The car giant started by marrying the daughter of the king

In 1989, the impact that China's richest man brought to everyone was still very great.

This is especially true for the automotive industry.

At this time, almost all the people on the rich list from Japan are real estate developers, so everyone is full of enthusiasm for real estate.

The first industry on the list in China is the automobile industry, which naturally makes many people focus on automobiles.

Shuanghuan Auto Repair Factory, which was established just last year, is currently discussing new plans internally.

"Director, we are now mainly responsible for repairing the BJ212 models provided by relevant departments. Although this kind of business is good, the money we earn is definitely not as much as if we produced it ourselves."

"For a vehicle like the BJ212, the production difficulty is just that high, not as high as imagined."

"I wonder if the company can also produce a car model itself and sell it on the market?"

Zhao Zhiqiang is the cousin of Zhao Zhigang, the founder of Shuanghuan Automobile Repair Factory.

Now I am responsible for various other matters in the factory besides technical matters.

In his opinion, producing cars is not that difficult.

The factory now has a full set of BJ212 technology, and found that the difficulty is actually not that high.

The most troublesome engines and gearboxes are purchased directly from other factories.

The remaining parts can either be produced by ourselves or found in supporting factories.

As long as they are assembled, they can be sold on the market.

The profit here is definitely greater than repairing a car.

The key point is that in his opinion, car manufacturing companies are definitely much more high-end than car repair shops, and their status in the local area is completely different.

"Do you also think that our factory should build cars ourselves?"

Zhao Zhigang was a little conflicted at first, but after hearing what Zhao Zhiqiang said, his thoughts began to become firm.

At the BMW Group, Jiang Hui has become the richest man in China by manufacturing and selling cars.

The net worth of 45 billion US dollars is really a huge stimulus.

Originally, he thought that he had established the repair shop last year and had earned over a million yuan in just one year, which was already very impressive.

But compared with Jiang Hui, the gap is not a little bit big.

“Yes.”

“It must be built.”

"Except for BMW, all other domestic car companies produce cars of the same quality."

"As long as we can find a small piece of the market, it will be enough for us to live a good life."

"For example, if we sell 1000 cars a year, we can only make yuan from each car."

“That’s 1000 million.”

Zhao Zhiqiang said excitedly.

The spring breeze of reform has blown everywhere, and Zhao Zhiqiang also wants to experience the feeling of being rich.

"Okay, since you think so, then our factory will also produce cars."

"But I only know the BJ212. If I were to produce it myself, I certainly wouldn't be able to just build the BJ212."

"Otherwise it would be impossible to do better than the Capital Automobile Factory."

"So what kind of car should we get?"

After Zhao Zhigang made up his mind, he naturally began to implement this idea as soon as possible.

In private enterprises, basically as long as the boss is determined to do something, progress can be very fast.

Anyway, they have no plans to build cars as formally as BMW for the time being.

"This is also very simple. We can just find a car model that sells well to learn from."

"Then we go find some supporting factories to produce parts, assemble them and sell them."

"As long as the price is low enough, business will definitely be done."

Zhao Zhiqiang also quickly thought about the next course of action.

There are many domestic car manufacturing companies, but not many of them are very successful.

Naturally, they have to think carefully about what they want Shuanghuan Automobile to become.

"If we follow your idea, we can save a lot of time in the early stages of product design."

"We just need to buy the car, disassemble it, and let the supplier produce the actual product based on the disassembled parts."

"In the early days, we focused on the market in small cities to avoid competition from other large car manufacturers."

"As long as the price is competitive, sales should be worth looking forward to."

The more Zhao Zhigang talked, the more he felt that this plan was feasible.

He was a little impatient to produce his own car.

The sense of accomplishment is definitely very different.

"The engine and gearbox are purchased from outside. The best-selling engine on the market is probably the 1.5L engine from Nanshan Engine."

"As for the gearbox, I think the 4MT from Capital Gear Factory will be fine."

"Some other parts are not so critical, so we will ask whoever can produce them cheaply."

"This year, a number of private auto parts companies have emerged, and the cost of the parts they produce is very competitive."

"For the same part, private enterprises can make it 30% or even 50% cheaper than state-owned enterprises."

"If we purchase all our parts from these factories, the final vehicle cost will definitely be very competitive."

Although this was the first time that Zhao Zhiqiang discussed car manufacturing with Zhao Zhigang.

But he has a lot of ideas.

Know how to produce the product.

For a business, it is important to have people who understand technology.

But people who know how to run a business are just as important.

"Then we should follow your direction. We should choose a goal and develop the product as soon as possible."

Zhao Zhigang is not a fussy person, otherwise he would not have founded Shuanghuan Motors.

Soon, they set their sights on Honda's CRV model.

This urban SUV was originally scheduled to be launched in 1995, but it was launched in January this year ahead of schedule because Land Rover led the trend of urban SUVs in advance.

As a product that Honda has placed high expectations on, CRV has performed very well after its launch.

Although it has not yet entered the Chinese automobile market through official channels, Zhao Zhigang learned about this car through some channels.

And also got some related photos.

He was going to rely solely on photos to make some imitations.

Because it is too expensive to import a CRV now.

He couldn't bear it a bit.

……

"Brother, Jiang Hui became the richest man in China thanks to the BMW Group."

"I think that in the future you can become the richest man in our city by relying on our Geely Automobile."

Li Dagui is now full of expectations for the company's prospects.

According to the current development pace, the company's first sedan will be able to enter small-scale mass production by the end of the year.

By then, they will have completely transformed from a company that produces refrigerators to a company that produces cars.

With the rapid development of reform, the number of wealthy people in various places will also increase rapidly.

Everyone has very high demands for cars.

"The BMW Group is very different from any other domestic automaker."

"They really have mastered the core technology."

"Plus, Jiang Hui is a genius-level car designer, so he can become the richest man."

"If our factory wants to grow and develop, we have to choose a new development path."

"But I feel like more and more domestic automakers are choosing the same development path as us."

Relying on the low-price route to expand the market is the path taken by many car companies, including Geely Auto.

The success of Capital Automobile Works' Capital Light has proven this point.

Not to mention the previous BMW Light.

In addition, the sales of Xiali Automobile's micro cars, which were launched in the past two years, are also quite good.

Therefore, people's attention to micro cars has begun to increase.

"The domestic automobile market has a bright future."

"Otherwise, there wouldn't be so many auto giants setting up joint ventures in China to produce cars."

"Although there are many car manufacturers in China now, I don't think we need to worry about the others except BMW Group."

“We can definitely find a path that belongs to us.”

Li Dagui is more optimistic than Li Shufu.

China has such a large population that the coastal areas have developed much faster since the reform.

In the early stages, as long as they could gain some market share within the province, they would be able to survive.

Then slowly expand the market.

Overall, cars were still considered high-end consumer goods for the Chinese people during this period.

People are still quite sensitive about car prices.

If Geely Auto can lower its prices, there will definitely be a market for it.

"What you said makes sense."

"But we need to plan our future development path carefully."

"Otherwise, we might be eliminated in the fierce market competition."

Li Shufu has a strong sense of crisis.

With so many automobile factories in the country, it is certainly impossible for every one of them to be very prosperous.

By then, a number of manufacturers will definitely be eliminated.

He doesn't want Geely Auto to be one of the manufacturers eliminated.

“Well, I totally agree with that.”

“If we don’t have our own unique characteristics, why would consumers buy our products?”

"Low price was the main marketing point in our early development."

"We will lower the car sales price to the greatest extent possible, increase our sales volume, and enhance our influence."

“I think it’s necessary.”

Li Dagui and Li Shufu had a good discussion about the company's next development.

Meanwhile, on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, a lively discussion was taking place inside Yunque Automobile, which was established just last year.

"Mr. Zhou, our choice to cooperate with Subaru and import their production lines and products is completely in line with market development trends."

"At that time, our mini cars can perfectly avoid the products of BMW Group in the market, and can also stagger the development track with the products of various mainstream manufacturers such as Capital Automobile Manufacturing Plant, FAW-Volkswagen, FAW Toyota, Shanghai Volkswagen and Shanghai Automobile Manufacturing Plant."

"That is to say, Xiali Automobile's product positioning is closer to ours."

"But so far, Xiali Automobile has mainly focused on the northern market, and its influence in the south is still relatively weak."

"We can then give priority to entering the southern market." Wang Zhongqi is the sales director of Yunque Automobile. Currently, the company has no products to sell.

His main task is to conduct various market surveys and promptly confirm the competitiveness of new models introduced by the company.

Make a promotion plan for the future.

"Our automobile production base is still too weak."

"Not to mention the production line introduced from Subaru, even for the mini-cars that are ready for mass production, many parts need to be imported from Japan."

"This will affect our competitiveness, and we have to find a way to solve it."

As a state-owned enterprise, Yunque Automobile has high expectations from the Guizhou Province.

However, the factory director Zhou Wancheng has some concerns about future development.

The automobile industry base in Guizhou Province is too weak.

Many of the parts that their Skylark Automobile needs cannot be supplied by the supporting factories in the province.

Need to purchase from outside.

Invisibly, this can also be considered a cost increase.

Unlike Shanghai and Shenzhen, 80% of auto parts can be bought in cities within a few hundred miles.

"For those parts that still need to be imported from Japan, I think we can go to Shenzhen to negotiate with the BMW Group's supporting factory."

“See if they can replicate it.”

"Among domestic auto parts manufacturers, the ones with the highest technical level are those in Shenzhen."

Wang Zhongqi quickly gave his suggestions.

Isn't it just about reducing costs?

Although it is not easy, there are actually many ways to do it.

The domestic automobile industry was far from being as competitive as it is today.

The product profit margins of each automobile manufacturer are set quite high.

In the future, if an automobile manufacturer can have a net profit of 10%, it will be considered very good.

But at this time, if you don’t have a profit of 20 to 30 percent, or even a profit margin of 50 to 60 percent, you would be embarrassed to say that you are a car manufacturer.

Of course, this situation has changed a lot now.

Especially after the BMW Group grew stronger, the changes have been even greater.

In order to be competitive when selling in the domestic market, the profit margin of BMW Group's products is generally controlled at around 20%.

Sometimes it is only around 10%.

In China at this time, that is really not considered high.

"It's not impossible."

"Although it's a bit far to Shenzhen, it's better than importing from Japan."

"If domestic parts manufacturers can quickly solve the problem of localizing our parts, then our products won't have to wait so long, and may be available on the market within next year."

Feeling the drastic changes in the domestic automobile market, Zhou Wancheng is a little impatient and hopes that his company's products can be mass-produced as soon as possible.

By then, he will be able to make some money for the company as his performance.

"Yeah, I think so too."

"I heard that a lot of new auto parts companies were established in Shenzhen this year."

"The production costs of these companies must be relatively low, otherwise there would be no business at all."

I have to say that Wang Zhongqi's guess is very accurate.

If Yunque Automobile's products can improve their costs in a timely manner, their future fate may be much better than the same period in history.

You know, in the beginning, Yunque Automobile's products were on par with Alto and Xiali, and became the cars of choice for many of China's first car owners.

However, due to its high price, its final development was far inferior to Alto and Xiali.

Of course, China’s automobile market has completely changed now, and the future of Yunque Automobile will definitely change as well.

……

"Jianjun, from now on the company will be completely handed over to you."

"My health is not good."

"But fortunately, the company successfully completed its restructuring this month. From now on, it will be part of our Wei family's property."

After 1989, Wei Deliang fell seriously ill and his health was much worse than before.

He has now officially handed over the company to Wei Jianjun and returned home to recuperate.

Maybe I can live a few more years this way.

"Uncle, don't worry, I will definitely develop Great Wall Motors and make it a well-known automobile company in China."

Wei Jianjun is now in high spirits.

Their company started working on pickup trucks last year and will be able to start formal mass production and sales next year.

At that time, the company’s difficulties can be alleviated immediately, and even the company can be led onto a completely different development path.

"Jiang Hui has become China's richest man thanks to the BMW Group, which shows that the automobile industry has great potential."

"We don't need to be as big as the BMW Group. As long as our annual sales can exceed 10 vehicles, it will be very meaningful."

Wei Deliang is not a particularly ambitious person.

In his opinion, an automobile factory that produces and sells more than 10 vehicles a year is already very impressive.

You know, before 1980, even FAW and Second FAW produced less than 10 vehicles a year.

If Great Wall Motors can achieve this in the future, he will be satisfied.

However, Wei Jianjun certainly doesn't think so.

If BMW Group can become a large automobile company with annual production and sales of more than 100 million vehicles, why can't Great Wall Motors?

10 vehicles are not enough. He wants to increase the sales volume of Great Wall Motors to 100 million vehicles in the future.

Of course, he wouldn't tell his uncle these words right now, but kept them in his heart.

"Uncle, don't worry."

"After our pickup trucks roll off the production line, I will lead you to develop an SUV product."

"When the two models are launched both domestically and abroad, the goal you mentioned may be achieved soon."

Wei Jianjun is now full of energy.

The spring breeze of reform has blown across the land.

He also successfully promoted enterprise restructuring and solved many problems that he had been worrying about.

From now on, I will work completely for myself.

Naturally, he had to put in his best effort.

……

"Director, I think the products that were previously produced in the factory were not in the right direction."

"For key parts like engines, I think we should still cooperate with Nanshan Engine."

Liu Yanjie is the sales director of Changan Automobile.

In 1984, Changan Automobile cooperated with Suzuki Motor and introduced a second-hand car production line and a micro-car from the other party.

However, this model has a very low presence in the market.

Seeing that other automobile manufacturers' products were selling very well, Liu Yanjie was naturally a little anxious.

Today he came to the office of the factory director Tang Jiguo to discuss the future product layout.

"Nanshan Engine's products are relatively expensive, and our minivans are a bit unaffordable."

Tang Jiguo naturally knew about domestic engines, and Nanshan Engine's products were the best.

But good products are not cheap.

The key point is that Nanshan Engine's current lowest displacement engine has reached 1.5L, but for microcars, generally an engine within 1.0L will be sufficient.

Otherwise the cost will be uncompetitive.

"If we continue to produce the previous minivans, we will definitely not be able to afford them."

"But I think the factory can produce a product similar to the BMW Sunbeam. In this case, there will be no problem using a 1.5L engine."

"I even have a name for it already. It's called 'Chang'an Star'."

Liu Yanjie obviously put in a lot of effort today, otherwise he would not have dared to take the initiative to find Tang Jiguo.

He specifically studied the situation of BMW Light.

As the first product of the BMW Group, it has not been modified for several years.

However, sales in the market have remained relatively stable.

Sometimes, you can’t even buy a car even if you have money.

If the production capacity of BMW Group becomes tight, the production of BMW Sunshine will be cut first, giving priority to the production of Land Rover and other products.

As a result, the supply of BMW Light on the market is naturally insufficient.

"If we produce products similar to the BMW Sunshine, will Nanshan Engine still be willing to sell products to us?"

Tang Jiguo asked a little worriedly.

Naturally, he hopes that the factory can also produce a hit product.

However, after five years of hard work, this goal has not been achieved.

Up to now, Changan Automobile's position in the domestic automobile industry is still negligible.

When people discuss cars, Changan Automobile is generally not included in the topic.

This also made Tang Jiguo a little sad.

"The Light of BMW has been abandoned by the BMW Group to a certain extent."

"The other products of the other party are positioned at a higher level."

"Producing too many BMW Lights will reduce the brand influence of the BMW Group."

"So I think it won't be a big problem for us to produce the Changan Star, which is similar in positioning to the BMW Sunshine."

"Nanshan Transmissions and Nanshan Engines are unlikely to refuse to sell to us for this reason."

"Once they really do this and the news spreads, they may be the ones who are most affected."

I have to say that what Liu Yanjie said makes a lot of sense.

He still has some skills.

"The positioning is similar, maybe people can accept it."

“But if the appearance is also directly borrowed, it will probably be more troublesome.”

"Should we consider choosing a product from Japan to learn from?"

Tang Jiguo's words were considered to be his approval of Liu Yanjie's plan.

However, he obviously has some ideas of his own regarding the specific approach.

"No problem. Mini cars are quite common in the Japanese car market."

"We can go to Japan to investigate and determine who to learn from."

What Liu Yanjie said was exactly what Tang Jiguo wanted.

Even as a factory manager, it is not easy for him to go to Japan for inspection. (End of this chapter)