The Chinese city of Zhengzhou is making its way into the world as a solid transportation hub that shelters innovation and the manufacturing of vehicles with new technologies, with a relevant focus on electric vehicles.
From the heart of this central city that links the Asian nation, the electric bus manufacturer Yutong has managed to have the most important market share in China, with 34% in this segment, while in Mexico it already has a share of 80%. % of electric buses that circulate in different cities, calculates Michael Ren, general director of Yutong Mexico, from the firm’s industrial city in Zhengzhou.
In the capital of Henan, cradle of several dynasties that accumulates a thousand-year history, Yutong designs the cars of the future. Proof of this is that in 1999, it launched its first electric unit, and currently its buses are sold to 112 countries, including Latin America: Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Chile, in addition to the European markets. , Asians and Africa.
The Yutong Industrial City occupies an area of approximately 1.3 million square meters, and contains four vehicle manufacturing plants, as well as a dynamic testing field, and an Engineering Technology Research Center with various laboratories, offices, homes and a hotel. .
Forbes toured part of the Yutong industrial complex that reports a cumulative production of 190,000 new energy units (electric, diesel and hybrid units).
According to Michael Ren, the Asian manufacturer allocates a budget equivalent to 7% of sales in a year to innovation with the aim of being at the forefront, and under the condition of corroborating quality as a major competitive advantage.
In June 2023, it launched what it calls YEA (Yutong Electric Architecture) technology for the integration and control of the entire software and hardware system, and for the generation of data that allows them to make decisions for the development of innovation.
In this plant they are also dedicated to the manufacturing and quality control of new generation batteries; Its objective is to make them more efficient, economical, autonomous, durable and stable.
In its painting workshop, the electrophoresis process stands out, which achieves tests of up to a thousand hours of corrosion, which means having up to four times greater resistance than ordinary paint. The uniqueness is that only four people work in the workshop; everything works automated.
Yutong applies RFID technology, which has automated all its production processes and allows all information management of the production process, as well as real-time monitoring, which it claims has improved its efficiency in different steps by up to 50%. .
In their laboratories they carry out various tests for structural safety, noise and vibration, energy efficiency and even electromagnetic performance to avoid possible effects due to the combination of various electromagnetic waves when several electronic devices operate in one place.
In Yutong City there is also a laboratory to test the power of the batteries of electric buses and trucks, there they are subjected to extreme situations of temperature, water and pressure.
This is how from Zhengzhou, a Chinese city that crosses the meandering Yellow River, Yutong prepares from its trenches the development of the new generation of buses and trucks for the future.
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