As China's new energy vehicle industry grows rapidly, talent shortages are increasingly in focus. A report by Economic Information Daily, run by Xinhua News Agency, on Friday highlighted the battle for talent among car companies.

So far this year, demand for autonomous driving R&D and smart cockpit design positions has increased more than 1.8 times year-over-year, the report said, adding that top talent in new energy vehicle technology, R&D categories are in high demand and the new scramble for talent is intensifying.

Intelligent manufacturing, perception algorithm experts, AI platform technology experts, deep learning engine framework research and development engineers, data algorithm engineers have become the focus of competition among auto China car companies.

Many technology companies such as Baidu, Xiaomi, Qihoo 360 are also involved in the car-making business, and the demand for chips, batteries, and talent is growing by the day, the report said.

Baidu's new energy vehicle arm Jidu Auto plans to expand its team size to 2,500 to 3,000 people, and Li Auto plans to expand by 2,000 people within the year.

Xpeng Motors has also put forward a demand for 1,000 positions, and Xiaomi has been recruiting car-making talent in large numbers since it announced its car-making efforts.

China's new energy vehicle-related business registrations exceeded 10,000 for the first time in 2015, with registrations reaching 73,000 in 2020.

In the first half of 2021, 74,000 related enterprises have been registered, an increase of 183.4 percent year-over-year.

With the rapid development of the new energy vehicle industry, the talent shortage will reach hundreds of thousands or even millions in the next four to five years, the report said, citing industry sources.

China's Ministry of Education and three other departments previously predicted that the total number of energy-saving and new-energy vehicle talents would reach 1.2 million in 2025, while the talent gap would reach 1.03 million.

China sold 271,000 new energy vehicles in July, up 164.4 percent year-over-year, while the first seven months saw cumulative sales of 1.478 million new energy vehicles, up 197.1 percent year-over-year, according to the latest data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

China's new energy vehicle penetration rate has risen from 4.7 percent in 2019 to 9.4 percent in the first half of 2021 and up to 12 percent in June 2021.

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(Photo source: CnEVPost)