Recently, a team of SEM students majoring in finance presented a competition paper entitled “Modelling Electric Vehicle Ecosystem: Technology Strategy, Government Subsidy and Firm Profit”. It won the national special prize in the 10th China National University Student Competition on Energy Economics! Prof. ZHOU Di from the Department of Public Administration of SEM was awarded the honorary title of “Excellent Guidance Teacher”.

The team consisted of XU Ruilin and CHENG Xinguo, undergraduate students majoring in finance from SEM, and FENG Luoyu, undergraduate student majoring in intelligent construction from the School of Civil Engineering. Based on research conducted over the past year on several EV companies in China, the team systematically deconstructed the ecosystem of the EV industry and thoroughly analyzed the impact of hardware technologies such as chargers, batteries, motors, and software technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous driving, and digital software on the construction of the electric vehicle ecosystem in the electric vehicle industry. The new energy vehicle industry is a representative industry for China to achieve “curve overtaking” in global competition, and maintaining the international competitiveness of China’s new energy vehicles is of great practical significance. In the context of digitalization and intelligence in the industry, the research results of this paper provide practical suggestions and policy recommendations for EV enterprises’ technological path selection and the government’s subsidy model selection in different EV ecological life cycles.

In the competition, this team focused on the theme of sustainable development. The composition of the team members reflects the characteristics of interdisciplinary integration under the background of artificial intelligence at Tongji University. The team members from the Finance major focused on exploring the issue of government financial subsidies from the perspective of economic ecology theory. The team members from the Intelligent Construction major of the School of Civil Engineering focused on analysing the hardware and software technical characteristics of EVs, including AI. Over the past year, the team has devoted itself to refining its work and actively preparing for the competition under the careful guidance of its mentor. At the national finals, XU Ruilin represented the team at the on-site defence, fully demonstrating the writing ideas and practical significance of the paper. With excellent paper work and smooth on-site defence, the team’s work stood out and won the National Special Award. In addition, the team is the only team in the Shanghai region to reach the national final after anonymous evaluation in the 10th China National College Students Competition on Energy Economics, and also the only team in the Shanghai region to win a special prize.