The car giant started by marrying the daughter of the king

Chapter 443: Despicable Korean car companies, reverse plagiarism begins

The entire 1970s and 1980s were a time when Japanese automobile companies made rapid progress in the international market.

Whether it is Toyota, Honda, Nissan or Mazda, their performances are all very impressive.

This has put a lot of pressure on former giants such as General Motors and Ford.

In fact, during this period, the development speed of Korean automobile companies was also particularly fast.

Compared with the development of Japanese automobile companies, the development of Korean automobile companies started much later.

For example, Hyundai Motor, which is well-known in later generations, was only officially established in the 1960s.

At the beginning, it only helped Ford Motor Company to do some OEM business. It was not until the 1970s that it had its first car model.

But by the 1980s, the development of modern automobiles around the world had accelerated significantly.

Last year, they sold hundreds of thousands of products in the American market, becoming a newcomer in the market.

In Korea, Hyundai Motor's capacity construction is even more bold, and it wants to build itself into a global automotive giant.

Under such circumstances, Hyundai Motor is naturally trying hard to come up with something different.

Only in this way can we gain a firm foothold in the market.

"President, I think the Buick Highlander, a new model recently launched by General Motors, is very special."

"Previous SUVs all emphasized off-road performance, but Highlander emphasizes comfort more."

"It even directly abandoned the traditional non-load-bearing body structure of off-road vehicles and directly used a load-bearing body like a sedan."

"This greatly improves the ride comfort of the Highlander and also allows its chassis and some parts to be shared with cars of the same level."

As the head of design at Hyundai Motor, Park Dae-san is always paying attention to changes in the global automotive market.

The American automobile market is the largest automobile market in the world and it is the focus of Hyundai's future development.

After all, the domestic market in Korea alone is not enough to support Hyundai Motor to become a global automobile giant. It must enter the international market.

But the international market is not so easy to enter.

Hyundai needs to come up with some competitive products.

"It is rumored that the Buick Highlander is produced by Land Rover in China and exported to General Motors for OEM sales."

"Has this news been confirmed?"

As the president of Hyundai Motor, a rising star in the automotive industry, Zheng Shiyong is very concerned about the changes in China Land Rover.

Originally, he completely looked down on China's automobile industry, thinking that there was nothing worth learning from it.

However, the sudden rise of Land Rover in the international automobile market gradually changed his view.

In particular, last year the combined sales of all brands of the BMW Group exceeded 81 vehicles, which is not much less than that of Hyundai Motor.

Among them, Land Rover's actual sales in the American market are higher than that of Hyundai.

At this time, Zheng Shiyong couldn't help but pay attention.

"Yes, it's the Land Rover Highlander that changed its badge and became the Buick Highlander, which is the same as the Land Rover G-series off-road vehicle."

"Land Rover is a subsidiary of the BMW Group, and its head Jiang Hui has a very good relationship with General Motors."

"He is a rare master of car design in the world. Every car he has designed so far is very classic."

"President, I think the Land Rover Highlander and other models will become the darlings of the market in the future."

“Can we consider developing similar products to further enrich our product line?”

Pu Dashan is a designer and knows best how difficult it is to open up a new track in a niche field.

Most companies don’t dare to try it easily.

Because the cost of failing in developing a new product is really high.

"Since Highlander is already popular among consumers in the American market, the positioning of this model is very novel."

"Then our company must definitely keep up with the development of the market."

"Until now, we haven't had an SUV model that truly belongs to us."

"Why not just use Highlander as a template and develop our own model of the same level."

"Considering the development schedule, you will design directly based on the chassis and interior and exterior of the Highlander, and only make some minor adjustments to the exterior."

"Then just replace the engine and gearbox with our own."

time is money.

Now is the fastest period of development for modern automobiles, so Zheng Shiyong naturally does not want to spend several years to develop a single model.

He planned to learn from Land Rover's development speed in all aspects and produce Hyundai's first SUV within two years.

With the Highlander as a reference and relying on Hyundai's strength, there is hope that it will be developed by the end of next year or the beginning of next year.

"Okay, I'll immediately work on a development plan for a new project and report back to you next week."

Since the boss said so, Park Dashan naturally had nothing to worry about.

Anyway, the products being copied were from Chinese car companies, not American ones, so he didn't feel that much pressure.

……

"Director, it seems that our BJ212 is no longer selling well."

"Even though the price is much cheaper than the Highlander and Land Rover G Series, no government agency is interested."

"People either buy our Shouqi Zhiguang directly, or buy the Land Rover G series or Highlander."

"Especially the Highlander, after it was launched recently, many companies are very interested in it."

"In many places in China, the road conditions are not particularly good. The higher chassis of SUVs are an advantage."

"But traditional hardcore SUVs have poor comfort and are not very passenger-friendly."

"The Highlander fully combines these two advantages, and its popularity in the country is increasing."

Although the BMW Group has developed very rapidly in the past few years, except for the BMW Sunshine, the sales of other models in China are not particularly high.

Due to production capacity issues, the production of BMW Sunshine has been diverted to other export-oriented models in the past two years, which has further led to a decline in the sales of BMW Sunshine.

In addition, with the emergence of other options such as the Shouqi Zhiguang on the market, people don’t have to buy the BMW Zhiguang.

So in fact, although BMW Group's global sales are constantly increasing, there is actually no particularly obvious change in its domestic sales.

But after Highlander was launched on the market, everyone felt that the situation was different.

This urban SUV seems to be becoming popular both at home and abroad.

"The positioning of BJ212 is rather awkward. It cannot compete with our own Shouqi Zhiguang in terms of price, and cannot compete with Land Rover G Series and Land Rover Highlander in terms of performance."

"But it has a very special significance in the development history of our factory."

"So as long as we still have a few thousand units sold each year, we can't stop it."

"Unless one day its sales volume drops to less than 1000 units per year, we will consider stopping the production of BJ212 at that time."

As a native employee of Capital Automobile Manufacturing Plant, Chen Qi has deep feelings for BJ212.

So even if Lu Jianqiang told him that BJ212 was not selling well and he wanted to cancel it, he had no idea in this regard.

Of course, the resources invested in BJ212 will definitely decrease in the future.

"That's true. I think the traditional off-road vehicle market will gradually lose the low-end market in the future."

"Each government agency will either purchase an urban SUV or a more high-end traditional off-road vehicle."

"In the future, we will focus on economical sedans such as Shouqi Zhiguang and economical urban SUVs on the same platform."

Developing an urban SUV for Capital Automobile Manufacturing Plant is the fundamental purpose of Lu Jianqiang coming to see Chen Qi today.

Their factory has now tasted the benefits of Shouqi Zhiguang, so naturally they hope to continue to enjoy this benefit.

I have to say that Lu Jianqiang's idea is actually very correct.

"If we develop a city SUV based on the Shouqi Zhiguang platform, can your R&D center handle it?"

Chen Qi knew very well where Shouqi Zhiguang came from. It was a complete copy of Toyota Corolla.

However, if we want to develop an SUV based on this platform, there is currently no direct model to refer to, so Capital Automobile Manufacturing needs to do it on its own.

"Director, this is what I think."

Lu Jianqiang would definitely not answer foolishly by saying yes or no, but would first introduce his own ideas.

"As for the most critical powertrain, we definitely don't need to make any changes."

"We can even use the increased production to get supporting manufacturers to lower their prices appropriately."

"In terms of car interior, we also try to keep it consistent with Shouqi Zhiguang as much as possible."

"As for the body, we directly refer to the style of Highlander and shrink it down a bit so that it can fit our chassis."

"In this way, the difficulty of development will be greatly reduced, and it should not be a problem to launch it next year or the year after."

Although the capabilities of the Capital Automobile Manufacturing R&D Center are average, it has accumulated certain experience through the development of Capital Automobile Light.

The difficulty of developing an urban SUV using the same platform now has not increased.

"Your plan sounds good."

"The R&D center should establish a project as soon as possible and submit it to the factory committee for discussion."

Seeing that BJ212 and BJ310 have completely lost their competitiveness, and relying solely on the Shouqi Zhiguang model, Chen Qi is also worried that something unexpected may happen in the future.

There are so many domestic automobile manufacturers. After seeing the success of Shouqi Zhiguang, other manufacturers will definitely follow suit and produce similar products.

The market competition will become more intense at that time.

It is obviously inappropriate to put all your eggs in one basket.

……

"Brother, Land Rover has increased the production plan for the Highlander next month. Currently, the monthly production schedule has reached 3 units."

"I think we need to speed up the process of introducing a new stamping production line."

"Otherwise, when the next two new products come out, there will be insufficient production capacity."

As the sales director of Yonghua Stamping Parts Factory, Guo Shengbin is now both happy and happy.

The pain is because we often have to worry about our own insufficient production capacity, which would hinder Land Rover's development, and that would be bad.

Needless to say, I'm happy. The company's business is so prosperous, how can I not be happy?
He and his elder brother Guo Shengqiang are both major shareholders. If the company's performance is good, their own income will naturally be high.

In recent years, Land Rover's attitude towards various supporting factories has been more to support their synchronous development, so that each factory has enough funds to recruit professional technicians, purchase new equipment, and improve their own technology and management level.

Therefore, the prices of various parts are basically not suppressed very much, and the profit margin is quite considerable.

Those manufacturers who make money comfortably but do not strive for progress will gradually be eliminated in subsequent projects.

“I didn’t expect the production of Highlander to increase so quickly.”

"I originally thought that it would take until at least next year, after Highlander has developed markets around the world, for the monthly production to reach 3 vehicles."

“I didn’t expect that the level would improve so quickly after just a few months of mass production.”

Guo Shengqiang is in a very good mood now.

Yonghua Stamping Parts Factory received a lot of orders for the Highlander project.

In addition to the four-door and two-hood parts made in Land Rover's stamping workshop, as well as several key parts such as hot-stamped parts and longitudinal beams produced by Nanshan Technology, half of the remaining stamping parts are produced by Yonghua Stamping Parts Factory.

Every stamping machine seems to have turned into a money printing machine.

"The Highlander has opened up a whole new market. It has not only sold well overseas, but has also unexpectedly become a hit in China."

"Last month, more than 5000 Highlanders were sold across the country, and it is estimated that the sales volume will further increase in the future."

"That's why Land Rover increased its production immediately."

Guo Shengbin specifically sought out people from Land Rover to discuss this topic, so he was very clear about the story behind it.

He also visits dealers regularly to learn about the sales of various Land Rover models so that he can have a clear idea of ​​the situation.

It can be said that people who run businesses in this era are very willing to accept favors when doing things.

From morning till night, I am almost busy.

"Shenzhen now has very good support policies for private enterprises, and there are also preferential policies on loans."

"We need to urge the equipment manufacturer to deliver our new stamping equipment as soon as possible."

"At the same time, we also need to be forward-looking and consider the needs of the next two years in advance and introduce a further batch of equipment."

In recent years, Yonghua Stamping Parts Factory has almost been expanding its production capacity passively.

Every time I am worried that something might go wrong.

Although this method can maximize the efficiency of fund utilization, it certainly also involves considerable risks.

In the future, with the development and growth of the BMW Group, Yonghua Stamping Parts Factory will no longer be a small workshop and will definitely have to make a more comprehensive layout.

Invisibly, this has also promoted the development and growth of China's automotive parts industry.

……

The European market is the world's second largest automobile market after the United States, and Volkswagen is a leader there.

Highlander also landed successfully in Europe through the marketing of General Motors and Land Rover.

"Verdi, do you think urban SUVs will be the future market development trend?"

As CEO of Volkswagen Group, Dr. Hahn is under a lot of pressure.

Many Chinese people in later generations are familiar with Volkswagen, which has been the best-selling car company in China for decades.

But many people may not know that one of the important reasons why Volkswagen actively entered the Chinese market was that their global business development was not going smoothly at that time.

Therefore, they want to find a different way to increase their sales in the Chinese market.

As it turned out, their decision was very correct.

Now, Volkswagen already has two joint ventures in China, Shanghai Volkswagen and FAW-Volkswagen, which produce Santana and Jetta sedans.

Although its sales volume cannot be compared with that of BMW, it is increasing every year.

However, I didn't expect that while I was expanding the market in China, Chinese car companies were also coming to Europe to expand their living space.

Since GM began selling Buick G-series SUVs and Chevrolet X-series pickup trucks in Europe last year, these models, which are actually produced by China Land Rover, have sold more than 1 units per month in the European market.

If we add in the products sold by Land Rover itself, Land Rover's actual sales in the European market have reached 2 units per month.

Compared with the sales volume of the entire market, this data does not seem to be very large.

However, considering that Chinese car companies have had no presence in Europe in the past, this data is very remarkable.

"Hahn, judging from the sales of Highlander in the United States and Europe, this new urban SUV is still recognized by many consumers."

"I think the company can develop several urban SUV models based on the sedan platform in the future."

"Whether it is the Volkswagen brand or the Audi brand, they should have a layout in this regard."

Verdi gave his opinion very directly.

As the head of sales, he must have noticed the changes in the urban SUV market.

When the Land Rover G series was selling well in the market, he had already proposed to develop an SUV within the company.

Now Land Rover has innovatively proposed the concept of urban SUV, making this market even more special.

It just so happens that Volkswagen has had relatively few plans in this area before, so naturally it needs to make adjustments quickly.

"The structure of an SUV means that its handling performance is not as good as that of a sedan, especially a hatchback."

“I didn’t expect so many consumers would like it.”

Dr. Hahn is a technical person.

In his opinion, consumers in the European automobile market are the most rational and mature consumers.

Why are hatchbacks the most popular in Europe?

Because under the same conditions, the handling performance of a hatchback is much better than that of a sedan.

When all other conditions are the same, a car with a short wheelbase has better handling performance than a car with a long wheelbase.

After being localized in China, all later Volkswagen models will basically choose to have a longer wheelbase.

Because when Chinese consumers have to choose between handling performance and spacious space, they generally choose the latter.

Of course, this is also related to the car usage environment.

Many people in Europe drive alone, but in China, most of the time they are family cars.

Therefore, the degree of emphasis on car space is different.

In addition, hatchbacks are not considered normal cars in the eyes of many Chinese people, so they are even rarer in the Chinese market.

But it is the hatchback car SUV that breaks the curse.

"Although the handling performance of SUV is not as good as that of sedan, it has a better field of vision and looks more domineering."

"I interviewed several owners who recently purchased Highlander, and they all mentioned its advantages in this regard."

Dr. Hahn did not refute Verdi's statement.

"Since consumers like it, we will develop models according to their pace."

"Our Passat is quite successful now, and the first city SUV is developed based on Passat."

“The powertrain is completely retained, and the chassis and interior and exterior trim are also retained as much as possible.”

“We will mainly make some adjustments to the rear of the car body and strive to produce the first urban SUV within two years.”

Regardless of the automobile company, the cost of developing a new model is very high.

People generally make full use of existing platform models.

This is apparently what Hahn thought.

This not only minimizes risks and costs, but also increases speed.

The market is changing so fast that if we don’t speed up, we’ll feel like we can’t keep up.

"Okay, I'll arrange for someone to do some market research right away, and then communicate the relevant information to R&D."

Verdi breathed a sigh of relief after hearing what Hahn said.

At least from now on, there is no need to worry about Volkswagen falling too far behind in the urban SUV market.

Most of the other competitors should have started developing urban SUVs only this year.

By developing new products based on the Passat platform, Verdi feels that Volkswagen still has an advantage in terms of schedule.

……

Just when Highlander, the world's first urban SUV, was stirring up a storm in many markets and attracting the attention of many competitors, Zhang Shaohua from Lingnan Semiconductor reported some not-so-good news to Jiang Xiangyang.

"Mr. Jiang, when we were purchasing the lithography machine, we received an unofficial message from ASML."

"TSMC has arranged for someone to communicate with ASML, hoping that ASML will set some restrictions on the supply of lithography machines to us."

"Although for the purpose of expanding the market, ASML did not agree this time."

“But I think it’s hard to say whether there will be changes in the future.”

After comparison, Lingnan Semiconductor's new factory will purchase lithography machines from ASML instead of Canon or Nikon.

Under the pressure from the traditional three giants, ASML is still competitive in terms of cooperation and price.

ASML of this era was far from being as powerful as it is in later generations.

However, Zhang Shaohua still felt a sense of crisis.

After all, the emergence of Lingnan Semiconductor will definitely snatch market share from other semiconductor companies.

In particular, Lingnan Semiconductor is planning to enter the chip foundry market like TSMC. It is the second semiconductor company in the world to prepare to engage in this business.

No wonder TSMC reacted so strongly.

“That’s one of the reasons why I asked to order equipment for the second factory before the first factory was built.”

"In the future, the international environment will have an increasingly greater impact on us in the field of high-end equipment."

"As you said, ASML is willing to sell lithography machines to us normally this time and does not agree with TSMC's proposal."

"But if we buy equipment next time, or if we wait until next year to buy a lithography machine, I'm afraid the situation may not be the same."

"TSMC is the one that has jumped out now, and who knows, Samsung Electronics or Texas Instruments or other semiconductor giants may also jump out next time."

"Then ASML's attitude will definitely change."

Jiang Hui was not particularly surprised by what Zhang Shaohua reported.

I just didn’t expect TSMC to take action so quickly.

(End of this chapter)