Chapter 321 Reversing the R&D Situation
“Xiao Jiang, your BMW is worthy of being a practitioner of Shenzhen Speed. You have pushed the BMW Light into large-scale mass production so quickly.”
As a representative of the First Machinery Department, Zheng Haiming brought Qin Hao and others to participate in the off-line ceremony of BMW Light.
This can be regarded as a full expression of the Ministry of Machinery’s support for BMW.
As a purely foreign-funded enterprise, BMW’s new product roll-off ceremony can be attended by so many people from relevant departments, which is definitely a very special existence.
Many other CEOs of foreign-funded enterprises in Shenzhen are very concerned about this matter.
To a certain extent, the offline ceremony of BMW has played a very good role in promoting the entry of foreign capital into investing and building factories in Shenzhen.
After all, not everyone knows the development of Shencheng and Huaxia in the next few decades. Many people are still worried about entering the Huaxia market that has been closed for decades.
That is to say, Shenzhen City is close to the Hong Kong City. Otherwise, even if it is a special zone, there will be many fewer businessmen willing to invest.
Now that BMW has set a good example, many businessmen in Hong Kong City and even other areas will definitely be much more enthusiastic about investing in Shenzhen.
Especially if the sales of BMW Light can increase, an automobile industrial park can be established in Shenzhen and some foreign auto parts manufacturers can be invited to invest in and build factories.
This is a win-win situation for BMW, Shencheng locals, and even investors.
Jiang Hui will definitely support the development of China's own parts industry in the future, and even BMW itself will fully develop its parts industry.
But this does not mean that we will not purchase parts from outside, nor does it mean that we will not have any cooperation with other competing manufacturers.
Like BYD in later generations, although it can produce most of its parts itself, many parts are still purchased from outside.
Even parts of the same type may be purchased from external suppliers and some from internal factories.
In this way, costs can be fully controlled, and at the same time, it can promote the competitiveness of its own parts companies in all aspects.
“Mainly because Shenzhen City and the ministries and commissions have given us a lot of support, we can focus on building the factory quickly.”
“In China, economic construction is now the center, and all walks of life The development of all industries is very fast, which also brings us great confidence.”
“I believe that more automobile manufacturers will launch a variety of new products for everyone. Bringing more choices.”
The level of competition in China's automobile market today is completely incomparable with that of later generations.
To a certain extent, China's automobile market is still a seller's market, and consumers have very limited choices.
How is it like in later generations, there are more than a dozen or even dozens of choices for the same level of car models in front of you.
“I heard that your production target is very high. The appearance of this car still looks very good. If the price is not very high, there is hope to set a record.”
Although BMW is a foreign-funded car company, Zheng Haiming naturally knows what is actually going on.
Zheng Haiming is still happy to see excellent cases emerge from companies under the jurisdiction of the First Ministry of Machinery.
“Our selling price is 29,900 yuan, and with the future cost evolution, it may be further reduced.”
The news that will be officially announced soon is naturally not good. Concealed.
Although the configuration of the BMW Light is very simple, other models on the Chinese market now do not have any impressive configurations.
The selling price of 29,900 yuan is definitely very sincere.
"What are the technical parameters of our newly developed 1.5L engine?"
As a leader who is a professional in the automotive industry, Zheng Haiming knows very well that for a car, the engine is the most critical component.
If the engine is not done well, then there is no special meaning in talking about other things.
However, China's technical strength in the field of automobile engines has been very weak for so many years. After Zheng Haiming went to the First Machinery Department, even if he intended to make some efforts in this area, it would be difficult to achieve results in a short time.
After all, engines, which involve all aspects of things, are simply not products that can significantly improve their performance in a short period of time.
For example, in the processing of a simple engine crankshaft, even if your design level improves quickly, it does not mean that you can produce products that meet the drawing requirements.
Can you produce the corresponding special steel?
For the same part, if the materials used are different, there will be a huge gap in performance.
Parts such as crankshafts in particular have very high requirements in terms of strength and wear resistance. If the materials are slightly different, the results will be very different.
Even if you have qualified materials, if you don’t have suitable processing equipment, the final parts produced will not work.
If the machining accuracy of the parts does not meet the requirements, then the wear-related parameters will definitely not meet the requirements.
Why are various factories in China actively introducing imported equipment in recent years?
The main reason is that the equipment originally obtained from the polar bears has been used for more than ten or twenty years, and its performance is far behind the international level.
China's own machine tool production level is basically still at the level of the technology introduced by Polar Bear back then.
This is definitely not able to meet the needs of new product production.
China can produce most of the products, which is its advantage.
But for most of the products, the quality and technical level currently produced by China are still far behind those of the international market. This is a disadvantage.
What Jiang Hui has to do is to strengthen this advantage and gradually disappear the disadvantage.
Although when BMW first started, its production lines were imported from overseas, and they were still second-hand goods.
But after making money, Jiang Hui is preparing to vigorously enter the equipment industry. In the future, he will develop all kinds of equipment for the automobile industry chain.
"Leader, although the 1.5L inline four-cylinder engine currently produced is still far from our ideal design parameters, compared with any other domestic car engine, the performance parameters are more than 30% better. It can be said that It has achieved leap-forward development.”
“We are confident that it will become the most classic engine model in the next twenty years, and we will continue to upgrade it and develop larger engines based on it. Displacement engines are coming out.”
“In the future, we need help from the ministry to coordinate with the metallurgical department so that their subordinate factories can cooperate in the supply.”
< br>Although China has been reforming for several years, many raw materials are not yet readily available in the market.
Even if it can be bought in the market, the price is very high, which is definitely not what Jiang Hui wants to see.
In the future, with the further development of private enterprises, this situation will become more severe. If the raw material supply problem of BMW cars can be solved through coordination within the ministry, that would naturally be the best.
Otherwise, what would be the point of inviting so many people from relevant departments to participate in the event today?
“Since you are confident that you can do a good job in the car engine, then I will wait and see.”
“Instead of spending a lot of foreign exchange from other manufacturers to introduce engine technology from international automobile giants, It’s better that we develop it ourselves.”
In the past year, many automobile manufacturers have been discussing cooperation with international automobile giants, which is considered to be in line with the general policy.
Among them, the engine is a very critical component of the automobile. Naturally, many manufacturers want to introduce advanced production lines and engine products from the world.
Although Zheng Haiming has some other ideas, it is not easy to directly oppose them.
But if there are already engines in China that are comparable to international standards, and some other manufacturers have to spend foreign exchange to introduce engines of the same type, or even lower levels, he needs to ask them what they think. Yes.
It can be said that BMW also contributed to Zheng Haiming's promotion of his ideas within the First Machinery Department.
“Yeah, I think so too.”
"International cooperation is definitely necessary and will be the trend in the future."
"However, not all products need to take the route of technology introduction. Maybe it is a better way for us to work hard ourselves."< br>
“Only in this way can we cultivate our own R&D personnel to the greatest extent, otherwise it will be difficult for our R&D strength to be significantly improved for many years to come.”
Jiang Hui said this , it’s really inspiring.
In later generations, when joint venture car companies became popular, few car companies did good research and development.
Each joint venture is not so much a joint venture company as a joint venture production factory of an international automobile giant in China.
Except Shanghai General Motors, which established a research and development company like Pan Asia Corporation at the beginning of its establishment, which has played a certain role in promoting the research and development of the domestic automobile industry, most of the other companies were purely a production company in the early stages. factory.
Not to mention the level of R&D, they don’t even have a single R&D person.
This situation did not slowly change until after 2010.
Due to the continuous development and growth of independent brands and the fact that China has become the world's largest automobile market, many car companies have begun to pay a little more attention to their products in China in order to take another bite of this big piece of meat. investment in R&D.
But more often than not, it is just a show-off, and the core R&D is still at the overseas headquarters.
To put it bluntly, in 2010, the total number of R&D personnel of all joint ventures in the entire Chinese automobile industry was less than that of any one of BYD, Chery, Geely, Great Wall and Changan in 2024. Number of personnel.
Even by 2024, the total number of R&D personnel of all foreign car companies in China, whether they are independent R&D personnel or joint venture companies, may not be as high as those of several independent companies. any of the brands.
It is conceivable that those car companies will not really invest too much R&D resources in China.
Ultimately, the improvement of R&D level still depends on China’s own independent brands.
Although BMW is nominally a foreign-funded enterprise now, it will obviously be regarded as an enterprise in the category of independent brands in the future.
By then, the number of R&D personnel of BMW alone will exceed that of Volkswagen, Toyota, Honda, General Motors, Ford, Nissan, Hyundai Kia, Peugeot Citroen... and other international automobiles. The number of R&D personnel of giants in China.
This is actually very meaningful for improving the employment quality of Chinese college students.
The salary and benefits of R&D personnel are not comparable to those of ordinary personnel.
Looking at various car companies in the future, the salary level of R&D personnel is basically the highest among companies except sales. In some companies, the income of sales staff is even lower than that of R&D.
If a company wants to have the strength to recruit a large number of R&D personnel, it must have corresponding performance to support it.
Otherwise, no boss can keep doing work that burns money but does not make any money.
Not even state-owned enterprises.
With three consecutive years of losses, banks will no longer be willing to give you loans, and the relevant leaders will be easily held accountable.
“If the performance of your engine is really good, would you be willing to sell it to others?”
Zheng Haiming asked a question that many people are very concerned about.
As the leader of the First Machinery Department, his vision is the entire Chinese automobile industry.
Even if BMW is the best among them, he cannot ignore or ignore the development of other automobile manufacturers.
He has to find a way to get other car manufacturers to keep up with the pace of development.
Otherwise, all kinds of messes will appear. Even if it is not his responsibility, the factory director below will come to the department every day to ask for money and funds, which will be very depressing.
Factory directors of this era really dare to slam the table in front of their leaders.
It is especially difficult to deal with the kind of factory director who feels that he is dedicated to the public, has confidence in his heart, and does not think about continuing to advance.
“Good products naturally allow more people to have the opportunity to use them. However, at the beginning, our production capacity was limited. We must first ensure the demand for BMW cars, and then we will consider external sales. ”
The engine company Jiang Hui is planning to become independent in the future, and the purpose is naturally to sell externally. Otherwise, why bother with so much?
In China’s automobile market, it is impossible for BMW to achieve a monopoly.
To enjoy the dividends to the greatest extent, in addition to increasing the sales of BMW cars, selling more parts to other car manufacturers is also a very critical link.
For example, in the future models of FAW or Capital Automobile Manufacturing Plant, half of the cost of a car will be purchased from the BMW Group. Which car will it be the OEM that makes more money? , or the BMW Group makes more money, it’s hard to say.
This answer is probably only known by Jiang Hui.
“Okay!”
“Your attitude is enough!”
After listening to Jiang Hui's words, Zheng Haiming couldn't help but praise him.
With so many automobile manufacturers in the country, if the same thing were done to other manufacturers, he felt that most of them would not be willing to sell their engines to the outside world.
(End of this chapter)