Chapter 436 Porsche, that’s the national car (second update, please subscribe)
“Let every American family have a chicken in the pot and a car in the garage.”
This famous sentence The slogan was proposed by Hoover in 1928. With this sentence, he became president, and then it became a joke.
The joke is that the economic crisis of the next year and the subsequent Great Depression made it difficult for Americans not only to eat chicken, but also to maintain their basic livelihood, and Hoover's words became a joke.
Americans did not eat chicken, but lived in Hooverville. However, it is not easy to solve the "housing" problem, but the conditions are a bit poor, not to mention the air leakage from all directions, and they are often forcibly demolished...
Although Hoover's words were a joke, this slogan was actually about people's livelihood. Even Li Yi'an didn't mind repeating similar words - "Let every family in Nanyang have a car."
It is for this reason that the Porsche father and son walked into the presidential palace. As the designer of the "Beetle", Ferdinand Porsche was no stranger to the "national car". After all, the "Beetle" was a A national car.
“First of all, its structure must be simple, only in this way can it be cheap enough.”
In the president’s office, Porsche displayed the “national car” he designed for Nanyang. At first glance, the front of the car is somewhat similar to the black Porsche 356 designed by Philip Porsche last year.
At present, the Porsche 356 is produced by the "BMW" company, and the BMW company in Nanyang produces the BMW 338, which is based on Ford Motors in design. It entered the Nanyang market last year. The only problem is that this is not The only "BMW" - there was also BMW in East Germany in Europe. In fact, the pre-war "BMW" car factory was in Eisenach, while BMW in Munich had no experience in producing cars.
For this reason, Nanyang is in a lawsuit with East Germany - I, who was the first to use the BMW trademark to manufacture aircraft engines, are genuine BMW. Eisenach is a car factory that was later acquired. Eisenach is not allowed to use the name BMW in the future. Got it! Although the outcome of the lawsuit has not yet been determined, the result must be simple-the blue sky and white clouds of BMW will definitely belong to Nanyang.
But the car made by "BMW" is too luxurious - a 6-cylinder inline four-stroke engine. It is not something that ordinary people can afford - and this is also true. "BMW" has been used by Nanyang officials and the rich to enjoy. Therefore, we must build cars that ordinary people can afford!
And this is what Porsche is good at, and designing luxury cars is just an option for Porsche.
“... Its suspension and engine are basically from the Beetle. It comes standard with a 1.1L engine with a power of only 18kW. The advantage is high fuel economy and meets the basic needs of the people. The engine is placed at the rear of the vehicle. The space inside the front of the car is used for storage. The vehicle can accommodate two adults and three children, making it suitable as a family car." Facing the sketch shown by Dr. Porsche, Li Yian just nodded slightly and did not say anything. What, it has to be said that the Porsche father and son relied on the Beetle to rest on their laurels - although the Porsche 356 is a two-seater convertible sports car, except for the all-aluminum body and mid-engine layout, its suspension and engine are basically from the Beetle. The bodywork was designed by Erwin Kmunda, who was also the designer of previous Beetle models.
Now, when designing Nanyang's "national car", they still chose to use the Beetle as the prototype.
Although for Li Yian, he doesn't mind this. After all, the "Beetle" is an extremely successful car, but because the "Volkswagen" company has become his company, looking at this Li Yian said while looking at the car that looked very similar to the Beetle.
“Is it too similar to the Beetle? If you see two cars at the same time, how can you distinguish them?”
If you just make a Beetle, then what? Why not just get the Beetle drawings from Volkswagen?
The reason for redesign is to avoid competition between the two in the market.
As Li Yian spoke, he picked up a pen and modified the shape of the car according to his imagination, and soon a new sketch was drawn. Unlike the "Beetle", which has a round shape, the front, roof and front and rear wheel arches are all arc-shaped, just like the Beetle's body, its body is more square.
“The square body has more space. From a production point of view, its cost should be lower. Cost, among national cars, the most important thing is cost...”
In fact, Li Yi'an himself is also an automotive engineer. After all, as early as in London, he activated his "automotive engineering" skills because of second-hand car transactions, and he is also very good at car design.
"Only when the price is low enough can it be affordable for everyone. I remember that the rated ex-factory price of the "Beetle" is 1,000 marks, right?"
Ferdinand Porsche replied. "Yes, sir, according to the financing pre-sale plan formulated at that time: it is priced at 990 marks. The car buyer must pay 5 marks per week. After 150 weeks, a total of 750 marks will be paid as a down payment to buy a Beetle. ”
Although few people got the "Beetle" before the war, the selling price of 1,000 marks is a fact.
"That is 400 US dollars, and the current "Beetle" produced by Volkswagen is priced at 540 US dollars. It is because of its price advantage that it sold 50,000 units in the UK last year."
This It is the fundamental reason why the "Beetle" swept the world - the price. In the markets of the United States, Britain and other countries, its price is only one-half or even one-third of the same type of car - basically it is a second-hand car. price.
It is precisely because of such a low price that the Beetle swept the world.
"But 540 US dollars is still too high for Nanyang. My goal is 400 US dollars, which is almost the level of the first-generation "Beetle", or even lower! In many cases, price is king, especially in The annual income of many workers in Nanyang is less than 400 yuan. In this case, the price of our cars should be controlled within the annual income-that is, one year's income is enough to buy a car."
Looking at the president in front of him who was talking about the "national car", Ferdinand Porsche even had an illusion for a moment, as if he had returned to the Prime Minister's Office again, back to the place where he lived more than ten years ago. That day, together with the Austrian corporal, we talked about "all German cars".
In fact, Li Yian and the corporal have something in common on this point. Both of them hope to change the lives of Chinese people through cars, although their purposes are different.
What is the real “national car”?
Of course it is closely related to the income of ordinary people. Even according to the plan, two years later, when the first popular car rolls off the assembly line, the average income of Nanyang employees will exceed 600 yuan, but the car It is best to keep the selling price within 400 yuan, and it only takes a few months of income to buy a car. Only in this way can the popularity of automobiles in Nanyang be realized, thereby driving a series of consumption, which is the "consumption upgrade" with automobiles as the core.
After a pause, Li Yian pointed at the sketch and emphasized.
“So, I hope you can consider the cost more, but you can also retain some of the Beetle’s advantages – for example, the Beetle’s air-cooled four-stroke engine is a very good engine, and it’s totally fine. Just take it over and use it.”
Needless to say, this engine is a classic. In this era when many national cars still use two-strokes, air-cooled four-strokes are already at the forefront of the times, and the Beetle is equipped with it. Although the structure of this engine seems to be too simple, let alone the parameters, this engine is serious and can drive at high speeds. It is definitely the best low-power engine of this era.
“Sir, we will try our best.”
While his father was still deep in thought, Fili Porsche said from the side.
"I believe it is entirely possible to achieve this goal by introducing automated production lines from the United States."
Compared to his father, Phil, who has visited the United States for inspections, knows how to reduce production costs. .
That is to introduce automated production lines and reduce enterprise production costs through mass production.
“Yes, new manufacturing technologies, new manufacturing processes, and even the use of new materials can reduce costs to a certain extent.”
In the next time , Li Yian and the Porsche father and son continued to discuss the design of the "national car" there. They sketched the car bit by bit on the sketch. Slowly, a new type of car appeared in front of their eyes. By the end, , when the sketch of the car was presented to them...
(End of this chapter)