www.chinabuses.org: The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the School Bus Makers and Products Entrance Management Regulations (the Management Regulations) for public input on May 2, reported Beijing News.

According to the Management Regulations, school buses are divided into two categories: the light school bus, with 7 seats or above including driver and attendant seats (5 m＜body length ≤6 m); and medium and large school bus, with 7 seats or above including driver and attendant seats (6 m＜body length ≤12 m).

 
The Management Regulations listed 33 standards and requirements for applicants to the school bus industry. For example, the enterprises should have no warnings or punishment records for product quality and safety problems issued by relevant responsible departments of the State Council or local governments in the past three years. The applicant enterprise should also have sold no less than 3,000 buses (including chassis) or 1,000 medium and large buses (including chassis), according to the Management Regulations.

The applicant should set up R&D department exclusively for school bus products, and establish a traceable system from key components suppliers to whole vehicle completion. Testing data of products should be documented for at least eight years.

The applicant should also establish a computerized system to record information of school bus products and users for at least eight years.

“China used to own at least 80 school bus makers, and half of them will be eliminated after the implementation of the School Bus Safety and Technical Requirements released in April,” said a brand management executive of Xiamen Golden Dragon Bus Co., Ltd. “The industry will see another reshuffling as a result of the Management Regulations,” he added.

“The recently released Management Regulations lowered its standards, compared to the previous draft,” said a marketing executive of SAIC MAXUS business. “Thus auto-refitting enterprises can receive qualification for school bus production as well, which will violate the rights of whole vehicle manufacturers.”

The SAIC MAXUS brand vehicles are mainly light school buses with body length less than six meters. “Whole vehicle manufacturers invest more on the R&D, technology and quality management, which made them less competitive on prices,” said the executive.

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