The car giant started by marrying the daughter of the king

Chapter 325 Envy, Jealousy, and Hatred

"They must have been drunk, right? They came to us to buy a 1.5L engine at this time, and then copied our BMW Light and launched a similar model to compete with us."

"How can we possibly sell the engine to it in this situation?"

After Chen Chenxing received the contact from Capital Automobile Manufacturing Plant, he did not report to Jiang Hui immediately, but told Fang Huihui the news.

He knew the relationship between Jiang Hui and Capital Automobile Manufacturing Plant, and reporting some things to Jiang Hui would make it difficult for him.

It would be best if we could get it done right now without Jiang Hui knowing about it.

Otherwise, it would be equivalent to handing the difficult problem to Jiang Hui.

In the workplace, many things require similar solutions.

For example, there may be only one solution to a problem, but this solution may not be in line with the process or even illegal.

In this case, if the subordinates report to the boss and ask for instructions, they often do not get good results.

At least the person who reports this will definitely not leave a good impression on the boss.

In other words, the person who reports is most likely not the boss's confidant.

Otherwise, the people below would make the judgment directly and not put the boss in a difficult position.

Or you can tell the boss privately and pretend that he doesn’t know.

No matter what problems arise at that time, it will have nothing to do with the boss.

"I also think that the other party's idea is particularly rude. Our own production capacity is insufficient, and the engine is used to produce competing products of BMW Light. Under such circumstances, how can we sell the engine to it?"

Chen Chenxing immediately expressed his attitude.

He couldn't let Fang Huihui think that there was something wrong with his thinking at this time, otherwise some work might not be so easy to carry out in the future.

Although Chen Chenxing is Jiang Hui's apprentice, Jiang Hui actually respects Fang Huihui as a professional manager.

He listened to Fang Huihui's opinions on many matters related to BMW.

"We definitely won't sell engines at this stage, but in the future, when the engine business is separated from BMW, it is possible that we can start selling it to other companies, so there is no need to say it for sure."

"You just said that the production capacity is insufficient and there is no way to provide engines to other customers in the short term."

"As for when it can be done, that depends on what the factory manager says."

Fang Huihui thought for a moment and provided a way out for everyone.

After all, Capital Automobile Manufacturing Plant was the first place Jiang Hui worked after graduation, so there must be a special feeling there.

Fang Huihui didn't want to offend the other party too much.

……

Compared with the response from Capital Motors, the situation of Suzuki Motor is rather special.

"President, I think China not only has great potential in the motorcycle business, but also in the automobile business."

"In some ways, the automotive business has greater development prospects."

"The motorcycle business now has Chaoyang Motorcycle Manufacturing and Jialing Honda. Our negotiations with Qingqi are basically over, and we will soon officially enter the Chinese market."

"Under this circumstance, I think it is necessary to consider how the automotive business can enter China."

As the sales director of Suzuki Motor, Taro Koike is quite ambitious and hopes to make Suzuki Motor a world-renowned automobile company.

Not to mention catching up with Toyota, the number one in the country, it would just be enough to be on par with Honda, which also produces motorcycles.

In order to achieve this goal, Taro Koike began to shift his focus to the new market of China.

After all, the domestic market has been divided up almost entirely by everyone, and no matter how hard Suzuki tries, it cannot completely change the situation.

But the situation abroad is different.

Whoever enters first is likely to gain a different advantage.

In the past, everyone thought that China was so poor that the average person only earned a few dozen yuan a month, and no one could afford a car that cost tens of thousands of yuan.

So Suzuki is not in a hurry to enter.

But the situation in the past two years has made everyone feel a little different.

Especially after BMW, a nominally foreign-funded enterprise, entered China, it brought great changes to the motorcycle and automobile markets.

The sales volume of BMW Sunshine can reach 5000 units a month, and the momentum is still rising, which is completely beyond Suzuki Motor's expectations.

After all, the production lines used by BMW are all second-hand and obsolete products purchased from Suzuki.

The products produced by this production line actually sell over 5000 units per month.

No wonder Taro Koike was moved.

"Toyota, Honda, and Nissan have not yet officially entered the Chinese market. If we rush to the front, the risks we need to bear are relatively large."

Although Yuichi Iwata also wanted to start a business, he was cautious about doing anything too risky.

Japanese companies, especially those that have been established for a long time, will not easily do anything particularly radical.

Because such a result is not something that an ordinary professional manager can bear.

"Although Toyota, Honda and Nissan have not entered the Chinese market, Volkswagen, Peugeot Citroen and AMC Automobile have already established joint ventures in China."

"GM and Ford are also considering establishing joint ventures with some Chinese companies."

"I think under this background, the risks of entering the Chinese market ahead of schedule are still within a controllable range."

Since Taro Koike raised this topic with Yuichi Iwata, he naturally did some preparatory work.

Otherwise it would seem that he is too unstable in doing things.

"Why are you suddenly so interested in entering the Chinese market now?"

Everything has a reason. Without clarifying the situation, Yuichi Iwata would definitely not make any judgment.

This is also the normal response approach of many company leaders when faced with proposals reported by their subordinates.

"President, do you have any impression of BMW technology?"

Taro Koike did not directly answer Iwata Yuichi's question, but asked it in return.

"Of course I remember. Last time, Austin from General Motors specifically contacted me and wanted to sell one of our obsolete production lines to a designated manufacturer. That was the one BMW Technology eventually purchased."

"Also, the largest motorcycle manufacturer in China now also owns half of BMW Technology's shares, and BMW motorcycles are considered to be developed by BMW Technology." "Am I correct in all this information?"

Yuichi Iwata must have some skills to be able to become the president of a family-owned company like Suzuki Motor.

As long as it is something he has handled, he will have some impression of it to some extent.

"The president has a good memory, that's true."

"After BMW Technology purchased a second-hand automobile production line from us, it established a company called BMW Automobile in China to produce cars."

"Their first model, the BMW Light, has been officially launched on the market, with 1 units sold in January this year."

"This data is beyond the imagination of many people. You should know that a few years ago, Huaxia's annual passenger car sales were only tens of thousands."

"So I think the current market situation has changed significantly, or our previous understanding of the Chinese market was a bit inaccurate."

"According to the current development momentum, the BMW Sunshine model alone may achieve an annual sales volume of 70,000 to 80,000 units in China, or even higher. This is worthy of our attention."

"The BMW Sunshine is particularly similar to some of our Suzuki products. I plan to arrange for someone to import one from China and disassemble and study it to see what kind of cars Chinese consumers really like."

Taro Koike quickly reported the information he had obtained.

For Japanese car companies of this era, it is obviously still difficult to make up their minds to enter the Chinese market.

Even if Yuichi Iwata agrees, the board of directors must agree.

"If the sales volume of a model can reach more than 5,000 units a month, it is indeed worth investing in."

"I want to know how the market performance of car companies such as Volkswagen and Peugeot Citroen has been after entering China?"

Although the sales data of BMW 511 brought great excitement to people, Yuichi Iwata did not make a decision rashly.

The success of one company is not necessarily convincing, especially for BMW, a company that has no influence in the world and has only made a name for itself in the Chinese market.

Therefore, Yuichi Iwata wanted to know the market reaction of other global auto giants after entering China.

"Currently, the Santana produced by Shanghai Volkswagen, which was established by Volkswagen and Shanghai Automobile, is in short supply."

"However, since this model is produced in CKD state, it requires a large amount of foreign exchange."

"And they directly used the production lines of Shanghai Automobile Manufacturing Plant to assemble parts, so the overall output is relatively low, less than 5000 vehicles a year."

"But Santana is now in a state where we can sell every car we produce. If we can achieve localization, it is likely that the monthly sales will reach several thousand cars."

"The situation of FAW Audi and Yangcheng Peugeot is similar. In the early stage, they all assembled the whole vehicle through CKD, and the work of localizing parts has just begun, so the sales data is not very good."

After hearing what Taro Koike said, Yuichi Iwata was confused.

It sounds like after several foreign-funded enterprises entered China, their development momentum is very good and they should be able to make money.

However, judging from the sales data, Suzuki Motor is not able to make up its mind.

It became even more difficult for him to make up his mind, especially when other Japanese automakers such as Toyota Motor did not take any action.

"I'll communicate with the shareholders first and see what the board of directors thinks."

"You should also do some further research to find out what is going on in the Chinese auto market."

The prospect of the Chinese market is very worth looking forward to, but when to enter is a difficult thing to decide.

Although Yuichi Iwata is a little envious of the sales of BMW Light, he dares to wait and see how the situation develops.

The same situation exists at General Motors.

"Smith, are you sure the data you compiled are accurate?"

Every time Austin came to China, he would look for Smith from the American Embassy. After a few visits, they became familiar with each other.

General Motors has always been paying close attention to changes in the Chinese market, so Austin naturally wanted to ask Smith to help him keep an eye out for relevant news about the Chinese automobile market.

Originally, Smith's job responsibility included collecting all kinds of information about China. Now that he could do General Motors a favor and even gain some extra benefits, he naturally actively helped collect relevant news and shared it with Austin in a timely manner.

When the news that BMW's monthly sales exceeded 5000 units spread in the industry, Smith also received it.

Realizing the special nature of the information, Smith called Austin directly.

"I had some doubts at first, and even many car manufacturers in China had doubts about BMW's sales data."

'But after checking, I found that the information about BMW cars was accurate.'

"It's just a plain business car, but they sold so many of them."

"Now some taxis in the Chinese capital are beginning to become BMW lights."

"I went there once to experience it. The interior design was very simple, even shabby."

“But the interior space is quite large and the exterior is quite stylish.”

"The most important thing is that the sales price is much cheaper than other Huaxia models, so it is understandable that it sells well."

Smith responded affirmatively.

After all, he had done some special confirmation for this matter.

As for the news in China, he would actually pay close attention to and confirm any news related to Jiang Hui.

Judging from the situation in the past few years, even if the rumors were not credible at the beginning, they eventually proved to be true.

Smith believes this time will be no different.

"If this is the case, then General Motors needs to reconsider its attitude in the Chinese market."

Although the situation of General Motors has improved a bit in the past two years, the momentum of Japanese automakers to conquer the American market has not stopped.

General Motors is still facing tremendous pressure. Even if the new models perform well after they are launched on the market, there is no way to completely change this situation.

Under such circumstances, GM is naturally seeking some changes internally.

If entering the Chinese market can change the situation for GM, then Austin will have made a great contribution.

"I think you can set up a shareholder office in China, or even an investment company. When and whether to invest can be decided later."

"But I think it is necessary to carry out the preliminary work first."

Smith's suggestion is relatively objective.

He said the same thing if other American companies had similar questions.

(End of this chapter)