Chapter 443 The despicable Korean car companies began to reverse plagiarism
The entire 1970s and 1980s was an era when Japanese car companies made rapid progress in the international market.
Whether it is Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Mazda, the performance is very impressive.
The original giants such as General Motors and Ford Motor are under great pressure.
In fact, during this period, the development speed of Goryeo car companies was also particularly fast.
Compared with the development of Japan's automobile companies, Korea's automobile companies have developed much later.
It is like the famous Hyundai Motor, which was officially established in the 1960s.
At the beginning, I just helped Ford do some OEM business, and it was not until the 1970s that it had its first model.
But by the 1980s, Hyundai's global development speed accelerated a lot.
Last year, they sold hundreds of thousands of products in the American market and became a newcomer in the market.
In Goryeo, Hyundai Motor's production capacity construction is even more bold, and she wants to build itself into a world auto giant.
In this case, Hyundai Motor is naturally desperately trying to create something different.
This way we can gain a foothold in the market. "President, I think the recent new Buick Highlander model launched by General Motors is very special."
"Previous SUVs all emphasized off-road performance, but the Highlander emphasized more comfort."
"It even directly abandons the traditional non-load-bearing body structure of off-road vehicles and directly uses the load-bearing body like a sedan."
"This greatly improves the ride comfort of the Highlander, and also gives its chassis and some parts the opportunity to share with cars of the same level."
As the design director of Hyundai Motor, Park Dashan is always paying attention to changes in the global automobile market.
The American automobile market is the world's largest automobile market, and it is the direction of Hyundai's future development.
After all, the internal market of Goryeo alone is not enough to support Hyundai Motor to become a world automobile giant, and it must enter the international market.
But the international market is not that easy to go.
Hyundai Motor has to come up with some competitive products.
"It is rumored that this model of Buick Highlander is produced by China Land Rover, and after it is exported to General Motors, it is sold for private labels."
"Is this news confirmed?"
As the president of Hyundai Motor, the rising star in the automotive industry, Zheng Shiyong is very concerned about the changes in China Land Rover.
Originally, he looked down on China's automobile industry at all and felt that there was nothing worth learning from and learning from.
But Land Rover's emergence in the international automobile market has gradually changed his view.
Especially, last year, all brands of BMW Auto Group combined sales exceeded 810,000 units, no less than Hyundai Motor.
The actual sales volume of Land Rover in the American market is higher than that of Hyundai Motor.
At this time, Zheng Shiyong had to pay attention.
"Yes, Land Rover Highlander has become Buick Highlander after changing its logo, which is the same as Land Rover G-series off-road vehicles."
"Land Rover Automobile is a subsidiary of BMW Automobile Group, and the person in charge Jiang Hui has a very good relationship with General Motors."
"And he is a rare car design master in the world. Every car designed so far is very classic."
"President, I think the formation of Land Rover Highlander will become the darling of the market in the future."
"Can we consider developing similar products to further enrich our product line?"
"
Park Dasan is a design engineer and knows the best how difficult it is to open up a new track in a subdivided field.
Ordinary companies don’t dare to try it easily.
The cost of a new product failure is really a bit too high.
"Since the Highlander has been loved by consumers in the American market, the positioning of this model is very novel."
"Then our company must also keep up with the development path of the market."
"So far, we don't have a SUV model that really belongs to our own."
"Simply use the Highlander as a template to develop our own model of the same level."
"Considering the development schedule, you will directly design the Highlander's chassis and interior and exterior at that time, and only make some fine adjustments to the appearance."
"Then just replace the engine and gearbox with our own."
Time is money.
Now is the fastest development period for Hyundai Motor, so Zheng Shiyong naturally doesn't want to have a model for several years before it can be created.
He is preparing to fully learn the development speed of Land Rover and produce the first SUV of Hyundai within two years.
With Highlander as a reference, with the strength of Hyundai Motor, there is hope to make it at the end of next year or the beginning of the year. "Okay, I'll go and develop a new project development plan right away and report it to you next week."
The boss said that, so Park Dasan naturally had nothing to worry about.
Anyway, the plagiarism of the products of Chinese auto companies, not from the United States, so he feels that the pressure is not that great.
…
"Manager, our BJ212 feels completely unsold."
"Even if the price is much cheaper than the Highlander and Land Rover G series, all institutions are not interested."
"Everyone either buys our Shouqi Light directly, or buys the Land Rover G series or Highlander."
"Especially Highlander, after it was launched during this period, many units were very interested."
"In many places in China, the road conditions are not particularly good, and the SUV has a relatively high chassis, which has advantages."
"But traditional hard-core SUVs have poor comfort and are not very friendly to passengers."
"Highlander has fully integrated these two advantages and is constantly increasing in China's popularity."
In the past few years, although BMW Auto Group has developed very fast, except for BMW's Light, the sales volume of other models in China is not particularly high.
Due to production capacity issues, BMW Light's production has been evacuated to other export-to-export models in the past two years, which further led to a decline in BMW Light's sales.
In addition to the fact that other options such as Shouqi Light appear on the market, everyone does not have to buy BMW Light.
So in fact, although BMW Auto Group's sales have continued to rise globally, there has been no significant change in domestic sales.
But after the Highlander was launched, everyone felt that the situation was different.
This urban SUV seems to be becoming popular both at home and abroad.
"The positioning of BJ212 is quite embarrassing. Its price is not as good as our own Shouqi Light, and its performance is not as good as the Land Rover G-Series and Land Rover Highlander."
"But it has a very special existence significance in the development history of our factory."
"So as long as there are still thousands of sales per year, we cannot stop it."
"Unless one day its sales have been completely reduced to less than 1,000 vehicles per year, we will consider discontinuing the production of BJ212."
As a native employee of the Capital Automobile Manufacturing Plant, Chen Qi has a lot of feelings for BJ212.
So even though Lu Jianqiang told him that BJ212 was not easy to sell and that he wanted to propose cancellation, he had no idea about this.
Of course, the resources invested in BJ212 will definitely be reduced in the future. "That's true. I think the traditional off-road vehicle market will gradually lose the low-end market in the future." "Each agency unit will either purchase urban SUVs or purchase relatively high-end traditional off-road vehicles." "We will focus on economic sedans like Shouqi Light and economic urban SUVs on the same platform in the future."
Developing urban SUVs belonging to the Capital Automobile Manufacturing Plant is the fundamental purpose of Lu Jianqiang coming to find Chen Qi today.
Their factory has now tried the benefits from Shouqi Light, so naturally I hope to keep taking over this benefit.
I have to say that Lu Jianqiang's idea is actually very correct.
"If you develop urban SUVs on Shouqi Light's platform, can your R&D center handle it?"
Chen Qi knew very well how Shouqi Light came about, it was completely a copy of Toyota Corolla.
However, if you develop SUVs based on this platform, there is no direct model to learn from for the time being, and the Capital Automobile Manufacturing Factory needs to do it by itself. "Director, that's how I think about it."
Lu Jianqiang would definitely not answer stupidly, saying that it is OK or not, but introduced his own ideas first.
"We certainly don't need to make any changes in the most critical powertrain."
"Even the increased output, the supporting factories can reduce prices appropriately."
"In terms of car interior, we should also keep the same as Shouqi Light as possible."
"As for the body, we directly refer to the Highlander style and reduce it by a circle so that it can be matched with our chassis."
"In this way, the development difficulty will be greatly reduced. It should not be a big problem when launched next year or the year after."
Although the capital Automobile Manufacturing R&D Center has a very average capability, it has accumulated a certain amount of experience through the development of Shouqi Light.
Now, using the same platform to develop an urban SUV, the difficulty has not increased.
"Your plan sounds good."
"The R&D center will make a project as soon as possible and submit it to the factory committee for discussion."
When BJ212 and BJ310 are no longer competitive, relying solely on the Shouqi Light model, Chen Qi is also worried that there will be any changes in the future.
There are so many domestic automobile factories, and there will definitely be other manufacturers who will follow the example and produce similar products after seeing the success of Shouqi Zhiguang.
The market competition will be more intense at that time.
It is obviously inappropriate to put the eggs in a basket.
…
"Brother, Land Rover has improved Highlander's production plan next month, and the current one-month production arrangement has reached 30,000 vehicles."
"We may have to speed up the introduction of new stamping production lines."
"Otherwise, after the two new products are released, there will be insufficient production capacity."
As the sales director of Yonghua Stamping Parts Factory, Guo Shengbin is now in pain and happiness.
The pain is because you often have to worry about your own production capacity, which will drag down Land Rover's car, and that will be bad.
No need to say happiness, the company's business is so prosperous, how can it not be happy?
He and his elder brother Guo Shengqiang are both major shareholders. With good performance in the company, their income will naturally be higher.
In recent years, Land Rover's attitude towards various supporting factories has been more to support everyone in simultaneous development. All factories have enough funds to recruit professional and technical personnel, purchase new equipment, and improve their own technical and management level.
So the prices of each part are basically not very high, and the profit margin is quite considerable.
Those manufacturers who are comfortable making money but are not enterprising will be gradually eliminated in their subsequent projects. "I didn't expect the production of Highlander to increase so quickly." "I originally thought that at least next year, after the Highlander markets around the world would be developed, the monthly output would only reach 30,000 vehicles."
"I didn't expect that it would be improved quickly in just a few months of mass production."
Guo Shengqiang is in a very good mood now.
Yonghua Stamping Parts Factory has received a lot of orders in the Highlander project.
In addition to the parts made in the Land Rover automobile stamping workshop such as four doors and two covers, as well as several key parts such as hot stamping molded parts and longitudinal beams produced by Nanshan Technology, half of the other stamping parts are produced by Yonghua Stamping Parts Factory.
Every stamping machine seems to have become a money printing machine.
"Highlander has opened up a brand new market. Not only does it eat well overseas, but it is also unexpectedly popular in China."
The latest ⊥Xiao⊥Xiao⊥9⊥Book⊥⊥⊥⊥⊥⊥⊥⊥⊥⊥⊥⊥⊥⊥⊥⊥⊥⊥!
"Last month, more than 5,000 Highlanders were sold across the country, and it is estimated that the sales volume will be further improved later."
"So Land Rover Automobile will increase its production in an instant."
Guo Shengbin has specially visited people from Land Rover Auto to communicate this topic, so he is very clear about the story behind it.
He will also go to the dealer regularly to learn about the sales of Land Rover models and be clear about it.
It can be said that people who run businesses in this era have very high personal relationships.
From morning to night, I am almost always busy.
"Shencheng now has a good support policy for private enterprises, and there are discounts on loans."
"Our new stamping equipment must be urged to urge the equipment manufacturers to deliver it as soon as possible."
"At the same time, we must also have a certain forward-looking attitude, consider the needs of the next two years in advance, and further introduce a batch of equipment."
In recent years, Yonghua stamping parts factory has been almost passively expanding its production capacity.
Every time I am worried about losing my chain.
Although this can improve the efficiency of capital utilization to the greatest extent, it definitely contains considerable risks.
In the future, with the development and growth of BMW Auto Group, Yonghua Stamping Parts Factory is no longer a small workshop, and it must be a more comprehensive layout.
Invisibly, this can also be regarded as promoting the development and growth of China's automobile parts industry.
…
As the second largest automobile market in the world after America, Volkswagen is the leading local market.
Highlander also successfully landed in Europe through marketing of General Motors and Land Rover. "Verdi, do you think urban SUVs will be the future market development trend?"
As CEO of Volkswagen Group, Dr. Hahn is under great pressure.
Many Chinese people in later generations were familiar with Volkswagen, and it once became the highest-selling car company in China for decades.
But many people may not know that Volkswagen would actively enter the Chinese market back then. One of the important reasons is that their global business was not developing smoothly at that time.
So I want to take a different approach to increase my sales from the Chinese market.
Their decision proved to be very correct.
Now, Volkswagen has two joint ventures in China, Volkswagen and FAW-Volkswagen, to produce Santana and Jetta sedans.
Although sales cannot be compared with BMW cars, they are increasing every year.
But I didn't expect that I would expand the market in the Chinese market, and Chinese automakers also came to Europe to expand their living space.
Since G-Series Off-Road Vehicles and Chevrolet X-Series pickups in Europe last year, these models, actually produced by Huaxia Land Rover, have sold more than 10,000 vehicles in the European market every month.
If you add the products that Land Rover sells themselves, Land Rover's actual sales in the European market will already be 20,000 units per month.
Compared with the sales volume of the entire market, this data does not seem to be very large.
But considering that Chinese automakers have no sense of existence in Europe in the past, this data is very remarkable.
"Haan, judging from the sales of Highlander in the United States and Europe, this newly positioned urban SUV has been recognized by many consumers."
"I think in the future, the company can develop several urban SUV models based on the sedan platform."
"Whether it is Volkswagen or Audi brand, there should be a layout in this regard."
Verdi gave his own opinions very directly.
As the sales person in charge, he must have paid attention to the changes in the urban SUV market.
When the Land Rover G Series was selling well in the market, he had already proposed to develop SUVs within the company.
Now Land Rover has innovatively proposed the concept of urban SUV, making this market more special.
But Volkswagen had fewer layouts in this area before, so naturally they had to adjust quickly.
"The structure of the SUV is destined to be inferior to that of a sedan, especially it is impossible to compare with a hatchback." "I didn't expect that there are so many consumers who like it." Dr. Hahn is a technical talent.
In his opinion, consumers in the European automobile market are the most rational and mature consumers.
Why are hatchbacks the most popular in Europe?
Because under similar circumstances, the handling performance of hatchbacks is much better than that of sedans.
While all aspects are the same, cars with short wheelbases have better handling performance than cars with long wheelbases.
After the domestic production of Volkswagen, the various models of later generations, basically chose to extend the wheelbase.
Because when Chinese consumers choose between manipulation performance and spacious space, they generally choose the latter.
Of course, this is also related to the car use environment.
Many people in Europe drive alone, but in China, it is often family cars.
So the importance you attach to car space is different.
In addition, hatchbacks are not normal cars in the eyes of many Chinese people, so they are even rarer in the Chinese market.
But hatchbacks like SUVs break the curse.
"Although the SUV is not as good as a sedan, its vision space is better and it looks more domineering."
"I specifically interviewed several owners who recently bought the Highlander, and basically all mentioned the advantages of this." Dr. Hahn did not refute Verdi's statement.
"Since consumers like it, we will develop models according to the pace of consumers."
"Now our Passat is relatively successful, and the first urban SUV was developed based on Passat."
"The powertrain is completely retained, and the chassis and body interior and exterior trim are also retained as much as possible."
"The main thing is to make some adjustments to the rear of the car body and strive to produce the first urban SUV within two years."
No matter for any automobile company, the cost of developing a new model is very high.
We usually make full use of existing platform models.
The same is true of Hahn's thoughts.
This can not only minimize risks and cost, but also increase speed.
The market is changing so fast, if you don’t increase the speed, it feels a little bit unfollowing the pace. "Okay, I'll arrange for someone to do a market research immediately, and then connect the relevant information with the R&D side."
After hearing Hahn's words, Verdi breathed a sigh of relief.
In the future, at least there is no need to worry that Volkswagen is too far behind in the urban SUV track.
Most of other competitors should have just started developing urban SUVs this year.
By developing new products based on the Passat platform, Verdi feels that Volkswagen still has advantages in terms of schedule.
…
Just when the Highlander, the world's first urban SUV, was stirring up the storm in many markets and attracted the attention of many competitors, Zhang Shaohua reported to Jiang Xiangyang a bad news on Lingnan Semiconductor.
"Mr. Jiang, when we were purchasing lithography machines, we got an informal news from Asmay."
"TaipeiChanges people to communicate with Asmay, hoping that Asmay will set some restrictions on the supply of lithography machines."
"Although ASMA did not agree this time for the purpose of expanding the market."
"But I think it is difficult to say whether there will be any variables in the future."
After comparison, Lingnan Semiconductor's new factory will purchase lithography machines from ASMA, rather than Canon or Nikon.
Under the pressure of the traditional three giants, Asmay is still competitive in terms of cooperation and price.
Asmai in this era is far less powerful than later generations.
However, Zhang Shaohua still felt the crisis from it.
After all, the emergence of Lingnan Semiconductor will definitely seize market share from some other semiconductor companies.
In particular, Lingnan Semiconductor is going to enter the chip foundry market like TSMC, which is the second semiconductor company in the world to do this business.
No wonder TSMC's reaction was so big. "This is also one of the reasons why I asked to order the equipment of the second factory before the first factory was built."
"In the future, in the field of high-end equipment, the international environment will have an increasing impact on us."
"As you said, Asmay is willing to sell lithography machines to us this time, and does not agree with TSMC's proposal."
"But if we buy equipment next time, or if we wait until next year, it may not be the case."
"Now TSMC is coming out, maybe other semiconductor giants such as Samsung Electronics or Texas Instruments will also come out next time."
"Then Asmay's attitude will definitely change."
"Now TSMC is coming out, and other semiconductor giants such as Samsung Electronics or Texas Instruments will also come out."
"Then Asmay's attitude will definitely change."
Jiang Hui was not particularly surprised by Zhang Shaohua's report.
I just didn't expect TSMC to start acting so soon.
(This chapter ends)