The car giant started by marrying the daughter of the king

The man is affectionate, and the concubine is interested.

The speed of this kind of cooperation is naturally very fast.

Before the Spring Festival of 1992, Yangcheng Automobile Group and Honda had already established a joint venture to produce motorcycles.

Both parties also expressed that they would further consider cooperating to establish a joint venture to produce automobiles in the future.

Under such circumstances, other car companies are also not idle.

"Edward, does the BMW Group still have no interest in establishing a joint venture with us in China?"

Murphy was not in a good mood when he looked at GM's financial report last year.

1991 was actually an unfavorable year for economic development for the whole world.

The economic downturn will naturally lead to a decline in car sales.

Murphy carefully analyzed the company's performance last year. If the growth brought by the cooperation with BMW Group was excluded, last year's sales volume actually decreased compared with the previous year.

This is definitely a difficult thing to accept.

Even if there is a reason, I can't accept it.

This is especially distressing as sales of old rivals Ford and Volkswagen have not fallen.

The sales of subsequent automakers such as Toyota Motor and Honda Motor are also increasing.

"Murphy, there are many automobile manufacturers in China that want to cooperate with BMW Group to establish a joint venture."

"But so far, except for the previously established Hongqi BMW, no factory has realized its intention."

"I have discussed this topic with Jiang Hui several times, but he was not interested."

"However, they did agree to cooperate in the production of 5AT automatic transmissions in the United States."

“It depends on whether we are willing to cooperate.”

Edward, as President of GM Asia Pacific and General Manager of GM Shanghai, returned to the headquarters to report on last year's performance.

As a test, GM launched its first MPV model in its China joint venture last year.

Although the current market performance is not particularly impressive, the results are still acceptable.

After all, MPV models are a new thing for the Chinese automobile market, and it takes some time for everyone to accept them.

"Nanshan Transmission is not the only company that has developed the 5AT automatic transmission."

"ZF and Aisin also have the same technology in this area. If we form a joint venture with Nanshan Transmission, it would be like being tied to each other."

“For us, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.”

After some careful consideration, Murphy rejected the proposal to establish a transmission joint venture.

Unless Nanshan Transmission has better technological breakthroughs in the future.

"That's right. When I return to China this time, I will visit Jiang Hui again to see if his thoughts have changed."

After listening to Murphy, Edward did not insist.

Anyway, the meaning has been conveyed, and how to make the final decision is Murphy's business.

The rapid development of China's automobile market gave him confidence in the future of Shanghai GM.

In the next few years, he plans to build a career in China.

As the leader of China's automobile industry, he certainly does not want to offend the BMW Group.

……

Many decisions in the automotive industry are often related to the actions of competitors.

Toyota has already entered China, and Honda is now also making new moves in the motorcycle field.

As one of the three largest automobile companies in Japan, Nissan is naturally not idle either.

Just after the Spring Festival in 1992, Nissan Motor, under the leadership of CITIC, established a joint venture with China's Zhengzhou Light Vehicle Manufacturing Plant.

Compared with the past when Nissan only owned 5% of the joint venture shares at the beginning, this time Nissan's share reached 30%.

This is definitely different from the practice of a general 50:50 joint venture.

However, this can be regarded as an attempt and breakthrough for Nissan.

As a newly established joint venture, the first car Nissan introduced in China was neither a sedan nor an SUV.

It's a pickup truck.

This made Great Wall Motors nervous.

"Mr. Wei, the current pickup truck market is dominated by Land Rover and us."

"After Nissan comes in, the situation will definitely change significantly, which is very disadvantageous for us."

Great Wall Motors has developed rapidly in the past two years and employee morale is very high.

Faced with the changes, everyone naturally reacted quickly.

As the head of the sales department, Yang Jincheng reported to Wei Jianjun immediately.

"Nissan's pickup trucks are mid- to high-end products, so the impact on us won't be that big in the end."

"We have already established a certain reputation in China."

"After all, there are no problems with the engine and gearbox, and the overall price is relatively favorable."

"The engines and transmissions used in Nissan's pickup trucks were imported directly from Japan, so the cost was not low."

Wei Jianjun is no longer the Wei Jianjun of the past.

Great Wall Motors is now considered one of the leaders in the domestic private automobile industry and has been profitable for two consecutive years.

All the money invested before has now been earned back.

So he is very confident.

"That's true. At the beginning, the threat to us was relatively limited."

“But I’m worried that they will go the way of government cars, after all, the majority shareholder is state-owned.”

"In this case, the other party naturally has its own advantages in purchasing official vehicles."

“Those units are not as price sensitive.”

Yang Jincheng's worry is obviously not unreasonable.

State-owned enterprises are accustomed to using their unique advantages to make some administrative push.

For example, pickup trucks, domestic power departments, and some border-related units all have a relatively large demand for their use.

If this part of the market is taken away by Nissan, it will definitely be a huge loss for Great Wall Motors.

"I believe Land Rover will not easily let Nissan take over the official car market."

"We couldn't compete with Land Rover in the first place."

"In the future, we will mainly target the mid- and low-end civilian markets, while vigorously promoting sales in the export market."

Wei Jianjun is still very opinionated and will not easily change his mind because of some reports from his subordinates.

After all, his views are not without reason.

"Then I will first pay attention to Nissan's subsequent specific actions, and then see what to do."

Seeing that his boss held this opinion, Yang Jincheng did not insist on anything.

After all, he had fulfilled his obligations.

"Lao Lu, I reported the joint venture plan to my superiors yesterday."

“We can invite Mercedes executives to come and sign the contract next week.”

Capital Automotive Group, Chen Qi sat back on the sofa, and heaved a sigh of relief. They were the first automaker in China's auto industry to establish a joint venture.

But Shouqi Jeep got up very early and arrived at the market late.

Its influence so far is not only comparable to that of Shanghai Volkswagen, but even the performances of FAW-Volkswagen and FAW Toyota are better than that of Shouqi Jeep.

If it weren't for the modified BJ212 and the economical sedans and SUVs that were launched later to barely maintain the production scale, life would have been even more difficult.

Now that Capital Mercedes has been established, Chen Qi’s pressure has been reduced a lot.

Up to now, many automobile joint ventures have been established in China.

However, there is not a single recognized luxury car brand.

Now Mercedes from Germany has chosen to establish a joint venture with Shouqi Group, which is a huge breakthrough.

They can definitely promote this as a major achievement of China in luxury car production.

No one else can deny it yet.

The key is that the Mercedes brand is relatively well recognized.

There is no problem with Shouqi bragging as much as it wants.

"Great."

"With the current selling price of imported Mercedes cars, our joint venture can definitely maintain a very good profit margin."

"By then, even if we only produce tens of thousands of Mercedes cars a year, the group's share of profits will be greater than that of all other companies combined."

During this period, Lu Jianqiang has also participated in the promotion of some projects of the joint venture.

Now that there is finally a result, I am naturally very happy.

As the deputy general manager of Capital Automotive Group, for his own personal future, he is very concerned about the future development of the group.

"The joint venture will initially import parts directly from Germany to assemble the Mercedes E-Class sedan."

"The current tight foreign exchange reserve situation is much better than in previous years."

"As long as we can sell the cars smoothly, basically foreign exchange controls won't impose too many restrictions on us."

“This is definitely good news for us.”

Shouqi suffered a loss in foreign exchange quota that year.

Shouqi Jeep was almost closed early due to foreign exchange quota issues.

Now that a new joint venture has been established, the situation can be changed drastically, and Chen Qi is naturally happy to see it happen.

"If the assembly is done through CKD, then I suggest that we can start the assembly in our existing factory in the initial stage."

“At the same time, the construction of Mercedes’ own factory in the capital will be accelerated.”

"This way, our joint venture's models can be sold on the market within this year."

The sooner it starts selling Mercedes-branded models, the better it will be for Shouqi.

This way we can earn more money and ease the pressure on the group's development.

Chen Qi certainly had no reason to object to Lu Jianqiang's plan.

"I'll leave this matter to you."

"When the new company officially starts operations, you will concurrently serve as the executive vice president and represent our group."

After Chen Qi said this, Lu Jianqiang became even happier.

Although he is the executive vice president, he is actually one of the top leaders.

After all, a company can only have one general manager, and the other one is the executive vice president.

As a joint venture, Mercedes-Benz will definitely arrange for someone to come and serve as the general manager.

By then, this boss’s business card will be positive, and in fact everyone’s rights are exactly the same.

"Mr. Chen, don't worry. I will go all out on this project and get results as quickly as possible."

The capital region needs more automobile companies to develop and expand its GDP.

Shouqi needs a joint venture to quickly increase its sales and profits.

Mercedes is now optimistic about the future development of the Chinese market.

Under such circumstances, the Capital Mercedes project is naturally progressing rapidly.

Soon, the formal joint venture agreement was signed in the capital, and many leaders of relevant departments attended the meeting.

Even China TV reported on it.

With Shouqi making such a big move, it is natural for BMW Group to not notice it.

"Mr. Jiang, the positioning of many Mercedes models is similar to our Mercedes-Benz cars."

“Although overall, their luxury attributes are higher than those of Mercedes-Benz cars.”

"But this is a greater threat to us."

"This means that for the same level of car models, they have a higher brand premium and can sell better even at a higher price."

"They didn't officially enter the Chinese market before, only a small number of models entered through import or trend channels."

"It has basically no impact on our sales, but now that the joint venture has been established."

“It would definitely be a completely different situation.”

"Then the sales price will definitely be cheaper than direct imports, and the intensity of publicity will also be different."

Chen Chenxing anxiously reported to Jiang Hui about the establishment of a joint venture between Shouqi and Mercedes.

Jiang Hui was a little surprised by this situation, but he quickly accepted it.

Historically, Mercedes had to wait until after 2000 before cooperating with Shouqi.

The reason why it is now so advanced is obviously because there have been changes in China's automobile market and its global influence.

Especially with the emergence of BMW Group, many car companies have focused their attention on China early on.

This has also made more companies pay attention to the various achievements and efforts made by China after the reform.

Naturally, everyone will have more confidence in entering the Chinese market.

"It's going to rain, and my mother wants to get married."

"Now it's Mercedes, and in the future it will probably be BMW."

"Volkswagen's Audi brand should also launch domestically produced models soon."

“Although other models such as Cadillac and Lexus may not be directly produced in China, it is estimated that official import channels will appear soon.”

"In the future, competition in the domestic luxury car market will definitely become more intense."

"But we still have the home advantage and our technology is not behind."

“I don’t think there’s anything to worry about.”

If a leader does not panic when encountering problems, the people below him will not panic either.

Otherwise, any small thing could cause problems.

Besides, there's no point in panicking about this kind of thing.

"That's true. It's impossible for Mercedes to surpass our sales."

"I will then arrange for someone to adjust the domestic market expansion strategy to maximize the influence of our Mercedes-Benz cars."

Chen Chenxing felt relieved when he saw Jiang Hui's calm look.

He has always been very confident in Jiang Hui's judgment. (End of this chapter)