【China Commercial Vehicle Forum】Xia Guoqiang: A New Era of Commercial Vehicle Exports: A Brief Analysis of Opportunities, Policies and Regulations

From March 26 to 28, 2024, the 2024 China Commercial Vehicle Forum was held in Shiyan City, Hubei Province. Hosted by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, with the theme of "New Pace, New Results, New Improvement, Helping the High-quality Development of the Commercial Vehicle Industry", this forum is based on the high-quality development requirements of the industry, the realization of the national "double carbon" goal, the transformation and innovation needs of the automobile industry, and promotes reform, transformation and development with innovation, so as to help the high-quality development of the commercial vehicle industry. Among them, Xia Guoqiang, director of the Standards and Certification Center of China Automotive Engineering Research Institute Co., Ltd., delivered a wonderful speech at the "Theme Forum III: Improving Internationalization Capabilities and Helping the Overseas Development of Commercial Vehicles" held on the morning of March 28. The following is a transcript of the speech:

I am from CAERI Standards Certification Center, mainly engaged in standards and certification, and I am glad to have this opportunity to share with you some trends related to export certification, some opportunities and challenges we are facing, and some practices of CAERI in promoting the export of commercial vehicles.

It is divided into these four parts, the first part, the export policy and trend of commercial vehicles.

Just now, Secretary-General Sun shared the export data in detail, and the statistics of the production and sales of commercial vehicles last year were 4.037 million and 4.031 million from the association, which had a certain gap with the data of the customs. The data of the commercial vehicle export association is 770,000 units, and the customs agency is 780,000 units, which is about the same.

This is an analysis of the export area based on customs data, which is not too much to introduce, and Secretary-General Sun also introduced it just now.

Take a look at the top-level planning and design of the various ministries and commissions in charge of automobile exports. In September 2022, the Ministry of Commerce issued the "Notice on Several Policy Measures to Support the Stable Development of Foreign Trade", from the export of second-hand cars, now we all know that China's second-hand cars are not allowed to be exported, in order to promote trade and promote the effective play of domestic production capacity, it is now allowed to export second-hand cars, and the Ministry of Commerce encourages various localities and enterprises to do export pilot demonstration cities and demonstration enterprises. At the same time, the customs has optimized the relevant processes and also supported the transportation of some goods in overseas warehouses.

In August last year, the Ministry of Commerce and other seven departments put forward a work goal of steady growth, which emphasized several points, one is to encourage, establish and improve the international marketing service system, guide industry institutions to form automobile enterprises, international development to turn to the alliance, our association is the establishment of an innovation and development alliance. At the same time, it is necessary to study overseas policies, regulations, standards and other information sharing service platforms, and we have also set up several overseas information centers with the association, and are also building a legal database for overseas policies and standards. At the same time, we will encourage and strengthen low-carbon development cooperation with key countries and local governments for the entire industrial chain. Among the challenges we are facing, Secretary-General Sun also introduced just now that low-carbon is a very important piece, so there are also some overall strategic co-ordination of national ministries and commissions in this area. In February this year, the Ministry of Commerce and other 5 departments issued the "Notice on Further Improving the Export of Second-hand Vehicles", which is to encourage the export of second-hand cars, including the export of second-hand commercial vehicles, including encouraging the construction of commercial vehicle export bases, Shandong is also doing better, Shiyan as the capital of commercial vehicles, the commercial vehicle second-hand car should have great prospects for development. Encourage qualified enterprises to establish public exhibition and trading centers, overseas warehouses, auction platforms, etc.

This is for the new energy corresponding to some of the top-level policies, this is the Ministry of Commerce in February this year, but also the joint 9 units issued the "Opinions on Supporting the Healthy Development of New Energy Vehicle Trade Cooperation", mainly from 6 aspects of 18 policy measures. Here to improve the international distribution capacity and level, emphasizing the need to improve overseas compliance management capabilities, encourage overseas research and development, the cultivation of international talents, but also to improve the international logistics system, including last year's export transportation This country is also facing great challenges, so this piece has been optimized in the later stage. At the same time, we encourage the strengthening of financial support, this Japanese company is still doing very well, with the products going to sea, the industry going to sea, its finance is also going to sea together, so we also have to learn from some of the good experience of foreign countries in the past.

To optimize trade promotion activities, it is necessary to strengthen some support of public platforms and encourage enterprises to carry out business activities. Marketing a good trade environment. This emphasizes the promotion of the internationalization of standards and the mutual recognition of assessments. With the going out of products and industries, the mutual recognition of standards, including the mutual recognition of peace assessment, is also the direction encouraged and promoted by national ministries and commissions. At the same time, it is emphasized that the ability to prevent risks has been enhanced.

Based on some of the above-mentioned policies at the top level of national ministries and commissions, CCIC and CAERI have also made relevant explorations, and we have just introduced that we have established an information center with the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers overseas, which is also a network based on CCIC's overseas layout. Last year, four centers were established, and two more will be established this year and next year, covering almost all regions of the world. The focus is mainly on the following services, which have just been introduced, and the important thing is overseas policies, standards and regulations, which we will build a database of overseas policies, standards and regulations, and integrate global standards and policy-related regulations. Of course, these standards are copyrighted, and we have also obtained an authorization from the review center and copyright, and we will go online to serve the industry in the later stage. The service of standard certification is a part of the export, and we, as a quality service organization, are also promoting the integration of standards and testing. It is also relying on some overseas resources of our group, and we are also carrying out some explorations in finance, logistics, including branding, and quality maintenance.

The second part is a brief analysis of the regulations of commercial vehicles in overseas markets.

We know that we know to do the export certification of products, there are three kinds in the world, one is relatively basic, the scope is relatively wide, is the EU export certification, mainly E/e-mark certification. The second is a certification in the United States, which is a self-certification and a mandatory recall system, which is DOT. The EPA is also mandatory. The form in Japan is the designation and notification system. Others are more perfect, for example, China has a 3C certification system, the European Union has an EAC system, the GCC of the Gulf, etc., so there are some countries and regions that will combine the characteristics of the territory, adjust and formulate some of the relevant inaccuracies of their own adaptation, relying on the standard will also have the corresponding certification requirements.

This is a list of such a feature of global certification regulations, you can see that most of the certification is basically in charge of traffic gates, and environmental protection and energy conservation are related to environmental protection in charge, mainly these two ministries. Each section of the regulation has its own legal system, and it is based on its own legal system.

There are three certification modes, one is type test, and the other is consistency inspection and EOP. These access are basically mandatory, and if you want to sell in the corresponding area, you must get the corresponding certification.

This is a comparison with our Chinese 3C certification system, this is mainly a difference in the certification model, China's certification model requirements are still relatively strict, 1:16:06 in this form.

Now take a look at the EU regulations, because most of them are based on the EU standard system, there are E and E, and the industry is basically more familiar. e is a regulation of the European Commission. E is the standard promulgated by the Economic Commission for Europe, mainly the member state of the European Union, and other members who join the 58 agreement will also do some E regulations.

The difference between these two is that the scope is different, E includes the whole vehicle, and E is mainly parts and systems. It is mandatory in the intensity of implementation, e is mandatory, and E has a certain degree of freedom in implementation.

This is the 14 member states of the European Union, which has since expanded to add 13 countries, and here Europe is Brexit, and now it is 16. Now the UK is basically referring to this standard system of the European Union.

This is a process for the corresponding certification. If you want to sell vehicles in EU countries, you must obtain a WVTA certificate, and a process of application is that the manufacturer submits an application to the certification body authorized by the Ministry of Transport of various EU countries abroad, and the certification body issues an experimental report and a certificate to submit it to the issuing authority, which is mainly the traffic management department of the EU country, and will obtain a WVTA certificate after compliance.

This is the access requirements of the United States, the United States has two main parts, one is the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration under the DOT he issued safety-related standards, he is mainly for safety, energy saving, anti-theft and other regulations, including import management, test detection, defect recovery, NCAP evaluation. The company can do the acting itself, he will force it. The rest is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the EPA, which mainly formulates emission environmental protection regulations, vehicle emission certification, emission defect recalls, etc. So this part is mandatory.

This is a framework for it, and it should be noted that for emission regulations, in addition to meeting the requirements of the EPA, it is also necessary to meet the emissions requirements of California, each of which has its own requirements and is also mandatory. A process of DOT safety certification, mainly the test report does not need to be submitted to the Ministry of Communications, and the Ministry of Communications will not issue a certificate to the applicant. It is still more prudent for our domestic car companies to go to the United States.

This is the certification of environmental protection EPO emissions, which is mandatory, after submitting the information, the EPA can require itself to do verification, or it can require the manufacturer to do the test within the time, and then issue the relevant certificate.

The second big market, Iran is also a relatively large trend for China, Iran's access system is mainly formulated by its National Motor Vehicle Standards and Industrial Research Institute, with 5 requirements, mainly EN and ECE standards, in addition to "handling stability" and "emergency exit of passenger cars". The Iranian certification model adopts type certification + production consistency inspection.

GCC in the Gulf, which is a few member states of the Gulf, basically formed its own set of certification system for GCC, just understand this. One of the concerns of the Gulf is its emission limits, and each country has different requirements, some countries require multiple times, and some have to meet the requirements of the European Union. This is a requirement related to its "eCall", which has been postponed until 2027 in some countries. Basically, it technically adopts the relevant test requirements of the European Union, and some countries still require it to communicate certification control, and there are some on-board emergency call numbers to meet his requirements.

This is the Eurasian Economic Union CUTR certification, mainly in 5 countries including Belarus and Russia. There are mainly 4 tests for localization, this is a list of its localization standards, everyone should pay attention to its GLONASS, now these test items are required to be carried out in Russia, and now our laboratories are also available.

ASEAN, in recent years, the export volume of automobiles is very large, its export trade volume has just been introduced is more and more, now to the Guangzhou Automobile Bureau, automobile products are basically jumping, in the ASEAN import and export of the head of a product category. There are many countries in ASEAN, and because of its uneven economic development, each country has its own characteristics. Singapore comes from the European Union. There are some relatively simple projects in Malay. Thailand TISI, at present, there are not many certification projects in Thailand, and many Chinese passenger car brands have also gone to Thailand, so some subsequent standards for scattered power and intelligent network connection will also be included in its mandatory requirements. Indonesia is relatively closed, so the test must be conducted in its own country.

This is the Philippines and Vietnam, they are also paying more and more attention to the automotive industry, and they are also planning to introduce some requirements for corresponding certification.

The third part is the opportunities and challenges of commercial vehicle exports.

Just now, Secretary-General Sun also made a detailed analysis of this issue. From the perspective of the industry, we generally feel that the market is a good aspect, and we have just introduced that the export of commercial vehicles has also jumped to the first team, although it has not surpassed Germany and Japan, but the future potential is still very huge. Of course, there are also some challenges, such as some new trade barriers and technical barriers, which are being blocked in China, including chips in the industrial chain, etc., and some supply constraints. The other is that our industry has not gone to sea. Everyone knows that Japan has done a good job in going overseas with its industry, which is also related to its own territory, which is smaller, and its bases are all located overseas, so its export volume is to use some overseas production capacity.

This is a major trend, so we think that in the next 3 to 5 years, whether it is a passenger car or a commercial vehicle, its trend will still be improved in quantity, and the proportion of new energy exports will be higher and higher, and it will reach a new height by 2025.

Opportunity is one of our advantages, the international environment is also favorable to us, and China's political environment is also very favorable. There are new energy reserves in technology, and some overseas factors will also increase the demand for vehicles, and our prices are gradually becoming more and more advantageous.

In this area, we may face some challenges from overseas demand, especially geopolitics, so some countries still have some geopolitical risks, and we should pay attention to these risks. In terms of quality and technological innovation, there are still some deficiencies in the process. There is also a gap in brand influence, and the rest is non-tariff barriers, which Secretary-General Sun also introduced a lot, which is also a challenge for our OEMs.

CAERI's practice is how to help our products better go out, and can provide one-stop services for the export of enterprises, especially in the pre-consultation, hoping to build a more detailed and targeted analysis of the policies and standards of various countries through the legal library of policies and standards we have built. At the same time, there is a systematic solution in a certification program, and we also hope to have such an in-depth cooperation with enterprises, and obtain certificates from multiple countries through a test, so as to provide certification efficiency. Testing and certification is integrated, which can better accelerate the speed of obtaining certification.

This is some of the points that our services push, one is integration, the other is the pre-consulting and service, we hope to be able to give better guidance to enterprises.

In fact, in addition to our products going to sea, more under the guidance of the association, we are also paying attention to our industry's going to sea, from the perspective of the industry going overseas, it is recommended that all enterprises can go out as a whole and expand the share of overseas markets in a group. Japan is still doing very well, he has established a good platform with various countries through the platform of the association during the period of various foreign enterprises, and hopes that Chinese enterprises will not fight alone, and can jointly develop overseas markets, and cooperate to put our standard system, including the certification system, can go out and push it to a mutual recognition of testing and certification. In the process of going out, it is hoped that the industrial chain, including financial institutions, can go out in a coordinated manner, so that it can achieve steady and far-reaching development and have a healthy development.

In addition, for going out, the overseas layout of commercial vehicles is still relatively slow, from the international trend, the use of overseas production capacity is a big point, completely relying on Chinese products to export products, or will face a lot of challenges, there are needs and challenges, there are also some challenges in regulations, in the territory to establish our production capacity is a very effective way.

The fourth part is the introduction of international exchange activities.

This is an event launched this year, will carry out a variety of activities around the international auto show in France and other countries, we are interested in companies can also contact us, the conference has some high-end forums, there will be some static and dynamic displays, but also there will be some cultural communication.

Well, thank you all for sharing so much today!

(Note: This article is based on on-site shorthand and has not been reviewed by the speaker)

Source: China Commercial Vehicle Forum