The school bus production entry threshold is too low

The "Professional School Bus Production Enterprises and Product Access Management Regulations" (hereinafter referred to as "Access Rules"), which have attracted much attention, were finally announced on the official website of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (hereinafter referred to as the "Ministry of Industry and Information Technology") yesterday. Compared with the previous draft, the threshold for the “Access Rule” has been greatly reduced, so that there are no major differences between companies who have questioned whether such standards are fixed or not.

The "Rule of Access" states that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology implements classified management of special school bus production enterprises and product access in accordance with the special school bus product category. Special school buses are classified into light special school buses and large and medium-sized school buses according to product categories. Special school bus production enterprises are classified into production enterprises of complete vehicles and remodeling production enterprises according to their production methods, among which refitted production enterprises cannot produce special school bus products for carrying car bodies. .

For the entry conditions of private school bus production enterprises, the “Access Rule” clarifies that if an application for a private school bus production enterprise is admitted, it shall have the production qualification of the entire vehicle class passenger car or modified class passenger car in the “Vehicle Production Enterprise and Product Announcement”, and the first three The annual production and sales volume of passenger cars (including chassis) shall not be less than 3,000, or the cumulative sales volume of large and medium-sized passenger cars (including chassis) shall not be less than 1,000. The company should also have corresponding mold repair and maintenance personnel and equipment, and have the necessary storage space for stamping parts, molds, and inspection tools.

Despite the industry’s widespread expectation of the “Regulations on School Bus Safety Management” and the “Provision of Private School Bus Production Enterprises and Product Access Management Regulations”, the introduction of laws and regulations will improve the lack of standardization of school bus products and manufacturing enterprises in China. However, due to the The entry rules have been amended twice and have repeatedly lowered the threshold requirements. In the future, there will be about 40 companies that can obtain special school bus tickets, which means that most domestic passenger car companies can still participate in school bus production. In this regard, some people in the industry pointed out: "This kind of threshold is in name only."

According to informed sources, it was revealed earlier that in the preliminary draft of the "Entry Rules," there are stricter regulations on the production capacity of enterprises. In addition to not less than 5,000 vehicles in sales, enterprises are required to own vehicles, chassis and vehicles. The production capacity of the rack, and fully automated mechanized welding line, assembly line and electrophoretic coating production conditions. This means that only those conversion companies that have only three types of chassis production capacity are excluded and they cannot enter school bus production and qualification competition.

However, on April 11th, the Ministry of Industry and Policy of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology held a symposium on “Special School Bus Production Enterprises and Product Access Management Rules” in Hangzhou, including 19 major production companies and related experts from FAW, Dongfeng and Yutong buses. Meeting. The meeting made a number of amendments to the preliminary draft of the "Entry Rules", which changed the rigid requirements for electrophoretic coating to general requirements and eliminated the requirements for "automatically mechanized welding and assembly lines and assembly lines".

"Why is the request for submissions reduced so much? On the one hand, it is related to the "Regulatory Policy for School Bus Safety." The "Regulations" allow a modified car manufacturer to also be able to make a school bus. However, the requirements of the first draft are only limited to that the vehicle manufacturer can do. Now In the comments, the conversion plant is allowed to use the chassis of a dedicated school bus, and it can also participate in school bus production. On the other hand, because if the school bus access requirement is set too high, many local enterprises cannot participate in school bus production competition, so the local government hopes to The access conditions have been reduced.” The person familiar with the matter stated that in the “admission” opinion draft, “the total number of passenger cars (including chassis) for the first three years of application for the company’s production and sales has accumulated to not less than 3,000, or large and medium-sized passenger vehicles (including chassis). The requirement that production and sales accumulate to a total of no less than 1,000 units has been reduced to a very low level, and companies in most places can do so.

In this regard, the Deputy Secretary-General of the China Road Society Coach Division, Lou Zhenqing, said that although the school bus is currently the best performing bus segment, its market share is still limited.

In addition, the “Regulations” stipulate that school buses are used as supplemental vehicles for public transport systems, and that they have the priority of public transportation and the nearest school. The financial subsidy scheme is more dominated by local governments to solve problems. The industry’s expectations for the school bus market Greatly reduced.

The top executives of a domestic large-scale passenger car manufacturer had previously told this newspaper that the current domestic school bus access qualifications that only maintain about ten companies will ensure that the market has sufficient competition intensity, if they have to lower the standard to forty or fifty. If companies can enter, there is no big difference between this standard and uncertainty.