Abstract: This paper statistically analyzes the academic research development of mechanical engineering
discipline by numerically counting the application, the financial support and concluding for the automotive-related
projects by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) to transform the automotive industry in China
from a big one to a powerful one in the world. The results show that basic theoretical researches in automotive
engineering were strengthened, and some key techniques gained breakthrough under the support of NSFC as the
rapid development of automotive industry in China. However, the application scale is still small with low funding
rate for fundamental program. Influential and remarkable results are not abundant, and the original innovations
are inadequate. Therefore, the authors suggest that people need pay more attention on mining scientific issues in
automotive engineering, enhancing basic research, and accelerating the output and the transformation of research
results to develop healthily and harmonically for the automotive industry in China.

Key words: mechanical engineering discipline, automobile-related programs, National Natural Science
Foundation of China (NSFC), project application, project sponsor, project outputs