Keen visitors to Sichuan's second-largest city--Mianyang in 2011 would probably find almost all buses running on streets are made in Sichuan. However, a dramatic change took place last year, nearly half of buses of Mianyang's largest public transport company--Mianyang Public Transport Co., Ltd. (Mianyang Public Transport) were powered by Yuchai CNG engines.

Why did the purchase preference of Mianyang Public Transport change so significantly within only one year?

Gas saving

Back in 2011, a bus powered by Yuchai mono-fuel gas engine became one of buses of Mianyang Public Transport in operation.

The quota of "trial operation" did not come easy. Gong Yuanliang, deputy general manager and director of Mianyang Public Transport, was still pleased about his decision then. "After substantial early surveys and a lot of exchanges with public transport companies in neighboring provinces and cities, we learned that Yuchai was recognized as a model supplier in the public transport field, so we intended to buy one for trial."

In break-in tests on the same lines, same buses and buses with the same configuration, Yuchai's tremendous power and amazingly low gas consumption were irresistible to Mianyang Public Transport. Take 10m buses with the same configuration for example, the company's buses powered by other engines consume some 35 cubic meters per 100 kilometers each, while those powered by Yuchai engines consumes only 32 cubic meters per 100 kilometers each at the minimum. Besides, Yuchai engines enjoy overwhelming superiorities over its opponents in reliability and stability.

Immediately after the trial in 2011, Mianyang Public Transport forged a longstanding strategic partnership with Yuchai and purchased 528 Yuchai CNB engines in batch.

Deng Wenbin, manager of the repair plant of Mianyang Public Transport, said repeatedly, "As a matter of fact, our requirements for engines are simple: few faults and low gas consumption." Besides high reliability, Yuchai engines have generated considerable benefit for Mianyang Public Transport by its outstanding energy conservation performance.

"Yuchai engines saves 1 cubic meter or 2 per 100 kilometers each. A bus at least covers over 100 thousand kilometers a year and gas price is 4 yuan per cubic meter in Mianyang. In this way, Yuchai can save a lot of money for the company every year and the saved cost is benefit. If all models are powered by Yuchai engines, the benefit will be considerable!" said Deng.

Worry saving

In the context that prices of domestic oil products are rising constantly and vehicle emission is polluting urban air, natural gas has become the most realistic alternative clean fuel at present. As one of the few domestic engine manufacturers that can supply mature gas engines, Yuchai has been constantly increasing the actual application effects of products with its rich technical reserves.

Actually, Mianyang Public Transport owns a wide range of buses ranging from 8 meters to 18 meters. In the company's configuration list, engines like YC4G, YC6J, YC6G and YC6MK have been familiar. It is not difficult to create an energy-conserving engine or an engine platform, but all engines of Yuchai are highly energy-conserving.

The rapid development of Yuchai Machinery in the commercial vehicle field is attributable to its concept of specialized segment, an industrial insider noted. On the basis of energy and technology, aiming at different markets, Yuchai has segmented and integrated customers with multiple dimensions, and created maximum core value for target customers, thus being recognized by customers.

"For us, it is best to equip buses with appropriate engines according to pubic transport conditions in peak and off-peak hours to adjust road conditions and conserving energy," Gong Yuanliang expressed its favor of Yuchai, adding, "Based on actual demands of Mianyang's public transport conditions in peak and off-peak hours, Yuchai's technical staff recommended appropriate engines for buses we had purchased to help us increase income and save expenditures."

Song Yibin, director of Yuchai Sichuan Office, said, "Service is fundamental to Yuchai's development, we attach great importance to the basic work of creating value for customers. We not only stress product service, but also hope to help customers in operation.

Yuchai's meticulous services have melted customers and laid a solid foundation for the future development of Mianyang Public Transport.

According to Gong, Mianyang Public Transport has planned to further increase the share of Yuchai engines from some 45 percent to 90 percent in the coming 3 to 5 years, thus forming a stable matching mechanism. Deng also said, despite the great variety of bus models and the great number of engine brands, buses of Mianyang Public Transport are hard and costly to maintain. The situation has sustained for many years, the storage cost of spare parts every year is heavy burden for the company.

The outstanding performance of Yuchai engines has boosted the decision-making level of Mianyang Public Transport represented by Gong, "Despite some resistance, we have made up our mind not to reserve a transitional stage." His meaning was clear: all buses of the company will be powered by Yuchai CNG buses in the future.

"We must form a system as soon as possible in terms of maintenance, or after cost will be too high," Gong thought the degree of risk increases with the number of brands, "Many companies use 3 or 4 different engine brands and consequently encountered problems in spare parts reserves, leading to high operating costs. If you use Yuchai engines only, we need only to reserve Yuchai series. In this way, we can not only increase communication efficiency, standardize related follow-up work in the company and reduce necessary expenditures, but also enjoy Yuchai's 'one-stop' service."

According to Song, Sichuan is abundant in gas and Sichuan's gas engine market is gradually opening in recent years. Thanks to the gradual perfection of gas stations, Yuchai's share in Sichuan's public transport market is expected to further increase in the future, "Yuchai's gas engines in Sichuan were less than 700 units in 2011 and climbed to some 1,100 units last year; we aim to sell 2,000 units this year," he said.

(Wu Fan/China Communications News)