Rebirth 99 to become a car giant

In 2004, although many people realized the importance of chips, more people thought that chips were just like other things, as long as they could be bought.

Huaxia has just joined the WTO for a few years, and the concept of international division of labor and cooperation is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

In the eyes of many people, chips belong to the international division of labor and cooperation, and do not belong to China.

Now Infineon has imposed a purchase restriction on Nanshan. In Cao Yang's view, it is actually a good thing for the development of China's chip industry.

At least let Cao Yang realize the chip-related research earlier, and can't wait.

Even if large-scale research and development is not carried out now, some early technical reserves and preparations need to be carried out.

Otherwise, it will be too late.

For this reason, taking advantage of the chip supply crisis, Cao Yang set up a semiconductor business department in Nanshan Research Institute, and transferred a group of researchers of ECU, TCU and other related components into this business department.

At the same time, through Xiang Changle's relationship, he also started cooperative research in this area with Lingnan University of Technology.

Of course, as someone who has experienced it, Cao Yang knows very well that the threshold for chips is very high.

Now Nanshan has no way to go all out to engage in this thing.

"Mr. Cao, the situation is basically clarified. This matter is caused by Bosch and Siemens."

"In the past six months, we have started to compete with Bosch in many parts. During the Chinese New Year, people from Bosch used ECU development issues to block the verification of our generators and starters."

"Afterwards, the conflict between the two parties continued to expand, making Bosch aware of our threat."

"As for Siemens, it has already formed a bridge in the CNC system of machine tools before. It's just that Siemens has a big business, and the CNC system of the machine tool industry has not hurt their foundation, so they didn't take any special measures against us at that time."

"This time Bosch took the initiative to contact them, and naturally put the old and new grudges together."

"So they resorted to a plan to limit the purchase of chips and persuaded Infineon to start with us."

"Nowadays, the price of the main control chip used in several of our parts has skyrocketed by five times, and the price is one day, and it is likely to double again in a few days, which is very crazy."

"Some other traders, also seeing the business opportunities, started driving up the prices of these types of chips."

"Even some products that are clearly more advanced than our chips are now priced at less than half of ours."

Zeng Tingting came to Cao Yang's office with Su Mingxing to report the latest chip investigation to him.

In just a few days, it feels like the world has changed.

The chip that has never had a problem has now become Nanshan's weakness.

"Mr. Cao, our current chip reserves should be able to support us for three months."

"But if the situation continues to develop, I am afraid that sooner or later there will be a situation where chips cannot be bought, or chips cannot be bought."

"At that time, if the price of a chip that originally cost 10 yuan went directly to several hundred yuan, then it would be meaningless for us to buy it back."

"It is impossible for OEMs to accept our price increase, but if we don't increase the price, we will be making parts for nothing."

Su Mingxing's mentality is a bit pessimistic.

He couldn't find a way to break the game, the only thing he could do was to hoard as many chips as possible.

For this reason, he even arranged for people to go abroad to find traders in the Japanese and American markets to purchase a batch of Infineon chips in stock.

But with the tightening of Infineon's management, this approach must soon become unworkable.

At that time, there will be no chips, and Nanshan's engines, gearboxes, and other parts with chips will not need to be produced?

Nanshan's soaring wings are about to break?

"Can we find evidence that Bosch and Siemens persuaded Infineon to give us a break?"

"Colleagues from the legal department are relatively free during this time, and it is just a matter of time for them to go to Germany to promote the antitrust investigation of Bosch and Siemens."

"At the same time, the research institute will immediately launch a chip replacement plan to verify the main control chips of NXP, STMicroelectronics, and Renesas, so as to avoid that no chips can be used in the future."

Although Cao Yang felt a little aggrieved, as a short-term countermeasure, he could only act like this first.

He does not believe that Bosch has the ability to make all chip manufacturers cut off supply to Nanshan.

That's simply not realistic.

Even other manufacturers are happy to see that Infineon cut off supply to Nanshan, giving them more opportunities.

"Mr. Cao, there is no anti-monopoly law in our country, but in Germany, it may be very difficult for us to push the judiciary to investigate Infineon or Siemens and Bosch for anti-monopoly."

"Besides, although their behavior is despicable, it can't simply be related to anti-monopoly, right?"

Zeng Tingting felt that Cao Yang's plan had many loopholes, so she hurriedly reminded her.

"You're right. With this information alone, it is naturally impossible to succeed."

"But we want them to be afraid and not to do whatever they want."

"It also makes them feel the pressure of some public opinion."

Cao Yang is definitely not someone who won't fight back after being beaten.

Although the strength to fight back is limited now, the attitude must be displayed.

"If that's the purpose, it shouldn't be a problem."

"The best thing is to let Infineon cancel this restriction and not get involved in the competition between us and Bosch and Siemens."

After Zeng Tingting finished speaking, she immediately went to start making arrangements.

...

Netease Auto Channel.

Lin Jiayan pushed open the glass door of Fang Dawen's office with a happy face.

"Editor-in-Chief, the people from Bosch just provided us with a very interesting news thread. I think it can be promoted as the headline news in the recent period."

"Bosch? They will take the initiative to provide us with news clues?"

Fang Dawen looked at Lin Jiayan very curiously.

As the editor-in-chief of Auto Channel, he naturally knows the existence of such an auto parts giant as Bosch.

However, according to his past understanding of component giants such as Bosch and Denso, they are not very interested in the automotive channels of various portals.

Not to mention advertising, even investing in some soft articles is not willing.

Now the other party is willing to actively provide news clues, which surprised Fang Dawen.

"Yes, and this news thread is still related to Nanshan Group."

As soon as he heard the words "Nanshan Group", Fang Dawen immediately became energetic.

It is no secret that Autohome is an industry of Nanshan Group.

Now that this news has something to do with Nanshan Group, Fang Dawen is naturally very concerned.

"Could it be that Bosch caught something about Nanshan?"

As a graduate of the Chinese Department of Imperial University, Fang Dawen's brain is still very easy to use. He immediately thought of the relationship between Bosch and Nanshan, and thus deduced the content of the news.

"If you understand it this way, there seems to be no problem." Lin Jiayan rolled her eyes and continued: "The international chip giant Infineon has issued a notice to all distributors, requesting not to sell chips to Nanshan Group in the future."

"The ECU and TCU used in Nanshan's engine and gearbox are said to use Infineon's chips."

"If there is a shortage of chips, their engine and gearbox supply will soon have problems."

"There are even more parts supply problems, which can directly plunge Nanshan into a business crisis."

Lin Jiayan is well aware of the grievances between her channel and Autohome, and can also understand Fang Dawen's attitude towards Nanshan.

Sure enough, after this content was finished, Fang Dawen's face was full of joy, and he said, "Infineon is really going to stop supplying chips to Nanshan? At that time, won't Nanshan's development be at a standstill?"

The more unlucky Nanshan is, the happier Fang Dawen is.

Originally, he was also anxious because the traffic of the car channel was declining, and the traffic of the car channels of several other portal websites was increasing, but now his mood improved immediately.

"It will definitely have a great impact on Nanshan."

"But it depends on how amazing Infineon has done!"

"I want to form a series of reports around this theme, so that Nanshan will appear in the headlines of our car channel in the next week!"

When Lin Jiayan said this, Fang Dawen naturally had no objection.

"You should write these articles well. It is best to write professionally, but also take into account the needs of easy understanding."

"We must make Nanshan Group depressed!"

Fang Dawen felt a little more resentful when he thought of Yu Yu's job-hopping to Auto Home and being criticized by the people in the game sector.

...

"Mr. Cao, people from Bosch took the initiative to contribute articles to our website, all of which are maliciously slandering Nanshan Group."

When Netease Auto Channel received some news clues from Bosch, Autohome naturally also received them.

Yu Yu naturally found Cao Yang immediately and reported to him.

Yu Yu, who has a strong sense of risk, has already sensed the conspiracy behind this matter.

"These articles are not badly written, they are basically in line with the facts, not to mention malicious slander."

Cao Yang took a quick look at the article Yu Yu handed over, and said something that surprised Yu Yu.

"Ah? Mr. Cao, is it true that Infineon really stopped supplying chips to our group? Why?"

Yu Yu obviously couldn't understand Infineon's approach at all.

If you don't earn money, what do you want to do?

"It involves competition with some products of Bosch and Siemens, and Infineon is just an accomplice."

"You have already received the manuscript, and it is estimated that people from Bosch have also contributed to other websites."

"Just wait until you send it out normally."

Anyway, the news has to be reported by others, so there is no need for Autohome to avoid it completely.

Otherwise, it will make people feel that the report of Autohome is selective and there is no fairness at all.

This is very detrimental to the development of a website.

"this……"

"Then I really sent it?"

Yu Yu was very surprised by this instruction.

Shouldn't he arrange for someone to suppress these manuscripts?

"Send it!"

"The best way is to ask Bosch to charge some fee for soft articles. I guess the other party may really provide it."

Cao Yang made a joke, and he took it as a joke.

...

BYD's F6 has sold very well during this period.

Although the sales volume exceeded 10,000 in December last year, it was only in January this year that it exceeded 10,000 again, and then fell back to the level of about 8,000 units, but this is also a very good result.

At least BYD is very satisfied with the performance of F6.

According to their vision, if two more models are launched, BYD will become a large enterprise with an annual output of 300,000 vehicles.

Therefore, when it was posted on the automotive channels of various portal websites that Infineon had cut off the supply of chips to Nanshan, which might lead to problems in the supply of ECU, TCU, ESP and other parts in Nanshan, Zhong Qiang immediately became nervous.

"Minister Zeng, are those rumors on the Internet true?"

"If there is no way to produce the ECU and TCU, then will the engine and gearbox also be unable to be produced?"

Zhong Qiang called Zeng Tingting as soon as he saw the news.

Only when he has figured out the situation can he report internally.

"Zhong Bu, I have seen the news you mentioned. There is a conspiracy behind this matter."

"But don't worry, we have launched several plans at the same time, and it will definitely not affect the supply of parts."

Zhong Qiang was not the first to call Zeng Tingting to inquire, and he certainly would not be the last.

Zeng Tingting has now formed a complete speaking skill.

Of course, she also knew that there was no way to dispel the customer's concerns with just a few simple words.

So before Zhong Qiang continued to ask, she went on to say: "The chip we use is not an advanced chip for Infineon, and it can even be said to be a product five years ago."

"The chips on auto parts are pursuing stability, and the requirements for performance are not very high."

"So these chips actually exist in large quantities in the market and are used in many places. Unless Infineon completely discontinues the production of this chip, otherwise it will not be unavailable in the market."

"In addition, our ECU, TCU and other parts are all designed and developed by the company's own R\u0026D team, which has complete verification capabilities to replace chips."

"According to the current progress, at most three months, we can complete a full set of SPEC verification of the replacement solution to ensure that all performance has not declined in any way."

After Zeng Tingting said this, Zhong Qiang breathed a sigh of relief.

At least in a short period of time, there will be no problems with the supply of F6's engine and gearbox.

What happens next depends on the development of the situation.

"Zeng Bu, in this case, if you buy chips from the market, the price must be much higher than before, right?"

Zhong Qiang's question was obviously not aimless.

It has been reported on the Internet that the price of those chips has skyrocketed by 10 times.

How could he, the head of the procurement department, ignore this news?

Did Nanshan bear the price rise of these chips by itself, or did it ask BYD to bear it?

"Yes, the price of chips has risen a lot, and it has basically eaten up all of our profit margins. If it continues to rise, we will have no profit at all."

"But don't worry, the rise and fall of the chip price belongs to the scope of Nanshan's own profit and loss. We will not ask BYD to raise the price."

Zeng Tingting's words are true and false.

If you simply look at ECU or TCU, once the price of the chip increases, there is really no profit margin at all.

Even if there is, there is still a little hard work left.

But on the entire engine or gearbox, the situation is completely different.

Besides, they have now started testing with alternative chip solutions, and the results will be available soon.

At that time, as long as this news is released to the market, the price of the corresponding Infineon chip will drop immediately, or even drop directly to a lower price than the original price.

"Zeng Bu, BYD currently has only one F6 model, unlike other car companies that have several models. In terms of parts supply, I still need your support."

Although he was no longer so worried, Zhong Qiang still mentioned the priority guarantee to Zeng Tingting at this time.

Zeng Tingting was not surprised by this.

This is what purchasing does!

"Zhong Bu, don't worry!"

"BYD and Nanshan are strategic partners, and we will definitely not let the F6 models have supply problems."

"As many cars as you can sell, we will definitely be able to supply the corresponding parts!"

Zeng Tingting patted her chest and made a promise.

However, as soon as she hung up the phone, she immediately went to Cao Yang to continue discussing the chip crisis.

"Mr. Cao, as a short-term solution, purchasing chips from the market in other ways can solve part of the problem."

"As a medium-term strategy, using chips from other chip manufacturers such as NXP and Renesas can also solve most of the problems."

"But I think it is possible to cooperate with domestic chip manufacturers so that our chips can also be localized?"

In the past few days, Zeng Tingting has been under a lot of pressure.

The heads of purchasing departments or purchasing managers of various OEMs have called her, all concerned about whether chip supply problems will lead to parts supply issues.

Although Zeng Tingting has made great efforts to explain, she is also very clear that these explanations cannot completely solve the customer's concerns.

In the future, when many OEMs consider the selection of suppliers for some parts, they will inevitably try to make one type of part, and have several suppliers to correspond to it.

In this way, supply problems can be avoided to the greatest extent.

Even if it is true that a certain supplier cannot supply goods, the entire company will not stop production.

"What you said is a long-term plan, there must be no problem."

"I have arranged for people to investigate the situation of the domestic chip industry, and I have also found a headhunter to find a way to go to TSMC, Samsung and other companies to find a way to find some people."

"Let our Nanshan Research Institute's Semiconductor Division be able to start work as soon as possible."

"However, these will take time, and our problems will not be solved in the short term."

Cao Yang knows the importance of chips better than anyone else.

The chip crisis that began in 2020 has had a huge impact on the auto industry.

Some chips even had an extreme situation where the price rose directly from five yuan a piece to 2000 yuan a piece.

Even by 2023, the chip supply problem has not been fully resolved.

This is completely beyond everyone's understanding.

Even if it is to rebuild a chip factory, three years will be enough, right?

Besides, by 2023, the demand for chips for various consumer electronics will drop significantly. It stands to reason that some chip manufacturers should have surplus production capacity.

but……

From the results, the price of car-grade chips used in cars has been at a high level!

There is no sense of going down at all.

Cao Yang must be planning ahead.

However, this matter obviously cannot be rushed.

This problem can be preliminarily resolved within ten years, and completely resolved within twenty years.

Even if it is very good!

"Bosch's move is really ruthless, much stronger than other opponent's moves!"

"Obviously others have also come up with a joint strategy to deal with Nanshan, but compared with Bosch's strategy, the effect is much worse."

"Obviously, they have their own reasons for being able to sit firmly in the number one position in the auto parts industry."

Zeng Tingting has also fought against many parts giants, but so far, Bosch should be the most difficult to deal with.

They have already directly attacked Nanshan's weakness, but the counterattack she can do is very limited.

At this time, continue to go to various OEMs to sell new control parts, basically there is no possibility of success.

"Don't worry, there will be no major problems!"

"Infineon also has a lot of business in China. When Nanshan really can't survive, we don't have to do anything."

"Bosch can convince Infineon through some relationships, and so can we."

"It's just not for that kind of sake, I don't want to do it like this."

These days, Cao Yang is also worrying about the chip crisis.

However, a phone call from Liu Tianwu yesterday made him realize that he was actually worrying too much.

Given the influence of Nanshan Group in Yangcheng, Lingnan Province, and even Huaxia, Cao Yang really didn't need to worry about stopping production because he couldn't buy chips.

At that time, there will still be a lot of people who care more about this matter than Cao Yang.

When an enterprise has developed to a certain level, many things are no longer the business of the boss alone.

Not to mention that Nanshan has a lot of internationally leading equipment, materials and component technologies in its hands, but simply looking at the scale of Nanshan, it is not an existence that can be allowed to stop production at will.

"Mr. Cao, so..."

Zeng Tingting is also very smart.

She had been stuck in a fixed mindset before, but now she heard what Cao Yang said, and she immediately came to her senses.

It's not that Infineon can't produce the chip Nanshan wants, they just don't want to sell it to Nanshan.

This problem is actually not that serious at all!

Not so badly, at least in the short term.

If you want to solve it, besides the several solutions that you have thought of before, there are shortcuts you can take.

It's just that Zeng Tingting is used to doing things according to business rules, and she didn't want to take shortcuts.

"okay!"

"Don't think too much about this matter. You are the head of the sales department. Find a way to maintain good customer relations and get more orders for the company."

"The so-called chip crisis now, if you look at it in more than ten years, maybe it is just a trivial problem in the development of Nanshan!"