May 2005.
The auto industry spent the entire holiday season in a cacophony.
But for Xingchen Motors, things outside are no longer important now.
No one is interested in caring anymore.
Because the first prototype of Xingchen 1 is about to roll off the assembly line.
If the development of a new model starts from scratch, and according to the way international auto parts giants do things, it will involve many production runs in different stages and batches.
At the beginning, many parts were in a state where the specifications had not yet been finalized. It was just a matter of making the actual car so that it could run normally on the road.
As for the navigation, seats, instruments and other things, some things are not perfect yet, so you can work on them slowly.
This stage is mainly to verify the fit of some parts, the size of the parts and the durability of the part.
After the verification is completed, the drawings will be readjusted and a batch of technical verification vehicles will be produced again.
Use these verification vehicles to continue to conduct various tests to determine whether the specifications of each part need to be adjusted.
Then after re-drawing the drawing, you can basically notify the supplier to officially open the permanent mold.
There are still several batches of parts and prototype cars produced by suppliers based on Hengjiu's molds.
For example, it is necessary to produce a few cars and send them to go through some certification procedures and tests by ministries and commissions.
Then we need to take a batch of cars that are similar to mass production status for various durability tests, and adjust the drawings in a timely manner after problems are discovered.
Of course, normally at this stage, there won't be any big problems.
After all, early development has already verified two stages.
After that, we will do some trial production in terms of quality, production rhythm, production training, etc. in order to prepare for formal large-scale mass production.
For Xingchen Motors, the two early stages of technical verification were directly combined into one.
That is to say, the prototype car is about to roll off the production line now. After testing, the drawings are adjusted, and the supplier is ready to be notified to make the mold.
After that, we will produce two or three batches of prototype cars, giving everyone a process of adjusting molds, adjusting production lines, and training employees, and then we can enter mass production.
Since it is a model limited to 10,000 units, the number of units produced per day is destined to be low.
In this way, some large-scale mass production verification work can even be skipped directly.
Because this car is actually not produced on a large scale.
According to the current development of the automobile industry, if you don't produce 10,000 cars a month, or even a few thousand cars, how can you talk about mass production?
"Mr. Cao, this actual car is much more beautiful than the drawings."
"The appearance alone can attract a group of people to buy it."
Mi Ying followed Cao Yang and watched Xingchen No. 1 slowly come down from the production line, her beautiful eyes shining brightly.
Looking at the models of this era from the perspective of future generations, 90% of them are ugly.
And the Pamela of later generations, even among the stars, has a very outstanding appearance.
In 2005, the impact was even more needless to say.
"This appearance is indeed impactful, and paired with our 3.0T twin-turbocharged engine and 8AT automatic transmission, the power is also very sufficient."
"If the W12 engine is put in later, no one would dare to question its coupe positioning."
"I have a hunch that we are limited to 10,000 units. Will the supply exceed demand by then?"
Zeng Tingting now has great confidence in Xingchen No. 1.
Based on this appearance, there is absolutely no opponent.
The engines provided by Nanshan Engine are both excellent and decent in the same class, so what is there to worry about?
It’s just a matter of how much the price will be at that time.
"Our Star-1 is very good, there is no doubt about it."
"If such a model had the badge of Mercedes-Benz or BMW, then it would be sold for more than one million yuan, not to mention five or six million, and it would definitely be sold very hot."
"So I think the next step the company may need to start thinking about is how to improve the brand influence of Xingchen Motors and let everyone recognize that Xingchen Motors is a luxury car."
“Domestic consumers attach great importance to face when buying cars.”
"When a car is driven out, everyone thinks it is a respectable car to drive, that it is valuable, and that the brand is strong enough. This is a very important thing."
“As for the performance of the car, although it is also important, I think the prerequisite must be to make everyone feel that driving a Xingchen car is dignified and luxurious.
Rao Yongxiang is naturally very confident in Xingchen Automobile and thinks it is a very good product.
But a good product does not mean that the market performance is good.
As an old man in the automobile industry, Rao Yongxiang has a very accurate grasp of the minds of Chinese consumers.
Why does the BMW X1 sell so well in later generations?
Is it really because the BMW X1 has very good performance and rich configurations?
Damn it!
That's totally selling car badges.
For some models of the same platform from Audi and Volkswagen, the difference in car logos is even more obvious.
Similarly, some so-called luxury brands failed in China, not because their cars were bad, but because their brand power was insufficient.
For example, the Acura RDX, which was later owned by Honda Motor Co., actually sold quite well in the United States, but it was not available in China.
In terms of its product strength, it is really not worse than the Audi Q5, but the car standard is too different.
Cao Yang naturally had a very clear understanding of this.
"Mr. Rao is right. How to enhance the brand power of Xingchen Motors is the next key point to consider."
"Now that the prototype car has been produced, the development work is 80% completed."
"Next, my focus will be on improving the brand power of Xingchen Automobile."
Cao Yang was thinking quickly about how to improve the brand's influence.
It's already 2005.
If it's fast, Xingchen Auto will be officially launched in December this year; if it's slow, it will be launched in the first half of 2006.
The life cycle of a model is at least four to five years, which means that it will not consider launching a new generation of replacement models until after 2010.
In this life cycle, it is definitely necessary to promote something sooner, the better the effect.
"Famous car brands often enhance their brand power by participating in car events."
"For example, Ferrari is a frequent visitor to F1 events, which should be very beneficial to Ferrari's brand improvement."
"In addition, some advertising placement in TV movies is also something that can be considered."
"Various car companies such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi should already be working hard in this regard."
“Then there is advertising, but the price/performance ratio is not that high.”
As the director of the sales department, Zeng Tingting must have something to do with improving brand power.
This matter may not seem complicated, but it is not easy at all to achieve the goal.
"Inviting some superstars to endorse, or finding ways to make some domestic wealthy people willing to buy and ride Star 1, should also be beneficial to enhancing the brand's power."
Mi Ying also intervened very actively.
If it's a very professional technical issue, she usually doesn't interrupt.
But she still has a lot of ideas for improving brand power.
After all, this kind of task is sometimes just a matter of inspiration.
"Everyone should think about it carefully. The project team will hold a special meeting tomorrow to discuss this issue again."
Cao Yang has already solved the main technical and appearance problems of components on Xingchen No.1.
Although the prototype has not yet been tested, he is actually very confident.
For him, this car no longer requires any effort on his own in terms of development.
Now it’s time to consider other things.
…
The Xingchen No. 1 prototype vehicle rolling off the assembly line is still kept secret.
Except for some employees inside Xingchen Automobile who have personally seen its appearance, most people don't even know about it.
Of course, Fang Sisi is not someone who needs to be kept secret.
With different backgrounds and different jobs, Fang Sisi can really provide Cao Yang with some inspiration sometimes.
So during dinner that night, Cao Yang took the initiative to talk to Fang Sisi about the improvement of Xingchen Auto's brand power.
"Your question is very small, but it is also very big."
"Domestic independent brands have until now given the impression that they are synonymous with cheapness and low-end."
"If Xingchen Motors wants to get rid of this image, it cannot be accomplished by doing one or two things alone."
“It’s not even possible to completely build your brand image in a year or two, but it requires a long-term process.”
"Be it Mercedes-Benz, BMW, or luxury cars such as Porsche, Ferrari, and Rolls-Royce, they have achieved today's results after a lot of historical accumulation."
"For luxury brands, if there are no historical and cultural factors in it, it is actually more difficult to establish such a brand image."
As a reporter from China Channel, coupled with her own family background, Fang Sisi really has a different perspective on the issue Cao Yang mentioned.
"Indeed, in recent decades, among the newly established luxury car brands, Toyota Motor's Lexus has been relatively successful."
"When the first model was launched, both its appearance and power had a huge impact on American consumers."
"Our current situation is somewhat similar. There are definitely no problems in terms of appearance and power."
"In terms of various luxurious configurations and parts performance, I have nothing to worry about."
"To put it bluntly, our Xingchen One is not shy at all when compared to the BMW 730."
"But there is still a big gap between Xingchen Automobile's brand power and BMW."
"I feel that Xingchen Automobile cannot simply develop domestically, but also needs to simultaneously expand its development space in the international market."
"This way it is possible to truly establish your own sense of luxury."
In front of Fang Sisi, Cao Yang said whatever he thought of.
It doesn’t matter whether it is admiring foreign things or favoring foreigners, or anything else.
In this era, if you establish a high-end image abroad, it will definitely be much easier to promote it domestically.
In turn, the difficulty increases by more than an order of magnitude.
"Any luxury model cannot be sold only in its own country, otherwise the sense of luxury will not exist at all."
"Whether it is the American market, the European market, or the Middle East, they can actually be used as a breakthrough."
"As long as we have a foothold in these three markets, it will be easier to develop the domestic market."
"However, it sounds easy to say, but it is actually very difficult to do."
Fang Sisi hopes that Xingchen Automobile will succeed, but she actually has a lot of worries in her heart.
"middle East?"
"I really haven't considered this place before."
"But you reminded me that those big customers in the Middle East are customers with great potential for luxury car consumption."
"It would indeed be a good thing if we could get their approval."
Cao Yang thought about it and felt that the three major international markets mentioned by Fang Sisi were indeed summarized very well.
Japan and Korea, for example, are also major automobile consumers.
But it is too difficult for Xingchen No. 1 to open up the situation there.
The United States, Europe, and the Middle East are different.
The car market there is relatively open.
Xingchen Automobile can do a lot of things.
"Isn't there a lot of fuss about hot stamping some time ago?"
"I think you can also learn from some of the publicity strategies adopted by Great Wall Motors."
"Extensive use of hot-stamped bodywork, excellent power performance and extremely low drag coefficient styling, and then find some promotional points from the equipment you carry."
"I think there should still be stories to tell."
Fang Sisi was very active in being able to participate in Cao Yang's work.
"Do you think the advertising on China Channel is valuable?"
Cao Yang would naturally consider what Fang Sisi said.
However, thinking that she was a reporter from China Channel, Cao Yang wanted to know more about the advertising business.
After all, if you want to advertise on domestic TV stations, there must be no more suitable place than China Television.
"It's quite expensive, but I think if you want to advertise domestically, there is a better way."
Fang Sisi suddenly thought of something and couldn't help but get excited. She continued: "The Olympics will be in three years. This is definitely a grand event for China."
"Have you ever considered making Star One the official Olympic reception vehicle?"
"Especially a high-end car?"
When Fang Sisi said this, Cao Yang's eyes lit up.
The Olympics.
How come I almost forgot about it?
As an official reception car, this is definitely very beneficial to enhancing brand power.
At the same time, it seems entirely possible to find some potential sports stars as endorsements.
Of course, we must be looking for celebrities with global influence.
The best thing is a star who is not particularly famous now, but will be famous in the future, and can be famous for a long time, without any major negative news.
Finding the right one can be of great benefit to Xingchen Auto's brand improvement.
"Sisi, your proposal is great."
"I will arrange for someone to contact the Olympic Organizing Committee tomorrow to see how to obtain this qualification."
Fang Sisi's suggestion made sense, and Cao Yang naturally agreed without any hesitation.
"I don't think you need to ask someone from the company to contact you directly, as that won't be very effective."
"For something as important as the Olympics, there will definitely be many manufacturers targeting this designated vehicle."
"If you just rely on yourself to contact us, the effect won't be very good."
"It's better to let Lingnan Province help you to advance. If you cooperate by the side, the probability of success will be higher."
"If you can have someone with a higher level come to your company to visit the situation of Xingchen No. 1, it will be of greater help to this matter."
Different family backgrounds lead to different ways of thinking about problems.
For the same thing, the method Cao Yang came up with was obviously not as in line with the national conditions as Fang Sisi's.
"We at Xingchen Automobile have quite a lot of things that we can get our hands on now."
"But if you invite people to come and participate, the appearance probably needs to be exposed in advance."
Cao Yang quickly weighed the pros and cons in his mind to see if this matter would be beneficial to Xingchen Automobile.
Normally, the prototype vehicles used in the development phase of Star-1 will not be exposed to the public.
Only after the prototype vehicles produced using Hengjiu molds roll off the production line will we start to consider external publicity.
However, the development cycle of Xingchen Automobile has been greatly compressed compared with traditional automobile giants.
The gap between the current prototype car in the development stage and the prototype car produced by Hengjiu Mold is actually only five or six months.
If it is exposed in advance, just change the way of publicity, maybe the effect will be better?
"Your proposal is very good. I will go back and find a way to promote it."
If it were an ordinary enterprise, even if Fang Sisi could mention such a method, there would be no way to implement it.
After all, asking leaders to visit your company is not something you can just invite successfully.
You can't even find where the invitation door opens.
But Nanshan Group is different.
As the largest private enterprise in Lingnan Province and a star enterprise in Yangcheng, if you want to be invited, you still have a chance.
Leaders from all levels of Lingnan Province have already visited. If they come again, there will normally be higher-level visitors.
…
"Brother, you are still awesome. Without any hesitation, you agreed to build another factory next to Nanshan Industrial Park specifically to support Xingchen Automobile."
"In order to invest in the production of large-scale stamping equipment and hot stamping production lines with four doors and two covers, the company even sought a bank loan of 200 million."
"Now that I have seen the prototype of Xingchen No. 1, I feel that all my original worries were unnecessary."
Inside the Yangcheng Huaqiang Factory, Guo Shufu chatted with Guo Shuyin for a long time in a very excited mood.
As a major stamping parts manufacturer, Yangcheng Huaqiang Factory has actually known something about the shape of Xingchen No. 1 for a long time.
But those are all shapes deduced from various drawings, and they still feel somewhat different from the actual car.
This time, the prototype car in the development stage has rolled off the production line. For important suppliers such as Huaqiang Factory, their general manager and sales department director have to visit it together. Obviously, it can still be approved.
Guo Shufu, who had long wanted to see how amazing the actual Xingchen No. 1 car was, naturally started to contact the relevant personnel of Xingchen Automobile on the day the car came off the assembly line. After seeing it, he was completely excited. .
Perfect!
Awesome!
Guo Shufu, who feels that his education level is not low, can only use these words to describe the prototype of Star One at this time.
If he hadn't known that the shape of the mass-produced model was the same as the current prototype, he would have thought the car was just a concept car.
After all, the appearance of the cars of various automobile giants, including concept cars, will be cooler.
Generally, mass-produced models are very ordinary.
"I was gambling at the beginning."
"Mr. Cao has been successful these years and will continue to be successful in the future."
"Now it seems that I made the right bet."
"Although the production quantity of Xingchen 1 will not be large, after a good start, many things will be easier to handle."
"In the future, with the supply from Xingchen Automobile, we will definitely be able to make the Huaqiang factory stand out from local suppliers in China."
"By then, it will not be impossible to even follow the pace of Nanshan Group and become one of the top 100 auto parts companies in the world."
Guo Shuyin's current ambitions are also growing.
In the past, he thought that as long as he could turn the company into a factory with an output value of over 100 million, it would be very good.
Now he hopes to turn Yangcheng Huaqiang Factory into an enterprise with an output value of more than 1 billion.
In the future, he hopes that the company's size will exceed 10 billion yuan.
Then he feels that he has no other pursuits in this life.
"Hold tightly to the lap of Nanshan Group and develop with them. It is really a very correct path for us."
"The 30% share originally given was really the right thing to give."
Aaron Kwok could not be more satisfied with his cooperation with Nanshan Group.
This is simply a noble person in the development of Yangcheng Huaqiang Factory.
…
"Mr. Zhou, I didn't expect that this LED headlight was successfully made and mounted on the Star-1."
"The day before yesterday, I went to the test site of Xingchen Auto to see in person the appearance of Xingchen 1 with LED headlights installed. It was very amazing."
Zhou Wenjing, as the sales director of Xingyu Auto Lighting, is the niece of general manager Zhou Ling.
This time, the first prototype of Xingchen No. 1 rolled off the production line. Some key suppliers all had the opportunity to go to the scene to see it.
As a part closely related to the appearance of the car, Zhou Wenjing naturally had the opportunity to watch it on site.
"Before, from the appearance design of the car lights, we could already feel that the design style of Xingchen One was very different from that of current domestic companies."
"I heard that it is a coupe-style model. If the styling is as amazing as you said, I will consider buying one by then."
Zhou Ling was in a good mood when she saw her excited niece.
Xingchen No. 1 is equipped with LED headlights from Xingyu Auto Lighting. This is also the first time that a mass-produced model is equipped with LED headlights.
For Xingyu car lights, they naturally have extraordinary significance.
With this mounting case, it will be much easier to go to various manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW to promote LED headlight technology in the future.
Even Xingchen One is equipped with LED headlights, which will force other luxury models to consider using LED headlight technology in advance.
This is a good thing for Xingyu car lights.
"It is indeed worth buying one. If the price was not so exaggerated, I would want to buy one."
"Driving a car like that out is definitely more impressive than driving a BMW 5 Series."
Zhou Wenjing is only in her thirties this year, so her mentality is naturally relatively young.
She has a good family background and already has her own car.
"Now the samples have been installed on the prototype car. When it is officially mass-produced later, we can't let it slip."
"The company paid such a high price to acquire the technology of LED headlights. It would be a pity if it was not fully utilized."
"This represents the future of car lighting."
Zhou Ling also struggled for many days before finally deciding to cooperate with Nanshan Group.
Judging from the current situation, this decision seems to be the right one.
The future development of the company is worth looking forward to.
As these suppliers visited the Xingchen No. 1 prototype, some people in the industry naturally heard some rumors.
(End of chapter)
