www.chinabuses.org: Nowadays there are various exhibitions and shows but it becomes more and more difficult for exhibitors to find a potential customer. Even a very famous exhibition such as Canton Fair is not so busy like before. During the 10-day period of the 64th IAA 2012, we attended it with respect, expecting to find our target customers from numerous visitors.

The 1st IAA was held in 1897, 12 years after the world’s first motor-driven bus was built by Carl Friedrich Benz, a German engineer who was well known as “The father of automobile”. So the developing history of IAA is also the history of the world automobile industry and it shows us the irreplaceable position of Germany in the world automobile industry. Undoubtedly German local brands such as Mercedes Benz and Volkswagen are always the most popular exhibitors in such a home game.

 
During the period of the 64th IAA 2012, MAN distributed gifts to its visitors especially to kids every afternoon. In such a simple but smart way, MAN builds its brand image into the hearts of a new generation and so the culture of commercial vehicles is inherited.
 

In Europe, being a driver, especially a commercial bus driver, is definitely a career not just a job. Drivers have handsome salaries and they are proud of their unique culture. This culture goes deep into people’s mind and makes IAA like a family party of all commercial vehicle brands.
 

When you passed by each splendid booth, you might see that people were attracted by the brilliant exhibits under spotlights and stopped to have a look.
 

When you passed by each press conference of new technology introduction, you might see the host was devotedly making a speech and the listeners were taking notes carefully. Maybe they will become engineers in the future.
 

When you passed by each busy souvenir shop, you might see people’s enthusiasm of collection regardless of high prices.
 

When you passed by the “Driver Inn”, the barkeeper were entertaining people with hospitality, “Come on, join us! There are free beer and foods and wonderful music here!”

Save Energy and Protect Environment, Let’s Live in a Green World
 

As you can see in this 64th IAA 2012, the mainstream manufacturers of Europe focus more on technology improvement and innovation than on modeling design. Only SETRA released a new design of Comfort Class 500. But nearly all manufacturers have more or less highlights on technologies, e.g. diesel buses with EuroVI engine, hybrid buses and pure electric buses. That means Chinese bus manufacturers have more challenges to enter European market.

Nowadays monocoque technology and aluminium body are hot topics in China bus industry. So we paid high attention to the issues of bus lightweight and operating economy. European manufacturers worked on these much early than us with large investment and the buses they were exhibiting in the 64th IAA 2012 have adopted many lightweight materials such as aluminium, fiberglass, sandwich materials, etc.
 

For example, the kerb weight of CiteaLLE-120, VDL’s 12m city bus, is only 8.9T, which is 2T lighter than European normal buses and 3T lighter than Chinese buses. The fuel consumption and emission have been greatly reduced.
 

“Safety is the first”. This slogan can be seen in every corner of China, especially in the plants of bus manufacturers. European bus manufacturers implement this spirit in practice. Advanced safety facilities such as ACC, ABA(or AEBS) and LDWS are equipped in VOLVO, SETRA and other European brand buses so as to greatly improve driving safety.
 

Chinese Government has made road & traffic rules and provisions to prevent accidents but it’s not so easy to implement them. Chinese bus manufacturers focus on the vehicle active safety technologies but the know-how and core technologies are owned by WABCO, BOSCH and other well-known parts vendors.
 

China’s bus industry has made rapid progress since 1990 and now the bus production output of China is more than one-third of the total volume in the world. But being lack of core technology is our main disadvantage. We should keep leaning advanced technologies and regulations from Europe.
 

Obviously clean energy technology is a trend of future development. Many famous manufacturers, including BENZ, MAN, SCANIA and VOLVO, were exhibiting different types of hybrid or pure electric buses at their booths.
 

Innovation is the ultimate way of development
 

With the positive guide and strong support from the government, Chinese bus manufacturers have achieved great progress in the development of new energy technologies. And we are glad to see that there is no big gap between Chinese and European buses in this aspect.
 

As a leading bus manufacturer in China, Golden Dragon showed Chinese advanced technologies and techniques to the world during the period of the 64th IAA 2012. In 2007 the technical route of hybrid energy storage by using super-capacitors was created by Golden Dragon and the remarkable stability and energy-saving efficiency of this system have aroused wide attention in the world bus industry.
 

The technical route of hybrid buses of European manufacturers is happened to coincide with which of Golden Dragon. For example, MAN Lion’s City Hybrid and Scania’s Ethanol Hybrid Bus, the most successful hybrid bus models in Europe. Golden Dragon’s breakthrough on the hybrid technology has gained the acknowledge and respect from European bus manufacturers, and moreover, strengthened its leading position in China.
 

Being a copycat will definitely lead a company to a dead end and the core competence must be the technical innovation. As everybody knows, NOKIA was so hot and popular 10 years ago but now it’s flickering in the wind due to arrogance. On the contrary, Samsung keeps learning and making improvement on its core competence and it has become the only brand which can compete with Apple.
 

Chinese bus manufacturers are still on the stage of rapid development and the innovation of their core technologies are not so advanced compared to European bus manufacturers. We are faced with strict technical barriers from overseas market and hot competition. Anyway, Chinese buses are new bloods for the world bus industry and we look forward to becoming the world’s leading products in the near future through technical innovation.

Source : www.chinabuses.org

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