The car giant started by marrying the daughter of the king

Chapter 327 Different Expansion
"That mini car is the BMW Light produced by BMW Automobile, which is invested by BMW Technology in Shenzhen. It is said that it has been selling very well in the past few months."

Before coming to Shenzhen, Shawn Yue had already had some discussions with local dealers in Hong Kong.

These dealers not only do normal business, but also do some other businesses, and have various connections with some dealers in Shenzhen and other places.

Therefore, as long as they are willing to help inquire, it is relatively easy to obtain some information.

In order to avoid being unable to answer any questions asked by Watanabe Tsuneichi, Shawn Yue made some confirmation in advance.

“BMW technology?”

As the general manager of Toyota Motors Port City Branch, Watanabe Tsunekazu had naturally heard of such a special company as BMW Technology.

To be honest, there are not many industrial enterprises in the port city, and even fewer that can have influence in the international market.

BMW Technology invested in the Chaoyang Motorcycle Manufacturing Plant, which became the largest motorcycle company in China. Its related products are not only sold in the port city, but also exported to the Southeast Asian market.

This news has been reported by many media outlets. If Watanabe Tsunekazu had paid a little attention to this aspect, it would have been impossible for him not to have heard any information about it.

"Yes, it is the product produced by the company invested by BMW Technology!"

Shawn Yue is naturally very sure about this.

"Isn't BMW Technology's main focus on motorcycle production? How come it can make such a big splash in the automotive field?"

Although we had heard before that BMW Technology seemed to be planning to build a car factory in Shenzhen, many people did not take it too seriously.

After all, many people know what the situation of BMW Technology is in Hong Kong.

This is a company that has never been involved in the automobile business. Naturally, few people are optimistic about its rash investment in a car factory in China.

"It's indeed a bit strange. I'll find out the situation carefully when the time comes."

Shawn Yue replied in a somewhat depressed mood.

The situation on the Shenzhen city interface is obviously not very optimistic.

In the next few days, they visited some car dealerships, communicated with Shenzhen's investment promotion department, and even took a few taxis themselves. They fully demonstrated the spirit of "Three Presentism" often emphasized by Japanese companies, and basically figured out the situation.

"Mr. Watanabe, the taxi market in China has undergone a major change. The sales price of the BMW Crown is too low, and the various taxi companies basically do not consider purchasing the Crown anymore."

This conclusion is obviously not what Shawn Yue wants to see, but he still wants to show it.

Otherwise, if sales continue to decline next month, he will have to find a way to explain it.

So after investigating thoroughly over the past few days, Shawn Yue reported the situation honestly.

Now is not the time to rely on luck.

"This kind of business car is obviously not suitable as a taxi. There is no place in the world where taxis are like this, right?"

“Aren’t traditional taxis all sedans?”

Watanabe Tsuneichi knew that what Shawn Yue said was true, but he found it a little hard to accept.

The decline in Crown’s sales in Hong Kong was actually due to BMW’s BMW Light.

If he reported this matter to the headquarters, no one would believe it, right?
"The Chinese market is quite special. I also found it very strange at first, but after talking to several groups of people, I began to understand it a little bit."

"First of all, there are people in China who need taxis. Most of the time, they are carrying a lot of luggage, or even traveling with several people."

"In this case, the BMW Light's loading capacity has a unique advantage."

"Another reason is that the overall income level in China is still too low. A Crown that costs hundreds of thousands of yuan is not very competitive compared to a BMW that costs tens of thousands of yuan."

"Unless our Crown is also produced in China and the price is lowered, it will probably have no chance of entering the taxi market."

Shawn Yue gave a relatively pessimistic analysis result.

This situation made Watanabe Tsuneichi very uncomfortable, but there was nothing he could do.

The idea of ​​producing Crown sedans in China was not something he could even consider.

If he just makes a few more suggestions, the headquarters might think he is overreaching.

Japanese companies are very particular about rules.

If you casually make suggestions about something that is not your responsibility, people will dislike you.

"If there is no hope for the taxi market and public institutions use fewer cars, are we just going to watch the Crown sales continue to decline?"

Facing Watanabe Tsunekazu's question, Shawn Yue could only bite the bullet and give a comforting answer, saying: "In recent years, many self-employed individuals and small business owners have emerged in Lingnan Province."

"These people have earned some money through various means, especially those with more flexible brains, whose net worth is actually not low."

"They definitely won't consider the BMW Sunshine, but will choose our Crown or Nissan Duke and other models."

"So although our Crown sedan sales may continue to decline for a few months, once they drop to a certain level, they may bottom out and eventually rebound, and sales will be higher than they are now."

Although these words were meant to comfort him, Shawn Yue's analysis is not entirely without truth.

In this era, the Crown sedan was synonymous with luxury cars in South China. Until around 2000, bosses in the south still considered the Crown a luxury car.

Therefore, relying on this impression point, Toyota can still have a good time in the South China market for a while.

"I hope so."

"But if BMW also launches a sedan business, won't we have no hope then?"

Watanabe Tsuneichi naturally also found out some news in the past few days.

There have been rumors that BMW might produce sedans.

Although it is not clear what the design of BMW's sedan will look like and what its positioning will be.

But judging from the situation of BMW Sunshine, that car is likely to bring a relatively large impact to the market.

This is actually not the situation that Watanabe Tsunekazu wants to see.

"The first car launched by BMW was the BMW Sunshine, which cost 2.99 yuan. This means that the cars they will launch in the future cannot be sold at very high prices, otherwise consumers will simply not be able to accept them."

"A sedan that costs tens of thousands of yuan cannot become a direct competitor to the Crown sedan."

Shawn Yue used a rather "affirmative" tone to allay Watanabe Tsuneichi's concerns, and in the end the two returned to Hong Kong City somewhat dejectedly. …

"Director, the sales volume of BMW Sunshine in March will definitely exceed 3 units, and it is highly likely that it will exceed 8000 units."

"As a result, our factory's production capacity will soon be insufficient, especially after the sedan is launched. There will definitely be a shortage of production capacity, and even if we work in three shifts, it will not be able to completely alleviate the problem."

"So I think we can start preparing for the construction of the new production line in advance, so that we have enough time to plan the production line and debug the equipment to ensure that the production efficiency of our new production line is higher than the current one."

Hou Guoming is very confident in the sedan he is currently designing, but he is afraid that once it is launched, sales will not be able to explode due to production capacity issues.

Not to mention selling 10 units a year like the BMW X6, he thinks there will be no problem at all selling at least units a year.

Even though the price of this car is more expensive than that of the BMW X5, he is confident.

"It is indeed necessary to start a new production line to expand production, otherwise it will be easy to get into a mess later."

As the person in charge of the sales area, Chen Chenxing naturally does not want to see a situation where there are orders but no way to deliver them.

That would be such a shame.

"Expanding production is a must. Now, whether relying on the company's own funds or taking out a bank loan, we can raise the funds needed for expansion."

"But this time it may not be so easy to purchase a suitable second-hand production line from Suzuki Motor or another car company."

Fang Huihui mentioned this with a bit of worry.

The automobile production line involves a large number of equipment. If there is no suitable second-hand production line, the procurement cost will be very high.

Even if BMW's sales increase thanks to the BMW Light and the figures on the books look good, funds are bound to be a bit tight.

"I don't think it's necessary to import the second production line entirely from abroad. After one year of commissioning and production, our own technicians have a relatively in-depth understanding of the production line."

"Previously, the production lines of various domestic automobile factories were generally not imported from abroad. In fact, all equipment can be found in domestic manufacturers, but the technical levels are uneven."

"We can consider designing our own production line plan, purchasing some equipment from domestic equipment manufacturers, importing some from abroad, and designing and assembling some through our own equipment center."

"This special production line configuration is used to achieve expansion and prepare for the future full control of in-house production of automobile production lines."

When investing in an automobile factory, production line equipment is the most important investment.

In the future, the sales volume of BMW cars is destined to continue to increase, and production lines will need to be continuously introduced.

The overall sales volume of China's automobile industry will certainly continue to increase, and other OEMs also have plans to expand their production scale.

Being an automobile equipment manufacturer will be a sunrise industry in the next 30 years. You can definitely make good use of it. There is no need to give all your money to foreign equipment manufacturers.

"Director, I think there is no problem for us to lead the construction of the production line ourselves, but it will take more time. It is estimated that we will have to wait until the first half of next year to complete the construction of the production line."

As the head of the technical center, Hou Guoming was the first to stand up and express his opinions.

BMW is going to fully enter the field of equipment production, which means that the R&D center team must be further expanded, and a department specifically responsible for developing production equipment will need to be established.

In the short term, it will definitely be beneficial to the R&D center.

As for whether it will become independent in the future, that is a matter for the future.

"It doesn't matter. Everything is difficult at the beginning. It's normal for it to take a little longer for us to design the production line ourselves for the first time."

"Anyway, our existing production line should be able to meet the production needs of the BMW Light within the next year."

Since Jiang Hui was preparing to enter the equipment field, he naturally had some expectations about the difficulty of this field.

He doesn't have the mentality of wanting everything.

Sacrificing a little time now, dominating this industry in the future, and then further expanding into equipment manufacturing in other industries can lay a solid foundation for the future development and growth of the BMW Group.

Therefore, even if the production line he planned in the initial stage was not so ideal, Jiang Hui would still support its continued development.

BMW even has to develop some of its core equipment itself.

……

After BMW determined the general direction of expanding the production line, all departments immediately took action.

As the head of the purchasing department, Wang Feng naturally had to combine the planning of the R&D center and start investigating and selecting some supporting manufacturers.

"Director, the key thing now is the large stamping machine in the stamping workshop. We require it to be able to stamp eight times per minute, and the pressure of the first machine must reach 8 tons."

"The requirements for this type of equipment are higher than those for the stamping machines used in the stamping shops of FAW and Second Automobile Works. Currently, no machine tool manufacturer in China has ready-made products to offer."

Wang Feng’s work efficiency is also very fast.

After deciding to build our own production line, we completed the preliminary research on equipment manufacturers in less than a week.

Of course, some of this information has already been obtained before, and this time we just summarize it.

Otherwise, in an era when business trips and information collection are inconvenient, it would be impossible for him to collect so much information within a week.

"The production line we want to build has higher requirements than any other domestic automobile production line. It is normal for machine tool manufacturers not to have ready-made equipment."

"But the technical threshold for something like a stamping machine isn't necessarily that high."

"As long as they have the production capacity of similar equipment and certain R&D capabilities, it is not impossible for us to work with them to develop stamping equipment that meets the requirements."

"After all, as the design of the four-door, two-lid car becomes more complex in the future, the requirements for stamping machines will inevitably become higher."

"If any machine tool manufacturer can develop the stamping equipment we need, they can use it as their flagship product and promote it to the entire automotive industry."

"It is even possible to earn foreign exchange through exports from these devices in the future."

Jiang Hui was not particularly worried about what Wang Feng reported.

Just because there is none now doesn’t mean there won’t be any in the future.

The key is to have someone take the lead.

"Then I will contact the major machine tool manufacturers first to see which one is interested in in-depth cooperation with us, and then invite them to come over for detailed discussions."

Jiang Hui clarified the general direction for future advancement, and Wang Feng immediately prepared to roll up his sleeves and get to work.

(End of this chapter)