The car giant started by marrying the daughter of the king

Chapter 401: The dispute over parts development routes, different choices made by Japanese manufacturers
"Lingling, ask BMW Group to prepare. I think some senior leaders will come to inspect it soon."

"Xiao Jiang's business trip to America made the Land Rover G series famous in America."

"Now your production plan has directly increased the Land Rover G series to more than 10,000 vehicles."

"Many people cannot even imagine this speed of development."

Jiang Hui has caused so much trouble in America, so it is impossible that there will be no movement in China.

Not to mention that Jiang Hui himself would call Zhu Ling and Zhu Jiansheng every now and then, and would report some progress in America to other executives of the BMW Group.

The staff of China's embassy and consulate in the United States alone will collect the main hot news and select the necessary content to report to the country.

Buick's G-series off-road vehicles have been the darling of the American media recently. Buick's G-series off-road vehicles are products that were imported from China-BMW Automobile Group and then re-badged. This news was also reported and publicized on a large scale.

As a result, the relevant personnel immediately reported the matter to the country.

The previous Buick Forester has already brought a lot of shock to everyone, and now there is a Buick G series model that is even more powerful.

This completely overturns many people's perception of China's automobile industry.

"It will probably take a few days for Jiang Hui to come back. Did the leaders say when they will come to inspect?"

Zhu Ling was not surprised at all about what her father said.

Given the development speed of the BMW Group in recent years, it is bound to attract high attention from all parties.

Especially the leapfrog development in export and foreign exchange earnings has become a model for all walks of life in China.

So every now and then, or even every day, there are some places or companies that want to come here to inspect, visit, and communicate.

BMW Group even has a special team to deal with such matters.

At the beginning, Jiang Hui would often attend some important reception events.

But there were so many reception activities later that Jiang Hui rarely participated except for particularly important occasions.

On the contrary, the general manager Fang Huihui or Zhu Ling appear more often.

But this time, Zhu Jiansheng's meaning was obviously that the leader who came was of a higher level, and he hoped that Jiang Hui would attend the reception.

"The leader's schedule is confidential, and I don't know the specific itinerary."

"Just make preparations in advance. Jiang Hui is not in the country right now, and the relevant personnel are aware of this information."

Although Zhu Jiansheng is well-informed, it is impossible for him to know everything.

The call today was more of a reminder.

"Okay, then I'll hold an internal meeting and ask each factory to pay attention to this."

Speaking of preparation, there isn't a lot that needs to be prepared.

And some information is not easy to tell you directly.

The only thing we can do is to ask each factory to pay a little attention from the perspective of on-site management and other aspects.

……

Jiang Hui, who was far away in America, gradually stopped participating in the communication between General Motors and Toyota.

The news about the collision test between Buick G series models and Toyota LC70 has unknowingly cooled down.

Of course, Jiang Hui guessed that Toyota might have done something.

But he no longer cared.

Because this coming week, Nanshan Technology will sign a formal cooperation agreement with General Motors, Ford and Chrysler on hot stamping technology.

General Motors, which has already experienced the benefits of hot stamping parts, is adjusting the body parts process for two new models that will be launched next year and the year after.

Among them, the Cadillac sedans and Chevrolet pickups, which have the highest sales, are preparing to change the parts processing technology during mass production.

The appearance size and thickness of the parts remain unchanged. If you simply change the material, it only takes a few days to complete the design.

Then we can notify Nanshan Technology to start making the mold and prepare for delivery as quickly as possible.

As long as the sample is confirmed to be without problems and the actual vehicle is confirmed to be without problems, large-scale production can be carried out immediately.

Calculating the time, Nanshan Technology will be able to start exporting hot stamping parts to General Motors in the second half of the year.

This speed is definitely unprecedentedly fast.

Normal OEMs would not make such a big decision.

Ford's actions will not be much smaller than General Motors'.

A team of experts from procurement, R&D, technology, and production flew to China last week to inspect Nanshan Technology's production line.

Even though the results of this investigation have not yet been finalized, some interim information is enough for Ford Motor Company personnel to make a decision.

"Jiang, have you ever considered setting up the production line directly in Detroit?"

"This way we can respond to market demand as quickly as possible."

Grant, purchasing director of Ford Motor Company, had the final round of communication with Jiang Hui on the implementation of the agreement on hot stamping technology.

The exchanges were completed this morning and the cooperation agreement will be signed in the afternoon.

Ford Motor Company will officially assign the hot stamping parts orders for the two models to Nanshan Technology.

"Grant, your suggestion is very good."

"Nanshan Technology will definitely set up a factory in Detroit in the future, and even set up a transit warehouse here this year."

"But it will take some time to build the factory."

"At present, we do not have enough technical personnel and can only meet the needs of the Shenzhen factory."

"If we rebuild the factory in Detroit, all the technical, quality and other related personnel will need to be re-equipped."

“It takes time to develop talent.”

Jiang Hui will definitely not dwell directly on the customer's requirements.

However, he certainly has no intention of setting up a hot stamping production line in Detroit in the short term.

As for what will happen in a few years, that depends on the situation at that time.

If there are other hot stamping manufacturers that are rapidly emerging in the market, it is not impossible to set up a factory in Detroit.

If Nanshan Technology still had the best hot stamping technology and a monopoly position at that time, there would be no need to bother.

China's production cost advantage is unmatched anywhere else.

Of course, from a long-term perspective, if Nanshan Technology wants to supply more parts to the world's auto giants, it is necessary to set up some factories around the world. "I hope you can speed up this aspect. Otherwise, when our parts demand is huge in the future, if all products need to be exported from China, it will take too long."

“Hot stamping parts are not like some electronic components that can be shipped by air to meet sudden increases in orders.”

Grant's statement makes sense, and he has no intention of deliberately making things difficult for Nanshan Technology.

Jiang Hui's attitude was positive and the other party couldn't find any fault with him.

Finally, Nanshan Technology and Ford Motor Company successfully signed a cooperation order for hot stamping parts.

Following closely, Chrysler, the third largest automaker in the United States, also used Nanshan Technology's hot stamping technology on a new off-road vehicle.

……

"President, General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler have all signed cooperation agreements with China's Nanshan Technology for hot stamping parts."

“They will soon be using hot stamped parts on some of their next models.”

"From our analysis, the use of hot stamping parts has an absolute advantage in terms of vehicle body strength."

After finishing his exhausting business trip to America, Shoei Saito quickly made an appointment with the R&D and Purchasing Departments to report to Toyota Motor Corporation's senior management on the application of hot stamping parts technology.

From a marketing perspective, if you don’t have the good things that others are promoting, you will be very passive.

Consumers won’t care so much about you, they will just think that your skills are not good enough.

Therefore, Shoei Saito hopes that Toyota's products can also be equipped with hot stamping technology.

However, many people within Toyota would not be able to accept the import of such critical parts from China.

In the automotive industry, the parts supply system of Japanese automakers is quite different from that of European and American automakers.

For example, Toyota's core suppliers are basically its affiliated manufacturers, which are controlled by Toyota or simply produced by its subordinate factories.

The auto parts companies that are familiar to everyone in later generations, such as Denso, Aisin, Toyota Boshoku, Toyotetsu, and Sakuratai, are all of this nature.

The situation is similar at Honda.

Honda is a major shareholder in core body parts manufacturers.

Honda is also a major shareholder in other major suppliers in the chassis and electronic and electrical fields.

But for companies such as General Motors, Ford, and Volkswagen, they are gradually moving towards a completely market-oriented supply system.

Most of the suppliers below have no shareholding relationship with the OEMs. The cooperation among them is relatively simple and relies on market competition.

When you are competitive, I will give you the order.

If other manufacturers have QCD competitiveness in the next project, the order will be given to other manufacturers.

This competitive consciousness and pattern has been growing and developing in the systems of European and American OEMs.

"President, Director Saito, our R&D center has arranged for someone to conduct a special investigation."

“The final parts of hot stamping may be simple, but it is not simple to use this technology, otherwise it would not have been used on a large scale by car companies before.”

As the R&D director of Toyota Motor Corporation, Tetsuaki Kobayashi's speech today is obviously very important.

All the participants listened carefully. "First of all, the material of the hot stamping parts. According to our investigation, Nanshan Technology uses a hot stamping material with aluminum silicon coating. The other party has registered a patent for this material with Global Fangwei."

"None of our domestic steel manufacturers have ever researched hot stamping steel plates, let alone hot stamping steel plates with aluminum-silicon coatings."

"So it is difficult for us to solve the problem of raw materials in a short period of time."

"Unless we cooperate with Nanshan Technology and let them authorize us to use this patent."

As soon as Kobayashi Tetsumei opened his mouth, the atmosphere became a little solemn.

Can’t get the materials?

This sounds hard to accept.

“Then there is the production equipment for the hot stamping process, whether it is a heating furnace or a press, or a laser cutting equipment.”

“These are not exactly the same as the equipment used in other industries, and we need to transfer equipment manufacturers for research and development.”

"The key is that we have no idea about some parameters of the hot stamping process."

"This will in turn affect equipment manufacturers' ability to develop equipment in a targeted manner."

"It will probably take one or two years to sort these things out."

Just after one piece of bad news was told, Kobayashi Tetsuaki brought another blow to everyone.

"There is also the mold making and processing technology for hot stamping parts. This process of directly digging water channels in the mold and quenching after forming is something that our stamping parts manufacturers have never been involved in before."

"We all know that there must be a logic to the layout of these waterways, they were not dug randomly."

"To clarify these issues, a large amount of research data is needed to support them."

"According to my calculations, if we can develop hot stamping technology within the next three years, it will be a very good result."

"We will then invest in production lines and trial-produce the corresponding parts. It will probably take five years before they are officially installed in our mass-produced models."

When Kobayashi Tetsuaki said this, Saito Shangying couldn't help but said, "Five years is too long. We can't wait that long."

"If we don't solve the problem of vehicle body strength, our sales will definitely be greatly affected in the future."

This was not pleasant to hear, but Kobayashi Tetsuya was not angry after hearing it. Instead, he continued, "Our stamping parts manufacturers have been committed to improving the strength of parts over the years and have cooperated with steel manufacturers on many occasions."

"Today's high-strength automotive steel plates can reach a tensile strength of 440MPA."

"The new generation of high-strength automotive steel plates developed by Nippon Steel and other steel manufacturers have a tensile strength of 590 MPa."

"They have even begun to develop high-strength automotive steel sheets with tensile strengths of 590MPA and 980MPA."

"As long as we use a large amount of high-strength steel plates, we can naturally improve the collision performance of the car."

"When the time comes, we won't be afraid of any crash tests GM wants to conduct."

After Kobayashi Tetsumei said this, many people present couldn't help but nodded.

Obviously, improving the strength of steel based on traditional cold stamping technology is a technical route that is more in line with Japan's national conditions.

The most important thing is that the changes in this technical route are not that big, and they are more confident that they can handle every link.

The materials are already available, and the production equipment can be used universally, so no additional investment is required.

In the end, the choice of Japanese manufacturers is very similar to history, and they will continue to deepen their research on the technical route of cold stamping.

(End of this chapter)