Focus on High-End, Intelligent, and Green Development | 2024 Logistics and Transport Vehicles Summit Held in Guangzhou

On the afternoon of November 16, the 2024 Logistics and Transport Vehicles Summit was held in Guangzhou. As one of the key events during the 2024 Guangzhou International Commercial Vehicle Exhibition, this forum, themed “High-End, Intelligent, Green,” served as an in-depth communication platform for exhibitors and professional audiences, including logistics users.

More than 200 logistics industry guests attended, along with industry experts, exhibitors, partners, truck drivers, and media, totaling nearly 400 guests.

Wang Xia, President of the Automotive Industry Branch of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) and the China Chamber of International Commerce (CCOIC), pointed out in his opening speech that China is at a critical stage in transforming from a major manufacturing country to a strong manufacturing country. High-quality development must be the core and key to the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry. Wang summarized the current situation of China’s commercial vehicle industry in four points:

1. The future of China’s commercial vehicle market looks promising, as the country’s economic fundamentals gradually stabilize and fixed asset investment steadily increases.
2. The development of new energy vehicles will lead and promote high-quality development in the commercial vehicle sector.
3. The diversification of energy sources provides new tracks for the commercial vehicle industry, with some niche markets becoming new opportunities for industry development.
4. Innovation and iteration of new technologies provide more space and imagination for commercial vehicle enterprises in business model innovation.

During the keynote speech session, Yang Yong, Chief Researcher of the Youth Research Group at the Institute of Transport Science of the Ministry of Transport, delivered a speech titled “Transformation of Transportation and the Future of the Truck Market.” He noted that future commercial vehicle operating scenarios will have several characteristics:

1. Electric trucks will become the mainstream in urban distribution.
2. Hydrogen fuel trucks and battery-swapping heavy trucks will become the mainstay in intermodal transfer business scenarios.
3. Hydrogen fuel trucks will emerge as the leader in intercity long-distance transportation and gradually become the main player.
4. National VI standard diesel trucks will become the mainstream in cross-regional long-distance transportation, gradually being replaced by hydrogen fuel trucks.

Li Sheng, General Manager and Deputy Party Secretary of FAW Jiefang Automobile Co., Ltd., delivered a speech titled “Making Logistics More Efficient and Life Better.” He believes that with the slowdown of macroeconomic growth and narrowing market capacity, the development of the commercial vehicle industry will have four trends:

1. The positioning of companies will shift from vehicle providers to logistics solution providers.
2. The industry’s focus will shift from the vehicles themselves to the all-dimensional development of “people-vehicle-road-cargo.”
3. The market competition pattern will shift from a single market to global competition.
4. The management chain of enterprises will shift from vehicle sales and service management to full lifecycle management.

Sun Haiping, General Manager of the Automotive and New Energy Division of Sinotrans Limited, delivered a speech titled “Focusing on Innovation, Deeply Exploring the Development Path of Commercial Vehicles.” He believes that the future commercial vehicle supply chain, influenced by domestic and international markets and policy environments, will present new development trends:

1. Accelerated globalization, with export structures upgrading to high-end.
2. Technological empowerment of commercial vehicles, with innovations marking a new height of development.
3. Collaboration and upgrading across the industrial chain, reshaping the new development pattern.
4. Brand-building becoming one of the core elements, enhancing the resilience of the industry.

Yu Jibang, Deputy General Manager of the Commercial Vehicle Marketing Division of Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Co., Ltd., delivered a speech titled “User-Centric Solutions — Jianghuai Commercial Vehicle Transformation Exploration.” He believes that the rapid penetration of new energy will bring new changes to the commercial vehicle industry:

1. Platform leasing is developing rapidly, insurance issues need urgent solutions, and the aftermarket faces a huge gap.
2. Customers have diverse demands for new energy commercial vehicles, including basic needs such as heavy load, long-range, and high earnings, as well as social needs like intelligence, connectivity, electrification, and sharing.

Dr. Shu Lei, Assistant President of CIMC Vehicles Group and CEO of CIMC Lighthouse Semi-Trailer Business Group, delivered a speech titled “Starlink Plan — CIMC Vehicles’ Attempt to Build New Quality Productivity.” He stated that to cope with fierce “involution competition,” CIMC Vehicles launched the “Starlink Plan” in March 2023, with the vision of integrating resources from seven domestic semi-trailer factories, achieving significant improvements in production efficiency, delivery cycles, and brand marketing, ultimately enhancing profitability. According to the introduction, the “Starlink Plan” has completed three stages, with the entire plan expected to be completed by the end of 2025.

The conference also held an interactive salon titled “New Models, Intelligence, and New Energy Empowering Logistics and Transport.” The salon, hosted by Liu Xiaoyong, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Auto Observations, featured in-depth discussions on current industry challenges and hot topics from different perspectives by Liu Wei, General Manager of Guangdong Guangsheng Hydrogen Energy Co., Ltd.; Xie Lun, Director of New Energy Sales Strategy at Jiangling Motors Sales Co., Ltd.; Li Bing, Vice President of Zhongtong Cold Chain; and Chen Xi, Partner of New Hope Fresh Life Cold Chain Logistics Co., Ltd. and Chairman of Guangzhou Shuttle Logistics Co., Ltd.

Liu Wei believes that fuel cell technology, as a major track in the new energy field, has several notable advantages:

1. It addresses the energy supply issues of new energy vehicles, especially in low-temperature regions north of the Yangtze River.
2. In specific sectors like cold chain logistics, where new energy vehicles face range anxiety and cargo reliability concerns, fuel cells provide a solution.
3. Fuel cell technology has advantages and room for further reducing the cost of new energy battery systems and vehicle parts.

Xie Lun shared Jiangling’s perspective on new models and new energy from the perspective of OEMs:

1. Jiangling is currently focusing more on overseas markets and diversifying sales models. For example, Jiangling showcased a brand-new pure electric commercial vehicle platform at this auto show.
2. Based on the traditional dealership system, Jiangling has started heavy asset operations in some areas, such as leasing, to push products to market with a lower threshold.
3. For each segment of the new energy market, Jiangling insists on developing highly competitive models to provide users with the most competitive solutions.

Li Bing believes that the relationship between Zhongtong Cold Chain and commercial vehicle companies is like that of an army and arms dealers — since the invention of the cannon, humanity has entered the era of modern warfare, fundamentally changing war modes. Li Bing introduced that the core product of Zhongtong Cold Chain is differentiated door-to-door cold chain services for small orders of tens or hundreds of kilograms. They aim to restructure the supply chain and move away from the traditional multi-level distributor model. Regarding new energy city distribution vehicles, he believes they perform well in cost reduction and efficiency improvement, but their residual value is too low, with about 80% depreciation within two years, causing significant trouble for logistics companies.

Chen Xi believes that new energy commercial vehicles are the future trend, and Shuttle Logistics is actively replacing its fleet with new energy vehicles, planning to replace 100 units by the end of this year. He pointed out two benefits of new energy vehicles for users:

1. They offer intelligent control terminals, including human-vehicle-network interaction systems, which facilitate the use of TMS intelligent operational management systems.
2. They reduce dependency on fossil fuels, cutting costs while improving competitiveness.

Liu Xiaoyong concluded by stating that good technologies and good models require a transformation process during application, and there may be some discomfort or iterations in certain timeframes and scenarios. However, as long as the trend is clear, embracing it early will be beneficial.

In the first half of 2024, China’s commercial vehicle market performed better than expected. With the trend of high-end, intelligent, and green development continuously moving forward, the industry’s focus will shift from vehicles to new forms of logistics business models and supply chain services, promoting the rapid development of the logistics and transport vehicle sector.

At the end of the forum, the 2024 Transport Influencer Annual Award Ceremony was held. Seven transport professionals received annual honors, with awards presented by Yang Lin, Vice President of the Automotive Industry Branch of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), and Liu Haoming, a representative of Guanghua Rongchang Group, among others.