On November 1, the 2024 China Commercial Vehicle Product Test Summary Meeting, jointly organized by China Automotive News Co., LTD., China Automotive Engineering Research Institute Co., LTD. (hereinafter referred to as "China Automotive Research Institute"), specially sponsored by Cummins (China) Investment Co., LTD., and supported by Zhongqi Brothers (Beijing) Information Technology Co., LTD., was held in Beijing. A team of engineers and senior logistics personnel from the Highway Science Research Institute of the Ministry of Transport, Tsinghua University, Cummins and China Automotive Research Institute formed a professional evaluation committee, based on the test data of participating vehicles, to conduct final evaluation of the total score of each model.

 

The technical level of participating vehicles has improved significantly

 

At present, China's commercial vehicle industry is ushering in a critical period of transformation and change. From the long-term development point of view, the policy dividend supporting the growth of commercial vehicles in recent years has begun to reduce, and the future commercial vehicle market will gradually enter a period of adjustment. In the increasingly heated competition situation, product force is the foundation, enterprises only accurately grasp the market changes and user needs, in order to maintain sales share continue to increase.

 

At the summary meeting, the judges' experts conducted a heated discussion on the specific performance of 12 models, and finally reached a unanimous conclusion: Today, commercial vehicle companies pay more and more attention to the improvement of product performance and technical connotation, especially several participating tractors, the gap with imported models in performance and quality is narrowing, the functional design is more humanized, and more attention to man-machine comfort and driving experience. Song Jian, a responsible professor of vehicle engineering at Tsinghua University, said that whether it is from the technical level, or from the vehicle appearance and configuration performance, this year's participating vehicles have been greatly improved than in previous years, and some models have increased the active safety configuration, further strengthening the safety performance of the vehicle.

 

In terms of intelligent network connectivity, the information communication technology and artificial intelligence technology of the participating vehicles are becoming more mature, including electronic and electrical architecture, vehicle networking, intelligent cockpit, intelligent driving and other aspects have made great progress.

 

In addition, the number of light truck models participating in the evaluation has increased significantly this year. As an ideal tool for opening up the "last kilometer" of urban distribution logistics, light trucks have become the key models for many commercial vehicle enterprises to step up their layout. Xu Lei, director of the operation Department of China Automotive Research and Development Site, said that light vehicles such as light trucks and micro trucks are more in line with the attributes of commercial vehicle production tools. The light truck models participating in the evaluation have a good performance in terms of power and continuous braking, which is worthy of affirmation.

 

Test procedures are continuously improved

 

China's commercial vehicle product test has been successfully held for 16 sessions. Over the years, in line with the principle of "objective, scientific, fair and just", the organizer has always adhered to the original intention of being close to the real needs of users, followed the development trend of commercial vehicles, constantly adjusted and optimized the evaluation procedures and testing mechanisms, and strive to accurately reflect the comprehensive performance of commercial vehicle products. Nowadays, commercial vehicle testing has become an important activity with brand influence and strong guidance to the market in the domestic commercial vehicle industry, and its authority and professionalism lead the new trend of commercial vehicle testing in China.

 

In the past 16 years, under the joint efforts of China Automotive News and China Automotive Research Institute, the test activities actively fulfill their due social responsibilities and public welfare missions, jointly witness every change in the market, and faithfully record every change in the development of the industry.

 

GUI Junsong, editor-in-chief of China Automobile Newspaper, said that the test activity not only combines the real operation scenario of the vehicle, but also shows the overall performance of China's commercial vehicles under different circumstances from multiple dimensions through professional test equipment and test means, which truly and objectively reflects the overall level of China's commercial vehicles, but also combines subjective testing, road testing, and site testing. Through the characteristics, styles and testing purposes of different test plates, the overall strength of China's commercial vehicles is more comprehensively reflected. In this year's product testing, the test procedures have been upgraded again to comply with the development trend of intelligent, networked and electricized commercial vehicle industry. For example, in this test, the performance of current new energy commercial vehicles is more comprehensively tested, and the energy consumption test of new energy commercial vehicles is added; In order to further enable intelligent and autonomous driving, the test activity for the first time added active safety technology functional testing.

 

Nowadays, testing activities have become a barometer of industry development and market performance, especially in recent years, China's automobile market has entered a new stage of high-quality development in the background, the need for commercial vehicle testing such activities to insight into market trends, to guide the future development direction of the industry.

 

At the summary meeting, the experts spoke freely, and there was no shortage of appreciation for the participating vehicles and expectations for the test activities. Wang Haiqing, chief engineer of Customer Engineering Department of Cummins (China) Investment Co., LTD., suggested that in addition to evaluating listed vehicles, testing activities should also be conducted on pre-developed new vehicles, which will be of great benefit to car companies to improve product performance and enhance user experience. Zhang Hao, Minister of the Road transport Equipment Application Research Department of the Automobile Transport Research Center of the Highway Science Research Institute of the Ministry of Transport, proposed that in addition to the basic performance test of the vehicle, it can also increase the "bonus points" test, such as vehicles with intelligent network functions, extra points can be added to reflect the intelligent advantages of the vehicle.

 

In this regard, Xu Lei also holds the same view. He said testing activities should be both inherited and innovative. In the future, China Automotive Research Institute will further improve the test procedures, research and develop more close to the user, close to the market plan, and promote its rapid landing. Qian Cheng, director of commercial Vehicle multi-media Division of China Automobile Newspaper, said that in recent years, China's commercial vehicle market has changed rapidly, in order to ensure the sustainable development of the market, it is bound to consider adding more use scenarios to the test procedures, and invite industry experts to strictly check and jointly promote the development and progress of the commercial vehicle industry.

 

Originally published by China Automotive News on November 1, 2023