In the commercial vehicle market, “involution” has become the norm: engine manufacturers are competing to push horsepower from 400 to 600, constantly pushing the limits of engine speed; heavy truck brands are upgrading components like air suspension and smart screens while simultaneously lowering their price floor.
Beneath this seemingly chaotic competition lies the underlying logic of the industry’s development—the essential nature of commercial vehicles as means of production dictates that competition revolves around two core elements: “operational efficiency” and “cost control.” Policy guidance and changes in the market landscape continuously reshape the form of competition.
● Production Tool Attribute: The Underlying Starting Point of Involution
Unlike passenger vehicles, which are primarily consumer goods, commercial vehicles are “money-making machines” for logistics companies and individual drivers. Their core value lies in “creating higher returns at lower costs.”
This attribute directly determines two basic directions of competition: either improving operational efficiency through technological upgrades or lowering the investment threshold through cost optimization. “Involution in horsepower, engine speed, spare parts, and price” is the concrete manifestation of these two directions.
As the “heart” of commercial vehicles, the increase in horsepower and RPM of the engine is not merely a matter of technological gimmicks.
For long-haul logistics tractors, greater horsepower translates to stronger climbing ability and more efficient overtaking. In the time-sensitive green channel transportation, even a 10 km/h increase in speed can translate into tangible benefits. Higher RPM stability reduces failure rates during long-distance driving and minimizes maintenance downtime.
The essence of competition in the commercial vehicle market is the ability to create demand.
The core reason Weichai engines hold a 40% market share in the heavy-duty truck power market is their global breakthrough in diesel engine thermal efficiency (53%) achieved through a cumulative R&D investment of 31.4 billion yuan. This allows vehicles powered by Weichai engines to consume 2-3 liters less fuel per 100 kilometers than competitors. Based on an average annual mileage of 150,000 kilometers for heavy-duty trucks, this translates to nearly 20,000 yuan in fuel cost savings for drivers annually.
This transmission chain of “technology upgrade – efficiency improvement – increased profits” is the core driving force behind the fierce competition among engine companies.
The logic of truck manufacturers manipulating parts and prices also stems from their nature as production tools.
The widespread adoption of components like air suspension and hydraulic retarders, while seemingly increasing manufacturing costs, actually reduces the total lifecycle cost by decreasing vehicle wear and tear from bumps and reducing brake system maintenance.
Price competition is an inevitable choice after market saturation—when the growth rate of logistics demand slows, companies can only compete for existing orders by lowering prices to seize market share. However, this competition often falls into a vicious cycle of “price reduction-quality reduction-further price reduction,” ultimately damaging the industry ecosystem.
● Competition for Existing Market Share and Policy-Driven Growth: The Dual Drivers of Involution
The intensified involution in the commercial vehicle market is essentially the result of the combined effects of “existing market share competition” and “policy pressure.”
Currently, the top three companies in the domestic commercial vehicle market hold over 70% of the market share. Leading brands such as China National Heavy Duty Truck Group (CNHTC) and FAW Jiefang have established a stable position. Smaller companies can only break through by focusing their efforts on niche markets, giving rise to a horsepower race and price wars.
The essence of competition in the commercial vehicle market lies in the ability to create demand.
Meanwhile, the differentiation between individual drivers and large fleets has further intensified competition—large fleets, leveraging their bulk purchases of lower-priced vehicles, seize freight opportunities with even lower freight rates, forcing individual drivers to choose more cost-effective models, creating a transmission chain of “price involution – profit compression.”
Policy guidance is reshaping the competitive logic from both technical standards and operational rules.
The impending implementation of the China VII emission standard will bring carbon dioxide and tire wear particulate matter under regulation, pushing engine manufacturers to shift from “single power upgrades” to “full life-cycle environmental protection.” To meet WLTC full-condition testing requirements, companies have had to upgrade exhaust treatment systems and optimize power tuning; the cost of adding particulate filters to heavy-duty trucks alone has increased by 12,000 yuan.
This pressure to upgrade technology directly translates into involutionary momentum. The flurry of China VI and China VII series products released by engine companies such as FAW Jiefang Power and Weichai is essentially an inevitable choice to cope with the risk of policy obsolescence.
Meanwhile, the new energy transformation policy has brought about even more profound changes.
Cities like Beijing and Shanghai have implemented road rights restrictions on gasoline-powered commercial vehicles, allowing new energy trucks free access to urban delivery areas. This “policy advantage” has forced logistics companies to accelerate vehicle replacement.
Companies like Sany and XCMG have achieved triple-digit growth by leveraging their new energy vehicle strategies, while those sticking to traditional gasoline-powered vehicles have been forced to clear inventory through price reductions, further exacerbating price competition. Data shows that in 2025, sales of new energy heavy-duty trucks increased by 160% year-on-year, while the price of gasoline-powered heavy-duty trucks decreased by 8%-12% compared to the previous year, demonstrating the significant impact of policy guidance.
The essence of competition in the commercial vehicle industry is the ability to create demand.
● Summary:
The involution of the commercial vehicle industry is essentially an inevitable growing pain of its development stage. As the market shifts from incremental to stock-based growth, and as policies shift from “scale-oriented” to “quality-oriented,” simple horsepower competition and price wars are no longer sustainable.
As the market shifts from incremental to stock-based growth, and as policies shift from “scale-oriented” to “quality-oriented,” as the horsepower race reaches its physical limits and price wars approach cost thresholds, simple horsepower competition and price wars are no longer sustainable. More and more companies are realizing that the essence of involution lies in the lack of value creation capabilities.
In the future, companies that can break through involution will inevitably be those that understand the essence of production tools—they will no longer view vehicles as isolated products, but rather as “core carriers of transportation solutions”; they will no longer view competition as a zero-sum game, but rather as creating incremental value through ecosystem co-construction.
Ultimately, the essence of industry competition is not price, but the “ability to discover and meet needs.” Only when more companies shift from “concentrating on parameters” to “concentrating on value” can the commercial vehicle industry truly escape involution and move towards a new stage of high-quality development.
