Digital innovation for electric vehicles

With the acceleration of global energy transition, the EV industry has become a strategic area where countries are competing for technological advantages. However, the vulnerability of the supply chain of key mineral resources such as lithium, cobalt and nickel has seriously constrained the sustainable development of China's EV industry, and China's external dependence on lithium will still reach 65 % in 2022. This paper takes the empowerment of digital technology as the main research line, and takes typical examples such as BYD Company Limited's intelligent design of «blade battery» to achieve material ratio optimization and Ningde Times Science and Technology's intelligent manufacturing platform to achieve precise dosage control of nickel and cobalt through artificial intelligence to show how China is building a strategic path of resource substitution technology. The study showed that digital technology, by reconstructing the entire chain of «design-manufacture-regeneration», expands the boundary of resource security from the traditional measurement of geological reserves to the measurement of technological substitution, and forms a new paradigm of hedging resource constraints through digital innovation. This breakthrough provides a theoretical basis and practical guidance for China to realize the autonomy and control of the electric vehicle industry chain under the backdrop of China's dependence on foreign countries for key resources exceeding the alarming point, and constitutes an innovative blueprint for the digital transformation of global resource-intensive industries.