Supporting system for key commercial vehicle competition to extend components

At present, the trend of commercial vehicle companies focusing on building core parts and components systems is becoming more and more obvious. The competition pattern of the supporting system resources of mainstream commercial vehicle enterprises in China has been formed.

In June of this year, the MAXUS Chase V80 produced by SAIC Motor Corporation was formally rolled out at Wuxi's production base. Chen Hong, president of SAIC Group, stated that during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period, SAIC will accelerate the formation of the core competitiveness of the commercial vehicle segment and build synchronously the core components supporting systems such as engine, transmission and drive axle.

Xiao Guopu, vice president of SAIC Group, said that during the "12th Five-Year Plan" period, SAIC will invest 3 billion yuan to improve the competitiveness of commercial vehicle engines. There are also several billion investment plans for transmissions.

Pan Zengyou, deputy director of the Information Technology Office of China Automotive Technology and Research Center, believes that several major automobile groups are actively integrating their decentralized components and resources to form a concentrated advantage. In February last year, Dongfeng Automotive Components (Group) Co., Ltd. was established. The company has absorbed 15 Dongfeng's backbone component companies. Its business scope includes suspension and bearing systems, steering systems, engine thermal systems, and automotive electronic control modules. FAW Group and SAIC Motor also integrated their own parts and components business to improve their competitiveness by subsidizing their parts and components business to one or more independent companies.

Pan Zengyou said Shaanxi Automobile has a complete supporting system for key assemblies. China National Heavy Duty Trucks, China FAW Group, and Dongfeng Automobile also form a complete and controllable key assembly supporting system.

In the heavy-duty truck assembly, Fast is the largest supplier of heavy-duty truck transmissions in the country and, to a certain extent, controls the supply of the current Steyr platform transmission assembly. In the competition of assembly resources, CNHTC has strengthened its power transmission assembly resource control capabilities. While supporting the development of Hangzhou Engine Co., Ltd., it established Jinan Power Co., Ltd. and jointly produced 615 series engines. The two factories also provide support for other companies, which will have an impact on the current engine supply pattern.

Sinotruk Steyr's technology upgrade was obvious. The overall layout of the engine, transmission, and axles was successfully implemented. The product line was successfully extended beyond the Steyr series. Some products were differentiated from Shaanqi and SAIC Iveco Hongyan. China National Heavy Duty Truck laid the foundation for rapid development in the past two years.

Shaanxi Auto has established a joint venture with Cummins to build an engine production base. With the capital relationship with Weichai, the competitive advantage of the engine is more prominent. At the same time, Shaanxi Automobile has a special relationship with Fast and Hande, which makes Shaanxi Steam have the resource advantage of the Steyr platform key assembly.

FAW and Dongfeng engine resources are relatively independent. The two companies constitute a complete product line in the 7-13 litre diesel engine field, which can meet the demand for medium and heavy-duty engines in future development. By increasing the investment in transmissions and axles, the heavy truck resources of the two companies will be further independent in the next few years. In the field of transmissions, the Transmission Division with Eaton Technology will become the main body of the heavy-duty transmission business of FAW Group. At present, there is a certain gap between cost control and Fast. By strengthening cost control and new product development, especially the development of twin countershaft transmissions, the FAW transmission will compete with Fast's twin countershaft transmissions. In the next few years, FAW's demand for Fast transmissions will gradually decrease.