King Long’s 15 Years of Brilliance in Saudi Arabia

In the first half of this year, King Long once again wrote a magnificent chapter in the Saudi Arabian market. As of June, 870 buses had been exported, all of which were high-end luxury buses. It is worth mentioning that all of these new buses will be put into the "battlefield" of Hajj transportation in August. The excellent performance in the first half of the year allowed King Long to continue to maintain its leading position in the industry for export to Saudi Arabia.

King Long's luxury buses exported to Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia, a kingdom in the desert, is "golden fertile soil" in the eyes of bus manufacturers. It can be said to be the largest and most stable bus market in the world. However, the harsh climate and geographical conditions as well as the increasingly fierce market competition also make bus manufacturers to face the challenge of continuous upgrading.

In 2004, King Long took the lead in entering the Saudi Arabian market with the courage of "being the first". In the past 15 years, King Long has strived hard to overcome difficulties and worked hard. With its excellent products and quality services, it has achieved fruitful results in the Saudi Arabian market. It has exported more than 6,400 vehicles in total and has become the Chinese bus brand with the largest number of Hajj vehicles in the local market. In a sense, King Long's shining footprint in exporting to Saudi Arabia has set a good example for China's bus exports abroad and "the Belt and Road Initiative" cooperation.

Product Upgrade Shaping New Pattern of Saudi Arabian Market
The Saudi Arabian market was once divided by Daewoo and Hyundai of South Korea and Mercedes-Benz, Man and Volvo of Europe. After entering the 21st century, China's independent brand buses, represented by King Long, began to enter the Saudi Arabian market, and took root and grew tenaciously here, breaking the old pattern. From then on, Chinese brand buses emerged.

After entering the Saudi Arabian market in 2004, King Long exported 450 luxury buses to Saudi Arabia in 2005, creating the largest order for China's industrial exports at that time. Since then, large quantities of orders have poured in from Saudi Arabia. At the same time, the export product line-up has been continuously expanded, from luxury buses to city buses to school buses. For 15 years, King Long's products have covered all aspects of Saudi Arabia's public transportation and life, have contributed to improving the quality of local transportation, and have been favored by customers and loved by the public.

The recognition of the market comes from King Long's increasingly mature independent technology and excellent product strength, especially its customization ability for Saudi Arabia's special use conditions. As we all know, Saudi Arabia is dry and hot all the year round, and sandstorms are often rampant. According to Saudi Arabia's road conditions, ambient temperature and the driver's driving habits, King Long has made great improvements in product design and details, such as increasing the ground clearance of bus, using high temperature resistant and anti-aging materials for interior trim and seats, and using high-power air conditioning cooling capacity. Besides, King Long also actively studies the lessons in the customer's operation process, actively adjusts the adaptability of the products to the objective environment, and continuously improves and upgrades the products. Moreover, the improved products will not increase the cost, but bring many profits, which have won the unanimous praise of the users.
With the increasing acceptance of Chinese brands in the market, Saudi Arabia has become the main focus of Chinese bus enterprises and the competition is extremely fierce. Under this background, King Long has adjusted its export strategy in line with the situation, focusing on developing high-end bus market with higher added value and realizing the transformation and upgrading of export products.

King Long Longwei II model exported to Saudi Arabia

As a representative of high-end manufacturing of Chinese buses, Longwei II has demonstrated its superior performance and ultimate quality as a high-end bus in terms of modeling, safety, environmental protection and comfort. After Longwei II went on the market, King Long started the research and development of Longwei II for the Saudi Arabian market, and introduced Longwei II to Saudi Arabia in 2018, including solutions tailored to the Saudi Arabian market, which were highly recognized by the market. At present, the Longwei II model has become the new main force for upgrading exports to Saudi Arabia, reaching one-third of the market share in more than a year.

With Sincere Service, Joining Hands to Achieve Win-win

Products are the "vanguard" to open up the market, and service is the strong backing to guard the market. After entering Saudi Arabia in batches, King Long regularly dispatches skilled and efficient after-sales service teams to Saudi Arabia, establishes exclusive service stations and spare parts centers, provides customers with relevant technologies and training in use, grows up side by side with customers to achieve win-win results, and becomes service benchmark in the Saudi Arabian market.

The annual transportation during Ramadan and Hajj is the most important "battle" of each transportation enterprise in the year. Millions of pilgrims flock here during this period. Coupled with the extremely hot and dry environment, both the performance of vehicles and the physical fitness of people are tested. The operating vehicles are almost not stopped even though people stop. The King Long's service team stands fast for 24 hours a day to ensure all-round guarantee and to ensure that staff are wherever the vehicles are. Sometimes, when vehicles are checked until late at night or when there is a sudden sandstorm, King Long's service personnel cannot return to the station and rest at the service station directly.

King Long's service team gives certificates to Saudi Arabian users after training

Real vehicle training at Saudi Arabia

After-sales personnel assist end users to carry out batch inspection of vehicles before Hajj

During Ramadan in Saudi Arabia in 2016, due to the temporary issuance of a visa control policy by the Saudi Arabia's Immigration Bureau, on-site after-sales service personnel failed to arrive on time and the guarantee service was suspended. Facing with such difficulties, the resident service team worked more than 12 hours a day, sometimes 16 hours a day, for 30 days of Ramadan. With the joint efforts, the safety of vehicles and the important transportation task of zero failure were finally ensured. This valuable service spirit has won high praise from customers.

In the three-month overseas service quality survey conducted by King Long, although the full score of the questionnaire was only 20 points, some customers gave an over-rating of 21 points. The head of the Saudi Arabia's distributor of King Long said in a letter of thanks: "King Long provides the best after-sales service for Hajj transportation of Muslim brothers and sisters around the world and is our only reliable partner."

Al Wassem is a medium-sized Hajj transportation company in Saudi Arabia. In 2012 and 2013, it purchased 10 and 15 King Long buses respectively. The number was not large, and the company did not buy any more vehicles in the following years. Nevertheless, during this period, the sales and after-sales teams of King Long maintained close interaction with AI Wassem, actively concerned about the operation and provided better product improvement plans. In 2018, the company started the batch purchase plan again, and King Long became the preferred brand. The company purchased 100 King Long luxury buses at one time and increased 200 vehicles in early 2019. Mr. Mohamend, General Manager of Al Wassem, said: "the cooperation with King Long again depends to a large extent on the excellent quality of King Long bus, the care and support of King Long and the distributor team, and a series of effective training and guidance work, which has strengthened our confidence in cooperation with King Long."

Jointly Developing and Constructing Multiple Marketing System

NTC is the exclusive distributor of King Long in Saudi Arabia and one of the gold medal agents in overseas markets. In 2004, King Long and NTC started cooperation for the first time. Through NTC, King Long further set up marketing outlets and after-sales service stations in major Saudi Arabia's cities to deepen into the market segments, thus allowing King Long to maintain stability and have a higher market share in Saudi Arabia.

In addition to working with effective partners, King Long's overseas marketing team has stepped up its "going global" efforts. The front-line business is directly facing the end users. Through visiting customers and maintaining good interaction with senior management, King Long's overseas marketing team has timely grasped customer needs, understood market information and responded quickly. In 2018, Saudi Arabia's Hajj Authority issued a new configuration specification for future Hajj vehicles, with a focus on improving vehicle safety. King Long responded positively and planned ahead of time with Saudi Arabia's distributors, predicting the 2019 order plan ahead of time, taking a step forward in vehicle design and communication with major parts suppliers, providing comprehensive solutions for various hajj companies and further seizing the market opportunities.

King Long appears at Saudi Arabia's International Auto Exhibition

King Long also actively participates in local exhibitions and various major events to further strengthen the localization of brand. Saudi Arabia's International Auto Exhibition is the most professional international auto exhibition with the largest scale and the most complete brands in Saudi Arabia. King Long has participated in this exhibition for many times. The products on display comprehensively cover various sub-markets such as inter-city passenger transportation, tourism, school buses, public transportation and light buses, effectively promoting King Long's products and brand image, and expanding market influence. Al Janadriyah Festival is a cultural heritage festival held in Saudi Arabia. This activity has been held once a year since 1985. In 2019, King Long's after-sales team cooperated with distributor NTC and customers to jointly serve the shuttle work of the festival to further enhance brand strength.

The President of SAPTCO visited King Long for the fifth time, and Xie Siyu, Board

In the past 15 years, King Long has continuously expanded its "circle of friends" in Saudi Arabia. The number of end customers has grown from 2 to 39. Its sales network has spread throughout Saudi Arabia. Most laudably, King Long defeated competitors such as Mercedes-Benz and won the order of 150 luxury buses from Saudi Arabia's public transport company SAPTCO in 2011, which was also the first time that the company used Chinese bus products. SAPTCO is a benchmark in Saudi Arabia and even the whole Middle East. It is also the only enterprise in Saudi Arabia that is allowed to operate long-distance transportation and public transportation. It is a milestone to get the recognition of SAPTCO. From 2011 to 2019, SAPTCO purchased more than 2,000 King Long buses.

"It takes thousands of years of toil to blow all the yellow sand before reaching gold." This poem by Tang Dynasty poet Liu Yuxi can be said to be a true portrayal of King Long's expansion into Saudi Arabia. After 15 years of market baptism, King Long has become a synonym for high-end Chinese bus manufacturing in Saudi Arabia, and has deeply integrated into the local public transportation life. In the new historical period, King Long will continue to join hands with solid partners to stick to the service quality, lead the export transformation, and make Chinese bus manufacturing more dazzling.