访德压轴戏上中德总理试乘自动汽车，李克强邀默克尔来华体验

澎湃新闻  07月11日 06:08

Faced with too many roadblocks in Germany, Audi, BMW and VW are taking their innovations to the People's Republic, where government support gets things moving.

In a city of more than six million people, you’d expect pretty serious traffic jams, especially since the number of cars driving in the northeast Chinese metropolis of Wuxi has doubled since 2011, to 1.8 million. But the drive is a breeze through this part of the city center, which doubles as a testing ground for future mobility.

The vehicles and infrastructure are all connected wirelessly over LTE, sharing information about traffic and warning of any metaphorical bumps in the road. Audi has brought its traffic light information technology to Wuxi, where cars communicate with the intersections to know whether the light’s about to change.

Not only is access to the Chinese market essential for any automotive company to succeed; many German companies are finding entry to China’s testing grounds essential, to prove their innovations work. The Chinese government’s support of autonomous vehicle research is giving the green light to companies more accustomed to seeing red in Germany.

At the Sino-German summit Monday, carmaker BMW signed a framework with China’s Brilliance Group to expand their joint venture, while Volkswagen and China’s Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group signed a memorandum of understanding on a joint R&D center and a car platform.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang will see self-driving cars from BMW, VW and Daimler in action at Berlin’s Tempelhofer Feld on Tuesday. A memorandum of understanding between the two countries shown to Handelsblatt states that networked and autonomous driving will play a major role in the future of mobility.

Just last week, China gave Daimler the go-ahead to begin testing its self-driving cars on the streets of Beijing. The Mercedes-Benz parent is the first international carmaker to earn the right to test Level 4 autonomous vehicles – the second-highest classification for self-driving cars, where a human is required only in case of emergency – on public streets.

Daimler is also working with Baidu, a Google competitor, to produce an open-source autonomous driving platform called Apollo that one day, might become the auto industry’s equivalent to the Android operating system for phones. Germany’s Bosch and Continental are part of the consortium.

Germany has some testing grounds for autonomous cars, but letting them loose on public roads is miles away. The transport ministry would like to set up 14 testing areas, but carmakers are getting antsy and taking their toys to countries that will let them play.

In Wuxi, one-sixth of the city’s intersections will be outfitted with the smart traffic light technology from Audi, China Mobile and Huawei by the end of this month, with the goal of having the entire city covered by 2019. Audi plans to expand its R&D division in China from 280 to 650 employees, 200 of which will be dedicated to self-driving cars.

Coordinating the many players involved in a networked traffic system becomes much easier with a strong central government, Xiong Wei of Huawei pointed out. An Audi manager in China said, “Germany could do so much more. But we discuss everything to death.”

Mr. Xiong says the goal is to create an ecosystem for autonomous driving in China that can be deployed around the world, with participants determining sustainable standards together. In addition to Audi, Huawei is also working with Volvo and Ford. The government’s goal is for 10 percent of cars to be networked by 2020, and by 2025, a quarter of all cars should be at Level 4 or Level 5 on the autonomous driving scale.

To get to that stage, either automobiles must get smart enough to be able to reliably make decisions by themselves, or the infrastructure must interact with all vehicles to self-direct traffic. China prefers the control of the second option, but the IT ministry is keeping its options open. Local trials, like those in Wuxi, are likely to be deployed nationwide if successful.

The benefits of streets ruled by autonomous vehicles rather than fallible humans are clear: fewer traffic jams, better pollution control, fewer crashes. But only 45 percent of Germans said they would hop in a self-driving car, according to a survey from the Boston Consulting Group. In comparison, 75 percent of Chinese respondents said they were up for it.

Dana Heide also contributed to this report. Sha Hua is a correspondent for Handelsblatt in Beijing. Grace Dobush is an editor with Handelsblatt Global in Berlin. To contact the authors: hua@handelsblatt.com andgrace.dobush@gmail.com

The German parts maker wants to focus on autonomous vehicles while China wants to get under the hood of your next car.

Chinese companies have long wanted to sell their cars in advanced markets like the US and Germany. But consumers largely prefer familiar brands like Chevrolet and BMW when making large purchase decisions.

As a result, the Chinese strategy has shifted from selling cars to selling car parts to the big automakers who now bolt together the autos from supply chains all over the world. One of the effects of this trend is that Chinese companies have been on a buying binge, snapping up Western car parts manufacturers to expand their product offerings. Consultants Deloitte estimates that Chinese auto parts sales are growing at 22 percent a year.

The latest example was the purchase of SG Holding, the starter and generator division of Robert Bosch, the world’s largest auto parts company, by a consortium consisting of Zhengzhou Coal Mining Machinery Group Co., which despite its name is a big auto parts supplier, and Hong Kong-based private equity firm China Renaissance Capital Investment for €545 million ($598 million.)

Chinese companies have been on a buying binge in the car parts business.

One reason for the move is that companies like Bosch want to get out of commodity car parts manufacture and focus more of their attention on autonomous driving, which promises to be a lucrative niche in the years ahead.

The starter division has now emerged as an independent called SEG Automotive—the added E in the name refers to electrification — based in Stuttgart, with the Chinese owners promising to keep all 7,000 employees in factories scattered over 14 countries.

Ulrich Kirschner, the managing director of the firm, says that while it is well know that internal combustion engines are on their way out, the mid-term is likely to see use of hybrid cars that can utilize both gasoline and electricity. As a result, SEG has developed a process it calls Boost Recuperation Machine or BRM that allows car manufacturers to add an electric motor to a gasoline powered car at a low cost.

Mr. Kirschner said that ZMJ has “a clear intention to reduce their dependence on mechanical engineering and grow in the car business.” He said in an interview with Handelsblatt sister publication Wirtschaftwoche that the ZMJ already produces generators for the Chinese market but “want to complement and expand the portfolio in this area.”

He said he expected to grow market share in the US and in China. At the moment a little more than 50 percent of the company’s turnover is in Europe.

The company’s employees were given a choice of remaining with Bosch, which is owned by a German foundation, or going to the new Chinese firm. Mr. Kirschner said that outside Germany, about 90 percent decided to go with the new firm. In Germany, only two of 100 managers stayed with Bosch instead of going to the Chinese firm, and  labor union representatives negotiated a longer, two-stage transition for most hourly workers and they have now agreed to join the new firm.

German companies have recently experienced some upheaval after being sold to the Chinese. Notably, Osram, the light bulb maker, recently announced large layoffs at German factories.

But Mr. Kirschner said the transition at SEG so far has been smooth. He said ZMJ’s management,”are very solid business people” who do not take risks. “Of course we will have to get used to the new owner, but that would be the same case with an American investor or a private equity firm,” he said.

WirtschaftsWoche writer Sebastian Schaal conducted the interview. Charles Wallace, an editor at Handelsblatt Global in New York, adapted it into English. To contact the author:c.wallace@extern.handelsblatt.com.

This year has seen a wave of Chinese takeovers of German industrial companies. Experts say it's only a matter of time before a major German firm becomes the next target.

Chinese takeover bids in Germany are on the rise. First Chinese household appliance corporation Midea took a majority stake in Kuka, then a Chinese consortium bought the lamps unit of lighting giant Osram. Combined, the two deals come to €5 billion, or $5.58 billion.

Germany is now top of the list for Chinese overseas investments.

Michael Buckley, head of M&A at the largest Chinese exchange-listed investment bank Citic, said Chemchina’s takeover of Syngenta, the Swiss seed and pesticide company, was a particularly “clear sign of a new Chinese confidence.”

The Syngenta deal, was worth $47 billion, was the second-largest international takeover this year worldwide. Of the 30 German companies making up the elite DAX stock market index, only seven are worth more than that. Anything seems possible now—as long as the Chinese government gives its approval.

Dirk Albersmeier, co-head of European M&A at JP Morgan, said a Chinese takeover of a DAX company may well be around the corner.

Certainly the Institute of World Economics and Politics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences is keen to see more German deals. The institute examined the world’s 57 most important economies, and came out in favor of Germany.

“In the next 3 years, we will see more Chinese deals than we’ve seen in the last 30.”

“Germany, with its lone AAA rating, is the best investment country for Chinese companies. Of course, the United States and other industrial countries are in the picture, but they do not have an AAA rating,” said Yuyan Zhang, head of the Boao Forum for Asia, a high-ranking meeting of political, economic and academic leaders, modeled on the World Economic Forum.

The Boao Forum took place before the Brexit referendum of June 23. Now Germany seems even more attractive than it did before. “After Brexit, some top Chinese managers are thinking of moving their European headquarters from Britain to Germany,” said Yi Sun, a partner at management consultants E&Y.

Asian businesspeople are enthusiastic about the seriousness of German corporate culture, said Huanping Zhang, head of Euroasian Consulting, a European M&A boutique with Chinese roots. A former employee of Dresden Bank who studied in China and Cologne, Mr. Zhang knows both worlds.

Many German industrial standards have been adopted, he said, like the electrical plug, or the European Union standards in electrical cars. And finally, China admires German political stability and foreign policy — important considerations for businesspeople who keep a close eye on politics.

For Mr. Zhang, the wave of Chinese takeovers has not yet peaked. His company alone, he said, annually received around 100 inquiries from Chinese companies with investment targets in Germany. The numbers give a clear indication of the exponential growth. So far this year, the volume of Chinese M&As in Germany comes to $10.6 billion, according to Dealogic. This includes 27 separate deals like the Osram unit takeover.

Nothing like this has been seen over the last decade, and the year is barely halfway through. The previous annual record was $2.6 billion in 2014, a quarter of the current level. The takeovers have also been popular with German investors. In the case of Kuka, the premium over the listed stock price was 36.24 percent — a very attractive deal.

One small cloud on the horizon could be the failed salelast month of Frankfurt Hahn airport to Chinese buyers. To the embarrassment of the state government of Rhineland-Palatinate, their prospective Chinese buyers turned out to be highly unreliable. Politicians are under fire for not conducting the necessary due diligence.

Nonetheless, experts remain optimistic. “In the next three years, I suspect we will see more deals with Chinese participation than we’ve seen in the last 30,” said Mr. Albersmeier, who recently led a team to China, introducing potential investors to some 85 opportunities in Europe. Mr. Albersmeier speaks of an “unbelievably optimistic mood.”

For the first time in history, Chinese businesses are accepted around the world as credible buyers, and can acquire companies which would take years to build up from scratch. “Right now, there are said to be 200 Chinese companies targeting acquisitions in Europe and the USA,” he added.

“After Brexit, top Chinese managers are thinking of moving their European headquarters from Britain to Germany.”

The picture was quite different before 2008. Chinese companies were focused on domestic growth and could get growth of around 10 percent a year.

But now companies are also looking to buy, and are happy with a return of 3 to 4 percent. Chinese companies are now looking for solid western companies to support them in their domestic expansion, giving their products an upmarket cachet, said Mr. Albersmeier.

Chinese companies will likely invest heavily in automation for the future, said Mr. Zhang, citing rising labor costs in China. Market saturation also means companies look to diversity, as household appliance maker Midea did in buying robot manufacturer Kuka.

Ms. Sun points out that Chinese investors are also looking at new areas such as clinics and retirement homes. In biopharma, smaller companies were coming into focus as takeover targets, previously only interesting to venture capitalists. In the consumer goods, the popular companies are those that sell well-known brands to the emerging Chinese middle class, as with kitchenware company WMF this year, although in that case, the French SEB Group came out in front.

Despite takeover activities from from China, “there is no state master-plan, that’s a myth,” said Mr. Zhang. The reasons for the upsurge were purely economic. However, deals worth more than €1 billion must be approved by the National Development and Reform Commission.

The only factor that may slow the buying spree is that the Chinese government is keen to prevent is any weakening of the yuan because of too many overseas takeovers. “Beijing wants to avoid devaluation,” Ms. Sun confirms.

Peter Köhler is a Handelsblatt editor in Frankfurt, reporting on banks, private equity firms, venture capital and corporate funding. Robert Landgraf is Handelsblatt’s chief correspondent for financial markets. Stephan Scheuer is Handelsblatt’s China correspondent, based in Beijing. To contact the authors: koehler@handelsblatt.com,landgraf@handelsblatt.com, scheuer@handelsblatt.com.