Hisense has officially signed a contract with the Municipal Government of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, for the construction of smart buses, which has now entered the implementation stage. On March 18, Hisense held an online media communication meeting to announce this progress. It is reported that the project is the first intelligent transportation integration project undertaken by Hisense Intelligent Transportation overseas, which means that China's intelligent transportation technology standards have begun to systematically move towards overseas markets.
Photo: Hisense attends the signing ceremony of the Addis Ababa Municipal Government
Maybe it's a coincidence of history, maybe it's Hisense's special fate with Africa. In 1994, Hisense entered the South African market, and since then it has opened its first stop of internationalization, and quickly became the first local store brand. 28 years later, the Hisense intelligent transportation project landed overseas for the first time, and the beginning is still the vast African land.
At the press conference, Mou Sangang, general manager of the international business department of Hisense Network Technology Company, introduced that the construction period of the Addis Ababa intelligent bus project signed by Hisense is 21 months, and after completion, the public can obtain real-time information on public transportation through APP, electronic passenger information screen, etc.; while public transportation enterprises realize real-time monitoring, remote control and intelligent scheduling of public transportation vehicles, and realize functions such as passenger flow and capacity matching analysis, resource input analysis, and aircraft maintenance material indicator monitoring, providing a basis for scientific decision-making.
Figure: Hisense's construction case of smart bus project in China
Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, one of the largest cities in Africa, has a permanent population of about 5 million, and traffic congestion is a major problem. Taking the bus is an important way for local citizens to travel, but every rush hour, queuing for tens of meters at the bus station and waiting for half an hour is commonplace, and public transportation urgently needs intelligent upgrades.
The local government is also very urgent for the promotion of the Hisense project. At the signing ceremony held on March 14, local time, Addis Ababa Mayor Adanek Abebe said: With the help of the intelligent public transportation system built by Hisense, it will enhance the operation capacity of local buses and improve the level of local transportation services.
Thanks to the support of the World Bank, in March 2021, the Addis Ababa Transport Authority officially issued a tender announcement to intelligently transform the local public transport system. The tender attracted the attention of many Chinese companies, and Hisense and Shandong Expressway formed a consortium to participate.
The African market is not as easy to enter as some people think, as a World Bank loan project, it sets a high bidding threshold, the company's past performance, technical strength, etc. have strict requirements, such as "at least one of the no less than 12 million US dollars of accepted projects." "Hisense is one of the few intelligent transportation companies in China that can meet the bidding threshold requirements of the other party." Mou Sangang introduced that in the bidding process, they tried all kinds of ways to understand the local status quo and technical requirements, and constantly optimized the program, and finally after 9 months of long bidding, the consortium composed of Hisense and Shandong High-speed Group successfully broke through in the fierce competition of a number of bidding enterprises, and successfully won the bid with both technical indicators and price indicators.
Pictured: Bus stop in Addis Ababa, ethiopia
"Ethiopia is the only country in the whole of Africa that has not been colonized, although there have been many civil wars in recent years, but the hardware infrastructure has been continuously improved, especially in the capital Addis Ababa region has changed significantly, but due to the lack of advanced management mode and intelligent technology, there is still a lot of room for progress," said Chen Xiaowen, the first batch of hisense network technology company in Ethiopia, who has completed the registration of hisense local branch and initially formed an executive team with colleagues. He said that the completion of the Hisense smart bus system project can at least help the local public transportation level span 20 years, can use technology to leapfrog time, and effectively bring changes to the local traffic situation, which makes him feel a great mission and is determined to make the first project of Hisense intelligent transportation to the sea a model project.
Behind Chen Xiaowen is Hisense's more than 20 years of technical cultivation in the field of intelligent transportation. Since entering the field of intelligent transportation in 1998, Hisense has been the first in China's intelligent transportation industry for 10 consecutive years, the conventional bus intelligent dispatching system has a market share of 40%, and the rapid transit (BRT) intelligent system share is as high as 70%; Hisense's technology and product solutions are applied to 169 cities across the country, according to the 2017-2021 "China Major Cities Traffic Analysis Report" released by AutoNavi Map, Hisense technology solutions not only help 19 cities to climb the "slow congestion" The list has occupied half of the top 10 list of 'city congestion relief for five consecutive years.'
Mou Sangang introduced that Hisense used to cooperate with central enterprises to "hitchhike out to sea", unable to impress customers with its own technology, did not really establish its own overseas marketing capabilities, ethiopia's project is the first intelligent transportation integration project undertaken by Hisense overseas, which marks that The Chinese intelligent transportation enterprises represented by Hisense ushered in the era of "the overall system going to sea and exporting the technology model".
In the future, Hisense intelligent transportation will continue to accelerate its going to sea. "At present, the main countries in the layout are Ethiopia, South Africa, West Africa, Dubai, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Mexico, and in the Eastern European part of the European market, we will initially choose Slovenia and Serbia and other countries, and there are projects that are currently being followed up." Mou Sangang revealed.