that in order to improve the integration and application level of Industry 4.0 intelligent manufacturing and new energy vehicles, efforts need to be made in the following three aspects:
One is to strengthen the guidance of empowerment methods. Regarding the key links in the supply chain of the new energy vehicle industry chain, relevant departments continue to do a good job in top-level design, research and summarize the empowerment mechanism and path of Industry 4.0, and form method guidelines to establish and improve the demand list for industrial Internet applications in key scenarios.
The second is to fully leverage the role of leading enterprises as chain owners. The coordinated development of Industry 4.0 and the new energy vehicle industry is an important direction for cross industry and cross domain integration and innovation, and a development process of two-way empowerment and long-term cooperation. We should fully leverage the leading role of leading enterprises in demonstration and accelerate the cultivation of high-quality enterprises and industrial clusters.
Thirdly, encourage enterprises to deepen international cooperation. Increase external exchanges and cooperation in areas such as standard setting and technological innovation, and promote enterprises to use industrial internet and other technologies to build an intelligent international supply chain system. Coordinate various policies such as industry, finance and taxation, and finance to further improve the collaborative innovation system and mechanism.