With the closing of the Shenzhen University Games, the work of the bus companies to provide service guarantees for the Universiade ended, and the bus industry fell into silence again.

This year, the passenger car industry in China has developed steadily with few highlights. Apart from the Shenzhen University Games, which has driven a portion of passenger car sales and Suzhou Kinglong's promotion of car networking technology in the industry has become a trend in the industry, the news in the passenger car industry is lackluster. The reporter found that in communication with the heads of several domestic enterprises, compared with the high-profile tour exhibitions and technology announcements in previous years, bus companies have made a low profile in propaganda this year, but this does not mean that the enterprise has no achievements. According to the reporter's understanding, this year companies have invested a lot in technical research and development and subdivided models.

Natural gas passenger car landscape is good

With the continuous increase in domestic oil prices, passenger car users have increased their demand for natural gas buses, making it a bright spot for the passenger car industry this year. With CNPC and CNOOC investing more in refueling stations, the original sales of natural gas buses concentrated in the western region represented by Xinjiang have a tendency to shift to the eastern regions.

Yang Chaoxia, executive vice minister of Yutong Bus Product Management Department, told reporters that Yutong’s investment in the R&D of natural gas buses is very high this year, especially for the safety of gas passenger vehicles, including the design of pipelines and key parts. Great effort. In order to meet the country’s ever-increasing emission standards, Yutong also completed the research and development and matching of the National IV gas engine. From the perspective of sales volume, the proportion of natural gas passenger vehicles in Yutong bus sales is currently close to 10%. In addition to the substantial increase in sales of natural gas buses, the number of natural gas highway passenger cars is also increasing. In Jiangsu, some customers have already purchased LNG (liquefied natural gas) road passenger cars.

There are also Xiamen Golden Brigade and Huanghai Bus to increase the development of natural gas buses.

Assistant manager and sales manager of Xiamen Jinlv Sales Co., Ltd., Pu Yanliang, told the reporter that Tianqi Bus has developed rapidly in the domestic bus market. In the first half of the year, Xiamen Golden Trip's domestic natural gas bus increased 706.7% year-on-year to 242 units. "China's natural gas is rich in resources, its price is relatively low compared to diesel, and its economic benefits are obvious. At the same time, natural gas buses themselves have the advantage that diesel passenger cars cannot match in emissions, and are the most effective measures to solve the current urban air pollution. Therefore, we expect that the gas passenger vehicles will be The bus market will continue to grow rapidly."

In this year's tender for the Xi'an International Horticultural Exposition bus, Ankai Bus won 150 bids for CNG buses.

Huanghai Bus has increased the research, development and promotion of LNG passenger cars. At present, it has formed 8 LNG series products from bus passenger cars to road passenger cars. This year, the LNG buses in the Yellow Sea achieved high volume sales in Guiyang, Liaoning and Inner Mongolia. However, in the process of promoting natural gas buses, some companies have also discovered the factors that restrict the development of natural gas. The selection of options (either CNG or LNG) by local governments and oil companies' refueling stations is not uniform. CNG is used in some places and LNG is also found in many places. This causes great confusion and limits the further promotion of natural gas buses. For example, currently, the Henan market uses CNG and Shandong uses LNG, so that natural gas vehicles using the LNG system cannot refuel in Henan and cannot operate. Pu Yanliang said: “At present, the natural gas vehicle is more geographically strong, and we hope that the country can unify and standardize. From a technical point of view, LNG is more suitable for promotion on passenger cars because its own storage system is light and has a long driving range, but its price is lower than CNG. The system is much more expensive. We think LNG has greater potential in the tourism and passenger transportation industries."

Plug-in hybrid bus

In sharp contrast with the bus companies' vigorous promotion of new energy vehicles in the past two years, such as R&D, demonstration operations, and exports, passenger car companies reported less news on new energy vehicles this year. Many companies are more focused on research and development. In the case of pure electric buses unable to travel longer mileage due to battery problems, some companies have developed plug-in hybrid buses.

At the Tianjin Bus Show held on March 22 this year, Zhongtong Bus displayed a plug-in hybrid electric bus that uses a hybrid power system structure that can be connected externally. It is added between the output of the automatic clutch and the drive shaft. One motor and increase the battery capacity to 200 ampere hours. This structure can use external charging to increase driving range, and can recover braking energy, stored in batteries or other energy storage devices. The motor can be driven simultaneously with the engine to improve the performance of the vehicle; at a specific speed, the engine can be operated in the most efficient range, or a pure electric drive mode can be used. Pure electric drive mode and hybrid electric drive mode can be realized. According to Wang Chinpu, head of the Zhongtong New Energy Bus Project, the vehicle's energy can not only come from external charging but also from generator sets. Through the vehicle control system, various operating modes such as pure electric and hybrid power can be selected according to different operating environments, achieving significant The energy-saving and emission-reduction effect is a transitional product from a hybrid bus to a pure electric bus.

This year, the first batch of PHEV industrialization technology research projects of Yutong was supported by the national “863 Plan”. Currently Yutong's plug-in hybrid buses are in the R&D phase and are expected to be launched in 2013.

On July 28, the Yutong Bus invested 2.435 billion yuan in building energy-saving and new energy bus bases, which became a major news in the industry. It is worth mentioning that the Yutong Bus Energy-Saving and New Energy Base is both a production base and an R&D base. Yutong stakeholders said that most of the 2.435 billion yuan was invested in the research and development of new energy buses. Although in the short term, the R&D of new energy vehicles will be difficult to see the benefits and the government will not be able to contribute to the tax revenue. However, Henan Province and Zhengzhou Municipal Government are relatively positive about Yutong’s R&D projects, reflecting the importance attached to technology-based companies and to the industry. The future direction of development.

Yutong Bus always believes that new energy vehicles need continuous investment and solid research and development. At present, Yutong Bus has mastered the control system of hybrid buses. It has also conducted a large number of tests to match and analyze the batteries. At the same time, it also runs demonstrations in Hangzhou and Zhengzhou, and monitors the batteries of these vehicles in real time to identify problems and propose them in advance. solution.

It is understood that Yutong's new energy bus development plans two major directions: First, pure electric, which is the industry's future development priorities. The obvious characteristic of Yutong pure electric bus is light weight, for example, the trimming quality of its 12-meter pure electric vehicle is only 12.3 tons, which is 2 tons lighter than other pure electric vehicles of the same type. The second is plug-in hybrid buses.

Ankai bus also lists pure electric buses and plug-in hybrid buses as the company's important development direction. After the completion of the Ankai New Energy Bus Base project, it will mainly produce these two kinds of passenger cars.

School Bus: From Domestic to International

School buses are the market segments that have been highly valued by bus companies in the past two years.

On July 1, 2010, the "Special Primary School Pupil Safety Technical Conditions" was implemented. Yutong and other companies actively develop and promote school buses. In October 2010, Yutong held a "School Carnival" event in Zhongguancun, Erding, Haidian District, Beijing to promote school buses in the form of school bus culture. As a bus company with an earlier focus on school buses in China, Yutong Bus has established a dedicated school bus R&D team since 2005 to provide professional and safe transportation solutions for Chinese schoolchildren. At present, Yutong has a large holding capacity in the domestic school bus market.

According to the relevant person in charge of the Huanghai Bus, as a domestic enterprise that got the school bus announcement earlier, in order to adapt to the development trend of the special school bus, improve product safety performance and bring it into line with international standards, Huanghai Bus cooperates with the Shuguang US Technology R&D Center to work together. Create a more secure dedicated school bus upgrade product platform. The new school bus developed by Huanghai Bus adopts a long head shape. The engine is placed in front of the vehicle body and absorbs energy when it collides, thus effectively ensuring the safety of the student in the car. In the interior, the student’s riding characteristics are combined with the use of a circle without projections. Corner transitions, softening the interior trim, and external warning devices on the exterior of the car body to ensure signal safety while driving.

Due to the lack of financial support from the state and governments at all levels, bus companies' progress in the promotion of school buses has not been smooth. In May of this year, Ankai Bus took advantage of export opportunities, seized business opportunities for the Saudi government to improve student travel conditions, participated in the school bus operation project of Saudi Hafir Transportation Company, and signed an export contract for 3,000 school buses with the latter, and the total contract amount reached US$152 million, equivalent to RMB990 million, has set a number of firsts in the history of Chinese passenger car exports: it is the largest single bus export in China in 2011, and the largest order for China’s school bus exports. At the same time, it is also exported from China to Saudi Arabia. The largest bus order. The export of mass-produced school buses not only proves the ability of Chinese bus companies to produce passenger cars with higher safety requirements, but also has exemplary significance for promoting the development of school buses in the domestic market.

Hafir Company has a higher safety requirement for this group of school buses. At the same time, there are requirements for the number of seats, warning signs, step heights and interior settings.

According to Li Guojun, assistant to general manager of Ankai Bus International, Saudi Arabia does not have uniform standards for school buses. When export vehicles are being developed, they are based on the standard of Chinese school buses. The Saudi government also does not provide financial support for these school buses. It is only used as a lease. The cost of car purchases needs to be settled by the financing of Hafir. The slow development of the school bus market in China is mainly due to the relatively high technical requirements of school buses, the high cost of vehicles, and the unsustainableness of schools in general. The form of Saudi government-funded leasing can provide some references for the development of the school bus market in China.

Energy-saving bus R&D center building one after another

Under the circumstances that the promotion of new energy buses has been hindered, the traditional passenger car's energy conservation has been valued by users and passenger car companies. Paying attention to the energy conservation of traditional automobiles is one of the directions for the state to discuss and formulate the “energy-saving and new-energy automotive technology policy”. Zhang Xiaoyu, chairman of the China Association of Automotive Engineers, said that because of the emphasis on the development of new energy vehicles, it is not possible to waste or abandon research on traditional automotive energy-saving and environmental protection technologies. Although new energy buses are already operating in some cities, it will take a long time before they can be used in large quantities. Therefore, the energy-saving and emission reduction of traditional passenger coaches is still one of the most important issues considered by bus companies.

Against this backdrop, many companies have invested in building energy-saving bus R&D centers this year.

In order to support the research and development and production of energy-saving and new energy vehicles, Zhongtong Bus began construction of 20,000 energy-saving and new energy bus bases in April this year. The project mainly constructs the production workshop, the national new energy and energy-saving passenger car engineering research center and supporting facilities, and the project has 811 sets of new detection and auxiliary equipment.

In the 3 years since 2010, Daikin Dragon invested more than 200 million yuan for product upgrades and process innovations. The test center for energy-saving and environmentally friendly passenger cars with an investment of more than 40 million yuan will be built from the end of December 2010 and will be put into use this year. Its main functions include: new energy vehicle development and testing center, automotive electrical test bench, automotive electromagnetic compatibility test bench, and vehicle cut-off. The integrated rollover test stand, brake performance test stand, NVH test stand, CAE test stand, 18-ton drum test stand, and six-column hydraulic servo road simulation laboratory will further enhance the research and development capabilities of Dajinlong energy-saving and new energy buses. And key component industrialization capabilities

Cathodic electrophoresis for passenger coaches

With the increase of competition in the passenger car market, users are increasingly demanding the anti-corrosion and durability of buses. Applying cathodic electrophoresis technology has become an inevitable choice for bus companies. Zhu Jinqiang, deputy general manager of Daikin Dragon, told reporters that this year, Dajinlong will also invest RMB 100 million to build a cathodic electrophoresis line for the entire vehicle, improve the durability and safety of the passenger car frame, and enhance the durability and safety of the vehicle.

In May 2008, Xiamen Golden Travel's cathodic electrophoresis line was put into production. It was an early adopter of catwalk electrophoresis in the passenger car industry. Technically speaking, most domestic passenger car companies currently use phosphating process to improve the anti-corrosion performance of vehicles, but the phosphatized car frame has a short anticorrosion life, and after welding into a complete car, the solder joints are not easily protected due to anti-corrosion. Corrosion. According to Yu Huaiyong, Minister of Assets and Machinery of Shenzhen Yunfa Group Co., Ltd. in Guangdong Province, using traditional techniques such as phosphating process, the vehicle will use three or five years, the bottom edge of the windshield strip will blister, rust, and tires. The upper part of the hub, the engine and the tail, the sink on the roof, etc. are most likely to rot, and the 1.5 to 2 mm sheet will be rusted and rotted, which will not only affect the appearance but also affect the safety of the passenger car. From an economic point of view, the catho electrophoresis line of a large passenger car is different from that of a car cathodic electrophoresis. It requires a larger electrophoretic fluid and needs a large amount of sales to support it.

With the continuous increase in the production of passenger cars in China, the annual sales volume of bus companies ranked in the forefront of the industry has exceeded 10,000 or even 20,000 vehicles, and they have the ability to absorb the costs of constructing cathodic electrophoresis lines.

After the catwalk electrophoresis line of Yutong Bus was put into operation, Yutong Bus established the “Yutong Electrocoating Standard” electrophoresis standard, the first and the world’s top standard in the passenger car industry, in combination with Yutong and the actual conditions of the industry.

After the completion of Dajinlong's vehicle cathodic electrophoresis line, it will increase the number of commonly used cathodic electrophoresis lines in the entire industry to 3, greatly improving the industry's passenger car technology level.

Popular full bearer technology

In February of this year, Zhongtong Bus’s large-sized rectangular chassis underwent all-body technology through a review of the State Intellectual Property Office and obtained patents for inventions.

Due to the great role of full load bearing technology in improving the safety of passenger cars, and the advantages of full load bearing technology for light weight, structural stress is relatively uniform, and material utilization is comparatively high, domestic passenger car companies have been continuously advancing the research and development of full load bearing technology. Today, in addition to Ankai, a youth bus that has been pushing the full load, Yutong, Xiamen Jinlong, Xiamen Golden Brigade, Huanghai, Xiwo, Zhongtong, and other manufacturers have also launched full-load passenger cars. From the perspective of models, the full load bearing technology has been widely used. Applied to highway, tourism, bus and other bus markets.

As China's passenger car market still focuses on economic vehicles, there is still great concern in the procurement of such purchases for all-car passenger vehicles. The use of full-capacity passenger cars is mainly concentrated in Sichuan, Zhejiang, Guizhou and other provinces and cities, mainly in areas where luxury routes are considered and where there is greater terrain for safety. Therefore, in the past few years, not many bus passengers purchased full-capacity passenger cars. However, the Ministry of Communications issued the “Classification and Grading of Passenger Car Types” standard. The high-class third-class passenger cars must adopt the body-supported structure and the Ministry of Public Security’s draft in the draft of the “GB7258-2004 Technical Conditions for the Safe Operation of Motor Vehicles” in the consultation draft. "Road passenger cars, road buses with a length of 11m or more, tourist buses, buses that do not allow passengers to stand, and special school buses, whose body should be designed as a full-loaded monolithic frame structure," have accelerated passenger bus companies to increase the proportion of passenger cars. speed.

According to the relevant person in charge of Zhongtong Bus, currently there are three types of full-loaded bodies of buses according to the chassis structure: one is a truss-type chassis welded by a small rectangular tube group, which is called a truss-type full load carrier; Undercarriage, front and rear for the trough of the truck girder, the middle is a truss-type luggage compartment; third is a large rectangular tube chassis-type full load body.

Xiamen Golden Brigade has been working on full-loaded body technology since 2005. The study was divided into two phases: From 2005 to 2007, Golden Brigade developed a fully-loaded vehicle body technology by visiting and learning the full load-carrying body structure of other brilliance enterprises, and verified the technical reliability through experiments. Since 2008, Golden Bridging has summarized the experience of the development of all-carrying body in the previous three years, cooperated with universities and research institutes, conducted a study on the stress mechanism of the running car body structure, summed up the law and path of force transmission, and proposed a brand-new full load bearing. Body structure theory and structure form, that is, the spine type central keel fully carries the body structure. At present, Golden Brigade has applied the research results on medium-sized passenger vehicles and applied for invention patents.

The full load-carrying body adopts a larger proportion in the bus of Suzhou Jinlong, and the bus has also been adopted. However, there are few orders for the full-loaded car body to be used by CMB.

The person in charge of the Huanghai Bus told reporters that at the Beijing International Road Transport Exhibition in May this year, Huanghai Bus launched three road passenger buses - DD6128C01, DD6119K30, DD6807C01, all of which are lightweight and fully load-bearing technologies, demonstrating the promotion of the Yellow Sea. The determination of the full passenger car. The three vehicles use advanced 3D software design, CAE finite element analysis and calculation, optimized the body structure, even if the vehicle's weight to reduce 300 ~ 500kg, reduce energy consumption, while greatly improving the product's safety performance. In the field test of the Changchun Automobile Inspection Center, the Yellow Sea DD6119K30 successfully passed the rollover safety test with a 38° roll angle that is higher than the national standard of 35°. At the same time, the DD6119K30 was also recognized by customers for its 100% fuel-efficient 20% performance during the “Quality and Value” tour of the Yellow Sea Bus.

Car networking technology adds wisdom to passenger cars

Following the launch of G-BOS Smart Operation System last year by Suzhou Golden Dragon, many companies have announced similar vehicle network technologies this year. The Beijing International Road Transport, Urban Public Transport Vehicles and Spare Parts Exhibition, which was held in May this year, has become a stage where these systems are unveiled. Companies that have already prepared or are planning to launch related technologies include Suzhou Jinlong, Yutong, Zhongtong, China National Heavy Duty Truck Haowo, Ankai, and Shanghai Shenlong.

Suzhou Jinlong G-BOS engineer Li An told the reporter that G-BOS can provide real-time safety management of vehicles, precise fuel consumption monitoring, fast-responding fault warning, intelligent maintenance management, and best line matching, and fuel consumption management. And safety management is seen by many passenger transport companies as an advantageous weapon for improving company operating revenue and reducing vehicle accidents. At present, Suzhou Jinlong passenger buses of more than ten meters are all equipped with G-BOS.

Yutong's "Anjietong" is mainly composed of three parts: vehicle terminal equipment, wireless communication media and server platform. Vehicle terminal equipment includes multi-function driving recorder and driver assistant. The former is a satellite positioning device with driving record function. It can identify vehicle signals and transmit them to the server platform through wireless devices. The latter is the platform for people-vehicle communication. Safety tips, fault diagnosis, maintenance management, entertainment audio-visual, video surveillance and other ten functions in one. Wireless communication media is the link between vehicles and vehicles and the communication between vehicles and server platforms. The server platform can collect and record the information sent by vehicles and analyze them in a targeted manner to help transport companies operate efficiently.

The intelligent management system launched by Zhongtong Bus can collect vehicle operating parameters and positioning information in real time through the on-board terminal and exchange data in both directions with the data center through GPRS/CDMA and Internet networks. The data center provides data reading, processing, analysis, storage, and other services. Users can access data center data through the Internet and perform various operations through the Internet to provide data support for customers to formulate operational plans.

The bus network bus is a passenger bus system that is mainly targeted at the bus industry and is an integrated management information system for real-time monitoring, operation scheduling, safety supervision, and operation analysis of bus companies.

Under the information transmission and monitoring of these systems, the administrators of the passenger transport companies can keep abreast of all kinds of dynamic information of the vehicles without leaving their homes.

High-end light passengers are valued

In July of this year, SAIC's utility vehicle MAXUS Datong was listed, allowing industry players to once again pay attention to the utility vehicle market.

Our country had very early sales of utility vehicles. Representatives were Nanjing Iveco and Jiangling Transit, but they were classified as light passengers based on China’s classification. Over the years, Japanese light passengers represented by Brilliance Jinbei have dominated the market, and European light passengers such as Nanjing Iveco and Jiangling Transit have been regarded as high-end light passengers due to their high technological content and high prices. The share is not high.

However, with the acceleration of urbanization, the demand for urban logistics vehicles is increasing. Europe's light passengers have started to rise in the market due to their large bearing capacity and convenient refitting. Following the launch of JAC by JAC last year, SAIC also introduced Chase this year. It is understood that many companies including Huanghai Automobile are also preparing to develop this kind of multi-functional commercial vehicle. Qin Xujun, deputy general manager of JAC's multi-functional commercial vehicle company, said that sales of Nanjing Iveco and Quanshun will total more than 110,000 this year. In the next 3 to 5 years, all auto groups will enter this market.