The car giant started by marrying the daughter of the king

Chapter 391 Large-displacement engine developed successfully
China TV News Broadcast and various heavyweight newspapers and magazines reported on it.

The Mercedes-Benz sedan project of the BMW Group has completely formed a public opinion trend in the country this time.

The awarding of the first prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award has let all newspapers and magazines know that they can confidently report news about BMW, a foreign-funded enterprise.

Invisibly, BMW's brand influence has reached a new level.

This makes some people very envious.

"Director, I think the introduction of Volkswagen's Santana sedan to Shanghai is no less significant than the BMW Group's Mercedes-Benz sedan."

"Next year, can we also consider making the Santana sedan localization project a special project and ask the First Machinery Industry Ministry to submit it as an application for the National Science and Technology Progress Award?"

As the deputy director of Volkswagen Shanghai, Wang Huiliang immediately went to Yu Jin to report the situation after seeing that the Mercedes-Benz car project won the award.

Since BMW Group was established, many factories have been incorporated into the group.

The Shanghai Automobile Manufacturing Plant also followed the trend and established the Shanghai Automobile Group.

Both Shanghai Volkswagen Automotive Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Automobile Manufacturing Plant are subsidiaries of Shanghai Automobile Group.

Yu Jin, the director of the Shanghai Automobile Manufacturing Plant, naturally became the general manager of the Shanghai Automobile Group, while Wang Huiliang concurrently served as deputy general manager.

"Santana cars are a little different from Mercedes-Benz cars. We imported them directly from abroad, while Mercedes-Benz cars were developed in China by people from BMW."

Yu Jin still had some dignity left. After thinking about it for a while, he felt that Wang Huiliang's proposal was not so reliable.

"Our Santana is a product of a Sino-foreign joint venture, while Mercedes-Benz is a product of a foreign-invested enterprise."

"If you really want to calculate, Santana's 'Chineseness' is higher, why not?"

Both publicly and privately, Wang Huiliang, deputy general manager of Shanghai Volkswagen, certainly hopes that the Santana project can win some important awards in the country.

In his opinion, the Santana car was directly imported from Germany.

However, they also made great efforts in the process of localization.

Today, the localization rate has greatly increased, and more than 20% of the parts are purchased domestically.

In the next few years, this proportion will further increase to more than half.

This is also of great significance to the development of China's automobile industry.

At least that's what he thinks.

"We can give it a try, but it also depends on what the ministry thinks."

Although Yu Jin felt that the hope of this matter was not very great, what Wang Huiliang said was not completely unreasonable.

You have nothing to lose by giving it a try.

If we really succeed, even if we only get a third prize, it will mean a lot to Shanghai Automobile Group.

……

Just when other car manufacturers were discussing the BMW Group's award, and even many people within the company were still immersed in this joy, new good news came from BMW Engine.

"Director, all the test heads of our 3.5L large-displacement engine have been successfully completed and passed the test."

"Now we have the conditions for large-scale mass production."

Hu Shuiwen came to Jiang Hui's office very excited.

In order to make this engine better, he has almost lived in the company for the past year.

Although it is just a carburetor engine whose technical level is somewhat behind the international mainstream level, it is of extraordinary significance to China's automobile industry.

This is the first 3.5L gasoline engine independently developed by China. Except for the lack of electronic fuel injection technology, its level in other aspects is no worse than that of products of international automobile giants.

This is not easy at all.

"Great! The most important issue for the large-scale production of Land Rover SUVs and Land Rover pickup trucks is the development of the 3.5L engine."

"Now that you have obtained this component, Land Rover can consider launching both 2.5L and 3.5L displacement products for its two models."

“Getting them on the market right away will give them the biggest market impact.”

Land Rover SUV and Land Rover pickup are the two most important new products of BMW Group this year.

Jiang Hui has high hopes for them.

"This is also thanks to the introduction of a batch of new die-casting machines and machine tools last year, which has further improved the processing accuracy of our parts."

"Otherwise, the performance of our 3.5L V6 engine will be quite different from what it was designed to be."

Hu Shuiwen has been working on engines for his entire life and knows very well the impact of parts precision on engine performance.

For example, in the casting and machining of the cylinder block, if the precision of any part does not meet the standard, or even if the tolerance deviates greatly in a certain direction, the performance of the engine will be affected.

Problems with the precision of some parts may also cause abnormal or increased noise in the engine.

In the beginning, various domestic brands generally purchased engines from Mitsubishi, and their own technologies only gradually matured after 2010.

At that time, China's equipment industry had also made great progress, and most of the equipment used in the automotive industry could be purchased domestically.

It is completely different from the current situation.

"Equipment is indeed very critical. Nanshan Equipment will increase its research and development efforts in the future to achieve self-sufficiency in the equipment needs within the group as soon as possible."

“Only equipment that is not too difficult and can be purchased domestically will be purchased from outside.”

The equipment industry is very complicated.

In particular, China is unable to produce its own equipment and needs to purchase it from international sources, so it has basically no bargaining power.

Sometimes, even if you are willing to pay a high price to purchase, people still won’t sell it to you.

This situation will become more obvious after entering the 1990s.

Now that China and the United States are in a honeymoon period, as long as you can afford the price, basically most of the equipment can be purchased internationally.

"Director, our 1.5L engine has already started to be sold to the outside world. Capital Automobile Manufacturing Plant, FAW and Shanghai Automobile Manufacturing Plant are all cooperating with us."

"The other party has also discussed with us about the 2.5L engine. In the future, I estimate that many customers will ask whether the 3.5L engine will be sold."

“Should we determine which products can be sold externally as soon as possible?”

As the general manager of Nanshan Engine, Hu Shuiwen certainly hopes that all products can be sold externally.

However, he also knows that such an approach is likely to affect BMW's own product sales.

Therefore, how to weigh the pros and cons is very important.

“It’s easy to make people unhappy if you selectively sell some products.”

"In the future, we will be able to sell all kinds of auto parts produced by Nanshan Engines, Nanshan Transmissions and Nanshan Technology to domestic and foreign automakers as long as there is demand."

Jiang Hui has also been thinking about the question asked by Hu Shuiwen during this period.

In fact, there could be better ways to deal with this situation, not to mention which products are not selling.

"what?"

Hu Shuiwen was stunned for a moment, "Can the 3.5L engine be sold to the public now?"

Obviously, Jiang Hui's answer was a little beyond his expectations.

"Yes, all products can be sold externally."

"But we can adopt different strategies in pricing."

"For example, if we sell the 1.5L engine at a 20% profit margin, then we will set the price of the 2.5L engine at a 50% or even higher profit margin." "As for the 3.5L engine, which we do not expect to sell in large quantities in the short term, we can set the sales price directly at a 100% or even 200% profit margin."

"Under this circumstance, if domestic automakers are still willing to purchase, then it doesn't matter if we sell more."

"It is difficult for the other party to sell similar products at a lower price than us."

After Jiang Hui said this, Hu Shuiwen immediately understood the strategy.

Although similar topics have been discussed before, the product positioning is not so clear after all.

Now Jiang Hui has set a standard for everyone. Now that we know the direction to go, things will be much easier in the future.

"I understand. From now on, Nanshan Engine will report its pricing strategy for external sales to the group every year."

"The external sales price of the engine will be adjusted according to the group's production capacity needs and vehicle model strategic positioning."

At this moment, Hu Shuiwen felt at ease.

The future work will be easier.

“Although the factory does not plan to hold any large-scale celebrations for the launch of the 3.5L V6 engine, we will still actively promote it.”

“We need to let everyone know that Nanshan Engine is the most technologically advanced engine manufacturer in China.”

“We also need to let higher authorities know about our efforts and achievements.”

This year's promotional resources will revolve around Land Rover SUVs and Land Rover pickup trucks. Jiang Hui plans to put the engine and gearbox issues aside for a while.

Both subsidiaries still have several new products under development, and when the product lines are more abundant in the future, a special exhibition can be held.

However, even so, the launch of Nanshan Engine's 3.5L engine still caused quite a stir in the industry.

First, it won the first prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, and then a large-displacement engine rolled off the production line.

The two events themselves have no direct relationship, but they happened in such a short period of time that the stimulation they brought to people was very great.

……

"Director, Nanshan Engine officially started mass production of 3.5L V6 engines yesterday."

"Today I asked someone to sort out the engine-related personnel who retired or left FAW for various reasons in the past two years."

"Among them, we have one level eight worker, two level seven workers and six level six workers who went to Nanshan Engine."

"For example, the worker who was previously in charge of engine crankshaft machining was an eighth-level worker."

"At the beginning of this year, I stepped down and let my son take over, but his son could only be an apprentice, which caused the yield rate of our own crankshafts to drop significantly."

"Should we consider issuing regulations in the future to prohibit FAW personnel from working at Nanshan Engine and any company under the BMW Group?"

Zhao Guangming came to Geng Weidong's office with a worried look on his face.

The better the BMW Group develops, the greater the pressure FAW will face.

You have spent so many resources and obtained so many support policies, but you are still unable to beat a foreign company that has only been established for a few years.

If this foreign company was previously a world-renowned automobile company, then forget it.

It just so happens that the BMW Group had no reputation in the automotive industry before, and it had never even been engaged in the automotive industry abroad.

With such a comparison, FAW's performance naturally seems to be not very impressive.

“We really need to consider how to restrict BMW Group from poaching people.”

"I think this situation is definitely not unique to FAW. Other automakers must have encountered similar situations."

"Otherwise, it would be impossible for the BMW Group to develop so rapidly in just a few years."

The domestic automobile industry was previously controlled by various state-owned enterprises.

There is no automotive talent out there.

Therefore, Geng Weidong is very sure that BMW Group has poached a lot of people from various automobile manufacturers through various means over the years.

"For those who retire internally, we can directly ask them not to join the BMW Group."

"Otherwise, their successors will be dismissed from the factory."

"With this pressure, I guess many people will have concerns."

"But for those who would rather give up their jobs with us and join the BMW Group, I don't have a good solution for now."

Zhao Guangming reported to Geng Weidong the issues he actually thought of.

Reform has been going on for several years now, although the spring breeze of reform is not blowing so strongly in inland cities yet.

But many things have begun to change.

The era when factories wanted to control everything about their employees is slowly fading away.

“Most of those who leave now have their children take over.”

"As long as we curb these people, the others won't be a problem."

Geng Weidong thought about it and felt that the cases he had encountered in the past year were all caused by solving children’s work problems.

If people have something to ask for, it will naturally be easier to manage them.

"Okay, then I'll communicate with the Personnel Department and ask them to issue relevant regulations as soon as possible."

Zhao Guangming couldn't think of a better solution for the time being, so he could only implement this plan as soon as possible.

He even made a special phone call to people from Second Automobile Works and several other automobile factories to communicate with them and persuade them to consider introducing similar plans.

As a result, BMW Group naturally also got wind of the news.

"Director, FAW took the lead in issuing this regulation, which is obviously targeting us."

"After the Chinese New Year, it's the best time for us to recruit people. Many people have to wait until the Chinese New Year to discuss things with their families before they respond."

"Now that they are doing this, it may have a very bad impact on us."

As the head of the human resources department of BMW, Li Xuewen has been trying various ways to poach people in the past year.

The BMW Group is growing too fast and requires too many different kinds of talents.

The pressure on the HR director is also very great.

"there is always a solution to a problem."

"This disgusting method won't have much effect."

"As long as the other party is talented, we can arrange jobs for their family members as well."

"It's just a matter of arranging a few more apprentices. It just so happens that our factories also need to recruit a large number of workers."

Jiang Hui was not at all anxious about the situation reported by Li Xuewen.

If a general company wants to poach people, it will be in a passive position if it is dealt with like this.

But for the BMW Group, which is in a period of rapid growth, this is not a problem at all.

This may even provide more human resources to the BMW Group.

The talents that are selected by the BMW Group, their children are most likely to have better qualities than ordinary workers recruited from the society.

(End of this chapter)