A deeper look | As the commercial vehicle industry accelerates its transition to new energy, how are Shandong companies making progress?
2024-08-10
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In the new energy vehicle market, it is not only passenger cars that are competing fiercely, but commercial vehicles are also a strong force. It is predicted that the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in commercial vehicles will increase to 30% in 2030 and is expected to reach 75% in 2040.
Shandong is a major automobile-producing province and has a leading advantage in the field of traditional commercial vehicles. At a time when the transformation of commercial vehicles to new energy is accelerating, how should Shandong companies make their efforts?
Veteran agricultural vehicle companies are entering a new arena
Recently, on the assembly line of Wuzheng Group Feidie Automobile in Rizhao, a new energy light truck was assembled and rolled off the assembly line after going through multiple links such as interior decoration, chassis, center line, and testing. "If the production line runs at full capacity, a car can be rolled off the assembly line in 225 seconds, and the maximum daily production capacity can reach 400 units," said Wang Honglei, deputy general manager of Wuzheng Group Feidie Automobile.
Wuzheng Group is a backbone enterprise in the field of agricultural vehicles in China. Its production and sales of agricultural vehicles have been ranked first in the industry for many consecutive years. Why did it step into the new energy track? Wang Honglei believes that this is due to the trend of industry development. At present, the commercial vehicle industry has shifted from the era of incremental growth to the era of stock growth. The market competition is very fierce, and the new energy of commercial vehicles is regarded as a new track. As early as 2014, Wuzheng Group began to research new energy vehicles.
"Starting from 2022, Wuzheng Group will accelerate the research and development of new energy products, and new technologies such as pure electric, hybrid, and range-extended will continue to be put into production and expanded on existing traditional models." Wang Honglei introduced that at present, new energy vehicles have become a new growth point for the company, and its products cover three major product lines: micro trucks, small trucks, and light trucks. "This year, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles produced by the company is expected to exceed 20%."
Is it difficult for traditional car companies to enter the new energy track? Wang Honglei said that traditional car companies have their own advantages. Many parts of new energy vehicles are common to traditional models. A new energy vehicle has more than 20,000 parts. At present, 70% of the parts are self-produced by the company. But he also admitted that the "three electrics" (battery, motor, and electronic control) system required for the production of new energy trucks needs to be purchased from foreign companies, and the company is also accelerating scientific research in this area.
"Shandong has a strong industrial foundation and a complete range of categories, especially key production equipment and supporting products such as large-scale high-speed stamping production lines, high-performance tires, high-end bearings, and lightweight aluminum materials, which are leading in the country." Li Guangyao, deputy secretary-general of the Shandong Equipment Manufacturing Association, said that in addition to traditional supporting facilities, Shandong should also strengthen the optimized layout in the "three electric" fields in order to adapt to the new requirements for the development of the new energy vehicle industry.
Develop new technologies, new models and new products
Not long ago, Boreton (Shandong) New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd., located in the New Energy Automobile Equipment Manufacturing Park in Shanting District, Zaozhuang City, delivered the latest generation of 5G remote-driven pure electric loaders to customers. This 5-ton remote-driven pure electric loader is 8.7 meters long, 3 meters high, and 3.4 meters wide, and is equipped with a 350kW·h high-energy lithium battery pack. Unlike traditional loaders, it has no cab, and the overall height is reduced by 35 cm, making it more passable.
"Compared with the previous generation of products, the new model uses technologies such as laser radar, millimeter-wave radar, ultrasonic radar, and 360 panoramic stitching display. The staff can remotely control this loader while sitting in the office." Wang Guoju, an unmanned driving algorithm engineer at Borreton, introduced that the remote-controlled pure electric loader is suitable for long-term work in high-risk areas such as high temperature, high pressure, cliffs, tunnels, toxic gases, and high radiation. This is something that traditional manned loaders cannot do.
Shandong Huaxing Precision Machinery Co., Ltd. in Linyi has joined hands with Tsinghua University, Yangtze River Automobile Research Institute and other universities and research and development institutions to develop and produce new wheel-drive electric axles for new energy mining trucks, commercial trucks, agricultural machinery and various types of engineering vehicles, striving to fill the gap in domestic electric axles above 13 tons.
"The new type of axle adopts motor wheel-side distributed drive technology to achieve high speed ratio and high torque power output, and can also enable the entire vehicle to turn around and make right-angle turns on the spot." Wu Jizhan, deputy general manager of Shandong Huaxing Precision Lingong Electric Axle Technology, introduced that this new type of electric axle eliminates the drive shaft, gearbox, main drive and other components of conventional electric axles, which can achieve a weight reduction of more than 20%, energy consumption per 100 kilometers reduced by 5%, the overall machine operating cost reduced by 12%, and the cargo capacity increased by more than 10%.
"Innovation is the key for new energy vehicle companies to win in the competition. With the increasing number of new technologies, new models and new products, the new energy commercial vehicle industry will face more new problems and new challenges. It is necessary to connect the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, further improve production efficiency and enrich product functions." In the view of Zhang Tiezhu, an expert in the National Electric Vehicle International Standards and Regulations Formulation and Coordination Working Group and professor of the School of Transportation and Vehicle Engineering of Shandong University of Technology, the development of new energy vehicles requires the integrated development of multiple chains such as the industrial chain, innovation chain, talent chain, and capital chain. Each element cannot be promoted in isolation, and requires joint efforts from enterprises, universities, research institutions, governments and other parties.
Seize opportunities and expand domestic and foreign markets
In 2023, my country's exports of "new three things" represented by new energy vehicles, lithium batteries and photovoltaic products will exceed the trillion yuan mark for the first time, but Shandong products account for a small proportion of them. In terms of new energy vehicles, Shandong companies are seizing the opportunity of new energy for commercial vehicles and making a fuss in both the domestic and foreign markets.
1,022 Zhongtong buses were exported to Saudi Arabia, a purchase agreement for 120 Zhongtong new energy buses was signed with Singapore, 48 Zhongtong pure electric city buses were officially delivered to Portugal, and 100 customized school buses were officially delivered to the Dominican Republic... This is the "report card" handed in by Zhongtong Bus Co., Ltd. in Liaocheng in the first half of this year. In the first half of the year, Zhongtong Bus's cumulative sales volume was 5,703, a year-on-year increase of 78.6%. In the first five months of this year, Zhongtong Bus exported 2,883 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 109.5%.
"Zhongtong Bus has included new energy in its long-term development strategy." Zhu Yonghu, assistant to the general manager of Zhongtong Bus, said that Zhongtong Bus started the research and development of new energy buses as early as 2004. In 2006, the first electric bus with independent intellectual property rights rolled off the production line of Zhongtong Bus. Currently, there are about 80,000 Zhongtong new energy buses running around the world. In recent years, Zhongtong Bus has focused on the research and development of new energy technologies, taken the route of customized services, and exported new energy buses to more than 60 countries and regions.
Zhongtong Bus' layout in the field of new energy buses includes not only pure electric but also hydrogen fuel. "During the transition period of new energy, we have gradually mastered the core technologies of power battery group application, electromechanical coupling drive system, and vehicle electronic control system, laying a technical foundation for the large-scale industrialization of new energy buses." Zhu Yonghu introduced that at present, Zhongtong hydrogen fuel buses have been demonstrated in batches in Jinan, Datong, Weifang, Wuxi, Foshan and other places, becoming the domestic company that promotes the most hydrogen fuel bus products and the widest regions.
"We should also seize the important opportunity of 'old for new' this year." Zhang Tiezhu believes that at present, driven by national policies, the market demand for new energy vehicles has been released unprecedentedly. Whoever can seize this opportunity will gain the upper hand in industry competition.
Commercial vehicles usher in the old-for-new policy for the first time
On July 24, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance issued a notice on "Several Measures to Strengthen Support for Large-Scale Equipment Renewals and Trade-in of Consumer Goods", which clearly subsidized commercial vehicles for the first time. This is also the first time that commercial vehicles have ushered in a trade-in policy.
The notice proposes to coordinate the allocation of about 300 billion yuan of ultra-long-term special treasury bond funds to increase support for large-scale equipment renewal and consumer goods replacement. According to the replacement policy, support the scrapping of diesel trucks with emission standards of National III and below, accelerate the replacement of low-emission trucks, scrap and replace qualified trucks, with an average subsidy of 80,000 yuan per vehicle; only replace qualified trucks without scrapping, with an average subsidy of 35,000 yuan per vehicle; only scrap old diesel trucks in advance, with an average subsidy of 30,000 yuan per vehicle; update new energy buses and power batteries with an age of 8 years or more, with an average subsidy of 60,000 yuan per vehicle.
CITIC Securities analyzed that the old-for-new policy in the truck market exceeded market expectations. By the end of 2023, the number of heavy trucks that meet the National III emission standards will be about 590,000, and the number of light trucks will be about 1.2 million. The implementation of the policy is expected to significantly boost sales in the truck industry.
On July 29, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Finance issued the "Implementation Rules for Subsidies for New Energy City Buses and Power Battery Updates", which provide fixed subsidies to urban public transportation companies for updating new energy city buses and replacing power batteries. It is mentioned that it is encouraged to reasonably select the type of new energy city buses to be replaced in light of passenger flow changes and the development of the urban public transportation industry, with an average subsidy of 60,000 yuan per vehicle; among them, for updating new energy city buses, an average subsidy of 80,000 yuan per vehicle; for replacing power batteries, a subsidy of 42,000 yuan per vehicle.
(Reporter Xiu Congtao of Dazhong News)
