On January 17, the launch conference and offline ceremony of SITRAK brand took place at Sinotruk Jinan Commercial Truck Co., Ltd.

Chairman Ma Chunji and President Cai Dong of Sinotruk (Hong Kong) Limited were present. Among other attendees were Sinotruk's leaders including Wei Zhihai, Wang Haotao, Yu Youde, Tong Jingen and Wang Shanpo; Executive Director & Vice President Gao Dinggui of Sinotruk (Hong Kong) Limited; Chairman Yan Wenjun, Executive General Manager Wang Jun and Deputy General Manager Marek Swigon of Sinotruk Jinan Commercial Truck Co., Ltd.; and Deputy General Manager Philipp Frauenhoffer of Sinotruk Jinan Power Co., Ltd.

As the logo of SITRAK was lighted up, Ma announced the launch of SITRAK heavy-duty truck. All new SITRAK, representing achievements in Sinotruk-MAN capital and technical cooperation and pure German quality, was steered offline by Cai and Swigon.

Unlike heavy-duty trucks (especially engines) previously imported by China, Sinotruk-introduced technologies have kept pace with Europe. Since concluding a cooperative agreement in July 2009, Sinotruk and MAN have carried out a series of effective strategic cooperation in such aspects as technology, capital, market and management. In April 2011, Sinotruk and MAN launched the cooperative brand SITRAK. Integrating both sides' exquisite craftsmanship and both nations' leading operation concepts, SITRAK has become the hard evidence for the win-win of the two sides and interpreted the value of sustainability and efficiency by pure German quality. "SITRAK's launch marks Sinotruk's high-end heavy-duty trucks have been up to advanced international standards and is of great milestone significance in China's heavy-duty truck industry, we believe it will be China's well-deserved first high-end cooperative brand in the near future," said Yan, adding, "The launch of SITRAK positioned as a world top product not only represents the bumper fruit from Sinotruk-MAN cooperation, but also showcases Sinotruk's strong sense of responsibility for bringing China's heavy-duty truck industry in line with international standards and raising the industrial level of Chinese heavy-duty trucks," Yan said.

Assimilation of advanced experience

In 2009, under a strategic agreement, MAN acquired a 25%+1 stake in Sinotruk for 560 million Euros, and Sinotruk introduced MAN's TGA serialized vehicle technology platform, the technologies of D08, D20 and D26 engines up to Euro III- V standards, with a displacement of 5L, 7L, 11L and 13L and a power of range from 140PS to 560PS, as well as a full set of axle technologies covering wheel reduction and single reduction and corresponding front axle technologies. Thus, the two sides forged a future-oriented and mutually-beneficial strategic partnership. Afterwards, Sinotruk introduced MAN's full set of advanced technologies, set a brand goal of "winning over customers, building China's first top joint-venture brand and focusing on displaying German quality characteristic of MAN", and optimally integrated MAN's quality global resources including license, staff training, quality supervision and production management into SITRAK's brand cultivation.

In recent three years, Sinotruk has established a joint working group with MAN to push forward the cooperative project. In this period, Sinotruk sent 12 groups of 220 employees to MAN for studies. MAN established a resident expert team in Jinan and sent 20 technical and QC teams to China to ensure the SITRAK products manufactured by Jinan Plant are up to German standards.

Concentration of sophisticated technologies

SITRAK series was designed, prepared, mass-manufactured and released based on MAN's design, production line and process, under the principle of quality orientation set by Sinotruk and MAN. Its launch marks Sinotruk has brought Chinese heavy-duty trucks to an advanced level in the world.

Following MAN's TGA cab, SITRAK is spacious, robust, streamlined, and up to ECE R29 European truck cab strength standard. The cab above international standards is as comfortable as a car cab, and offers intelligent and safe ride & drive experience through the intelligent information escort system.

The world's most advanced MC11 (localized MAN D20) electronic control high-pressure common-rail engine up to Phase III-V emission standards, which was exclusively introduced by Sinotruk, has technical characteristics as follows:

High body strength/high stiffness/long life: the vermicular graphite iron body is similar to cast steel in strength and gray iron in heat dissipation, has an ultra strong capability of resisting thermal distortion, costs highly, integrates core manufacturing technologies and is only used on few high-end engines in the world.

Superb economy: high detonation pressure and optimal injection/combustion systems, low specific fuel consumption in wide speed range: 186g/kw.h (D10:196g/kw.h);

Low noise: 2db lower than the noise of similar engines in the world;

High integration: save the quantity of parts by 25 percent over similar engines in the world, reducing fault points greatly;

Long B10 life: up to the most advanced world standard of heavy-duty engines, i.e. 1,500,000 km;

Wide interval of oil change (engine oil): if Phase IV oil is used, the mileage of a road vehicle from its delivery to its first oil change (interval of oil change) will be up to 100,000 km; and if the oil of CNPC and Sinopec on sale is used, the mileage will be up to 60,000 km, thus saving vehicle cost substantially.

With a B10 life of 1,500,000 km, ZF16S 16-gear transmission has overgear, high first-gear speed ratio, light weight, good maneuverability, high efficiency, outstanding energy conservation and fuel consumption performance, and high economy.

MAN's MCY13 drive axle is a new-generation single-reduction drive axle and has a maintenance-free bearing unit, with the brake shoe clearance adjusted automatically for easy maintenance. With a B10 life of 1,500,000 km, the lubrication system has an oil filter, and is characterized by high transmission efficiency, low noise and prominent fuel conservation effect.

SITRAK's driving modes including 4×2, 6×4, 8×4 and 6×2, is categorized as tractor truck, dump truck and cargo truck, and can meet deeds of different working conditions.

SITRAK was manufactured with high-tech equipment similar to MAN in terms of automation level. For example, the cylinder block, cylinder head, crankshaft and connection rod machining lines of MC11/MC13 engines are the state-of-the-art automatic processing and testing lines introduced from Germany, the final assembly line uses the same rotary equipment as that used in MAN's European plants, caters to MAN's manufacturing concept of "human orientation" with the most comfortable operation design, realizes the optimal German production and assembly quality of MC11/MC13 and turns out 100,000 engines per year. Besides the joint quality control by Chinese and German engineers, all the team and group leaders holding key posts at SITRAK production shop have received professional training at MAN's headquarters. SITRAK not only perfectly matches MAN's leading configuration, but is geared to complete sets of technologies and management standards for MAN vehicles in terms of R & D, manufacturing and quality control.

"SITRAK is in pace with the world's latest key technologies in terms of core technologies, is tested in accordance with MAN's quality and performance standards and is of world top quality," Yan said. Thus, by world leading technologies, SITRAK offers domestic customers world-class heavy-duty truck drive experience. Apart from top German quality, SITRAK to be launched in the first quarter of this year will seamlessly tailor services to the latest demand of the domestic market, honor its sustained and efficient value commitments by caring customers in full course and become a substitute for imported vehicles by its advanced and mature technologies and reasonable prices. Besides, guided by the concept of serving customers wholeheartedly, synchronous parts supply will thoroughly dispel the anxiety of high-efficiency vehicle operations.

SITRAK is positioned to satisfy domestic customers' demands for substitutes for imported heavy-duty trucks and comprehensively meets the rigorous requirements of domestic high-end logistics for continuous and efficient operations through failure-free operations of top German quality. When building SITRAK, Sinotruk assimilated MAN's sophisticated technologies and made targeted improvement and innovation by looking into the business concept of the domestic high-end heavy-duty truck market. In the future, SITRAK will yield bumper fruits for efficient and safe operations of domestic high-end logistics by its technological essence comparable to imported heavy-duty trucks and insight into demands of domestic heavy-duty truck customers.