Foton wins 2021 Chinese Truck of the Year!
As we have been saying, it’s awards season in the commercial vehicle industry! First MAN won the 2021 International Truck of the Year. Then Mercedes-Benz Trucks won the 2021 Truck Innovation Award. Now the Foton Auhawk R has been named the 2021 Chinese Truck of the Year!
The award is particularly significant given the fact that China is the world’s largest commercial vehicle market. A total of 1.1 million heavy-duty trucks were sold in China in 2019. At the time of writing, it was widely expected that more than half of the trucks sold globally in 2020 would be registered in China. Significantly, it has been the one market that hasn’t shown a meaningful decline this year. Industry experts attribute this to two factors: an increase in online shopping and the government's support for all kinds of infrastructure investment projects.
In July 2020, for instance, the market grew by a whopping 90% over the previous month. Sales in October surged by 30% (versus October 2019) and by 26% in November (versus November 2019).
If you look at the country’s total truck market (not just heavy-duty), sales increased by a considerable 24% in the first 10 months of 2020, with a total of 3.87 million trucks sold. Sales of medium trucks – which is where the Foton Auhawk R competes – increased by 40.79% over the same period. So, things are looking pretty peachy over there. Come the end of this year, the captains of the Chinese trucking industry are expected to pop the bubbly and celebrate yet another extremely successful year.
Competitive market
The market is, however, extremely competitive, with truck manufacturers being a dime a dozen. This means that winning the Chinese Truck of the Year is indeed a massive honour.
But that’s exactly what Foton’s Auhawk R has done. Its victory has been announced at the fifth International Commercial Vehicle Exhibition in Guangzhou, south China’s Guangdong Province. The incredibly sought-after accolade, announced by the president of Chinese Truck of the Year, Jury Yu Jing, was handed to Gu Dehua, Vice President of Foton Motor. At least one member of the International Truck of the Year jury always attends the prize-giving and, in the past, these international journalists have also judged the competition. For obvious reasons, this wasn’t possible this time around. But Gianenrico Griffini, President of the International Truck Of the Year jury from Italy, and two jury members from South Africa and Germany (Charleen Clarke, the writer of this article, and Oliver Willms respectively) did congratulate Foton on the win via a video link during the awards ceremony.
Foton – which was established as recently as August 1996 – is a massive Chinese truck producer. In September 2011, it celebrated building five million trucks. In the first 10 months of this year alone, it sold just over 563 000 trucks. While the company hasn’t been around for too long, it has garnered a great deal of commercial vehicle know-how – thanks to joint ventures with Cummins (the world's largest independent engine manufacturer), Daimler Group (the world's largest manufacturer of commercial vehicles) and ZF (the world's largest supplier of transmission and chassis technology).
Background to award
But exactly what is the Chinese Truck of the Year all about? The award – supported by the International Truck of the Year – was founded by Chinese Commercial Vehicle Magazine in 2015. The main task of the jury is to select the truck which "makes the greatest contribution to the development of transport of goods by road in those countries involved in the election".
Eligible trucks must be put into production within 12 months, they must be made by a Chinese manufacturer and the Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM) of the truck should be over 3.5 tons. Furthermore, the truck should make a substantial contribution to improving the efficiency and standards of China's road transport, especially in the area of total cost of ownership (TCO).
The four previous winners are the Auman EST (2017), JMC Weilong (2018), FAW J7 (2019) and Dongfeng KL (2020).
Why it won
So, why did the Auhawk R win? Well, according to the organisers, when judging nominees, the jury members not only consider the technical value of the trucks, “but also pay attention to selecting the trucks with good quality and market application for consumers”. And the Foton clearly ticks all these boxes.
As a new truck generation developed on a new platform, the Auhawk R features an improved cab, enhanced transmission and it is also lightweight. This is in line with China’s latest road regulations. For instance, since the introduction of a toll-by-axle policy in January this year, China has abolished the manual weighing of trucks and is charging tolls based on a vehicle’s number of axles. The jury confirmed that the Auhawk R could reduce TCO as these two-axle trucks’ Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM) is 18 tons.
“The Auhawk R medium-duty truck is a new generation of medium trucks developed by Foton Motor. The design integrated European standards with China’s new regulatory requirements and new market demands. With its beautiful appearance, optimized structure, intelligent, safe, comfortable and reliable first-class configuration, it provides us with an excellent driving experience and sets a new benchmark for the Chinese truck market,” noted Yu Jing.
Well done, Foton!
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