To enhance its competitiveness, the automobile industry must first raise its standards.

For a long time, Zhonghao Auto News (http://www.73news.cn/) has been observing and reporting that the concept of indigenous brands is usually used to distinguish the brand ownership of domestically produced cars. For domestic brands like Geely and Chery, the brand, logo, and key technologies are completely owned by the Chinese side; whereas for joint ventures like Shanghai Volkswagen, FAW-Volkswagen, Shanghai General Motors, Guangzhou Honda, and Dongfeng Nissan, the product logos, brand ownership, intellectual property rights, etc., all belong to the foreign side.

With Guangzhou Honda and Shanghai General Motors among other joint venture manufacturers also promoting their "indigenous brands," whether products like Guangzhou Honda's理念 meet the standards of indigenous brands has drawn attention. If measured against the future-established standards for indigenous auto brands, and if joint ventures' "indigenous brands" are also considered indigenous brands, the policy inclination brought about by government procurement will have a significant attraction effect on other joint ventures, objectively facilitating joint ventures in exploring new models of independent innovation.

However, the reporter believes that if the purpose of defining indigenous brands is to encourage enterprises to independently innovate, its core should focus on maximizing the interests of the Chinese side. From this perspective, the brewing standards for indigenous brands cannot merely simply consider factors such as trademark ownership and product logo independence which are "superficial"; it must also evaluate the control over core technologies like engines and transmissions. Regarding this focal issue, relevant departments should carefully review the say that joint venture manufacturers have in the core component procurement system. If the foreign side still holds the pricing power and procurement rights for core components, this kind of "indigenous brand" dependent on others would lose the original intention of the Chinese side pursuing maximum profit, easily leading to the hollow formalization of hastily launched "indigenous brands."

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