The car giant started by marrying the daughter of the king

Chapter 303 The Impact of the Sky-High Price Wrench

The launch and sales of the domestically produced Santana had a much greater impact than Jiang Hui imagined.

After going to Shanghai to personally experience Santana, Zheng Haiming directly called Jiang Hui to his office.

"I heard that you are going to Shencheng in a few days?"

Zheng Haiming did not ask his secretary to serve tea in the office. Instead, he poured two cups of tea himself and sat down on the sofa in the office to chat with Jiang Hui.

"Yes, the BMW production line has been almost completed, and the BMW Light samples are also being prepared. We will be able to start assembling the first prototype soon."

"At the same time, we have also officially started the design work of the sedan project, and strive to complete the design as soon as possible so that it can meet Chinese consumers."

Naturally, there is nothing to hide in front of Zheng Haiming.

Besides, before each model of BMW is put on the market for sale, it has to report to the relevant departments. Even if Jiang Hui doesn't say it now, Zheng Haiming will know it soon.

"Although the BMW Sunshine has a promising future, what all units need most now is an economical and easy-to-use sedan. In this regard, the Santana developed by Shanghai Volkswagen has captured the demand very well."

"It is estimated that in the future, all units will actively replace their vehicles with Santana."

"If BMW can produce a purely domestically made model comparable to Santana, it will definitely be very promising."

"Otherwise, relying solely on the BJ310 and Shanghai-branded cars produced by the Capital Automobile Factory, it is estimated that they will not be able to withstand the attack of Santana."

Although from the perspective of later generations, the current Santana design is very old-fashioned and has nothing new.

But in terms of durability, they really do a good job.

In terms of comfort, it also crushes other domestic models.

Zheng Haiming has personally ridden in a Santana and has a deep understanding of this.

He has completely lost confidence in several domestic automobile manufacturers.

Now we can only hope that BMW can perform better.

Although BMW is nominally a foreign-funded enterprise, Zheng Haiming is still very clear about what is actually going on.

"I heard that it costs about 20 yuan to buy a Santana now, which is simply a sky-high price."

"Whether it's a Shanghai sedan or a BJ310, they're much cheaper than a Santana."

"The country really needs a car that can outshine the Santana, so that each unit can buy it at a suitable price."

"The sedan we are designing now at BMW is targeted to be priced lower than Santana, but it will be larger in size and will have more configurations in all aspects, not less."

"I will definitely be able to bring surprises to everyone then."

The money in 1983 is really worthless compared to its value in later generations.

Even a car that costs 10 yuan is actually more expensive than a car that costs 100 million yuan in later generations.

Such an exaggerated price as Santana is obviously abnormal.

Jiang Hui wants to make a lot of money, but he doesn't want to make money that is too shady.

The reason why Santana is priced so high now, besides the confidence in its own products, is that it is difficult to increase production.

The operating conditions of the two shareholders, Volkswagen and Shanghai Automobile, are not very good, so they naturally hope to make more money with a limited number of units.

The situation with BMW is obviously different.

As a domestically developed and produced model, as long as there is demand in the market, the production volume will definitely be much higher than that of Santana.

Not to mention two or three thousand vehicles a year, the number is even more than that in a month.

If the price is set too high, there will be no way to sell that many.

The automobile industry is very particular about the joint development of the industrial chain. Without sufficient production support, it is difficult for the industrial chain to develop rapidly and synchronously.

This is a situation that Jiang Hui does not want to see.

"Okay, I feel relieved if you have this confidence."

"When the clay model of this car is made, I will definitely go and see it."

"Remember to notify me when the Shenzhen factory starts mass production."

Jiang Hui naturally had no objection to Zheng Haiming's request.

Having the support of leaders in the ministry will definitely be beneficial to the development of BMW.

……

After meeting Zheng Haiming, Jiang Hui quickly flew to Shenzhen.

However, on the second day after arriving in Shenzhen, Fang Huihui reported bad news to Jiang Hui.

"Director, Suzuki's engineers have asked us to import the pneumatic wrenches used to install bolts in the final assembly workshop from them."

"The price of a wrench is more than three hundred dollars, which is simply outrageous."

“I feel like they are deliberately trying to discredit us.”

Fang Huihui came to Jiang Hui angrily.

The funds for purchasing the second-hand production line from Suzuki Motor have already been paid, and now Suzuki Motor's engineers have made such unreasonable demands. She feels that BMW has been cheated.

This kind of thing must be made known to Jiang Hui.

"Aren't these pneumatic wrenches disassembled and assembled along with the equipment?"

Jiang Hui is naturally familiar with the various wrenches used in the final assembly workshop.

Pneumatic wrenches, electric wrenches, and various auxiliary tools are all indispensable in the installation process.

Although wrenches seem to be very common items, basically every truck driver in the country is equipped with a set of related car repair tools as standard.

However, the difference between one wrench and another is sometimes even greater than the difference between a person and a dog, so the prices are naturally also very different.

"It was disassembled and assembled along with the production line, but one of the pneumatic wrenches broke down recently and cannot be used."

"Originally our technicians were thinking about purchasing from domestic manufacturers, but the model was quite special and we didn't know which factory to find to produce it."

"In order not to affect the commissioning of the production line, our people consulted Suzuki Motor's engineers to see what suggestions they had."

"In the end, the other party directly said that they needed to purchase from Suzuki Motor and quoted us a sky-high price."

"I am worried that if there are problems with some equipment in the future and we need to invite engineers from Suzuki to come and repair it, they will ask for a lot of money."

Fang Huihui's worries are obviously not unreasonable.

Now an air wrench costs more than 300 US dollars, and you can buy it if you grit your teeth. But after this precedent, if Suzuki Motor treats BMW as a fat sheep in the future, it will be unacceptable.

"I don't think there is a qualified manufacturer in China to produce this pneumatic wrench yet. Even if I buy it, I don't think it will be that useful."

"But there is the pneumatic wrench manufacturer's logo on it. I should be able to buy it when I contact their agent in Hong Kong."

"But even so, the price probably won't be cheap, which is a problem."

Jiang Hui will definitely not indulge Suzuki Motor.

Suzuki also purchases this kind of product from suppliers, and wants to sell it to BMW at a higher price, but that is not going to be a good thing.

Anyway, Jiang Hui is not afraid that if there is a problem with the equipment in the future, he will have to ask the other party to come and repair it.

As for Suzuki's production line, the technology is not that advanced and if there are any equipment problems, most BMW technicians can fix them.

The prerequisite is to let everyone boldly study and repair. Otherwise, if they are afraid of taking responsibility, they can only hire the original factory engineers.

If that doesn't work, Jiang Hui will prepare to give guidance himself.

Anyway, I can't be hacked.

"The Chaoyang Motorcycle Factory has already established a special equipment development team, and BMW will certainly face the problem of purchasing equipment for expanding its production lines in the future."

"Why not build a BMW motor factory next to BMW cars, and let them develop not only various motors, but also related auxiliary products such as electric wrenches and pneumatic wrenches?"

Based on Jiang Hui's working style, Fang Huihui boldly put forward a suggestion.

Some time ago, Jiang Hui asked Fang Huihui to register and establish a new company, BMW Motor, in Gangcheng, and then negotiate the acquisition with domestic motor manufacturers.

In the future, we will definitely need to consider recruiting professional technicians to develop motor technology and build new factories.

For the sake of better management, it is a safer option to place everything in Shenzhen.

Otherwise, as there are more companies in the future, it will be difficult to manage them.

"This is really feasible. The application scenarios of electric motors are very broad."

"Electric motors are widely used in various equipment, not to mention our cars and motorcycles."

"If it works well, BMW Motors can become a world-renowned company in the future."

For many years, China's motor industry has been big but not strong, especially in some micro motors, which are still far behind the world's advanced level.

If there was no butterfly like Jiang Hui, the situation would not have changed completely even after another thirty years.

Many products are very large and difficult to make, such as stamping equipment over 3000 tons and die-casting equipment over 10000 tons, which are both very difficult to make.

However, making the product very small is actually equally difficult, or even more difficult.

For example, micro motors are high-tech industries that integrate multiple disciplines such as motors, microelectronics, power electronics, computers, automatic control, precision machinery, and new materials.

This type of product has many manufacturing processes, involving precision machinery, fine chemicals, micro-machining, magnetic material processing, winding manufacturing, insulation processing and other process technologies, and requires a large number of high-precision process equipment.

It is not a little difficult to do it well.

For example, in a VCR, the micromotor is not only a key component of the magnetic drum assembly, but also an important component for its main shaft drive, automatic loading of supply and receiving tapes and cassettes, and tape tension control. In later generations, the domestic production of VCRs was very high, but all micromotors were imported from abroad.

If BMW Motor can achieve a breakthrough in this area, its future achievements will be limitless, and it may even be able to train a few academicians.

"The various factories in Shenzhen are generally toy and clothing factories with relatively low technical content, and they utilize China's cheap labor resources."

"The products produced by our BMW Motor are obviously high-tech products. The relevant departments will definitely provide strong support, and it should be much smoother to obtain land at that time."

"In order to solve the problem once and for all, the BMW Motor plant plans to consider all aspects of the building, including R&D, production and employee residences, and strive to acquire enough land to meet the needs of the next ten years."

Fang Huihui felt Jiang Hui's emphasis on BMW Motors, so she naturally prepared to do a great job.

Since the negotiations between China and England regarding the port city began last year, some people have become more enthusiastic about investing in Shenzhen.

It is naturally not difficult to obtain land now.

However, it is not so easy to acquire a large area of ​​land at one time.

A high-tech enterprise like BMW Motor, even if it is still just a shell company now, is much easier to run than those garment factories.

"We can get as much land as possible, so that we can plan the factory to be larger and longer-term."

Jiang Hui knew very well the value of land in Shenzhen.

Although I have no plans to get involved in real estate in the future, I don’t want to be ripped off by the land prices.

If you hoard more land now, it will become an important asset in the future.

With Jiang Hui's instructions, Fang Huihui became much more forceful in the following period of time.

The acquisition of the motor factory also soon came to fruition.

A school-run factory of Huazhong University of Science and Technology has long been on the verge of bankruptcy due to poor management.

Now BMW Motor was willing to invest $100 million to acquire them, and they quickly agreed.

During the acquisition process, Fang Huihui also communicated with some professors from Huazhong University of Science and Technology. After reading the relevant reporting materials, she found that one of the professors had a very high technical level in motors.

"Mr. Fang, find a way to recruit Professor Wu Wei to serve as the chief engineer of BMW Motor."

"I think many of his ideas are quite advanced, but he just lacks some equipment and funds to implement the technology."

"Even the motor manufacturer on the verge of bankruptcy was not because of backward motor technology, but because of management problems."

"If he is given a platform, maybe he can bring us a huge surprise."

Jiang Hui specifically called Zhu Jiansheng to learn about the research and development level of Huazhong University of Science and Technology in the field of electric motors, which is basically considered one of the top universities in the country.

Although a lot of the research and development content in the school is out of touch with actual production, their technical background and routes are still worth learning from.

That's why Jiang Hui directly gave instructions to Fang Huihui and asked her to poach people.

"It is extremely difficult to recruit a professor from a university to a foreign-funded enterprise."

Fang Huihui now has a better understanding of the situation in China.

Not to mention professors in universities, even technicians in ordinary factories would not easily leave Qingcheng and go to work in foreign-funded factories in Shenzhen.

This practice is incompatible with the current social atmosphere, and the corresponding personnel will bear enormous pressure.

Moreover, they have families to support, and one person's resignation affects the entire family.

(End of this chapter)