BAIC Teams up with MBtech to Build World-Class Vehicle Technology Center

On March 12, 2015, a signing ceremony was held at the BAIC brand’s headquarters in China for the establishment of BAIC MBtech Development Center Co., Ltd, a joint venture between the BAIC brand and MBtech (Group GmbH&Co. KGaA). The grand ceremony was attended by Xu Heyi, Chairman of the BAIC Group, high-level German executives from Daimler, majority shareholder of MBtech, Board Member & Managing Director of AKKA Technologies, Jean-Franc Ricci, the German CEO and executive board member of AKKA Technologies, Executive Director of MBtech, Harald Keller, as representatives of BAIC MBtech’s Chinese and foreign partners. Chinese government officials were also invited to attend the signing ceremony. The founding of the joint venture symbolizes that the BAIC brand is now ready to become a leading international innovative automaker and the joint venture itself will further boost the BAIC brand’s strengths in the R&D of whole vehicles and core auto parts. It is understood that BAIC MBtech will be officially put into operation in June this year.

BAIC Group Chairman Xu Heyi said, “The strategic cooperation between the two sides will further boost the BAIC brand’s ability to research development of passenger vehicle and core auto parts. The strong alliance will ensure win-win, mutual benefit and coordinated development for the two sides in the years to come.”

BAIC and MBtech Reach Strong Partnership to Build World-Class Automotive Technology Center

MBtech and BAIC have recently announced the establishment of the joint venture BAIC MBtech Development Center Co., Ltd. The establishment of BAIC MBtech, which is the first joint venture technology center of its kind in China dedicated to providing vehicle R&D services to Chinese auto brands, will be of important significance in pioneering an innovative development path for Chinese auto brands. BAIC MBtech is a great achievement of the BAIC brand’s efforts to integrate its advantageous resources and deepen its cooperation with world-class brands.

Founded in 1995, MBtech is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Daimler Group. It is also Daimler’s important think tank in the auto R&D field. On April 12, 2012, Daimler reached agreement with AKKA Technologies on transferring its 65% stake in MBtech to AKKA Technologies. After the acquisition, MBtech has become the largest engineering and consultancy services company in Europe, employing more than 3,000 world-class engineers and consultants. It provides technical support for leading auto OEMs and suppliers worldwide to develop high-quality vehicles, subsystems, modules and components. MBtech’s latest strong alliance with the BAIC brand will greatly deepen the strategic partnership between the two sides, enabling them to their resources, complementing their resources and achieving common development.

According to the joint venture agreement, the BAIC brand will have a 51% stake in the joint venture, while MBtech hold 49%. Headquartered in Beijing and an office in Stuttgart, BAIC MBtech will have business operations in the fields of automotive engineering, manufacturing engineering and forward-looking technology research and application. In the future, BAIC MBtech is bound to become BAIC’s most important and most advanced technology center for the design of high-end vehicles, the development of new energy vehicles and the localization of forward-looking technologies and firmly commit to building itself into a world-class vehicle design, engineering and technology center.

Bring in Advanced Technologies Home and Provide Technical Support to Chinese Brands

In China, there are not many joint venture technology centers like BAIC MBtech. Perhaps the most well-known of them is the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center jointly invested by GM and SAIC with $69 million. But the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center is fundamentally different from BAIC MBtech, because the former is equally shared by the Chinese and foreign investors and mainly provide product development services to international brands. As for BAIC MBtech, the Chinese shareholder BAIC has a 51% stake and the company provides specialized technical services exclusively to Chinese brands. What is more worth mentioning is that BAIC MBtech currently is also the only technology center in China to exclusively serve Chinese brands. This positioning means that BAIC MBtech will comprehensively upgrade BAIC’s brand system.

Firstly, BAIC MBtech’s technical services are bound to help BAIC to further improve its ability to transform Mercedes-Benz technologies and manufacture better high-tech products. Secondly, BAIC Mbtech will further boost BAIC’s absorption and upgrading of SAAB technologies. Based on SAAB technologies, a number of BAIC products have not only entered the mainstream in all segments of the Chinese market but also won favors with consumers in overseas markets such as South America, the Middle East, Central Asia and Southeast Asia. BAIC’s brand concept of “Better And Ingenious Choice” has been extremely popular with consumers. BAIC MBtech’s powerful technical support will become an important driving force for BAIC to absorb and upgrade SAAB technologies in the future, injecting more technical elements into BAIC’s serial products.

Accelerating Technological Development and R&D Innovations Spell Out a Bright Future for BAIC

In the past few years, BAIC has drawn upon its powerful institutional advantages to acquire overseas technologies and companies. By integrating international resources, BAIC has made technological breakthroughs and fast established its own technological innovation system and capacity, achieving strong progress. In December 2009, BAIC successfully acquired the core intellectual property rights of the luxury Nordic brand SAAB for $200 million. By absorbing SAAB technologies, BAIC has developed the M-trix platform, which is own medium- and high-end sedan platform. BAIC now manufactures models from A0 to B classes covering a wide range of market segments including SUVs.