Energy-saving urging industry chain anxiety vehicle spare parts broke out

After a period of rapid development in recent decades, the Chinese economy has entered a period of strategic transformation for high-quality development. As a pillar industry of China's national economy, the automobile industry produced and sold nearly 30 million vehicles in 2017, ranking the first in the world for nine consecutive years. With the rapid growth in the production and sales of automobiles, the government has increasingly stricter standards for vehicle energy consumption and exhaust emissions as energy and environmental issues become more prominent. In the path of energy saving and emission reduction, vehicle weight reduction is an important measure to reduce vehicle fuel consumption and achieve energy conservation and emission reduction.

In particular, with the official launch of the “double-integration” policy this year, new energy vehicles that subvert the traditional construction vehicles have become a hot spot for the development of the industry as a sub-item. For traditional cars and new energy vehicles, light weight is an important means of energy conservation and emission reduction. In the automobile industry reform and transformation upgrade, facing the surging external environment, the automotive industry should be how to treat light weight? Under the great pressure of energy conservation and environmental protection, how can the automobile industry chain work together to achieve vehicle weight reduction?

Lightweight is an important support

In fact, whether it is traditional fuel vehicles or new energy vehicles, automotive lightweight technology as an important common technology to support the development of automotive products, the realization of its energy-saving environmental protection indicators are of great significance. Senior Manager Tian Hongfu of China FAW Group Co., Ltd. recently stated at the 2018th 10th Global Automotive Industry Summit held by Gasgoo Motor Co., Ltd. “Whether it is a traditional fuel vehicle or a new energy vehicle, lightweighting is very Importantly, especially for electric vehicles, we still have a certain amount of work to do in all aspects of battery density, and electric vehicles occupy a relatively large proportion of new energy vehicles, so lightweight is very important for the next step. It is indeed very important to complete the energy conservation and environmental protection indicators for traditional vehicles and new energy vehicles."

He pointed out that for many years, many companies have done a lot of work in the lightweight technology of new energy vehicles, and have also been limited by the cost and other aspects. However, at this development node, the development of lightweight technology has become a necessary technical path, because if the traditional vehicle or new energy vehicle, if the vehicle does not meet the requirements of lightweight, it will affect the score of double points, directly affecting the enterprise. development of. “Through more than ten years of hard work, more and more applications of lightweighting have been made in vehicles, including the application of steel materials and thermoforming in traditional processes. The gap between China and foreign countries in non-metallic areas is relatively large, and we still have A lot of space can be developed."

He explained using carbon fiber as an example. Although the cost of carbon fiber is relatively high, the advantage is obvious. In the future, with the progress of technology, from the forming process of the material itself to the design and equipment, it can gradually meet the cost requirements. As the cost gradually decreases, there is still a lot of room for the future. The use of other non-ferrous metals, such as aluminum alloys and magnesium alloys, will also have related things to support in the future. “With the development of electric vehicles in the future, intelligentization, networking, and sharing, lightweighting will be an important support. After years of hard work, lightweight technology has gradually satisfied this aspect in terms of design, materials, and processes. It is believed that with the joint efforts of the industry, energy conservation and environmental protection indicators can be effectively completed."

OEMs and suppliers must work together to reduce weight

Lightweighting, as the current trend and mainstream technology in the automotive industry, is a complex system project that needs to be completed. It is necessary to reduce the weight of structural lightweight design technologies and various lightweight materials under the premise of meeting the requirements of automotive use, safety, and cost control. The integration of manufacturing technology to achieve vehicle weight reduction involves all aspects of the industry chain. In particular, when new energy vehicles become the focus of policy promotion and industry development, we must solve the series of lightweight issues that emerge in the new energy sector without increasing much experience in the early stage, and we must strengthen cooperation in the automotive industry chain. The development of lightweight technologies will promote more interaction and integration between multiple fields under a diversified industrial landscape.

Ma Fangwu, executive dean of the Qingdao Automobile Research Institute of Jilin University, believes that changes in the entire automotive industry chain are likely to change due to changes in light weight. At the Global Automobile Industry Summit, he said that three of the four major automotive processes are closely related to lightweighting. These three processes cover the automotive materials, structures, processes, and related design methods. And companies that do the entire vehicle structure are actually paying more attention to the new changes in the entire industrial chain driven by light weight."

In this regard, Cao Du, deputy general manager of Changchun Yingli Automobile Industry Co., Ltd., also has his own views. He pointed out that the joint venture brand began to work lightly as early as in 2010, and domestic companies only paid attention to it in 2012. Since 2014, they have started to really work and have made substantial progress. In the new energy vehicle, there is a special change. "New energy vehicles have higher requirements for lighter weight, because it involves the issue of battery weight and cruising range. However, the problem of lightweighting is that the traditional process No problem, because the OEM can do it, so there is no difficulty, but if it is new technology, new processes and new materials, the OEM will have difficulties."

Cao Du said frankly that the industrial chain actually requires auto parts suppliers and OEMs to work together. “Because the OEMs do not understand the material, the suppliers do not understand the performance of the OEM's vehicle, so they can only cooperate at this time. First of all, it is necessary to establish a strategic relationship and trust each other. The supplier must assist the OEM to complete the partial design of the components. Can we really promote the development of lightweight." He to the body as an example, the body because this piece is only familiar with sheet metal materials, non-metallic materials are completely unfamiliar, so completely dependent on the supplier, "the future of this industry chain want to Formed, our suppliers have more opportunities, but we must take the initiative to unite with the OEM, through the joint later to do in order to achieve a win-win situation."

"In general, the true core technology is in the hands of component suppliers. The OEM is the choice of components and suppliers. In the past, our division of functional departments may be re-divided because of the involvement of new energy vehicles and light weight. Ma Fangwu said, "In the end, what to do in the future may change. We must adapt to this change. This change should be more positive. In fact, the car is divided into engine, chassis, body, and electronic appliances in the textbooks. All these divisions should be redefined."

The application of aluminum on commercial vehicles is promising

In the manufacture of automobiles, aluminum alloys are increasingly used in automotive chassis, engines, and vehicle bodies because of their advantages of light weight, excellent moldability, good strength, corrosion resistance, and low cost. Therefore, the realization of lightweighting by increasing the amount of aluminum used in automobiles has become an important performance of today's automotive manufacturing technology.

For the application of aluminum alloy materials in commercial vehicles, Tian Mengyi, deputy chief engineer of Beiqi Foton Motor Co., Ltd., expressed great appetite for the application prospects of aluminum cargo containers. He said that currently aluminum cars are just beginning to be used, mainly in the transport of some light-throw goods. "We have a lot of research on cars in Japan, such as the Japanese Isuzu. This kind of aluminum alloys are more common because they have already passed the stage of transportation of large-density materials. They usually have more daily necessities, so they say that There is no problem with the strength and durability of the container. In the future, with the development of the China Express Logistics industry, the application prospect of commercial aluminum containers will become more and more broad.”

“Using aluminum alloy materials makes commercial vehicles fuel-efficient, so there is demand in the future. Of course, there is a process. First of all, it may be high-end customers, such as large-scale logistics companies that are not cost-sensitive for the cost of spare parts. If we can calculate the cost of life cycle, if we can make a profit from fuel saving, we can offset the cost of this one-time car purchase. These logistics companies are still willing to adopt it," Tian Mengyi said.

As for the light weight of commercial vehicles, Tian Mengyi said frankly, “The driving force for commercial vehicles to become light is the national 'super system', that is, the three ministries and commissions of the state have issued super limits, limit loads, and charges. Since then, the OEMs have faced great challenges. Pressure, even consumers to buy a car to consider the weight of the car, who light buy who, but what is the contradiction caused by this is that light weight loss after the cost pressure of commercial vehicles, especially heavy trucks, can not be sacrificed At the expense of reliable durability, there is sometimes a conflict between light weight and these two points, so on the one hand we must urgently reduce the weight, on the other hand we must also ensure the reliability and cost requirements, in order to achieve these goals, we are constantly exploring ."

From the perspective of the entire industry chain, he also emphasized that "the vehicle and supplier must be closely integrated. The vehicle understands the customer's needs and the functional requirements of all parts and components on the vehicle. The supplier holds the technology of lightweight components and Process manufacturing technology, only when they are closely integrated, can be made lighter in order to meet the requirements of reliability, durability and cost."