The car giant started by marrying the daughter of the king

Chapter 363 Stirring up the storm
FAW acted quickly. Wang Le, director of the design department, did not wait for the purchasing department to take action. He found a way to get Jiang Hui's contact information and called him directly to ask if the 1.5L engine was for sale.

They have known each other for a long time. Although their relationship is not close, at least they are familiar with each other.

Wang Le knew very well that for such a crucial issue, the easiest thing to do was to ask Jiang Hui directly.

After receiving a positive response, Wang Le went to Nanshan Engine with the purchasing department of FAW to conduct an on-site inspection. He also bought two prototypes to test and prepared to officially start the design work of the new car.

Nanshan Engine also took timely action and proactively released the news, indicating that it was willing to sell the 1.5L engine.

There are hundreds of automobile factories in China at this time.

However, except for FAW, Second FAW, Shouqi, Shanghai Automobile Manufacturing Plant and BMW, the cars of other automobile manufacturers are almost all in the hand-made stage, or they are responsible for modifying some vehicles.

For these manufacturers, it is completely impossible to develop a completely new engine on their own.

There were not many options available on the market before.

Things are different now. Nanshan Engine is willing to sell the 1.5L engine that many people covet, so naturally many manufacturers are interested.

Even the Capital Automobile Manufacturing Plant is planning to develop a low-end commercial vehicle based on the 1.5L engine.

"Director, even if we use Nanshan Engine's 1.5L engine, the final cost cannot be lower than that of BMW."

"But since the powertrain is the same, buyers may not consider us at that time, after all, our price will be higher."

Lu Jianqiang has always supported purchasing engines from outside, but not from Nanshan Engine.

After all, Nanshan Engine is a company that has just become independent from BMW, and Lu Jianqiang is very clear about the relationship between it and Jiang Hui.

"Our car is larger than the BMW X5, so it is normal for it to be more expensive."

"Let alone selling 5000 units a month like the BMW, even if we can sell units, that would be a very good result."

Chen Qi felt the crisis that Capital Automobile Manufacturing was facing now. If there were no special circumstances, BMW's sales would surpass theirs this year.

This must be something that is difficult for him to accept.

When facing questions from higher authorities, he will have to come up with some reasons and solutions.

"That's true, but I don't know if Nanshan Engine will honestly supply us with engines. If they find that our commercial vehicles have posed a threat to the sales of BMW Sunshine after supplying us for a while, and then they deliberately reduce or stop supplying engines, wouldn't that put us in a very passive position?"

It has to be said that what Lu Jianqiang said is not impossible to happen.

When GAC Trumpchi's GS8 was first launched, it sold very well and became a rare large seven-seater SUV among domestic car companies. The price was not cheap at all.

However, the sales of GS8 threatened the sales performance of Toyota Highlander, and the gearbox of GS8 is 8AT provided by Aisin.

In this case, Toyota directly used Aisin to take advantage of the insufficient production capacity and supply a limited number of 8AT gearboxes to GS8 every month.

In this way, even if GS8 is very popular in the market, it will not bring much impact to Highlander.

After all, no matter who goes to buy a car, no one wants to wait for several months to pick it up.

This situation lasted for a year or so, and the popularity of GS8 suddenly dropped, and consumers' sense of novelty also wore off.

It can be said that Toyota has dealt a heavy blow to the development of GS8 through this move.

If something similar happened to Nanshan Engine, it would actually be very likely.

Of course, this is just Lu Jianqiang's opinion.

In fact, Jiang Hui would not be so short-sighted as to affect the development of Nanshan Engine for a little benefit.

The products of Capital Automobile Manufacturing Plant could not possibly pose such a big threat to BMW Light.

"From what I know about Jiang Hui, he is not such a narrow-minded person."

"The 1.5L engine is either not for sale or they will definitely deliver it in guaranteed quality and quantity if they are willing to sell it."

Chen Qi knew Jiang Hui quite well. Whether based on his trust in Jiang Hui or other considerations, he was not worried that Nanshan Engine would set up barriers for Capital Automobile Manufacturing Plant in the future.

"Then I'll contact Jiang Hui later and see what he thinks?"

In fact, Lu Jianqiang is quite familiar with Jiang Hui, but their personal relationship is just average.

He knew that Chen Qi had a good relationship with Jiang Hui, but it was not a good idea to let the factory director handle everything.

"Okay, communicate as soon as possible and let me know if you have any difficulties."

The BMW Light has played a very good leading role. Chen Qi now hopes that his own factory can also have similar models to drive further sales growth.

At that time, Capital Automobile Manufacturing Plant will be able to firmly establish itself as the number one in the industry.

……

Compared with the actions of manufacturers such as FAW and Capital Automobile Manufacturing Plant, the situation at Capital Internal Combustion Engine Factory is quite different.

"Old Xu, have you found out? Is Nanshan Engine really planning to sell its 1.5L engine to the outside world?"

Cheng Tao looked at Xu Rongbiao, the head of the sales department, anxiously.

In the past few years, the Capital Internal Combustion Engine Factory has been living a comfortable life by selling products such as 2.5L engines.

Even though the sales situation of Capital Automobile Manufacturing Plant this year is not so ideal, the total sales volume is still increasing, which means that the turnover of Capital Internal Combustion Engine Plant is also increasing.

In addition, some other customers are also purchasing engines from their factory, so the Capital Internal Combustion Engine Factory can be said to be thriving.

Under such circumstances, Cheng Tao naturally had a headache when he heard that Nanshan Engine had started to compete with him.

"I specifically asked people from Capital Automobile Manufacturing and FAW and several other automobile factories, and also asked someone to call Nanshan Engine directly. They really started selling 1.5L engines to the public."

With a bitter face, Xu Rongbiao gave an answer that Cheng Tao really didn't want to hear.

As the first technician to come into contact with Jiang Hui, Cheng Tao was very clear about how strong Jiang Hui was.

The 1.5L engine designed by Jiang Hui was previously purchased by their factory and disassembled for research. They found that this engine was more ingeniously designed than the 2.5L engine they produced in many aspects.

Although its displacement is smaller, its output power and torque are not much less than the 2.5L gasoline engine of the Capital Internal Combustion Engine Factory.

This would be terrible.

Their engines are smaller than yours, have simpler structures, and lower costs, but the performance is not much different.

"Is Capital Automobile Manufacturing also considering purchasing products from Nanshan Engine?"

As a major customer, Cheng Tao was very concerned about whether Capital Automobile Manufacturing would abandon him. "They wanted to launch a commercial vehicle similar to the BMW Sunbeam, but the mass production was delayed several times due to various problems."

"Originally, their commercial vehicles would have been put on the market this year, but I don't think they will be particularly competitive."

"Now that the engine used in the BMW Sunshine will be sold to the public, Director Chen Qi will most likely be interested."

Xu Rongbiao has not yet found out such crucial information.

However, after analyzing some information, he felt that the situation was not very good.

"If the Capital Automobile Manufacturing Plant feels the benefits of Nanshan engines, we will be in trouble in the future."

"I used to think that I didn't want to break up with them, but now it seems that nothing is more important than keeping our factory alive."

"Starting tomorrow, our factory will also officially research and produce 1.5L engines, and the relevant structure will be based on the same product used in the BMW Sunshine."

"The design department needs to finalize the plan as soon as possible, and you also need to communicate well with the client to make them have confidence in us."

Cheng Tao gritted his teeth and prepared to let the Capital Internal Combustion Engine Factory enter a new stage of development.

That is to learn from (copy) Nanshan Engine's 1.5L engine and enrich its own product line.

Relying on previous production experience, he felt that his own products should not be much worse than Nanshan engines.

As for whether your blatant borrowing would infringe on patents or something, he didn't even consider it.

He is gambling too!
It is unlikely that the higher authorities will stop the mass production of the 1.5L engines just because they infringed on the patent of Nanshan Engine.

By then, even if it is a punishment, it will probably just be a formality.

Cheng Tao still has some confidence in this.

Anyway, there are many manufacturers in other industries in China doing similar things.

Even though a patent office has been established, people's awareness of patents is still very weak.

"Okay, that's not a big problem."

"When the BMW Sunshine started to sell well, we had already disassembled the 1.5L engine and compared the various parts with those used in our 2.5L."

"Now we just need to draw the drawings of these parts and give them to the various supporting factories to start production."

"As a relatively mature product, I think we can produce a prototype by the end of this year, and then we can better promote it to customers."

Although Xu Rongbiao is in sales, he is also very clear about the R&D situation within the factory.

After all, good salespeople all have some technical knowledge, otherwise how can they trick customers into buying?
……

"Old Wang, what is Jiang Hui up to this time?"

"Nanshan Technology actually took the initiative to express its willingness to provide some key parts for Santana and contribute to the localization of Santana?"

Yu Jin is very clear about the shareholder background of Nanshan Technology. This is an affiliated company of BMW and also a company controlled by Jiang Hui.

Under such circumstances, it is indeed strange that Nanshan Technology took the initiative to contact Shanghai Volkswagen and wanted to enter its supply system.

At least he himself didn't quite understand it.

"From what I understand, Nanshan Technology intends to operate as an independent supporting factory in the future."

"This is just like Toyota's Aisin Transmission and Denso, which have separated from Toyota and are looking for OEMs to compete for orders."

"Nanshan Technology is now communicating with automakers including Shanghai Volkswagen, hoping to obtain relevant parts."

"From what we have learned so far, Nanshan Technology is quite capable. Most of the parts on the BMW Light are supplied by Nanshan Technology."

"For our Santana localization project, there are many parts that we have not found suitable supporting factories. If Nanshan Technology can match them, it should be no problem to let them produce them."

For Wang Huiliang, it is imperative to increase the localization rate of Santana as soon as possible. Otherwise, it will be difficult to increase their production if they continue to consume a large amount of foreign exchange.

If almost 100% of the parts can be produced domestically like the BMW Sunbeam, then Shanghai Volkswagen can completely produce vehicles according to market demand.

By then, Santana's sales will be able to quickly increase from a few thousand units per year to tens of thousands, and they will be able to live a very comfortable life.

"Will Nanshan Technology make things difficult for us? I heard that BMW will soon launch a sedan that will definitely compete with our Santana."

Yu Jin expressed his concerns.

He absolutely does not want to see this kind of situation.

"Although we cannot 100% say that there is no such risk, I think as long as Nanshan Technology still wants to expand its market, it will not do something that will only lead to its own downfall."

"I also heard a piece of news these days that FAW and Capital Automobile Manufacturing are both in contact with Nanshan Engine, trying to purchase 1.5L engines from each other."

“This background is actually similar to Nanshan Technology’s external customer expansion.”

"Combined with the situation of several BMW-related supporting manufacturers, I think Jiang Hui has made major adjustments to the future development direction."

"Letting Nanshan Technology supply parts to Santana has controllable risks, and it should be a matter of more benefits than disadvantages."

Wang Huiliang was also worried that Yu Jin would oppose the cooperation between Shanghai Volkswagen and Nanshan Technology, which was a situation he did not want to see.

"Since you think the risks are controllable, arrange for someone to have a thorough discussion with Nanshan Technology."

"Even our Shanghai-branded cars can consider purchasing parts from Nanshan engines and gearboxes to improve their competitiveness."

As the flagship product of Shanghai Automobile Manufacturing Plant, the sales of Shanghai-brand cars have been in a state of decline and are no longer as prosperous as they were in their heyday.

This is what Yu Jin doesn't want to see.

Since FAW and Capital Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd. do not mind purchasing engines from others, there is no need for Shanghai Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd. to be so entangled.

"This is indeed a good plan. Our Shanghai-branded cars are already quite well-known. As long as the level of the engine and gearbox is improved, sales will likely return to their original state."

"When the time comes, Shanghai Volkswagen and Shanghai Automobile Manufacturing will work together to make Shanghai the largest automobile industrial base in the country. This is definitely a situation that the leaders would like to see."

Wang Huiliang felt relieved when he saw that Yu Jin had no objection.

Because of Jiang Hui's series of layouts, the development of China's automobile industry has undergone significant changes.

(End of this chapter)