Study On Innovation Network Of New-energy Vehicle Industry

In the age of low carbon economy, low carbon development and green transformation has been the topic all countries pay attention to. As the pillar industry of national economy, automobile industry greatly promotes the development of economy, but have to transform because of its characteristics such as high energy consumption and pollution. And New-energy Vehicle Industry is a set of new energy industry and high-tech industry, on one hand, adopting unconventional energy, efficiently utilizing and with little damage to the environment; on the other hand, as knowledge and technology intensive industry, having great significance for adjusting industrial structure and promoting it upgrading. At present, the research of new energy automotive industry mainly focus on present situation, policy, path etc., while the spatial characteristics of its innovation from the perspective of economic geography is scarcely explored. Based on the theory of open innovation, the thesis mainly studies the questions below by network and comparative analysis:comparing the innovation network of new energy vehicles and traditional auto industry, and analyzing similarities and differences of the innovation network in different regions. It not only enriches the theory of innovation network, but also guides the development of the new energy automotive industry in practice.Firstly, with the new energy automotive industry and innovation network research reviewed, it is found that the existing research has been limited to industrial present situation, the policy etc., and the study of industrial innovation network is less involved. Secondly, the open innovation and innovation network consists of the theoretical basis, greatly benefiting the analysis below. Thirdly, the related concepts and characteristics of the new energy automotive industry are discussed, and the situation of its development is explored from the industrial policy, technology development and market conditions. Major countries in the world have introduced relevant policies to support its development, resulting in its scale expanding and the product type varying. However, the technology path between some countries is different.New energy vehicles differ from conventional cars in the drive, thus comparing the innovation network of them is critical. The author found that the actors of new energy automotive industry are more diversified, involving major and secondary actors. The former includes vehicle enterprises, electric and traditional component enterprises, universities and research institutes, etc. while the government, the traditional raw material suppliers, new raw material suppliers, intermediary institutions, designing company, charging infrastructure and vendors consists of the latter. As for network structure, the traditional one is known for the "pyramid" with auto manufacturers in domination, while the new one tends to be "parallel". And in characteristics, their innovation network overlaps in space, still gathering in auto production countries. In addition, network type such as alliance, R&D cooperation and informal contact is also involved, and Street Scooter in German and Tesla in America are taken as examples to further analyze the network. Finally, the innovation network of new energy automotive in China is particularly described according to industrial alliance, which is made of universities, research institutes, enterprises, energy companies, power companies, intermediary organizations and end users. With the actors in different link of industrial chain, the network can be divided into longitudinal and transverse mode. Meanwhile, the innovation network of China’s new energy automotive industry currently is featured for intensive network in southeast, diversification of actors, parallel structure, associated coalition in majority and open innovation, etc.In addition, it is found that the innovation network of BYD is different from Street Scooter and Tesla in the market positioning, network relations, innovation model, network operation etc. It also suggests that the innovation network of new energy automotive industry in different areas or countries is varied. BYD develops the mid-range cars for the general public, Tesla is targeted on the niche of high-end luxury cars, and Street Scooter takes short-range cheap models to meet daily travel demand. In terms of innovation network, internal development system and external network construction is combined in BYD, Tesla is also actively connected with enterprises, financial institutions, IT companies and consumers outside to establish a flexible network relationship, while Street Scooter forms a more stable and close network where suppliers is the main body of the network alliance. At the same time, BYD and Tesla make the network operate through knowledge inflows and outflows like investment and joint R&D, but the latter is more open. And the project teams of Street Scooter collaborate in R&D of new energy vehicles.