TRW: Seizing opportunities to accelerate the localization of green high-end security products

Mr. Guo Huijun, Vice President of Sales and Business Development of China TRW (Terrace) Automotive Group in China

Gasgoo.com: TRW is the world's largest automotive safety system supplier. Please briefly introduce TRW's product development in China.

Guo Huijun: Our products, from the past, the introduction of brake products, steering and passive safety products, to our current new products, such as electronic parking brake EPB products, and in recent years, the major domestic OEMs are very concerned about Electric steering products. These represent the direction of energy-saving and green development in the entire market, and they have also attracted the attention and interest of the entire industry in China. The current market demands products that can support some of the new regulations in our country and further reduce fuel consumption. We are developing very fast in this business area. TRW is the first supplier of electric power steering in China for large-scale production of electric steering in Europe and the United States. It was mass-produced in November this year. The rack-mounted electric steering will be put into production in China next year. The function of these two blocks can be said to cover almost all areas of passenger cars. In the same industry, we took the lead in the domestic production of these two products simultaneously in China.

Gasgoo.com: What are TRW's products for the Chinese market?

Guo Huijun: Recently, we are doing some of these tasks. In response to the needs of the Chinese market, we have increased localization efforts. We have invested in a large number of our engineering and technical personnel in various product lines, so that our products are closer to the actual needs of the Chinese market. The development of the Chinese market is synchronised. The current market growth in this area is very fast.

Gasgoo.com: Among the leading safety technologies and products of TRW, how are the energy conservation and emission reduction products used in the Chinese market, such as the steering system?

Guo Huijun: At present, there are not many large-scale production of electric steering in the Chinese market, especially the relatively high-end electric steering technology products. In recent years, some of the OEMs have begun to use electric power steering in batches. TRW has already supplied batches to several domestic customers in November this year. The further issuance of relevant laws and regulations at the beginning of next year will push the entire automotive industry to further increase the application rate of such energy-saving emission reduction technologies and the installation ratio of electric power steering. We are also very much looking forward to playing our due role in the upgrading of technology and the upgrading of technology in the entire market.

Gasgoo.com: What new measures has TRW taken to reduce costs and make product prices and services more in line with the needs of Chinese customers?

Guo Huijun: The localization of TRW's many product lines is increasing, which can play a very good role in reducing costs. Because there may have been more imported parts in the past, two problems have arisen. One is that the logistics cannot keep up with changes in the domestic market, and the second is that the cost is limited to some extent. As the depth of localization increases, the response to the market becomes faster and the cost will decrease accordingly. In our work in recent years, it should be said that the changes are very obvious.

Gasgoo.com: Please tell us which customers have active and passive safety systems in China.

Guo Huijun: The active and passive safety products account for a large part of the entire safety product of the car. It is relatively early for us to enter the Chinese market. From the earliest cooperation between us and SAIC, we are now in China with major OEMs. All of these cooperations have been extensively carried out. Our cooperation started with SAIC and the cooperation between the same auto and Changan has reflected our strategic partnership with the OEM. In recent years, with the development of the entire Chinese market, the market share of self-owned brands has been increasing. We have started a series of strategic cooperation with the Great Wall, Chery, SAIC and Changan. From the earliest and SAIC R&D cooperation in the UK to the recent strategic cooperation agreement with Chery on braking products, we all show that we are highly concerned about China's rising independent brands and emerging markets in recent years.

Gasgoo.com: TRW is currently working with OEMs. Is it more local brands or more foreign investment? You mentioned just now that the current cooperation with independent brands, such as Chery and the Great Wall, is already cooperating. Will it further deepen this cooperation in the future? Will there be some new customers who can develop? For example, there is no difference between BYD and Geely. Collaboration plan?

Guo Huijun: It should be said that in terms of our current business, foreign investment still occupies a considerable proportion, but in the future direction of our work, in accordance with the idea of ​​our global cooperation, in addition to a number of joint ventures in China for many international OEMs In addition to providing better services for our company, we are even more expecting that we will have faster development in our own brand market.

We and Geely already have some project cooperation and the cooperation project with BYD is under negotiation. It is estimated that there will be new results in the recent period. It has been a long time since Chery had cooperated with us. It is our current development that is relatively fast. In domestic domestic brands, there is a lot of cooperation with SAIC and Changan has developed rapidly.

In general, our cooperation with independent brands has grown very rapidly in the past year, so this is an important supporting point for our rapid development in the future.

Gasgoo.com: Is there a possibility that this “fast” may be based on a situation in which the auto market is relatively hot in recent years, so is it growing faster?

Guo Huijun: The rapid development of the auto market is definitely helpful to our existing supply. This is right. Another is that major OEMs need to use new technologies to develop green and energy-saving models in the coming years. Some new project opportunities, this relationship with the current auto market is not too great, but for the future of the car, the new model update The replacement is certainly related. At that time, it would be hard to say, for example, whether the car market in the next year or the following year will be as hot as it is now.

It should be said that the technologies and existing products that we developed in the past few years have caught up with the good time for the development of the auto market and the volume of supply products has grown explosively. From the planning we have done this year, it is even more important that We focus on the matching of future models and products.

Gasgoo.com: Did you mention that the future models are new energy vehicles?

Guo Huijun: We are all concerned about new energy vehicles and traditional internal combustion engines. Because there are many new models being developed for each OEM. Our product itself has some lightweight brake products and electric steering products that can be well applied in new energy vehicles, and it is very helpful in reducing the energy consumption of traditional internal combustion engines. From our new technology, in the current new models, not only new energy models, a new generation of models using internal combustion engines have applications. We have never particularly focused on a certain type of market share or market segment.

Gasgoo.com: Please talk about TRW Group's market planning and sales strategy for the next three to five years in the Chinese market.

Guo Huijun: There are two main points. The first is to deepen the localization of our brake products, especially cutting-edge brake products, such as electronic parking brakes and steering products, including our passive safety products, so that the cost can be better controlled. Secondly, from the perspective of the development of the Chinese market, deepening and expanding cooperation with our current strategic partners will make our layout in China more rationalized, and the market coverage will be broader and closer to the needs of our customers. To provide better customer service.

In terms of sales strategy, our strategy is still focused on establishing long-term strategic partnerships with customers. We need to study more customer needs and market changes, adjust our own strategies, and be able to better respond to the needs of the market and customers. Of course, this also requires us to deepen mutual interaction and communication with our customers, work together, and seize market opportunities. Because there are many opportunities in the market, not only is the mainframe factory provided to us, but also the market is simultaneously provided to the OEMs and suppliers, which are synchronized. Therefore, the communication with the OEM and the understanding of the market are the most fundamental points of our strategic cooperation with the OEM.