On January 12, the China Automobile Association released the 2021 China Automobile Industry Report Card, the automobile market reversed the downward trend of three consecutive years, and the passenger car market continued to maintain a scale of more than 20 million units, regaining growth hopes. The commercial vehicle industry has declined in production and sales, down -6.6% year-on-year to become a drag on the automotive industry, of which M-class buses present a two-sided life with very different styles: the traditional large and medium-sized buses fell into the freezing point, and the light buses were fully red - there are also reasons behind this drop of one liter.
- The cumulative sales of large and medium-sized buses in the whole year were 94,000 units, a year-on-year decline of -9.6%, and this decline seems to have only one reason: insufficient passenger flow has led to a sharp decline in demand for rides. Since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic in early 2020, society has gradually realized that "non-public contact" individual travel has greater flexibility, convenience and low risk in prevention and control, and changes in consumer behavior habits have directly led to the neglect of public travel patterns. Urban buses, highways and tourist passenger transport have encountered the dilemma of "pulling stools", vehicle large-scale has long given way to the product economy, even if there is new energy technology support can not prevent the fate of continuous decline, at this time how to revitalize, reconfigure the existing passenger space resources to significantly take precedence over the replacement of existing vehicles, the traditional bus industry has entered the "oversupply", serious overcapacity of the saturation era.
- The cumulative sales of light buses in the whole year were 411,000 units, an increase of 19.4% year-on-year, which was a two-fold change. The first is that the traditional VAN class, Yishang IKEA stamping light customers continue to be optimistic, in the light truck industry by the national six emission switch, blue brand new policy after the impact of the new market to become a new favor point, super six to become M1 class multi-purpose passenger car fully shows that scattered distribution of individual cars is the absolute main force, but the market inherent "three big three small" competition pattern is extremely difficult to shake, the industry access threshold is extremely high. The other is the resurgence of the concept of traditional light buses with skeleton bodies under 7 meters, and the light buses at the front middle gate, the traditional rural passenger minibuses and the intelligent driving 6-meter minibuses intersect in many fields. Recently, Shenzhen Bus Group has purchased a number of brands of 6-7 meters minibuses in batches, as a vane of the national bus industry, shenzhen bus this move may become the main theme of the next stage.
In 2021, the market is both ice and fire, and the first batch of public announcements of the year has reached a new low
In the past five years, since 2017, the ministry of industry and information technology's annual announcement batch of new bus products has mostly remained around 70 models, and even in 2021, when the industry as a whole is sluggish, there are 53 new products. As the first batch of red-headed documents in 2022, the 352nd batch of new products was announced to only 26 basic types of M-class buses, which hit the lowest value in recent years compared with the half-waist cut. (Note: There are also special types of seats here)
From the perspective of the structure of the major categories of new bus products: buses, minibuses and light passengers have declined in the same proportion, and the number of light passengers is better than that of China buses; the total number of buses accounts for more than half of the total number of new buses, maintaining the strong position since the outbreak of new energy; the structure adjustment of seating products has been nearly ten years, and the number of new products after the great injury can no longer touch the height of the bus category; the new products of the school bus class are like gossamer, in addition to the significant reduction of participating enterprises, they have also become "forgotten corners of the industry" because they do not involve new energy. However, as a clearly separated segment, the school bus market still provides a certain living space for the majority of "long-tail enterprises", and this invisible front is also testing the strategic choice and business determination of car companies.
This batch of M class buses has a total of 26 new products, in addition to the traditional five major types, there are also rare 2 special types of new products added, as elaborated later. Large and medium-sized buses have developed in a balanced way, and light buses have continued to "play supplementary". The traditional strong 8-9 meters of new passenger seats quickly disappeared, and the market began to develop to 6-7 meters of front-end minibuses and 10-12 meters of rear passengers. The new school bus 1 is an Ankai HFF6860S9D6Z special school bus for primary and secondary school students, with a maximum of 42 seats and a length of 8.64 meters, which is also an 8-meter large school bus with less attention in the industry before. Although the overall number of new M-class buses in this batch is limited, the highlight models have not faded, which is also the unique serialization of buses and the endless industry characteristics of variants.
Yutong E6 finally came out of the front middle door version, and SAIC Shenwo 8 series minor modification
This batch of Yutong declared two E6 series ZK6605BEVG4/5 pure electric city buses, both using Ningde era single body, Zhengzhou Shenlan or Ningde era group LFP power battery, Yutong bus 120kW drive system. Different from the 6 products that have been declared before, Yutong adopts the front and middle door opening configurations of conventional buses this time, which is consistent with the structure of the ZK6650BEVG series of the same platform in the early years, and is more in line with the characteristics of customer use.
In August 2018, Yutong launched a short E6 of 5.97 meters, but it adopted a right-side middle-opening single-door + left-side safety door structure, which is more like the square-tone flat-headed minibus that was popular in the early years of the industry (such as the national "explosive" LCK6660EVG series in the early years of Zhongtong). Although the later Yutong E6 was adjusted to the right double door structure, it was still arranged in the middle door between the two axes, and did not change the driver ticket supervision BUG of the traditional minibus. It can be seen that even if it is as powerful as the industry leader, it is necessary to adapt to the characteristics of market demand, and it is extremely difficult to try to change the user's usage habits in the world.
This batch of SAIC Shenwo made a small modification to its 8 series bus platform, declared the SWB6128EV07C pure electric city bus, changed the tear-eyed daily running lights to the light strip type, and at the same time integrated the left and right headlight boards and the front bumper into a whole, reshaping the prism shape, thereby changing the previous three-piece coverage setting. The car is a common "suburban car" in Shanghai, which is a bus without a passenger standing area. Since Shenwo has no regular seat bus platform (for example, there is still a Lusheng series SWB6120/6110/6860 before), it can only use the existing bus product platform for "deformation and restructuring", and increase the bottom luggage compartment and raise the seat platform in the car through the truss structure, forming a style similar to the European "suburban bus". However, due to the retention of the square tone style of urban buses, coupled with the low body height ratio of seat buses, such products are more like mobile square boxes, which belong to a product of "seat bus structure and city bus announcement". The car has a maximum of 49+1 seats, air suspension, adopts ningde era LFP power battery, Siemens ELF 240kW drive system, and the maximum speed is 100km/h.
Hagrid returned to Shanghai by way of Vientiane? Zhejiang CRRC V series 8 meters
This batch of Shanghai Vientiane declared two new BEV bus products, and some clues can be seen in the comparison between the two:
- SXC6110GBEV14 is 10.83 meters long, has a wheelbase of 6.1 meters, a maximum of 92 people, 40 seats, and achieves the optimal level of the industry's conventional 10.5-meter bus by adopting the long-axis structure of the "Space Master", and the seat spacing space is more spacious. The car adopts Shanghai Electric Guoxuan LFP power battery and Weifang Petra 200kW drive system.
- Another SXC6860GBEV is obviously a Hagrid bus Azure series OEM, recently netizens have witnessed the OEM vehicle, using Shanghai Electric Guoxuan LFP power battery, refined electric 190kW drive system, the same as the former, are common configurations of Shanghai buses. From this speculation, the car or Hagrid intends to return to Shanghai bus borrowing? Considering that the three local bus factories in Shanghai - Shenwo, Vientiane and Shenlong can obtain relatively stable orders every year, if they can succeed, it will also save the country.
- Zhejiang CRRC in the overall transfer to crucian times jurisdiction, in addition to retaining the original product lineage, but also began to actively productize CRRC times, this batch of declarations CSR6854GLEV1/2 pure electric city bus, length 8580mm, width 2500mm, wheelbase 4250mm, belongs to the crRC V series bus platform the first 8-meter series serialization. The car uses air suspension, Ningde era or Zhejiang Ruipu LFP power battery, CRRC era 175kW drive system, according to the general term is also a customized model prepared for a bus tender in Zhejiang.
- Shanxi Dezhi Times used Golden Travel Star as the base car to declare the DZE6600GBEV pure electric city bus. The total length of the car is 6045mm, which is a subsidized product, with a wheelbase of 3820mm, 4 leaf spring suspensions at the front and rear, GVW = 5.8 tons, and a maximum capacity of 24 people and 10 seats. The car is equipped with ningde era LFP power battery and Xiamen Golden Travel 90kW drive system. At present, such smart minibuses are very popular in some regions, especially in the capital market, and most of the mainstream bus companies also have independent platform products. As a pioneer in the industry, Golden Travel Star has adopted the external OEM supporting strategy of "more is better" and strives to find opportunities in the competition of the new starting line.
12 meters big passenger new products take a look, Southeast Auto EV100 and Golden Dragon Kerry
This batch of two other 12-meter large-seat bus new products, but also a small mystery, specifically look:
- Hager Bus declared the Traveler series KLQ6127YFCEV1N fuel cell bus, the length of 12 meters, the height of 3.53 meters belongs to the standard 12 meters operating products, compared with the previous 11.6 meters long "small 12 meters" KLQ6121HYFCEV1N/1 overall larger circle, GVW and maintenance quality have increased, positioning more high-end. The car adopts exaggerated side trim parts, front and rear air suspension, the maximum 56 seats, equipped with Beijing Yihuatong fuel cell + Ningde era LFP power battery energy storage scheme, Golden Dragon New Energy 350kW drive system, the rear of the body painting using a lion's head pattern, slightly paying tribute to the feeling of the Scaina sphinx eagle.
- Beijing Foton Ouhui New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. this batch of declaration of BJ6122U8BJB-N1 bus, some readers are puzzled by its use of Beiqi Foton Automobile Co., Ltd. BJ6122B8B4N three types of chassis semi-bearing structure, this problem should be understood from two aspects: First of all, Foton Ouhui New Energy is a civil modification enterprise, that is, there is no chassis production qualification of the "passenger transformation factory", can only use the purchased three types of chassis for the body modification work of the supersized, This is the root cause given from the perspective of automotive industry management, and few people pay attention to and know. In addition, according to the relevant provisions of GB 7258-2017, for non-operating vehicles over 11 meters and not used as highway and tourist buses, it is not mandatory to adopt a full-load structure, for example, the Shixuan series LCK6120H5T bus of Zhongtong Bus is a semi-load non-operating bus with LCK6125RE three-class chassis. Of course, many car companies for product standardization, modularization and convenient production organization considerations, non-operating buses also use truss full-load structure, and gradually become the mainstream of the industry, of course, this is only the appearance of "confusion", or should be carefully studied by the national standard before making a judgment.
In 2021, Southeast Automobile clearly abandoned the bus production qualification in the list of enterprises specially announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and this batch is based on the Xiamen Jinlong Kairui series light passenger car, declaring the EV400 series DN6530MBEV pure electric multi-purpose passenger car, because it is managed according to the M1 passenger car, so it does not need the bus production qualification.
The car has a total length of 5310mm, a width of 1705mm, a wheelbase of 3350mm, GVW = 3150kg, belongs to the "long-headed sea lion" of the autonomous light passenger, mixed with the European engine front long head structure and the Japanese sea lion narrow body. The car adopts front torsion bar spring and 3 leaf spring suspension, rear single tire drive, rated to carry 6/7/9 passengers, equipped with Ningde era LFP power battery and Jinlong new energy 80kW drive system, the maximum speed of 100km/h. As a vehicle manufacturer belonging to Fuqi Group, Southeast Automobile and Xiamen Jinlong have also sparked cooperation.
Dongfeng Special Automobile's two special buses are also industry characteristic businesses
As a vehicle enterprise that retains special types of buses, Dongfeng Special Automobile Chaolong Bus has built it into an industry-specific business, which has been widely used in oil fields, deserts, forests, mines and other scenarios, and fully practiced the "special vehicles" in the name of the enterprise. This batch of Dongfeng Special Automobile Super Dragon Bus has declared two special types of new products at one time, continuing to enrich the product genealogy of special buses and providing more base car choices for special modification.
The first is the EQ6602ZT6D bus, which features a 4×4 off-road chassis with a cab slightly Mercedes Benz Unimog style. The car is 5.99 meters long, 2.53 meters wide, wheelbase 3.7 meters, GVW = 11.95 tons, front 3 rear 4 leaf spring suspension, the maximum passenger capacity of 19 people, equipped with Dongfeng Cummins 4.5L, 220 horsepower diesel engine, the maximum speed of 100km / h. The car is a straight-through girder structure, retaining the main and auxiliary driver doors and the passenger door between the right axle, optional rear doors and various configuration forms, speculating that it may be a base car for military and police modifications.
The other EQ6820ZT6D bus with the appearance of Dongfeng Tianlong heavy truck, 6×6 three-axle all-drive off-road structure, total length 8.2 meters, width 2.38 meters, GVW = 12 tons, the maximum passenger capacity of 31 people, the use of front 9 rear 12 leaf spring suspension, the power system is the same as the previous model. The car is a straight-through girder, engine front structure, optional electric winch, rear wall door, front anti-collision bar and so on. Previously, there were rumors of insufficient braking power of similar twin-axle models, and this upgrade to a three-axle structure can also improve such problems and further expand product adaptability. (End)
Photo: C3