Four joint venture developments, reviewing the development history of Sinotruk

 The birth of the China National Heavy Duty Truck brand can be traced back to 1958. That year was also an unusual year in Chinese history. From 1958 to 1960, my country was undergoing vigorous Great Leap Forward activities. For example, loud slogans such as "How bold are people and how productive are" are spread throughout every corner of the motherland. In order to keep up with the pace of the Great Leap Forward, the country is in urgent need of automobiles in all constructions.

In this context, the Yellow River truck JN150 8-ton heavy-duty truck manufactured by Jinan Automobile Manufacturing Plant in 1960 was born. The birth of this vehicle can be said to have epoch-making significance, because it is not only the first heavy-duty truck in New China. , It also ended the history that our country cannot build trucks by itself.

After the reform and opening up, Jinan Automobile Manufacturing Plant has also grown and became the current China National Heavy Duty Truck Group Co., Ltd.

In the development of Sinotruk, it is inseparable from the four joint ventures. Through the joint venture, Sinotruk quickly absorbs and digests foreign advanced technology and improves its own car-making technology. After decades of concentrated development, the current Sinotruk brand has become Occupying the leading position of domestic heavy trucks, today the editor will take a detailed inventory of the development road of Sinotruk.

▎1. The first domestic heavy-duty truck "Yellow River Truck"

In April 1960, my country’s first heavy-duty truck, the Yellow River JN150, was successfully developed at Jinan Automobile Manufacturing Plant, ending the history of my country’s inability to manufacture trucks by itself. The predecessor of the Yellow River JN150 was the Skoda 706RT from the former Czechoslovak Liberec Automobile Plant.

In 1959, Jinan Automobile Manufacturing Plant obtained two Skoda 706RT cars, and through dismantling and benchmarking, they started the road of building the Yellow River JN150.

After three years of arduous research and development, the product finally passed the inspection and acceptance in 1963. Only 30 units were produced that year, 148 units were produced in 1964, and 650 units in the third year. In January 1966, Chairman Zhu De visited Jinan and personally The Yellow River truck is inscribed with the name "Yellow River". This is the first development and attempt of Sinotruk in the history of automobile manufacturing.

▎2, Steyr series heavy truck

Twenty years after Yellow River Trucks entered the historical stage, in 1983, Jinan Automobile Manufacturing General Plant merged with other Chinese vehicle, engine and component manufacturers to form a heavy-duty vehicle industry joint venture. At the end of the year, the heavy-duty automobile industry joint venture and Austrian Steyr reached an agreement The technology transfer agreement also introduced the Steyr 91 series heavy-duty trucks（howo truck parts ）. The technological reform began in 1986 and the Steyr series heavy-duty trucks were accepted in 1995.

Even though the Steyr technology introduced at that time was at the technological level of the international community from the late 1970s to the early 1980s, it still changed the status quo of the lack of lightness and weight of heavy trucks in my country. Through the digestion and integration of Steyr technology, China National Heavy Duty Truck has become independent A series of heavy trucks used in different fields have been developed to make up for the vacancy in my country's heavy truck industry at that time.

▎3, the road to hand in hand with Volvo

1994 was a year of reform in the true sense for China. After the reform and opening up, all walks of life are waiting to be flourished, and there is great room for development. In this year, Sinotruk decided to cooperate with the Swedish brand Volvo. In order to improve their own technology.

After 9 years of running-in negotiations, on June 9, 2003, the joint venture project was finally formally signed at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, and Jinan Huawo Truck Co., Ltd. was born.

Sinotruk and Volvo are the first domestic heavy-duty truck joint venture company. This marriage was once regarded as a model of joint venture. In 2004, the Huawo FM truck produced jointly by the two parties was rolled off the production line. Because the whole vehicle used European imported engines and parts and then assembled and listed at the Jinan plant, the cost was high, resulting in the product market pricing 2-4 times higher than domestic heavy trucks. Excessive market pricing has caused sales difficulties, and the Huawo truck market has been cold.

In 2005, only 200 Huawo heavy trucks were sold, which was far from the original goal of 2500 vehicles in 2005 and 10,000 vehicles in 2008. This also made the cooperation between the two parties difficult. In 2009, Volvo announced the termination of cooperation with Sinotruk. The project ended early.

▎4, Mann technology is here

In 2009, MAN invested 560 million euros to become a long-term strategic partner of Sinotruk. MAN authorized its advanced truck and engine technology to Sinotruk and related subsidiaries in China through an exclusive license, and cooperated with Sinotruk. Cooperating in the production and sales of "technology-enhanced" trucks based on this technology means that Sinotruk can rationalize the production of domestically-made trucks that contain MAN's advanced technology.

Today, Sinotruk’s high-end flagship truck Shandeka C7H still focuses on MAN technology, which is also an important reason why Sinotruk is selling well in the market.

During the cooperation between China National Heavy Duty Truck and MAN, it produced a series of high-selling trucks based on MAN technology, such as Howo T7H, Shandeka, and HOWO trucks developed based on Volvo FL series cabs during the cooperation with Volvo.

Shandeka is a flagship truck of Sinotruk’s main high-end market. In order to widen the gap with HOWO T7H, Shandeka has more MAN genes, including the MC13 with MAN TGA cab model and MAN technology. The engine（sinotruk engine parts） and the MAN truck have a similar frame, chassis layout, and rear axle liftability. Shandeka uses a higher-end ZF 16-speed manual transmission and an optional hydraulic retarder.

As the first batch of truck manufacturers in China, Sinotruk has gone through 62 years. During the 4-stage joint venture, its comprehensive strength has gradually grown from weak to strong, and its volume has continued to grow. It can be said to be very large now. The commonly known "China National Heavy Duty Truck" is just an abbreviation.

China's automobile industry only started in 1950, 100 years later than European countries, so there is a big difference in car-making technology and technical level. However, through continuous improvement and absorption of foreign enterprise technology, the overall level of vehicle manufacturing has improved significantly.

In just 70 years of development, China's automobile industry has become an important part of the world's automobile industry, and domestic veteran heavy-duty truck companies such as China National Heavy Duty Truck have assumed an important role in it.