Reporter Yang Rangchen and Zhang Jiazhen Shanghai reported
After experiencing a decline of more than half a year, the sales of the commercial vehicle market finally ushered in a recovery growth trend.
According to the latest statistics of China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (hereinafter referred to as "China Association of Automobile Manufacturers"), in August this year, my country's commercial vehicle production and sales reached 238,000 and 258,000 respectively, a month-on-month decrease of 2.7% and a month-on-month increase of 5% respectively. However, from January to August this year, the production and sales of my country's commercial vehicle market still showed a downward trend, with the production and sales of commercial vehicles reaching 2.165 million and 2.206 million respectively, a year-on-year decrease of 34.1% and 36.2% respectively.
In the view of Zhang Xiang, director of the New Energy Vehicle Technology Research Institute of Jiangxi New Energy Technology Vocational College, the decline in sales of my country's commercial vehicle market is affected by multiple factors. "The decline in truck sales in the commercial vehicle field is mainly due to the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, which has led to the suspension of work in some projects, while the buses are mainly due to the popularization of private cars and the epidemic. "
(a 13L methanol engine independently developed by remote new energy commercial vehicles. Picture source: Geely Commercial Vehicle Official Website)
In order to cope with the impact of the decline in sales of the commercial vehicle sector, some commercial vehicle companies are accelerating their pace of entering the new track, and industry competition has also shifted from "quantity" to "competitive quality" stage. A relevant person in charge of Geely New Energy Commercial Vehicle Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Gely Commercial Vehicles") said in an interview with a reporter from " China Business News " that at present, Geely Commercial Vehicles' remote new energy commercial vehicles are actively promoting the transformation of commercial vehicles from production tools to intelligent mobile capacity, zero-carbon logistics carrier, digital life space, and has completed the layout of five major product lines of heavy trucks, light trucks, small and micro-cards, LCV (Light Commercial Vehicles) and passenger cars, covering the entire application scenarios of commercial vehicles.
Single-month production and sales volume stopped falling and rebounded year-on-year
After more than half a year of dormant, the sales of commercial vehicles finally began to stabilize and rebound.
Passenger Vehicle Market Information Joint Conference Commercial Vehicle Work Department Statistics show that in August this year, my country's commercial vehicle market sales reached 258,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 4%, of which new energy commercial vehicles sales reached 29,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 95.7%.
At the same time, in August this year, commercial vehicle production also showed positive year-on-year growth compared with the same period last year, with an increase of 3.1%. It is understood that this is also the first "report card" of double growth in a single month since April last year.
Related information shows that trucks and buses are the main sales force in the commercial vehicle market. According to statistics from No. 1 Commercial Vehicle Network, the market share of trucks currently accounts for 71.85% of the entire commercial vehicle market, while buses rank second with a market share of 12.81%.
However, the sales growth rate of the above two major commercial vehicle segments is significantly different. According to statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in August this year, truck sales increased by 6.3% year-on-year to 224,000 vehicles; while bus market sales showed a downward trend, down about 8.9% from the same period in 2021. The trend of
is also reflected in the sales data of major automakers. In terms of buses, Zhongtong Bus Co., Ltd. (000857.SZ)'s cumulative production and sales from January to August this year were 4,143 and 4,273 respectively, down 23.06% and 16.58% respectively compared with the same period in 2021.
For trucks, although the sales of traditional fuel trucks are still declining, new energy commercial vehicles are shining. According to the sales data released by Hanma Technology Group Co., Ltd. (600375.SH), in August this year, the sales of new energy heavy trucks reached 125 units, an increase of nearly 90% over the same period in 2021; from January to August this year, the sales of new energy heavy trucks reached 1,942 units, a significant increase of 167.13% over the same period in 2021.
Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Dongfeng Motor ", 600006.SH) has also gained a lot in the sales of new energy commercial vehicles. Relevant data shows that in August this year, Dongfeng Motor sold a total of 1,684 new energy commercial vehicles; and from January to August this year, Dongfeng Motor sold a total of 12,411 new energy commercial vehicles, an increase of 50.86% over the same period in 2021.
Regarding the situation where the sales performance of trucks and buses in the commercial vehicle market are different, Zhang Xiang told reporters: "Residents are more accustomed to private cars, which has led to a decline in the role of buses in the public transportation market. In addition, the subsidies for new energy commercial vehicles have declined in recent years, resulting in a decrease in the market's enthusiasm for purchasing new energy buses. After the subsidies are reduced, the demand for buses and other products has also decreased accordingly."
competes to develop core technologies
commercial vehicle market sales continue to decline, which has also led to the development ideas of car companies gradually changing from mainly sales to seeking transformation breakthroughs in quality. Among them, new tracks such as new energy and intelligence have become the key directions for commercial vehicle companies to "break through".
In terms of the layout of new energy commercial vehicles, in addition to pure electric commercial vehicles, the tentacles of car companies' research and development have extended to many types such as hydrogen fuel cell and methanol power, and related models have been put into commercial applications.
reporter learned from Dongfeng Motor that Dongfeng Commercial Vehicle Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as " Dongfeng Commercial Vehicle ") under Dongfeng Motor has delivered more than 2,000 pure electric medium and heavy trucks to customers.
"At present, Dongfeng Commercial Vehicle has launched three technical routes: pure electric, hybrid and hydrogen fuel." Dongfeng Motor stated that its products have covered all subdivided scenarios such as steel plants, ports, resource transportation, urban construction, urban distribution logistics, and sanitation. The company will vigorously research the core technologies of the "three electricity" of new energy commercial vehicles, establish a new business development department, and comprehensively layout the new energy commercial vehicle market.
In addition, the relevant person in charge of remote new energy commercial vehicles also said that in terms of technology, remote new energy commercial vehicles have formed a urban commercial vehicle technology route with pure electric drive and extended-range electric drive power systems as the core, and a highway commercial vehicle technology route with liquid hydrogen energy methanol power and pure electric drive power using battery swap technology as the core.
It is understood that in August this year, the overall sales of remote new energy commercial vehicles once again won the first place in the industry, with a total of 4,518 vehicles sold, accounting for 21.67%. It achieved a "four consecutive championships" in sales from May to August, and also won the cumulative sales championship from January to August this year.
"Remote new energy commercial vehicles will always adhere to the development direction of the new generation of commercial vehicle products and businesses with R&D as the lead and focus on green intelligence as the core, and actively promote the transformation of commercial vehicles from production tools to intelligent mobile capacity, zero-carbon logistics carriers, and digital living space." A relevant person in charge of Geely Commercial Vehicles told reporters.
In Zhang Xiang's view, the market rules of new energy commercial vehicles are completely different from those of passenger cars. "At present, commercial vehicles are growing rapidly in the field of fuel cell , mainly because fuel cell commercial vehicles receive relatively high subsidies, which greatly mobilizes the enthusiasm of car companies."
In addition to expanding the new energy commercial vehicle market, intelligent connected fields such as autonomous driving are also one of the new tracks targeted by car companies. According to relevant media reports, the "reduction of staff" operation test of L4-level smart heavy trucks jointly created by SAIC Hongyan and Youdao Zhitu, a subsidiary of SAIC Group, was officially launched in Donghai Bridge in Pudong New District, Shanghai.
Relevant data shows that the smart heavy trucks involved in the operation have achieved the 1,500-kilometer zero takeover target, 886 hazard scene identification and 1,037 functional safety tests, involving the commercialization of autonomous driving in ports, municipal sanitation, park logistics scenarios, smart buses and other scenarios, becoming the only product in the field of commercial vehicle autonomous driving that has passed the third-level safety level protection assessment of the Ministry of Public Security. Among them, the cumulative operating mileage on the Donghai Bridge has exceeded 3 million kilometers, and the cumulative transfer of more than 100,000 standard containers has been completed.
Dongfeng Motor also stated that in recent years, the company has been keeping up with the market trend and constantly innovating, focusing on improving the independent development capabilities of intelligent networks, focusing on four scenarios: smart logistics , smart sanitation, smart commuting and point-to-point transportation in closed parks, and creating multiple categories of autonomous driving vehicles such as smart logistics/ sanitation vehicles , automatic delivery/selling vehicles, commuting vehicles , and solving the current pain points of the logistics and sanitation industry. At present, these application scenarios have been basically implemented and operated in a commercial manner, laying a solid foundation for the initiative in the subsequent development of new energy.
Market sales pressure remains
Although the monthly production and sales of commercial vehicles began to stabilize and rebound in August this year, and the pace of transformation and development is accelerating, there is still uncertainty for the entire commercial vehicle market.
Shengang Securities research report analysis believes that due to demand overdraft and epidemic factors, the market pressure of the commercial vehicle sector is still relatively high. In 2022, there is still uncertainty in the demand side of commercial vehicles in infrastructure, real estate, logistics, passenger transport, etc., and the situation remains grim.
However, new energy commercial vehicles still have a broad market space. Zhang Xiang told reporters that the new energy commercial vehicle market is currently mainly concentrated in first- and second-tier cities. "Traditional fuel trucks and trucks are not allowed to enter in some first- and second-tier cities, which has created certain market opportunities for new energy logistics vehicles and has also stimulated the growth of sales of new energy logistics vehicles from a policy level."
. In terms of penetration rate , the new energy commercial vehicle market also has huge room for growth. Statistics show that from January to August this year, the penetration rate of my country's new energy commercial vehicle market was only 7.8%, accounting for a small proportion of the entire commercial vehicle market. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers pointed out that the positive factors that promote the growth of the commercial vehicle market have not yet appeared, and future market development still requires joint efforts from all parties.
In the face of market opportunities, many commercial vehicle companies have begun to focus on the construction of commercial vehicle-related service systems to expand the application scope of new energy commercial vehicle market. It is understood that based on the intelligent new energy commercial vehicle business, remote new energy commercial vehicles have established a green capacity sharing platform focusing on urban logistics scenarios and a green intelligent battery swap capacity service platform focusing on highway logistics scenarios to achieve intelligent matching of "people, cars, goods, stations, and electricity" in the entire scenario.
"In the future, the big data platform for remote new energy commercial vehicles will improve the real-time scheduling capacity, more rationally and intelligently plan vehicle transportation and energy replenishment routes, provide users with more accurate and efficient capacity solutions, and improve logistics efficiency." A relevant person in charge of Geely Commercial Vehicles told reporters.
In addition to building a new business system, entering new fields to carry out new businesses is also one of the common choices of commercial vehicle companies. Recently, Yutong Group announced that it will enter the field of new energy light trucks. Yutong Group stated that in the future, it will give full play to the group's core advantages, adhere to innovation-driven and market-oriented approach, and drive the light truck industry upgrade with high-quality products and services.
In fact, increasing R&D investment in emerging fields has always been the key word for Yutong Group's development in recent years. The 2022 semi-annual report data disclosed by Yutong Bus Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as " Yutong Bus ", 600066.SH), a subsidiary of Yutong Group, shows that in the first half of this year, Yutong Bus' R&D expenditure reached 743 million yuan, accounting for 9% of its operating income. It has also further increased its R&D efforts in autonomous driving and intelligent networking key technologies, multi-scene fuel cell system technology, etc.
(Editor: Zhang Jiazhen Proofreader: Yan Jingning)
