The car giant started by marrying the daughter of the king

The sales volume of Mercedes-Benz S-Class is destined to not be as exaggerated as that of Land Rover Range Rover.

However, the various impacts it brought about have not decreased at all.

After all, compared with the attributes of the Land Rover Range Rover family car, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class is very suitable for use in various high-end commercial reception occasions.

If choosing between the Land Rover Range Rover and the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, companies that purchase vehicles will generally choose the Mercedes-Benz S-Class.

In important diplomatic occasions, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class is obviously more suitable than the Land Rover Range Rover.

Naturally, some people have noticed this difference.

"Boss Geng, I heard that some departments in the capital are planning to purchase a batch of Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedans as reception vehicles."

"The investment promotion department in particular is very interested in the Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedan."

"Some wealthy bosses in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta are more interested in buying a Mercedes-Benz S than a Hongqi A8."

Zhao Guangming came to Geng Weidong's office with mixed feelings and reported to him the various investigation results after the Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedan was launched.

This is definitely not a good thing for FAW.

The Hongqi A8 has placed very high expectations on them.

"The Mercedes-Benz S-Class still looks a bit too high-profile, but it can be used to entertain foreign guests and clients."

"But if it is used as a leader's official car, I think the Hongqi A8 will be more suitable and more stable."

"And this year we will launch a bulletproof version of the Hongqi A8, which will be more suitable for the needs of some special leaders."

Geng Weidong knew that he could not completely prevent Mercedes-Benz from launching products similar to Hongqi BMW.

There are so many automobile companies in the world, and there are many models with similar positioning to the Hongqi A8.

It's impossible that they can accept similar products launched by foreign giants such as Bentley, BMW, Mercedes, and Lexus, but cannot accept Mercedes-Benz cars, right?
That's really hard to explain.

"That being said, Mercedes-Benz has a special influence in China, and it will definitely have a great impact on our Hongqi A8."

"Should we communicate with Chen Chenxing and differentiate the market to avoid too fierce competition?"

Several companies work together to carve up the market and divide the pie well.

This kind of thing is not surprising in business.

That's why Zhao Guangming came up with this idea.

However, Geng Weidong is not very optimistic about this situation.

After all, the target this time is Mercedes-Benz.

"Let's wait and see for a while."

"Hongqi BMW now has three classic sedans in production, and we are also looking for cooperation with other international giants."

"Volkswagen was very interested before, and we can consider cooperating with their Audi brand."

"We will adopt the cooperation model of Mercedes-Benz and General Motors. We will produce sedans but sell them in overseas markets under the Audi brand."

"If this can be successful, it will be very good for our export sales."

"At that time, the slight impact on domestic sales by the Mercedes-Benz S-Class was not a big deal."

Compared with infighting, Geng Weidong is more interested in exporting and earning foreign exchange.

After all, the sales volume of Hongqi BMW has exceeded the important threshold of 1 vehicles per year.

The continued increase in domestic sales is certainly a great achievement, but it is certainly not as great as the foreign exchange earnings from exports.

He had previously tried to seek cooperation with auto giants using the Hongqi A6, but ultimately failed to reach an agreement due to various reasons.

Now he plans to take a step back. As long as the other party sells cooperative models, Hongqi BMW will not enter.

For example, if Audi sells the co-branded Hongqi A6 or A8 in Germany, then Hongqi BMW will give up this market.

This will avoid some embarrassing situations.

Although we can learn from some of the practices of the BMW Group, there is no need to copy them completely.

For Geng Weidong, as long as he can export 100,000 or 80,000 cars every year, it doesn't matter where they are sold, who sells them, or what brand they are.

This way, things become much easier to discuss.

"Okay, then I'll communicate with Volkswagen."

"They are still very optimistic about our Hongqi A6 and other three models."

Geng Weidong had already made a decision, so Zhao Guangming did not make things worse.

Let’s implement the leader’s plan first.

Unless the leader's plan ultimately fails, there is no point in him proposing other ideas.

It's not good for him personally either.

……

"President, Land Rover and Mercedes-Benz are essentially Chinese automakers. They have achieved such great results in the high-end automobile field."

"This gave us a lot of inspiration. The Acura brand can also not be limited to the American market."

"I think it is necessary to accelerate the pace of expansion in the European and Chinese markets in the future."

The name Acura is relatively unfamiliar to many people.

As a high-end brand under Honda Motor, its positioning is exactly the same as Toyota Motor's Lexus.

They established a new brand because they saw the luxury market in America.

However, compared with Lexus' success around the world, Acura can only be considered successful in America.

Even after another twenty years, Acura's sales will still be mainly contributed by the American market.

Since the establishment of Acura in 1986, they have mainly been engaged in the sedan field, and their positioning is somewhat similar to that of Mercedes-Benz.

"It is necessary to expand the market for Acura cars, but it is not easy to succeed."

"For example, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedan recently launched by Mercedes-Benz is better than our Acura Legend in terms of appearance, size and power performance."

“Even the price of the terminal is much higher than Legend.”

“Combined with the original Mercedes-Benz E-Class sedan, it forms a high school match.”

"Under these circumstances, our sales in the United States have begun to be affected."

As the president of Honda Motor, Nobuhiko Kawamoto has had a difficult time since taking office.

Japan's economic bubble has begun to burst and the domestic market has begun to shrink.

In the international market, Honda Motor, both the Honda brand and the Acura brand, are facing increasing competitive pressure.

"Because of this, we should take the initiative to enter the Chinese market and other markets."

“And I think we should also develop a V8 engine so that we can also have a large-displacement engine.”

"This will make it more competitive if used in high-end flagship models."

Compared to Toyota's wide range of engine displacements, Honda's is much more limited.

Whether in terms of engine style or number of models, it is not on the same level as Toyota.

Of course, the gap in vehicle sales is also obvious.

"That's what I said, but it's not that easy to do this."

"In terms of large-displacement engines, American automakers such as General Motors and Ford are among the best."

"But they were not doing well before because of the rise in oil prices."

"We are suddenly developing a large-displacement engine now. We have no experience and it will cost a lot of manpower and material resources." "Even if we develop it, it is still unclear whether it can really make our models sell better."

"In my opinion, there won't be much market for engines larger than 3.5L in the future, so we have to give up strategically."

Nobuhiko Kawamoto's ideas are obviously different from those of sales manager Munemori Mizuno.

His idea was supported by many people on the board of directors.

After all, Honda's rapid growth in America is not due to the sales of large-displacement engine models.

It's because of its fuel efficiency and durability.

Nobuhiko Kawamoto does not want to change this positioning.

The most important thing is that it is not that easy to change.

"If this is the case, then the future market influence of our Acura brand may never be comparable to that of Lexus and Mercedes-Benz."

"This will also have an impact on our entry into other markets in the future."

Mizuno Munemori said this somewhat unwillingly.

Honda has high expectations for Acura, but its development speed is not as smooth as its competitors.

As the head of sales, Mizuno Munemori also has certain pressure.

"We have to choose the path that suits us best and not just follow what others do."

"If that happens, Honda won't be Honda anymore."

Since Nobuhiko Kawamoto said so, Mizuno Munemori had no choice but to shut up.

Unless there is a better opportunity in the future, his idea will have no chance of being realized.

However, compared with Honda's stubborn idea, the situation on Nissan's side is a little different.

"President Nishikawa, this is our newly designed mid-to-large SUV plan."

"Our car is smaller than a Range Rover, but it's as big as a Highlander."

“As long as it is put into mass production and launched on the market, I think it will help Infiniti’s sales reach a new level.”

Renji Oda is the design director of Nissan Motor. In the past two years, he has been thinking about how to design car models that are popular in the market.

The various models of Land Rover and Mercedes-Benz also gave him great inspiration.

"Infiniti previously launched sedan products. If it now focuses on launching SUVs, will it affect its brand positioning?"

As the president of Nissan Motor, Taro Saikawa is not only concerned about the increase in Infiniti's sales, but also about the development of the brand's influence.

Lexus, Acura and Infiniti, the three high-end brands of Japanese car companies, all came from similar backgrounds.

But the final achievements are different.

Compared with its two older brothers, Infiniti was born a little later.

But expectations for him are high within Nissan.

"If it was a few years ago, luxury car companies did not produce SUVs. If our Infiniti were to produce SUVs, it might have a certain negative impact on the luxury attributes of the brand."

“But things have changed now.”

"Land Rover's various SUVs have fully shown consumers the benefits of SUVs."

"The launch of the Range Rover in particular has set the tone for high-end luxury SUVs."

"I heard that BMW and Mercedes are both developing similar SUVs, and Audi and Cadillac are not far behind."

"In this case, if Infiniti does not adjust our vehicle development strategy in a timely manner."

"Then our market share in the luxury car market is likely to continue to decline."

Oda Renji was not exaggerating.

But I sincerely feel so.

The rapid growth of the SUV market is something that many people can see.

It is not yet so obvious in the luxury car sector, but it is bound to be so.

If Infiniti fails to launch its own SUV model in a timely manner, its future sales will definitely be affected.

This is a situation that Oda Renji does not want to see.

"Since you think so, then start this SUV project as soon as possible."

"But we need to understand the positioning of this SUV and the situation of its competitors."

"We have to live our lives to do this. Since we are going to develop a new model, we cannot produce a product that is not competitive in the market."

When Nishikawa Taro said this, Oda Renji nodded immediately, "No problem, I'll arrange it right away."

……

"Mr. Jiang, we have heard from various sources that many automakers have stepped up their efforts to develop large SUVs and flagship sedans."

"I guess in a few years, there will be a lot more competing models for the Range Rover and Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedans."

“In order to keep the flagship model competitive, I think it is necessary to develop a larger displacement engine.”

"In the luxury car market, large displacement is synonymous with luxury."

"The performance of our V8 engine is not bad, but compared with the W12 and W16 engines, it is obviously still inferior."

As the general manager of Nanshan Engine, Hu Shuiwen naturally hopes that the company can have as many new projects as possible.

Only in this way can we continue to grow and develop.

Today, as the largest engine company in China, Nanshan Engine already has four classic engines: 1.5L, 2.5L, 3.5L and 5.7L.

But this is obviously not enough.

On the one hand, he plans to arrange people to develop 2.0L engines and 0.8L small-displacement engines to enrich product models.

On the other hand, we are preparing to start the development of the W16 engine project to further enhance the company's technological strength and influence.

Compared with the development of a 2.0L engine, which does not have much technical difficulty, this project requires more effort in terms of cost.

The situation with the W16 project is quite different.

The structure of a V8 engine is already complex.

This is obviously even more the case with the W16 engine.

There will inevitably be many technical difficulties in the future, and the development costs will not be low.

So I must report to Jiang Hui in advance.

"W16 engine, what models do you plan to use it on?"

Jiang Hui did not directly object, which made Hu Shuiwen feel relieved.

This shows that this project has potential.

"I think the Range Rover and Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedans will be able to use it in the future, and the Panamera and sports car projects of Chitu Automobile will also be able to use it."

"We can even sell it to the public. Some modified car markets also have demand for W16 engines."

When Hu Shuiwen came to Jiang Hui to report on this new project, he had obviously done investigations in all aspects.

Otherwise, I wouldn't speak so easily.

Either succeed or don't mention it.

This is Hu Shuiwen's working attitude. (End of this chapter)