Chapter 327: Different Production Expansion
"That mini car is the BMW Light produced by BMW Motors invested by BMW Technology in Shenzhen. It is said that the sales have been particularly good in the past few months."
Before Shawn Yue came to Shenzhen, he had already had some exchanges with local dealers in Gangcheng.
These dealers not only do normal business on the surface, but also do some other businesses, and have various connections with some dealers in Shenzhen and other places.
So as long as they are willing to help inquire, it is easier to obtain some information.
In order to avoid being unable to answer anything Tsunegi Watanabe asked, Shawn Yue made some confirmations in advance.
"BMW Technology?"
As the general manager of Toyota Motor Port City Branch, Watanabe Tsuneichi has naturally heard of such a special company as BMW Technology.
To be honest, there are not many industrial enterprises in the port city, and even fewer are influential in the international market.
BMW Technology invested in the Chaoyang Motorcycle Manufacturing Factory and became the largest motorcycle company in China. Related products are not only sold in the port city, but also exported to the Southeast Asian market.
This news has been reported by many media. As long as Watanabe Tsunegi pays a little attention to this aspect, it is impossible not to hear any information.
"Yes, they are products produced by companies invested by BMW Technology!"
Shawn Yue is naturally very sure of this.
"Isn't BMW Technology's main focus on motorcycle production? How can it make such a big noise in automobiles?"
Although I had heard before that BMW Technology seemed to be building a car factory in Shenzhen, many people did not take it seriously.
After all, many people know the situation of BMW Technology in Hong Kong City.
This is a company that has never been engaged in the automobile business at all. Naturally, few people are optimistic about rashly investing in an automobile factory in China.
"It is indeed a bit strange. I will inquire about the situation carefully then."
Shawn Yue replied in a depressed mood.
The situation on the Shencheng interface is obviously not very optimistic.
In the next few days, they visited some car dealers, communicated with Shenzhen investment department, and even took a few taxis in person. They fully demonstrated the spirit of "Three Presentisms" that Japanese companies often emphasize. , which basically clarifies the situation.
"Mr. Watanabe, China's taxi market has undergone tremendous changes. The sales price of BMW Light is too low. Basically, all taxi companies do not consider purchasing Crown."
This conclusion is obviously not what Shawn Yue wants to see, but he still wants to show it.
Otherwise, he would have to find a way to explain it if sales continued to decline next month.
So after investigating clearly in the past few days, Shawn Yue honestly reported the situation.
This is not the time to leave things to chance.
"This kind of commercial vehicle is obviously not suitable as a taxi. There are no taxis like this anywhere in the world?"
“Aren’t traditional taxis all sedans?”
Watanabe Tsuneichi knew that what Shawn Yue said was true, but it was a bit difficult for him to accept it.
The decline in sales of Crown in Hong Kong City is actually due to the BMW Light of BMW.
If he reported this matter to the headquarters, no one would believe it, right?
"The Huaxia Market is quite special. I thought it was strange at first. After talking to several groups of people, I finally understood it."
"First of all, people here in China who need to take a taxi most of the time bring a lot of luggage, or even travel with several people together."
“In this case, the loading capacity of BMW Light has a unique advantage.”
"Furthermore, China's overall income level is still too low. A Crown that costs hundreds of thousands, compared to a BMW that costs tens of thousands, is really weak in competitiveness."
"Unless our Crown is also produced in China and the price is lowered, the taxi market will probably have no connection with it."
Shawn Yue gave a relatively pessimistic analysis result.
This situation made Tsuneichi Watanabe very uncomfortable, but there was nothing he could do.
Producing Crown cars in China is simply not something he can consider.
If he just made more suggestions, the headquarters might think that he stretched his hand too far.
Japanese companies are very particular about rules.
It's not something you're responsible for. If you make suggestions casually, you'll be hated by others.
"If there is no hope in the taxi market and there are relatively few cars used by public institutions, is it possible that we will watch Crown's sales continue to decline?"
Faced with this question from Watanabe Tsuneichi, Shawn Yue could only bite the bullet and give a comforting answer, saying: "There have been many self-employed and small business owners in Lingnan Province in recent years."
"These people have made some money through various methods, especially those with more flexible minds, and their net worth is actually not low."
"These people will definitely not consider the BMW Light, but will choose models such as our Crown or Nissan's Duke."
"So although the sales of our Crown sedan may continue to decline for a few months, once it drops to a certain level, it may bottom out and rebound, and the final sales will be higher than now."
Although the words are comforting, Shawn Yue's analysis is not unreasonable at all.
In this era, Crown cars were synonymous with luxury cars in South China. Until around 2000, bosses in the south still thought Crown cars were luxury cars.
Therefore, relying on this impression score, Toyota can still live a good life in the South China market for a period of time.
"I hope so."
"But if BMW also launches a sedan business, wouldn't we have no hope then?"
Watanabe Tsuneichi has naturally heard some news in the past few days.
It's not as if there hasn't been any rumors that BMW might produce a sedan.
Although it is not clear what the design of BMW's sedan is like and how it is positioned.
But judging from the situation of BMW Light, that car is likely to have a relatively large impact on the market.
This is actually not the situation Watanabe Tsuneichi wants to see.
"The first car launched by BMW was the 29,900 yuan BMW Light. This means that the cars they will launch in the future will not be very expensive, otherwise consumers will not be able to accept it at all."
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"It is impossible for a car that sells for tens of thousands of yuan to become a direct competitor of the Crown Car."
Shawn Yue used a rather "affirmative" tone to reduce Watanabe Tsuneichi's worries, and finally the two returned to the port city a little lonely. ……
"Director, the sales volume of BMW Light in March will definitely exceed 8,000 units, and it is highly likely that it will exceed 100,000 units."
"As a result, our factory's production capacity will soon be insufficient. Especially after the car is launched, there will definitely be a situation of tight production capacity. Even if we operate three shifts of production, it will not be completely alleviated."
"So I think we can start preparations for the construction of the new production line in advance, so that we have enough time to plan the production line and debug the equipment to ensure that the production efficiency of our new production line is higher than the current one."
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Hou Guoming is very confident in the car he is designing now, and he is afraid that when it is launched, it will not be able to explode in sales due to production capacity issues.
Not to mention selling 100,000 vehicles a year like BMW Light, but at least selling 60,000 vehicles a year. He thinks there is no problem at all.
Even if the price of this car is more expensive than the BMW Light, he is confident.
"It is indeed necessary to start a new production line to expand production, otherwise it will be easy to get confused later."
As the person in charge of the sales field, Chen Chenxing naturally did not want to see a situation where there was an order but no way to deliver it.
It's such a shame to look like that.
"Expansion of production is necessary. Now, whether relying on the company's own funds or borrowing from banks, we can raise the funds needed for expansion."
"But this time it may not be so easy to purchase a suitable second-hand production line from Suzuki Motors or a certain automobile company."
Fang Huihui spoke a little worriedly.
The automobile production line involves a lot of equipment. If there is no suitable second-hand production line, the purchase cost will be very high.
Even if BMW relies on BMW Light to increase its sales and the data on the books becomes better, funds must be a bit tight.
"I don't think it is necessary for the second production line to be completely imported from abroad. After this year of debugging and production, our own technicians have a relatively in-depth understanding of the production line."
"The production lines of domestic automobile factories in the past were generally not imported from abroad. Even all equipment can be found in domestic manufacturers, but the technical level is uneven."
"We can consider designing our own production line planning. Some equipment will be purchased from domestic equipment manufacturers, some will be imported from abroad, and some will be designed and assembled through our own equipment center."
“Through this special production line setup, we can achieve production expansion and prepare for a comprehensive mastery of the processes within the automotive production line in the future.”
When investing in an automobile factory, production line equipment is the most important investment.
In the future, the sales of BMW cars are destined to continue to increase, and they will also need to be continuously introduced into production lines.
The overall sales volume of China's automobile industry will definitely continue to increase, and other OEMs also have plans to expand production scale.
Being an automotive equipment supporting manufacturer will be considered a sunrise industry in the next thirty years. It can be done well. There is no need to give all the money to foreign equipment manufacturers to earn.
"Director, I think there is no problem for us to lead the construction of the production line ourselves, but it will take more time. It is estimated that we will have to wait until the first half of next year to complete the establishment of the production line."
As the head of the technology center, Hou Guoming first stood up and expressed his opinions.
BMW will fully enter the field of equipment production, which means that the team of the R&D center will be further expanded, and a department dedicated to the development of production equipment will need to be established.
In a short period of time, it will definitely be beneficial to the R&D center.
As for whether he will go out independently in the future, that is a matter of the future.
"It doesn't matter, everything is difficult at the beginning. It is our first time to design a production line ourselves, so it is normal for it to take a little longer."
"Anyway, our existing production lines should be able to meet the production needs of BMW Light in the next year."
Since Jiang Hui was preparing to enter the equipment field, he naturally expected the difficulty of this field.
He doesn't have that kind of mentality of wanting and wanting at the same time.
Sacrifice a little time now, dominate this industry in the future, and then further expand into equipment manufacturing in other industries, which can lay a solid foundation for the future development and growth of the BMW Group.
Therefore, even if the production line he planned in the early stage is not so ideal, Jiang Hui will still support its continued development.
Even some of the core equipment must be developed by BMW itself.
……
After BMW determined the general direction of expanding its production lines, various departments immediately took action.
As the person in charge of the purchasing department, Wang Feng naturally had to combine the plans of the R&D center and start investigating and selecting some supporting manufacturers.
"Director, the most important thing now is the large stamping machine tool in the stamping workshop. We require that it can stamp 8 times per minute, and the pressure of the first machine must reach 1,600 tons."
"The requirements for this kind of equipment are higher than the stamping machines used in the stamping workshops of FAW and Second Automobile Works. Currently, no machine tool factory in China has ready-made products to provide."
Wang Feng's work efficiency is also very fast.
After deciding to build our own production line, we sorted out the preliminary investigation of equipment manufacturers in less than a week.
Of course, some of the information has been obtained before, and this time I will just summarize it.
Otherwise, in an era when business trips are very inconvenient and information collection is also very inconvenient, he would not be able to collect too much information in a week.
"The production line we want to build has higher requirements than any domestic automobile production line. It is normal for various machine tool manufacturers to not have ready-made equipment."
“However, the technical threshold for things like stamping machines is not necessarily that high.”
"As long as they have the production capacity of similar equipment and they have certain R&D capabilities, it is not impossible for us to work with them to develop qualified stamping equipment."
"After all, as the design of four doors and two covers becomes more complex in the future, the requirements for stamping machines will inevitably become higher."
"If any machine tool manufacturer can develop the kind of stamping equipment we need, they can regard this equipment as their flagship product and promote it to the entire automobile industry."
"It is not impossible to even rely on the export of these equipment to earn foreign exchange in the future."
Jiang Hui was not particularly worried about the situation reported by Wang Feng.
Just because it’s not there now doesn’t mean it won’t be there in the future.
The key is to have someone make a start.
"Then I will contact the major machine tool manufacturers first to see which ones are interested in in-depth cooperation with us, and then invite them to come over for detailed discussions."
Jiang Hui made clear the general direction for future advancement, and Wang Feng was immediately ready to roll up his sleeves and get started.
(End of chapter)