My Lord, you need to stand up!

Chapter 672 That is the light

Originally, a manufacturer offered to pay for several large billboards to be erected along the roadside.

Wei Dong felt that he should leave some room for future development; how could he continue to develop if he reached his peak right after his debut?

Moreover, these days, there's a lot of deception going around. Some people are willing to spend money on advertising for cheap, low-quality cars, but when the cars turn out to be of poor quality, the exhibition center ends up being the one getting blamed for deceiving people.

First, highlight the industry role of the exhibition itself.

For example, companies like Pingqi don't need to advertise outside.

After the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the entrance of the central hall, Pingqi immediately took center stage.

A red Cherokee with gold trim and chrome wheels strutted confidently up the "piles of rocks".

A blue 212 with a white roof parked next to it also displayed its unruly off-road characteristics.

Behind the car, a huge backdrop displays the enormous "Pingjing JEEP" logo. Several other cars are open for inspection, and visitors can freely take various beautifully printed promotional materials.

With a bunch of spotlights shining on it, everyone who comes in can't help but take a few photos and pose for pictures.

The leaders were naturally surrounded by cameras.

By the way, Sister Duan arranged five temporary X camera counters inside several entrances, selling film along with the cameras!
They never stopped collecting money.

Basically, it was after seeing the Cherokee booth setup that other manufacturers, including Santana and Jiang'an, started engaging in an arms race.

Originally, it was just a simple matter of washing the car, driving it over, and maybe putting a few potted plastic flowers around it.

Now everyone is trying to create a unique platform and make the vehicles look like celebrities.

In Tianjin, they even had two guys in long robes performing crosstalk!

Describe the car model using a catchy rhyme.

The company from Guangdong had two pretty female employees posing next to the car, something Wei Dong had never seen before when he came to inspect the site!
Then Santana even brought along an MPV minivan that looked like a bullet.

Even the old security guard who had been guarding the parking lot for forty years had never seen this car before.

I was quite impressed and wanted to buy it, but they told me it was a prototype designed by the Chinese designers at the factory. In fact, the chassis, gearbox, control panel, and even the seats were all original Santana parts.

It's just a rebadged Santana.

They're quite proud that it was independently developed...

After listening for a while, Wei Dong couldn't help but speak up: "This project wasn't notified to Volkswagen? If you dare to put a Volkswagen logo on the front of the car, they can sue you for violating the law."

The factory here doesn't seem to think it's a big deal!

This gave Wei Dong a headache: "Independent research and development is a good thing, but joint ventures mean that others are authorized to use the brand. These are two different things. If we do it ourselves, we have to use our own brand..."

Jiang'an, taking advantage of its high localization rate and low pressure to import foreign exchange components, directly listed a sales price of 5.98 yuan at its booth, offering a one-stop service for on-site car purchase.

But there are a lot of people looking at it right now, but no one is placing an order.

Wei Dong hurriedly told Mao'er, who was trailing behind, to inform Shen Laosan to come and order ten cars, and to buy one from the Yuezhou factory if possible.

The car factory showroom was now bathed in spotlights, making the temperature rise considerably.

It only dimmed a bit later on.

The central hall, which is 50 meters wide and 150 meters deep, is basically filled by the five joint venture factories.

At the very back was a screening room, where they brought over the original film projector equipment from the Xishan factory to project and play a 100-year history of automobiles that Qin Zhiming had commissioned someone to edit and produce in Hong Kong.

Exactly one hundred years later, in 1886, Karl Benz built the world's first three-wheeled automobile, and two years later, Mercedes-Benz produced the world's first automobile for sale...

From countless black-and-white images from the silent film era to the later rapid development of the European and American automobile industry and motorsports, all are showcased in a short five-minute rolling screening.

This entire exhibition hall is basically a microcosm of the modern automobile industry.

Everyone in the city, along with Rang Weidong and hundreds or thousands of other viewers, looked up to watch the images on the large screen.

At the end of the film, which tells a century-long history, Wang Zhiwen's emotionally charged voice says: "History is never a specimen in a museum; it is a flowing river, and we are all ferrymen going upstream."

"The inscriptions on bronze artifacts, the imperial edicts in memorials, and the bloodstains on battle reports in history have all transformed into the fluorescence that illuminates this moment."

"When you hear Zheng He's treasure ships cleaving the waves of the Indian Ocean, do you also vaguely feel the wind blowing in from your office window?"

"When you recount the morning mist at Waterloo, does a similar mist rise from the teacup in your hand?"

"When we clumsily imitate these spark plugs and engines, when we can only see these rare imported products at exhibitions, we are also creating history. The history of the wheels rolling is not only the history of the evolution of steel and rubber, but also the history of a nation's growth from looking up to looking at others on equal terms."

They were all nodding slowly.

Especially after the five-minute presentation on a century of automotive history, there are a series of commercials featuring various world-renowned cars such as Ford, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Cadillac, and Volvo.

This is to remind all exhibitors and visitors of the huge gap.

Don't think that catching up with the gap means you can build a working car by hand with a screwdriver and file.

That was only the first step in a long march, solving the problem of whether or not we had it. The huge gap that remained required countless human and material resources to catch up.

It really is just like the gap that this exhibition hall shows.

The other three exhibition halls on either side immediately paled in comparison.

Most of the other two hundred or so car manufacturers only had one or two cars to display.

Naturally, we wouldn't need such a large booth, nor could we afford to rent such a large booth.

Even if two companies mustered the courage to follow the lead of large joint venture manufacturers and spend around 50,000 yuan on a large-scale project, the products they displayed didn't look quite right. The spraying process was substandard; the paint looked rough, like a painted wall, and this roughness became even more apparent under spotlights.

For example, the Liming car that Wei Dong used to drive in Beijing looked somewhat like a copy of Nissan or Toyota. He probably didn't do it to avoid copyright infringement, since people in China don't have that awareness at the moment, or more likely it's because they can't copy it.

In short, the square carriage was made to look ambiguous, like a square-headed, simple-minded Mr. Tree, exuding a simple-mindedness in every way.

The other vehicle that was driven, the Saibei Arrow, followed the same pattern, just like a puffed-up steamed bun.

There are no top students or high achievers to compare with, so they look alright and can be quite smug and proud.

Compared to others, the huge gap is simply shameful.

Many car manufacturers haven't obtained production licenses and can only produce vehicles under various names such as agricultural vehicles and engineering vehicles. They participate in the exhibition in the hope of gaining market influence and forcing the manufacturers to obtain production licenses.

Now I only feel pain that is distant.

In fact, many technicians from small factories came out during the exhibition setup period and wandered around the joint venture factory's exhibition hall every day. If you weren't careful, they would rush under the chassis and take out vernier calipers to measure details.

Only when the joint venture factory truly shines its brightest light on these top students will everyone realize that the "consumer" from yesterday was right.

Wei Dong accompanied several people from the city to visit the exhibition, exchanging hushed conversations until they reached the very last corner of the exhibition hall.

There are stairs leading up to the second floor, and it was here that Wei Dong was able to display all the imported cars given to him by the Hong Kong businessmen separately.

Naturally, this is also the place where the crowds are the largest.

Security personnel received the notification and managed to create a gap in time to let Wei Dong and the others go in.

In addition to the Toyota Land Cruiser and Mitsubishi Pajero that have already been sent to the plateau, there is also the Defender that Qin Yuye is using.

The remaining five cars are all parked here.

The black 5 Series BMW E28

White Toyota Corolla

Mercedes-Benz E-Class W124 with a gold-grey body and black lower waistline.

Light blue Volvo 760

A Nissan Patrol with a red body and silver trim.

These five cars, once polished and cleaned, don't need much spotlighting when they're parked there.

They all subtly exude the demeanor of a top-tier master, like a hidden monk.

The entire area is fenced off like a zoo, and entry is not permitted.

However, each vehicle has a detailed informational sign on the front.

Mercedes-Benz and BMW go without saying; they are the epitome of high-end luxury cars worldwide at this time.

Volvo is a renowned Scandinavian brand, positioned as a luxury and safety brand.

The Patrol is a champion of the Dakar Rally, emphasizing durability and reliability. Although racing cars and production cars are two different things, at least they have mastered this capability.

The Toyota Corolla may look like the most ordinary car, but it's the world's best-selling car.

Sales exceeded one million vehicles last year!
At present, the national production capacity of more than 400,000 vehicles is 90% for heavy-duty trucks and agricultural vehicles.

There are only a few thousand cars!
That's a huge difference.

But on this otherwise ordinary staircase, there is a huge promotional poster that is half the height of a floor.

Amidst the billowing smoke, a ragged soldier, carrying a large wrench, was climbing out of the trench.

The accompanying text reads: "Move forward, move upward, strive hard, and win the industrial revolution war of the new era."

Originally, he only wanted Wei Dong to vaguely remember a passage in a war museum exhibition hall thirty or forty years later, so he used the first three words.

But this made several people in the city, who had been watching very attentively and were somewhat silent, nod vigorously: "That's right! That's right, we've fought such a difficult battle, we will definitely win!"

It's true, many people walk up to the second floor from here with a smile on their face.

Upon seeing the expressions and movements of these leaders and Rang Weidong, a burst of enthusiastic applause suddenly erupted from the crowd.

Wei Dong finally smiled and pointed to the poster.

He knew that forty years later, domestically produced cars would completely outperform European and American cars.

They also knew that forty years later, this battle was still raging, with corpses strewn everywhere and the outcome uncertain.

The more effort we put in now, the more support we'll receive in the future.

But everyone felt that the sentence was full of metaphor.

Many media outlets used this poster as their cover image, emphasizing that going upwards leads to over two thousand auto parts manufacturers.

Does the core and hope of our automotive industry war lie with parts manufacturers?

The exhibition organizers are really ambitious.

So, just the next day, officials from the province arrived at the scene, followed by leaders from the Ministry of Machinery Industry, the Economic Commission, and other relevant departments, who came to Jiangzhou for inspection and research.

It has been almost four years since Jiangzhou became a separately planned city, and unexpectedly, the first resounding achievement has been made here.

(End of this chapter)