In Shanghai, around 75 Porsche Engineering painters paint on automated driving, electric mobility and complex chassis and electrical/electronic systems. The site has testing services and highlights the culture of more than 25 years of engineering centers in China.
Not far from the famous Shanghai International Circuit, home to the Chinese Grand Prix, is the city of Anting, one of the oldest and most vital automobile hubs in China. The Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) was founded there in 1984, followed by the SAIC-VW joint venture in 1988. Today, start-ups like Nio and suppliers like Schaeffler, ZF and Brose also have sites there. Most of the rest of the city is connected to cars: in 2007, an automobile museum opened its doors and is now adjacent to a Porsche Experience Center. Not surprisingly, Porsche Engineering chose Anting for its Chinese base.
Porsche Engineering has been supporting Chinese consumers for over 25 years.
Since 2015, the company has been carrying out engineering projects with its local consumers. The main study spaces are suspension systems, maximum force load and software development. Porsche Engineering’s Chinese operations have a history: engineers have been active here for over 25 years, so opening a branch here is the most logical thing to do.
“Customer projects have been an integral component of Porsche,” says Kurt Schwaiger, director of the Shanghai branch. “We just continue the story. ” In addition to Chinese OEMs, the main accounts also belong to VW Group companies.
Kurt Schwaiger plans to use the Anting site to respond more temporarily to visitors’ needs. For starters, this avoids the six- or seven-hour time difference between China and Germany, which is an obstacle in terms of immediate allocation delivery times. more language barriers. Today, Kurt Schwaiger and his team can help Chinese consumers develop vehicles, while ensuring that Western consumers know the valuable main points about the Chinese market.
With primary adjustments in the market, Porsche Engineering’s experience is increasingly sought after. The days when China was the “workshop of the world” have been left behind: the country is evolving into a high-tech economy with a large, informed and prosperous middle class. Customers haven’t been as easy here as in classic markets. The government also has ambitious plans: China needs the smart, connected vehicle, short for ICV, to be a non-unusual view of its roads until 2025 at the latest. The purpose is for all cars to talk in real time and with percentage data, for example about traffic congestion. In addition, China needs 15% of all cars in the country to be highly automated and 10% to drive completely on their own until 2030 This gives the Chinese market a huge influence on the long term of the car.
“It all started with the chassis design,” Schwaiger says. “We made a call for ourselves with that here. ” Today, this has become complete suspension systems based on complex electronic components: full steering, stabilizers, all-wheel drive, air suspension. “Over the next two years, visitor interest in electronic suspension systems has increased significantly,” Schwaiger says. is the electricity and electronics (E/E) department, which handles all the intelligent control sets of a vehicle. Porsche Engineering technical specialists in Shanghai begin developing the software according to the specifications of their visitors, before verifying it in HiL (hardware- in-the-loop) check banks.
“Chinese traffic is different from traffic in Europe or the United States. People have another way of driving. “
Ben Wang, Director of Software Development
Test benches make assemblies act as they would if they were in a genuine vehicle, allowing checks to be performed long before prototypes become available. While in the past all checks were carried out in Germany, Anting now has the mandatory device in place. doing so much time now that we can perform vital checks here and now,” says Naikai Du, who is also guilty of the progression of HiL check benches in Anting.
The high-strength load of electric cars is another major factor in China, where a massive market for electric cars is emerging. Porsche Engineering has developed a special charging station that provides up to 350 kW of charging force to recharge a Porsche Taycan in minutes. However, all primary markets meet other popular ones. China is subject to the popular domestic GB/T (GuoBiao), which means that the charging station will have to be adjusted to meet Chinese market specifications. “We and a local corporations are progressive partners who act for this. All Porsche dealers in China will have this charging station,” Schwaiger continues.
Porsche Engineering’s painting in Anting is increasingly moving towards software development. To some extent, this is due to intelligent chassis systems, but in general this is due to the new electronic driving assistance systems, which lead to the autonomous cars of the future. More than any other, these assistance systems will have to be designed on the ground in China. “Chinese traffic is different from traffic in Europe or the United States. The Chinese have another way of driving,” says Ben Wang of neighboring Jiangsu Province. and joined Porsche Engineering two years ago. “For example, the relative number of student drivers is much higher in China. Some traffic symptoms are also others and automatic parking will have to take into account the fact that the car parks under the floor in China are otherwise designed. Wang sees his paintings as a challenge or an inspiration: “We will have to adapt to the new demands of our customers. Traffic and traffic control spaces, for example, are changing. “
Testing and validation are also a component of the Shanghai branch portfolio. Here, infotainment systems and their interconnectivity are a key domain of operations. “The Chinese push those things to be very important,” says Schwaiger. In fact, smartphones are provided in all spaces of life here, perhaps more than anywhere else in the world. Today, almost all daily activities are solved, optimized and measured using a cell phone.
WeChat, for example, first turns out to be a Chinese edition of WhatsApp, but it also acts as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and, more importantly, as a credit car. Today, to the fullest all payment transactions in China use WeChat Pay or your rival. Alipay service. ” All Chinese drivers assume that there is a seamless integration between the car and the smartphone,” Schwaiger says.
Network integration goes even further, saving you traffic jams and tripping to injuries right away. “Plug-in hybrids and all-electric cars send national knowledge-related knowledge through a corporate server,” explains Estha Li. Beijing and has been part of Porsche’s engineering team since 2017. “Our server allows us percentages of knowledge in components and as needed, allowing us to achieve all kinds of drivers. The corresponding purposes should evolve here in China: in fact, they may simply not evolve elsewhere.
Kurt Schwaiger, the branch manager, has lived in Shanghai for ten years. When he took office at Anting in 2015, the Shanghai branch hired 8 people. At the same time, the advertising domain will be built from 1,500 to 2, one hundred square meters. Geographically, the site is divided into two locations: the largest of the two is located in the Autocity Innovation Park in Anting. In the coming months, a momentary construction will be leased to allow the expansion of the equipment and the first land will dominate a workshop available to customers. The location of the moment is in Minhang, a suburban domain southeast of Shanghai.
100 painters will paint at the Shanghai branch until the end of 2020.
A normal component of The Shanghai branch’s operations is its cooperation with the outstanding Tongji University. Every two years, the components jointly organize the Tongji Porsche Engineering Symposium, a platform for executives to talk about the latest advances in the automotive sector. The cooperation also includes exchanges in the form of internships and thesis programs, as well as sponsorship from Formula Student’s local team, which allows academics to design their own race cars and participate in competitive careers. This provides the branch with ideal connections to one of China’s maximum productive capacity groups, which points to continuous expansion in one of the world’s largest automotive markets.
The Chinese market is fast becoming. Customers expect the most productive technologies and responses tailored to their needs: for example, when it comes to integrating vehicle and smartphone. At its Anting branch, Porsche Engineering listens to the market and responds temporarily to requests from local customers. , provides Western companies with valuable data on the Chinese market.
1. What do consumers expect in China?
Especially a quick response. Everything moves much faster here, so it’s so vital to have our branch in Shanghai, in the same time zone as our consumers and with the necessary language skills, so that we can react temporarily and flexibly to the requirements. prices closely.
2. Is it difficult to locate smart in China?
Overall, China has a lot of smart professional workers, but locating them isn’t that simple. Here in Shanghai, our geographic location gives us credit because many Chinese need to be here. Our intelligent relationships with Tongji University also help us locate new young talent. And there’s our strong mark, of course. All of this helps maintain staff turnover. low digits in the numbers.
3. How is the Chinese market different from its Western counterparts?
Today, Chinese corporations operate at the highest level. Highly automated driving will be a major detail in China in the coming years. In this area, China is taking new ground as a pioneer. For V2X applications, for example, they will only use cell phones. communication criteria such as LTE-V and 5G. Since the Chinese government does not allow the export of geolocated data, all tests must be carried out here in the country.
SOURCE: Porsche
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