The Red Era: Living in Seclusion in a Siheyuan as a Boss

Chapter 649 “The New Automotive Industry Giant”!!!
March 1997, 3, Cyang District, Yanjing.

The spring rain was dripping on the glass exhibition hall of "Integrity Auto Trade". Sales manager Zhang Jianjun was tying a red ribbon on a shiny and elegant black car.

This is the latest "Beijing Chi-200C" sedan launched by "Beijing Auto Group". It is equipped with a self-developed 1.8T engine and 4AT gearbox, and is priced at only 12.8 yuan.

"Mr. Zhang, is this car really good?" Wang Defa, the owner of the automobile trade, touched his chin, "Hey, a domestic car is still sold at this price, I'm not sure..."

Before he finished speaking, the door of the exhibition hall was pushed open and a middle-aged man in a leather jacket strode in. After a round of looking around, he finally set his eyes on the "Jingchi-C200".

The man's name is Li Guoqiang, and he is the workshop director of an electronics factory in Hdian District.

He circled the car three times, then suddenly squatted down and touched the exhaust pipe: "The welding points are neater than Santana's." He opened the hood again, "Wow, hydraulic struts! A German car with this configuration would cost more than 200,000 yuan!"

Zhang Jianjun raised his thumb and smiled, complimenting, "Wow! You really know your stuff, sir.

Putting aside other things, the chassis of our car was tuned by Czech experts, and the thermal efficiency of the engine is 8% higher than that of Volkswagen with the same displacement..."

"Well, that's it! I want the full payment, please give me a discount!"

Three days later, Li Guoqiang drove his new car back to the factory and immediately became the focus of attention.

The workers gathered around the car and exclaimed in amazement: "Wow, Director Li, this is really a domestic car? How come it looks more impressive than Director Sun's Santana!"

"That's right. Do you think there are no good products made in China? I'm not bragging to you, but based on the configuration of my car, believe it or not, the starting price of an imported car is more than 200,000..." Li Guoqiang said proudly.

"Oh, that's really nice. How much did you pay for it? I want to buy one too!" Someone was tempted at that time.

In early April, Li Guoqiang decided to drive his newly bought car back to his hometown in Dongshan to worship his ancestors.

As the saying goes, wealth and honor that do not return home is like traveling at night in fine clothes.

Li Guoqiang is the first person in the village to buy a car. How could he not go home and show off?

"It's more than 800 kilometers!" The wife was worried, "The old Xiali car in your company is out of breath after a long distance..."

Li Guoqiang held a cigarette in his mouth and patted the steering wheel and said, "Wife, don't worry. Our car consumes less fuel than Xiali! It has more power and is more comfortable..."

On the Beijing-Shanghai Expressway, a black sedan was cruising at 120 kilometers per hour.

When passing the Beihe section, we encountered a sudden rainstorm and the road was instantly flooded.

An imported car in front suddenly skidded, and the ESP system of "Jingchi-200C" immediately intervened and kept the route steady.

"Amazing!" Li Guoqiang looked at the spinning imported car through the rearview mirror, his palms sweating, "The electronic system of this car really works!"

What surprised him even more was the fuel consumption.

When the air-conditioning is in full operation, the fuel consumption per 7.2 kilometers is only liters, which is lower than the manufacturer's nominal value.

When I was refueling at the D State service area, several drivers passing by were attracted by the shape of the car and came up to ask, "Brother, what brand is your car? It looks like an imported luxury car?"

Li Guoqiang proudly wiped the eye-catching "Beijing Auto Group" logo on the rear of the car and answered loudly: "This is purely domestically made! Made in Liujiazhuang!"

"Wow! Domestic cars are so high-end and classy now?" Everyone's faces were filled with disbelief.

"How much does it cost to get your car?" one of the drivers couldn't help but ask.

"The landing price is less than 14!" Li Guoqiang answered readily.

"Oh, it's more affordable than my old Santana!" the other person exclaimed, patting the steering wheel.

At this time, another driver suddenly remembered something and turned to his companion and said, "Boss, isn't our company going to buy a new official car this year? I think the 'Jingchi' series is worth considering."

"Well, I see. Brother, could you please take a look at the interior of this car?" The boss' eyes lit up and he became interested.

"What's so special about this?" Li Guoqiang opened the car door and showed the interior. "Look at the leather seats, the panoramic sunroof, and the in-car playback system... The configuration is more complete than that of joint venture cars."

There was an exclamation from the crowd watching.

A middle-aged man wearing glasses leaned over to check the dashboard: "The workmanship is really fine, the seams are even, and the button damping feels very high-end."

Then, he took out the camera he carried with him and took a few photos of the car. "I'm a car enthusiast, and I want my friends in that circle to see the glory of our domestic products."

……

In early May, Automobile Friends magazine received a thick letter from a reader.

Editor-in-chief Lin Zhijun opened it and saw that it was a 200-word car experience report on the "Beijing Chi-C", which came with a full fuel consumption record, a mountain road climbing video, and even photos of the mud and water corrosion on the chassis.

The most shocking thing is the last picture - the odometer shows "15000 kilometers", but the car is still in good condition.

"Old Chen!" Lin Zhijun called the test drive editor, "Contact Beijing Auto Group immediately and arrange for an in-depth test of the Jingchi-200C model!"

Three days later, the magazine's testing team drove the car to the Huairou mountain area.

In the continuous hairpin turns, the chassis tuned by Czech experts showed amazing stability; during the emergency braking test, the ABS system allowed the vehicle to draw a perfect braking trajectory on the asphalt road after rain.

"Unbelievable!" Test driver Ma Xiaowei took off his helmet, "The handling feels almost as good as a BMW 3 Series!"

The June issue of "Automobile Friend" used a full eight pages to report the test results, with a shocking title - "The counterattack of domestic sedans: Jingchi-200C comprehensively surpasses a certain joint venture brand in the same class?"

After this issue of the magazine was released, FAW-Volkswagen's German technical director Schmidt threw the publication on the conference table: "This is an insult! How can Xiaguo's cars be better than ours?"

But the market reaction was more immediate.

Orders for the "Beijing Chi-4C" model from "Beijing Auto 200S Store" and major automobile sales companies surged 300% within a week, with scalpers even offering a surcharge of yuan to pick up the car.

In mid-June, Y TV's "Economic Half Hour" did a special report.

In front of the camera, a professor from the Department of Automotive Engineering at Huaqing University pointed at the chassis structure and praised it highly: "Look at this subframe design, it takes both handling and comfort into consideration, it is completely the idea of ​​European luxury cars!"

The most exciting scene appeared at the end - the crew secretly filmed the employees of Volkswagen Xiaguo District coming to buy Jingchi-200C.

The salesman smiled and said, "This is the third Volkswagen employee who has come to buy a car this week."

……

Beijing Auto Customer Service Center.

Operator Xiao Zhang was wearing headphones and quickly recording: "Hello, Mr. Wang, you reported the problem of odor in the air conditioner. What? Are you saying that it disappeared after one month of use? Now you feel that the cooling is faster than the Accord?"

We receive hundreds of calls like this every day.

The customer service supervisor compiled the "Jingchi-200C User Satisfaction Report", and several data were particularly eye-catching:
-
Failure rate 0.8% (industry average 3.2%)
-
Overall satisfaction: 78.7%-
Recommended purchase rate: 81.4%
There are also some special messages in the report.

Ma Jinbao, the owner of a small coal mine in Xishan Province, called and said, "I used to think it was embarrassing to drive a domestic car, but now my Accord is just sitting in the garage gathering dust!"

Even more interesting is the feedback from a driving school instructor: "This car has a light clutch and is very comfortable to drive. The pass rate of students has increased by 20%!"

July, Tokyo International Motor Show.

When the English slogan "Best Chinese Car" was displayed at the Beijing Auto booth, European and American reporters were still in a mood to laugh at the joke.

It was not until the Japan Automobile Research Institute released the test data that the NVH quietness performance of "Jingchi-200C" was 2 decibels higher than that of Honda Accord of the same period!

The Wall Street Journal's headline was full of sourness: "How can socialist township enterprises produce cars of comparable American quality?"

German "Industrial Weekly" was more direct, putting a photo of Joseph and Liu Jianguo on the cover with the title "Teacher and Student: The World Automotive Landscape is Changing."

A week later, "Auto World" magazine suddenly published an explosive report - "Actual test data is questionable: Investigation into the real performance of Jingchi-200C".

The author of the article, Koji Tanaka, claimed that in the comparative test they conducted at the Hokkaido test site, the acceleration of the Jingchi-200C from 1.2 to 15 km/h was seconds slower than the manufacturer's data, and the fuel consumption was % higher.

Liu Zhiyuan read the report during breakfast and slammed his milk cup on the table: "The Japanese can't afford to lose!"

Liu Jianguo peeled the eggs slowly and said, "Go and call Engineer Wang from the testing department."

Three days later, Beijing Auto held a press conference.

Technical Director Zhou Ming played a video in public: with the same test vehicle and the same Hokkaido test site, under the supervision of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, the Jingchi-200C achieved better results than what the manufacturer marked.

"We welcome supervision from any organization in the world." Zhou Ming pushed up his glasses, "but please use the same yardstick to measure others and yourself."

That night after the Beijing Automotive Group press conference, the Beijing Automotive Marketing Department was brightly lit. Marketing Director Yang Lixin stared at the real-time public opinion monitoring system, and the red curve was rising steeply.

"...Jing Chi's slap in the face of the Japanese media...has become the hottest news right now." Young intern Xiao Zhou excitedly reported, "...our response video on Yahoo has been played over a million times!"

Liu Zhiyuan frowned and said, "The popularity of public opinion is only temporary. The key is how to convert the attention into sales." He turned to the new media operation team and said, "Immediately launch the 'Real Car Owner Testimony' plan."

The next morning, a long article titled "My Jingchi 200C: A True Record of Kilometers" went viral on Tianya Forum.

The author is Lao Zhao, a taxi driver from Guangdong Province. He used detailed refueling records, maintenance lists and dozens of photos to prove that the actual fuel consumption of his Jingchi 200C is 0.3L/100km lower than the data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

"The most brutal part is this one." Yang Lixin pointed to the video at the end of the article - the acceleration test shot by Lao Zhao with a camera, 0-100km/h was 0.5 seconds faster than the official data.

The uproar caused by the report unexpectedly gave birth to the first domestic car fan group.

Chen Ming, a car owner from Shanghai, established the "Beijing Chi Car Club" on the Tianya Forum. He also uploaded a photo taken on National Highway 318 on the forum - a Beijing Chi-200E off-road vehicle and a Toyota Land Cruiser driving side by side across the bends of the Nujiang River.

The title of the post is: "No problems for 50,000 kilometers, domestic cars can still go off-road!"

Even more shocking is the short video uploaded by Lin Xiaodong, a car owner from Bao County: after his Jingchi-200C was hit from the side by an out-of-control container truck, the B-pillar was only slightly deformed, and his whole family was safe and sound.

The video ends with a close-up shot - the car door can still open and close normally.

"I used to think safety depended on the thickness of the metal sheet," Lin Xiaodong said in the forum. "Now I know what structural mechanics is. This car is amazing!"

……

In the third week of July, the order systems of "Beijing Auto" 4S stores across the country were collectively overwhelmed with orders.

"We received 87 orders yesterday!" Li Na, sales director of the Yanjing Wangfujing flagship store, said hoarsely, "Now we have to wait until March next year to order a car."

The most exaggerated case was that a high-tech company in Baoxian Special Zone placed a group purchase order for 100 "Beijing Chi-200C" vehicles at one time as a year-end bonus for its employees.

The boss Ma Minghui said at the signing ceremony: "We must support Xiaguo Intelligent Manufacturing!" After this sentence was quoted by Y TV's "News Everyday", it triggered a new round of ordering boom.

Finance director Lao Ma led his team to work overtime overnight to calculate: sales in July alone reached 1.2 units, setting a single-month sales record for domestic mid-to-high-end sedans.

What is even more surprising is the order structure - top-end models account for as much as 65%, completely overturning the industry perception that "domestic cars can only be sold in low configurations."

Faced with orders pouring in, Vice President of Production Zhao Tiezhu slammed the table at the morning meeting and said, "Even if we have to work in three shifts, we must ensure that all customers are delivered before the end of the year!"

The final assembly workshop of "Beijing Automobile Group" has entered "wartime status".

Veteran technician Sun Daniu and his apprentices transformed the production line, reducing the cycle time from 3 minutes to 2 minutes and 45 seconds;
The logistics department moved the canteen to the entrance of the workshop, and hot buns were delivered directly to the workstations;
Even the engineers from the R&D department went to the production line to provide support, and "Young Master" Liu Benzhi personally worked overtime to lead people to debug the electronic control system.

"This is not a car factory, it's a wartime arsenal." Looking at the bustling workshop, Lao Ma suddenly remembered the scene when the first "CC50" was produced years ago - at that time, all the people in the factory were busy around that assembled car.

In early August, a fax from the Middle East shocked the management of Beijing Automotive Group and everyone in China.
The Foreign Trade Department of "Beijing Automobile Group" launched a big satellite and successfully opened up the overseas market.

The Royal Automobile Company of the United Arab Emirates has requested to import 5000 "Beijing Chi 200C" vehicles, and the first batch of 1000 vehicles must be delivered within one month.

"They value high temperature adaptability," explained Lin Tao, manager of the foreign trade department. "Dubai customers found that our engines can still work stably in an environment of 50 degrees Celsius."

Liu Jianguo stared at the numbers on the contract - the export price was 30% higher than the domestic price. He turned to Zhou Ming and asked, "Can you guarantee the quality?"

"We have already done a dust test." Zhou Ming showed the latest report, "The air filter system can last 2000 kilometers longer than the German car series of the same level."

On the day when the first batch of export vehicles was shipped, Tianjin Port was filled with containers printed with Arabic.

When the crane lifted the first "Beijing Chi", the workers watching spontaneously sang "We Workers Have Power".

"We workers have power, hey, we workers have power
Busy at work every day

Hey, I’m busy at work every day
Built into high-rise buildings

Railway and coal mines were built

The world has changed a lot due to the transformation...”

The surge in sales brought about a chain reaction.

Liu Qingshan, the new director of the Liujiazhuang High-tech Development Zone Management Committee, held up the latest statistics and said to Liu Jianguo, chairman of Beijing Automotive Group: "Sixth Brother, you guys have brought the entire development zone to life!"

The report shows:-
In recent years, 23 new auto parts companies have been established in Liujiazhuang
-
The throughput of the logistics park increased by 300% year-on-year.
The development zone’s tax revenue exceeded 300 billion yuan for the first time.

The most surprising thing is the flow of talent.

Zhang Yi, a former technical expert of Shanghai Volkswagen, joined Beijing Auto with his team. He said at the welcome party: "Here, we can see the future of Xiaguo's automobile industry."

During the cold snap in December, a special test was conducted in Heihe, Heilongjiang Province.

Ten "Beijing Chi 200C" vehicles were subjected to the "freezing" test in an extremely cold environment of -30℃.

Japanese reporter Koji Tanaka also quietly arrived at the scene.

When he saw the test car draw a perfect ESP track on the ice, he couldn't help but ask: "How do you solve the low-temperature starting problem?"

The engineer from Beijing Capital Auto Group opened the hood and smiled: "The independently developed battery management system has a 20% higher cold resistance index than your Aisin products." Tanaka noticed that the "Beijing Electric" logo was clearly printed on the battery.

That night, Tanaka wrote furiously in the hotel.

A week later, Auto World published his new article, "Apology and Tribute: The Progress of Japanese Automobiles in the Eyes of a Japanese Journalist."

In January 1998, Beijing Auto appeared on the cover of Fortune magazine's Asian edition, with the title "From a Grassroots Enterprise to a New Industry Giant: The Miracle of a Chinese Auto Brand".

The editorial department specially arranged a comparison photo: on the left is the picture of Liu Jianguo standing in front of the first prototype car in 1994, and on the right is a modern automated production line.

In the middle of the two photos, there is a striking red lettering: "In four years, sales volume increased from 0 to 70 vehicles."

At the end of the year, at the celebration banquet, Chairman Liu Jianguo left early.

Someone saw him coming to the old factory alone and standing in front of the rusty "CC50" motorcycle for a long time.

Under the moonlight, his shadow was stretched very long, extending all the way to the brightly lit new factory area in the distance.

At the last board meeting before the Spring Festival, the marketing department reported an interesting phenomenon: the second-hand car value retention rate of "Beijing Chi 200C" is 5 percentage points higher than that of Accord in the same period.

"What does this mean?" Liu Zhiyuan slammed the table excitedly, "Consumers' recognition of our quality has been converted into brand premium!"

Warm applause broke out in the conference room, but Liu Jianguo quietly opened his notebook and wrote four words on it: "Electric Future".

He knew that the storm caused by the sales miracle was just a prelude to greater changes.

It was March 1998, and the spring was still chilly.

A black Mercedes-Benz S600 slowly stopped in front of the headquarters building of "Beijing Automobile Group".

The car door opened, and Mueller, chairman of the German Association of the Automotive Industry, got out with three technical experts. Their expressions were serious and solemn.

"Mr. Liu, I've heard a lot about you." Mueller's Chinese was accented with a strong German accent. "We came here this time to see your factory with our own eyes."

Liu Jianguo smiled slightly and gestured: "Welcome to visit."

In the final assembly workshop, the automated production line operates in an orderly manner.

The robotic arms weld the car bodies precisely, the AGV carts transport parts along the magnetic tracks, and the workers concentrate on their operations at their respective posts.

"Your level of automation is higher than we expected." Mueller stared at the spraying robot and frowned slightly. "These devices are..."

"80% localization." Technical Director Zhou Ming took over the conversation, "The control system was jointly developed by us and Huaqing University."

The German experts exchanged surprised looks.

One of them squatted down, carefully examined the anti-corrosion coating on the car's chassis, and then said something quickly in German.

Mueller turned to look at Liu Jianguo: "Dr. Schmidt said that your electrophoresis process is more sophisticated than that of Volkswagen Changchun Factory."

Liu Jianguo smiled but said nothing.

He had already received intelligence that the real purpose of the Germans' visit was to assess whether "Beijing Auto" posed a threat to German car companies.

(End of this chapter)