Chinese manufacturing behemoth Midea Group and popular Chinese auto company Nio signed a strategic cooperation agreement on April 10th. William Li, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Nio, and Fang Hongbo, Chairman and President of Midea Group, witnessed the signing ceremony. The two companies are set to collaborate extensively in the fields of new energy vehicle components, automation, digitization, low-carbon sustainable parks, and intelligent logistics to create a benchmark for “smart” manufacturing in the new energy vehicle industry.
According to the agreement, Midea and Nio will deepen their cooperation in the automotive components sector and collaborate on developing technologies for intelligent electric vehicles. The joint research and development will cover various products, including, but not limited to, air conditioning compressors, electric drives, integrated thermal management, and in-car refrigerators.
In addition to the automotive sector, Midea will leverage its advantages in robotics and digitization. The two companies will cooperate in areas such as industrial robots, automotive and general industrial automation solutions, motion control systems, digital management systems, and intelligent logistics. They aim to establish a benchmark for smart manufacturing in the new energy vehicle industry.
The agreement also includes communication and exchange on carbon reduction information, application scenarios, and solutions. Midea Group will actively share its experience in low-carbon parks and explore further cooperation in industrial park construction, building automation, energy management solutions, and other areas to contribute to achieving carbon neutrality goals.
Fang Hongbo expressed his hopes for the cooperation, stating, “Nio’s rapid development in new energy vehicles and related energy businesses makes us hope that every Nio vehicle will have components produced by Midea. We also hope that the two companies can collaborate on research and development to overcome the technical challenges in the new energy vehicle industry.”
William Li emphasized Midea’s strong presence as a global leader in the home appliance and automotive sectors. He highlighted that new energy vehicles and appliances are electric-driven and share similar underlying principles. William Li stated, “By ‘electrifying’ with Midea, we can optimize the technological roadmap for new energy vehicles and break the existing mode of fixed-point component sourcing.”
Midea Group stated that its subsidiary, Weiling Automotive Components, focuses on incremental components in the three major areas of “thermal management, electric drive, and chassis execution systems” for new energy vehicles. Last year, its shipments reached 750,000 units, a 400% year-on-year growth. Several mainstream automakers have adopted Midea automotive electric compressors in the full range of models.
According to available data, Weiling Automotive Components Co. established its new energy vehicle components base in Anqing, Anhui Province, in February 2022. With an investment of approximately 11 billion yuan (1.51 billion USD), the project primarily produces products such as power steering motors, new energy vehicle electric compressors, and new energy vehicle drive motors. The base aims to build research and development centers and a national-level laboratory for the three major thermal management systems, main drive and auxiliary/intelligent driving.
In recent years, “new energy” has become an important business area that Midea Group has focused on. According to Midea Group’s 2023 annual report and its outlook for 2024, the company will accelerate the establishment of new energy vehicle component business capabilities in terms of “quality, cost, and delivery.” The strategic cooperation between Midea Group and Nio is another example of large companies in China working together to develop new energy vehicles, with many other such partnerships coming in the future.
Source: Yicai
