The day after the negotiation with Rao Bing, Chen Zhiwen learned from some channels that the leaders of the First Machinery Department and the Ministry of Machinery Industry recognized Chen Zhiwen's cooperation plan. Although there were still some issues that needed to be discussed, the general direction Basically there is no problem.
Two days later, Gu Dehua, who came from the United States, came to Yanjing City with AMC's new negotiation team.
"Come, sit down? Have you been to the mainland before?" Chen Zhiwen asked with a smile in the pavilion outside the courtyard. These days, the sun is relatively strong and there is no wind. It is good to go out and bask in the sun. There is a small pavilion inside the courtyard. The fountain was frozen.
"I've never been here before. This is my first time." Gu Dehua replied.
"Although the economy here in China is a little worse, the natural scenery and some historical sites in Yanjing are still good. In my spare time, I can take those Americans to play more, but it's a bit cold." Chen Zhiwen said.
"It's okay to be cold. Over in the United States, if there is a cold wave, the temperature will drop faster. I remember one year, when I was in Chicago, the temperature dropped by 30 degrees Celsius in one day. That was terrible. I almost froze to death." Gu Dehua smiled and said.
"It has indeed been a bit cold in the past two years." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, "Lao Gu, I have basically set the direction of future cooperation with Minister Rao in China. Don't care about the profits in the past ten years, as long as they are not losses. It doesn’t matter if it’s too outrageous. This market is worthy of our development for ten years. Ten years later, when the mainland economy begins to improve, that’s when we will reap the rewards.
Therefore, those who should cooperate should cooperate well, and the localization of parts and components must be the most attentive. Ignore Hughes and others. They only want to export CKD parts from the United States for development. This is short-sighted. "
In the original history, although the time was somewhat different, the two joint ventures SAIC-Volkswagen and Yanjing Jeep basically did not localize their parts two years after they established the factory, which led to great dissatisfaction in the country.
Volkswagen is more sensible. After the domestic parties expressed their dissatisfaction, they immediately started a large-scale localization process of parts. Coupled with the efforts of many domestic parts companies, they finally reached the original agreement with the mainland. But Jeep is different. After the domestic complaints, Jeep executives still went their own way, relying on the introduction of CKD funds to make profits. The foreign exchange balance was simply impossible, and the country was losing millions of dollars a month.
In the end, the customs seized a large amount of CKD parts. Instead of trying to solve the problem internally, Jeep tried every means to get the customs to release it. This incident led to a huge conflict. Although the problem was finally solved, Yanjing Jeep's The first cooperative brand factory in the country was completely thrown into the cold palace.
Its influence was not limited to Jeep. At that time, AMC had been acquired by Chrysler. Therefore, Chrysler would completely miss out on the domestic golden car market in the future. This is why, the three American giants, General Motors and Ford, are both thriving in the country. Shuiqi, at least in a certain period of the 21st century, reached its peak in a short period of time. During the trough period, it sold hundreds of thousands a year. However, Chrysler's sales may not even be as good as that of a third-tier car brand, and it is impossible to invest in it.
In this life, Chen Zhiwen will naturally not make such a mistake. After the joint venture, he will start localized production of parts and components simultaneously. Regardless of whether it is possible or not, he must at least do it first. If he really cannot meet the requirements, then he has tried his best. In this country, Bian Ye definitely wouldn't say much.
"Okay, I have considered this aspect for a long time, but in China, the workmanship is too poor. Many factory equipment are even from the 1950s, and the processing accuracy is also too poor. I am worried that it will not meet our requirements." Gu Dehua said.
"AMC doesn't need to worry about this matter. You are responsible for providing technical indicators. I will arrange for my subsidiary Hutchison Whampoa to find suitable suppliers within Yanjing, then inject capital into shares, give these factories foreign exchange, and let them buy overseas. Equipment and training, so that at least the hardware can meet the requirements, and the rest depends on who is capable in China." Chen Zhiwen said.
In the automobile industry, in fact, the final assembly of the car is just a relatively simple part. What is really complicated is that countless parts companies can stably provide high-quality parts. These are the foundation of the automobile manufacturing industry. For example, in Germany, BBA and Volkswagen, as well as Siemens, Bosch, Continental and other companies in the auto parts industry, are all top first-tier suppliers, and their efforts in the field of technology are even greater than those of major brand car manufacturers. For example, Aisin specializes in gearboxes, TRW in the safety field, Bosch in the electrical field, etc. Many times, large automobile companies need to ask them to cooperate.
If you want to stabilize in the automobile industry, in addition to having an automobile factory, you also need to be involved in automobile parts. However, AMC does not have this ability. The few parts companies in Hong Kong can only provide a few parts. Continue It is impossible to expand into different fields. No one is so versatile and can barely do this. Now it may be Toyota. But even so, many of Toyota's sub-parts companies are actually obtained through mergers and acquisitions.
Therefore, instead of personally participating on a large scale, it is better to invest in domestic potential companies on a large scale and provide them with the necessary foreign exchange. Otherwise, it is useless to have the ability without high-end equipment. At the same time, these manufacturers can also provide AMC with competition. Services, and the Hong Kong real estate crisis is coming, and Hutchison Whampoa's large amount of cash needs a place to go. At this time, cooperating with AMC to lay out the auto parts market can be regarded as a new investment direction with huge potential.
In short, it can basically achieve a win-win situation for all parties. AMC can localize parts to reduce costs and gain access to this market with huge future potential. The mainland government can obtain a large number of cars and save foreign exchange, and Hutchison Whampoa can obtain a large amount of new investment. Not to mention The other ones are the factories in Yanjing City. Given their location, they will definitely not lose money.
"If you have enough funds, except for a few high-tech fields, everything else should not be a problem. Even if this technology is not available in China, as long as you have money, I can arrange for people to purchase this kind of technology in the United States. With the current Sino-US relations , not very sensitive technology is no problem." Gu Dehua nodded and said.
"Well, this is the business card of Zhou Jiayang, vice president of Hutchison Whampoa Group. You two have time to meet in the next few days to discuss how to operate." Chen Zhiwen handed over a business card. Naturally, his boss is only responsible for ordering. Direction, as for how the people below invest, how to cooperate, and which companies to choose, that is what the people below have to do. Even Zhou Jiayang and Gu Dehua will not participate in these matters. With their status within the group, they must also Lead the team to take responsibility.
"Okay, Mr. Chen." Gu Dehua took the business card.
Chen Zhiwen continued: "There shouldn't be any big problems with the joint venture. You can just discuss some details with the domestic side. But after the joint venture, both my side and the mainland side hope to develop new products based on the domestic side." I have made preliminary arrangements with the domestic side about suitable models. We will lead the new model, and the final patent will also be ours. This time, the mainland side will focus on learning. I will pay an extra sum of money for their people, although their experience It’s not enough, but there is a lot of talent, and we should make good use of this.”
"What is this new model? Is it a technical update based on the domestic BJ212?" Gu Dehua asked.
"No, BJ212 is a joint venture model and originally belongs to China. We will provide technical support to make this model better quality." Chen Zhiwen said: "The model we want to develop is brand new, not a Jeep, but something like It’s a commercial vehicle of the Italian Iveco type, but the space is a little smaller.”
"Iveco? Then this car is not a family car?" Gu Dehua asked. He naturally knew that Iveco was a commercial vehicle launched by the Italian Fiat Group in 1975. It was similar to a small truck, but it was all wrapped up, with the rear seats It can hold cargo as well as seats. For many companies, this model is very suitable. After all, not all companies need small trucks to haul cargo. After Iveco was put into mass production, sales in Europe were very good, and the United States also began to introduce some, and the market feedback was pretty good.
"No, it can only be said that this is not a pure passenger car. If someone buys it for home use, it is not a problem, but most of them should be commercial. In terms of the size of the car, it may be about the same length as a medium to large car." Chen Zhiwen Said with a smile.
"Such a model should not be cheap. Is there a market in China?" Gu Dehua asked.
"If we manufacture it according to the European and American car models, we will definitely lose money. But if we develop it according to domestic needs, it will definitely be a hot-selling car. In the future, it can even be exported to places such as Southeast Asia and South America. Because of these The local economy is similar to the domestic economy, at most it is a little better." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
What he wants to develop is naturally the most famous van in later generations. This thing has always had a large market from its birth to 2020. It was an expensive product in the beginning, and later became a cheap transportation tool after the economy developed. No matter how the economy is In this way, it has its value space.
"According to domestic demand? What does Mr. Chen mean?" Gu Dehua asked.
Chen Zhiwen said: "There are several points. First, the car must be cheap enough, even cheaper than a car like the BJ212. In this case, the market potential will be at least 30,000 units a year. If the economy changes in a few years, It’s better, and it’s easy to double the demand.
Second, since we want to be cheap, we must save what we can. We don’t want the enjoyment and comfort configurations of European and American cars. The materials should also be cheap. As long as the plastic is not toxic, it will be fine. As for abnormal noises and so on. , you don’t need to pay too much attention to it, as long as it’s not too outrageous, you can even remove some of it for safety reasons. "
Gu Dehua nodded, and after Chen Zhiwen paused, he asked, "Would it be bad if we remove the security aspect?"
"Just keep the seat belts and remove the airbags." Chen Zhiwen shook his head and said: "It's not that I don't care about the safety of my customers, but this type of car is defined as mainly practical and commercial, and it doesn't need to be fast. Besides, , In terms of power, we will not give too much, it is difficult to have high speed, it can reach fifty or sixty yards, which is very good."
Fifty or sixty yards, for later generations of cars, just lightly step on the accelerator, but for current domestic cars, it is already considered a high speed. Moreover, domestic road conditions, urban roads are better, but pedestrians and bicycles are definitely Most of the roads outside urban areas are very bad. Not to mention vans, even original American jeeps have to drive at low speeds. Therefore, considering the demand, the airbags can be removed.
Of course, if there is demand in the market, you can also add more, or if the economy improves in the future, new models can also be matched. However, when the economy is not very good, it is necessary to increase the economic cost in order to consider the traffic accidents that may be less than 1 in 10,000. not worth it.
"That's true. In fact, many American models only have one airbag for the driver." Gu Dehua nodded.
"In addition, the passability also needs to be considered, so the chassis needs to be raised. Although the engine does not need to be very fast, the passability still requires torque, and the fuel consumption cannot be high, so in this regard, the marketing department and the technical department need to be responsible Well, the first is to analyze clearly what kind of passability or power is required for most domestic road conditions. The second is how to achieve a balance between technology and cost. I am not an expert in this area, so you are responsible. I only Just be responsible for seeing the finished product." Chen Zhiwen added.
He doesn't understand the technical market, but as a veteran driver who has driven countless models in later generations, he can still know the value of a car.
"This is indeed quite difficult." Gu Dehua nodded and said that building a car is actually not difficult at all. You can build it by spending money, but finding a balance between quality, technology and cost is the most difficult thing.
"So, localized production is still needed, otherwise it won't work in the United States. Relatively speaking, the quality requirements of parts for new models will definitely not be as good as Jeep. This is also in line with the current domestic conditions. However, parts are easy to repair. The sex must be strong, at least it is convenient for people to repair." Chen Zhiwen added.
One advantage of the domestic market is that it has strong receptivity. After all, there were not many cars here before. As long as the payment is cheap, there will be no big problem if there is a problem with the car. This is absolutely not feasible in the United States. Once a new car appears A small problem like abnormal noise will probably be scolded by consumers.
But just because domestic consumers don’t care doesn’t mean they can. If they can’t meet high quality requirements due to cost, then at least they have to make sure that many minor non-safety problems are easy to repair, because many domestic cars They are all repaired by the driver himself. As long as you can do this, you will definitely be liked by countless people.
"Okay, I will inform AMC's technical team of Mr. Chen's request." Gu Dehua nodded and said.
(End of chapter)
