The car giant started by marrying the daughter of the king

The development history of international automobile giants generally lasts for several decades.

Some of the older ones are almost a hundred years old.

These companies have been able to grow to their current scale, so naturally they all have their own strengths.

"Murphy, we have contacted the manufacturers in China. From our preliminary analysis, the Shanghai Automobile Manufacturing Plant should be a more suitable joint venture partner."

"Shanghai Automobile Manufacturing Plant has already established Shanghai Volkswagen with Volkswagen and has sufficient experience in joint ventures."

"In addition, the localization project of Shanghai Volkswagen's Santana sedan has also cultivated a group of local suppliers."

"The automotive industry chain in the entire Yangtze River Delta region is relatively complete."

"After we set up Shanghai General Motors Co., Ltd., we can immediately introduce a new model and find local suppliers to cooperate with."

As a representative of General Motors, Edward has frequently visited China in recent times and communicated with several manufacturers including FAW, Shouqi, and Second Automobile Works.

But judging from the final situation, it is obvious that Shanghai Automobile is more satisfactory.

"Shanghai is a well-known city in China, and its conditions in all aspects are indeed quite complete."

"Our technicians should also be relatively willing to work there."

"But, hasn't the BMW Group considered cooperating with us?"

Obviously, Murphy is quite satisfied with the cooperation with BMW Group over the past few years.

When entering a completely new market, it is natural to want to find a familiar partner.

"From my communication with Jiang Hui and others, the BMW Group is taking an independent and autonomous development path."

"There is no intention to establish a joint venture with any car company."

"And even if they are willing to cooperate with us, I don't think it is necessarily a good thing."

“We need a partner that is relatively weak but has some influence.”

“Although Shanghai Auto’s influence in China is not as great as that of FAW and Second Automobile Works, it has a good geographical location.”

"Huaxia has recently focused on developing the new district in Shanghai. If we go there to invest now, we can get many preferential policies and receive relatively strong support."

After Edward's explanation, Murphy could completely understand it.

He also has an idea of ​​what kind of partner General Motors wants.

The cooperation between two powerful companies may seem like a strong alliance, but it is very likely that the final result will be far from ideal.

After all, everyone wants autonomy.

As a global automobile giant, General Motors is certainly unwilling to give up its autonomy.

This is especially true when it comes to key product design and other aspects.

"Since you think Shanghai Auto is more suitable, then finalize the cooperation plan as soon as possible."

"Then the two parties formally signed the agreement and started the construction of the new factory."

"When the factory is completed, we hope to be able to mass-produce our new products simultaneously."

Murphy has also noticed the rapid changes in China's automobile market.

If we start building the factory now, it will take until the end of 1990, or even 1991, to be completed at the earliest.

By that time, China's economic situation and car sales will definitely be better than they are now.

If we wait any longer, by the time other car companies take action, it will be too late.

"No problem. Shanghai Automobile is also eager to cooperate with us."

"Neither party will be particularly entangled in the details of some specific terms."

"But what they care about more is that they hope that both of us can set up a research and development company at the same time to develop models that meet the needs of the Chinese market."

“This is a little different.”

Edward mentioned some specific issues in the cooperation and wanted to discuss them with Murphy.

During this period, he also got to know the situation of other joint ventures in China.

Basically, a joint venture is just a production plant without any R&D function.

But this time, Shanghai Automobile obviously has some ideas.

"The situation in the Chinese auto market is quite different from ours."

"It is not impossible to consider developing R&D capabilities appropriately."

"Anyway, China already has large automobile companies like the BMW Group, so automobile research and development is not a big problem for them."

"If we just keep it secret, there's actually nothing to keep secret."

Murphy thought about it and felt that this condition was acceptable.

To some extent, this can be regarded as the impact that the emergence of BMW Group has brought to China's automobile industry.

When large international companies enter China, there is usually only one criterion for whether they will also place their R&D functions in China.

That is, for the products we produce, whether China has the same level of R&D capabilities.

If the answer is yes, then these companies will actively set up R&D centers in China to enhance their competitiveness.

On the other hand, people are generally reluctant to place their R&D functions in China, for fear that their technology will be stolen by others.

Historically, most Chinese joint venture car companies did not have any R&D capabilities in their early days.

It is basically the same for various other joint ventures.

"Yeah, I think so too."

"After setting up a joint venture R&D company in China, we may be able to recruit some R&D personnel from the BMW Group."

"At that time, we can also consider arranging these R&D personnel to travel to America, or even work there."

When Edward said this, Murphy immediately understood.

The BMW Group has developed rapidly in recent years, and the various new products it has developed are very competitive.

It would be a lie to say that GM had no interest at all.

But through the efforts of the past few years, everyone has discovered that it is not easy to poach people from the BMW Group.

Ordinary technicians, they don't want them.

It is difficult to poach people who have mastered core technologies.

But if a joint venture is established in Shanghai, the situation will be different.

They also specifically learned that the city of Shanghai is quite special in the hearts of the Chinese people.

There are not many Chinese people who would refuse to work in Shanghai.

……

Naturally, Chinese car companies have also felt the various actions taken by General Motors.

Especially the Shanghai automobile factory, the response was very timely.

"Mr. Yu, I think that in the future the group will rely on the two joint ventures, Shanghai Volkswagen and Shanghai GM, to vigorously develop the car industry."

"The group will mainly focus on commercial vehicles, and then appropriately develop new products of 'Shanghai brand' sedans to form a three-legged situation."

"By then, it will be no problem for us to surpass the scale of FAW and Second Automobile Works."

Although Wang Huiliang is now the executive vice president of Shanghai Volkswagen, he is also the vice president of Shanghai Automobile Group.

Therefore, he also participated in various negotiations between Shanghai Automobile and General Motors.

Even because he had experience in cooperating and communicating with Volkswagen, he played a significant role in the negotiations with General Motors.

"Your suggestion is good. If our group wants to grow and develop, we must take a differentiated approach."

"We cannot compete with the BMW Group simply by relying on our own strength."

"But with the help of two international auto giants, Volkswagen and General Motors, the situation is completely different."

"By then, we will not only have to surpass FAW and Second Automobile Works, we will also have to find a way to surpass BMW Group."

Yu Jin is also in high spirits now.

General Motors made considerable concessions and the cooperation between the two parties has basically been reached.

The cooperation agreement will be officially signed next week.

At that time, not only relevant leaders from Shanghai will attend, but people from higher authorities will also participate.

Even the American Embassy and some related personnel will be present.

It can be said that Shanghai General is the largest newly established enterprise with the largest investment scale after the superior authorities introduced policies to vigorously develop Shanghai.

Under this kind of trend, you can naturally enjoy a lot of attention.

"I think it's entirely possible."

"GM is very sincere this time. From the beginning of the cooperation, it is ready to introduce both a sedan and an MPV model."

"Among them, the MPV model is going to be developed in the joint research institute we have established."

"And once our joint venture is established, we will immediately start the construction of the new factory."

"The planned production capacity for the first phase is 12 vehicles, and there is room to expand to 24 vehicles."

"As long as we speed up, we hope to be able to officially start production before the end of next year."

Wang Huiliang still attaches great importance to the joint venture project with Shanghai GM.

Especially when we were working with Volkswagen before, we did not give enough consideration to research and development.

As a result, all changes to drawings need to be approved by Volkswagen headquarters, which is not very efficient.

To a certain extent, the slow progress of the Santana sedan's localization project is also related to this factor.

After all, the drawing shows a certain material grade, and if we want to switch to the same grade of material in China, we need to change the drawing.

After this information was fed back to Volkswagen and went through an internal process, several months had passed.

If we go back to China, we will waste even more time.

Now Shanghai GM will directly set up a Shanghai Pan Asia Automotive Design Co., Ltd. to undertake development and design tasks for Shanghai GM.

That's very different.

This is the first R&D enterprise invested by an international automobile giant in China.

The meaning is very different.

"Mercedes-Benz's new factory is already under rapid construction, and it is said that the layout of its production line is quite modern."

“The capacity planning is very bold.”

"I think the BMW Group has done a good job in this regard."

"When the time comes, we can fully communicate with Nanshan Equipment regarding the design of the production line and equipment procurement."

Whether for the purpose of saving foreign exchange or improving efficiency, Yu Jin this time supported the production equipment of Shanghai GM's new factory to be handed over to Nanshan Equipment.

Even if he is a little unhappy with the BMW Group, it will not affect the cooperation.

"Yeah, that's what I thought too."

"This order should also meet the expectations of our superiors."

Wang Huiliang was naturally able to figure out the various intricacies involved.

There was no reason to oppose this plan, both publicly and privately. As for whether GM would agree, they were not particularly worried.

In recent years, the cooperation between General Motors and BMW Group has been very close.

Even some of the equipment at General Motors' overseas factories is supplied by Nanshan Equipment.

"We must prepare well for the signing ceremony next week and avoid any mistakes."

"Then the Huaxia TV station will definitely broadcast related news."

Seeing that the big project was about to be implemented, Yu Jin couldn't help but feel a little nervous.

In his opinion, Shanghai Automobile Group is about to enter a new stage of development and cannot afford to make any mistakes.

……

"Director, Shanghai Auto will officially sign a joint venture contract with General Motors in a few days to establish Shanghai GM, and will import several new products into China for production at once."

Although such important information has not yet been officially announced to the public, it is impossible to keep it completely confidential.

Especially for FAW, they have extensive connections in the automotive industry.

Among the superior management units, many people used to work at FAW.

In addition, General Motors has previously discussed cooperation with FAW.

It's just that the two sides didn't reach an agreement on the conditions.

In this case, FAW is naturally also very concerned about GM's next move.

"American companies have always been more interested in setting up factories in Shanghai. Other cities are not as attractive to them."

"We already have three joint ventures, namely FAW-Volkswagen, FAW-Toyota and Hongqi-BMW. It is not that meaningful for us to continue to cooperate with GM."

Although Geng Weidong felt a little regretful, he could accept it.

After all, FAW already has several joint ventures, and if it continues to have too many, it may not necessarily be a good thing.

I guess General Motors has also seen this and is worried that FAW's resources are too dispersed and it will not be able to provide sufficient support to General Motors.

"I feel that Shanghai Automobile has great ambitions this time."

"Volkswagen and General Motors, two international auto giants, have established joint ventures with them."

"In addition, the Santana localization project has been going well in the past few years. I heard that the localization of the new generation of sedans is also underway."

"Add to that the cooperation from General Motors, and they will have a lot of cards in their hands by then."

Relatively speaking, Zhao Guangming was a little unhappy.

He felt the crisis and worried that FAW would be overtaken by the Shanghai Automobile Group in the future.

That would be embarrassing.

One is a vice-ministerial enterprise, and the other is a bureau-level enterprise, there is a difference of half a level between them.

"The superiors are now strongly supporting the development of Shanghai. As one of the largest state-owned enterprises in the area, Shanghai Automobile Group naturally has a lot of ideas."

“But the automotive industry is not something that can develop as quickly as they want.”

"General Motors has chosen to cooperate with BMW Group in the United States, which shows that its strength is not as strong as we thought."

"At least in terms of new product development, I think that's the case."

"It would be better for us to cooperate with BMW Group and increase the sales of Hongqi BMW."

"When the Hongqi A4, Hongqi A6 and Hongqi A8 are launched simultaneously, we won't have to worry about being surpassed in sales."

Geng Weidong is very optimistic about the prospects of Hongqi BMW.

The Hongqi A6, which has been launched on the market, has now become the official car of many government agencies.

The Hongqi A4 and Hongqi A8, which are currently under development, are also making relatively ideal progress.

Basically, there is hope for mass production next year.

By then, FAW will be able to secure its second place in the industry.

As for the first place, it must be the BMW Group, and Geng Weidong has no intention of surpassing it.

"Yes, but this time Shanghai General Motors keeps bringing up the R&D company's issues. I don't think this is good news for us."

None of FAW's three current joint ventures have R&D capabilities.

The more Shanghai Automobile emphasizes this aspect, the more it is a slap in their faces.

"Although Shanghai GM has a supporting R&D company, it is not certain that the other party will really take over the core technology."

"By then, the so-called R&D company will probably just do some patchwork work."

"Besides, when it comes to R&D capabilities, who can compare to the BMW Group's R&D center?"

"I heard that the number of R&D personnel alone is more than 5000."

After Geng Weidong said this, Zhao Guangming couldn't help but nodded.

This is indeed the truth.

The R&D company of Shanghai GM is not the first automobile R&D company in China.

Not to mention the strength.

It seems that I have been worrying too much.

……

"Director, FAW has three joint ventures: FAW-Volkswagen, FAW-Toyota, and Hongqi-BMW."

"Shanghai Automobile also has two joint ventures, Shanghai Volkswagen and Shanghai GM."

"In addition to the already established Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile, Second Automobile Works is also said to be negotiating business cooperation with Cummins Engine of the United States. It is estimated that the two parties will soon establish a joint venture."

"By then, several large domestic automobile companies will have several joint ventures."

"On the contrary, we got up early and established Shouqi Jeep, but now we are a step behind in the development of joint venture business."

I saw that China TV had already reported the news that Shanghai General Motors was established yesterday.

The Capital Automobile Manufacturing Plant naturally also paid attention to this news.

Lu Jianqiang, who had become the deputy factory director, immediately found Chen Qi to discuss countermeasures.

As an automobile company in the capital region, Capital Automobile Manufacturing has never been content with being ordinary.

The efforts made over the past years have yielded some results.

Even now, with the support of products such as Shouqi Zhiguang and BJ212, their sales are still decent.

However, seeing that competitors were developing rapidly and domestic private automobile companies continued to emerge, Lu Jianqiang became a little anxious.

"Your concerns are justified."

"If we had known this earlier, we could have made more concessions when negotiating with GM."

Chen Qi now feels a little regretful.

Because Capital Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd. had suffered losses from some joint ventures, when General Motors came to them, Capital Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd. offered some conditions that the other party could not accept.

Before they could decide whether to make concessions, General Motors had already reached an agreement with Shanghai Automobile.

Chen Qi naturally felt a little regretful.

General Motors is now the world's largest automobile company, so the significance is very different.

Unlike AMC Automobile, the partner of Shouqi Jeep, which no longer exists.

This joint venture is one of the more embarrassing ones among all the joint ventures in China.

It was obviously the first one to be established, but its performance has always been poor.

"There are many international auto giants. In addition to General Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen and Peugeot Citroen, which have already entered China, there are also Hyundai Motor from Korea, Mercedes and BMW from Germany, and Fiat from Rome, and other companies that have not yet established joint ventures in China."

"We still have a lot of opportunities."

After Lu Jianqiang said this, Chen Qi felt a little better.

There are many international automobile giants, and many of them have not yet officially entered the Chinese market.

There are indeed still many opportunities left for them.

I just don't know which opportunity they can seize.

……

"Mr. Jiang, General Motors contacted us once and there was no further communication."

"In the end, they chose to cooperate with Shanghai Automobile."

Chen Chenxing came to Jiang Hui's office feeling a little unhappy.

Although BMW Group has no particular interest in establishing a joint venture with General Motors.

But he was a little unhappy because General Motors, its main partner, chose Shanghai Auto.

This is a normal psychological reaction.

"If GM cooperates with us, then whose models will be produced will be a question."

"They are also worried that they will not be able to take the initiative in the process of cooperating with us."

"It is not a bad thing for us to choose to cooperate with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation now."

"Otherwise, I'm worried that the joint venture's affairs will affect our cooperation in the American market."

As long as there is cooperation, there will be filthiness.

Especially in joint ventures, there are bound to be some conflicts.

Relatively speaking, BMW Group has greater interests in America.

I don't want to strain the relationship with General Motors because of the joint venture.

But Jiang Hui didn't want to give in because of this, as he had no say in the joint venture in China.

This will affect the BMW Group's brand image in the local market.

The losses will be greater by then.

"That's true, but this time GM not only established a joint venture factory, but also a joint venture R&D company."

"This is a precedent for the establishment of a joint venture company."

"It seems that the other party wants to gain a lot of things."

Chen Chenxing interpreted a lot of information from the details of a collaboration.

This can be considered as a result of his growth over the years.

“It’s not easy for a research and development company to really make a difference.”

“Unless GM is really willing to send a large number of R&D personnel to teach the people in the joint venture how to do things.”

"Otherwise, it will not have a particularly big impact on the domestic auto industry in the short term."

Jiang Hui, on the other hand, had a more thorough understanding of many things and was not very worried.

The emergence of various joint venture automobile companies is basically an inevitable result of historical development.

There is no use in blocking.

When the enemy comes, we will fight him; when the water comes, we will block it with earth. (End of this chapter)