The car giant started by marrying the daughter of the king

Chapter 408 General Motors' shocking operation

"Morning Star, are you sure this news is true?"

Jiang Hui knew that General Motors had not had an easy time throughout the 1980s.

Even though the situation has improved a little bit due to our cooperation in the past few years, it is only a little bit better.

Cadillac sedans, Buick G-series SUVs, and Chevrolet X-series pickups, these three models only contributed less than 30,000 monthly sales to General Motors.

For General Motors, the world's largest company, these 30,000 vehicles are definitely not enough.

Therefore, how to further increase sales is a matter of concern to everyone at General Motors.

"Absolutely true!"

"I have personally visited GM dealers to conduct on-site inspections. Buick G Series and Chevrolet X Series have already appeared at dealers in countries such as Germany, France and England."

"GM seems to attach great importance to the performance of the two new models in the European market."

"GM's performance in the European market has not been very ideal."

"They have lost a lot of money in recent years, but they obviously have no intention of giving up the European market."

Chen Chenxing gave his reply very affirmatively.

When BMW Group previously cooperated with General Motors, it mainly targeted the North American market.

The company plans to develop markets in Europe, the Middle East and other regions on its own.

I didn't expect General Motors to do this.

“Were these models that appeared in Europe rebadged in American ports and then immediately transferred to Europe?”

In fact, Jiang Hui was not particularly angry about GM's outrageous move.

After all, these cars are also produced by Land Rover, so it can still make a considerable profit.

He was worried that GM would be greedy and, after seeing the hot sales of the Buick G-Series and Chevrolet X-Series, would directly produce these two cars itself.

In the automotive industry, there are countless cases of you copying me and I copying you.

As long as you make some adjustments in key areas, it will be difficult to sue others.

Of course, global auto giants like General Motors generally don't eat in such an ugly way.

After all, it is not good for their reputation when they go to court.

Even if they win the lawsuit in the end, everyone knows it clearly.

"Yes, we ship these cars to America, and then re-label them at their ports before shipping them to Europe for sale."

Chen Chenxing was not quite sure how he should deal with this matter.

Are you protesting to General Motors?

Or just pretend nothing happened?

Will GM's move have an impact on Land Rover's sales?
Everything was something I had never encountered before.

There is no ready-made reference plan to learn from.

"If GM is just reselling our models to Europe, we will just pretend we don't know about it for now."

"But you need to arrange for someone to monitor and see if GM is producing these two models directly."

"Once something like this happens, it must not be tolerated."

Jiang Hui quickly weighed the pros and cons of the matter and felt that GM's approach was worth waiting and observing.

Both models sell very well in North America and are the main contributors to the increase in production of the BMW Group.

If GM can sell these two models well in Europe, then BMW Group's production can be further increased.

If the monthly production of Land Rover G Series and Land Rover X Series can exceed 2 units by then, the meaning will be very different.

This increase in production will be very beneficial for cultivating China's automotive industry supply chain.

With these two models, the BMW Sunbeam and Mercedes-Benz sedans, the BMW Group's monthly production can exceed 6 vehicles even if it has not yet launched new models.

The annual production scale is 700,000 to 800,000 vehicles.

In China, this is definitely the largest industrial enterprise.

With such a large production scale, it is enough for all supporting factories to develop accordingly.

Even for many parts, we can choose several supporting factories to cooperate with.

Whichever company performs better will be the focus of our support in the future.

In the process of capacity expansion, these supporting factories need to invest heavily in various equipment.

Nanshan Equipment can also take advantage of this opportunity to develop rapidly.

By then, China's automobile industry will definitely undergo earth-shaking changes.

"It would probably cost GM more to produce both of these cars itself than it would for us to export them."

“It’s not a very good deal for them.”

"Besides, only Nanshan Technology can provide hot stamping parts in large quantities now."

"So I think GM will not do something like this in the next one or two years."

General Motors is the most special partner of BMW Group, so Chen Chenxing naturally has a special research department to do research on it.

For these American companies, making money is the most important thing.

It would be best if we could entrust the production of car models to outside manufacturers.

In this way, various risks can be reduced to the greatest extent.

After all, developing a new car model is very risky.

Not to mention various tests, the investment in tooling and dies for each part alone is a considerable expense.

If it fails, all the money will be wasted.

A large mold may cost you tens of thousands of dollars to make, but once it is not used, it becomes a pile of scrap metal and its value disappears instantly.

The reason why Magna International later developed the vehicle OEM business was actually to bear part of the risks for the OEMs.

Of course, people are not stupid and will definitely take various costs into consideration.

Eventually we found a solution that everyone could accept.

This approach may seem contradictory, but it is easier to understand with an example.

Many government vehicles in later generations, even if they are relatively old, incur expensive repair and maintenance costs every year, but they are not easily scrapped.

Because the budget for annual maintenance costs can be applied for relatively easily, but the budget for purchasing a new car is likely to be rejected.

Therefore, even if the cost of repairing the car over several years can buy a new car, the relevant units will still choose to continue repairing it.

Sometimes, it is similar when an OEM looks for someone to do OEM work.

I would rather pay more for the manufacturing fee for each car than invest too much money at one time.

……

General Motors has carried out such a special operation, so naturally they are also paying close attention to the reactions of all parties within the company.

Other world auto giants actually know what the Buick G Series and Chevrolet X Series are.

Now that General Motors has imported them into the European market for sale, everyone is curious about the market response there.

Inside GM, however, there are far more concerns.

"Austin, is there no one from China looking for you?"

After a report within GM, Murphy casually asked Austin, the executive with the deepest ties to the BMW Group.

At that time, the company discussed internally how to improve the profitability of the European branch and reverse the loss situation as soon as possible.

The head of the European branch proposed to introduce the two best-selling new cars, which also caused some differences within GM.

For example, Austin and Edward are worried that such an approach will damage their partnership with BMW Group.

After all, they all knew that BMW Group had set up a branch in Europe and started selling Land Rover G Series and Land Rover X Series models.

Now that GM has brought the Buick G-Series and Chevrolet X-Series, which look exactly the same, to Europe for sale, there will definitely be competition between them.

The most crucial thing is that the previous cooperation between the two parties was limited to the North American market.

What GM is doing now is tantamount to skirting the line of cooperation.

BMW Group can definitely stand up and question GM's approach.

“We haven’t received any contact yet.”

"It's also possible that they haven't grasped this information so quickly."

Austin replied with mixed feelings.

In his opinion, the problems of the European branch cannot be solved simply by launching two new cars for sale.

Of course, if these two cars sell well in Europe, it will definitely be helpful in easing operating pressure.

"It could also be that we have increased our orders this month, which is something BMW is happy to see."

"After all, relying on their own influence, it is not easy for them to open up the European market even if they have good products."

"So far, the sales of all their models in Europe combined are probably less than 2000 units a month, right?"

Murphy thought of what the head of the European branch had said when he reported to him.

If these two models can sell 20,000 units per month in the American market, they should be able to sell at least 10,000 units per month in Europe.

General Motors' sale of these two models in Europe has invisibly helped BMW Group increase its production and sales.

It’s a win-win!

However, this win-win solution is not the choice of BMW Group itself.

"I have arranged for people to keep an eye on the response of both vehicles in the European market, especially in Germany and France, which are the first markets where BMW Group started to operate."

"Then let the European branch focus its marketing efforts on competing products from European automakers such as Volkswagen and PSA, and downplay the situation of Land Rover."

Edward interjected.

He is a little worried that European media and consumers will compare the models of General Motors and BMW Group.

By then, it will more or less affect GM's reputation.

"We are afraid that if we try to downplay this, our competitors will deliberately use this as an excuse to make a fuss."

Austin believes that European car companies will definitely not sit idly by.

In particular, the Land Rover G-series off-road vehicles are now also a niche model that many European car companies are focusing on researching.

However, European car companies do not have any outstanding off-road vehicles yet, so Mercedes has a certain influence in the market relying on its classic G-series off-road vehicles.

But this does not prevent everyone from seeing the prospects of off-road vehicles.

Now a dragon suddenly arrives from the river, and everyone is bound to resist.

Otherwise, the market will be occupied by others, and what will happen to your new car in the future?
"Let's see how the situation develops first!" No one can accurately predict market changes. Murphy can only keep an eye on it and see how it develops.

……

"President, General Motors has introduced the Buick G Series and Chevrolet X Series to the European market."

"This will definitely affect our sales of LC70 and Hilux in Europe."

Saito Shoei reported the latest information to Toyoda Shoichiro with great concern.

There are many reasons why Toyota has been able to emerge in recent years and become General Motors' strongest competitor.

Fuel-efficient and durable models are one aspect, but innovation in market segments cannot be ignored.

An off-road vehicle like the LC70 is very advanced in this era, even in the world.

The key point is that during this period, most automobile giants did not pay much attention to the off-road vehicle market, with the exception of a few car companies such as AMC.

Toyota has firmly established its foothold by relying on its efforts in the market segments.

In the following decades, these sub-models have made significant contributions to Toyota.

The Hilux pickup truck is also a very classic.

Otherwise, Jiang Hui would not have borrowed from other people's products when designing the Land Rover X Series.

"If GM wants to do this, there is nothing we can do to stop it."

"We have changed the material grades of some parts of our LC70, and the collision performance has been improved."

"Even if GM wants to repeat the same old tricks, it won't have much effect."

Shoichiro Toyoda is much calmer now.

At the beginning, the LC70 was unlucky enough to be used as a negative example by General Motors, but now the impact of this incident has gradually subsided.

Consumers are relatively forgetful.

As long as the media gives a little guidance, the wind direction will change.

"That's true, but the exterior designs of both cars are very classic."

"It will have some impact on our products."

"The design center needs to consider speeding up the launch of the next generation of repayment models as soon as possible."

Shoichiro Toyoda still agreed with Saito Shoei's statement.

It is generally easy to judge whether a car is good-looking or not.

Like the Porsche Panamera of later generations, its design has not changed for more than ten years, and no one thinks it is ugly.

That is an absolutely classic appearance design.

"It will be soon. We just need to adjust the appearance of the model and it will be available in the market next year at the latest."

Toyota's development momentum is still very strong.

Even though it was blocked by General Motors, overall sales are still increasing.

During this period, Toyota was in full bloom in the global automobile market, and few car companies could withstand it.

A Japanese automaker facing a similar situation as Toyota is Nissan.

When General Motors tinkered with the Nissan Patrol, a classic large off-road vehicle, its sales in the American market plummeted.

Fortunately, the sales of Nissan's Bluebird and other sedans are still very good due to their high cost-effectiveness, and have not affected the overall development.

This time, General Motors made a new move in the European market, and Nissan immediately began to analyze the impact of this matter.

"President, we have communicated with Kobe Steel, and the new generation of 590MPA high-strength steel plates they have developed will be ready for mass production early next year."

"By then, the key body parts on our high-end models such as the Patrol will be replaced with 590MPA ultra-high-strength steel plates."

Renji Oda is the design director of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. He reports to President Taro Saikawa every month on the design progress of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.'s next-generation body structure.

The body in white is something that consumers usually cannot see.

However, through collision tests or accidents, we can intuitively feel whether it is good or bad.

In the past, no one paid special attention to this issue, so the strength of car bodies was generally not very high.

Now that General Motors has lifted the veil, all car companies have increased their investment in this area.

In fact, it is not that difficult to improve the strength of a car body, it’s just a matter of whether you are willing to pay the price.

The simplest method is to increase the thickness of the steel plate while keeping everything else unchanged, and the strength will naturally increase simultaneously.

Of course, this approach also has serious side effects.

General design plans will make some optimizations on this basis.

Using more high-strength steel plates is naturally one of the solutions.

BMW Group's solution of using hot stamping to form parts is essentially to improve the strength of automotive steel plates.

It’s just that their strength is greater, directly increasing the strength of the steel plate from 270MPA and 340MPA to 1500MPA.

Nanshan Iron and Steel Plant is even further developing higher strength hot stamped steel plates based on this.

"In addition to improving the strength of the material, we also need to adjust the body structure design in a targeted manner based on the results of the collision test."

"Try to avoid a head-on collision where the entire cockpit collapses."

Taro Nishikawa doesn't want to be messed with by any car company again, as that would make his position untenable.

To avoid this from happening, the best way is naturally to improve the strength of your car body.

"We are already making efforts in this regard, and the situation will definitely improve significantly by then."

Oda Renji didn't dare to say it too definitely, he could only say that there have been improvements.

Fortunately, as long as their progress does not lag behind that of their competitors, the situation will not become very unfavorable.

Anyway, apart from BMW Group, the progress of other auto giants is not fundamentally different from that of Nissan.

……

Verdi is Volkswagen's sales director.

He has a hobby. He doesn't like listening to reports in the office. Instead, he likes to go deep into the dealership front line and pretend to be an ordinary consumer to experience the products of various companies.

Of course, he will also visit his company's dealers to see the real feedback from consumers on each model.

Today, as usual, after handling some things at the company, he drove to a dealership.

This dealer mainly sells various General Motors products, including Cadillac, Buick, Chevrolet, Opel and other brands.

It even sells products of other American car brands, making it a dealer that mainly sells American cars.

As soon as he entered the parking lot, he felt something was wrong.

Parking space is a bit hard to find.

This is in the suburbs.

Quickly, after finding a seat in the corner, Verdi arrived at the exhibition hall.

Although it couldn't be said that there were crowds of people there, the number of customers was obviously much greater than the places Verdi had visited before.

After paying a little attention to the conversations between consumers and sales, Verdi realized that the Buick G-series SUV seemed to be very popular.

There are not many similar models on the market.

It’s hard to find a car that’s more beautiful than the Buick G Series.

In the past, people thought that off-road vehicles were only purchased by off-road enthusiasts, who mainly drove them in the wilderness.

However, the design of Buick G series is very different from traditional off-road vehicles.

If it weren't for the square box shape, one wouldn't be able to tell that this is an off-road vehicle just by looking at the front of the car.

To a certain extent, it has combined the advantages of sedans and SUVs to become a brand new product.

Originally, Verdi was going to visit several dealers today, but in the end he stayed in this store all day.

During the period, I pretended to be very interested in Buick G250 and chatted with the salesperson for a while.

He made a rough calculation and found that today, the store had officially sold four Buick G-series SUVs, and there were five or six customers who seemed interested.

For a store, this is definitely a very impressive result.

Volkswagen's best-selling Golf model does not achieve this level of performance every day at most dealers.

Although today’s results may be related to the promotion held by this store.

It is also possible that the Buick G-series SUV has just entered the German market, and some consumers have made impulse purchases after seeing its stunning appearance.

But no matter what the reason is, the conclusion is that Buick G Series is very popular.

According to Verdi's guess, the monthly sales of this car in the German market will definitely exceed 3000 units, and even 5000 units a month is possible.

If this momentum can be maintained, it is possible that sales will exceed 1 vehicles in some months.

This data is absolutely eye-catching.

"Smit, I think Volkswagen also needs an off-road vehicle, an off-road vehicle similar in style to the Buick G series."

The next day, after returning to the company, Verdi immediately went to Volkswagen's boss Schmidt to report his ideas.

Up to now, Volkswagen has no off-road vehicle to show off, which is definitely not a good thing.

"I've also seen some reports on the Buick G-series SUV."

"From the appearance of the models, their designs are indeed excellent."

"But off-road vehicles are niche vehicles after all. There are some loyal users who buy them at the beginning, but the sales volume may not be able to be maintained in the future."

Smith gave his opinion more cautiously.

Developing a new car model involves a large investment of manpower and material resources.

For any car company, most new models are actually developed based on a certain platform rather than being developed from scratch.

"We have always thought this way before, but after the Buick G series appeared, this view may not be correct."

“I recommend that you go to a dealership and experience the change in person.”

Verdi expressed his opinion very directly.

As the person in charge of sales, it is a very painful feeling to see the best-selling models on the market but not having similar products to sell.

I watched my customers leaving but I couldn't do anything about it.

He couldn't stand such things.

"I'll let the people in the R&D field discuss with you how to deal with this situation."

Schmidt still has confidence in Verdi's ability and vision.

Since the other party's attitude is so firm, it is definitely necessary to study it seriously.

(End of this chapter)