Hawtai Motor deepens global presence to support China's Belt and Road initiative

BEIJING, Dec. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Hawtai Motor, an independently owned and operated Chinese automobile brand, recently took its strategy for international growth a step further in terms of expanding beyond the home market, both by land and by sea, in a move to support the implementation of The Belt and Road ("B&R") initiative. The company is actively engaged in overseas expansion while consolidating its local presence.

Hawtai Motor is an SUV pioneer in the Chinese automobile industry. Following 17 years of development, Hawtai Motor has become a large industrial conglomerate mainly engaged in automobile manufacturing, owning core power technologies and having strong financial backing. With total assets exceeding 48 billion yuan (approx. US$7.8 billion) and 23 directly-controlled subsidiaries, the group has built businesses covering four key segments, traditional and electric vehicles, R&D and technology, finance and smart mobility, which, when taken together, form a complete industrial ecosystem.

Establishing a multi-level global presence

Hawtai Motor is one of the earliest independently owned Chinese automobile brands to establish a presence outside of the home market. The company has established what it has termed the "1+3+3" framework for R&D and innovation. The company's three overseas technology centers, the Munich Technology Center which is engaged in the transfer and applications of the world's leading technologies and is home to an automotive engineering research design center, the Product Improvement Center in Russia and Central Asia, as well as the Silicon Valley Technology Center which specializes in smart and connected vehicle research, work collaboratively with its research institutions and manufacturing facilities in China.

In terms of design research, Hawtai Motor has cooperated with top global companies including UK-based HORIBA MIRA and France-based Faurecia to improve the quality and experience of its products.

The cooperation between Hawtai Motor and MIRA has already been in place for more than a decade. With a long history spanning more than 70 years and over 60 years' of experience in testing and development projects, MIRA is the world's leader in automotive design with a focus on the car chassis as well as on noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) engineering beloved by many luxury car brands. After adopting MIRA's NVH noise reduction technology, steering system, springs, anti-rolling block and shock absorbers, Hawtai Motor-produced vehicles have far superior noise reduction, shock absorption and stability while being driven than China's other independent brands, and can even compare favorably with models from China's joint ventures.

In terms of the interior and exterior design of the vehicle body, through collaborative arrangements with leading automotive parts manufacturers such as Faurecia, Hawtai Motor has enhanced product quality by building independent product development and verification capabilities as well as implementing design processes for body in white, automobile closures and automotive accessories that are fully aligned with European design standards.

At the same time, Hawtai Motor has adopted the world's most advanced full-range passenger car diesel engine from Italy-based VM Motori S.p.A. and matched with an automatic transmission from Germany-based ZF Friedrichshafen AG. On the basis of owning the best that automotive technology can offer and a strong focus on innovation in R & D, Hawtai Motor has obtained the patents and developed the production technology for the most advanced diesel-powered and gasoline-powered passenger car engines, becoming the only large Chinese automobile power assembly production firm that can claim ownership of these two core technologies.

Creating a new model for entering international markets

In 2018, Hawtai Motor will celebrate its 18th anniversary. Company chairman Zhang Hongliang has put forward its development plan and strategic target for the next three years. Hawtai Motor plans to achieve sales of 200,000 units during 2018, then raise the bar with both production and sales of 500,000 units by 2020, with its complete vehicles, automotive products, engines and gearboxes widely exported to more than 30 countries and regions.

Hawtai Motor is expanding beyond its home market of China while focusing on independent research and development of both traditional and electric cars in the domestic market.

The Chinese automaker has established a manufacturing portfolio across the countries targeted by B&R. The portfolio includes Completely Knocked Down (CKD) assembly plants in Russia and Semi-Knocked Down (SKD) assembly facilities in Angola as well as Knocked Down (KD) arrangements in Brazil, India, Mexico, Thailand, Iran, Vietnam, the Philippines, Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Columbia. Complete vehicles are currently being shipped to Australia, Peru, Chile, North Korea and Ethiopia.

Notably, Hawtai Motor participated in the fourth CICA Summit held in Shanghai in 2014 as the only Chinese homegrown automaker to be invited to the event. In the presence of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Chinese automaker signed a US$1.1 billion cooperation agreement with Russia's Derways to supply KD parts for 80,000 complete vehicles to the Russian company. In addition, Hawtai Motor attended the International Organization for South-South Cooperation (IOSSC)'s third High-Level Forum on South-South Cooperation in 2014 as the only automaker to be invited. During the forum, the Chinese automaker received recognition from the IOSSC by virtue of its global strategy that focused on exporting technologies that help developing countries lay a solid foundation for the development of their own automobile industries. 

The measures that had been taken by Hawtai Motor in response to the B&R initiative have further promoted the automaker's new strategy as we enter the new era in terms of technological developments. It is a strategy that is dominated by the carmaker's core technologies in the Chinese domestic market and driven by its sales businesses in overseas markets. The automaker also plans to further expand into world markets with the aim of building a Chinese car brand with international competitiveness.

SOURCE Hawtai Motor