Rapid Development of New Energy and New Technology Makes the Commercial Vehicle Industry Chain More Perfect

——A Tribute to the 75th Anniversary of the Founding of New China

As China's commercial vehicle industry enters a new stage of high-quality development, its industrial chain system has become increasingly complete and refined, promoting continuous breakthroughs in new products and technologies. At present, the scale of new energy and intelligent connected technology applications in the commercial vehicle field is expanding, and it is expected that by 2030, the market penetration rate of new energy commercial vehicles will reach 20%.

Over the 75 years since the founding of New China, China's automotive industry has grown from nothing to something, and from small to large; during these 75 years, China's automobile market has flourished, growing from weak to strong. Especially in the past decade, amidst the global automotive industry's transformation, domestic brands have emerged in the new energy race, and multinational car companies have accelerated their transformation with the help of the Chinese market. The Chinese automotive industry has ushered in a rare opportunity to become a "leader." To this end, the Auto Channel of China Economic Net has specially launched a series of reports to comprehensively and systematically review and inventory, and today we present the eighth article: "Rapid Development of New Energy and New Technology Makes the Commercial Vehicle Industry Chain More Perfect."

Advertisement

After experiencing the process from starting from scratch to achieving both quantity and quality, China's commercial vehicle industry has entered a new stage of high-quality development, showing many bright spots in development. In this process, the industrial chain system of the commercial vehicle industry has become increasingly complete and refined, promoting the further enhancement and development of commercial vehicle technology and products, and continuously achieving breakthroughs.

In terms of traditional internal combustion engine models, with the application of technologies such as high-pressure common rail, the exhaust emission levels of commercial vehicle products have been continuously improving. At the same time, with the continuous improvement of environmental policies and vehicle standards, commercial vehicles are also moving towards high-end and intelligent directions. Especially in the past decade, the scale of new energy and intelligent connected technology applications in the commercial vehicle field has been expanding.

Rapid Development of New Energy Commercial Vehicles

In recent years, the overall sales of new energy commercial vehicles have shown a growth trend. Data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers shows that in 2023, the domestic sales of new energy commercial vehicles were 35,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 6.1%. From January to September of this year, the sales of new energy commercial vehicles were 351,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 33.5%, with a market penetration rate of 15.9%, which is a significant increase.

Heavy-duty Hydrogen Fuel Cell Trucks

It is worth noting that under the active guidance of a series of policies, the application and promotion of new energy commercial vehicles in the public domain are relatively advanced, such as in the fields of urban buses and tourist coaches. At the 2024 Alcohol Hydrogen Electric Vehicle Development Forum held in September this year, Liu Mingjun, Director of the Vehicle Management Office of the Transportation Service Department of the Ministry of Transport, introduced that by the end of last year, the number of new energy urban buses had reached 554,000, a 15-fold increase from 37,000 in 2014, and the proportion of new energy vehicles in urban buses nationwide had reached 81.2%.At the same time, China continues to make breakthroughs in new energy vehicle technology, with the technical levels of batteries, electric motors, and electronic controls continuously improving. The performance and driving range of new energy commercial vehicles are gradually increasing, and charging times are continuously being reduced, providing technical support for their widespread application.

Zhong Weiping, Secretary-General of the Commercial Vehicle Professional Committee of the China Automobile Circulation Association, stated that in the future development process, new energy will definitely become a unique driving force in the commercial vehicle industry, gradually forming the world's strongest new energy industry chain, and becoming a unique presence in the global market.

It is foreseeable that with continuous technological innovation, the performance of new energy commercial vehicles will continue to improve, and there will be greater breakthroughs in battery technology, with key indicators such as driving range and charging time further improved. The entire industry chain will also achieve faster and healthier development, and there will be more business model innovations, improving vehicle usage efficiency and reducing user costs.

According to predictions by the well-known consulting firm Roland Berger, by 2030, the market penetration rate of China's new energy commercial vehicles will reach 20%.

Intelligent connected technology is continuously advancing.

What is more worth noting is that as the automotive industry enters the "second half" of the competition, China's commercial vehicle intelligent connected technology has also evolved from the initial auxiliary driving to today's automatic parking, automatic lane changing, active braking, and other L2-level auxiliary driving functions, achieving a qualitative breakthrough. For example, Shanghai Youdao Zhitu Technology Co., Ltd. has now put a large number of autonomous driving trucks into operation in 14 ports and mines at home and abroad. In just Shanghai Yangshan Port, the commercial operation mileage has exceeded 10 million kilometers in 5 years.

In recent years, the country has introduced a series of policies to support the development of intelligent connected technology for commercial vehicles. In November last year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other departments issued the "Notice on Carrying Out the Pilot Work of Intelligent Connected Vehicle Access and Road Traffic," providing a policy basis for the access and road traffic of intelligent connected commercial vehicles. Governments at all levels have also increased their support for intelligent connected technology for commercial vehicles, promoting the research and development and application of intelligent connected technology for commercial vehicles by building intelligent connected vehicle testing demonstration areas and providing financial subsidies.

Some analyses believe that in the foreseeable future, China's commercial vehicle industry will definitely show higher-quality development. First, in terms of products, more and newer products will continue to be launched in various types of vehicle scenarios; second, there will be continuous breakthroughs in high and new technologies, thereby promoting commercial vehicle products and the entire industry to move towards higher efficiency and higher quality.

Cui Dongshu, Secretary-General of the Passenger Car Market Information Joint Conference of the China Automobile Circulation Association, stated that intelligent connected, autonomous driving, and other high and new technologies have been applied in the commercial vehicle industry. With the increasing competition in the industry and products in the future, the advantages of enterprises mastering real technological strength will gradually be reflected and more obvious.Zhong Weiping also believes that intelligent networking and autonomous driving can effectively reduce the intensity of human labor and labor costs, lower the rate of production accidents, and enhance production efficiency. The future application value will be greater and more apparent.