As electric vehicles and smart cabins become the main battlefield of the automotive industry, BMW has announced a collaboration with Alibaba Group to launch a new car model in the mainland China market that integrates AI cockpit technology. This is not only a cross-industry partnership but also a significant strategic shift for European automakers attempting to "localize in China" in the software competition. Mainland China has long transformed from the world's largest automobile consumption market into a testbed for technological innovation. Local brands such as BYD, XPeng, Zeekr, and NIO are not only gaining ground in electrification but are also capturing consumer attention through software features like OTA updates, intelligent assistants, voice control, and AI navigation. Although traditional European automakers still enjoy strong brand recognition, they seem to be gradually losing their voice in the smart technology competition.

This month, General Motors (GM) officially appointed Barak Turovsky as the company’s first-ever Chief AI Officer. This move not only underscores GM’s strategic positioning in the field of artificial intelligence but also marks a pivotal moment in the automotive industry’s transition to electrification and intelligent technology. It signals a new phase in the AI competition within the automotive sector, where AI applications are now considered a primary strategic trend.

A recent report by the U.S.-based cybersecurity company Upstream has revealed alarming trends in the automotive sector. According to the 2024 Cybersecurity Report, the proportion of large-scale cyberattacks surged from 5% in 2023 to 19% in 2024. The scope of cyber threats now extends beyond vehicles to EV charging stations, dealership systems, automotive manufacturers, and the entire supply chain. This highlights an unprecedented cybersecurity crisis in the global automotive industry.

Five years ago, discussing how the EV market would surpass ICE cars before 2030 may be regarded as wildly unrealistic. However, until now, these speculations have evolved from fiction to reality. Aside from environmental issues, the traditional car industry and analysts underestimated humankind’s desire for technology and imagination for innovation. Intelligent EVs have not only redefined auto products as a whole but also reinvented the concept of mobility.

Entering the third decade of the 21st Century, EVs’ immense impact on the global car market has been apparent even with the pandemic. Although the 2021 and 2022’s auto market has a slight rebound compared to the 2020’s market, there’s still much disparity between the height of a few years back. Now entering 2023, economic issues stemming from the chip shortage and multiple conflicts will still prevent the car market from significant growth. Nonetheless, EV sales’ penetration rate will continue to grow and swiftly replace ICE vehicles, entering our daily lives. Within just a few years, EVs will overshadow ICE’s hundred-year glory, signifying the development of EVs not only relies on global governments’ focus on environmentalism and related regulations but also on humanity’s deepest desire to change and evolve. When the time for change arrives, a new set of rules will overhaul the entire traditional auto industry.

Since the 1990s, major international carmakers entered China market to seize the huge business opportunities. After the past 20~30 years, the operation results among carmakers vary in great disparity, and even some carmakers decided to leave the market. Certainly, the competition in the Chinese car market is extremely stiff, especially there are hundreds of carmakers in the competition when entering the era of BEVs and everyone wants to gain a foothold; However, this is also the best arena to test whether international traditional carmakers can be smoothly transformed. Only facing the Chinese market challenges can traditional carmakers solve the problems as soon as possible, and then the experiences can be applied to other battlefields around the world.

When it comes to hybrids, we usually first think of Japanese cars. European and US carmakers have yet to fully commit to developing hybrid techs, especially the devotion to developing diesel cars in the last 2-3 decades crippled their hybrid tech development and subsequent model launches. To some extent, net-zero regulations saved European and US carmakers from their disadvantage to Japanese hybrid techs. On the other hand, Tesla was supposed to lead European and US carmakers in developing BEVs, yet major brands couldn’t let go of their existing ICE profit models. As a result, Chinese self-owned brands took advantage of this situation and put Western carmakers into a dilemma with superior triad (battery, electric control, motor) technology and healthy supply chains. Even though Japanese automakers are slow in electrification, their hybrid and FCEV battery technologies are still on top of their game, allowing them more time to invest in EVs. On the contrary, Western carmakers’ pride and joy, ICE technologies, will eventually become obsolete and bring an uncertain future.