Life 1984

Through Li Juan's matchmaking, Li Yunhai got to know many upstarts.

In addition, with Li Juan endorsing the Sihai Group, the powerful people in Xizhou City have become more wary of the Sihai Group.

The expansion project of Sihai Group's Auto City was carried out smoothly.

After three months of intensive construction, the new factory building was completed and put into production.

Before the end of the year, all orders received this year can be delivered one after another.

Sihaixingguang began to be sold through dealers in provinces across the country.

Related advertisements are also overwhelming.

The sales of this car will depend on the feedback from dealers and consumers.

The domestic car market is still dominated by joint venture cars.

In the eyes of many people, driving a joint venture car is more prestigious.

However, the prices of joint venture cars have remained high.

Just think about Santana back then.

A car that was originally priced at tens of thousands of dollars was eventually sold for more than 200,000 yuan.

This shows how high the profits of joint venture cars are.

For the same series of parts, the price difference may be only 20 to 30 percent. When assembled into a joint venture vehicle, the price difference when sold may be 200 to 300 percent!
Therefore, luxury cars are not very cost-effective, but everyone is willing to pay for face.

To give another example, when Nissan Sunny first entered the Chinese market, although its price was as high as 19 yuan, its sales were very strong.

Later, after market terminal discounts, the entry-level version was priced at only 6 yuan, but sales still could not be increased.

The gap of 13 in the middle, you can imagine how much water is involved!

We also need to calculate the per capita income for that year, as well as the purchasing power of the currency.

At that time, a family that could buy a car worth around 20 yuan had to at least be able to buy a villa.

In the mid-to-late 500s, the average monthly income per capita in first-tier cities was more than 6000 yuan, with an annual income of less than 4 yuan. Ordinary workers earned about 10 yuan, with an annual income of yuan. If we calculate based on high income, an Alto is equivalent to years of income, and a Santana is equivalent to years of income.

At the same time, 99.99% of Chinese people had no intention of buying houses. The average house price in first-tier cities was about 2000 yuan per square meter. There were no large apartments at that time, and buying a two-bedroom apartment cost about 10 yuan.

A small car is equivalent to two houses!
By comparing them like this, you can see how expensive cars were at that time.

Twenty years later, the prices of Alto and Santana dropped by half. In first-tier cities, you can't even buy one square meter of Alto or Santana.

In the late 20s, an average person had to save money for a lifetime to be able to afford a car worth around yuan.

It is precisely for this reason that many people are not optimistic about Li Yunhai's car manufacturing plan.

Some people published articles in the media to analyze Sihai Group's car manufacturing, and some people bluntly said that Sihai Group would go bankrupt within two years.

These analysts and commentators speak with confidence and their analysis is well-founded.

Li Yunhai sneered at these comments and ignored them.

Even if he doesn't know what will happen in the future, or how big the domestic auto market will be, he can still infer that the overall market is going up based on current domestic auto sales.

I don't know what arguments those so-called analysts are basing themselves on to come to such a conclusion.
Domestic cars will definitely rise!
This is Li Yunhai's confidence.

It also reflects his confidence in the development of the motherland.

Domestic cars have a long way to go, but someone has to pioneer!
If no one makes cars, then the huge market will have to be handed over to joint venture cars.

This is a battle that must be fought!
Even if he suffers losses now, Li Yunhai will choose to fight to the end.

Autumn passes and winter comes.

Time flies and it’s the end of the year.

The new century has arrived!

The cold winter is coming.

The national sales table of Sihai Group’s automobiles in the fourth quarter was placed on Li Yunhai’s desk.

Li Yunhai looked at the sales volume and fell into deep thought. Of the 15 cars that had been delivered, only 13 had been sold.

This means that there are still a total of 2 vehicles in stock in the hands of dealers across the country.

Twenty thousand cars!
This stock is quite large.

Of course, if it is dispersed across hundreds of cities and in the hands of thousands of dealers, on average, each dealer will not have much inventory.

Especially some big dealers, they already have large orders. They place large orders and may receive a government procurement order, which will allow them to sell dozens or even hundreds of vehicles.

Other people in Sihai Group were very satisfied with the sales volume.

For a newly-established car company to sell 13 units of a new model in the first year is already an amazing achievement.

You have to know that in this year, sales were only carried out for half a year!

Li Yunhai is still not satisfied with the sales volume.

He also wants to win the sales championship!

Because cars at this price range are the most popular in the country.

A Santana, which was originally priced at tens of thousands of yuan, can be sold as the number one car.

Why can’t the Sihai Xingguang, which has better quality, sell better than joint venture cars?
No matter how heavy Li Yunhai's mood was, the millennium arrived as scheduled.

The New Year bell of 2000 rings!

Li Yunhai did not go to Hong Kong to accompany his wife and children, nor did he go on a romantic trip with his lover.

He put all his thoughts on the New Year's journey.

Once a man has a career, women have to stand aside.

After New Year's Day, Sihai Group officially launched a new generation of models.

The Four Seas Stars, priced between 70,000 and 120,000 yuan, were officially launched.

The design and positioning of this car are benchmarked against the Xiali.

If, twenty years later, we suddenly talk about Xiali, many people's minds will go blank for a moment.

The Xiali is so retro that it should have been forgotten long ago.

But don't underestimate it.

The Xiali was considered the earliest national car. In the past, it was everywhere on the streets, many years earlier than the Alto and QQ.

In the impression of many older generations, it is the representative of sedans. In the eyes of old car players, it is a living fossil of JDM.

Xiali is not a brand, but a car called Xiali.

It is produced by the Tianjin Mini Car Manufacturing Plant.

When the reform and opening up began, joint ventures were launched, and automobiles began to be produced. Expensive sedans included Santana, and productivity tools included vans.

The only thing missing was a cost-effective sedan, so the China National Automobile Industry Corporation said it would make a coordinated effort and find a few car manufacturers to produce other cars. One of them was the Tianjin Automobile Industry Corporation.

Peugeot of the same period was one of them.

When the Xiali car was launched on the market, everyone responded very enthusiastically. Although in terms of income, a car selling for 8 to 10 yuan was already a luxury car, and its power was low, with a three-cylinder engine of just over horsepower, not even as fast as a motorcycle, and it could not even run on the highway.

However, when compared with cars like Santana that cost two or three hundred thousand yuan, it suddenly feels very attractive.

In 1997, Xiali officially became an independent brand and changed its name to Xiali Automobile Co., Ltd., which only produced Xiali models. It was also in this year that Xiali launched a modified car.

The biggest feature of the modified Xiali car is the replacement of the larger center grille. The front bumper is finally not made of exposed plastic anymore, and there is also a 1.3 Toyota engine to choose from.

However, after 00, the Xiali car began to go downhill.

Since Xiali has not been innovative and only sells this one model of car, how many consumers can it attract?

This is also Li Yunhai's courage to compete with Xiali.

He believed that the launch of Sihaixingchen would definitely replace Xiali's market share! (End of this chapter)