Author: Lingfang Wang

Editor: Kaijun Qiu

Under the “Double Carbon” goal, the electrification of commercial vehicles is urgent.

On November 25th, Anyang Deli company announced two electric logistics vehicles for end distribution scenarios – Dalin Niu Mo Wang 01 and Dalin Niu Mo Wang 03, and also released a new enterprise strategy and a new brand – Dalin Niu Mo Wang.

As a new energy commercial vehicle company, Deli has its own knowledge and planning in product technology.

Wang Kefeng, Deli’s chief technology officer, believes that small commercial vehicles applied to low-speed, short-distance, high-frequency fixed-line scenarios have a high degree of electrification satisfaction in the medium term. In the medium-term view, specific scenarios have advantages in range-extension technology; in the long-term, hydrogen energy is the ultimate solution.

But Deli’s first step is still to start with small pure electric end-point logistics vehicles.

Their first car – Dalin Niu Mo Wang 01 is a new energy logistics vehicle model for grassroots logistics transportation, using integrated stamping body, standard ABS and other safety systems, equipped with air conditioning, and the vehicle’s drag coefficient is 0.39. With only 8kWh power consumption per 100 kilometers, the range is 120 kilometers, and the energy consumption per kilometer is only 3 cents.

From 2024 to 2025, Deli will introduce range-extended logistics vehicles, and heavy-duty logistics will be positioned to use hydrogen energy.

Who is Deli?

Let’s first understand Deli Company.

In July 2017, Henan Deli New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. was established in Anyang, Henan Province. This is a key investment promotion project in Henan Province and Anyang City with a total investment of 4 billion yuan in the Deli new energy automobile production base project, covering a total area of 1900 acres, and will build facilities such as automated vehicle body mainline and R&D center, logistics center, etc., with an overall process reaching the advanced manufacturing level in China.

On January 12, 2019, the Deli automobile factory completion and new car offline ceremony was held in the assembly workshop of Deli New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. in Henan. Deli’s first light passenger car and the first micro-truck were offline.

At the press conference, Qian Dezhu, chairman and president of Deli, briefly introduced Deli’s development plan. In the first stage, 2017-2021 lays the foundation: a modern automobile manufacturing plant was built facing the future commercial vehicle development, obtained the national double qualification for the production of pure electric commercial vehicles, and became a national high-tech enterprise. In 2021, it obtained the qualification for the production of hydrogen fuel cell commercial vehicles and gathered talents in research and development, marketing, manufacturing, supply chain, and quality control. Accumulated more than 300 patents, and explored new paths for the development of new energy commercial vehicles.

After 2022, Deli will embark on a new journey toward becoming a technology company that provides green and intelligent logistics solutions. By 2025, Deli aims to become a leader in urban logistics intelligent electric vehicles in China.

Pure Electric Small-Scale Vehicle Penetration, Hydrogen as the Ultimate Direction

According to Deli, they have their own ideas on product introduction and technology roadmap selection.

In Qian Dezhu’s opinion, the penetration rate of logistics vehicles represented by microvan and light commercial vehicles in the field of new energy commercial vehicles is significantly higher than that of trucks, especially the penetration rate of microvans has exceeded 15% and is about to enter a comprehensive marketing stage.

Wang Kefeng believes that, in terms of technology roadmap, small vehicles should be applied to low-speed, short-distance, high-frequency and fixed route scenes, where electrification meets a high degree of satisfaction. There are many problems with light trucks, such as uncertain demand for heavy loads, and it is difficult for pure electric vehicles to balance range and cost.

Mid-term, according to Wang Kefeng, extender technology is a better solution, achieving a good balance between route purchase cost and usage cost. In specific scenarios, such as refrigeration and sanitation, extender is actually a particularly advantageous solution.

Long-term, in Wang Kefeng’s opinion, hydrogen energy is the ultimate solution for trunk logistics. However, he also admits that there are great difficulties in the short term, including cost issues and infrastructure construction issues, and the transformation of national strategy in the long term will form the basis for the industrialization of hydrogen energy.

Corresponding to their product layout, Deli focus on the same-city logistics scene under the trend of mobile internet. In the future, they will break through each category step by step and launch three stages of new energy commercial vehicle products: the first stage will launch small-volume pure electric logistics vehicle models such as D01, D03, D05, and D10, which cover the logistics market with less than 10 cubic meters before 2024; the second stage will launch D15 pure electric and extender vehicle models one after another between 2024 and 2025 to meet the demand of 12-20 cubic meters logistics market.“`

DeLion will also launch a new hydrogen fuel cell heavy-duty logistics truck – D50 model, the main point is to reduce the energy consumption of the product, from the current hydrogen consumption of 15 kilograms per hundred kilometers to below 10 kilograms, and at the same time, increase the system’s life span from the current 10,000 hours to below 20,000 hours, meeting the requirements of industrialized operation. Ultimately, achieving a full-scenario green logistics solution for intra-city, intercity, and inter-provincial transportation.

In addition, DeLion has also made strides in intelligentization.

In terms of intelligent driving, DeLion’s unmanned delivery vehicle D01X has been expanded based on D01. Wang Kefeng explained that although the commonality rate of parts for these two models is not high, the commonality of supply chain processes is extremely high, greatly reducing the development and manufacturing costs, and taking unmanned delivery vehicles step into the era of less than 100,000 yuan.

Wang Kefeng stated that the characteristics of D01X are modular four-wheel drive and four-wheel steering, achieving high passing ability, applicability to high-complex scenarios, flexibility, high security redundancy, and low cost. In addition, the D15 product will be the first to achieve mass production of C2C chassis and come standard with advanced driver assistance.

Logistics vehicles: the new blue ocean of new energy commercial vehicles

The prospects for new energy commercial vehicles are promising. From January to October, commercial vehicle sales reached 2.757 million units, of which new energy commercial vehicles accounted for 237,000 units, with a penetration rate of only 8.6%; compared with the 24.7% penetration rate of new energy passenger cars, the gap is very obvious.

From the industry perspective, logistics vehicles in commercial vehicles have not yet reached saturation. With the development of e-commerce, fresh food and cold chain transportation, and the development of the logistics industry itself, logistics vehicles will still become the main growth direction of commercial vehicles. The low electrification penetration rate has brought broad growth space for new energy logistics vehicles.

DeLion’s goal is very clear. The first step is to replace the three-wheeled vehicle with an economical, safe, and licenseable logistics vehicle model, creating a comfortable and safe working environment for terminal express delivery staff.

With the upgrading of the three-wheeled vehicle in the delivery end, this subdivision market is expected to become a new blue ocean for pure electric logistics vehicles, and DeLion may be able to achieve breakthroughs in this field.
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This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.