The car giant started by marrying the daughter of the king

Chapter 381 No need to pay respects?

The reason why this auto parts exhibition in Las Vegas can become the most famous auto parts exhibition in the world is not only closely related to the fact that America is the world's largest auto market, but also closely related to America's unique after-sales market.

On the one hand, due to the high labor costs, many car owners choose to repair their cars themselves when there are some problems with their cars, so they need to go to the store separately to buy parts.

On the other hand, there are a large number of auto repair shops in America that have no direct relationship with the OEMs and form their own system. Therefore, when it comes to the source of repair parts, they do not necessarily use so-called original parts.

As a result, there is a huge demand for aftermarket parts in the market.

Auto parts companies around the world are targeting this market.

If done well, this business can be much bigger than the mass production supporting business.

As important participants in the American after-sales market, the CEOs of chain stores and heads of purchasing and other departments will naturally participate in this event.

For Nanshan Technology, Pep Boys' President Roberts and Purchasing Director Brick were the main guests of reception today.

"Jiang, it's nice to see you again. The bellows designed by Nanshan Technology is very successful and has now become a part that must be used in the modification and maintenance of our exhaust system."

Pep Boys has had many more customers come to modify their exhaust systems recently, which is closely related to the bellows provided by Nanshan Technology.

The price of the bellows is not very high, but it has a significant impact on the performance of the exhaust system.

So as the Party A, Roberts was very enthusiastic when he saw Jiang Hui, the Party B.

"We are very glad that our bellows can become the choice of American modified car owners. In fact, in addition to bellows, we have many other products that are very suitable for the modified car market."

"For example, for this fixed caliper, we designed it with very bright red, purple and yellow paint to fully meet the needs of different consumers."

“Compared to ordinary calipers, fixed calipers can allow onlookers to feel the charm of modified cars more clearly and fully meet the emotional needs of car owners.”

Jiang Hui would definitely not miss such a good promotion opportunity.

The price of fixed calipers is much higher than that of bellows.

A car has four wheels and needs four fixed calipers.

The price of a set is at least twenty or thirty times that of a corrugated pipe, or even higher. This is definitely a large order.

"The caliper is a very important safety component on the car. It is not possible to gain recognition just by relying on a beautiful appearance."

"The performance of the caliper is directly related to the braking distance and the life safety of consumers."

"The quality of the friction pad inside is related to the service life of the caliper."

Roberts was able to become the head of one of the most numerous after-sales chain stores in the United States, so he naturally knows a lot about cars.

In various modification markets, calipers are also considered to be a relatively important modification project.

Fixed calipers are also a type that many people like, but the price has always been relatively expensive in the past. Ordinary vehicles will not easily consider replacing fixed calipers when modifying them, and only luxury cars will consider it.

Now Nanshan Technology seems to offer a cheaper version of the fixed caliper solution, and the appearance design looks very beautiful.

If the performance can meet the requirements, Roberts is still very interested.

"We have already conducted various real-car tests on the fixed caliper samples provided by Nanshan Technology in the joint technical department, and the test results will be available soon."

Purchasing Director Brick interjected.

Although Roberts just reminded Jiang Hui that the requirements for fixed calipers are relatively high, it also shows that he is still very interested in Nanshan Technology's fixed calipers.

At this time, Brick needs to show his efforts.

"The importance of calipers is unquestionable. The fixed caliper designed by our Nanshan Technology takes full account of various working conditions and meets the needs of use in extreme driving environments."

"We have even been in contact with a customer who produces sports cars, and are working on the design of fixed calipers to meet the performance of sports cars."

“For general modified vehicles, the performance of our fixed calipers is definitely better than the original calipers.”

After Jiang Hui said this, Chen Chenxing and others were stunned. When did Nanshan Technology have a customer who produces sports cars?
Of course, everyone is a master of expression management and will not easily reveal clues.

In fact, Jiang Hui is not afraid of being questioned at all. If asked, he will just say that customer information is confidential and he cannot disclose it.

In the future, the Chitu brand under the BMW Group will launch its own sports car, which naturally coincides with what we said today.

As for when the Chitu brand sports car will be launched, it will depend on the overall development of the BMW Group.

"If the final test results meet our requirements, the company will also import a batch of fixed calipers from you and sell them in our store."

"In addition to the fixed calipers and bellows, I see you have quite a lot of parts on display. It seems that you can produce quite a lot of parts for cars?"

Through the bellows cooperation, Roberts has felt the cost competitiveness of auto parts produced by Huaxia.

Therefore, he is quite interested in increasing the scale of cooperation with Nanshan Technology.

After all, if costs are reduced, their company's profits will improve.

No one can resist money.

"Yes, Nanshan Technology is the largest auto parts company in China. The types of parts it produces include..."

Jiang Hui personally took the stage and gave a detailed introduction to the many parts that Nanshan Technology is currently producing and will produce in the future.

During the introduction, Jiang Hui did not just talk, but combined some specific data to make people feel very convincing.

Roberts was also very considerate and asked Brick to arrange on the spot to order a batch of other parts to be taken back for testing or trial sales.

For example, Roberts felt that there was a lot of room for cooperation with the batteries of the Peking Battery Factory.

There will be some pollution in the production process of lead-acid batteries. For the sake of so-called environmental protection, the cost of lead-acid batteries in the United States has been rising in recent years.

But consumers won’t care so much about you, they will just think you are raising prices.

If they use batteries from the Peking Battery Factory, not only will there be no need to raise prices, but prices can be reduced, and it will not affect the interests of their sales stores.

This is definitely a good thing.

"Peterson, that should be Jiang Hui from BMW Huaxia. I have seen his photo."

Just as Jiang Hui saw Roberts and his group off, a group of people from Ford Motors also slowly walked over to their booth. Sales Director Bill had been worried recently because the sales of the Taurus sedan were affected by the rise of the GM Forester. After internal discussions at Ford, they felt it was necessary to contact BMW as well.

Of course, they were definitely not trying to import Mercedes-Benz cars, but were thinking about whether it would be possible to cooperate with Jiang Hui in the future.

After all, General Motors' current Cadillac flagship sedan and Buick Forester sedan are both designed by Jiang Hui.

The Hummer military vehicles introduced by the United States last year are said to be closely related to Jiang Hui.

In this situation, Peterson felt that if he could ask Jiang Hui to help him design one or two car models, it would be very helpful in reversing Ford's unfavorable situation.

"Nanshan Technology, a subsidiary of the BMW Group, has come to communicate with us many times recently, hoping to enter our supply chain for supporting services."

"The other party has been communicating with our person in charge these days and wants to arrange a time for me to come and visit."

“Should we just wait until the other party comes to visit before communicating with them?”

Purchasing Director Grant also has some impressions of Nanshan Technology from China.

There is not a single Chinese company in Ford Motor’s supply chain.

Recently, a Chinese supplier visited the purchasing department, and Grant, the purchasing director, was naturally also informed.

"If the quality of their parts can meet our requirements and the cost advantage is obvious, it is not impossible to import them."

"This is a win-win situation. We can show a more positive attitude towards cooperation."

As an old American company, Ford Motor Company has a relatively clear understanding of some of the top management's ideas.

The relationship between America and China is very good now. Even advanced fighter jets are tradable items, not to mention cooperation on auto parts.

Speaking of which, Ford Motor Company has some connections with China.

In 1913, Ford Motor Company's first batch of Model T cars were sold to China, and this was also the time when Ford's journey to China began.

In 1924, Mr. Sun wrote to Henry Ford, hoping to ask him to help build China's automobile industry.

In 1978, the chief designer also expressed to Henry Ford II, then chairman of Ford Motor Company, his desire for Ford to cooperate with China's automobile industry.

Later, Ford Motor Company also arranged an inspection team to visit China, which was the "Three Automobiles" plan led by the First Ministry of Machine Building.

Although the cooperation was not successful in the end, it did deepen the understanding of each other.

Seeing that companies such as Volkswagen, Toyota and Peugeot have begun to enter the Chinese market, Ford naturally has some ideas.

"As for the quality of parts, the parts produced by the other party can be used in General Forest, so they are probably not particularly bad."

"Our company's R&D department has also confirmed the performance of the Universal Forester and has not found any obvious quality problems or design defects in the parts."

Since the boss wanted to cooperate with Chinese enterprises, Grant's tone quickly changed.

Don't think that all foreigners are really stubborn and inflexible.

If people really didn't know how to adapt, then various letters of recommendation wouldn't be so popular for university admissions.

To some extent, America is more of a relationship-based society than China.

From various communications with his subordinates, Peterson gained a deeper understanding of Nanshan Technology and even BMW, and his desire to cooperate with them became stronger.

He even thought that if Ford Motor Company wanted to set up a joint venture in China in the future, BMW could be considered as a partner.

"Director Jiang, this is Mr. Peterson, the CEO of Ford Motor Company. He is very interested in our participation in the auto parts exhibition this time."

When Grant brought Peterson and others over, Chen Chenxing immediately recognized them.

As the sales manager of BMW and even Nanshan Technology, Chen Chenxing has put in a lot of effort.

He specifically sought out information about executives from both General Motors and Ford.

For example, he even did special research on the story of the other party's CEO.

All these efforts finally came in handy today.

"Mr. Peterson, congratulations on launching an outstanding car for consumers. I heard that the Taurus sedan was rated as the dark horse of the car market this year by the media. It has brought a huge impact to everyone as soon as it was launched."

The sedan chair was carried by everyone. It was the first time that Jiang Hui and Peterson met, so naturally he had to find some topics that the other party was willing to discuss.

Jiang Hui originally planned to visit General Motors and Ford Motor Company in a few days, but he did not expect to meet the CEO of Ford Motor Company first at the exhibition.

However, this does not affect Jiang Hui's ability to find time to visit Ford Motor Company's purchasing center for further communication.

"The Taurus sedan is the result of the hard work of many Ford engineers, allowing consumers to rediscover Ford's automotive heritage."

"But the Buick Forester you developed in cooperation with General Motors is also very good, especially in terms of exterior design. There are few cars that can compare to it."

Peterson is also very satisfied with his Taurus sedan.

Selling more than 10,000 units a month, such a product is already very successful.

His next step is to promote the Taurus sedan in Europe and make it a sales pillar product for Ford Motor Company.

After all, this car cost Ford more than $3 million and took five years to develop.

Ford Motor Company must find ways to maximize its sales and help share the various development costs.

"We still have too few products to be compared with Ford."

"I have come across several Ford Broncos on the road these days, and its appearance left a deep impression on me."

“In the long history of automobiles, some models are like shining stars. Even after the passage of time, they still exude unique charm. I think this Ford Bronco will be one of the best.”

"The classic body shape and tough lines outline its unruly soul. The front face design is ingenious, and the wide air intake grille and round headlights complement each other, as if telling the story of past glory and adventure."

“It is not just a car, but a symbol of freedom and exploration. Whether it is galloping in the vast desert or shuttling through the rugged and winding mountain roads, it can walk on flat ground and demonstrates powerful off-road performance.”

The other party mentioned Buick Forester, a car that affected the sales of Taurus. Jiang Hui naturally knew that it was not suitable for in-depth communication and quickly changed the subject.

(End of this chapter)