China-Germany ties have developed well in recent years, and the auto sector is among the highlights. A summit involving Chinese and German experts will be held on September 17 in Ingolstadt – a German city where the headquarters of Audi is located.
Market players are bullish on further cooperation the gathering brings to the auto sector between the two countries. A Chinese agency is coming to seek opportunities in the auto industry and facilitate cooperation between the two countries.
German automobile manufacturers have been cooperating with Chinese universities in such fields as autopilot, big data of traffic management, and education on innovation and business creation.
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Chinese companies are also exploring business in Germany, which is the most popular investment destination for Chinese companies in Europe. NIO is a new China-based company, but has quickly been building headquarters and recruiting staff around the world, including a branch in Munich.
"Munich was really chosen for our design center of excellence, cause we know automotive design, particularly in Europe and Germany, is very well regarded the world over. When we set up the studio here we knew we could attract a lot of key talents. The quality, the execution was going to be just perfect for the type of product we wanted to do," said Chris Tomasson, NIO's vice president of design.
The decision to open an office in Germany also serves NIO's main consumers in China where over 700,000 electric vehicles were sold last year.
"I think there is some reason why Chinese like German product and German industry. First of all, German products have a very good reputation worldwide, which gives automatically confidence to the Chinese consumers. And secondly, I think between Germany and China, both governments are more concentrating on industry and economic exchange with each other," said Zhang Hui, NIO managing director in Germany.
More and more Chinese companies such as NIO are looking to the West for design and technology cooperation as they aim to associate the "Made-in-China" brand with innovation, quality and efficiency.