The construction promotion conference and the joint construction symposium of National New Energy Vehicle Technology Innovation Center (the center) were held in Beijing on March 1. Wan Gang, Minister of Science and Technology of China, and Chen Jining, Mayor of Beijing, attended the meeting and gave important speeches. Yin Hejun, deputy mayor of Beijing presided over the meeting. Officials from the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Municipal Government of Beijing and representatives of the center, as well as famous experts and scholars at home and abroad took part in this conference, marking the beginning of the comprehensive and accelerated construction of the center.

The center advocates the open operation mechanism of “co-consulting, co-building, co-governance, sharing, and co-using” to build a world-class new energy automobile technology innovation source as the overall goal, as well as strives to create a "center", two "leading areas" and three "platforms" (namely: an integrated innovation center with global electric vehicle generality and cutting-edge key technologies. An area leading the world in the export of electric vehicle’s R&D, manufacturing, service technology, standards and models; an area gathering high-end innovative talents of electric vehicles. An international first-class electric vehicle scientific research achievement transformation and industrialization platform; a global electric vehicle academic exchange, professional consultation, high-end talents training and exchange platform; a Beijing-based, global-oriented financial venture platform focusing on scientific research and transformation of electric vehicles).

The first batch of employed scientists include: Steven Chu, former US Secretary of Energy, Nobel Prize winner for Physics in 1997 and Professor of Physics at Stanford University; Werner Hufenbach, "Father of European Lightweight" and Academician of the Dresden University of Technology; Cui Yi, lifelong professor at Stanford University, member of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a member of the Materials Research Society; Macro Venturini, senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering and one of the first experts on electrical power in China’s "Recruitment Program of Global Experts"; Steve Eglash, executive director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Stanford University; Jimmy Chen, professor at Stanford University; Boris von Bormann, CEO of Mercedes-Benz Energy Americas; Ouyang Minggao, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and professor at Tsinghua University, Sun Fengchun, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology; Zhang Jinhua, executive vice president and general secretary of the Society of Automotive Engineers of China; Li Keqiang, professor of the Department of Automotive Engineering at Tsinghua University; Chen Jingkai, co-president of Baidu Technical Committee and chief architect of autopilot, and other well-known experts and scholars at home and abroad. The center has created a scientific and technological R&D think tank for China’s new energy automobile industry by bringing together high-grade, precision and advanced talents.

A total of 21 units, as the first batch of the joint construction parties of the center, took part in the promotion conference and the symposium, discussing deeply on topics like the center’s construction situation, institutional mechanism, R&D project of key genetic technology. The first group of joint co-constructors includes BAIC, Geely, BYD, Baidu, Qihoo, CALT, Tsinghua University, Beijing Institute of Technology, the Institute of Electrical Engineering of Chinese Academy of Sciences, North China Electric Power University, and China Automotive Technology and Research Center, covering all fields of production, education, and research. It covers the superior resources of upstream and downstream industrial chain resources in the field of new energy vehicles, including vehicle manufacturers, battery manufacturers, Internet enterprises, scientific research institutions, as well as industrial investment companies.