Cold-area car testing industry heats up in NE China

HARBIN -- With the temperature outside nearing minus 25 degrees Celsius, Jin Lei could recently be seen driving down a test road on a frozen river, turning and braking occasionally as snow flew up behind the wheels.

Since November last year, Jin has been working in Heihe, a city in China's northernmost province of Heilongjiang, to test vehicles.

Before a new car product goes on sale, it has to undergo cold-weather testing. "We come to Heihe mainly to test all the parts of the vehicle, and their performance in a frigid region," said Jin, a test engineer who works at a car company.

The data he collects at the car testing base provides important reference for adjustments to vehicle parameters.

Heihe has various favorable conditions for cold-area car testing, including diverse landforms and cold, dry weather in the winter. Its high-quality services have drawn more and more carmakers to test new products in the city in recent years.

Early in 1989, the Jiefang truck division of China FAW Group Co Ltd launched the first car test in Heihe. Over the past 30-plus years, the city has seen a rapid increase in types of testing, testing range, and numbers of car testing companies and personnel.

Zhao Xinhong, general manager of Heilongjiang Red Valley Automotive Test Co Ltd, said the company has more than 10 cold-area car testing bases that can facilitate dozens of cold-area car testing projects.

Zhao said the company has cooperated with over 100 domestic and foreign vehicle and vehicle parts manufacturers and research institutions.

In recent years, Heihe has improved its infrastructure and services to boost its car-testing industry.

Wang Yulong, director of the Heihe municipal industry and information technology bureau, said that the city has 12 car testing enterprises and more than 120 testing roads, which can meet test requirements in different conditions.

Wang said that Heihe has also opened facilities including a reception service center for car testing enterprises, and introduced regulations for cold-area car testing industry services in Heihe.

Statistics show that the city's cold-area car testing business volume accounts for more than 80 percent of China's total.

According to Chen Gang, an expert from the China Society of Automotive Engineers, the number of new vehicle models is increasing, and the research and development cycle is becoming shorter, which provides more space for the development of Heihe's cold-area car testing industry.

The booming industry has also injected vitality into local economic development.

Data shows that during the annual car testing season, Heihe's car testing industry generates hundreds of millions of yuan in revenue for sectors such as accommodation, catering, retail and transportation.