In order to meet the demand for the 2009 Confederations Cup football match and the 2010 World Cup public transport, the South African government will purchase 1,422 passenger cars. Participating in sports events has always been one of the main means of bus marketing. If it becomes a bus supplier for these two important competitions in competition with many bus manufacturers around the world, it will become the classic battle for overseas marketing of Chinese buses. For this reason, the “Commercial Automotive News†reporter collected relevant information on this procurement in order to provide a reference for bus companies.
Luxury coaches and buses are the focus of procurement
The procurement information was announced by the South African Ministry of Communications. Earlier, the South African government plans to provide vehicles for the World Cup by local passenger transport companies. The entire South African passenger transport company owns 556 luxury passenger cars, and on the basis of meeting daily operations, it can only provide 92 luxury passenger cars for the World Cup. Moreover, according to the requirements of the race car, the service life of the vehicles serving the World Cup shall not exceed one year, so the vehicles provided by the local passenger transport company will be used for other purposes. In this way, Chinese bus companies will have the opportunity to compete with global bus manufacturers for the index of 210 luxury passenger cars. In addition, there are demand gaps for ordinary passenger cars, articulated long-distance buses, and the total number of vehicles exceeds 1,000.
The purchased bus will be operated by South African Autopax. The company operates two lines, "Translux" and "City-to-City", which are engaged in long-distance passenger and short-distance passenger transport respectively. "Translux" focuses on the high-end configuration of the vehicle, such as audio-visual entertainment equipment, recliners, air-conditioning systems, reading lamps, heaters, car toilets, etc.; and "City-to-City" is more cost-effective.
Various companies are staring at luxury passenger cars
At present, the global mainstream commercial vehicle manufacturers have already sold passenger cars to South Africa. According to the latest statistical data from the Ministry of Transport of South Africa, in November 2008, multinational commercial vehicle companies sold a total of 181 buses of various types in South Africa. Among them, there are 71 Iveco, 57 Mann, 18 Mercedes-Benz, 26 Scania, and 9 Volkswagen. These companies mainly sell luxury passenger cars in South Africa. From this analysis, when the luxury bus tenders, it must be strong.
Anyuan Bus has obtained orders for 30 PK6139A luxury coaches and will serve the South Africa World Cup. The car is equipped with an imported Cummins engine, a fully-loaded body, and a CAN bus control system. Through the finite element analysis and the Australian rollover test, the vehicle's safety performance reaches the world's most stringent European ECER66 safety standard.
Hyundai Motor also made it clear that it will not miss this opportunity. Recently, Hyundai presented its luxury passenger car, The Universe Express, in South Africa. As the official sponsor of the 2010 World Cup, Hyundai Motor hopes to become the main bus supplier for this competition. Young K Cho, head of the Africa and Middle East division of Hyundai Motor's commercial vehicle division, said Hyundai is very optimistic about this opportunity. Five years ago, Hyundai Motor commercial vehicle products entered the South African market, but the development has been unsatisfactory. Therefore, the company regards the World Cup as a good opportunity to overturn the body and use it to increase the visibility of Hyundai Motor in South Africa.
Young K Cho stated that Hyundai is confident that it will be included in the procurement plan. It is understood that although the modern Universe Express bus is produced and assembled at its Korean headquarters, it takes only 3 months to deliver the vehicle from production, downline, and delivery to the destination if necessary. From the configuration point of view, this car has 39 passenger seats and a toilet, equipped with Powertrai engine, and enjoy 3 years or 10,000 km warranty.
Chinese companies need to be prepared
South Africa imposes extremely stringent requirements on imported vehicles, especially passenger cars. Passenger car export companies and their products must be certified through layers of qualification before entering. Faced with this situation, how should Chinese bus companies look for opportunities?
The major automakers have representative offices in South Africa, including the top eight world top ten auto parts manufacturers and three world top four tire manufacturers. Many multinational companies use South Africa’s spare parts resources to assemble cars locally and sell them to local and overseas markets. Due to the earlier entry time, these vehicle companies have maintained a better cooperative relationship with local transportation companies, which has made it difficult for Chinese passenger cars to enter the South African market.
Affected by the financial crisis and the pressure of currency devaluation, it is even more difficult for Chinese buses to export to South Africa. Despite this, Yutong bus-related staff said that Yutong is trying to expand the South African market. It is understood that Yutong has already exported a number of tourist buses to South Africa. in recent years
In the coming years, the rapid development of the tourism market in South Africa will increase the demand for tourist coaches. Coupled with the demand of the World Cup, the tourist bus market will become Yutong's future export direction.
In an interview, the reporter learned that South Africa is sparsely populated with few people on the bus, so Yutong's exports to South Africa are mainly commuter cars, and the existing 3 Yutong buses are being tested in South Africa. Yutong Overseas Marketing Group staff said that in order to open the South African market, Yutong participated in the International Motor Show in Johannesburg through a local distributor. At the same time, Yutong is advertising in the World Cup qualifier in order to increase its visibility.
According to the Xiamen Golden Brigade Export Department staff, Xiamen Golden Brigade’s exports to South Africa are dominated by sea lions, with fewer tourist car exports. Because South Africa is certified to use the European Union standard, all parts and components must have the E mark (the European Union has requirements for the safety certification of complete vehicles and components and systems involving safety, which is reflected in the E mark), therefore, the parts exported to South African models Must adopt the form of global procurement. In terms of after-sales service, local dealers have a special repair center. Parts are distributed by Golden Brigade and local distribution staff are available.
China Bus Advances South Africa
At the Beijing Olympics, Chinese buses actually took off. In the stadiums and tourist spots, Chinese buses are everywhere. With the light of the Olympic Games, global audiences have known Chinese passenger cars.
In recent years, event marketing has received more and more attention from passenger car companies and has become an important means for companies to expand their markets. According to incomplete statistics, most domestic passenger car companies have served sports events, and some companies have even gone out of the country and started to serve foreign competitions. For example, 500 Jinlong High-speed passenger coaches served in the Doha Asian Games; Xiamen Golden Travel was selected by the Venezuelan government to become the 42nd “American Cup†service car. The expansion of overseas markets through sports marketing has become a "good recipe" for Chinese buses to go abroad.
South Africa's purchase of buses for the Confederations Cup and World Cup is an important opportunity for Chinese buses. If we can get a share from this purchase, the popularity of Chinese buses will further increase. At the same time, we must also see that at present, companies such as Mann, Daimler and Scania have already entered the South African market one step ahead. They are also eyeing this purchase and the competition will be fierce.
Chinese buses are not without opportunities. The key is whether Chinese bus companies have confidence, whether they are fully prepared and whether they can make full use of their own advantages. It is gratifying that China's bus companies have taken actions to take part in South Africa's exhibitions and cooperate with local distributors to allow more people to understand themselves. The author believes that as long as Chinese bus companies collect more information and create more opportunities for the South African transportation company and the South African government to understand their own opportunities and build an after-sales service network in advance, it is hoped that they will create brilliance in overseas markets again.
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