Related News
Academic brain + business acumen = clean buses
Print Edition
IT’S sometimes said that academics make poor businessmen because they don’t know how to apply their research to practical use. Chen Jie is a man who puts lie to that notion.
The professor of power engineering and supervisor of doctoral students at Shanghai Jiao Tong University also runs a successful company that has developed aerodynamic buses that reduce carbon emissions and save fuel.
Chen is general manager of Shanghai Shenzhou Vehicle Research & Development Co. The buses his company developed have just finished a year’s trial in Minhang.
“I was always determined to develop energy-saving, environmentally friendly vehicles, and I have never wavered in that commitment,” said Chen.
The buses recycle kinetic energy from a vehicle’s braking and idling, and then use the energy for starting.
After the automobile industry started to boom in Shanghai in the new millennium, the city government decided to entrust the design of special vehicles to the Institute of Automotive Engineering at Jiao Tong. In 2004, Shenzhou was founded.
Back then, the university had only one campus in the downtown Xuhui District, and the new company was set up in a single office room. The founders were all university professors. Chen was selected as general manager.
Although the founders were very passionate about the aims of the company, their families and colleagues expressed doubts about “nerds doing business.”
Indeed, there was good reason for doubt at the onset. Special vehicle design got off to a rocky start.
“Special vehicle design demands a high level of professional knowledge, but back then we couldn’t find enough talent to help us,” said Chen. “At that time in China, there was no mature market to provide technical services.”
In the first two years, Shenzhou leaked money like a rusty bucket. Chen somewhat whimsically compares that period to an “able samurai going begging in the streets.” One thing was obvious: the company wouldn’t survive on its current track.
In 2006, Chen proposed at a board meeting that the company switch to developing, manufacturing and selling its own products. What kind of products? Chen proposed they be energy-saving vehicles using advanced electronics as key components.
The board naturally asked if he thought the new direction would be profitable. Maybe in four years, he replied.
“They nearly jumped out of their chairs on hearing that,” Chen said. “But my proposal passed anyway.”
It was pretty clear back then that environmentally friendly vehicles weren’t in hot demand. Chen was banking that the day would come when they would be. He said Shenzhou should aim to develop products that other companies weren’t making or were making poorly. The product line had to be such that it would dazzle prospective clients with its brilliance.
In the last eight years, green is all the go in government circles. Pollution, especially from vehicles, is blamed for the pall of smog choking major cities. The public is demanding cleaner air, and that means cleaner vehicles.
Shenzhou has now developed three key products: the aerodynamic bus, an environmentally friendly vacuum cleaner and an automotive fuel meter. The latter two have already found strong markets. Aerodynamic buses are just coming on the scene.
The bus was 10 years in development, with research and testing, followed by more research and testing to bring it to perfection.
The concept model won numerous awards, including first prize in the Shanghai Outstanding Inventions Awards.
The bus that underwent road trials in Minhang was completed in 2012.
A group of experts from the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the Ministry of Transport analyzed data from trial operations. They found that the new green bus discharged 1.5 tons less carbon dioxide than a conventional bus every year of operation. Due to lower gas consumption and wear on brake pads, the maintenance cost of the bus dropped by 46,000 yuan (US$7,364).
“After 10 years of relentless work, we are finally seeing the fruits of our labors,” said Chen. “But we’re still not satisfied. Our goal is to promote use of these vehicles across the whole country.”
In July, a second trial on the bus started in Hai’an, a county of Nantong in Jiangsu Province. Similar to the trial in Minhang, buses operated along entire normal routes and data were collected.
Next year, the company hopes that 10,000 of the buses will go into operation. It’s a grandiose but not impossible goal.
“Unlike electric vehicles, the government hasn’t offered subsidies on the purchase of our buses,” he said. “But it’s not necessarily wise to rely on government help forever. We want to succeed by convincing the market that this is the best bus to buy on its own merits.”
The development of environmentally friendly products always requires patience, Chen said. From concept to actual product to market release, it’s a process fraught with risk and subject to unforeseen circumstances. Chen said it’s a bit like doing academic research in a lab. You are never 100 percent certain of the outcome.
Today, Shenzhou employs more than 200 people. Only four of the initial team remain on board.
“I sometimes like to draw a pie for my employees,” said Chen. “I draw a little piece and tell them that represents our hope. Then I add a few more pieces, and eventually the pie becomes whole.”
What Shenzhou cherishes above all is its corporate spirit of innovation.
“I am always telling my employees to go innovate,” Chen said. “I tell them if they succeed, the honor is all theirs. If they fail, I’ll shoulder the losses. We have to accept that the road to success may involve many burned bridges.”
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
