Rebirth 99 to become a car giant

Spring City Motor Group has a good relationship with Aisin.

After all, Aisin's major shareholders, Toyota Motor and Spring City Motor, formed a joint venture between Spring City Toyota.

So Aisin successfully obtained a sample of Nanshan 6AT through Spring City Motors.

Although Aisin's R\u0026D center is in Dongying, they already have a factory in China, which has certain transmission testing and testing capabilities.

The 6AT in Nanshan was quickly disassembled by Aisin's technicians.

Then some basic technical parameters also began to appear continuously.

As a result, things immediately became serious.

"Minister, from the current analysis of the technical department, the structure of Nanshan 6AT is not quite the same as our 6AT, at least they are not directly copying our 6AT."

"This situation is worse than we expected."

Zhang Hao would rather see the situation where Nanshan 6AT copied Aisin 6AT.

Let alone whether the lawsuit can be won like that, at least Nanshan will not really bring too much competitive pressure to Aisin.

But the current situation is developing in the worst direction.

Nanshan 6AT is independently developed, which is different from the 6AT of Aisin and ZF.

This can be troublesome.

"The technology department is only comparing our own products with those of ZF. Is it possible that the Nanshan 6AT copied the Honda 6AT or the 6AT of any other manufacturer?"

Saburo Sato was still a little reluctant to believe the analysis report shared by the technical department.

This will make the work of Aisin Huaxia Sales Department passive.

During this period of time, Sato clearly felt that the attitude of those customers towards him had changed.

When talking on the phone, the tone of the other party's speech has changed significantly.

Combined with this period of time, various car companies frequently visited Nanshan to discuss the cooperation of 6AT.

Coupled with the report of Nanshan 6AT on Huaxia TV a few days ago, Sato became even more anxious.

"Whether this is the case or not will soon be confirmed."

"The technical department has sent the relevant analysis data to the headquarters research center."

"There are people there who do industry comparisons. Whether it's ZF or Jatco, or the 6AT developed by Ford Motor and Honda Motor, there are people who are familiar with it."

"However, both Ford Motor and General Motors have chosen to cooperate with them. I think it is very likely that Nanshan has really independently developed its own 6AT."

"It's a bit hard to accept, but it's probably true."

When Zhang Hao said this, his mood was also complicated.

After graduating from university, he joined Aisin.

In Aisin, he fully understood the gap between the domestic transmission industry and international giants.

Deep down in his heart, he actually hopes that some domestic company can rise.

It's just that none of them has given him hope in the past few years.

Now Nanshan stands out, but it immediately threatens Aisin's living space in China.

This directly affects his income and bonuses.

"Nanshan just hired a professor from Beijing Institute of Technology to study gearboxes, so will the results come out so soon?"

"I found out from the professors at Huaqing University that although BIT's vehicle engineering major is very good, the research on automatic transmission of passenger cars is actually just like that."

"Up to now, in the laboratory of Beijing Institute of Technology, an AMT gearbox has been actually used in commercial vehicles."

"How could it be possible to come up with 6AT that can be commercially produced so quickly?"

Sato Saburo also has a special understanding of Nanshan Technology Co., Ltd.

In his view, it is impossible for Nanshan to have too long research time in the field of gearboxes.

The biggest possibility is that Ji Hua brought the technology from BIT.

But this logic doesn't seem to make sense either.

"Minister, I think the most important thing now is not to confirm where Nanshan's 6AT technology comes from, but to confirm whether Nanshan's 6AT is really the same as they advertised, and it is more advanced than ours and ZF's product technology. It's better and cheaper."

"If that's the case, then we're in big trouble."

When Zhang Hao said this, Saburo Sato's heart sank.

The last thing you want to see seems to be happening.

"I'll urge the headquarters to see when they can come up with the final result."

"At the same time, we have to discuss with the sales department to see what to do next."

"No matter what the level of Nanshan 6AT is, we must not let them develop."

Saburo Sato soon made a decision in his mind.

Along with the actions of Aisin Huaxia, a meeting is also being held in Aisin headquarters in Dongying Kyoto.

"From the current analysis, there is no place where the other party obviously infringes our patent, and they have circumvented our patent very cleverly."

"From the current experimental test situation, the fuel economy of this gearbox is very good, and the cooling system is also very cleverly designed."

"As long as there is no problem with reliability, it will be the best among all 6ATs."

Okumura, the general manager of Aisin's sales department, heard the speech of Hiroyuki Nakazawa, the head of R\u0026D, and his face was very ugly.

When the director of the sales department of the Huaxia branch reported to him about Nanshan 6AT, he didn't take it seriously at all.

Although Hiroyuki Nakazawa didn't know that Okumura had heard of Nanshan 6AT earlier.

But Okumura was still in a bad mood.

"General Nakazawa, didn't you analyze that China would never be able to produce a world-class automatic transmission?"

"Why did the situation change so quickly?"

Okumura felt that Nakazawa had misunderstood what he had said before.

Otherwise, when Aisin was going to set up a factory in China, he probably wouldn't have voted for it.

"According to the normal situation, it will take a long time for Chinese people to figure out the heat dissipation system and cooling system of the automatic transmission, let alone the control system."

"Until now, I also feel that it is impossible for other companies in Huaxia to produce qualified 6AT."

"This Nanshan was an accident."

"They have a very deep technical accumulation in the fields of bearings and bolts, and then invited senior Chinese gearbox experts, who happen to have some accumulation in the control system."

"Multiple factors coincided together to create this situation."

Hiroyuki Nakazawa also understood the meaning behind Okumura's words.

Although Okumura is a director of Aisin, his status is higher than his R\u0026D director.

But everyone is not on the same line, and Nakazawa is not afraid of him.

"I don't care so much, I just want to know whether this Nanshan Technology Co., Ltd. in Huaxia really poses a threat to us?"

"Many Huaxia customers have begun to seek cooperation with Nanshan, which is very detrimental to our development in Huaxia."

"What's more troubling is that they're at Ford and General Motors, and they've had an impact on us as well."

"If the situation is allowed to develop like this, we will be in big trouble."

Okumura feels that this pot of research and development must be memorized.

If any Huaxi company can produce a better 6AT than Aisin, it must be that the products originally developed are not competitive enough.

"Minister Okumura, I suggest that the company treat Nanshan as an opponent like ZF."

"It's best to find a way to suppress them before they have formally developed."

"Otherwise, the situation will be more troublesome in the future."

"In this regard, you can also communicate with the personnel of ZF and Gatco to see how everyone can act together."

Nakazawa's words gave Okumura a chill.

Sure enough, did I underestimate Nanshan before?

...

"Mr. Wang, people from Aisin contacted us on their own initiative, saying that their 4AT can be matched with our H3 model, and they will do some special tuning for the 2.4-liter four-cylinder naturally aspirated engine used by the H3 to make it more efficient. Take advantage of it.”

Wei Qiang came to the office of general manager Wang Ying just after answering a phone call.

"And they also said that the 4AT automatic transmission will further reflect the effect of localization and give us an unprecedented preferential price."

H3 is an SUV model that Great Wall Motor has placed high hopes on.

Great Wall Motors also attaches great importance to the gearbox equipped on this car.

Otherwise, some time ago, Wang Ying would not have personally led the team to Nanshan for investigation and to seek cooperation.

"Aisin knows now that the price will be lowered?"

"Why did you go early?"

Wang Ying is very smart, and naturally knows the important reason for Aisin's sudden change in attitude.

"Nanshan 6AT has become completely famous in the domestic auto industry during this period of time."

"Even Ford and General Motors endorsed their technology."

"Domestic General Motors and Changan Ford have confirmed that they will use Nanshan 6AT, and many other car companies will also launch models equipped with Nanshan 6AT next year."

"It would be strange if Aisin didn't respond at all."

Wei Qiang is quite satisfied with the current situation.

I didn't expect that Aisin would bow to himself one day.

"How much are they willing to lower the price now?"

"9980 yuan, this is their current informal offer."

"It's a full two thousand yuan lower than before. It's really too dark."

"A 4AT automatic transmission, they originally earned at least 3,000 yuan, or even more."

Speaking of this, Wei Qiang's heart is bleeding.

Great Wall Motor sells an H3, which means earning only a few thousand yuan.

Now they have to earn so much money for a gearbox.

Although the price has been reduced, there must be a lot of profit inside.

"So, isn't their 4AT price more expensive than Nanshan's 6AT?"

Wang Ying is obviously dissatisfied with this price.

Although Aisin's popularity is greater, the brand premium should not be that much.

"If the annual purchase volume of Nanshan's 6AT is less than 10,000 units, the price will be 10,000 yuan. If the purchase volume reaches 50,000 units, it can be reduced to 9,500 yuan per unit."

"The purchase scale reaches 100,000 units, and the price is 9,000 yuan."

"As for the annual purchase of more than 200,000 units, the price can go up to 8,500, which is of no reference value to us."

Obviously, at this stage, Nanshan is not suitable to offer a price lower than that of Ford Motor or General Motors to domestic OEMs.

Especially in the case of a small number of purchases, the higher price is a matter of course.

If the number of units purchased can be close to that of Ford Motors, Nanshan will not sell at a high price.

"We estimate that we will not be able to achieve 100,000 units next year, and there is still hope for 50,000 units by then."

"Based on this calculation, Nanshan's 6AT is still cheaper than Aisin's 4AT."

"Did Aisin say how much their 6AT costs?"

International auto parts giants obviously have a relatively high status in the hearts of many people.

If the price is similar, Wang Ying tends to use Aisin's gearbox.

This is more conducive to the sales of the car.

"They don't have a strong desire to sell 6AT. Even if they want to sell it, the price will definitely go above 12,000."

When Wei Qiang said this, Wang Ying gave up.

"Then use Nanshan's 6AT and Aisin's. Don't give them an answer for now."

"Unless their 4AT can be lower than 8,000 yuan, otherwise we will not consider it."

...

Spring City Motor Group.

"After more than a month of research, is there still no progress?"

Zhu Zhengfeng looked at Chang Lei with dissatisfaction.

As the first automobile company in China, they have not been able to produce decent engines and gearboxes so far, which is quite unacceptable to Zhu Zhengfeng.

Especially the automatic transmission, this project has been studied by Spring City Automobile Group for a long time.

But until now, let alone 6AT, even Aisin's 4AT has not been copied.

Either it was overheated during the test, or the gear shifting would freeze, or it could not pass the durability test.

Anyway, Spring City Motor Group just didn't understand the automatic transmission that didn't have many components when it was disassembled.

"Mr. Zhu, the technology of Nanshan 6AT is very unique. Unless we have their complete drawings and obtain all the software of TCU, it will be impossible to imitate them in a short time."

"During the analysis process, the research institute found a problem, that is, the bearings used by Nanshan 6AT are very special and should be specially designed for this 6AT.

"Even if you just change to a SKF or NTN bearing that looks similar in all aspects, the performance of the gearbox will change a lot."

"I think it is better to purchase a batch of 6AT from Nanshan first, and we will learn slowly in the process."

"In a few years, maybe we'll figure it out."

"Anyway, the 6AT automatic transmission, even in the next ten years, should not become obsolete."

Chang Lei can only comfort himself like this.

Otherwise, he simply couldn't find a better way.

Huaxia has been working on it for so many years and still doesn't understand automatic transmissions. This is not a problem of the Spring City Automobile Research Institute family.

"Isn't Spring City Toyota using Aisin's gearbox?"

"Go and contact Aisin and Nanshan again to see if any of them is willing to set up a joint venture with us to produce gearboxes."

"We can't always buy our gearboxes from outsiders."

Zhu Zhengfeng is relatively dissatisfied with the current situation of Spring City Motor Group.

But he doesn't have many ways to change him.

These are problems that have accumulated over decades.

It can be said that it is hard to return.

Unless he has the courage to break the boat to reform.